Ruin 1 vs Ruin 2

[AldoVonAlexandros]

Use it for this combo, ruin, ruin ii, drain, it works awesome, also u can use ruin ii while running to a target, then use miasma 2, throw a potent poison potion too, u can do various combinations

[Cynfael]

Either Ruin spell is basically filler for your DPS rotation, anyway.

Ruin 1 is fine and economical if you have literally nothing better to do than sit there and cast your mini-nuke. Seeing as I usually have something better to do, I don't end up using Ruin 1 often.

Ruin 2, as previously stated, is perfect for weaving between oGCD abilities and for adding slight DPS while staying as mobile as possible. When you need to poop out that extra little bit of damage ASAP, aren't concerned with building Blind resistance, and can't be bothered to sit there and cast Ruin 1, this is the perfect filler. Personally I find the MP cost negligible; any fight where you are able to DPS so much that you are casting a lot of Ruin spells probably isn't a fight where you are liable to run out of MP under any circumstances.

[Euphe]

I like to use Ruin II in my mitigation skill set. The little bit of damage from it is just a bonus, but the REAL cherry on top is the fact that it's instant and Blinds. For mitigation reasons alone why wouldn't you use Ruin II? As a SCH our primary job is to mitigate incoming damage.

[sheepysheepy]

to me its r2 when the blind will trigger, r1 when it wont

r2 when dodging only really if you're in a dps check and might fail it, otherwise thats a good time to look for stragglers that took unnecessary damage from it

[Amaret]

Dunno what you guys are doing... Never run out of mana with Ruin 2 Spam... We aren't SMN with way less mana and we don't use stacks for fester. (Only for Lustrate if its rly needed...)
So there shouldn't be any reason to run out of mana with ruin 2 o.ô

[SeraviEdalborez]

If you think the blind from Ruin 2 is making any meaningful difference for mitigation beyond Titan Hard and dungeon bosses (for both of which it will not see much mileage due to the diminishing returns changes compared to its original state), you're highly overrating it in that regard.

[Karatecatgrl]

The only time I use ruin 2 as a healer is when I'm solo and its usually coupled with ruin 1....
So I cast ruin 1 then use ruin 2 so from my POV I shoot 2 ruins in quick succession.

The only other time I use ruin 2 is if I have to kite something and heals are taken care of by eos/Selene

[Eggnook24]

I don't bother with Ruin, only R2. The longer cast time is pointless, and if I've got to move quick, I'd rather not be interrupted. The increase in mp is negligible, mana never runs dry with Aetherflow.

[Lovemonster]

If you are DPS'ing in cleric stance as a scholar and have time to use ruin that means there's not much healing involved so you are using energy drain. In this case the MP doesn't really matter.

One nice advantage of using ruin II over ruin I is that you can auto-attack as well. If you are in melee range of the boss (a good example is rafflesia) you can use ruin II to also auto-attack so your "potency" increases. Ruin II gives you opportunities to weave and move and is overall more flexible. It really doesn't matter for a scholar. It does matter for summoners because they have so little MP.

[Eltaire]

Personally, I use Ruin I for the most part.

I'll only use Ruin II if I need to be quickly dodging AoEs, as the MP cost can be quite draining, especially in some of the later dungeons.

I like the benefit of Ruin II blinding the enemies, but it's only for around 5 seconds, so it is only useful in the short term, unless you keep casting it.

There is definitely benefits to both spells, and I certainly made use of Ruin II in solo instances of the story, where I could only rely on myself (I know that there's AIs in most of the story battles, but generally they are pretty bad).