Gain spells.

Okay decided after hearing things about enhancing magic's affect on gain spells, and the projected enhancing skill gain for levels 91-99, as well as current gear options.

Base skill:
341= +9 to stat
+16 (max enhancing merits)
357= +10 to stat
+15 (Warlock pants)
373= +12 to stat
+15 (duelist's gloves)
388= +13 to stat
+15 (estoqueur's boots+2)
403= +15 to stat
+6 (estoqueur's cape
+3 (Fulcio grip)
412= +16 to stat
+7 enhancing torque
+3 augmenting earing
422= +17 to stat
+3 cascade bekt
+12 Anhur robe
437= +18 to stat

Thats every piece of +enhancing skill gear at max potency rdm can wear, and tack on the skill we get from levelups, i heard its +7 to each level so...

437= +18 to stat
+35 (7 skill x 5 levels)
472= +22 to stats
+28 (7 skill x 5 levels)
500= +25 to stats

so squeezing out every piece of enhancing skill gear (currently) we will be able to juuuuust hit 500 skill, if no other enhancing skill gear is added, or if there arent any augmentable pieces i dont know about. I think thats pretty nifty, but ill be closer to the 480ish skill area personally.

Wish RDM could use Kirins Pole. I augmented one the other day with +11 Enhancing Skill. In any case I can see this being a potential win when we get Gain-INT. Too bad all of these spells are wasted because they're self-cast, otherwise they could be so win if we could cast on others in party for low man stuff. Give a NIN +25AGI or a THF+25DEX or give a BLM+25 INT. RDM has the highest Enhancing but it's ironic that all of our good enhancing spells that RELY on enhancing skill are self cast(except 1 merit spell)

Well since a lot think we should be nuking or enfeebling more, we can stack some more INT or MND on ourselves for potency/resist issues, as well as if chosing to melee, +25 to a stat is substantial when it comes to WS time. Dunno how the brd etudes work compared to this in potency, but i still find it handy for my rdm.

+20~25 STR owns for 1H period. That is an addition 4~5 base DMG anywhere your not capping fSTR, and the additional attack is always welcome. +20~25 DEX ends up being anywhere from +2% (really low dDEX) to +11% (just hitting capped dDEX) crit rate, also its additional 10~12 accuracy.

Of course for mage mode we get 20~25 MND or INT, makes hitting dMND cap easier and boosts the damage / accuracy of nukes.

Gain spells are definitely NOT a waste, if you want to cast them on other people go play WHM, they get the aoe versions that work EXACTLY like ours do, except their aoe (and honestly I rarely see WHM casting them, kinda sad). They allow a RDM to tailor our stats to whatever task we're working on. Be that mage mode or melee mode stuff.

How would RDM/dark work then? Does one overwrite the other? Gain/absorb? And absorb tends to do +20 or so. Would they stack then for +40?

Absorbs are subject to resist rates based on dark skill (E for Rdm), and unless I missed something decay very quickly.

I've never bothered to test that actually. Next time I'm in I'll go see if Absorb-MND overwrites Gain-MND. Honestly considering how short lived Absorb spells tend to be, I'd prefer to have my Gain effect stay on.