How about an Enfeebling Magic thread?

[SpankWustler]

I agree with simpler math reduces the chances of programming errors. I also agree with TP moves can't be stopped (though Paralyze can stop TP moves).

Actually, paralyze can stop everything but TP moves. Paralyze doesn't stop a player's weapon skills, either. It's weird to think about, considering these two things are the most complex physical movements in all of Final Fantasy XI, but that's how Paralyze rolls.

I think an Addle-like enfeeble would be a nice way to deal with TP gain and TP moves. Rather than crippling the monster's TP move damage or TP gain, it could just be a mild to moderate penalty to both. This would also make the spell more useful against monsters who gain TP mostly through regain, or simply don't need TP to use their super-secret special moves.

More than anything, however, the developers just need to realize that nobody wants to enfeeble critters that any bro with a particularly pointy stick could kill in 15-60 seconds; people want to enfeeble Notorious Monsters.

Or they could just introduce Dia IV and then go build a fort out of their desks and take a nap in it. That sounds a lot more likely.

[Economizer]

I think an Addle-like enfeeble would be a nice way to deal with TP gain and TP moves. Rather than crippling the monster's TP move damage or TP gain, it could just be a mild to moderate penalty to both. This would also make the spell more useful against monsters who gain TP mostly through regain, or simply don't need TP to use their super-secret special moves.

Plague comes to mind, but if you wanted to make something more like Addle, it would probably have an effect of slowing the ready time for TP moves (of course, then SE could just spam mobs that don't ready TP moves like they do already).

Or they could just introduce Dia IV and then go build a fort out of their desks and take a nap in it. That sounds a lot more likely.

It's funny, because as a White Mage, the spell I'm most jealous of that Red Mage gets is Dia III. I wonder if Saboteur increases Dia's defense down effect. Dia IV would probably do something in the range of ~20-25% defense reduction depending on Saboteur's effect. Or perhaps even a 50% reduction that decays rapidly to the baseline reduction.

Of course, while SE is at it, they should make all of the merit spells learnable, and just have the effect for each tier boosted by merits. This would be the single easiest way for Red Mage to receive a nice power boost (and while we're at it, Phalanx II should be learned at full potency and not be merited at all, considering Scholar).

As with any tread related to buffing Red Mage's enfeebles, Red Mage should get a boost to Dark Magic skill, since this opens up more Dark Magic based enfeebles. While we're at it, the elemental debuff spells should be considered for Red Mage, even though they scale pretty horribly.

And if the reason Red Mage hasn't gotten buffed is a fear of soloing, then the solution is simple: give Red Mage the enfeebling equivalent of Bully - the more people you have in your party, the more effective your enfeebles are, even against NM mobs.