So ... Apocatastasis

I've been using Apocatastasis, assuming it reduced ALL incoming elemental damage by 30%, and only bothered to read it correctly today. It only increases the resistance for fire, ice and lightning by 30%.

Apart from the obvious; Ifrit, Chimera, Ultima HM and Coil (and I'm not sure whether some of the skills actually have an elemental affinity, rather than just looking cool), where exactly would I bother using this? To gain it at level 40 too, I would have assumed that it would be viable for content at that level range - NOPE; 99.5% useless. With it's fairly specialized nature, 12 second duration, 120 second cooldown, and the 60 second immunity being applied to the target after it wears off - plus the slight reduction in damage dealing when using it - I would have thought it would be more ... impressive.

It can be useful in VERY specific circumstances, and that's the issue I have with it - why is a class that is focused on damage dealing and nothing else, have such a niche skill? I doubt the vast majority of BLM reading this even thought 'oh, ADS - Apocatastasis is useful here'

It should increase ALL elemental resistances by 30% for it's duration, considering it only lasts for 12 seconds (maybe 1 or 2 actual elemental attacks happen in this duration).

Considering it's up time and niche use, I don't believe it would be overpowered even with that change.

Thaumaturges and Black Mages are supposed to have mastered the use of elemental aether, so why do we suck at it so bad?

Final Thoughts: Why is a skill that screams CHIMERA not even unlocked until two levels after Cutters Cry opens it's doors?

You sir are mistaken, currently there is not even a specific case where you would actually use it. The spell need fundamental changes since Yoshi did in fact say he does not want end game to be about elemental resistance.

The spell does not need a buff, it needs actual design change.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by NeoAmon

You sir are mistaken, currently there is not even a specific case where you would actually use it. The spell need fundamental changes since Yoshi did in fact say he does not want end game to be about elemental resistance.

The spell does not need a buff, it needs actual design change.

---

I agree, it does need a major design change. However, I cannot forsee such a change occurring any time soon, and so at least SOMETHING would be nice. It wouldn't be hard whatsoever either, just add the remaining elements to the skill - that's it.

Also, I recall Yoshi P mentioning something similar. I do believe though that this wouldn't effect that goal. This is not going to base all end-game around elemental resistance. Suddenly Earth Resistance IV won't suddenly fly off the shelves, it will simply provide a use for a skill (which is only marginally useful) in a few more situations.

well technically it is useful at stone vigil, which is only 1 level higher

at least i think isgebind's attacks are ice-based

Does Apocatastasis work on the the Fire spitting twintania stages? is there any point to casting it on my MT if he's running around with fireballs on him?

I would be suprised if it actually reduced elemental damage at all. Resistances a broken to begin with

I could see it being useful in PvP against another BLM... maybe. I don't know. *shrug* That's what I originally thought it 'would' be used for when I first read the tooltip. It's clear that PvP was in mind when some abilities were made. For example, Rouse (SMN pet cooldown buff) wipes all CCs in addition to added damage -- and that was in the game long before PvP was introduced. The CC-wipe component of Rouse was absolutely useless until PvP.

It takes a good chunk of resistance to start to see an impact and even then, I don't know if it's a flat out reduction or percentage based.

One time you may consider using it is in Ifrit Extreme if you get chained to a tank and they're about to swap. Since you might reposition yourself to be closer to this tank, you might use Apocatastasis on the tank to reduce the damage of Incinerate (or triple Incinerate depending on timing *unenthused yay*).

But yeah... that's too many ifs lined up to use up an ability slot.

The spell flat out sucks as is and we don't even have a use for elemental resistance. Materia resistance is a waste as well. I agree the spell needs a complete change, but not the change you suggested. Your suggestion unfortunately keeps the spell at the suck level. It won't help it in other words. I have been flat out told "don't worry about doing that...it does not do anything". Elemental resistance is just a waste period.

I don't have a suggestion for a fix, but I can concur the spell is useless right now.

Please make a change to this spell to make it useful. Please make freeze better also.

I wouldn't mind seeing act like Manaward on the target. Even keep the debuff so it can't be spammed on a single target.

Amazing name, poorly designed skill.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Saevel

I wouldn't mind seeing act like Manaward on the target. Even keep the debuff so it can't be spammed on a single target.

---

Elaborate on this please.

Would be great if the entire spell changed to be personal CD. We only have one at the moment "Raging Strike", having a second CD that increase elemental damage for few seconds would be great and make the spell not just useful but great job addition instead of the support useless spell it is atm. Even something like 5%-8% would be nice.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by NeoAmon

Would be great if the entire spell changed to be personal CD. We only have one at the moment "Raging Strike", having a second CD that increase elemental damage for few seconds would be great and make the spell not just useful but great job addition instead of the support useless spell it is atm. Even something like 5%-8% would be nice.

---

Yes please. BLM is the only class with only one CD and Raging Strikes is one of the longer ones.
I suppose we can pop Ether for an extra Flare for a dps increase, but I'd hardly put that on the level of a real CD.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by NeoAmon

Would be great if the entire spell changed to be personal CD. We only have one at the moment "Raging Strike", having a second CD that increase elemental damage for few seconds would be great and make the spell not just useful but great job addition instead of the support useless spell it is atm. Even something like 5%-8% would be nice.

---

a buff skill that increases critical hit chance would be nice.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by hamsteak

well technically it is useful at stone vigil, which is only 1 level higher

at least i think isgebind's attacks are ice-based

---

I completely forgot about SV.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Ryuko

I could see it being useful in PvP against another BLM... maybe. I don't know. *shrug* That's what I originally thought it 'would' be used for when I first read the tooltip.

---

Never thought of PvP, as it's something I have no interest in whatsoever, although I 'could' see a potential use, again it's still such an 'if' skill that there are better things to keep my eye on.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Pinworms

The spell flat out sucks as is and we don't even have a use for elemental resistance. Materia resistance is a waste as well. I agree the spell needs a complete change, but not the change you suggested. Your suggestion unfortunately keeps the spell at the suck level. It won't help it in other words.

---

Maybe increase resistance to elementally aspected DAMAGE by 30% instead of just increasing resistance? . Then this would work for any physical or magical damage, and keep in line with the THM/BLM lore. It would be like a combined Manawall/Manaward combo (less potent in one regard, yet just as potent in another), that doesn't enhance the BLM itself.

Also, yes I do know that there are better ways to fix this, however if you want something different, then that requires a lot of effort, testing, and balancing. I don't think my suggestion breaks anything balance wise and is just a nice little niche skill a BLM can bring to the party. The elemental aspects are there (otherwise why even 'start' developing resistance stats and materia..?), and they can be utilized without having to change anything major.

It's really great actually. I've used it on multiple occasions to save tanks and healers. But the thing is, DPS is suppose to DPS. If everything goes well, you don't need to use it. So if you're running in a group where everyone knows what they're suppose to do, you will never use it.

30% is huge.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but currently there are only 5 damage types.

Slashing
Blunt
Piercing
Magic
For lack of a better term, "True".

The physical damage is split accurately, or the damage buffs that the tank/PDPS throw up check class rather than damage type, but the three (Slashing, Piercing, Blunt) work correctly.

There is no noticeable gain from using Apocatastasis. It is a joke spell. It increases elemental resistances when there is actually no elemental damage. Just magic damage. (Foe Requiem is a flat magic damage increase as opposed to elemental resistance; Far as I know, Holy is increased by it, as is Scathe.)

Most Boss moves fall under Physical, magic, or "True". True damage being the stuff that Hallowed Ground, Holmgang, or other damage reduction properties doesn't affect at all.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Kabooa

Correct me if I'm wrong, but currently there are only 5 damage types.

Slashing
Blunt
Piercing
Magic
For lack of a better term, "True".

The physical damage is split accurately, or the damage buffs that the tank/PDPS throw up check class rather than damage type, but the three (Slashing, Piercing, Blunt) work correctly.

There is no noticeable gain from using Apocatastasis. It is a joke spell. It increases elemental resistances when there is actually no elemental damage. Just magic damage. (Foe Requiem is a flat magic damage increase as opposed to elemental resistance; Far as I know, Holy is increased by it, as is Scathe.)

Most Boss moves fall under Physical, magic, or "True". True damage being the stuff that Hallowed Ground, Holmgang, or other damage reduction properties doesn't affect at all.

---

Even Manaward is kinda strange. It negates the damage of the bomb in Titan, but it doesn't do anything if you eat a plume from Ifrit.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Arkghyom

Amazing name, poorly designed skill.

---

This.

By name, I was expecting a bind that inflicted a tri-elemental dot for it's duration, mimicking the BLM elements of fire, ice and unaspected (scathe). Boy was I let down.

Or, it would act like Alter Time from WoW and snapshot your character when cast, including all buffs and such, and then 6 seconds later, go back to that snapshot, allowing you to extend your buff durations by 6 seconds.

Both of those fit the name, definitely much more than the load of crap it is now. I can only hope they change it, or buff it, just make it useful so it doesn't feel like wasted effort on just pressing the button for it.

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...=1#post1782754

If anyone have a better way to re-word what I typed, please go ahead and post it here, and I will edit my post with it.

Edit: Someone else should post something about heavy movement fights and how we are naturally at a disadvantage if you guys feel the need for it. I'm not having a problem with it, personally, but constantly parsing other geared BLMs in Titan Ex tells me there might be a general problem. It is actually causing some PF groups on my server to outright refuse to take a BLM for Titan Ex.

NeoAmon, you may remember this thread from a little while back: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...t-buff-request

Something like this is kinda needed... Low duration, low recast, provides no dps gain for most fights or as a cross-class ability... But would add some skill to the BLM playstyle, and reward said skillful play by allowing us to get around some of these movement handicaps on certain fights... *cough* Titan *cough*

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Pinworms

Elaborate on this please.

---

Creates a barrier that nullifies magic damage totaling up to 30% of a Disciple of War or Magic party member's maximum HP. Cannot be reused on an individual for 60 seconds from when the effect wears off. Cannot be cast on self.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Kenji1134

NeoAmon, you may remember this thread from a little while back: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...t-buff-request

Something like this is kinda needed... Low duration, low recast, provides no dps gain for most fights or as a cross-class ability... But would add some skill to the BLM playstyle, and reward said skillful play by allowing us to get around some of these movement handicaps on certain fights... *cough* Titan *cough*

---

I agree, you should post a question about it in the same thread I linked. General inquiry about BLM disadvantage in fights like Titan and Ifirt Ex would do us some good I hope.

I had a random idea about Apocatastasis while driving home today... an idea so random, we would need to rename the ability =P

So, most dps and dps oriented classes come complete with their own 10% resistance debuff. Monk, Dragoon, Warrior... Bard is a "support" class but gets its from Dragoon at no cost to the Dragoon... But mages get our's from Bard at the cost of 20% of the Bard's damage... and it also means that nobody can get Manasong or Paeon.

My random thought: Lets swap the positions of Manawall and Apoc, Mana at 40, Apoc at 45.
So, new Apoc...alypse beam of OPness...

Instant Cast
60 Second Recast
Costs all remaining mana, with a minimum cost of 1064. (4x that of Flare)
Delivers 3 hits at 170 Potency (Fire, Ice, Unaspected). 510 Total.
Reduces target's elemental resistance by 10% for 70 seconds, does not stack with Foe's Requiem. (And cannot be overwritten by Foe's)
Removes all stacks of Astral Fire and applies 3 Stacks of Umbral Ice.

So this is a fairly high cost attack, that on 1 target is stronger than Flare, though Flare is stronger on 2+ targets.
It is more costly than Flare, drops you to 0 mana, and puts you directly into a regen phase, so you are kinda useless for about 3 seconds.

The key idea here is that this is closer to what we probably "hoped" Flare would be. It is a high cost, high reward, high cooldown super-attack.
Now a few things should be noted about this move.

1. The 510 potency instant cast makes it ideal for blowing up small targets, gaols, plumes, small adds, etc, WHILE RUNNING!
2. But if you use it to blow up a small target, you dont get a 10% debuff on the boss... A debuff that lasts slightly longer than the recast, so you get even MORE damage out of it IF you dedicate it to the boss.
3. The 3 hits of 170 vs 1 hit of 510 is both thematic and practical. Thematically, it hits the target with all 3 types of damage that BLM can put out. Functionally, if your target has a damage shield, for one reason or another... Uh, be careful, cause you will take 3 hits back from said shield... Just... because. =)

So, very strong, thematic, functional attack that gives us a lil more mobility, a good chunk more periodic burst, and lets us do our maximal dps WITHOUT being at the mercy of a bard... at least on one target.
Foe's Requiem will still be amazing for aoe, but with this, we can do good dps, be more specialized for range bursting, AND get the bards off our backs about their 20% damage loss.

Edit:
Did some thinking from a balance standpoint... hah!

So lets say that my old rotational potency average of ~110 pot/sec is still roughly true after all of the UI changes.
Now we'll replace 1 hit per minute with 510 potency. So lets say we have a GCD of 2.5, for math's sake. 1 minute = 24 casts. 23*110*2.5+510 = 6835, vs 6600/min using the old rotation. That is a 3.56% dps increase. And on top of that we have a 10% buff we can maintain ourselves, so that would bring our net potency/minute to 7518, or 125 pot/sec... A grand total of a 13.9% increase from the 110 base approximation.

Um, its not HUGE!!! But its nothing to scoff at.

btw, random lil comment.
Did some parsing with a few bards...

I85ish Bard with Primal Bow and Disembowel = 334 dps at 2 min.
I85 BLM with relic+1 and Foe's Req = 280 dps at 2 min.

Seriously, am I a horrible horrible blackmage? Or is there something kinda wrong here?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Kenji1134

snip

---

Look at the total damage done and the overall entire fight avg DPS. There is also one more thing to understand, their are fights we absolutely crush everyone in, fights we preform averagely the same as everyone else and fights other jobs have an advantage in.

From experience, so long you are doing 20%+ of the total damage in fights we have a disadvantage in such as Titan ex, you are doing very well. I have parsed so many BLMs in Titan ex, some absolutely struggle to achieve 12%-15% total damage, and some do 18%~.

Your numbers & the bard looks to be Max Dps, this is worthless. You need to parse in real fights, Coil and the 3 Primals Ex. Then look at your total damage, and avg over all DPS in comparison to everyone else.

Edit: I have not done Coil yet this week, If you want I will parse T1-T5 and give you the results to use them as reference.

Cant hurt.
Im gradually getting everything to 50 anyway, last 2 combat classes left are Archer and Arcanist, neither of which I am overly fond of... But it'll get done eventually anyway =P

But yeah, some parses from T1-5 would be nice, with group buffed stats to go along with em. =)

Any thoughts on my crazy idea for Apoc...alypse Beam of OPness?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by NeoAmon

Look at the total damage done and the overall entire fight avg DPS. There is also one more thing to understand, their are fights we absolutely crush everyone in, fights we preform averagely the same as everyone else and fights other jobs have an advantage in.

From experience, so long you are doing 20%+ of the total damage in fights we have a disadvantage in such as Titan ex, you are doing very well. I have parsed so many BLMs in Titan ex, some absolutely struggle to achieve 12%-15% total damage, and some do 18%~.

Your numbers & the bard looks to be Max Dps, this is worthless. You need to parse in real fights, Coil and the 3 Primals Ex. Then look at your total damage, and avg over all DPS in comparison to everyone else.

Edit: I have not done Coil yet this week, If you want I will parse T1-T5 and give you the results to use them as reference.

---

Doing mine in 7 hours. :( Getting ready for disappointment for turn 4.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Vulpix

Doing mine in 7 hours. :( Getting ready for disappointment for turn 4.

---

I can jump on your Voic Communication and run you down a very good strat step by step and few critical notes which are usually missed in T4. Will I'm free anyway & bored so yeah, let me know ^^.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by NeoAmon

I can jump on your Voic Communication and run you down a very good strat step by step and few critical notes which are usually missed in T4. Will I'm free anyway & bored so yeah, let me know ^^.

---

Huh? Nah, my team can clear turn 4 down without hitting a single tick of enrage. I'm getting ready to be disappointed by the loot. :( Thanks for the offer though. That chest with the pants? It's going to drop that Allagan Ring of Healing yet again. :(

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Vulpix

Huh? Nah, my team can clear turn 4 down without hitting a single tick of enrage. I'm getting ready to be disappointed by the loot. :( Thanks for the offer though.

---

oh I misunderstood, sorry. Yeah, huge disappointment await in the form of a MNK belt.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by NeoAmon

oh I misunderstood, sorry. Yeah, huge disappointment await in the form of a MNK belt.

---

Well, one of my bard has an alt monk, so I don't feel too bad about it since the loot will not go to waste. :) No more dragoon please. One of our members actually reluctantly took a DRG item because THREE people with a dragoon alt already have that belt. :(

T1-T4 results.

Will do T5 tomorrow since our SCH was absent today and we decided to wait for him for at least T5. I will post screen shots somewhere else once I do T5, but for now:

Mini ADS (We do ignore the adds completely):

• Bard: 26,342. 22% of the total damage
• BLM: 24,116. 20%
• MNK: 23,454. 20%
• SMN: 21,543. 18%
• Garuda: 5630. 5%

T1: Caduceus.

• BLM: 80,400. 23%
• Bard: 70,491. 20%
• SMN: 52,826. 15%
• MNK: 52,326 15%. << Was AFK for a good portion of the fight. Usually he would do much better.
• Garuda: 17,516. 5%

T2: ADS only & using magic res route.

• Bard: 56,614. 24%
• MNK: 47,673. 20%.
• BLM: 36,024. 15%
• SMN: 32,754. 14%
• Garuda: 11,440. 4%

T4:

• BLM: 117,936. 22%. << More damage than the three Dreadnaughts combined.
• MNK: 111,303. 21%
• Bard: 100,425. 19%
• SMN: 89,490. 17%
• Garuda: 27,464. 5%

Notes:

1- This is for reference only, please don't use it for epeen or rude comments.

2- Foe was only up in T4 for the two rooks and bugs stage. Mere few second meant to buff double flare. Was also up in T1 for the last 5% of the fight.

3- All 4 of us are full ilvl90 but only the SMN have his ilvl95. None of us is BiS though.

4- Once more this is meant to be for reference ONLY.

5- No LB damage was counted at any stage.

6- This is as accurate as it can get. The key word here is ACT, use google for more info.

Im well in to End game with 2 lvl 50s now. I just saw/noticed this skill for the first time today in Stone Vigil. As this is a dungeon that throws fire, lightning and ice @ you, its a good place to use it. theres also that room with (i believe) 2 aevis and 2 lightning sprites. That would be a great time to use it. But it seems (besides ifrit) this is the only good place for it

What about for fireballs on T5?