Geomancer's Limited Spell Usage

[Crevox]

So Geomancer gets a lot of fancy stuff. Lots of debuffs, lots of buffs, etc.

However, they can only use 2 of them. I understand Bard and Corsair are in a similar situation, however, the debuffs they provide do not count towards their respective limits. I also understand that they are nowhere near as potent, but I feel that Geomancer's inability to do anything more than 2 things at a time greatly limits the selection you have in any given combat situation, and creativity of playing the job. While they still have many buffs that are very powerful just like Bard and Corsair, they also have the debuffs, and yet aren't offered any additional chance to use them.

Because of the limited choice, in almost all scenarios, you will always be using the same two. This will become even more prevalent with the introduction of Indi-Haste and Geo-Haste. Geomancer has a lot of fun and interesting buffs/debuffs, but due to the limitations, you rarely get to use any of them. One suggestion I could come up with is they could have a dedicated debuff slot in addition to the two buff slots; just trying to think of something to open up the job a bit more to be used.

How do you Geomancers feel? What buffs/debuffs do you use in your parties? Do you feel the same restriction?

[Malithar]

Had a long winded post that after I reread it a few times, I realized I don't even know why I like Geo. None of it really made sense as far as optimization goes, and laid out in words, it doesn't even sound like that much fun. None-the-less, I enjoy the job.

As far as what I tend to use, it differs on content and party setups. Typically though, Indi-Refresh, Indi-Focus, Indi-Acumen, Indi-Fury, Indi-Frailty, Geo-Frailty, Geo-Torpor, Geo-Malaise, and Geo-Languor all get used very often. Indi-Fend and Geo/Indi-Regen get honorable mentions for their use in soloing/reives/WKRs.

I can see why other's would want more buffs to be able to spread, and I'm not arguing against it at all. Who doesn't want more? I'd love to be able to put up Acumen, Malaise, and Focus and blast away on some content that resists, or buff melees with Haste, Fury, and Frailty, or any combination that results in the completion of the content easier. However, we're limited to 2, period. Until that is changed, I can't imagine Geo and to a lesser degree Cor, ever being on the same plane of desirability as Brd. An enhancer that can give multiple people up to 5 different buffs is very customizable. Marches/Minuets/Madrigals to the melee, Ballads to the mages, even swap parties in an alliance and give them all their own special ordered buffs. Cor is capable of this to a much lesser degree, but it still opens them up to options. Geo though? We're stuck with 2. We do make up for it by being a mage though, back up healing, debuffs, nukes, etc. It's got it's give and takes. It just sucks that what we're given isn't all that desired in typical groups.

I know they've said they have no intention of allowing us to summon a 2nd loupan (though I don't recall ever seeing that a second Indi is out of the question) but a simple solution to this, if they want to give us a third buff is to just add a JA that blows up our current Loupan and gives enemies/allies within range the buff or debuff for 3ish min. We get a third buff, and we give up what SE believes our biggest strength is for it, that buff is now dispellable!

[Tennotsukai]

I feel like a ja that enhances our next buff to the alliance would be pretty nice, but I still agree with OP. Geo needs to be able to do more. Maybe what they've been doing for geo is the answer. Just make their spells more powerful. Right now, with the right bell we can receive rather large buffs/debuffs. Perhaps more potent spells and we'll be happy...

[Damane]

Had a long winded post that after I reread it a few times, I realized I don't even know why I like Geo. None of it really made sense as far as optimization goes, and laid out in words, it doesn't even sound like that much fun. None-the-less, I enjoy the job.

As far as what I tend to use, it differs on content and party setups. Typically though, Indi-Refresh, Indi-Focus, Indi-Acumen, Indi-Fury, Indi-Frailty, Geo-Frailty, Geo-Torpor, Geo-Malaise, and Geo-Languor all get used very often. Indi-Fend and Geo/Indi-Regen get honorable mentions for their use in soloing/reives/WKRs.

I can see why other's would want more buffs to be able to spread, and I'm not arguing against it at all. Who doesn't want more? I'd love to be able to put up Acumen, Malaise, and Focus and blast away on some content that resists, or buff melees with Haste, Fury, and Frailty, or any combination that results in the completion of the content easier. However, we're limited to 2, period. Until that is changed, I can't imagine Geo and to a lesser degree Cor, ever being on the same plane of desirability as Brd. An enhancer that can give multiple people up to 5 different buffs is very customizable. Marches/Minuets/Madrigals to the melee, Ballads to the mages, even swap parties in an alliance and give them all their own special ordered buffs. Cor is capable of this to a much lesser degree, but it still opens them up to options. Geo though? We're stuck with 2. We do make up for it by being a mage though, back up healing, debuffs, nukes, etc. It's got it's give and takes. It just sucks that what we're given isn't all that desired in typical groups.

I know they've said they have no intention of allowing us to summon a 2nd loupan (though I don't recall ever seeing that a second Indi is out of the question) but a simple solution to this, if they want to give us a third buff is to just add a JA that blows up our current Loupan and gives enemies/allies within range the buff or debuff for 3ish min. We get a third buff, and we give up what SE believes our biggest strength is for it, that buff is now dispellable!

Indi-Fend is so freaking awesome, you can laugh at magics damage right away ha! like a freeking mini aegis for the whole party <3. I dont mind the 2 buffs only geo get, the buffs and debuffs are potent and cant be dispelled. what I dont like is the inflexibility of moveing the buffs around. I have mentioned this like a 100039290392 times, letting geo cast indi-spells on PT members (like) melees and being able to make the luopan follow a member/mob, would make the job alot more flexible and enjoyable. Battles are nowaday pretty dynamic, geomancer buffs are to static/put in a place to go well with that, the constant releaseing recasting positioning yourself takes away alot of time sometimes from the things you could do as a backline mage (cures haste etc etc).
also when you fight a very big sized monk (liek KB hydra cerb etc) and the melees are srpead around it, you cant even hit all melees with your indi spell due to its limited range. I think this needs a bit expanding, expanding the range from 6.5 to 10 or 12 wouldnt hurt either. this happens when I want to avoid conal damage to my luopan and place it on the melee behind the mob, when the mob is too big, the melee in the front will miss out entirely on the buff.

but for now I am happy we are getting haste ( i really really really hope it turns out in potency as 2 marches togehter, otherwise its pointless ¬.¬)

[Malithar]

also when you fight a very big sized monk (liek KB hydra cerb etc) and the melees are srpead around it, you cant even hit all melees with your indi spell due to its limited range. I think this needs a bit expanding, expanding the range from 6.5 to 10 or 12 wouldnt hurt either. this happens when I want to avoid conal damage to my luopan and place it on the melee behind the mob, when the mob is too big, the melee in the front will miss out entirely on the buff.

Definitely a major gripe of mine. Debuffing Loupans can only be cast on enemies, and buff Loupans can only be cast on party members. Since positioning is so key, I wish they'd recode the classification of Geo- spells, and make them more like Cure spells; castable on anyone and anything. This'd make it so for large mobs like you mentioned, you could put the buffing Loupan on the center of the mob, hitting everyone. Or for enemies with deadly conal attacks, you could target a DD on the back with Geo-Frailty or whatever, and preserve your Loupan through better positioning of it. Or at the very least, just make it so that any Geo- spell can be cast on yourself, so that you could dictate where to place them.