Lets talk; Enhancing Magic renovations.

Just like the name implies, lets talk about changing some of the enhancing magic around. Its about time we got some of the old enhancing spells improved now yes? Also i invite all magic casting jobs to come in and voice their stances.

-Ahem-

Phalanx
-Improve the rate of growth of its damage reduction, possibly return it to its old growth patern based on enhancing skill? Otherwise, Not too bad.

Haste
-More or less good. Maybe lasting a little longer wouldnt hurt?

Protect/Shell
-Not too bad, especially shell, but couldnt hurt for a non-gear based buff, but i really dont see that happening.

Regen/Refresh
-Once again, not too bad, but active time needs to be lengthened some perhaps?

Aquaveil
-Already been renovated, and i love it!

Gain/Boost spells
-Decent enough with enough skill.

Enspells
-Potency buff, thats really all.

Stoneskin
-Here we go, its not too bad already but lets be real, who wouldnt want more potency?! I dont wanna say anything bad about cureskin, but i dont think it lasts long enough, so why not make accession stoneskin work better and longer? 500HP is a lot, but again we are getting to mobs that are just plain...well...cheating. Both gear and this improved scaling could be rather handy!

Blink
-More shadows. Even a shadow at 100 skill per shadow (starting from 200) wouldnt be too bad. That would mean 300 would be 3 shadows, 400 for 4 shadows, and 500 for 5 shadows.

Spike spells
-Wouldnt mind some damage buff, but not really too much a worry.

Adloq...regain.
-Either durration, or more handy, potency, perhaps enough skill raising it to 2/tick?

Anything i missed or anyone have other ideas?

I'd like to know how the hell you're casting Adloquium on Red Mage.

Last line of the first chunk of text is "I invite all magic casting jobs to come in and voice their opinions" or something to that effect, this is about enhancing magic as a whole, not just rdm. Course i didnt want to clutter up by posting in all the other mage boards, on the bard board, pld board, and if i posted it in the general thread it likely would have been moved. The topic is still quite relevent to red mage as a whole in either event.

Well, he didn't say Enhancing magic limited to RDMs. I doubt SCHs would complain much about Adlo being buffed, anyway. And, you know, "all mages welcome" and such. :P

As for spells, guess I'll go through the list and bounce some thoughts...

Phalanx: On top of the straight damage reduction, perhaps the addition of a -DT% relative to that amount could be added. So, if you have a 30 point Phalanx, you could also receive a -15% DT. As a result, a 1000 damage hit would do 820 damage instead of 970. Phalanx II, in turn, could receive a stronger -DT% effect, maybe 3/4 the amount mitigated.

Haste: I know some want a Haste II, and in general, I've been against it for reasons of backline pigeonholing. At the very least, I'd be okay with 5m minimum durations on enhancing spells. If SE wants to add a Haste II that's the same potency, but now with Fast Cast on top? Fine with me. Quick Cast, however, is not cool.

Protect: In absence of Phalanx getting a -DT% buff, I wouldn't mind the Protect line getting it. Far as defense goes, it's nice to have, but eventually useless on things you'd want it for due to things like level differences and mobs having extremely high base damage ratings for mostly 240 delay. NMs tend to hit even harder, obviously.

Shell: Pretty much fine as is. Would be nice if we could match WHM's potency, but not losing sleep over it.

Regen: Doubt SE will touch this spell again given recent adjustments and favoring of it toward SCH. At best, RDMs should aspire for Regen III and WHMs merits could maybe get boosted to +3 per level instead of +1.

Refresh: A blessing and a curse, this spell. Its 150s base duration always bugged me, as most of our other spells are 180s. So, this usually meant that once I saw it wear, I was completely renewing the entirety of my cycle, shorting out 15-20s of other buff duration depending on what I was doing at the time Refresh wore. I'd like to see the 30s added, but also welcome the uniform duration boost mentioned earlier. I know some have also wanted this spell line to gain potency with skill. For reasons similar to Haste II, I'm iffy on that.

Aquaveil: Never used it much before and still don't use it too often now. Getting a feel for mob attack speed can negate the need for this, but I can understand its potential. I guess I want to say it's okay as is.

Gain/Boost line: Pretty much okay as is. I wouldn't object to a second set of spells that stack on top like Gain/Boost-ATK/MATK/MACC/EVA/MDEF. MEVA sort of exists already through barspells.

Enspells: Obligatory fix T2s, make them worth using over T1s even if you're wielding a multi-hitter. The "Well, you might be partied with a DNC for Sambas..." isn't much of a consolation. But yes, the damage needs to scale better, or the enspells themselves carrying secondary effects related to their element like with the above Gain/Boost suggestion. All getting Subtle Blow by default would also be welcomed.

Stoneskin: I would say it's time to up the cap, perhaps to 500, improved with respective items. However, I'd also welcome a Stoneskin II that regenerates itself for the entirety of its duration based on your cap on cast. So, at a 500 cap, it could recover 25 every tick, even if completely wiped by a strike. This would take 20 ticks to accomplish, or about a minute. If you'd really need a bigger buffer, you can cancel it and reapply. I'd put this in RDM and SCH's hands.

Blink: This spell hasn't aged well, and BLU gets a strong Blink with Occulation that grows with their skill. I wouldn't object to this getting a similar treatment or even borrowing the regeneration mechanic from the Stoneskin suggestion.

Spikes: It's rare to use Shock over Ice. Blaze is best on mobs where our Phalanx basically turns them into sissies. In general, Shock and Blaze need the help here, and since Blaze has always been about damage, it doing a lot more would be welcome. Shock is trickier since Stun as an effect is potent, but it's also unreliable in this form of application. Maybe for each time a mob isn't stunned, it gains a building "Electrified" status that increases the probability of being stunned the next round, and when the stun does happen, the effect is wiped. The damage dealt can also build, but Blaze would still be king.

Barspells: This is tricky since mob MACC enters the picture, and TP moves can be given insanely high MACC (like Jamming Wave) to make these questionably effective. I guess maybe a 2% chance per 100 skill to negate the given element would be nice since 500 skill is close with gear and merits. Barlight and Bardark are also long overdue. Barstatus stuff just needs to be more effective across the board, both in prevention and cutting duration/potency if stuff does land.

Temper: If scaling continues as expected, I'm happy with the spell. Though, if gear augmenting or merits are a possibility, adding a chance to Triple Attack on top would be the route I'd look to, basically emulating the Quick spell idea I'd been wanting for RDM for a long time.

Storm spells: Given Helix spells receiving a lower level requirement, I'd like to see these get the same treatment. In kind, SCH's Stormsurge merit should be improved to closer match Gain/Boost spells while they'd also get T2 versions that mimic double weather. And hey, hope of all hopes, let SCH spells count toward weather trials, even if only 1 credit per kill.

Adloquium: Given the presence of the COR roll, I'm not seeing much reason to keep this from being 3 TP a tick without gear or possible future merits to augment it.

Bubble: Yes, something new. Increase max HP/MP by 50% for 5 minutes with consideration to your current HP/MP when it lands. So, if you have 750/1500 HP, your HP would be boosted to 1125/2250. Should the buff wear and you were at 2000/2250 HP, you'd be left with 1000/1500 instead of 1500/1500. Give this spell a long recast, like 3-5m. That way it would mainly be used on tanks or yourself when soloing. Obviously it shouldn't stack with temp items.

Float: Been suggested before, but basically a magical Mazurka for mages. Wears on taking damage or performing an offensive action.

Mystic Spikes: Think of it as an MP equivalent to Dread Spikes. Mob hits you and they have MP, you aspir some of it out of them. Thinking more of a static number subject to darkness resists, but anywhere from 1-25 MP taken, high end a result of enhancing skill on cast.

Renew: Replenishes the durations of all active buffs on the target (Embrava excluded), subject to Composure and equipment duration bonuses with spells maintaining their initial potency. Thinking 200 MP cost, 15s recast.

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Mystic Spikes: Think of it as an MP equivalent to Dread Spikes. Mob hits you and they have MP, you aspir some of it out of them. Thinking more of a static number subject to darkness resists, but anywhere from 1-25 MP taken, high end a result of enhancing skill on cast.

Renew: Replenishes the durations of all active buffs on the target (Embrava excluded), subject to Composure and equipment duration bonuses with spells maintaining their initial potency. Thinking 200 MP cost, 15s recast.

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The spikes I'd say convert damage to MP. Aspir is an alright spell, but this should have use on every mob including undead.

Renew I like I have no issues with it.

I'd considered that, but there'd need to be some kind of ratio to it, otherwise taking a 200+ damage hit and gaining 200+ MP would probably earn itself the balance hammer. As a simple conversion, it does wind up emulating things like the Ethereal Earring, but if it also does nothing to the mob, not much point in calling it a Spikes spell. Damage to the mob's actual MP can be unedited, though. Mobs have a metric fkton of MP, so it's not so much about draining them as it is helping us out a bit when under pressure. I'd also be okay with retaining an element of MP recovery while inflicting a MATK down debuff. Or it could give us a building MATK pool a la Afflatus: Solace and be expended on an action that checks MATK like a nuke or elemental WS.

And while I didn't specify, Renew would only pertain to white and black magic buffs.

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Originally Posted by Seriha

I'd considered that, but there'd need to be some kind of ratio to it, otherwise taking a 200+ damage hit and gaining 200+ MP would probably earn itself the balance hammer. As a simple conversion, it does wind up emulating things like the Ethereal Earring, but if it also does nothing to the mob, not much point in calling it a Spikes spell. Damage to the mob's actual MP can be unedited, though. Mobs have a metric fkton of MP, so it's not so much about draining them as it is helping us out a bit when under pressure. I'd also be okay with retaining an element of MP recovery while inflicting a MATK down debuff. Or it could give us a building MATK pool a la Afflatus: Solace and be expended on an action that checks MATK like a nuke or elemental WS.

And while I didn't specify, Renew would only pertain to white and black magic buffs.

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It can still do damage. Spikes on a whole aren't severely powerful, even doing 40 damage and only converting 25% of that is better than nothing could always add a chance of inflicting Addle.