Divine Seal

[Chveya]

What is the best strategy for Divine Seal's use? Should I use it whenever it is up, or save it for when needed? I'm a WHM15 right now, and I have no experience with either Elem Seal or Divine Seal, so any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

[sevenpointflaw]

Re: Divine Seal

Curing with Divine Seal will generate a lot more hate because you are curing for twice as much. At that level, I reccomend saving it for after battles, or emegerency use. Later on (after 50), I would save it for AoE status effects.

[Mog]

Re: Divine Seal

What is the best strategy for Divine Seal's use? Should I use it whenever it is up, or save it for when needed? I'm a WHM15 right now, and I have no experience with either Elem Seal or Divine Seal, so any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

My advice to you would be to use it whenever you're about to use a very powerful whm spell, such as Cure 2 and Curaga. Typically, you'll need to use Curaga after a fight if everyone is beat up pretty badly, so if you cast Divine Seal beforehand, you'll get much more out of the spell and cure a significant amount of health for each player.

[Murphie]

Re: Divine Seal

I have a knack for timing my curaga to land just as the mob dies. So I save my Divine Seals for that most of the time, depending on how beat up folks are. But if pressed to cure someone fast, I'm not afraid to DS+Cure II or III even. I may get hate, but generally not so badly that I die, or it can't be pulled off of me. But even then I try and save it for when the mob is almost gone.

And I've used it on Undead a few times, but that was just for fun.

[Mog]

Re: Divine Seal

Divine Seal >> Life on Undead, ftw >.>;

[Icemage]

Re: Divine Seal

For those curious - that doesn't work, btw. Divine Seal doesn't seem to increase the damage undead take from Cure spells.

EDIT: For clarification, the effect of Divine Seal working on status-effect removal only works at level 50+ due to the Divine Veil trait at WHM50.


Icemage

[Kirsteena]

Re: Divine Seal

As you carry on you will get a feel for when it is appropriate to use Divine Seal - sometimes you need to use it if a tank is being beaten up badly, sometimes its good at the end of the battle to heal everyone up. You will get used to it over time

[Theyaden]

Re: Divine Seal

For those curious - that doesn't work, btw. Divine Seal doesn't seem to increase the damage undead take from Cure spells.
Icemage

Quite correct DS doesn't help in cure harming undead, although Elemental Seal does appear to assist when cure bombing them. I've only done it a few times I'll have to try couple times while I'm paying attention rather than late at nite when finishing a skillup session to be sure.

I sugest using DS after a goblin fight where everyone is injured with curaga or curaga II once the fight is over unless it's a emergency that would call for benediction otherwise. I've also used it when I have enough mana for one last cure II and the tank is dying. This is point of view of a pre 50th level higher levels doubless have more tolerance for midbattle Divine Seal + Curaga /curaga II

[Tirrock]

Re: Divine Seal

When I'm on WHM, I usually save divine seal for AoE debuffs. (Like others have pointed out, post 50 only.) If the monsters our group is fighting don't do any area debuffs, then I just use it whenever I can to save a bit of MP.

At low levels you'll likely pull hate with it. Tanks start holding hate a lot better at 37+. (Utsusemi:Ni for ninjas, flash for PLD.)

[Murphie]

Re: Divine Seal

See, I really didn't know that about DS+Curewhatever vs. Undead. Then again, I only used it a handful of times in the heat of the moment, so they weren't really fair tests. Good to know, regardless.

Like Kirsteena said, you'll just eventually find a rhythm that works best for you. Sometimes you'll use it at the end of the fight, sometimes mid-fight, whatever. I'd recommend against using it right at the start of the fight though, unless you were planning on tanking.

[Ellipses]

Re: Divine Seal

Usually, I find myself using Divine Seal most when I'm low on MP and things are getting hairy. I'll DS and toss the biggest cure I can afford (if the tank is low enough to need that), then rest and hope I get MP again before they need it again. I've only had one party at 50, though, so I'll be switching to AOE status removal once I start WHMing again.

[samarium]

Re: Divine Seal

Usually, I find myself using Divine Seal most when I'm low on MP and things are getting hairy. I'll DS and toss the biggest cure I can afford (if the tank is low enough to need that), then rest and hope I get MP again before they need it again. I've only had one party at 50, though, so I'll be switching to AOE status removal once I start WHMing again.

AoE Status removal is a great use for DS - but be careful, SE has made it pull a remarkably large amount of hate. I actually managed to steal hate from two 75 RDM with DS+Poisona.

Like the other main use of the skill (after-battle recovery - DS+Curaga I, II, or III), it's best saved for after battles unless your tanks can get hate back very quickly.

Personally, if I see our HP and MP get that desperately low, I'll save 125 or so and Escape or Teleport us out of there.

-sam

[Ellipses]

Re: Divine Seal

Personally, if I see our HP and MP get that desperately low, I'll save 125 or so and Escape or Teleport us out of there.

I have the worst luck with emergency teleports. Somehow the tank always manages to lose just enough hate for me to get hit the one time necessary to interrupt it.

[samarium]

Re: Divine Seal

I have the worst luck with emergency teleports. Somehow the tank always manages to lose just enough hate for me to get hit the one time necessary to interrupt it.

Of course, it's a law of life.

Post-58 RDM is the best job in the world to have in such a crunch - Chainspell + Escape!

Basically you do the best you can, you try to survive or get out, and if you all die... so what, it's a game.

-sam

P.S. Elementals SUCK. Especially with NIN tank.

[Irisjir Callard]

Re: Divine Seal

I have the worst luck with emergency teleports. Somehow the tank always manages to lose just enough hate for me to get hit the one time necessary to interrupt it.

I was told by a senior player...and in my experience it seems to be true...

Teleport spells have a 'delay' between the cast timer and taking effect that allows the mob to 'insert' at least one hit.

Thus, what the mob sees is:

Hate tank! HATE THAT TANK!! WHM is casting something, nobody cares.

WHM casts teleport-boonies

OMFG!! Whitemage just did something that affected everyone, INCLUDING the tank!

Hate the whitemage! HATE THAT WHITEMAGE!!

Teleport takes effect. All living bodies are zoned out.

(This doesn't always include the whitemage.)




I have spawned dead on the Dem telepoint more times than I care to think about.

I have been smacked upside the head by demons for casting teleports IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE PLD USED INVINCIBLE.

**The above case happened twice, of which the one with the PLD happened second. I had accumulated hate in that party. Not enough to overcome Invincible but...

The first time it happened, it was me and a SAM friend. I had just gotten teleport-vhalz and we decided to explore Xcarabard. We caught agro from a flying eye, and then an ice elemental. All in all, we did relatively well. I used the last of my MP after the second agro to cure him full, on the condition that he didn't need to rest for agro and could stand watch for undead (I had red HP). I cuddled myself up against a wall (one of the ones demons stand on, at the time I didn't know about them in the zone) and took a knee.

It was at this point the demon on the wall noticed me. SAM caught on faster than I did, almost. One hit, and he had the thing voked. I did a /check. IT++ to me, and I barely had 200 MP. I said hold hate and stay alive long enough for me to teleport.

(Lucky for me, auto-regen was running this whole time)

SAM is in bright orange HP when I cast teleport-dem. I have not cured him once and he's made a pretty damn good dent in the demon's HP. We probably could have stayed and fought it out and been ok.
Irisjir casts Teleport-Dem
SAM vanishes!
Demon Pawn hits Irisjir for 177ish points of damage.
Demon Pawn hits Irisjir for 124ish points of damage.
Irisjir vanishes.

Yes, it hit me TWICE before I zoned out.

I reappeared on the Dem telepoint with 2 hp and promptly hypervenilated.

***back to the point********

I have sent five other people to safety at the dem point, but had the teleport I casted not take effect on me because I was killed between the effect point of the spell and the finish point in casting. (This has happened to me exactly once.)


If you want it in numbers, I can tell you exactly where they are. Between 75% and 95%. If you live to 95% casting, you will be zoned out before the server calculates any damage you may be taking. Then at least if you spawn dead, you're in an easy place to get a raise.

Before 75% the mob's not interested in you at all.


But between 75% and 95%, you had better be prepared to tank.