Luxury Goods That We Need?

[BurningPanther]

Re: Luxury Goods That We Need?

Are you judging effectiveness by duration or by actual effect? Water(or Neptune's staff) does actualy decrease the spell interruption rate, as does Earth(or Terra's) does increase in the damage absorbed by Stoneskin... albeit by a small amount for both. I've learned that there is just about nothing you can do to increase the duration of enhancing spells, though i wish I could.

Poison to stays on my list of "spells to hit the mob with" in exp parties. Maybe it's because of my gear(and Neptune's staff , but it lasts a good long while, and is usually the last spell I'll have to recast. I can work it in just fine with Refreshing, hasting, enfeebling, and even buffing myself, and trust it a whole lot better than noodle-armed meleeing.

Sure, there are better spells to MB with, but sometimes the SC just doesn't call for Ice, Fire or Thunder. Sometimes, you just have MP for Water and Stone 3. I was glad to have Water 3(and Neptune's staff), in my Maat fight for alternating Aero/Water 3. I know what spells to use on a skillchain, but sometimes, you just don't have the right skillchain for certain spells.

I agree, Drown is lame, but if it sticks...

I have Apollo's and Terra's staff, so I no longer have to dabate over which is more necessary(though you are right that the Light staff is the priority). Slow is excellent, and even more excellent when you have the MND to back it up, and downright amusing when you see the NIN's Hojo get resisted.

I agree completely with the use of Burn, and love it's worth in parties(remember that I said Fire staff had the most limited uses, but I still wouldn't give it up). Though I'll never nuke on par with a BLM, it seems my elemental enfeebs tend to stick a whole lot better than theirs, though I can't imagine why.

[Icemage]

Re: Luxury Goods That We Need?

I should explain why I'm not as thrilled with Light Staff for RDM.

I normally toss one Cure IV after Convert, then use Regen to bump my HP back to max. Regen is much more efficient, and I've got 10 minutes between Converts, which means the +10% on Cure IV represents only a small fraction of the MP I spend every 10 minute cycle.

With an Earth Staff or Ice Staff, I save both time and MP by avoiding recasts on Slow and Paralyze - I really, really despise having to recast these in mid-battle.

For me, the MP saved from one less half-resisted or fully resisted Slow(15MP) is greater than the MP saved from the +10% Cure of a Light Staff (8.8MP saved on Cure IV).

Ice Staff saves less MP on Paralyze (7MP), but also improves the most common nuking element (Ice) in a very visible and useful way, and serves as a better-than-nothing staff to use when casting nukes on any element except Wind (since we're discussing cases where you must choose which staves to own).

In addition, having Slow or Paralyze in effect means the monster is dealing damage more slowly, which in turn saves MP in the long run.

EDIT: To respond to BurningPanther's post:

Water(or Neptune's staff) does actualy decrease the spell interruption rate, as does Earth(or Terra's) does increase in the damage absorbed by Stoneskin... albeit by a small amount for both. I've learned that there is just about nothing you can do to increase the duration of enhancing spells, though i wish I could.

(1) Since when does spell interruption ever come into play for RDMs in a party?

(2) Stoneskin damage absorption is NOT, I repeat, NOT affected by Earth/Terra Staff. The only factors there are Enhancing Magic, MND, and Stone Gorget(if you have one).

Poison to stays on my list of "spells to hit the mob with" in exp parties. Maybe it's because of my gear(and Neptune's staff , but it lasts a good long while, and is usually the last spell I'll have to recast. I can work it in just fine with Refreshing, hasting, enfeebling, and even buffing myself, and trust it a whole lot better than noodle-armed meleeing.

Sure, there are better spells to MB with, but sometimes the SC just doesn't call for Ice, Fire or Thunder. Sometimes, you just have MP for Water and Stone 3. I was glad to have Water 3(and Neptune's staff), in my Maat fight for alternating Aero/Water 3. I know what spells to use on a skillchain, but sometimes, you just don't have the right skillchain for certain spells.

Poison II and Water II have their place when you're XPing versus Raptors (Valley of Sorrows, Kuftal Tunnel). Still pretty situational though, and definitely lowest on the priority list.

I have Apollo's and Terra's staff, so I no longer have to dabate over which is more necessary(though you are right that the Light staff is the priority). Slow is excellent, and even more excellent when you have the MND to back it up, and downright amusing when you see the NIN's Hojo get resisted.

See my comments above about why I think Earth Staff is somewhat more important than Light Staff.

I agree completely with the use of Burn, and love it's worth in parties(remember that I said Fire staff had the most limited uses, but I still wouldn't give it up). Though I'll never nuke on par with a BLM, it seems my elemental enfeebs tend to stick a whole lot better than theirs, though I can't imagine why.

Burn is OK. Our nuking damage isn't so amazing as to be worth boosting via Burn by itself, but if it helps the BLM, then sure. Usually I use Fire Staff to land Fire II on a Fusion magic burst (or for higher level RDMs, Fire III on Light at some level ranges). Again, like Water, it isn't really a priority.


Icemage

[Aeni]

Re: Luxury Goods That We Need?

I should explain why I'm not as thrilled with Light Staff for RDM.

I normally toss one Cure IV after Convert, then use Regen to bump my HP back to max. Regen is much more efficient, and I've got 10 minutes between Converts, which means the +10% on Cure IV represents only a small fraction of the MP I spend every 10 minute cycle.

Not to be a "racist" but Taru's don't have very much HP to begin with so that a Cure IV + regen can cure plenty. Plus you have tons of MP ... so 2 Cure IVs are a drop in the bucket...

I'm only level 50 but a Cure IV and I'm still in orange. www Regen only returns ... what ... 100 hp? 120 hp? That's over time... I usually can get buy if a WHM is in the PT with Regen II however...

[Taskmage]

Re: Luxury Goods That We Need?

I think Regen I is 100 hp in one minute. You won't really need the hp for ten minutes anyway, so the fact it's over time doesn't matter so much.

I find that if I watch the clock I can usually sneak in a tick of rest between pulls/refresh cycles. Throwing in a few Drains makes up the rest.

[Aeni]

Re: Luxury Goods That We Need?

I think Regen I is 100 hp in one minute. You won't really need the hp for ten minutes anyway, so the fact it's over time doesn't matter so much.

I find that if I watch the clock I can usually sneak in a tick of rest between pulls/refresh cycles. Throwing in a few Drains makes up the rest.

Oh trust me ... if you fight undead ... you need it back. One critical Blood Saber move and it's ... {Death}{Do you need it?}

[locus]

Re: Luxury Goods That We Need?

>>Icemage

See - I'd agree with your point if I never cast the spell cure even once between cure cycles.

I personally consider curing/removing status a large part of my responsibilities as a red mage, since I can get them off faster than any white mage in the game. Parsing experience party results usually shows that after refresh and haste, Cure 3 is usually my most often used spell, not to mention that Mages that won't cast cure except on themselves really annoy me. (I could write an entire post on why having at least 2 mages that cast cure is better for your party than saying "Oh, the whm's job" and thinking that 'dedicated healer' is actually a party role.)

If I used a "Debuff,dispel,refresh,haste only" playstyle, I'd agree with you. Different tastes.

Edit: Reason you use Burn is because as a RDM, your half-resist rate is usually godawful without it. It has the minor side effect of increasing the maximum damage your elemental spells do, but that wasn't the point of casting the spell in the first place.

>>about poison 2 - I guess you love the spell more than I do. Still, I'm not losing any sleep over not being able to stick poison 2 on a fish or something. (The sad fact is - I could if I wanted, even without the staff)

[tdh]

Re: Luxury Goods That We Need?

I still maintain that the Enfeebling Torque is very useful, and I'm glad I dropped the 3.3M on it. I also encourage other RDMs to drop the gil for it too.

When I solo I put my Staves, Torques and sometimes rings in my Bazaar at max price so when I use my Macros, it doesn't switch out items for when I'm meleeing. (I've had 300%TP for an Energy Drain, I use my Aspir macro which switches in my Dark Staff and I just lost 300%TP. That's annoying!) There's been once or twice that I've been in an EXP party and forgot to free them from my Bazaar. So I'm having a helluva time landing Silence with out my Enfeebling Torque. When this happens I immediately check to make sure I have all the gear I thought I had. When I notice my torque was still maxed out in Bazaar, I removed it and suddenly I had no problem landing Silence. I've never done anything against HNMs, and only once since I got my Enfeebling Torque was in a party that I really shouldn't have been. (Lv.70, just got Sky access in a party with Lv.72~75 against Weapons.)

Of course it could be agrued that the mob had Shell up, but who knows how many other buffs they had up that I'd have to Dispel before I could land Silence and the Tank takes a big one on the nose, or DRK/BLMs waste MP with Stun to stop something Silence would have prevented. I'd rather have Silence stuck and then start casting Dispel. So I think it has it's purposes against EXP mobs.

[locus]

Re: Luxury Goods That We Need?

I still maintain that the Enfeebling Torque is very useful, and I'm glad I dropped the 3.3M on it. I also encourage other RDMs to drop the gil for it too.

When I solo I put my Staves, Torques and sometimes rings in my Bazaar at max price so when I use my Macros, it doesn't switch out items for when I'm meleeing. (I've had 300%TP for an Energy Drain, I use my Aspir macro which switches in my Dark Staff and I just lost 300%TP. That's annoying!) There's been once or twice that I've been in an EXP party and forgot to free them from my Bazaar. So I'm having a helluva time landing Silence with out my Enfeebling Torque. When this happens I immediately check to make sure I have all the gear I thought I had. When I notice my torque was still maxed out in Bazaar, I removed it and suddenly I had no problem landing Silence. I've never done anything against HNMs, and only once since I got my Enfeebling Torque was in a party that I really shouldn't have been. (Lv.70, just got Sky access in a party with Lv.72~75 against Weapons.)

Of course it could be agrued that the mob had Shell up, but who knows how many other buffs they had up that I'd have to Dispel before I could land Silence and the Tank takes a big one on the nose, or DRK/BLMs waste MP with Stun to stop something Silence would have prevented. I'd rather have Silence stuck and then start casting Dispel. So I think it has it's purposes against EXP mobs.

70 is fine against Aura weapons (Which you don't want to EXP on. There's better monsters that are less annoying). Secondly, I have no idea why you're having trouble landing silence. Especially if you have a Wind Staff - perhaps my view is skewed because my enfeebling skill was capped for at least 65 levels.

My normal exp gear setup involves me using very little skill gear (+5-15, at most, I think?) and my normal resist rate against lemures (ghost monster, ice element, hard to silence) over a 5 hour ranpstomb party = once or none. No amount of skill gear is going to let you silence Ahriman easily.

[tdh]

Re: Luxury Goods That We Need?

70 is fine against Aura weapons (Which you don't want to EXP on. There's better monsters that are less annoying). Secondly, I have no idea why you're having trouble landing silence. Especially if you have a Wind Staff - perhaps my view is skewed because my enfeebling skill was capped for at least 65 levels.

Well I'd just got Sky access, and was exploring when a party asked me to join. I was having a helluva time landing Paralyze and Slow at random times at Lv.70 with cap'd Enfeebling, and the Enfeebling Torque.

My normal exp gear setup involves me using very little skill gear (+5-15, at most, I think?) and my normal resist rate against lemures (ghost monster, ice element, hard to silence) over a 5 hour ranpstomb party = once or none. No amount of skill gear is going to let you silence Ahriman easily.

All I have is AF Body, all 8 Staves, and Enfeebling Torque. So that's Enfeebling Magic +22. With that I've rarely had any resists problems. (Outside of Dispel on the Copy Cat NM, and a rare random resist.) But if I ever do have a resist these days it's Silence that gets resisted. With out the torque, those random resists seem to increase, but just for this spell.

I do agree that there are much less annoying mobs to EXP on, but I rarely form my own parties. I never have to, so I go where the party drags me.

[Icemage]

Re: Luxury Goods That We Need?

Not to be a "racist" but Taru's don't have very much HP to begin with so that a Cure IV + regen can cure plenty. Plus you have tons of MP ... so 2 Cure IVs are a drop in the bucket...

I'm only level 50 but a Cure IV and I'm still in orange. www Regen only returns ... what ... 100 hp? 120 hp? That's over time... I usually can get buy if a WHM is in the PT with Regen II however...

I run as RDM/BRD usually and my HP/MP numbers at level 62 with gear are
HP: 809
MP: 770

Cure IV will maybe bump me up to 425ish, Regen puts me at 550ish or so after the first cast. I just recast Regen each time it wears off - usually takes a few minutes to get back to full, but I'm paying 1MP per 8HP with Regen instead of 1:4.75 or so with a Light staff-boosted Cure IV, a nearly 2 to 1 difference even with the +10% from Light Staff.

Over the course of 10 minutes, that's a savings of about 40MP - one full cast of Refresh or Haste, which leaves me more MP "in the tank" to deal with emergencies. Also, I can use Regen before I convert, and sort of "bank" 15 MP that way on the next cycle.


Icemage

[Jei]

Re: Luxury Goods That We Need?

against bones, you should be using /whm so convert+goddess seal + cure 4 should get you back to full health, with or without light staff. Plus you could cast deodorize before you convert if you think you're going to call aggro ^^ I converted and linked a few skeletons on myself the first few times I PT in KRT. Lesson learnt.

Enfeebling torque is always good to have imo. it's ok if you can already stick enfeebling spells 100% without it, the extra 120% doesn't harm anything
I probably will not be using it in exp PT once I got my AF2 hat with +10(or 15?) enfeebling skill. But for now i'm still holding on to it. Just to make sure some sleep won't get resisted at the worst time.

[Aeni]

Re: Luxury Goods That We Need?

against bones, you should be using /whm so convert+goddess seal + cure 4 should get you back to full health, with or without light staff. Plus you could cast deodorize before you convert if you think you're going to call aggro ^^ I converted and linked a few skeletons on myself the first few times I PT in KRT. Lesson learnt.

No no no. Not aggro from blood loss. Dying to a JA called "Blood Saber" which cuts through utsu, stoneskin, phalanx and I bet invincible. w

Enfeebling torque is always good to have imo. it's ok if you can already stick enfeebling spells 100% without it, the extra 120% doesn't harm anything
I probably will not be using it in exp PT once I got my AF2 hat with +10(or 15?) enfeebling skill. But for now i'm still holding on to it. Just to make sure some sleep won't get resisted at the worst time.

No, I'm going to need those torques, as I'm finding my enfeebles are lacking some "can do" spirit when casting. The only problem is money and that's something I'm going to have to deal with eventually (Would be nice if questing for them were options)

You know ... mobs only drop so much seals in this game. I'd have to play like Stephen the BST if I wanted enough seals for everything in under 6 months...

[locus]

Re: Luxury Goods That We Need?

against bones, you should be using /whm so convert+goddess seal + cure 4 should get you back to full health, with or without light staff. Plus you could cast deodorize before you convert if you think you're going to call aggro ^^ I converted and linked a few skeletons on myself the first few times I PT in KRT. Lesson learnt.

*sigh* Deodorize doesn't do anything for low hp aggro. It helps stop monsters that track by scent from following you halfway across the map after you've bound and slept them and started running away.

Nothing will stop low hp aggro detection. Except cure, of course.

[Jei]

Re: Luxury Goods That We Need?

deodorize never stops enemy training on my before. no matter how far they are.

[Icemage]

Re: Luxury Goods That We Need?

No no no. Not aggro from blood loss. Dying to a JA called "Blood Saber" which cuts through utsu, stoneskin, phalanx and I bet invincible. w

Aeni, do you ever research what you post before you post it?

Blood Saber does NOT bypass Stoneskin and does NOT bypass Phalanx. It's an AoE Drain attack (darkness) that drops shadows and bypasses Invincible and Perfect Dodge (being magical).

P.S. Locus is right about Deodorize. It doesn't stop blood aggro as far as I can tell.


Icemage