black and white magic combos question

[ItazuraNhomango]

Re: black and white magic combos question

And give me one good reason to even think about meriting Phalanx II.

You don't have to. It's optional, and far less useful than the likes of Slow II, Dia III, and Paralyze II. I do think it can be used in more situations than Bio III, though.

That one is the real parlor trick of the bunch, and that's saying something. It won't make or break a tank, and even if it did, Scholar can do it even better. Your efficiency argument is moot in the situation of dual/multiple-tanks or if just one other person snatches hate from the tank for even just one attack round.

That's a silly argument; if it's one-hit, Phalanx is worthless.

I saw a Tarutaru BLM survive one-hit from Ix'Aern (DRK) tonight. Multiple one-hit's, in fact. If any of the RDMs or WHMs have a bit of time between one "one-hit" and another "one-hit", it's not a problem at all.

Phalanx from any source is useful only if the person it protects is getting hit repeatedly, or if one or two hits can get the person so close to 0 HP that 20 less damage or so per hit makes a difference.

And even if not, Phalanx II is just barely more efficient, and is really more niched in uses than you placed Blind II as.

Tonight when we were fighting the Ix'Aern (DRK), I used Phalanx II, but only part time. This was my thinking: while kiting, the PLD's aren't getting damaged all that much. So, Phalanx II wouldn't be worthwhile. However, every so often, one of them would go toe-to-toe with one, and inevitably Utusemi would drop and timers would be down (Poisonga tend to come out at lousy times). So, I toss on a Phalanx II when I see toe-to-toe, as an extra insurance.

When damage received is infrequent, I save the MP. When it's more frequent, it goes to Phalanx II to help tanks' safety unless I have something more urgent/useful for the MP. Ix'Aern's are so-so examples, but I'd definitely put it on tanks for Faust and Byakko.

Compared that to Blind II, which is only useful when relying on evasion that is *almost* enough but not quite to do the job. That's when Blind/Kurayami comes into their own. Since NIN's can do their own Kurayami, this pretty much leaves THF tanks. Which, while is not strange in small group work, certainly isn't the norm for big group events.