Scholar Genkai 5

[Saefinn]

Hey folks,

I'm going to fight Gunther for my Genkai 5 and so far have died twice. First time I thought I'd nuke the hell out of him, second time I cast Dispel first hoping to knock off his Shell III (but took off his Regen instead), so it's more or less luck on that front. I found my Stone IV this time round only took off 231hp, which is considerably less than it should be - normally I hit mobs around my level (and higher) for 600-800hp (depending on their resistance) with Stone IV. First time round, my Stone IV hit for about 400hp.

Has anybody got any advice on what I should be doing to beat him? Because I clearly suck at this.

[Edit]
Current Set up is:
Main - Elemental Staves
Sub - Earth Grip (Converts 20HP to MP, Earth Elemental Accuracy +2)
Hat - Scholar's
Body - Scholar's
Hands - Scholar's
Legs - Scholar's
Feet - Scholar's
Neck - Scholar's
Rings - Electrum Ring x2 (HP-20, MP+20 each)
Earrings - Star Earring (MP+20 MND+2 Fire+11, Water+11), Magician's Earring (MP+30)
Waist - Qiqirn Sash (MP+12, MP whilst recovering + 2)
Back - Red Cape (INT+2, MND+2)
Ammo - Phantom Tathlum (MP+10, INT+2)

I suspect I'll need more INT gear.

[Delvish]

• It is good that you have Elemental Staves, that is a start.
• Earth Grip also helps if you are casting Earth spells at your level, but an INT grip wouldn't hurt either.
• A lot of your SCH AF gear really isn't that good for actual playing in. I'd recommend spending a lot of time in Campaign and getting some of the lvl 68 Cobra gear from the past. They have some decent nuking pieces. Just compare and contrast to see which you'd rather have. Also, you'll probably need some help but Vicious Mufflers from the past are nice too.
• Sell those rings and get some INT/MND rings. Of course, INT for nuking/enfeebling and MND for healing/enhancing. SCH is too MP efficient to need to focus on MP+ gear. The same goes for Earrings. There is an NM that drops a really good nuking earring. Moldavite Earring.
• Waist is ok, might be able to find something else.
• Good job on the back piece. +1 if possible, but at this point you've got an upgrade coming soon anyway.
• You've got the right idea on the Tathlum. Could replace it with a Sturm's Report, but that is more MACC than INT.

Ultimately what you're looking for in a Nuke set is Magic Attack Bonus > Int > Magic Accessory > MP. Also, make sure you are casting Sandstorm and Klimaform prior to nuking him if you get the chance (I don't know what you have time to do, never did the fight but this is just standard stuff to look into). Don't forget Tabula Rasa. Make a macro that activates all your stratagems at once (Parsimony, /wait 1, Alacrity, /wait 1, Ebullience).

Overall path of the fight:

1. Cast your standard buffs + Hailstorm and Klimaform. Klimaform has a very short duration when compared to its recast so make sure it is the last spell you cast and you are doing Step 2 immediately afterwards.
2. When you engage, start out with Ebullience + Cryohelix (or dispel, then helix) with the ice staff equipped. Hopefully the fight doesn't take 1 min, but the extra damage while you do certainly helps.
3. Quickly switch back to Sandstorm once you finish casting helix and activate Tabula Rasa.
4. Use your Stratagem spam macro and spam your strongest spells! Since you have Sandstorm up, it might just be beneficial to spam Stone III and IV.
5. Cure and debuff as necessary.

Macros are your friend.

[Mezzopiano]

I didn't finish this fight until I was 77, so I'm not sure how much help this will be, but...

Are you aiming for Schultz or the Grimoire first? The book is the bigger threat of the two, but it doesn't need to be killed to win. Whichever you pick, you have to finish it off fast or that grimoire will destroy you. I wouldn't bother with helices or switching storm spells mid-battle. Just put either Hail or Sandstorm + Klimaform up, and spam Alacrity and Ebullience and nuke as fast as you can.

Also, I should probably note that I did this fight before SCH got Blink and Stoneskin from main, so you should have more survivability than I did.

[Saefinn]

Thanks for the advice.

I didn't think to upgrade my armour as the bonuses the SCH armour offer sound attractive as they support your JAs, but I will hang out in the past to try and upgrade my armour. Fair point on the MP, I keep it up, so last longer without having to use sublimation, but then it's there to be used and the space could be used for better boosts. As far as time goes, I get plenty of time to buff, but in that period I'm buffing, so's he.

Blink and Stoneskin do offer more survivability and actually led me thinking in my first time round, "Oh my God, I'm actually going to do this", to find once they wore off, I didn't stand much of a chance. It'd be nice to be able to nuke hard within that window, so I don't have to cast stoneskin again. Blink I felt was a little pointless, because of the Grimoire, it'd be nice if one of my shadows would take a tier III nuke or two, but so far it has been the Grimoire's quick melee attacks that brought it down, very quickly too. I've not tried killing the Grimoire, perhaps I shouldn't underestimate it, like some Goblin and his pet, maybe next time I'll see how much of a difference it makes. I'll probably get one of my other jobs to 70 (DRK63 and COR57) to make farming the testimony easier so I can try more than one tactic.


As a question, what are my chances of sleep nuking him? It's how I increase my survivability on normal mobs, I figure sublimation would be a pain for casting sleep, but I wonder if I could land sleep, take out the Grimoire then proceed to sleep nuke him. Or just sleep the Grimoire and nuke the hell out of him.

Anyway, cheers

[Tohihroyu]

The elemental grips are useless, go with a Bugard Leather Strap+1 also stats are more important then your MP pool.
Don't waste time trying to sleep him, take him down before he has a chance to cast shell on himself! if he casted other buffs before Shell you are SCREWED the chances of dispelling Shell over Regen or Protect is SLIM)

This is what I used as a Galka Scholar (Results WILL vary!! Gunther's A.I. is RANDOM) Got win in less then a min. I did the Ingnore the Grimoire strat. (Also used a Blink band)
Food- Cream Puff INT+7 HP-10
Main - HQ Elemental Staves (Terra's Staff & Aquilo's Staff)
Sub - Bugard Leather Strap +1 (MP+10 INT+1 MND+1 CHR+1)
Hat - Scholar's
Body - Scholar's
Hands - Scholar's
Legs - Druid's slops (Healing magic skill +5 Elemental magic skill +5)
Feet - Scholar's
Neck - Enlightened Chain (INT+3 MND+2)
Rings - Genius Ring (INT+4) & Serket Ring (50hp to MP...oi I'm a Galka cut me some slack!)
Earrings - Phantom Earring (MP+8 INT+1) & Moldavite Earring ("Magic Atk. Bonus"+5)
Waist - Penitent's Rope (HP-20 INT+5 MND+5 Enmity-3)
Back - Red Cape +1 (INT+3 MND+3)
Ammo - Phantom Tathlum (MP+10, INT+2)

Video proof: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKYbXLJ3x-c

[Mezzopiano]

As far as I know, Sleep doesn't work on either Schultz or the Grimoire. If you can take out the book in ~2 nukes, you should have a much easier fight, since Schultz doesn't melee you. On the other hand, it absorbs a random element, so there's some serious risk in that approach.

If all else fails, you can always break 70 cap on another job and come back when you're high enough to one-shot the thing.

[Saefinn]

Nice victory on the video, you all make it look so easy. But I see you didn't waste time on buffs and pretty much ran in and took him down. You were hitting do 400+ so as long as I can do that and go through my macros quickly enough, theoretically I ought to destroy him. I'll probably seek to upgrade my staves for the HQ ones as well - probably time to sell some gear, do an RJ run and some farming, allowing myself to get distracted by COR (unlocked it a week ago) has eaten up a lot of my gil.


As for trying another job, if it works out to be too difficult, then perhaps, but then it's fairly normal to fail G5 the first few times, so I've just got to keep trying.


Cheers.

[Rambus]

• It is good that you have Elemental Staves, that is a start.
• Earth Grip also helps if you are casting Earth spells at your level, but an INT grip wouldn't hurt either.
• A lot of your SCH AF gear really isn't that good for actual playing in. I'd recommend spending a lot of time in Campaign and getting some of the lvl 68 Cobra gear from the past. They have some decent nuking pieces. Just compare and contrast to see which you'd rather have. Also, you'll probably need some help but Vicious Mufflers from the past are nice too.
• Sell those rings and get some INT/MND rings. Of course, INT for nuking/enfeebling and MND for healing/enhancing. SCH is too MP efficient to need to focus on MP+ gear. The same goes for Earrings. There is an NM that drops a really good nuking earring. Moldavite Earring.
• Waist is ok, might be able to find something else.
• Good job on the back piece. +1 if possible, but at this point you've got an upgrade coming soon anyway.
• You've got the right idea on the Tathlum. Could replace it with a Sturm's Report, but that is more MACC than INT.

Ultimately what you're looking for in a Nuke set is Magic Attack Bonus > Int > Magic Accessory > MP. Also, make sure you are casting Sandstorm and Klimaform prior to nuking him if you get the chance (I don't know what you have time to do, never did the fight but this is just standard stuff to look into). Don't forget Tabula Rasa. Make a macro that activates all your stratagems at once (Parsimony, /wait 1, Alacrity, /wait 1, Ebullience).

Overall path of the fight:

1. Cast your standard buffs + Hailstorm and Klimaform. Klimaform has a very short duration when compared to its recast so make sure it is the last spell you cast and you are doing Step 2 immediately afterwards.
2. When you engage, start out with Ebullience + Cryohelix (or dispel, then helix) with the ice staff equipped. Hopefully the fight doesn't take 1 min, but the extra damage while you do certainly helps.
3. Quickly switch back to Sandstorm once you finish casting helix and activate Tabula Rasa.
4. Use your Stratagem spam macro and spam your strongest spells! Since you have Sandstorm up, it might just be beneficial to spam Stone III and IV.
5. Cure and debuff as necessary.

Macros are your friend.

earing link:
http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Moldavite_Earring

last you a long,long time.

only replace if you have 6 mab earing from abyssea/ novio or the past pair 5 MAB earings, but you must brake the pair if you get the abyssea earing

sometimes x amount of INT > x amount of MAB but I cannot really tell you without knowing spell and gear.

at the level you need this fight though MAB > int for damage should be correct.

loose mp gear, vary rare any mage job uses mp gear, even SMN is getting more options of stat + stuff now.

the only real value MP+ gives you is that first start nuke, at 90 though I love someone to squeese such a set with 80 inv slots lol

http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Penitent%27s_Rope
that is still a good waist because of mind/ int and -emn, good all purpose, there is +7 belts now ( not at G5 level though, level 80) but no -emn.
http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Cognition_Belt

the only af you should be using at that level is hat, body can be agured, I do not know what resist rate is like without merits. body upgrade is only 2 int though.

I looked up Cobra since i was 75 on all mage jobs when it came out and all i have to say is wow at body:

http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Cobra_Robe

that is more damage then af, so loose af body if you can deal full damage ( not need + ele skill)
HQ vs NQ staff will pad your acc, that’s the other thing, not only did i have merits while leveling sch I had HQ staffs so resists/ magic partial misses, was not an issue for me.

[Tohihroyu]

@ Rambus I really *really* want that set but its a little hard soloing mobs to get loads of exp/AN as a 73 SCH, if it where somehow possible to "share" AN with same id's it'd be way easier (though Tohi is just as low on AN >.> sooo...)

Yeah heh XD sorry if it seemed like I was showing off, but I was lucky that time all Gunther did was Regen, Regen the book & Protect the book, I left him zero time to even cast shell on himself or the book. Also as started in the description I had elemental magic capped for 70, I just soloed the rng rats while in the blu Pool to cap it. they don't get in melee range of you but if you don't like to take chances then do sleep nuke or bind nuke, if you get links (like with non rng) just run though the water.

[Saefinn]

Nah, it's helpful - I saw other videos use the buff route, but I'll give it a shot your way and see if I'm more successful. I can see myself spending a LOT of time getting the Cobra stuff, as nice as it all is, I think I'll get the Moldy earring (if people don't steal my mob this time) and the best INT+ and Mag ATT+ equip I can get my mitts on.