Geomancer design confusion.

[leorez]

Im not every high with Geo, but im confused as to why they are made into a typical background mage. Yes they are mainly buffers and nukers (pretty weak from what ive seen, wont find much use it seems) but half the point of the job is the auras and placement.

since i have indi on that is around me to help people fighting the mobs, why is geo so physically weak? if your intention was from the job to be up close, why not at least allow them to be halfway decent melee jobs (more like DNC i suppose) so standing near a mob to give others the buff is not just sitting in AoE range waiting to get plowed down.

I get you can always use the geo- versions, but many of what ive gotten so far are more for melee players up from. Was really hoping the job would have been like the FFT version that wore lighter DD gear and used axes to fight.

also thanks for making me have to sit outside of town spamming the spells (because you wont be in fights) just to level 2 separate skills while RUN has none to skill up (not sure why runes done have their own skill)

[Luvbunny]

So far I am pretty disappointed with Geomancer. A job that is a little bit of this and a little bit of that but really brings nothing much to the table. Seriously, on a small party set up, for example: Meeble Burrrow, would you give up your spot for Scholar or White Mage or Black Mage for Geo? A Scholar + Bard probably would do well for a small set up. Where you need top healer and magic damage reduction, White Mage probably would be your top choice. As a buffer + healer + nuker on the fly, Scholar does a much better job than geomancer. This just remind me of how Scholar was when it was introduced, until they made some major tweaking. Geomancer should be able to have 3 luopans and 2 self buff spells, and they should give it a regain spells up to 3 tic at max skill levels. The job reminds me of Shaman in WoW but Shaman is designed a whole lot better than Geomancer. As it is now, its is sorely lacking and a wasted spot in party.

[Kaisha]

GEO reminds me of SCH when it first came out. Didn't really have a purpose, and any unique qualities it had were too weak.

I only see Indi being handy for supporting yourself and the other support/healer with you, and use Geo- on the DDs. An update or two will be needed to give the job some proper perks, merits, gear, and buffs the potency of their spells. Maybe some T5 nukes also.

[Alhanelem]

I'm not dissapointed with GEO at all. The main reason some of the effects seem underwhelming is because most people don't have anywhere near capped skill. the effects are stronger with higher skill. The -ra nukes are actually pretty decent, and the job has some unique boffs/debuffs that weren't seen much/at all previously.

As far as analogy, I would liken it to BRD + BLM in the same way that COR is like BRD + RNG.

Still, it has some intricacy to it that the other related jobs don't have. I feel like I made the right choice out of the two.

[Hawklaser]

It's good to hear the -ra nukes are decent. Though is that with or without Magic attack traits?

My biggest thing I don't like bout GEO is that it seems to need to be close to the mobs to be at its most effective, but the gear it gets currently doesn't help support that much.

Its an enjoyable job, just looks to be in an unusual spot currently due to how everything about it works at the moment.

[Alhanelem]

It's good to hear the -ra nukes are decent. Though is that with or without Magic attack traits?

My biggest thing I don't like bout GEO is that it seems to need to be close to the mobs to be at its most effective, but the gear it gets currently doesn't help support that much.

Its an enjoyable job, just looks to be in an unusual spot currently due to how everything about it works at the moment.
Its with absolutely nothing. No useful gear, no stat buffs, no MAB, nothing.

When you learn Stonera, it blows every other nuke you have out of the water by a massive margin, and the same for the others as you learn them.

Put simply, they're not pathetic like cura was.

[Hawklaser]

Its not hard to blow tier 1 nukes out of the water. But even better to hear that was without MAB stuff. Have any experience with the tier 2 -ra's? Mainly how they hold up compared to the the other end game nukes?

Will have to wait and see how the -ra's do, and if they are really good it may make the armor options GEO gets make more sense. If the damage is there, long with the utility GEO can provide via its buffs/debuffs the squishy-ness + mob nearness would be acceptable.

[Puck]

I have a strong feeling they're just watching to see how the playerbase uses GEO and RUN, then they'll be adjusting them to be more effective later. Like others said, SCH had it rough at first, and it was buffed not long after.

But yeah, like most people are saying, GEO needs to be in the thick of things yet all they get is flimsy mage gear. I'm hoping SE realizes that and puts them on light armor sets like BLU and RDM can wear, and set GEO up with some unique defensive spells and abilities so they can be up front.

Wouldn't hurt to bump GEO up to A+ club, too.

[Hayward]

At this early stage it's very difficult to fully assess either job since many of the JAs haven't been put to use extensively enough to tell how effective they are. On top of that, no one really knows what equipment would make either job more effective at what they do. Also, I suspect people are trying to play these jobs as if they were any of the 20 previous jobs. That, in my view, might only serve to add to confusion and misinformation (Think back to the introduction of SCH and PUP, though S-E had more than a small hand in the latter debacle). I personally have no intention of leveling either job until more information comes in as to their functions in battle and the effective uses of their abilities and spells.

[Hawklaser]

At this early stage it's very difficult to fully assess either job since many of the JAs haven't been put to use extensively enough to tell how effective they are.

This I would agree on, but it is much easier to access where RUN stands currently than GEO. And would be even easier if traditional XP parties were still around. For RUN, since its design goal was to be a tank for magic damage, things to access it by is can it hold hate on normal mobs well enough for a group to kill said mob, and against magic heavy mobs does it do better than NIN and PLD? Other than that it would be a more generic DD and just needs to keep pace.

GEO, however, has quite a bit more that complicates things for it.

[Kaisha]

Problem I have with the ~ra nukes is that they cost a ton of MP for the dmg they output.

[Karah]

I can't believe anyone is actually shocked that GEO is a bad job, other than analhyme who White Knights EVERYTHING SE does.

[Monchat]

do you expect the new job to be decent before they get AF1/AF2/AF3/ (REM-type weapons/spell)/merit cat1/meritc cat2/ wait 6 month and they'll be decent.

[Luvbunny]

Geo is a hybrid job, and SE is very terrible when it comes to create a good functional hybrid job. Right now it is not very good at everything that its suppose to do. You certainly not going to give up spot that is tried and true to a job that is half baked and can do a little bit of this and not as effective as white mage, bard, black mage, corsair or scholar. Not to mention you can only have 2 things at a time. They should let geo have 2 luopans and 2 self cast spells - then we really see how this can be a nice alternative support job.

[Karah]

If they change the spells to include alliance members, GEO -MIGHT- see a party slot in the mage party, (just maaaaaaaaaaybe)...

If they change the spells to affect outside the alliance (powerleveling) (2boxing > casting the spell afking) Then alot more would start using it.

As it stands, its completely useless.

[Luvbunny]

Geo should be able to cast the indi spells x 2 on self, so 2 different buffs that will stack with another geo from alliance so you can affect it indirectly. This will make them strategic. Also they should be able to create 2 luopan and up to 6 can be put together that affect the entire alliance (3 geos together). This will make then a very desireable job for endgame events. Luopan can die fast from AOE so it is not going to be overpowered. Since they are getting rid of "atma buffs" this will give a nice alternative to it. And please give regain sphere/luopan to geomancer.....

[MarkovChain]

From the look eof it GEO sucks, no that it wasn't expected. I heard it buffs for much less attack than a COR, much less STR than a WHM and a very mediocre def spell (in case you care). Lastly those things that get killed from AOE, seriously did SE not listen to us ? I don't see any potential.

[Dantedmc]

For Geo to have a role it needs to:

- Have buffs that are competitive or synergize well with brd / cor. This is doubtful since Geo has no haste or regain buffs and it's unlikely its buffs are better than 3 or 4 brd songs, and the buffs don't seem as unique as cors.

-Magic Damage needs to be relevant which is even more unlikely considering the elemental magic changes haven't even been introduced and enmity hasn't really been fixed either.

-Additionally indi-line spells are going to be ineffective for melee unless the geo goes to close range and risks getting killed by AoEs. The buffing spells should "cling" so that the geo only has to touch others with it's aura, and then it will last for the rest of the duration even if those party members move away.

At present all I can see is the geo buffing the blm party and giving magic def down on the mob, which again won't mean much if we aren't using magic DD.

[nyheen]

this just got lot of potential it just it only been about 2-3 days since the job came out and got rushed to 99. you forgot how it was when pup,sch when it first came out. lot potential and over time it got updated. geo got lot unique things about it. as lvl 25 with cap skill. pting in Kazham having geo-regen 7/tick at the camp was useful imo. with the Indi-Poison aura. i can see this job being epic later on just like how i called out sch and pup, give it some time and you will see

[Umichi]

At this early stage it's very difficult to fully assess either job since many of the JAs haven't been put to use extensively enough to tell how effective they are. On top of that, no one really knows what equipment would make either job more effective at what they do. Also, I suspect people are trying to play these jobs as if they were any of the 20 previous jobs. That, in my view, might only serve to add to confusion and misinformation (Think back to the introduction of SCH and PUP, though S-E had more than a small hand in the latter debacle). I personally have no intention of leveling either job until more information comes in as to their functions in battle and the effective uses of their abilities and spells.

The puppet master is just that... a puppet master ... a jester the joker... think back like old school dragon warrior a tad skillful in everything! as for sch well helix and storms play an integral part in it's spell casting but i never see alot of schs bother with storms.... maybe they might use them more often in audolin... it might be useful.. as for geo it's usefulness might be in how effective the plaer is at playing the job.. it is obvious it has some powerful elemental spells... i cant wait until i get SoA so i can try Geo out a bit inbetween exploring ulbaka

[Sparthos]

this just got lot of potential it just it only been about 2-3 days since the job came out and got rushed to 99. you forgot how it was when pup,sch when it first came out. lot potential and over time it got updated. geo got lot unique things about it. as lvl 25 with cap skill. pting in Kazham having geo-regen 7/tick at the camp was useful imo. with the Indi-Poison aura. i can see this job being epic later on just like how i called out sch and pup, give it some time and you will see

And this excuse works where? There is a clear pattern in FFXI that jobs that launch poorly stay that way for years and I doubt GEO will be any different if what's coming down the pipes is true barring any surprises.

SAM launched well, always had room in the DD pissing contest even though it lacked many JAs and had an embarassing level span where the "master of skillchains" couldn't create a light skillchain. Improvements to SAM have only turned the job into the go-to source of envy for the base as SE has piled improvement upon improvement to the class.

NIN started out without a purpose but with the tools given was morphed from a pulling type THF variant into a full blown DD / tank. Tools like Blade: Jin, SEs underestimation of how widespread blinks would be applied and Dual Wield being able to bring delay down to impressive levels set NIN ahead of the pack.

DRG started off with a crippling 2hr issue and an inability to keep up with the other DD relegating it to the lolDRG status it had for years. Even with numerous improvements DRG still cannot shake the inadequacy complex that surrounds the job barring the Mythic which seems to turn peoples legs into jelly.

BLU launched well, improved over time and got huge improvements from Abyssea onward. Though spells lacked on high level targets BLU came out of the gate with potent spells like Actinic Burst, Disseverment, Head Butt, Cannonball, Vertical Cleave and Regurgitation - spells that all do unique things.

COR had viability from launch and improvements only cemented the job as competition for BRD as the DD variant to the support oriented BRD. JP have disagreed since time immemorial on the DD applications of Corsair but what do they know? A Quick Quick Draw change to Light/Dark shot to Sleep/Dispel was useful too.

PUP is PUP. Horrible job, stayed horrible for years and only recently (Abyssea onward) got the attention it needed. C h2h, 20mins on your jobs calling card and a mess of AI issues relegated PUP to the fecal matter of Vana'diels job list.

SCH launched with issues and has been plagued with them ever since. Even with the quick Addenda improvements the job has always had issues being different from WHM, RDM, and BLM. In recent years as RDM has slipped, SCH has taken its place as the 3rd mage in the trinity however this was more due to Embrava which as we see was quickly shut down. SCH was always designed as a subjob and on that front it changed things but SCH main? Issues.

DNC? Quickly relegated to the solo circuit even with the impressive Haste Samba at its disposal. Though the potential DD possibilities of the job have been demonstrated over the years because of the weak launch and relative inflexibility of the healing Waltzes, the job has been carted off to the side for jobs that can heal quicker, without huge TP costs without needing to engage.

GEO not being viable from the launch sets it on the path of PUP barring any major errors in observation which does not speak well for where this job will be nevermind 6months down the road but years from now.

[Alhanelem]

PUPs road to being decent was a lot more gradual than you let on, but otherwise its mostly accurate. PUP is thoroughly viable now but in a manner similar to DRG will probably never fully recover from its stigma.

I think GEO is probably being sold a little short, but nobody really wants to be the guinea pig- the total cost for all the scrolls from the vendors is over 8 mil and you'll probably only use a handful of them.

[leorez]

PUPs road to being decent was a lot more gradual than you let on, but otherwise its mostly accurate. PUP is thoroughly viable now but in a manner similar to DRG will probably never fully recover from its stigma.

I think GEO is probably being sold a little short, but nobody really wants to be the guinea pig- the total cost for all the scrolls from the vendors is over 8 mil and you'll probably only use a handful of them.

after seeing those NPC spell number i got a shiver down my spine. After all these years do they not yet get that they should be at least mildly affordable. Not everyone is walking around with double digit mils in their pockets.

[Sparthos]

PUPs road to being decent was a lot more gradual than you let on, but otherwise its mostly accurate. PUP is thoroughly viable now but in a manner similar to DRG will probably never fully recover from its stigma.


Road to being decent? Having leveled PUP in the thick of that nightmare, the improvements to PUP didn't come for a long time after its launch. Sure, there were attachments that improved PUPs viability... at EXP level content but SE was sure to put that behind The Ashu Talif - an extremely obscure BCNM that few people ran. The crippling H2H issues were fixed a bit by being given Stringing Pummel but there was a long time where the best PUP could do is Dragon Kick or more importantly the improved Howling Fist but PUP still boasted mage-level combat skills in an era where even A+ DD wouldbe calling upon sushi depending on scenario.

Dynamis brought better AF equipment but still most of it was situational and in no way near as useful as what BLU or COR was getting. BLU started off on Homam, a fantastic melee set for its day on day 1 and quickly found itself on numerous leather sets while also straddling mage gear. What did PUP get? Usukane at the peak of its rarity and Pahluhan gear which was expensive and required mastery of Assault missions to amass enough points to purchase it. PUPs AH DD gear choices were horrible, the backpiece issues still bother me to this day (no Amemet+1 for you!) and overall you had to put so much effort into PUP to make it workable.

That doesn't even get to the rage inducing feeling when you call your Automaton, an Imp decides to amnesia you then unleash AOE attacks on your pet killing it and having you waiting on a 20min timer. Thanks SE, I always wanted to play Puppetmaster without an automaton 90% of the time because the thing falls over in a light breeze.

Now Abyssea fixed alot of these issues with massive improvements to gear selection, the rightful combat skill improvements adjustment, deus ex machina, the increase to skill gain for PUP, haste gear, better oils, the maintenance JA, weapons equal to MNK, better weaponskills for the automaton and the crucial AI adjustments but that was YEARS after the job launched and even today PUP is still relegated to the sidelines because the puppet is weak, still dies too fast, JA delay hobbles the master and what is brought to the table can be done better by others.

I stand by statement that PUP flailed around in its own feces for a long time only to get radical adjustments in the Abyssean era. Almost everything attributed to "todays PUP" is a result of the 75-99 circuit.

[Luvbunny]

Totally agree with what you said. Sadly this new turns of events and ideas are just plain terrible. I think they ran out of ideas, and instead of improving the original 20 jobs - they decided to create 2 new hybrid jobs that could have been an improved version of RDM, and spread the Geo spells to SCH, BRD and COR. It's safe to say that after seeing how disappointing the new expansion is, we can all take a year or two break until all adjustments have been made and we get a good amount of missions to complete. Already canceled my subscription, enjoy the game for the rest of you :)

[MarkovChain]

You are completely right on PUP. It's not the only job that failed though. COR is pretty baddly ranked because you never think of bringing it prior to considering DD1 DD2 WHM BRD THF. Some job have been used because of their 2H and not for their existence as such. COR was overely abused to reset 2H (level 5! smn burn, ADL, nyzul..), SMN exclusively used for PD, SCH (nearly) exclusively used for embrava... then nerfed lol, and so on. I forgot DNC, I have no idea why you would bring one in any event unless maybe you didn't find a mnk or a war to do the job.

Also I have serious doubt about RUN to be any good, because the idea of magic tank sounds bad even before it was introduced a few days ago. They already indirectly admitted that PLD would take less damage anyway, so why bother again ? If anything the ratio formulas change is making PLD twice better than RUN. Why should we use jobs that suck again ?

[Hashmalum]

If Geomancer is to buff front line jobs by standing near them, it needs some enhanced survivability compared to most mage jobs. A job trait that would reduce damage from AoE attacks would seem fitting--area damage is GEO's "thing", it would help when buffing front line jobs, but wouldn't allow GEO to tank.

[Kaisha]

SCH launched with issues and has been plagued with them ever since. Even with the quick Addenda improvements the job has always had issues being different from WHM, RDM, and BLM.
A year in from SCH's release, the job was better than BLM in pretty much every situation that didn't need GA3 nukes.

Granted, as soon as Abyssea came out and gave BLM some insane nuking power along with a free 25% FastCast on nukes at 90, things changed.

[JouriStarz]

I don't get why people think they should be able to cast more than two buffs, Cor and Brd both only are allowed two unless there's more than one in the party which is the same for Geo anyway.

[Sparthos]

I don't get why people think they should be able to cast more than two buffs, Cor and Brd both only are allowed two unless there's more than one in the party which is the same for Geo anyway.

Corsair can put up 4 buffs (2 rolls on backline, 2 rolls on frontline), Corsair can now maintain at least 2 XI rolls thanks to adjustments, BRD can put up as many buffs as Pianissimo can allow and fulltime 3 songs with a 90 emp or 4 songs with a 99.

[Imakun]

I can easily see a SCH-esque revival for GEO in the near future.
But I think the problem with Geomancer lies within the nature of the job (pun not intended). Do we need really need what is basically an MP based Corsair with weird mechanics right now?
Answer is no, we don't. The only solution I can see, along with an overhaul like the one SCH received, is to create events in which we can use GEO's costant buffs. Which would basically mean slower battles with less "YOU DEAD!" moves and everything that comes with them.

The expansion is only a few days old, and SoA is not an add-on like ACP, ASA, AMKd'E and Abyssea were. It takes time to build up and show what it really is about.
We just got to Adoulin's door, what's behind it.. we have no idea.

[Hawklaser]

Well, while being bored and skilling up geomancy and handbell skills, I did some google translates on a couple of Community reps replys in the Japanse Geomancer forum. And something interesting is that Geomancers debuffs look to be meant to stack with normal debuffs. Might not be enough to get Geo a slot, but it would help once things get worked out.

[Alhanelem]

both buffs and debuffs form geo stack with non-geo buffs of the same kind. Even though the icons are the same, you'll see the descriptions are different and you can see two MP icons for refresh + geo refresh for instance.

[Hawklaser]

The Buff stacking is easy to find out about, all it takes is book regen + indi-regen to find that out. Debuffs are a bit harder to find out about outside of the various PvP events, and not everyone partakes in those, especially when there is new content around.

[Elexia]

I can easily see a SCH-esque revival for GEO in the near future.
But I think the problem with Geomancer lies within the nature of the job (pun not intended). Do we need really need what is basically an MP based Corsair with weird mechanics right now?
Answer is no, we don't. The only solution I can see, along with an overhaul like the one SCH received, is to create events in which we can use GEO's costant buffs. Which would basically mean slower battles with less "YOU DEAD!" moves and everything that comes with them.

The expansion is only a few days old, and SoA is not an add-on like ACP, ASA, AMKd'E and Abyssea were. It takes time to build up and show what it really is about.
We just got to Adoulin's door, what's behind it.. we have no idea.

To be fair, a lot of people forgot how real Expansions were given the design of "expansion packs" in other MMORPGs nowadays.

[SpankWustler]

I don't get why people think they should be able to cast more than two buffs, Cor and Brd both only are allowed two unless there's more than one in the party which is the same for Geo anyway.

In addition to this:


Corsair can put up 4 buffs (2 rolls on backline, 2 rolls on frontline), Corsair can now maintain at least 2 XI rolls thanks to adjustments, BRD can put up as many buffs as Pianissimo can allow and fulltime 3 songs with a 90 emp or 4 songs with a 99.

There's the matter that Bard and Corsair are both capable of switching parties in normal alliance settings. Geomancer is not.

Also, here's a look at the potency of some of Geomancer's buffs:


675 combined:

4MP/tick
30HP/tick
19STR
11.5% Attack
15.7% Defense

The Attack and Defense from Fury/Barrier is the base %, so if you have Berserk on it wont take that as your floor value, it's the before other buffs are added value. Pretty much the same as Chaos Roll.

Something definitely needs to be done about Geomancer's buffs, or the job's only hope is that its Defense Down effects make the job worth using for some activities.

[Alhanelem]

There's a number of interesting (and just plain weird) things people are finding:

-Opposite effects that can't usually coexist can with geomancy- an enemy can be hasted and slowed at the same time, you can have attack up and attack down at the same time, int up and int down, flee and gravity, etc.

-geomancy effects stack with otherwise identical effects. You can have normal poison and geo-poison on the same target, slow and geo-slow, etc. This was tested in ballista and opponents would have status effects for both spells.

(This means Slow II, Geo-Slow, and Elegy all stack. Pretty comfy window for casting utsusemi or any other spell :p )

-the geomancy debuffs do not seem to be resistable- a pretty good payoff for them being immobile, expensive, and a relatively small radius.

-A friend and I came up with an idea (we aren't able to test it yet) based on this: Have a group of geomancers make a circle of Geo-gravity bubbles, through which you could kite literally any monster. you can also pretty severly weaken a mob with multiple debuff effects in the same location.

The main advantages GEO has are thus in TL:DR format:

-Geo effects stack with identical non-geomancer effects, and these effects are not readily resistable.

GEO seems in a much better position to be a debuffer than a buffer, though many of the buffs are able to synergize with the debuffs, e.g. attack up on party, defense down on enemy.

But despite there being gravity, there's no movement speed up, and despite slow, no haste.

[Luvbunny]

So basically grab a ton of mobs to a group of Geo for the deathly bubbles, and have your AOE melee whack em all to death. Probably good for Einherjar :) or the new fell cleave in abysea hah ha hah.

[SpankWustler]

GEO seems in a much better position to be a debuffer than a buffer, though many of the buffs are able to synergize with the debuffs, e.g. attack up on party, defense down on enemy.

The enfeebling effects are definitely Geomancer's strong point right now.

Due to how small the spheres are at this moment, I imagine the general best course of action being to either just apply two enfeebling effects or stand by other mages and use Indi-Refresh. Either of these would circumvent both clumping all the melee together in a tiny area of effect and requiring the melee to be in the party with a Geomancer in an alliance setting.

[Gundisalvus]

The Buff stacking is easy to find out about, all it takes is book regen + indi-regen to find that out. Debuffs are a bit harder to find out about outside of the various PvP events, and not everyone partakes in those, especially when there is new content around.

I've been playing the Geomancer for a couple days now. I discovered that the debuff Indi and Geo spells do stack. My old man and I tested it on an Orc in Ghelsba Outpost. We used Indi-Poison and Geo-Poison at the same time and it annihilated the Orc. While doing research at capped skill level on both Handbell and Geomancy you can get up to 60 dmg/tick running both debuffs

[Covenant]

I'd prefer two things...

A/ Lupon behave somewhat like a "pet" that is follow you and commandable "stay/target". In abyseea not to much of a problem leading a bunch of mobs in field effect..but playing solo(Im lvl 16)... it 's a pain in the butt to run mobs over to your circle. yes, I know "full circle" and recast...but it's a long casting and im lazy. The mobs in regular field are much more dispersed.

B/ Lupon gain effect over time...for example, much like avatars "aura" effects. I know summoners are gonna hate that one(btw, Im a summoner also).

[Delvish]

I've been playing the Geomancer for a couple days now. I discovered that the debuff Indi and Geo spells do stack. My old man and I tested it on an Orc in Ghelsba Outpost. We used Indi-Poison and Geo-Poison at the same time and it annihilated the Orc. While doing research at capped skill level on both Handbell and Geomancy you can get up to 60 dmg/tick running both debuffs

So the debuff spells stack but the buffs do not? I must admit to some skepticism.


I'd prefer two things...

A/ Lupon behave somewhat like a "pet" that is follow you and commandable "stay/target". In abyseea not to much of a problem leading a bunch of mobs in field effect..but playing solo(Im lvl 16)... it 's a pain in the butt to run mobs over to your circle. yes, I know "full circle" and recast...but it's a long casting and im lazy. The mobs in regular field are much more dispersed.

B/ Lupon gain effect over time...for example, much like avatars "aura" effects. I know summoners are gonna hate that one(btw, Im a summoner also).

Do yourself a favor and "Full Circle" - Recast on each mob. Every time you do you get a chance to skill up and believe me, skill-ups are your best friend. Also, invest in some MP+ and/or Refresh gear. GEO spells cost a lot of MP (Particularly the indi/geo-refresh spells that are ridiculously inefficient without multiple mages)