Uldahn Brand?

So I've been playing around with THM a good bit recently and have been having quite a good bit of fun. Been surfing the forums and such for optimal gear choices and its looking like the crowd favorite is a Lightning Brand with INT materia, correct? (At least for lightning damage and the upcoming Burst skill which sounds outrageously overpowered)

Unfortunately the Immortal Flames doesn't have any shield that is anywhere near as good as the Gridania Square Shield BUT I did notice a curious lv40 weapon "Ul'dahn Brand" which has Attack Magic Potency +25, Lightning Magic Potency +15. +5 in each category over the regular lv41 Lightning Brand. Could any experienced THMs aye or nay as to whether that +5/+5 potency would be in any way superior to a regular Lightning Brand with +15~20 INT attached?

stats really dont make much of a difference at this point in the game. I do just slightly more damage with a vintage cudgel with +16 int, and gear that is fully materia'd (magic pot, int, magic crit, etc etc etc) as ppl who have just the lightning brand/mog staff and no materia. But not enough damage to really make spending all that gil I spent worthwhile.

Get whichever you like for the moment but I suggest the lightning brand, until stats play more of a roll there is no real need to waste hard earned seals

I'm not a stat wizard by any means, but I can tell you what I've read and you can believe what you want to believe.

Attack magic potency is better for boosting damage when your INT is at a ceiling.

INT is better for boosting damage and getting over the resist wall when nuking mobs of higher level.

Its disappointing that stat really still mean that little. But thanks for the info.

Edit: That makes sense Faded, do you know what the INT ceiling is?

My best guess would be around low to mid 300's at level 50 but I can't state that as fact.

I'm nearing 400 INT and I'm still seeing progress in my DPS.

Most gear that can't be melded is shit when it comes to mages.

Stats do make a difference, I would love to see you out DPS a well geared THM to a non geared THM on Ifrit.. People just assume since you can do the fight naked people feel stats are meaningless.. personally I would go the Thunder Brand route with trying to attach a) Mag Acc IV or b) X2 Meld with at least +25 INT, you will see noticable increases in damage output..

and to go off what Fated had stated ( /wave Fated :) ) INT cap will vary on what the mobs INT cap is.. I can tell you now on Ifrit.. INT goes alot further then stacking Mag Att.. If I had a X2 Meld Mag Crit Potency Gloves I would doing over 750 Thundara Crits on Ifrit.. single Melds wont make as much of an impact as doubles do..

Stats do matter, most ppl just dont understand how they work so they say its broken..

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Originally Posted by Yoohre_WildRiver

Stats do matter, most ppl just dont understand how they work so they say its broken..

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Some true words right here folks..

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Originally Posted by Fated

I'm not a stat wizard by any means, but I can tell you what I've read and you can believe what you want to believe.

Attack magic potency is better for boosting damage when your INT is at a ceiling.

INT is better for boosting damage and getting over the resist wall when nuking mobs of higher level.

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I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and ask for your data on this, but fairly certain it has been well established that INT & AMP have no ceiling, and also have no effect on magical accuracy.

My suggestion to OP: Currently some stats might be working funny, but INT and Attack Magic Potency have been verified as working AWESOMELY. Thread: INT working as intended.

Get the Lightning Brand with a good INT meld, or Electrum with a good MACC meld. Preferably double/triple melds if possible. No unmeldable weapon is going to compare.

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Originally Posted by Yoohre_WildRiver

Stats do matter, most ppl just dont understand how they work so they say its broken..

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how exactly? Im truely curious

Just in materia I have +16 int on my weapon, +22 int on my head +16 attack magic pot on my feet +42 magic crit pot on my hands, +7 mind/int on my legs

I also have +21 int earrings and all the other stats that come standard on my gear which includes magical accuracy, more int, attack magic potency, lightning magic pot and what not.

The damage I deal in ifrit has minimal difference with the damage other ppl with no materia or earring or anything are doing or the damage I am doing if I go in naked. If they do 550 I do maybe 575-600 and thats alot of stat stacking for 25-50 points of damage.

The only difference I see when I go in naked is that I draw less hate allowing me to nuke more and do more damage over the course of the fight than I otherwise would.

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Originally Posted by MicahZerrshia

how exactly? Im truely curious

Just in materia I have +16 int on my weapon, +22 int on my head +16 attack magic pot on my feet +42 magic crit pot on my hands, +7 mind/int on my legs

I also have +21 int earrings and all the other stats that come standard on my gear which includes magical accuracy, more int, attack magic potency, lightning magic pot and what not.

The damage I deal in ifrit has minimal difference with the damage other ppl with no materia or earring or anything are doing or the damage I am doing if I go in naked. If they do 550 I do maybe 575-600 and thats alot of stat stacking for 25-50 points of damage.

The only difference I see when I go in naked is that I draw less hate allowing me to nuke more and do more damage over the course of the fight than I otherwise would.

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Typically in a fight like Ifrit, you probably shouldn't be caring about nuke amounts and more about unresisted nukes; i.e., a MACC set. Also, since Ifrit is very damage resistant, you have to look at it from a percentage perspective. You say someone does 550 while you do 600. If you do the math there you are beating them by around 10% on damage, which is a pretty decent margin considering you haven't explored the realm of double/triple melds.

As for your "go in naked" strat, I think you are completely missing the point. Consider the following options for "not getting hate on Ifrit":

1. Go in naked. Nuke as you normally would.
2. Go in well geared. Nuke at a lower frequency to keep from getting hate. Do same damage as above. Keep a higher MP pool than above.

As you can see, being well geared on thaum isn't all about doing more damage. The more you can squeeze out of your nukes the more MP efficient you can become. If you're having to drop your equip to keep from getting hate on Ifrit you need to majorly reevaluate your nuke pacing.

EDIT: If you want a math equation for it, compare your naked damage vs your geared damage. If your naked damage is 20% less, then all you would need to do is slow down your nuking by 20% while geared.

its not really my pacing tho, i actually nuke slower than other thms in the pt and avoid a full thundaga chain all together since that will make my blink red

on my first cast after tank gets hate and every else is also attacking I cast thunder > thundara glows > i wait for 3 seconds left on my chain timer to prevent an abundance of hate > thundara > I go red

then Im doing the delicate balancing act of standing on the yellow/red line the whole fight, 1 too many nukes i blink red. none of the other thms in the pt have this issue. I alway pace my chains so once thunder hits i wait til i have 2-3 seconds left on my timer to thundara. I avoid excruciate, dark seal or anything else that would make me crit or up my damage per nuke and sometimes I have to stand there doing very little while everyone else is going to town.

My damage doesnt seem to be that much different only my emnity generation which makes no sense to me since I have to nuke slooooowga comparitively and I have no emnity+ gears

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Originally Posted by MicahZerrshia

its not really my pacing tho, i actually nuke slower than other thms in the pt and avoid a full thundaga chain all together since that will make my blink red

on my first cast after tank gets hate and every else is also attacking I cast thunder > thundara glows > i wait for 3 seconds left on my chain timer to prevent an abundance of hate > thundara > I go red

then Im doing the delicate balancing act of standing on the yellow/red line the whole fight, 1 too many nukes i blink red. none of the other thms in the pt have this issue. I alway pace my chains so once thunder hits i wait til i have 2-3 seconds left on my timer to thundara. I avoid excruciate, dark seal or anything else that would make me crit or up my damage per nuke and sometimes I have to stand there doing very little while everyone else is going to town.

My damage doesnt seem to be that much different only my emnity generation which makes no sense to me since I have to nuke slooooowga comparitively and I have no emnity+ gears

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Well, I can't really offer any other tips. I can relate though, unfortunately pacing is a fine art on mage classes and I wouldn't expect it to work out perfectly always. If you are running in a static, maybe your tank isn't doing the best job?

However, I would check out the FFXIV enmity testing done here: http://kanican.livejournal.com/54094.html - Granted it was done in 1.18, a lot of it still applies and gives a lot of insight on how the enmity generation works. I'd also suggest passing it on to your glad.

Do the other THMs, apart from doing less damage, have Touch of Serenity on their belts by any chance?

Another thing to try is Chameleon if you also have ARC high. If you don't then a spell will proc Quelling Strike. You definitely get the TP from it, which lets you recharge your Second Wind (TP) bar using only spells. I have not confirmed whether you get reduced emnity as well.

I don't have Chameleon, but I spam Quelling Strike whenever I can and typically can stay in yellow for most of the fight while staying the top 3 on the DPS list.

EDIT: Hey! I use a Vintage Cudgel too! Crits ftw! Mine has Hell's Eye IV on it though, and I get only occasional resists. If I used m.acc food I would probably get none.

I need a quintuple melded -enmity belt. I do too much damage.

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Originally Posted by Brigandier

I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and ask for your data on this, but fairly certain it has been well established that INT & AMP have no ceiling, and also have no effect on magical accuracy.

My suggestion to OP: Currently some stats might be working funny, but INT and Attack Magic Potency have been verified as working AWESOMELY. Thread: INT working as intended.

Get the Lightning Brand with a good INT meld, or Electrum with a good MACC meld. Preferably double/triple melds if possible. No unmeldable weapon is going to compare.

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Hello,

Some unscientific backing up on this (and I may be in an interesting position to do this).

I'm a THM who has not put ANY of the skill points into Intelligence when levelling up! All went into Mind and Piety. In Ifrit fights next to another THM who has more INT than me (lots of INT gear and obviously INT attribute points), I notice that she consistently does a lot more damage than I.

You could, in theory, with a mountain of Touch of Serenity IV and truckloads of Raptorskin Satchel Belts, get a -50 emnity belt, right? (CORRECTION: max is -8 emnity, so -40 total. Thanks Fated!)

That would be so fantastic. You literally could not pull hate no matter what you did.

Hm...now I'm tempted to make my belt a double...it begins

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Originally Posted by Asiaine

Hello,

Some unscientific backing up on this (and I may be in an interesting position to do this).

I'm a THM who has not put ANY of the skill points into Intelligence when levelling up! All went into Mind and Piety. In Ifrit fights next to another THM who has more INT than me (lots of INT gear and obviously INT attribute points), I notice that she consistently does a lot more damage than I.

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lol, ouch. SE needs to implement point reallocation soon; however, that might actually be a viable setup if you are focused on highest MACC, MP, and Enfeebling Effects like bind on Blizzara.

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Originally Posted by REDace0

You could, in theory, with a mountain of Touch of Serenity IV and truckloads of Raptorskin Satchel Belts, get a -50 emnity belt, right?

That would be so fantastic. You literally could not pull hate no matter what you did.

Hm...now I'm tempted to make my belt a double...it begins

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Had a friend blow about 4.2mil on a double meld the other day. Good luck on a quint!

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Originally Posted by REDace0

You could, in theory, with a mountain of Touch of Serenity IV and truckloads of Raptorskin Satchel Belts, get a -50 emnity belt, right?

That would be so fantastic. You literally could not pull hate no matter what you did.

Hm...now I'm tempted to make my belt a double...it begins

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I think the meld chance becomes 0% after a certain stat threshold? I don't know if that actually means a flat out 0 or just a really large .0000000000000000x% etc.

Anyway, even if that wasn't true, the highest you can get on a perfect Touch of Serenity IV is -8 so theoretically the highest you could go would be 8 x 5 = -40 enmity.

touch of rage was the most stubburn x2 melds ive tryed, dont know about serenity.

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Originally Posted by MicahZerrshia

how exactly? Im truely curious

Just in materia I have +16 int on my weapon, +22 int on my head +16 attack magic pot on my feet +42 magic crit pot on my hands, +7 mind/int on my legs

I also have +21 int earrings and all the other stats that come standard on my gear which includes magical accuracy, more int, attack magic potency, lightning magic pot and what not.

The damage I deal in ifrit has minimal difference with the damage other ppl with no materia or earring or anything are doing or the damage I am doing if I go in naked. If they do 550 I do maybe 575-600 and thats alot of stat stacking for 25-50 points of damage.

The only difference I see when I go in naked is that I draw less hate allowing me to nuke more and do more damage over the course of the fight than I otherwise would.

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I completely agree with you here though. Too many cry babies whined and moaned about NOT wanted stats to have too great of an effect. WHy, I have no earthly idea, except that alot of morons prefere to cry first and "think" later. They also cried to limit the amount of stats we could change on our own.

That being said, SE really, just plain and simply over complicated the stats. WHy do we need INT and ATK Mag Pot. both raising damage?They can have various modifiers for dfferent spells. They should just make each class/job and each spell have various %. An example. CNJ have the highest base heal. Then they get a 15% modifier for each point of MND. Other classes have 1/2 the base heal, with a 15% MND modifier. Various DD abilities could have various base damage and various % modifiers depending on there intended purpose. We don't need soft/hard caps. We don't need dimishing returns levels. Mages get a good % of M Acc for PIE with a higher base and say 30% modifier, melee get alot less base abd 1/2 the % modifier........See where I am going with this?