Poison / Bio / Dia

[Facerip]

Greetings everyone, I am officially an ffxi newb. I've cruised the FAQ's, but I still have a few questions about stacking debuffs with my RDM.

1. Do status effect debuffs like Blind / Paralyze / Slow / Silence / Sleep stack?

From what I've seen so far, the answer is yes, but is there a limit? In WoW, there was a certain number of debuffs that you could inflict on a mob before the spells started overwriting each other.

2. Do DOT's stack? (Bio / Poison / Dia)

Does Poison stack with Bio and/or Dia? All three spells have different elements, but I can't find a conclusive way to prove whether they stack or not.

[Kirsteena]

Re: Poison / Bio / Dia

Welcome to FFXI!

Blind etc all stack on the mob. However, rdm and nin debuffs in general don't stack (eg, if a nin casts Hojo, Slow will have no effect on the mob). There are exceptions, but as a basic rule, rdm debuffs all stack.

Poison stacks with either Bio or Dia, but Bio and Dia don't stack. The general rule of thumb is Dia is overwritten by Bio, which is overwritten by Dia II, again overwritten by Bio II.

And if I make no sense, blame it on a long slow day at work!

[Mhurron]

Re: Poison / Bio / Dia

Poison is a debuff like Paralyze, Slow and what not. Poison has not special relation to other debuffs like the relation between Dia and Bio so you can throw it on whenever.

Now, Sleep and any debuff that does damage will technically stack but as soon as the damage from Poison (or Bio or Dia or any of the Elemental Enfeebles) occurs, the mob will wake up. You can't keep something that is taking damage asleep.

For completeness the order of Bio/Dia stacking is:

Bio 2 overwrites Dia 2 which overwrites Bio which overwrites Dia.

For most things, cast Dia, not Bio.

[Akashimo]

Re: Poison / Bio / Dia

Unless the mob has stoneskin up while you slepted it and DoT it.

[Srxjo]

Re: Poison / Bio / Dia

Bio II > Dia II > Bio > Dia
hopes this helps

[Altae]

Re: Poison / Bio / Dia

Greetings everyone, I am officially an ffxi newb. I've cruised the FAQ's, but I still have a few questions about stacking debuffs with my RDM.

1. Do status effect debuffs like Blind / Paralyze / Slow / Silence / Sleep stack?

From what I've seen so far, the answer is yes, but is there a limit? In WoW, there was a certain number of debuffs that you could inflict on a mob before the spells started overwriting each other.

2. Do DOT's stack? (Bio / Poison / Dia)

Does Poison stack with Bio and/or Dia? All three spells have different elements, but I can't find a conclusive way to prove whether they stack or not.

Everyone seems to be tackling everything else partially!

To answer your concern more completely, poison stacks with anything. Status debuffs like Silence, Curse, Blind, those always stack with each other. Naturally, when casting a level 1 spell (of the same spell) on a level 2 spell (of the same spell), you'll get a message informing that it has no effect. However, different spells do stack with each other and work simultaneously. So, a monster can be slowed, paralyzed, and blind at the same time. But you can mix up the levels as long as the spells are all different from each other, except for Bio and Dia.

For DOT spells, the order given by everyone else is how it is with Bio and Dia. Poison stacks with these as well as the elemental debuffs: Choke, Burn, Shock, Frost, Drown, and Rasp. Even bard songs work along with these debuffs, like sonic DOT songs such as Foe Requiem. But surely those also have system where the higher level spell takes priority.

And with the elemental debuffs, you can only use certain groups of three at a time. They do not work all together simultaneously. But these can be easily recognized as they're separated into recognizable groups. The "light" elemental debuffs and the "dark" elemental debuffs. Rasp(earth), Frost(ice), and Drown(water) work together as they're also the elements for magic bursts of the Darkness SC. Choke(wind), Burn(fire), and Shock(lightning) work together as they're also the elements for magic bursts in the Light SC. (I haven't played in a while, but this is right about the magic bursts with Light and Darkness, right?)

Oh, next time, check the old topics about stuff like this also. In this Red Mage subforum of course. Most likely there were previous concerns involving the same topics. FAQs are probably more general in informaition. It's like reading a brochure.

Does Poison stack with Bio and/or Dia? All three spells have different elements, but I can't find a conclusive way to prove whether they stack or not.

Also, the best way to figure this out is to have low level beastmen cast these spells on you. Watch as the debuffs stack or cancel each other out. Another way could be to try it out in Ballista. Have some friends go on the opposing force and find some private area to conduct tests.

[Sabaron]

Re: Poison / Bio / Dia

Everything has pretty much been covered. When I was learning the BLM Elemental Debuff Wheel I used this Diagram:
-----------------
|Choke |Drown |
|Burn |Rasp |
|Shock |Frost |
-----------------
You can go either vertically or horizontally on the chart and the debuffs will stack. The interface has apparently stopped recognizing [CODE] tags so I can't make it pretty.

There are certain situations where I find it behooves me to throw Bio over Dia. When you fight your first spider mob and watch it one-shot your tank, you'll be glad Bio's around. The extra damage reduction could save your tank's life. I used it on Quicksand Caves spiders and on the Attercops in Aht Urghan. Spiders are squishy, unlike Crab mobs and many of the Defense Buff mobs (Crawlers, Beetles, etc.) so it's ok to use on them. You shouldn't ever throw Bio on Defense buff or Paladin/Hard shell mobs. I've occasionally gotten the odd BLM who will say "I'm skilling Dark" and then justify this by stating erroneously that Dia and Bio stack because they've seen both debuffs on themself, so they assume what's good for the goose (players) is good for the gander (mobs) and it's not so... Don't bother trying to change their mind, though, they won't believe you.

[Armando]

Re: Poison / Bio / Dia

Choke(wind), Frost(ice), and Drown(water) work together as they're also the elements for magic bursts of the Darkness SC. Rasp(earth), Burn(fire), and Shock(lightning) work together as they're also the elements for magic bursts in the Light SC. (I haven't played in a while, but this is right about the magic bursts with Light and Darkness, right?)

You got Wind and Earth mixed up; the Light elements are Wind, Lightning, Fire (and Light,) and the Dark elements are Water, Ice, Earth (and Darkness.)

Aside from the groupings and charts (which undoubtedly make it a hell of a lot easier to visually and remember) always remember the elemental wheel: Fire > Ice > Wind > Earth > Lightning > Water > Fire; Light and Dark oppose each other. The thing is that you can't have a debuff of a certain element if you already have the debuff from the element that beats it. For example, you can't have Frost (Ice) and Burn (Fire) together; Burn will always overwrite Frost, because Fire beats Ice. Like Altae said, if you look up which elements are dark and which are light, they coincide with the elements that work together, because an element's weakness will always be in the other group (e.g. Fire is a light element, its weakness is Water, which is dark; water is weak to Lightning, which is light; etc.)

[Facerip]

Re: Poison / Bio / Dia

Excellent, thanks! I can see why everyone says how busy red mages are--so far it's a blast. The sheer number and type of debuffs that you can stack on mobs is a great mechanic of the game.