New Enfeebles

Funny thing on lowering stats is that you can already do it without Impact or new spells, /DRK.

RDM has a native Dark magic stat, so you can land Absorb spells on most mobs. If you are looking to buff/debuff better and melee better as a RDM, I would advise you to try it. You even get all the WSs and drain/aspir/stun/abs-TP.

Merged Enfeebles. Sure, it's something we already have and would like to do better. It's like double cast or XMAGIC, so I can understand it as part of RDM.

Enspell 3s that do more damage and debuff elemental resistances even more, yes please. And better on hit animations would be amazing.

Also, I know some people get super jealous of BLU on this forum, but don't. My roommate plays BLU and we work well as a team. All of his debuffs and my debuffs stack. He brings his own refresh and haste, so I don't have to spend time buffing him. Also he can self skill chain and I have a magic burst bonus...figure it out.

Problem with /DRK is our native Dark Magic skill is not great, Absorbs decay over time, and our skill will likely lead to most being half-resisted even on EXP mobs. So starting at like 6-10 of a stat and it going down isn't going to change a whole hell of a lot, and even DRK mains rarely cast them for that reason despite more accuracy behind it.

I've done /DRK on my RDM almost the entire way this time around. Drain and Aspir are generally resisted somewhat even at cap, but the Absorb Spells are far more generous. From my experience the absorbs either are fully resisted or you get +20 to stats. I do have +Dark Magic macro'd into every spell I cast though.

I, personally, would trade my Healing magic C- for my Dark Magic E.

Most DRK don't cast magic because they don't think of themselves as casters, only DD. So debuffing a mob with absorb-VIT at the beginning of a fight doesn't occur to them, because that is the caster's job.

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Originally Posted by ManaKing

I've done /DRK on my RDM almost the entire way this time around. Drain and Aspir are generally resisted somewhat even at cap, but the Absorb Spells are far more generous. From my experience the absorbs either are fully resisted or you get +20 to stats. I do have +Dark Magic macro'd into every spell I cast though.

I, personally, would trade my Healing magic C- for my Dark Magic E.

Most DRK don't cast magic because they don't think of themselves as casters, only DD. So debuffing a mob with absorb-VIT at the beginning of a fight doesn't occur to them, because that is the caster's job.

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Darks don't cast them because the 4 secs it takes to cast the spell and finish casting is 4 secs that they aren't swinging their scythe. This is especially big with higher haste values ESPECIALLY with their new LR buff.

Lowering attributes a lot of the time doesn't really do that much for a Drk since, inside abyssea at least, their dStr is likely to be capped anyway.

Not to mention they decay over time making it a lot harder for your party to benefit from the already small window that your party has to make up the 500 ish damage the Drk has to sacrifice from is missed swinging.

That and while Absorb Vit may sound good since it affects your entire party it misses a major factor. WS mods. Lowing a monsters stats doesn't really affect the players WS mods in the slightest. It almost might be better to Abs Str so while only you may gain the benefit your WSs will also increase by a decent chunk.

That's not to say they are worthless though. I recently picked up Abs Int from the AH because let's face it. For nukes and Sanquine blade which check against the same stat you are absorbing (unlike physical DD which checks against 2 different stats) getting +20 for yourself and the monster losing -20 is a pretty big swing. Especially for Sanguine Blade which would give it at minimum an additional 80 damage.

(though if you are in a position where you are needed sanguine blade because of the HP recovered I find it hard to justify /drk over /blu for cocoon)

If you are in a pulling party, I don't see why you can't cast Abs-Vit at the beginning. It helps everyone. Outside of that situation I agree with everything you said.

I <3 DRK, that's why I'm /DRK. I use Abs-Str and LR before every Vorpal Blade and it adds a lot of consistency to my damage. Pop SE and I hit for well over 1k.

I'm not advocating RDM/DRK as some amazing class combination, I'm just pointing out that new enfeebles for RDM that reduce stats is neglecting what you can already do if you choose to do it. If you want new enfeebles, at least make them new. (Break could use a buff before we need new ones as well. It is very disappointing.)

You should get a Sanquine Set and use Abs Int.

Rdm has the potential to make Sanguine hit quite a bit harder then vorpal. Especially in areas with double dark weather like WoE or Dyna.