MRD Builds

[Holyomen]

Those who question why I don't allot any points into elements must not be aware of the secret.

Not putting any points into your elements gives you an advantage.





Ok I won't keep you in suspense. By not assigning your points on elemental stats, it doubles the amount of points you are allowed to reassign on your physical stats. If I remember correctly, instead of having 137 points to reassign, with elements left at base you now have 274 points you can reassign.

So If I want to switch from MRD tank to MRD DD or just another DD job like ARC or LNC in just one reassignment I could switch my STR to 174 and my VIT to 134.

If you're a straight warrior like myself, you'll find it very beneficial. But if you take your crafting seriously, then leaving your elements at base would not be wise.

[Holyomen]

has anyone done testing to see if it helps with magic resistance? I thought I read somewhere that they will raise the resistance of the opposing element. Like having a high Earth elemental property would lower your damage to Water attacks or something. Lots of enemies also have elemental properties to their regular attacks too.

I have tested elemental point stats and armor stats on sundrakes.
I left my stats at base, I then raised by Wind stat and gathered all the +wind armor I could find.
Lastly I raised my fire stat as well as buying up all the +fire gear I could find.

The results: There was no significant statistical variation on the damage I received fighting sundrakes and specifically their fire attack when I adjusted my elemental stats or left it alone.

The only consistent change in the damage amount I saw was when I was fighting either a rank 61, 62, 63, or 64 sundrake or by using defense abilities like Sentinel, Rampart, Tempered Will, or Defender. Rampart II being the clear winner with reducing damage down to 25%, while the rest did considerably less. Emulate ain't that great, unless you are fighting a NM with high elemental stats that are through the roof and they are using ranged or magic attacks on you. That's right, if you're tanking Batraal or Deepvoid Slave, forget about using Emulate unless you plan on tanking them at range.

And yeah, and I even tried armor that cuts breath attack damage, and still saw no reduction against the sundrake's fire/breath attacks.

[Lienn]

I have tested elemental point stats and armor stats on sundrakes.
I left my stats at base, I then raised by Wind stat and gathered all the +wind armor I could find.
Lastly I raised my fire stat as well as buying up all the +fire gear I could find.

The results: There was no significant statistical variation on the damage I received fighting sundrakes and specifically their fire attack when I adjusted my elemental stats or left it alone.

The only consistent change in the damage amount I saw was when I was fighting either a rank 61, 62, 63, or 64 sundrake or by using defense abilities like Sentinel, Rampart, Tempered Will, or Defender. Rampart II being the clear winner with reducing damage down to 25%, while the rest did considerably less. Emulate ain't that great, unless you are fighting a NM with high elemental stats that are through the roof and they are using ranged or magic attacks on you. That's right, if you're tanking Batraal or Deepvoid Slave, forget about using Emulate unless you plan on tanking them at range.

And yeah, and I even tried armor that cuts breath attack damage, and still saw no reduction against the sundrake's fire/breath attacks.

The thing is...neither wind or fire affects. Here the element is resisted by the one stronger to it. If you want fire resistance you actually need to raise Water. It was explained somewhere on these dev posts...Give Water a try...it might be interesting at Dzemael ^^

[Scape]

yep, you have to raise the opposite element. Kind of odd system but it does make sense in twisted way lol.

[Holyomen]

So let me get this straight,
If you are fighting fire, you use wind?
If you are defending against fire you use water?
Then, if you want to use fire, you raise fire?

I'll go along with that, but honestly I've kept my elements at base for months now and haven't notice myself taking anymore damage than the other people in my party. If not assigning points to my elements puts me at a disadvantage then the healers would be struggling to keep me alive on raids. Not only is that not the case, but I'm always the last man standing on a wipe out.

But like someone has mentioned, they make a difference, just a very small one. So perhaps raising your elements for magic defense is like DEX increasing your Accuracy. That's how it's supposed to work, but that's not what I see happening. Maybe when SE gets rid of Physical Levels and makes stats connected to your job level we'll see a more significant impact.

Until then, I'll stick with HP gear, Shell, Rampart, Defender, Tempered Will, Decoy, and Emulate when it comes to staying alive against magic.

[Lienn]

Wind isn't related to fire. The rest is correct tho.

If you will use fire, boost fire.
If you will attack fire you use water (and boost water)
If you will defend from fire, you boost water.

Defensively talking, boosting fire gives you resistance against ice and boosting wind gives you resistance against earth

The elemental wheel is (with ">" meaning "stronger against"):
fire > ice > wind > earth > lightning > water > fire

So against fire you have water as the strong side, ice as weak side and all the rest is neutral. This might only change a bit if you're dealing with astral and umbral since astral = fire + wind + lightning and umbral = ice + water + earth, which means they will always be "neutral" to each other and to self due elemental composition.

[GreyJorildyn]

All well and good except that's XI's elemental wheel, not XIV's.

[Lienn]

All well and good except that's XI's elemental wheel, not XIV's.

This is the "final fantasy" elemental wheel. I already sent SE my concerns regarding the current elemental wheel people assume is correct here...hopefully they will post something regarding it soon. After all its much easier it being a typo, where wind and water were just misplaced than they being using a completely different elemental wheel than any other FF game.

This typo also explains the hatred regarding it and how the elemental affinity is broken and stuff...because people "think" they're doing the stuff correctly based on the ingame info, which also is supposed to be correct. But if the ingame info fails, all the rest based on it also fails.

I also asked them to, just like we got the text, we also having the image of elemental wheel ingame...exactly like FFXI had. Its much easier to understand an image than trying to find gameplay info mixed to lore text.

[CTSwiftheal]

XIV wheel is now 2 wheels.
Fire > Ice > Wind > Fire >
and
Lightning > Water > Earth > Lightning >

[Holyomen]

XIV wheel is now 2 wheels.
Fire > Ice > Wind > Fire >
and
Lightning > Water > Earth > Lightning >

Something was telling me Wind beat Fire, thanks for confirming.