The Bottom Feeders: Moves You Never Use and Why (Ver. 3)

[Gamer3427]

MCH:Grenado Shot, Dismantle, Rend Mind

Dismantle and Rend Mind you really should be using. Even if you don't want to learn the mechanics and throw them up when it's able to lower a major attack, you should at least throw Dismantle, (or Rend Mind if you know it's a fully magic damage based enemy), in every now and then between your normal attacks when you don't have any oGCDs to hit with, since it doesn't hurt your damage and makes the tank take a little bit less damage from attacks from a bit. 5% may not sound like much, but it adds up pretty quickly.....

As for Grenado Shot, I can get, but don't agree with entirely. There's a time and place for it, namely when dealing with weak mobs that will die quickly, or when dealing with a particularly large group of adds. That extra 20 damage may not be a whole lot, but again, small-seeming numbers can add up.....

On the other three I completely agree, and below are my reasons why.....

Leg Graze - Doesn't do any damage, and is virtually useless in group content due to the fact that enemies won't be moving once the tank stops. It's only real use is to slow down a single enemy chasing you if the tank dies, in which case you probably need more than that to save you. In solo content, it's slightly more usable pre-GB since you can use it to slow an enemy while you run around, keeping you from getting hit. Still not worth a hot bar slot though.....

Foot Graze - Only slightly better than Leg Graze, since again, enemies won't be moving in group content once the tank stops. It CAN be used to hold back an enemy if for some reason it's necessary, or if you use a Blank combo to sit an enemy out of a fight. That's still inadvisable though due to the fact that being kept away from the group means AoEs can't hit that enemy, and the tank can't build aggro on it. Also, like all bind skills, a single hit will break the bind, so an AoE or ranged player hitting the enemy right as you use it means that it was a waste of a skill. More useful in Solo content because you can lower the number of enemies attacking you by using it, which helps slightly with our lack of self-healing or defensive skills. Still really not worth a hot bar slot by any means though....

Suppressive Fire - I'll go ahead and say it. Outside of solo content or having a tank who refuses to stun, this skill is completely useless. You have to be point blank range to use it, enemies have a limit to the number of times they can be stunned so you run the risk of hitting that limit on bosses preventing the tank from stopping dangerous attacks, and shares a cooldown with Head Graze which does the same damage, has vastly superior range, and has no limit on the number of times its effect can work on the target. Again, if your tank is stunning, or you have NIN/MNK/DRG/WHM/AST in the party, then you have no reason to ever use this skill. In solo content, it is what it is, a stun, which is useful if you can't dodge an attack. Again though, not worth having on the hotbar.....

As you can see, these three skills aren't really useless, they're just so close to useless in group content that you'll never be using them outside of VERY specific situations. Because of this, it's better to just leave them off the hotbar and pretend they don't exist unless you find some piece of solo content you can't do without them. They might have some use in PvP as well, but that's more or less solo content anyhow because of how it's set up and since other players don't follow the same mentality that NPC monsters do, (usually anyhow)....

[verandal]

Aetherial Manipulation is a pain to use on gamepad. Not only you have to scroll all over the party list with the d-pad, you also have to know the exact positioning of everyone so you can choose who you want to teleport to.

Usually the white Mage/or other healer is standing in a good spot to be in. You can set up a macro to select that person specifically.

Side quote to Fynlar who said aetherial manipulation is a skill never used... If any BLM tells you this they are a bad BLM.

[Kaurie]

SMN

1. Tri-Bind
2. I use it infrequently, as it is sometimes a DPS increase if Blizzard II is not an option, but this is very rare.
3. I have no real suggestions, I can use it sometimes, but it's very situational and rare.


1. Titan-Egi
2. It steals threat from the tanks. I use it to gain enmity in hunts and I used it in leveling.
3. Have an option for it to not generate enmity but rather soak damage with the tank


1. E-Drain
2. I use it infrequently, because it is a DPS loss compared to my other Aetherflow skills. However, I use it to regain MP after dying.
3. The only suggestion I have for this is to have it give back more MP or provide more damage, or both - It seems very underpowered compared to other Aetherflow abilities.


I use pretty much every other SMN ability pretty regularly.

[cgbspender]

1. Titan-Egi
2. It steals threat from the tanks.

Tanks level 15 ? surely. Experimented lvl 60 ? really ?

[Kaurie]

Tanks level 15 ? surely. Experimented lvl 60 ? really ?

Experienced you mean?

I should clarify, I mean that it's only role is that it generates enmity and does defense buffs to itself, and thus provides no group bonuses that have a legit tank. I have not used Titan in a group setting, and so I am not even sure if it's possible to steal agro from a tank (though I could see it as a possibility with rouse/spur/enkindle).

[NoctisShiva]

For NIN

hyoton: i bet its useful in pvp maybe but not in pve, only used it when i screwed up my ninjutsu back in the days with mudralag maybe add a dot-effect on it , but only that strong that it would be slightly better than raiton in its full duration (maybe like 30 sec so you wouldnt start using only hyoton then for single target instead of raiton/shuriken )

SA: well yeah, TA is definitly the better choice to use, heard that you can use it on the adds in a3s but still^^ maybe make it into an ogcd with its one timer with way less potency of course that you can only use while hidden but you dont lose "hide-" or suiton-buff in a fight when you use it ^^

perfect dodge : with the nerf i just dont bother using it anymore that often, only if i just want to in that moment ^^( targeted in a1s for example) it still saved my ass sometimes sure, but it doesnt really make a difference if i use it or not, would be nice if it worked like the way before

shukuchi: really good skill that i often use , but with a controller its sometimes difficult to aim that quickly , if the spot isnt on the place you want ( range , camera angle , etc) its just quicker to walk instead of using the jump ^^

Hide: useful in pvp or in pve solocontent / between trashmobs in dungeons, but no use in raidcontent; maybe add an effect , using it in a fight, like an aggro reset , if something goes wrong , wouldnt be used that much sure but got a bit use for those "oh shit" moments

kiss of the wesp/viper: not the skill on its own but would like to see some changes that requires us to actually stance dancing, it doesnt even really make some differences which one you choose ( sure stun is sometimes better then silence but get resisted after 3 times and some skills can only be silenced not stunned ) so now you choose just one before the fight and thats it, would like too see some more too it where you would actually see which stance you use


last but not least the fall dmg reduction, not a skill so doesnt fit in the topic but why the hell did we get this one? only for the story or something ?^^

[Morningstar1337]

last but not least the fall dmg reduction, not a skill so doesnt fit in the topic but why the hell did we get this one? only for the story or something ?^^

I think it and the move speed up trait are just for flavor's sake

[Fevelle]

So, now that I'm leveling Bard... Is Wide Volley just skill bloat now? I mean, it has the same potency of Quick Nock for a much larger TP cost and no really difference in effect, they're both plain AoE damage.

I remember playing Bard back in '2.something' and there was a proc involving these skills, but I can't remember what it was... Can someone clarify why was it removed?

[Morningstar1337]

So, now that I'm leveling Bard... Is Wide Volley just skill bloat now? I mean, it has the same potency of Quick Nock for a much larger TP cost and no really difference in effect, they're both plain AoE damage.

I remember playing Bard back in '2.something' and there was a proc involving these skills, but I can't remember what it was... Can someone clarify why was it removed?

I think the proc was a 15% chance for Rain of Death, thought the Gamer escape wii page for it might had been updated so I'm not sure if there was an additional effect as well

[Jim_Berry]

As NIN, it would be Hyoton.

I used it in T7 when we had no BRD and I was put on Renaud duty.