About the Drain Spell

Concept wise the Drain spell is a nice idea, unfortunately in application it is useless, only has a potency of 80 and the amount of HP returned is far to minimal to be worth it, like with my lvl 53 RDM, it was only returning at best 44 hp per cast for only 88 hp restored if used twice in succession and add to the fact it has a 190 mp cost at my lvl.

While I get that this spell is not meant to be a brute force heal like Cure, Benefic, Physick or Vercure (which is way better then Drain and I'll be getting that in one more level), that doesnt mean that it should be so utterly terrible, I feel the damage it does is fine, but the healing return needs to be alot higher, not as high as Vercure no, just higher so it can be useful pre lvl 54.

I wanna point out that BLM and SMN will have it even worse with this spell since they cant Dual Cast like RDM can and I doubt a BLM is going to waste a Triple Cast on Drain.

Addendum: When I hit something with Drain at lvl 53, I get like 277 hp back (granted I do not yet have gear that is fully appropriate, but even in PotD this spell was worthless and gear doesnt even matter there.)

By the way, I am infact trying to use this spell against stuff my level and within appropriate range of the gear I am also using.

It's just there. Considering your other role choices, stuff like Break and Drain are entirely pointless and even if they were more potent you still shouldn't ever consider taking them. Not every role skill is going to be practical.

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Originally Posted by TheChemicalCat

It's just there. Considering your other role choices, stuff like Break and Drain are entirely pointless and even if they were more potent you still shouldn't ever consider taking them. Not every role skill is going to be practical.

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It makes no sense to waste time and effort on programming a useless spell, they need to either be practical or not exist at all.

Several role skills are repurposed from existing ones. Break exists because they took the heavy effect off Stone I/Stella. Does that mean it's worth using? Absolutely not. Other pointless role skills include Foot/Leg Graze for ranged DPS, Cleric Stance for healers (c'mon it's worthless and you know it), and probably stuff like Arm's Length and Surecast because the effects they nullify are easy to work around/avoid

Edit: On that note I question WHY some skills are role skills (esuna, for example, when there was no reason to take the cleanses from the healers just to do this), and why some aren't. Nobody gives a damn about bind spells, nobody used Tri-bind, and they thought hey let's give RDM their own Tri-bind. Sleep spells are another questionable mainstay but that's more because it doesn't work on anything later anyways.

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Originally Posted by TheChemicalCat

Several role skills are repurposed from existing ones. Break exists because they took the heavy effect off Stone I/Stella. Does that mean it's worth using? Absolutely not. Other pointless role skills include Foot/Leg Graze for ranged DPS, Cleric Stance for healers (c'mon it's worthless and you know it), and probably stuff like Arm's Length and Surecast because the effects they nullify are easy to work around/avoid

Edit: On that note I question WHY some skills are role skills (esuna, for example, when there was no reason to take the cleanses from the healers just to do this), and why some aren't. Nobody gives a damn about bind spells, nobody used Tri-bind, and they thought hey let's give RDM their own Tri-bind. Sleep spells are another questionable mainstay but that's more because it doesn't work on anything later anyways.

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Oh I know that there are several really stupid choices that SE made regarding Cross Role such as the Cleansers being removed from their healers as a core built aspect.

To be fair Drain is leaps and bound better than what we had before as BLM for self healing

Drain only truly functions well vs enemies bit is about as useful as physick. At 305 it heals for like 1500 or so.

2s cast time.

Vs mobs dealing a good 3k plus specially those hunts. Your chocobo heals for 5k+.

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Originally Posted by Psycofang

Drain only truly functions well vs enemies bit is about as useful as physick.

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Huh? What do you mean? o.o

OP, you have to keep in mind that you're draining the targets health. You're likely seeing that 44 number because you're hitting a lvl 1 training dummy with it, and you can't drain it of more than its max HP.
To your addendum, while your actual gear doesn't matter in PotD, your damage does scale based on your PotD weapon level.

Hitting a lvl 60 training dummy, as a lvl 65 RDM in i270 gear, Drain is hitting for around 1090-1150 and healing me for exactly the same amount. It's not a super amazing ability, but it's not as completely useless as you make it sound.

Yeah, gonna disagree on this one. It feels remarkably more sustainable than Physick ever was. Previously using Physick (solo, doing boss FATEs) just felt like delaying death a little longer. Drain can actually get me to stable health.

Have you all considered drain might be for early solo play, i don't remember what level you get it at but know it's early on. Since your saying it doesn't have any real practical use for level 50 range of gear or instance content. Try to solo a boss fate at the same level you can slot drain.

I have infact used this spell on stuff my level, and it never shows any usefulness and Im using appropriate gear against what I am fighting, I am not over geared or overleveled against what Im fighting, my gear and level is equal to the kind of enemies I fight, and alot of them are not even Dungeon mobs.

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Originally Posted by Nezerius

Hitting a lvl 60 training dummy, as a lvl 65 RDM in i270 gear, Drain is hitting for around 1090-1150 and healing me for exactly the same amount. It's not a super amazing ability, but it's not as completely useless as you make it sound.

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Why would you even use Drain at lvl 65 when by that time you have Vercure which requires the same amount of MP but is far stronger?

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Originally Posted by Ootarion

Huh? What do you mean? o.o

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It sucks vs most dummy testing due to their low hp it leads to mis information. Bit was supposed to be "but".

Its still as equivalent useful as physick was compared to the damage we take.

Considering how early it's used, it's a useful sustain skill at low levels. Red Mage does not get Vercure until 54. Black Mage does not get a native cure. Sure, many situations you could simply out-dps your surroundings - however that's simply not always the case, or something goes wrong. This is a useful tool to push yourself a little further in a pinch - especially solo.

As a RDM post 54, it was off my bar. But it has its place for the level it's designated for.

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Originally Posted by Psycofang

It sucks vs most dummy testing due to their low hp it leads to mis information. Bit was supposed to be "but".

Its still as equivalent useful as physick was compared to the damage we take.

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Are you referring to Physick when used by SCH or when it is used by SMN?

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Originally Posted by Ootarion

Are you referring to Physick when used by SCH or when it is used by SMN?

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By smn/blm. It cannot keep up at 70 vs a decent number of mobs since for every 1200-1500 you heal they are hitting you for 2-3k+ in auto attacks at i304. Its better to just destroy them than struggle or let your chocobo heal you.

If the potency was bumped to 100 then sure maybe but 80 aint nothin.

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Originally Posted by Ootarion

Why would you even use Drain at lvl 65 when by that time you have Vercure which requires the same amount of MP but is far stronger?

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I don't, I obviously use vercure. That wasn't the point of my post, though. The point was to show that it's not nearly as useless as you think it is, since you haven't tested it properly. (See: 44 hp drain)

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Originally Posted by Nezerius

I don't, I obviously use vercure. That wasn't the point of my post, though. The point was to show that it's not nearly as useless as you think it is, since you haven't tested it properly. (See: 44 hp drain)

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I have in fact tried it against stuff that is my level, with item level appropriate gear for what I'm fighting, it barely does anything against a single target, and does nothing against two, even more so when I'm fighting three targets and so on, so I have tested it properly.

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Originally Posted by Psycofang

By smn/blm. It cannot keep up at 70 vs a decent number of mobs since for every 1200-1500 you heal they are hitting you for 2-3k+ in auto attacks at i304. Its better to just destroy them than struggle or let your chocobo heal you.

If the potency was bumped to 100 then sure maybe but 80 aint nothin.

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That's what I'm saying, either the potency of Drain needs to be buffed or the health return needs to be buffed.