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For any class so far I've gotten the best bonus from choosing gear that gives accuracy, m. accuracy, attack, or m. potency over straight stats.
Second tier spells are definitely stronger than first tier, and you will notice a damage increase from INT and the elemental stats. It's just not as large as it can be. The difference of 100 points will make a difference. Adding 10 points will not.
For T2 spells only way i use them now is if we are fighting a mob or mobs with a defined elemental weekness that allows for somewhat of a rotation, t2, t1 until t2 hits cooldown. But that would only be in longer fights.
I have tested most things to do with CON stat wise and skill wise(Guessing its similar with THM, not 50 yet on THM). From personal experience, INT damage does increase, but as you increase it the effect gets lower and lower as it progresses through the Tiers(Which I am not sure at what point that occur, may be when it takes 1 more point to increase it a rank). As far as PIE goes, that skills does make a difference. As a previous post stated, they do increase DoT time on mobs. For me the most important thing about PIE was by the higher the PIE is the more Siphon MP you could do. When I left mine at 30 for example I could not siphon past 50 on dead or alive mobs, while with 100 PIE I siphon 140 most the time off dead mobs. Also resisting mobs spells seems to occur more. So if I had to take a preference only put INT up a little, but I would put up PIE to at least 100 as well as MND to 100.
PIE is very important, a lot more important than INT if you are hungry, but to get a PIE you have to have INT so it's kind of difficult to tell, either way, I like PIE more.
Effects of the stats are VERY noticeable, but they start to SEVERELY diminish in returns at about 110. 170 isn't the R50 cap, but you will hardly notice any difference between 130 INT and 170 INT. In essence, I think the players are expecting way too much min-max effect from customization when SE intended players to be much more forgiving in their allocations.
I recently specced back to a DD mage from a healer/smither where all my points were tied up into getting 170 STR. Siphons went from failing on brags to doing 60 with 122 pie and critical and normal success rates increased dramatically. Nukes went from 50's to 120's with similar INT increases. Sealed nukes went from 250s to 450s.
So the stats DO do things. Very nice things. But they hit massive level-based walls at levels WELL below those that players are expecting.
PIE is for THM's it effects how they stick enfeebles, if you stack enfeebles on a conj (why would you I'm a thm and they suck) you would need PIE more.
It seems that in the recent FFVIXcore interview, there was mention that the team is going to look over most if not all skills, possibly even redoing the damage calculation formulas if necessary. They mention simplifying some of the formulas, because apparently they are sometimes too complex. I suppose this is our clue to expect changes to stats--how they relate to skills and so on. Hopefully it will all be for the better.
Most of all, I really would like to see enfeebles, buffs, and DoTs play a greater role on battles. It would spark new interest in the THM class as well as helping out CON.
For one thing, they need to have all buffs and debuffs have a longer base duration. It's annoying to have to restick buffs and debuffs every minute or so and takes away my attention from more fun activities. I would accept this change causing mob's debuffs to last long on player characters as well - as long as there are skill and spells available to the player that can erase or dispell those statuses.
Agreed Hamster, the lack of time for debuffs from enemies to stick make paralyna and silena etc redundant.. Sleep is just right I think. And buffs to last 5 minutes at the most is a bit short. Shock spikes aren't so bad, however, they are extremely effective and quick to cast. Debuffs from CONs to stick is about 1 every 3 times too and I don't think Dark Seal makes much difference, they should up the odds a bit on that too so that Sleep and DoTs are more useful.
Still don't see enough of a difference from 100-180 ish to say more is important. I'll still run around with no mnd or vit and have it all pie and int as I really want it to matter. *thinking happy thoughts*
I also see no effect from dark seal. Seems if I'm going to be resisted, dark seal doesn't matter. Stats seem to add so little that I assume accuracy modifiers like DS don't help nearly as much as they should.