Phalnax vs. PhalanxII

With all the new level caps and higher caps on all the magic skills, I was wondering which absorbs more damage Phalanx or Phalanx II.

A 5/5 Phalanx II is even with Phalanx until you -just- hit the tier. Due to how calculations work though once you reach the higher end of tenth's place (26-29, 36-39, 46-49 etc.) Phalanx becomes even again.

@325
Phalanx = 28
Phalanx II = 29

@329
Phalanx = 29
Phalanx II = 29

@350
Phalanx = 29
Phalanx II = 30

@358
Phalanx = 30
Phalanx II = 30

Any less than 5/5 though and Phalanx will win out easily.

Thanks for the info there and I appreciate it but I am still lost lol

The reason I am so confused is this:

Phalanx:
(Enhancing / 10) - 2
Phalanx II:
[(Enhancing / 25) + 1 + (3 x Merit Level)]

so at skill level 350 Phalanx would absorb (350/10) - 2 = 33 damage per hit
and at level 350 Phalanx II would absorb (350/25) +1 + (3x5) = 30 damage per hit (assuming 5/5 Phalanx II merits)

Are these posted calculations incorrect or are there other factors involved as well? These formulas are posted on the wiki Thanks for the post

Did a few web surfing and found a second formula for Phalanx calculations when over skill level 300.

Enhancing Magic skill over 300 ((Enhancing magic skill - 300) / 29) + 28 - which is dead on with Carth's post as well.

So a follow-up question would be with enhancing magic skill of 403 which would be better?

Skill cap of 341 (+16 from 8/8 merits) (+15 from Duelist's Gloves) (+15 from Portent Pants) (+10 from Estoqueur's Houseaux +1) and (+6 from Estoqueur's Cape) = 403

For Phalanx I get 31.55
403-50=103
103/29=3.55
3.55+28=31.55

And for Phalanx II 32.12
403/25=16.12
16.12+1+(3x5)=32.12

Unless of course there is a different formula for Phalanx II if you have over a certain skill level... or cap on damage reduction...

If you go past the cap with gear, Phallanx is better as well. But that is only with a lot of gear. I think the max you can get currently is 36 from Phallanx I and I dont think you can go over 30 on Phallanx 2.

Caps were removed around the 85 update iirc.

Basically like Carth mentioned Phalanx 1 and Phalanx 2 are nearly identical past a certain skill point with Phalanx II being better by 1 point 50% of the time.

What's probably more important to ask is whether the benefits from 5/5 Phalanx II are worth the merits since you do have to sacrifice potency in your T2 enfeebles to get that.

Easily on Slow 2, not so easily on Para 2 but it's Random (albeit an improvement of para 1... last test I saw had Para 2 with 1 merit better than Para 1 by like 6%), You couldn't convince me to drop Dia 3 for anything. Blind is still a joke imo, Bio is unnecessary.

Saboteur Blind II is occasionally useful.

But it's so situational it's hard to justify even 1 merit.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Supersun

Caps were removed around the 85 update iirc.

Basically like Carth mentioned Phalanx 1 and Phalanx 2 are nearly identical past a certain skill point with Phalanx II being better by 1 point 50% of the time.

What's probably more important to ask is whether the benefits from 5/5 Phalanx II are worth the merits since you do have to sacrifice potency in your T2 enfeebles to get that.

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Excellent, so what you are saying is that a maxed skill and gear RDM with 5/5 phallanx 2 is better in potency than RDM/SCH with Asce. Phallanx I correct?

better by 1 point, or equal. depending on where exactly your enhancing skill ends up. i'd say the more important factor is which do you wanna tie up. 5 merits, or your subjob?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Doombringer

better by 1 point, or equal. depending on where exactly your enhancing skill ends up. i'd say the more important factor is which do you wanna tie up. 5 merits, or your subjob?

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Exactly. Just what I was thinking.

Phalanx II offers +1 minute duration and is castable on others. That's the difference.

RDM merits, and group 2 merits in particular, have been designed VERY poorly. No other job is given crippleware that requires 5/5 merits to bring it up to par+1 with a previous tier spell, and no other job has to CHOOSE what spells/abilities to take.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kristal

no other job has to CHOOSE what spells/abilities to take.

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Black Mage?

The general consensus I recall from before was you wanted either Paralyze 2, Dia 3, or Phalanx 2.

I too am trying to decide how to go about this. I was originally going to go Paralyze 2 and Phalanx 2. But if the only benefit is casting on others and a one minute duration, then I'm half tempted to drop it for Dia 3.

get a rdm friend, one of u can get paralyze II & phalanx II and the other can get slow II & dia III. so u got all covered.

pretty senselss if 90% of the rdms have slow II + paralyze II merited and they just overlap in pts and have no extra benefits.

teamplay ;)

IDK I went with 5/5 Slow II, 2/3 Dia III, 3/5 Phalanx II.

Reasoning is,
Paralyze II is useless, anything you'd want to land it on would be immune or nearly immune anyway. This is why I removed my merits from Paralyze II. Bio III is useless outside of /SCH solo's, at 75 it was all the rage amongst soloists because it could knock off a few min from their running in circles time. Blind II is also useless unless your fighting a weak NM with a NIN or THF evasion tank. A monster going from 150% hit rate to 135% hit rate will still be capped at 80%, it makes no actual difference (parses have shown this). Biggest more dangerous NM's simply have astronomical accuracy.

This leaves few choices.
Full Slow II because it will make the most difference the most often, especially stacked with Saboteur in longer fights. I've seen very few NM's that are resistant to Slow, other then the Earth / Wind based ones it lands on the rest pretty consistently. Dia III is 15% def down to the target or 17.6% attack up to all your melee's, against the super NM's this is priceless right after procing red when you want to kill it ASAP. And it also overwrites the Bio II all those pesky BLM's and DRK's like to constantly cast on NM's. Only its duration is increased by merits so I figure 60s should be long enough for whatever it is you need to do, to be done. Plus you can spam Dia III if your meleeing and reap the rewards yourself. Then the rest I dumped into Phalanx II as a useful buff to have in my arsenal. I'm usually /SCH so I tend to aoe Phalanx 1 with 420+ skill. If I'm using that stratagem for other things then I'll resort to Phalanx II on key people.