How about an Enfeebling Magic thread?

[Economizer]

Seriously why you messing with my spell. I agree it shouldn't be a merit but removing this spell completely is bs. Well that is how it sounds per your wording.

I don't see how it is BS in any logical way.

Phalanx 2, even with full merits, has less potency then Phalanx. So the solution is very simple - remove Phalanx 2, and make a way to cast it, and other spells, on others with increased duration.

Now, I don't actually think Enspells and Temper should be castable on others in any circumstances. Also, spells like Aquaveil, Stoneskin, Blink wouldn't be worth cycling on a whole party, and hardly worth casting on the tank. Phalanx already has a cyclable version with Phalanx 2, so the change would only be increasing the potency and duration (based on the change I suggested).

That would just give Barspells and the Gain Spells as the new things to cycle. As pointed out, if casting the near instant cast Barspells on everyone is too hard a hassle, you could just sub White Mage, or get a White Mage.

Since any good White Mage would just sub Scholar and get the same boosts to Gain/Boost spells as a Red Mage, you could just rely on a White Mage for this if you really don't want to cycle, but it makes it so you don't have to. Additionally, your duration would be greatly increased (Gain spells last 5 minutes currently, with the maximum between gear and full merits, you'd get 15 minutes), and unlike a White Mage, you'd have a much easier time of customizing which Gain spell each party member gets.

Or if you want to mix and match, the Red Mage version doesn't get overwritten, so if for example, one person needs Gain-DEX, and the rest need Boost-STR, you just made the party work that much better. This also applies to barspells, like if a mob has a single target air based move, and an AOE water based move, you could have the tank get Baraero, and the rest get Barwatera.

So basically, you'd just have a merit that increases duration on all your spells, makes Phalanx better, increases the ability of Red Mage's, at the cost of only really adding one more spell line you will possibly be asked to cycle. There is no BS here.

It's what I've been saying for ages. Make all the "merit" spells available via NPC vender and change the merits into "potency / accuracy" merits. Slow II becomes "Slow Potency", Dia III becoms "Dia Potency" and so forth. This way you still get all your spells but also maintain the ability to pimp them out. Currently SE can't create "Tier III" enfeebles or a Dia IV due to the merit spells existing the way they are. It's become such a hindrance that they making lol spells like Break / Addle that mostly do nothing.

It is what everyone has been saying more or less. It would greatly improve the merit categories too, since you wouldn't have to merit one point in things just to get a spell. I hope that when SE changes this, they make all the spells appear at a vendor, but give all Red Mages with merits the spells automatically.

[saevel]

Since any good White Mage would just sub Scholar and get the same boosts to Gain/Boost spells as a Red Mage

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.

[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.

[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.

[Neisan_Quetz]

We've also gone over this, difficulty of obtainment/bad players =! impossible.

EDIT: Didn't include the HQ robe lol, that makes +90. +75 otherwise for Whm.

Beneficus + Enhancing(Colossal)/Augmenting/Augur's/Merciful/Olympus (Cascade for 2 less skill)/Portent/Orison+2 Duckbills is what I got so far from quick search. None of them are out of reach for anyone competent either bar the Olympus since no one had found it at the time.