The Conceptual Problem with Geomancer

I'm currently a lvl 35 Geomancer, so I'm by no means an expert in the field of Geomancy.
This is more my take on looking at Geomancer and voicing a bit of frustration at Square-Enix design process.

I'm going to get Geo up to 49 at least. I haven't tried subbing it to another job, but my understanding so far is: no Handbell = no Geocolure spells. What I don't currently know is whether subbed Handbell skill adds to Indicolure potency. If it doesn't, then this is a horrible subjob! (and that becomes gripe number 1: subjob viability isn't balanced, but that's not a gripe exclusive to Geomancer)

It seems like Colure spells are designed to be sparse. You should only ever have one out. The basic problem with this is, if Colures are unique, why are their bonuses so linear? It's like they are trying to make Geomancer just like Bard and Corsair, but with more graphical, resource, and effect restrictions (at least I assume Colure spells are graphic intensive on the whole).

It's like Square-Enix said, "We have a lot of levels to cover, let's stick in 30 incredibly narrowly defined buffs and debuffs so that players think they have a lot of nifty toys, even though they can only use 2 at a time!"

When I'm reading these forums, I see players asking for the ability to put more Geo effects out at the same time. It makes sense. I understand this desire. The sad part is that the design premise of Geomancer looks like it wasn't executed at a fundamental level.

There should be less Geomancy spells in general, but their effects should encompass more. This would validate a 2 Geomancy effect restriction.

Geomancer doesn't need a spell to enhance ally Evasion and another spell to reduce Enemy Evasion. It needs one spell that does both. It doesn't need a spell to Slow the enemy and another to give the party Haste. It needs one for both. Geomancy should DO more THINGS, not just ADD more NUMBERS in a spreadsheet simulator.

And that's what really gets me about the 76+ design process on the whole.
It doesn't make any job better, it just makes the numbers bigger and the amount of niche abilities go up. If you increase the number on niche abilities, don't be surprised when players gripe they need to be able to have more active at a time. The number of Spells in the Spell book don't matter if the number of spells you can cast is capped.

The thing is that Geomancer, while they're limited in number of buffs, have incredible potency with their buffs to make up for it. Since you haven't hit 99 and don't have the highest tiers of skill or a +5 Geomancy bell (not a skill bell, a direct +5 bonus to Geomancy in general), you wouldn't have seen the level of potency that exists later on. Even with only a Dunna, Indi-Fury gives +45% Attack, Indi-Barrier is +59% Defense, etc. With our DDs having more attack these days, let's just say around 1000 average (and this is pre-buffs), that's +450 attack compared to a +4 Songs Bard's double minuet, which only gives +152. Right there you're making up for two songs and then some. Indi-Haste is roughly a Haste 2, etc.

In terms of sheer potency, Geomancer is pretty amazing, and that's not even with Idris, which just makes it even more so. SE's design for the job is that while we get less buffs, meaning we can't spread a slew of them across different party members like BRD or COR can, we can make our impact felt. Even if we're not in the main party, we could do Frailty for a large DEF- and haste for your stunners, or if you don't have stunners (like DM2) you can stack Frailty/Torpor as non-removable debuffs by being in close range.

While it does make BRD still the most in-demand buffer due to the ability to spread specific buffs to specific people, GEO still has a place in many setups because of the amount of potency it has available to it. You just have to figure out what buffs are needed in what situations, and roll with it.

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Originally Posted by Einalem

There should be less Geomancy spells in general, but their effects should encompass more. This would validate a 2 Geomancy effect restriction.

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Early on, I felt this way. I had some sort of hope that we'd see combination effects added that took the names of old Geomancer spells, like Smokescreen -eva +eva, etc. With the direction they're going now though, it's all about the potency, and it's really paid off IMO. As for the plethora of spells you mentioned, it is what it is. Brd has dozens upon dozens of spells that it'll never use outside of dummy songs and Cor has multiple if not a dozen rolls it never uses. It's just par for the course, in case you ever find yourself wishing to cap out your parties evasion, for whatever reason.

I'd say the only one's with no realistic use atm though are slow, paralyze, gravity, poison, +eva, and possibly +stats, though if you're getting super buffed by a Brd, Cor, and Geo, something like +Str may be of use since you'll already be attack capped no doubt. Some have an issue of "which is better?" Say you're fighting a mob who's main source of damage is magical damage, do you do.. +MEva, +MDB, -MAcc, or -MAB? With the tests I've done/seen, I'd go with +MDB and -MAcc personally, but stacking +MEva and -MAcc may benefit more if you're trying to avoid status effects as well. Being able to quickly switch your two bubbles and knowing what to switch to greatly helps.