BarSpells

[Kitty Kat]

Do you the Barspells even matter to bye, and what do they do exactly? well thanks!

[eticket109]

Re: BarSpells

There are two types of bar- spells; element based (barstone) and status based (barsleep). They are good to have for just in case scenarios. If you fight a mob that sleeps a lot, having barsleep up can help you wake up faster and get everyone else up. The elemental bar- spells add to your resistance against spells of that type and can lessen the damage significantly. Both types of bar- spells are very good to have and use while soloing.

[Taskmage]

Re: BarSpells

Bar- spells increase your resistance to an element or status effect. They scale in effectiveness based on your enhancing magic skill.

Most players underappreciate resistance effects because they do not give a straight % reduction in damage or effectiveness like in other games. Rather, what resistance does is decrease the accuracy of magic that gets cast against you. For damage spells, this means you have a higher chance to take 1/2 damage, or 1/4, 1/8 or 1/16 the spell's normal damage. For status effects, resistance gives you a chance at a reduced duration. There is a chance that the effect will be completely resisted, but unless you're fighting a mob much lower level than you, the chance is rather slim.

See a more thorough explanation of resistance here: http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/Resistance

Because the effect is random, it may not always work, so some players will cast Barfira againt goblins or Barsleepra against mandragoras and then write the spell off as useless because they see people take full damage from Bomb Toss or still get put to sleep by Dream Flower. If you use the spells consistently over time however, you'll start to notice some people taking a lot less damage than others, or waking up before everyone else. Especially at higher levels when your enhancing magic skill reaches more impressive numbers, casting the appropriate Bar- spell before battles can significantly cut down the the amount of mp you spend curing people, taking the edge off nasty AoEs like Cursed Sphere and Bomb Toss.

However, until now I've been using Bar----ra spells as examples. That line of spells is area of effect so you can protect the whole party, but only white mage gets them. As a rdm, the only Bar- spells you have without subbing whm are single target and can only be cast on yourself. Since ideally you're not going to be the one being targeted by spells and effects when you're in a party, you can just skip them for now if you're low on money. It's still useful to be able to protect yourself somewhat from elemental damage and harmful effects like sleep and silence, but in general your ability to do so isn't going to make or break a party. You may find it worthwhile to buy two or three Bar-elements to cast just to get enhancing magic skillups, since they're very cheap mp-wise and have quick cast times—not to mention they look pretty cool.

Later on though, even the self-only versions of the spells can be quite useful when you're soloing, especially if you're up against something difficult. I soloed my first Prime avatar, Ramuh, this morning, and I'm sure I would have lost if I hadn't kept Barparalyze and Barthunder up at all times. Thanks to Barparalyze, I was able resist the Paralyze effect on every single Thunderspark he threw, except for the one lucky shot where he hit me while I was recasting it after it faded. Near the end of the battle, he used Thunderstorm on me for 400+ damage after Stoneskin. The attack normally does over 1000 damage, so if I hadn't gotten a 50% resist I would have been dead for sure.

Another tip so long as I'm rambling on: Every status effect is also associated with an element. For example, poison is a water-elemental status, so if you cast both Barwater and Barpoison on yourself, your resistance to poison will be much higher than if you only cast one or the other. You can get a complete list of the elemental relationships of status effects by talking to Noragu-Meragu behind the Orastery in Port Windurst.

[eticket109]

Re: BarSpells

yeah... all that too. lol

[Kitty Kat]

Re: BarSpells

Oh ok thanks for the information guys!!! it really helped, I am trying to farm right now to get enough gil to buy the ones I can buy.

[Icemage]

Re: BarSpells

If we're looking at usefulness, there's two versions of each barspell. The self-target RDM version, and the area effect WHM version.

For RDMs, Barspells are used almost exclusively when solo. For XP levelling purposes, almost none of them are necessary. Since this is the RDM forum, I'll speak only of the RDM versions:

Barelement:

Barstone: Arguably the only self-target Barspell that's useful for actual XPing, this spell is really great if you're a low level (14-30ish) Red Mage wanting to solo Worms in Maze of Shakrami, Korroloka Tunnel, or Qufim Island.

Barblizzard: This is handy for helping you resist getting paralysis when soloing enemies that like to use Ice Spikes, as well as for dodging some Paralyze effects like Howling from Hound-type enemies. It's still not a consistent defense, but it does help.

Barfire: Not much call for this. The sorts of fire damage that you'll be receiving generally aren't the ones you want to face when solo (Bomb Toss, Self-Destruct, Mijin Gakure, Meltdown, etc.). Only time I can really see this being useful is against Ifrit or if you're farming Fire Elementals.

Barthunder: Useful against anything that uses Shock Spikes. Otherwise pretty pointless aside from Thunder Elementals and Ramuh.

Barwater: Maybe use this when soloing crabs for skillups, otherwise just Leviathan and Water Elementals (and why would you farm these?).

Baraero: Er... Garuda. That's about it. Silence and Gravity are the wind-based status attacks, and Silence is much more safely countered with Echo Drops than Baraero.

Barstatus:

Barblind, Barsilence, Barpoison, Barvirus: I see zero redeeming features for these spells. Eye drops, echo drops, and antidote solve the first two for 0 MP. The only Virus effect you actually care about as a red mage is Plague (and you're not generally going to want to solo anything that has this sort of ability).

Barparalyze: Can be stacked with Barblizzard to help defend against Paralysis effects, which are arguably a Red Mage's worst enemy.

Barpetrify: I used to think this spell was useless, but there's a few cases at level 75 when it comes in handy if you solo certain NMs. Not useful otherwise, however, and can certainly be skipped until you hit 75.

Note: The WHM area effect versions of all of these receive different ratings, since quite a few are useful in XP parties.


Icemage

[Auremir]

Re: BarSpells

I have a question. If I were to sub WHM and use the -ra versions of the -bar spells available via my WHM sub, would they be less effective than the single target versions that are RDM only? Why, or why not?

Thanks in advance.

-Auremir

[Icemage]

Re: BarSpells

I have a question. If I were to sub WHM and use the -ra versions of the -bar spells available via my WHM sub, would they be less effective than the single target versions that are RDM only? Why, or why not?

The -ra versions of the barstatus spells are slightly weaker. The self-only versions are slightly stronger, and can overwrite the WHM -ra version, but the difference is not really noticeable most of the time.

Also note that, with respect to bar-element spells, dedicated WHMs get gear and merits that makes their version stronger than the RDM self-only version at level 75 despite having lower Enhancing Magic skill.


Icemage

[Dragonsword]

Re: BarSpells

........Another tip so long as I'm rambling on: Every status effect is also associated with an element. For example, poison is a water-elemental status, so if you cast both Barwater and Barpoison on yourself, your resistance to poison will be much higher than if you only cast one or the other. You can get a complete list of the elemental relationships of status effects by talking to Noragu-Meragu behind the Orastery in Port Windurst.

I cannot agree more to Taskmage, the coupling effect of elemental bar to its corresponding status bar will further enhance our resistance to that status ailment. ^^)b. Try barblizarra + barparalyzra, you will note the difference.

[Icemage]

Re: BarSpells

Actually, Bar-status effects are pretty iffy. Barparalyzra is OK - it seems to somewhat reduce the number of times paralysis kicks in. Barpetra/Barpetrify is sometimes useful to reduce duration too.

But I can't seem to see any worthwhile effect from Barvira/Barvirus, Barpoisonra/Barpoison, Barsilencera/Barsilence or Barblindra/Barblind. The status effects they defend against just don't seem to do much, or when they do it doesn't seem to be materially affected by the bar-spell.

For elemental attacks, bar-element spells are generally much more effective since they can actually stop you from getting the status to begin with (try Barblizzara against Tigers or Hounds with their Howling paralyze attack, for instance). Barparalyzra will help you recover from it faster, but it's better not to be paralyzed at all. Sure you can combine them, but it's usually not an effective expenditure of MP.


Icemage

[arkaine23]

Re: BarSpells

I thought that the Enhances barspells equipment trait WHMs can use only increased duration and that RDMs were always slightly more effective due to higher enhancing magic skill.

[Tadacho]

Re: BarSpells

I don't really see much difference with Barelement spells, but I try to use Barstatus ones as frequently as possible because I definately see the difference if I don't have them cast (Barsleep was a godsend fighting those bloody mandies!)

[Icemage]

Re: BarSpells

I thought that the Enhances barspells equipment trait WHMs can use only increased duration and that RDMs were always slightly more effective due to higher enhancing magic skill.

This would be true except for WHM Relic pants (Cleric's Pantaloons) which give +20 potency to Barelement spells. My WHM75 casts stronger Barelement spells than my RDM75 (and that's without expending anything on Barspell merits, either).


Icemage

[Fynlar]

Re: BarSpells

Self-target Barspells ALWAYS have precedence over the Bar-ra versions. It has nothing to do with their potency, that is just how the spells are designed to work. If a player has a self-Barspell cast, no -ra spells can overwrite it until the effect is removed.

If a RDM has a Barelement and Barstatus spell cast on himself, even if his Enhancing skill is zero, any WHM stepping in and casting -ra spells will end up getting "no effect" messages on the RDM, no matter how powerful the WHM's spells are.


Using a Barstatus spell alone to try to block a status effect usually doesn't work well on its own, you need to combine it with its appropriate Barelement spell. Paralyze, for instance, is ice element. Using Barblizzard and Barparalyze together makes for a good defense against it and will prevent a lot of paralysis from occurring where it otherwise would have. Note that even if status effects DO land with these spells up, chances are still good you partially resisted them, meaning they will last for a shorter duration.


As for the seemingly invisible effect of the Blessed Briault, it is believed that this piece adds a MDB effect to the WHM's Barspells, similar to what their Barspell merits (WHM job specific category 1) add. The WHM relic piece that enhances Barspells (the pants, I believe) actually adds to the resistance stat.

[Releena]

Re: BarSpells

The -ra versions of the barstatus spells are slightly weaker.

They give the same amount of resistance, but as others mentioned, the self target version will overwrite the -ra.