60+ SCH gear and Macros

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

First off, I'm totally glad I had left off SCH at 51 pre-update. Just like COR, BLU and PUP AF, SCH AF seemed to be way more thoughtful in its function that RoZ AFs were. DNC AF is kinda meh, but has its places in macros.

SCH AF Head, Body and Legs are clearly always going to have a use, so the question would be what to switch out for body when Light Arts is active and what to switch out for legs when Dark Arts in is play. I'm eyeing Jet Sereweels for legs and Errant for Body for thier respective arts macros.

If there are any assault/Nyzul pieces that are better, I'm sort of at a loss as to what they are. Maybe I should look over them again, but nothing really stands out. SCH hands are decent, but all I have to replace them at the moment are my Master Caster Bracelets. Feet could probably use something better.

I was going to take the same approach to INT/MND as I had on my tarus RDM in the past, but seeing how underused white magic enfeebles are by SCH, I figure its nothing a Goblin Mushpot couldn't cover right now, before upgrades at 61 SCH, I'm about +15 INT and +14 mind from gear. I think I want to prioritize INT this time around, on RDM, I prioritized MND for the enfeebling and the low Taru MND stats, doesn't seem to be a big deal now.

Sothic Rope/Penitent's I'll probably get one of, Sothic because I know at some point I'll just be tempted to sell Penitent's (bad habit that R/E items fix) and I hate the -HP anyway.

After Icemage, myself and others had done some tinkering with Sublimation, it was found HP gear increases the MP returns on Sublimation, so I'm now also looking into +HP builds for Sublimation. Bomb Queen Ring,Pidgeon/Bloodbead Earring Promise Badge and Insomnia earring look like good options.

I'm also looking to to a massive and rather ambitions overhaul of my SCH macros and the prototype list is only halfway complete. SCH has so many spells to play with and so many JAs and ways to use them that I may very well end up using all 10 pages of SCH section x.X I have one set that's already just a menu set leading to the other nine pages, but I leave some universal functions in that first menu as to not miss a beat on Cures and such.

[Tsrwedge]

Re: 60+ SCH gear and Macros

Is this a question to what others are using, or feedback on your ideas, or what? I don't mean to be rude, but I don't see the direction you want this thread to go.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: 60+ SCH gear and Macros

Its more of a "What am I overlooking here?" kind of post.

Like Vicious Mufflers at 70, I should have mentioned that before, but I overlooked it

[Dranzia]

Re: 60+ SCH gear and Macros

I like Yigit body for resting (Just because I don't like Errant so much), and the Yigit hands are nice in general. Yigit feet could be good depending on your race's RSE (in my opinion, at least).

Well, and for HP build you could always get a Gigant Mantle....if you have that type of gil or are capable of setting up the ENM runs for it.

/end respone to OP

***Anyone else wish that Nashiera gear was SCH equipable? I sure do >.<***

[Icemage]

Re: 60+ SCH gear and Macros

The obvious swap-in for body piece is Vermillion Cloak during Light Arts. 1mp/tick refresh > pretty much anything else you're going to get, unless you need the extra stats for something - Errant for casting Stoneskin, for instance for its +10 MND. Even with it taking the place of the Mortarboard, it's still more efficient since all the Mortarboard does for you is let you charge the same amount of MP - so unless you've got a full tank of MP, the Cloak is still better due to ability to rest/no drain effect.

Gigant Mantle is overkill, especially for non-Tarus (actually I'll even go so far as to say it's overkill for most Tarutaru as well). You're just not going to get that many opportunities to charge Sublimation for five minutes at a time anyway, and it's not so much more efficient that you're going to see huge returns from it. Even with the mortarboard, it takes a good long while to hit 250MP (1000HP), let alone anything higher.

To put it in perspective, look at it this way:

1000HP max => 249 max MP charged with mortarboard = 82 ticks to charge (1 tick comes free with activation) ~= 246 seconds.

Then you get 30 seconds of downtime off Sublimation, so for the duration of the cycle you earn:

249MP / 276 seconds = 0.902174 MP per second.

Let's say you get enough gear to bump to 1400HP max.

1400HP => 348 MP returned over 115 ticks ~= 345 seconds.

Add the 30 second downtime and we get:

348MP / 375 seconds = 0.9280 MP per second.

.9280MP per second - .902174 MP per second = 0.025826 MP/s, or less than 3% increase in MP recovered over time for increasing your HP by 400.

Sure, if you've got the gear just lying around, go ahead and use it. I've got Pigeon Earrings/BQ Ring/etc. that I use on RDM, and it serves me well on WHM/SCH too, but I'd never go out of my way to bring +HP items just for use with Sublimation.

---

Coming back to the topic of other swap-ins, there's Druids Slops at level 64, with +5 Elemental skill and +5 Healing Magic.

Feet... eh... maybe Goliard? Yigit Gages for hands, perhaps.

(edit: scratch that, forgot Scholars can't use Zenith)


Icemage

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: 60+ SCH gear and Macros

Well, Vermy is something to consider, though I don't really find myself ever getting so low on MP that 1MP a tick would make up for more than Sublimation would, but then, it is true that that would be +1MP per tick I'd be getting while I'm standing with sublimation active and it stacks with other refresh effects.

Mortarboard really just lets you hit the Sublimation cap that much faster with its -3HP per tick effect. If a quick charge is needed, I'd find that more effective. Guess I'll play those by situation.

Didn't remember MND affecting Stoneskin til you pointed that out earlier today, I suppose I'll keep working on MND build then. I still can't find a more useful food than Goblin Mushpots (+10 MND), though. I seem to horde away enough MP not to need MP/+hMP foods or refresh that badly.

[ItazuraNhomango]

Re: 60+ SCH gear and Macros

Make a guide like Armando's list for PLD60-under equipment, except we'll pick it apart instead of praising you. XD

I mean, give you more help in completing it. That's it.

[Icemage]

Re: 60+ SCH gear and Macros

Well, Vermy is something to consider, though I don't really find myself ever getting so low on MP that 1MP a tick would make up for more than Sublimation would, but then, it is true that that would be +1MP per tick I'd be getting while I'm standing with sublimation active and it stacks with other refresh effects.

Mortarboard really just lets you hit the Sublimation cap that much faster with its -3HP per tick effect. If a quick charge is needed, I'd find that more effective. Guess I'll play those by situation.

I'm more of the opinion that 99% of the time, mana-now is better than mana-later.

Using a VC just lets you part ways with the mortarboard (which is great, don't get me wrong). This is especially true if you're fresh off a full Sublimation charge and don't have an immediate need to cash in that extra MP.

Didn't remember MND affecting Stoneskin til you pointed that out earlier today, I suppose I'll keep working on MND build then. I still can't find a more useful food than Goblin Mushpots (+10 MND), though. I seem to horde away enough MP not to need MP/+hMP foods or refresh that badly.

I really don't think there's much food out there that benefits SCH much. MND foods really aren't worth it unless you're casting enfeebles. Personally I think Ginger/Wizard cookies work just fine in that context unless you want some more nuking accuracy from INT or something.


Icemage

[Neomage]

Re: 60+ SCH gear and Macros

I have a semi-related question. For sublimation, does the +HP gear have to be equipped all the time in order to be effective, or just when the effect is activated like the AF hat?

[Tsrwedge]

Re: 60+ SCH gear and Macros

Gear:

I've taken more of a "Sublimation is a great tool, but I'm not going to gear specifically for it" approach - I've mostly focused on acquiring INT and Elemental Magic+ (before we had AF) kit, as I already had a decent chunk of gear left over from White Mage. Currently at 67 (gear has been this way since the AF was released though).

For Light Arts + main healing mode, I use:

Show Light Arts Gear

-Vermy
-Staff Strap
-Sweet Sachet (junk slot, I'm too cheap for Phantom Tathlum and sold my Morion when I got the Sachet)
-Enlightened Chain
-Insomnia + Antivenom Earrings
-AF Hands, Legs, Feet (collectively MP+50, Enmity -5, Spell Interrupts -20%, MND+3, and an extra Fast Cast)
-Hale + Solace Rings
-Miraculous Cape
-Steppe Stone

When subbing White Mage, this nets me around 186 MP on a full Sublimation and 74 (57 + 17) MND. To do the maths out, it's also a calculated 266 HP Stoneskin.

For Dark Arts + nuking mode (/blm), I use:

Show Dark Arts Gear

-Bugard Strap +1
-Sweet Sachet
-AF Hat, Body, and Feet
-Enlightened Chain
-Wizard's and Moldavite Earrings
-Seer's Mitts +1
-Hale and Wisdom Rings (too cheap for Genius x 2)
-Red Cape +1
-Penitent's Rope
-Cobra Unit Slops

This nets me around 180 on a full Sublimation if memory serves correctly. It also gives me a total of 108 (75 + 33) INT w/ Aquilo's Staff equipped.

Why the Vermy vs. the Hat on the Light Arts gear? As far as I can tell, Sublimation @ 2MP / tick + 1 Refresh / tick is a lot like Sublimation @ 3MP / tick. Except I get the MP from my Vermy sooner, and I don't necessarily need to burn that store of MP. In fact, in every party I've been in since the update where I was acting as main healer or co-main healer (damn that Caedarva Mire party...), I have not had MP issues and had the luxury of using Sublimation at my leisure rather than hitting it every time.

My tentative nuking gearset at 75 involves Yigit Gages, Yigit Crackows, Errant Houppelande, and some other kit as detailed here (caution, FFXIah link - don't click if you don't trust them): FFXIAH.com . That said, I haven't given much any thought to a crowd control or pure healing gearset, though I imagine the latter would be mostly MP gear.

Macroes:

My macroes are an utter mess right now and only work cos I'm used to them, so I don't have any useful information there.

I know my choices in the past for gear on this job have been... unique. This is what works for me though.

[Icemage]

Re: 60+ SCH gear and Macros

I have a semi-related question. For sublimation, does the +HP gear have to be equipped all the time in order to be effective, or just when the effect is activated like the AF hat?

The answer to this depends on how long you've been charging Sublimation.

For instance, if you've been charging Sublimation for 99 ticks, you have 200MP "charged" (assuming no mortarboard). At this point in time, you MUST have at least 800 max HP, and 400 current HP, or Sublimation will then stop charging.

At any point, if your current HP drops below 50% of max, or the amount "charged" is equal to or greater than 25% of your current max HP, Sublimation will stop charging.

The net effect is that you can wear anything you like for the first couple of minutes under the influence of Sublimation. -HP gear, Convert gear, whatever. After that, you need that +HP gear to continue charging Sublimation or it will stop and you'll have to activate and start over.

Do note, however, that taking the completed charge and starting over doesn't really hurt you much, as you can see in my example above.


Icemage

[Yellow Mage]

Re: 60+ SCH gear and Macros

Guys, you are all forgetting the important thing here:

Sublimation is calculated from HP BEFORE HP -> MP gear calculations.

Galka SCH Mana-battery GO!

(Seriously, at 600 base HP with a Mortarboard, Refresh is essentially replaced in both Refresh rate AND total Refreshed, and the total MP Refreshed only gets even higher with the HP total. Moral of the story? I only invite Galka Scholars with Zenith and a Mortarboard. >_> j/k)

EDIT: /em double-checks the posts before his.

What do you mean Scholars can't use Zenith?!? That's even more brutal than denying Red Mages Denali (or Homam, for that matter; don't look at me that way, Blue Mage gets both Homam and Nashira)!

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: 60+ SCH gear and Macros

Sublimation is calculated from HP BEFORE HP -> MP gear calculations.

If that were true, the Astrals/Electrums wouldn't lower the effect of Sublimation when it was activated

Unfortunately, they do. Perhaps by a minor amount, but still enough to irk me a bit.

[Yellow Mage]

Re: 60+ SCH gear and Macros

If what you're saying is true, then I have to give my informant a good punting: from the Tarutaru to the tall-person. ;>_>b

[Somnar]

Re: 60+ SCH gear and Macros

If that were true, the Astrals/Electrums wouldn't lower the effect of Sublimation when it was activated

Unfortunately, they do. Perhaps by a minor amount, but still enough to irk me a bit.

Electrum will reduce your Sublimation return, because they're not convert HP to MP (they're just -HP +MP). Astrals will not. I had 762 HP as 55 SCH (with astrals), and was getting a max of 200ish mp back.