Blood Pact: Ward testing

Since all the wikis are horribly outdated or just outright wrong in lots of its information I decided to do some reasearch myself and here's the results. Also, because I was really bored.

Note: When I say "all BPWs" I generally mean all defensive BPWs, except for Glittering Ruby, Earthen Ward and Aerial Armor. Special rules apply to those, see below for information on them.

• All BPWs have a base duration of tier*1min. The timer starts at activation of the BP (when the timer resets).
• All BPWs are tiered from 1-3. As stated above, each tier adds one minute to the base duration
• All BPWs add one second per skill level over 300 to their base duration
• Duration bonus from skill caps at 500 skill (200 extra seconds or 3:20)
• All BPWs overwrite themselves, even with much less skill, resulting in the buff wearing off before it would have if it was not overwritten
• RDM Enspell II will take priority over BPW Enspell, which take priority over RDM Enspell I.
• Spikes BPWs have the same priority as BLM Spikes, they will both overwrite each other (unlike with Enspells). The potency does not matter (usually higher from BPWs), nor does skill.

List of BP tiers:
Tier 1: Crimson Howl, Inferno Howl, Earthen Armor
Tier 2: Fleet Wind, Rolling Thunder
Tier 3: Shining Ruby, Ecliptic Growl, Ecliptic Howl, Hastega, Frost Armor, Lightning Armor, Noctoshield, Dream Shroud

Exceptions

Earthen Ward & Aerial Armor

Last for 15min, independant of skill.

Glittering Ruby

Skill doesn't seem to affect it at all. The duration is directly dependant on the attribute bonus, as it decays from the original bonus value to 0, at which point the effect wears off. It decreases by 1 attribute level with each healing tick (10s). So the duration is approximately bonus*10s, depending on when the healing tick occurs (which, in turn, depends on when you enter a zone).

Potency data

Glittering Ruby

The attribute that is enhanced is picked at random for each player that gets hit with it. It's possible to receive the same buff that's already active (if a second GR is cast or if you recast it when the timer is back up). It will overwrite itself only with a higher potency, though. At this point I'm not yet sure whether that's maximum potency or current potency (as it decays), but shouldn't be hard to find out from further testing.

Concerning the stat bonus itself, it seems there's a correlation to Carbuncle's perpetuation cost (seems to be roughly twice the perpetuation cost, or more accurately, perpetuation cost seems to be half of it). However, due to lacking data for certain levels (hard to find people to sync to all levels between 44 and 99... test server would probably help, but having trouble installing it) and due to uncertainty in the validity of current perpetuation cost information I can't draw an exact conclusion on this. Wouldn't turn down any further insight into this, if someone can be bothered to post their data. Here's my data, gathered mostly through level sync:

[level - potency - perpetuation cost]
Lv.49 - 12 - 6 MP/tick
Lv.54 - 13 - 7 MP/tick
Lv.60 - 15 - 7 MP/tick
Lv.61 - 15 - 7 MP/tick
Lv.65 - 16 - 8 MP/tick
Lv.66 - 16 - 8 MP/tick
Lv.67 - 16 - 8 MP/tick
Lv.70 - 17 - 8 MP/tick
Lv.71 - 17 - 8 MP/tick
Lv.75 - 18 - 9 MP/tick
Lv.76 - 18 - 9 MP/tick
Lv.79 - 18 - 9 MP/tick
Lv.92 - 21 - 11 MP/tick
Lv.94 - 21 - 11 MP/tick
Lv.95 - 21 - 11 MP/tick
Lv.96 - 22 - 11 MP/tick
Lv.99 - 22 - 11 MP/tick

If someone could complete this for the missing levels (especially Lv44) I'd be very happy to see it.

Earthen Ward

The currently listed formula for its potency (2*level +50) still worked at 99 (reduced 248 damage from 1000 Needles), so one can reasonably assume that it hasn't changed.

Aerial Armor

I very rarely get less than three shadows, even when I level sync to lower levels. I'm really not sure what it depends on, or why it's variable in the first place.

Noctoshield

Flat 13 damage reduction, independant of skill or level. Is overwritten by and does not overwrite both Phalanx and Phalanx II.

Bumping this thread, as it just became apparent that few people are aware of it.

This is also pretty old but some of this information probably never got out either:
http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/forum.htm...92041310155223

E.g. Slowga from Leviathan is 30% slow.

This is all useful but I'm interested in knowing things like... Does MAB do anything for spells like pavor nocturnus or shock squall, or is that all based only off summoning skill. Is there any point in + summoning skill gear after a certain point. Aka does swapping in more gear after say 500 really do anything for wards etc

Magic attack bonus increases magic attack. Shock Squall and Pavor Nocturnus are not magical, but not attacks. So no, Magic attack bonus does not have an effect.

I do know that Summoning Magic skill caps at 600 for Perfect Defense. As far as wards are concerned, my skill is past 500 and I haven't tested it. I think there was mention that it may have capped at 500 but I do not recall if there was ever any conclusive testing done.

Ok that makes sense, but then can shock squall miss? It seems to land on some NM's fairly easily until it builds a stun resistance, but some others some of the debuffs just won't land. Is the only way to increase the chances of those landing massing summoning skill? Would avatar magic accuracy work? Both? Is there no way to increase the chances of landing those debuffs on NM's?

I'm not sure if this helps but...

Shock Squall is Stun and marches in step with most Stun spells rather than enfeebling effects in general. As of such, Shock Squall has higher magic accuracy than most effects and very few monsters have a native resistance to it.

Abilities like Diamond Storm and Tidal Roar are more comparable to Enfeebling Magic in terms of their mechanics. So, yes, anything that makes them more accurate will make them more accurate because it makes them more accurate. Except when it doesn't make them more accurate because you're at some kind of cap already, I guess. Magic accuracy is one of the hardest things to test due to multiple resist states.

All the same, it's not like there's anything other than Summoning Magic Skill and/or "Avatar: Magic Accuracy" to macro in for those abilities at time of activation, so why not?

Yeah I suppose. Would be nice to know if one worked better than the other though, or if it were complete waste of time. Most of these questions arise from Delve mobs where some of the enfeebles will land and some won't.

Paralyze for example, however, will stick with a small to moderate percentage rate with thunderstorm. I don't remember any mob ever being able to resist attack down from Levi though. Have yet to land slowga on a single mob however. Just picked up the Delve staff though with the pet M.acc and went M.acc path and very curious as to whether that makes enfeebles etc stick better, or if macro'ing in say a kirin's pole would be better.

Pet/Avatar: Magic accuracy + will almost certainly be better than + summoning skill, so I would equip all that you can first, then put summoning magic skill in the remaining slots.

Remember that some mobs will have a natural resistance, or even immunity to certain enfeebling effects. If you can't get slowga to land, ask if the RDM is able to land slow/slow 2. If you have 'evaded attacks' filtered out, it might even be that the enfeeble is already on the mob and yours is having no effect, and you're assuming that it's missed.

Yeah I know some of time it seems to be natural resistance, but other times I'm getting things to stick maybe 40% of the time. Depending on the group, there doesn't tend to be a RDM so I'm trying to hit all the important debuffs, but at a 45 second CD when I could be nuking / MB'ing for 2-5k, if the enfeeble doesn't stick, it is a huge waste of time.

Do we know if the new immunobreak system works with avatar's? Not that it would be efficient, but if you are the only person debuffing, a paralyze might be the difference between a wipe and success.

Also has anyone tried to figure out a ballpark for how many points of summoning skill are equal to a certain amount of accuracy? Some pieces you can get 15ish summoning skill, but maybe only 2 or 3 m.Acc. Are we assuming the acc is still better in those amounts?

The best way to land para on a mob is probably to use frost armor on someone who's getting hit, TBH. As for M. Acc from skill, I have no idea what the figure is, but it would have to be at best 2 skill to 1 M. Acc, and probably less.

The reason I suggested M. Acc gear over Summoning magic Skill gear is that there's not a great deal of pet/avatar M. Acc gear about, so I figure that if you put in the few pieces that there are, you can then probably still get 500 skill, which is quite likely to be a hard cap anyway.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Thundarian

Ok that makes sense, but then can shock squall miss? It seems to land on some NM's fairly easily until it builds a stun resistance, but some others some of the debuffs just won't land. Is the only way to increase the chances of those landing massing summoning skill? Would avatar magic accuracy work? Both? Is there no way to increase the chances of landing those debuffs on NM's?

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Shock Squall can in fact miss. Diabolos Mega Boss in Dynamis - Tavnazia evades Shock Squall fairly often (it can still land on him occasionally though, but it's not a built up stun resistance. It can be the only stun and miss several times in a row from the beginning).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Thundarian

Paralyze for example, however, will stick with a small to moderate percentage rate with thunderstorm.

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I think you mean Thunderspark.

Anyways... magic accuracy has changed on Summoner. It used to be the base rate and then skill over the cap was additional accuracy, but it is now just raw skill. It's quite possible that, with capped skill, you are at the same value as before. It's quite possible they changed it. I am not sure if anyone knows. (If for instance at 276 skill [the cap] + 24 skill at 75 gave 300 accuracy, 100 skill at 75 gave 276 accuracy -> the change -> 276 +24 skill is still 300 accuracy, 100 skill is now 100 accuracy. Or they changed the numbers entirely, not sure).

As far as magic accuracy vs. summoning skill now goes, I imagine there is a difference (or perhaps the same) but I don't know that anyone has ever done conclusive testing to see which is better. I'd generally say if one is substantially larger than the other (e.g. Delve staff vs. Augmented Kirin's/Bahamut's/Augmented Mythic Pole/Soul Scourge) you should probably go with that.