Scholar Genkai 5

[Saefinn]

Hey folks,

I'm going to fight Gunther for my Genkai 5 and so far have died twice. First time I thought I'd nuke the hell out of him, second time I cast Dispel first hoping to knock off his Shell III (but took off his Regen instead), so it's more or less luck on that front. I found my Stone IV this time round only took off 231hp, which is considerably less than it should be - normally I hit mobs around my level (and higher) for 600-800hp (depending on their resistance) with Stone IV. First time round, my Stone IV hit for about 400hp.

Has anybody got any advice on what I should be doing to beat him? Because I clearly suck at this. :)

[Edit]
Current Set up is:
Main - Elemental Staves
Sub - Earth Grip (Converts 20HP to MP, Earth Elemental Accuracy +2)
Hat - Scholar's
Body - Scholar's
Hands - Scholar's
Legs - Scholar's
Feet - Scholar's
Neck - Scholar's
Rings - Electrum Ring x2 (HP-20, MP+20 each)
Earrings - Star Earring (MP+20 MND+2 Fire+11, Water+11), Magician's Earring (MP+30)
Waist - Qiqirn Sash (MP+12, MP whilst recovering + 2)
Back - Red Cape (INT+2, MND+2)
Ammo - Phantom Tathlum (MP+10, INT+2)

I suspect I'll need more INT gear.

[Delvish]

It is good that you have Elemental Staves, that is a start.
Earth Grip also helps if you are casting Earth spells at your level, but an INT grip wouldn't hurt either.
A lot of your SCH AF gear really isn't that good for actual playing in. I'd recommend spending a lot of time in Campaign and getting some of the lvl 68 Cobra gear from the past. They have some decent nuking pieces. Just compare and contrast to see which you'd rather have. Also, you'll probably need some help but Vicious Mufflers from the past are nice too.
Sell those rings and get some INT/MND rings. Of course, INT for nuking/enfeebling and MND for healing/enhancing. SCH is too MP efficient to need to focus on MP+ gear. The same goes for Earrings. There is an NM that drops a really good nuking earring. Moldavite Earring.
Waist is ok, might be able to find something else.
Good job on the back piece. +1 if possible, but at this point you've got an upgrade coming soon anyway.
You've got the right idea on the Tathlum. Could replace it with a Sturm's Report, but that is more MACC than INT.


Ultimately what you're looking for in a Nuke set is Magic Attack Bonus > Int > Magic Accessory > MP. Also, make sure you are casting Sandstorm and Klimaform prior to nuking him if you get the chance (I don't know what you have time to do, never did the fight but this is just standard stuff to look into). Don't forget Tabula Rasa. Make a macro that activates all your stratagems at once (Parsimony, /wait 1, Alacrity, /wait 1, Ebullience).

Overall path of the fight:


Cast your standard buffs + Hailstorm and Klimaform. Klimaform has a very short duration when compared to its recast so make sure it is the last spell you cast and you are doing Step 2 immediately afterwards.
When you engage, start out with Ebullience + Cryohelix (or dispel, then helix) with the ice staff equipped. Hopefully the fight doesn't take 1 min, but the extra damage while you do certainly helps.
Quickly switch back to Sandstorm once you finish casting helix and activate Tabula Rasa.
Use your Stratagem spam macro and spam your strongest spells! Since you have Sandstorm up, it might just be beneficial to spam Stone III and IV.
Cure and debuff as necessary.

Macros are your friend.

[Mezzopiano]

I didn't finish this fight until I was 77, so I'm not sure how much help this will be, but...

Are you aiming for Schultz or the Grimoire first? The book is the bigger threat of the two, but it doesn't need to be killed to win. Whichever you pick, you have to finish it off fast or that grimoire will destroy you. I wouldn't bother with helices or switching storm spells mid-battle. Just put either Hail or Sandstorm + Klimaform up, and spam Alacrity and Ebullience and nuke as fast as you can.

Also, I should probably note that I did this fight before SCH got Blink and Stoneskin from main, so you should have more survivability than I did.

[Saefinn]

Thanks for the advice.

I didn't think to upgrade my armour as the bonuses the SCH armour offer sound attractive as they support your JAs, but I will hang out in the past to try and upgrade my armour. Fair point on the MP, I keep it up, so last longer without having to use sublimation, but then it's there to be used and the space could be used for better boosts. As far as time goes, I get plenty of time to buff, but in that period I'm buffing, so's he.

Blink and Stoneskin do offer more survivability and actually led me thinking in my first time round, "Oh my God, I'm actually going to do this", to find once they wore off, I didn't stand much of a chance. It'd be nice to be able to nuke hard within that window, so I don't have to cast stoneskin again. Blink I felt was a little pointless, because of the Grimoire, it'd be nice if one of my shadows would take a tier III nuke or two, but so far it has been the Grimoire's quick melee attacks that brought it down, very quickly too. I've not tried killing the Grimoire, perhaps I shouldn't underestimate it, like some Goblin and his pet, maybe next time I'll see how much of a difference it makes. I'll probably get one of my other jobs to 70 (DRK63 and COR57) to make farming the testimony easier so I can try more than one tactic.


As a question, what are my chances of sleep nuking him? It's how I increase my survivability on normal mobs, I figure sublimation would be a pain for casting sleep, but I wonder if I could land sleep, take out the Grimoire then proceed to sleep nuke him. Or just sleep the Grimoire and nuke the hell out of him.

Anyway, cheers

[Tohihroyu]

The elemental grips are useless, go with a Bugard Leather Strap+1 also stats are more important then your MP pool.
Don't waste time trying to sleep him, take him down before he has a chance to cast shell on himself! if he casted other buffs before Shell you are SCREWED the chances of dispelling Shell over Regen or Protect is SLIM)

This is what I used as a Galka Scholar (Results WILL vary!! Gunther's A.I. is RANDOM) Got win in less then a min. I did the Ingnore the Grimoire strat. (Also used a Blink band)
Food- Cream Puff INT+7 HP-10
Main - HQ Elemental Staves (Terra's Staff & Aquilo's Staff)
Sub - Bugard Leather Strap +1 (MP+10 INT+1 MND+1 CHR+1)
Hat - Scholar's
Body - Scholar's
Hands - Scholar's
Legs - Druid's slops (Healing magic skill +5 Elemental magic skill +5)
Feet - Scholar's
Neck - Enlightened Chain (INT+3 MND+2)
Rings - Genius Ring (INT+4) & Serket Ring (50hp to MP...oi I'm a Galka cut me some slack!)
Earrings - Phantom Earring (MP+8 INT+1) & Moldavite Earring ("Magic Atk. Bonus"+5)
Waist - Penitent's Rope (HP-20 INT+5 MND+5 Enmity-3)
Back - Red Cape +1 (INT+3 MND+3)
Ammo - Phantom Tathlum (MP+10, INT+2)

Video proof: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKYbXLJ3x-c

[Mezzopiano]

As far as I know, Sleep doesn't work on either Schultz or the Grimoire. If you can take out the book in ~2 nukes, you should have a much easier fight, since Schultz doesn't melee you. On the other hand, it absorbs a random element, so there's some serious risk in that approach.

If all else fails, you can always break 70 cap on another job and come back when you're high enough to one-shot the thing.

[Saefinn]

Nice victory on the video, you all make it look so easy. :D But I see you didn't waste time on buffs and pretty much ran in and took him down. You were hitting do 400+ so as long as I can do that and go through my macros quickly enough, theoretically I ought to destroy him. :) I'll probably seek to upgrade my staves for the HQ ones as well - probably time to sell some gear, do an RJ run and some farming, allowing myself to get distracted by COR (unlocked it a week ago) has eaten up a lot of my gil.


As for trying another job, if it works out to be too difficult, then perhaps, but then it's fairly normal to fail G5 the first few times, so I've just got to keep trying.


Cheers.

[Rambus]

It is good that you have Elemental Staves, that is a start.
Earth Grip also helps if you are casting Earth spells at your level, but an INT grip wouldn't hurt either.
A lot of your SCH AF gear really isn't that good for actual playing in. I'd recommend spending a lot of time in Campaign and getting some of the lvl 68 Cobra gear from the past. They have some decent nuking pieces. Just compare and contrast to see which you'd rather have. Also, you'll probably need some help but Vicious Mufflers from the past are nice too.
Sell those rings and get some INT/MND rings. Of course, INT for nuking/enfeebling and MND for healing/enhancing. SCH is too MP efficient to need to focus on MP+ gear. The same goes for Earrings. There is an NM that drops a really good nuking earring. Moldavite Earring.
Waist is ok, might be able to find something else.
Good job on the back piece. +1 if possible, but at this point you've got an upgrade coming soon anyway.
You've got the right idea on the Tathlum. Could replace it with a Sturm's Report, but that is more MACC than INT.


Ultimately what you're looking for in a Nuke set is Magic Attack Bonus > Int > Magic Accessory > MP. Also, make sure you are casting Sandstorm and Klimaform prior to nuking him if you get the chance (I don't know what you have time to do, never did the fight but this is just standard stuff to look into). Don't forget Tabula Rasa. Make a macro that activates all your stratagems at once (Parsimony, /wait 1, Alacrity, /wait 1, Ebullience).

Overall path of the fight:


Cast your standard buffs + Hailstorm and Klimaform. Klimaform has a very short duration when compared to its recast so make sure it is the last spell you cast and you are doing Step 2 immediately afterwards.
When you engage, start out with Ebullience + Cryohelix (or dispel, then helix) with the ice staff equipped. Hopefully the fight doesn't take 1 min, but the extra damage while you do certainly helps.
Quickly switch back to Sandstorm once you finish casting helix and activate Tabula Rasa.
Use your Stratagem spam macro and spam your strongest spells! Since you have Sandstorm up, it might just be beneficial to spam Stone III and IV.
Cure and debuff as necessary.

Macros are your friend.

earing link:
http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Moldavite_Earring

last you a long,long time.

only replace if you have 6 mab earing from abyssea/ novio or the past pair 5 MAB earings, but you must brake the pair if you get the abyssea earing

sometimes x amount of INT > x amount of MAB but I cannot really tell you without knowing spell and gear.

at the level you need this fight though MAB > int for damage should be correct.

loose mp gear, vary rare any mage job uses mp gear, even SMN is getting more options of stat + stuff now.

the only real value MP+ gives you is that first start nuke, at 90 though I love someone to squeese such a set with 80 inv slots lol

http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Penitent%27s_Rope
that is still a good waist because of mind/ int and -emn, good all purpose, there is +7 belts now ( not at G5 level though, level 80) but no -emn.
http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Cognition_Belt

the only af you should be using at that level is hat, body can be agured, I do not know what resist rate is like without merits. body upgrade is only 2 int though.

I looked up Cobra since i was 75 on all mage jobs when it came out and all i have to say is wow at body:

http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Cobra_Robe

that is more damage then af, so loose af body if you can deal full damage ( not need + ele skill)
HQ vs NQ staff will pad your acc, that’s the other thing, not only did i have merits while leveling sch I had HQ staffs so resists/ magic partial misses, was not an issue for me.

[Tohihroyu]

@ Rambus I really *really* want that set but its a little hard soloing mobs to get loads of exp/AN as a 73 SCH, if it where somehow possible to "share" AN with same id's it'd be way easier (though Tohi is just as low on AN >.> sooo...)

Yeah heh XD sorry if it seemed like I was showing off, but I was lucky that time all Gunther did was Regen, Regen the book & Protect the book, I left him zero time to even cast shell on himself or the book. Also as started in the description I had elemental magic capped for 70, I just soloed the rng rats while in the blu Pool to cap it. they don't get in melee range of you but if you don't like to take chances then do sleep nuke or bind nuke, if you get links (like with non rng) just run though the water.

[Saefinn]

Nah, it's helpful - I saw other videos use the buff route, but I'll give it a shot your way and see if I'm more successful. ;) I can see myself spending a LOT of time getting the Cobra stuff, as nice as it all is, I think I'll get the Moldy earring (if people don't steal my mob this time) and the best INT+ and Mag ATT+ equip I can get my mitts on.

[Rambus]

@ Rambus I really *really* want that set but its a little hard soloing mobs to get loads of exp/AN as a 73 SCH, if it where somehow possible to "share" AN with same id's it'd be way easier (though Tohi is just as low on AN >.> sooo...)

Yeah heh XD sorry if it seemed like I was showing off, but I was lucky that time all Gunther did was Regen, Regen the book & Protect the book, I left him zero time to even cast shell on himself or the book. Also as started in the description I had elemental magic capped for 70, I just soloed the rng rats while in the blu Pool to cap it. they don't get in melee range of you but if you don't like to take chances then do sleep nuke or bind nuke, if you get links (like with non rng) just run though the water.

73? i was making quote on gear 70 and lower, if you are 73 get into abyssea, get 90 get some seals and get gear that creams that stuff XD.

anyways SCH is one of my higher AN jobs, cast a few nukes, buff and cure your self, use spirt taker when possable, eat hp max item/ mp max item, tp wing, though all those temsp may not be for you, i just spam them cuz i can

[Delvish]

SCH is actually pretty easy to do if you don't mind dieing a few times. Manifestation and Accession is your friend since you can cure EVERYONE in a very small area if you cast it on an NPC. Same thing with Manifestation though good luck landing, Bindga, drainga, aspirga, Graviga, and select others. You'll die pretty quickly but it's fun enough~

You'll want to set your past nation to Windurst, but if nothing else focus on that Cobra coat. As far as nuking is concerned, it will last you until Teal Saio. It's 75k AN and Medal rank. After that, Feet are your safest bet at 50,000k AN.

[Tohihroyu]

73? i was making quote on gear 70 and lower, if you are 73 get into abyssea, get 90 get some seals and get gear that creams that stuff XD.

anyways SCH is one of my higher AN jobs, cast a few nukes, buff and cure your self, use spirt taker when possable, eat hp max item/ mp max item, tp wing, though all those temsp may not be for you, i just spam them cuz i can


I've taken him to some Dom ops, I got 2 seals out of the.. I don't remember how many I did with my ls.... drg for my main (thank you SE for allowing EX Dboxing soon) & then rdm, saving it just in case. Some seal nm's drop the sch seals along with drg or drk's I hold onto them till the update (so far none dropped :( ) I did recently get hold of the sch af3 feet...now I gotta save cucor & other things to get the rest *faints* I don't nessarly wanna "burn" to 90, I wanna cap skills (elemental & enfeebles mainly) on each level, it seems ether Abyssea mobs are way too high or I just had bad luck getting skill ups aside from healing or enhancing.

*cough* Maybe SE could make ...no that's impossible x_x though out of the mil+ cucor I have on main i'd like to send half of it over to my alt.

lol I lost count how many times I died from Accession Protect/Shell IV or accession Cure IV's. Funniest was spamming Paralyna-ra....pissed off the tigers sooo much they all rampaged after me XD

I'm 2 away from Medal of Altana on Main, Cuddle is stuck on Feast for Gnats to that medal is as high as he can get right now D:

[Saefinn]

I have kind of been putting this off for the last couple of weeks, partly to work on some of my other jobs and also to work on some RL stuff. I've been camping for Moldy earring, no success yet and getting the Cobra Unit Robe is making slow progress, but I suspect I can live without it, as much as I love Campaign (had an alliance running the other day would you believe? Contrary to some people's pessimism, Aby hasn't completely killed the game :)) Also, I love the AoE NPC trick, I just wish NPCs had a better AI and attacked the mobs my alliance were instead of standing in a stupid place doing nothing and not within a good AoE distance.

I re-attempted today with the current gear:

Main - Elem Staves
Sub - Bugard Leather Strap+1 (MP+ 10, INT+1, MND+1, CHR+1)
Ammo - Phantom Tathlum (MP+10, INT+2)
Hat - Scholar
Body - Scholar
Hands - Scholar
Legs - Scholar (waiting on the druids slops to appear in AH again)
Feet - Scholar
Neck - Enlightened Chain (INT+3, MND+2)
Waist - Penitent's Rope (HP-20, INT+5, MND+5, Emnity-3)
Back - Red Cape (INT+2, MND+2)
Rings - Wisdom Ring x2 (INT+3, Ice + 6, each)
Earring - Cunning Earring (INT+1), farming Moldy

That means I've got: +25 INT (+29 when using Ice Staff for Blizzard)

I found that I got his HP to half in two spells. Verdict: I'm not quick enough. My tactic was: Blink Band before entry, Stoneskin, Sublimation, Go in and nuke with Tabula Rasa up. Foolishly, I didn't hit Alacrity, which would have made all of the difference (panic I guess - I'll macro the stratagems together next time). My nukes were hitting harder this time, even though he still had Shell III (he cast it as I was casting stoneskin) I prolly should avoid stoneskin and sublimation, I don't know what possessed me to macro sublimation.

The Battle Plan is:

Before Battle -
Blink Band
During -
(Macros)
Dark Arts
Addendum: Black
Sandstorm + Klimaform
Parsimony + Alacrity + Ebullience + Stone IV (Earth Staff switch)
Tabula Rasa
Parsimony + Alacrity + Ebullience + Blizzard III (Ice Staff switch)
Parsimony + Alacrity + Ebullience + Thunder III(Thunder Staff switch)
Parsimony + Alacrity + Ebullience + Stone IV (Earth Staff switch)
Celebrate (maybe macro a little victory dance :p)

[Rambus]

Legs - Scholar (waiting on the druids slops to appear in AH again)


dont wait for gimp gear....

[Saefinn]

I finally beat him. It took me 14 tries. But thank you all for your advice. I'll go through my experience to offer lessons to anybody else who reads this thread that wants to do Scholar G5.

A portion of the losses were just down to error and sheer noobishness. Hitting the wrong macros, getting in a muddle and being a general failure at life and everything. E.G. I kept hitting my macro for 'Modus Veritas' instead of 'Tabula Rasa' then I realized I was hitting the macro, but it just wasted time, hence death. Timing was everything, the slightest thing that was wrong meant death, but once timing was right, all errors had been eliminated, my macros fine tuned and it felt actually quite easy, as though I should have done it first time round. But then, I took him down in 3 spells, so what's difficult about that? The work goes into the preparation.

All the gear in this thread is probably ideal, but this was my final setup:

Weapon - Elemental Staves NQ (1 HQ, Aquilo's Staff, INT+5, Wind + 20, Elem Mag Skill+ 10, Hidden Effect - Magic Affinity + 2)
Grip - Bugard Leather Stap + 1 (MP+10, INT+1, MND+1, CHR+1)
Ammo - Phantom Tathlum (MP+10, INT+2)
Head - Scholar's Mortarboard
Neck - Scholar's Torque (Mag Acc + 1, Mag Att. Bonus + 1) - I did nab a +3 INT chain, but took advice on Mag Att > INT
Ear - Cunning Earring
Body - Scholar's Gown
Hands - Scholar's Bracers
Rings - Wisdom Ring x2, (INT+3, Ice+6 each)
Back - Red Cape (INT+2, MND+2)
Waist - Penitent's Rope (HP-20, INT+5, MND+5, Enmity - 3)
Legs - Scholar's Pants
Feet - Scholar's Loafers

Cap without Dark/Light Arts is 201 (As a D Grade skill). Being close to the cap can make a difference enough to fail.

With my Elemental Magic Skill Capped:
My method was:
Blink Band
Enter
Shell III
Stoneskin
Aquaveil (one time, he interrupted my spell and it put me out and I died)
Regen II (Figured a little extra HP wouldn't go amiss once SS was down)
Dark Arts
Addendum: Black
Parsimony -> Alacrity -> Ebullience -> Earth Staff -> Stone IV (Hits for 384)
Tabula Rasa
Parsimony -> Alacrity -> Ebullience -> Aquilo's Staff (somebody loaned me one) -> Blizzard III (Hits for 338)
Parsimony -> Alacrity -> Ebullience -> Thunder Staff -> Thunder III (Hits for 337)
Schultz Defeated

My health ~75%

All Schultz had time for:
Shell III x 2
Protect IV x 2
Water III (Gunther)
Cryohelix (Grimoire - hits for 0 because of Stoneskin)
Stone III (Gunther)
With Grimoire meleeing throughout



A few things I noticed in my many failures:
Some folk have the misconception that Dark/Light Arts caps your skill, I was led into that misconception. It's not capped unless it's blue, even for SCH. It will seem like your skill ups don't affect your skill level in Dark/Light Arts, but they will increase the closer you get to cap. Mine was 237 under Dark/Light Arts, when capped they were iirc 248 - sure it doesn't look like a lot, but it seems to make enough of a difference.
Also: repeating spells makes them weak. I do not know why this happened, I figured it's that spell not landing properly, but it only seemed to happen to me when repeating a nuke, e.g. Stone IV - ~380, Thunder III ~ 330, Stone IV ~ 80 (that was what I got on try 12 and 13) so maybe Schultz builds up a resistance to them.

Items: A friend suggested I bring a Vile Elixir +1, which restores 50% HP and MP instantly without a medicated effect. I didn't use mine Vile Elixir +1, I found in the try I did use one, I was VERY close to winning (closer than previous attempts). It's probably good to carry and macro one just in case. The downside is, they go for between 60 and 70k on my server. I tried being a cheapskate, but a SQ Vile Elixir is not even worth the time it takes to use - tier III nukes can hit you quite hard.

Gunther sometimes casts Regen and I found that when he did it was a pain and I do remember in a couple of fights he had full health soon after I nuked him. Dispel might be useful, though he buffs on Protect IV and Shell III so you have 1/3 chance of removing it.

My method of not buffing (except the Blink Band before I went in) so he doesn't buff in hope to hit him harder doesn't work, he pretty much casts Shell III straight away and even with Alacrity, you're not going to beat the casting time of it.