How about an Enfeebling Magic thread?

[Daniel_Hatcher]

Not even remotely close.

My enhancing macro has me at 463 total enhancing magic. That's +21 to my stat of choice.

WHM can't get.

I've checked WHM/SCH with gear recieves more Enhancing than RDM.

WHM can get +99
RDM can get +80

[saevel]

I've checked WHM/SCH with gear recieves more Enhancing than RDM.

WHM can get +99
RDM can get +80

Which gear and what's the difficulty of obtaining. Sh!t like Hyksos robe and it's HQ+2 R/EX version are exceeding rare to the point of non-existence. I've gone over this with many many WHMs, very few have enhancing sets.

[Daniel_Hatcher]

Which gear and what's the difficulty of obtaining. Sh!t like Hyksos robe and it's HQ+2 R/EX version are exceeding rare to the point of non-existence. I've gone over this with many many WHMs, very few have enhancing sets.

Olymbus Sash = +5
Hyksos Robe = +10~11 - Can be bought so should not be removed. 4 million gil isn't hard to get anymore
Beneficus = +15
Portent Pants = +15
Orison Boots +2 = +20
Augur's Gloves = +5
Enhancing/Colossus's Torque = +7~10
Merciful Cape = +5

I calculated wrong it's only +82 but the point being WHM is NOT behind RDM in any case when it comes to enhancing. Boost and Gain with the correct gear is even, and barspells one of the only other spells effected by Enhancing Skill WHM already trumps RDM on.

[saevel]

Olymbus Sash = +5

Hyksos Robe = +10~11 - Can be bought so should not be removed. 4 million gil isn't hard to get anymore
Read what I wrote, I only just now got this item and I had to acquire the parts individually and have a LS member synergy it. These are incredibly rare, they require a rare drop off the Windy T3 VWNM turtle and a flame gem. It's NOT a matter of "get gil, goto AH, get item". I tried for months to no avail.

Beneficus = +15, While it exists I've never EVER seen a WHM use it.

Portent Pants = +15
Orison Boots +2 = +20
Augur's Gloves = +5
Enhancing/Colossus's Torque = +7 (do not count special day effects, that is 1/8 of the time tops).
Merciful Cape = +5

I calculated wrong it's only +82 but the point being WHM is NOT behind RDM in any case when it comes to enhancing. Boost and Gain with the correct gear is even, and barspells one of the only other spells effected by Enhancing Skill WHM already trumps RDM on.

And this assumes the WHM is /SCH anyway, most seem to be permanently attached to /BLM for Warp II or /RDM for Vert / Refresh these days.

[saevel]

I've checked WHM/SCH with gear recieves more Enhancing than RDM.

WHM can get +99
RDM can get +80

People need to stop looking at wiki's enhancing magic list and going "hey they can get X / Y / Z", its not that simple. Actually acquiring that gear is much harder / annoying and of questionable worth. List actual obtainable gear, SE likes to troll people.

[Neisan_Quetz]

Phalanx 2 at full potency isn't weaker than Phalanx. If you're going by otherwiki it hasn't been updated since 75.

SE announced at least for the test server they're upping total merit point categories so it may be a moot point in the future if it's a decent increase. Heck, 5 more merits and I'd be fine with that.

If you're going to get rid of spells get rid of Bio III first...

[saevel]

Phalanx II and Phalanx I scale differently, so the question of which is stronger depends on your enhancing magic.

Phalanx 1 @300 skill is 28 reduction. After this it takes 29 enhancing magic to raise it one. @463 Enhancing Magic I only get 33 reduction.

Phalanx II doesn't have a shifting scale. Instead its 25 enhancing magic per base resistance then add bonus from merit level.

So 1 + (Enhancing/25) + (3 * merit),

At 1 merit and 463 skill I would get 22
At 5 merits and 463 skill I would get 34, so at this high enhancing magic Phalanx II at 5/5 ends up being stronger then Phalanx 1 by 5 points.

Assuming skill ratings scale the same till 99, then you get 28 more skill for 491 per cast.

Phalanx 1 @491 becomes 34, Phalanx II 5/5 @ 491 becomes 35, so no real difference.

My issue with Phalanx II is that it requires five merits to be useful. Which means I need to take away merits from something else, either Slow II / Para II or like many stupid RDM's do, Dia III. This makes Phalanx II actually worth less then Blind II, since that actually scales pretty well with INT. You end up with Dia III > Slow II = Paralyze II > Blind II > Phalanx II > Bio III in generic usability. If SE were to adjust scaling of Phalanx 1 / 2 then this argument would shift accordingly.

[Neisan_Quetz]

Nothing I typically fight while on Rdm is going to sway the outcome whether or not I use Blind 2 over 1, so meriting it was pointless for me.

I could care less about VW's proc system atm since I don't go Rdm there except for badget PUGs.

Slow and Para merits scale much worse than any of the others.

[saevel]

Slow and Para directly scale with dMND so their similar to Blind II. Additional merits just add static percentages onto them, its the equivalent of tossing on more MND and allows for a slightly higher cap. Para II also seems to act differently the Para 1, notably on NQ monsters or regular NM's (the non super resistant kind). When I'm doing campaign or just solo work I can easily tell the difference between Para 1 and Para 2 (2/5 currently), it's not a placebo its a real noticeable difference. Of course on anything that actually matters Para II is complete sh!t, but that's SE for you.

In all honestly all of them except Dia III are crap, SE deliberately made them weak to prevent any more "Avesta" situations.

[Neisan_Quetz]

Yeah I do mean the additional merits into them, 1% increase per merit is pretty terrible for both imo.