Pet Command - Muster

[Hashmalum]

^This.


Also some tests were done with Chi Blast/Atonement/SW and it was found there is no 'spirit damage' and they fall under 'non elemental breath' damage. There are only 3 damage types in the game: Physical, Magical, Breath. Atonement I'm not 100% sure about but Spirits Within is definitely breath(it's also an HP based attack which should be a clue that it's a breath). Since newer NMs take very little damage from Atonement, SW, Chi Blast and Breath damage but not magic specifically(most NMs have MDB but only a few have direct MDT/SDT), it could be inferred that SW/Mijin Gakure/Chi/Atonement are probably breath based since typically the thing with breath damage is that it ignores magic defense and they do a static/fixed amount of damage based on a proportion of HP or in Atonement's case Enmity. The hypothesis that those abilities are breaths fits in line with the fact that they may have not intended for chi/mijin/SW to be affected but since those NMs resist breaths and chi/mijin/SW, then those abilities and WS are most probably breaths as well since it would extra work to make NMs resist those separately rather than if they were just lumped in with other abilities of the same damage type i.e breath.

Also I think it was found that Cerberus takes extra damage from Atonement, SW, Chi Blast as well as breaths. So rather than it being that he takes extra damage from all of those separately, it's easier to just categorize all the aforementioned abilities/WS as dealing breath damage i.e nonphysical, nonmagical.

Sorry if this is off-topic, but... What sort of damage is Souleater, given that mobs can have resistance to it?

[Sukasaroth]

would also like to a a stay command -_-

[SpankWustler]

Also some tests were done with Chi Blast/Atonement/SW and it was found there is no 'spirit damage' and they fall under 'non elemental breath' damage. There are only 3 damage types in the game: Physical, Magical, Breath. Atonement I'm not 100% sure about but Spirits Within is definitely breath(it's also an HP based attack which should be a clue that it's a breath). Since newer NMs take very little damage from Atonement, SW, Chi Blast and Breath damage but not magic specifically(most NMs have MDB but only a few have direct MDT/SDT), it could be inferred that SW/Mijin Gakure/Chi/Atonement are probably breath based since typically the thing with breath damage is that it ignores magic defense and they do a static/fixed amount of damage based on a proportion of HP or in Atonement's case Enmity. The hypothesis that those abilities are breaths fits in line with the fact that they may have not intended for chi/mijin/SW to be affected but since those NMs resist breaths and chi/mijin/SW, then those abilities and WS are most probably breaths as well since it would extra work to make NMs resist those separately rather than if they were just lumped in with other abilities of the same damage type i.e breath.

This brings up another point, in line with the breath resistance stuck to so much stuff.

If there are a number of separate resistances at play, some goofball got the idea in his head that breath spells and wyvern breaths and Atonement and Mijin Gakure all did too much damage. He was sitting at his desk one day, spinning around in his chair as fast as he could, and it occurred to him that 750 damage is an awful lot.

Then, people went along with that idea. Everybody went along with that idea.

I can almost understand why the breath resistance was construed as something that maybe had a right to exist, since it crept in at roughly the same time that huge +HP buffs became available, but the bonus resistance to stuff like Atonement and Mijin Gakure almost makes it seem like a mean joke. Like somebody somewhere knew that breaths and static-damage special abilities produced poor damage compared to everything else roughly 90% of the time, and wanted to drive that point home as part of some strange philosophy.

[Ophannus]

I think they nerfed breaths against NMs because they ignore usual defenses. High DEF and VIT give NMs great physical defense and MDB/INT/MND and MDT give NMs great magic defense, but until TOAU, most NMs had 0 defense against breath damage. So in order to keep NM difficulty relatively high, they probably added a breath damage taken-% component to new NMs since no other stat would reduce breath damage(it ignores all defenses). Breath Damage is more effective than magic or physical because 1) breaths don't miss 2) they resist less(i've heard they have fewer resist states than magic, they don't have 1/8 resists only 1/2 and 1/4)). Since breaths do moderate damage but are very accurate and consistent, it would be an easy way to wittle NMs down. This is probably why they nerfed it.

Souleater damage might also be breath damage, I've never tested it but it would be interesting and difficult. Does Souleater add damage even when a mob's Invincible or if you hit for 0?

[Xilk]

Beastmaster has a couple breath's as well, but I must say Discreet Louise's breaths have severe accuracy handicaps. When testing I often had resists on level 0~1 mobs... Which now that I think about it, was before they fixed the stat mixup w/ louise and the normal funguar.

Raphie's breath attack doesn't seem to have that problem that I recall. Guess I'll have to go testing again.

[SpankWustler]

I think they nerfed breaths against NMs because they ignore usual defenses. High DEF and VIT give NMs great physical defense and MDB/INT/MND and MDT give NMs great magic defense, but until TOAU, most NMs had 0 defense against breath damage. So in order to keep NM difficulty relatively high, they probably added a breath damage taken-% component to new NMs since no other stat would reduce breath damage(it ignores all defenses). Breath Damage is more effective than magic or physical because 1) breaths don't miss 2) they resist less(i've heard they have fewer resist states than magic, they don't have 1/8 resists only 1/2 and 1/4)). Since breaths do moderate damage but are very accurate and consistent, it would be an easy way to wittle NMs down. This is probably why they nerfed it.

Interesting. I had no idea that breath resistance started as early as Treasures of Aht Urhgan. I knew my breath damage on some NM's was worse than numbers on paper indicated, but being Tarutaru, I was using the breath spells on a lark anyway and just assumed I sucked horribly in some intangible way. I also just assumed the changes came later.

Knowing the change was made that early does put the resistance in a much different perspective. That means stuff has resisted breath spells as long as players could really control breath spells. Given the special brand of extra-acidic vitriol that the Development Bros seem to possess for anything that deals static damage or bypasses some kind of defense in any way, I guess I should have expected that.

Of course, the huge amount of breath resistance on newer stuff is still hilarious in any context. I imagine a dejected wyvern looking through a FFXI AH advanced search for something that might benefit him in the face of roundabouts -80% breath damage taken, finding nothing, and weeping.

Weeping through his mouth via a 27 damage Aqua Breath.

[Daydreamer]

Breath attack's are designed for the last 10% to 20% HP of a Mobs life, mostly NM's. As the Mobs HP drop's the accuracy of the breath attacks increases.

While most monsters get enhanced MDB and PDT as well as higher atk and atk speed in the last portion of their HP. I think they wanted us to use the breath attacks to cut through the last part of a battle.

So Dev's if you read this or hear this. We get that (^^) about how the breath attacks were intended to be used. But the accuracy of a breath spell should be adjusted 100%. They take a long time to cast on blue mage and cost a substantial amount of MP, also they are the prime source of extra damage from a dragoons wyvern.

I like that our HP or a wyvern's HP adjust's the power of breath spells. Accuracy issues just need to go away if you really want to give them balance. Each breath attack should function as good as spirits within. Some food to feed a pet wyvern so you can keep their HP full would be awesome also. Not just the "JA" the poor little critters die way to much in big fights with heavy aoe. Special foods with stoneskin, phalanx, +100 MDB, and maybe even let them eat more then one food at a time and yes include the food from the armor being worn at the time you call the pet. Wyverns arent that big bad and buff that your going to unbalance the game by letting them "Live longer" and "Hurt their targets".

I know alot of folks wont like the food idea because its just one more thing to buy one more thing to pack around. But I think folks would buy them up real fast if it meant birdie didnt die 30 secs into the fight.

[Ophannus]

Never ever heard of accuracy rising as HP is lowered.