Quick informal post in response to the MV patch update. See here if you have no clue what Modus Veritas (MV) is.
Direct Quote from SE Patch Notes:
After a helix spell is cast on a target, a predetermined period of time must elapse before Modus Veritas can be used effectively. Furthermore, certain Notorious Monsters will now demonstrate resistance to the effects of Modus Veritas.
I only wanted to post about this to try to alleviate some confusion on how this actually affects the "MV gank" strategy. Despite what most people are saying, the fact that you have to wait a certain period of time before a MV can be used after helix is cast does not change the strategy in any way. To repeat, the fact that you must wait "X" amount of time after a helix lands to use MV does NOT change the strategy. The strategy works equally well whether you go immediately after helix lands or if you were to even wait 10 seconds. What will kill this strategy is likely the "resistence to the effects of Modus Veritas", of which AV is likely included.
To explain the concept, say you land a helix that will land 60 seconds, then layer 9 MVs on it immediately at the same time (theoretical case here - there is obviously some timing error involved). The amount of time remaining on the helix after 9 MVs can be calculated:
60 seconds * (0.75)^9 =~ 4.5 seconds
Now let's say this new patch requires a 10 second wait period after the helix before any MVs can land (this is an extreme example... it's likely much much less):
(60 seconds - 10 seconds) * (0.75)^9 =~ 3.75 seconds
We find that the duration remaining after all MVs have landed is actually not that bad, even with a nasty 10 second delay on Modus Veritas usage... so what's going on?
It turns out that the most important thing is that all the Modus Veritas are landed as close to each other as possible. It does not matter when the MVs are started usually - only that they are landed very close to each other. To give you an extreme example of this, I'll give you 1 last example. Say this situation occurs pre-patch. 60 second helix, and 8 of the 9 helices are landed immediately after the helix lands, but the last person messes up and delays 2 seconds after everyone else. Let's see what happens:
[(60 seconds * (0.75)^8) - 2 seconds] * 0.75 =~ 3.01 seconds
By having that 1 person go late by just 2 seconds, the duration has been severely diminished - much more so than in the previous case where everyone went together, just 10 seconds late. I think if you logic this out in your head at how Modus Veritas works, this will make sense without the math.
Even with this, though, the strategy is basically useless since it's a near certainty that AV has some sort of resistance to Modus Veritas, making the "gank" useless. Considering the difficulty of pulling this strategy off, it's pretty much not worth it on anything that can be killed in a "normal" manner; however, I just wanted to point out that it still does work on things without this mysterious "resistance."
Cheers!
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________________________________________
Direct Quote from SE Patch Notes:
After a helix spell is cast on a target, a predetermined period of time must elapse before Modus Veritas can be used effectively. Furthermore, certain Notorious Monsters will now demonstrate resistance to the effects of Modus Veritas.
I only wanted to post about this to try to alleviate some confusion on how this actually affects the "MV gank" strategy. Despite what most people are saying, the fact that you have to wait a certain period of time before a MV can be used after helix is cast does not change the strategy in any way. To repeat, the fact that you must wait "X" amount of time after a helix lands to use MV does NOT change the strategy. The strategy works equally well whether you go immediately after helix lands or if you were to even wait 10 seconds. What will kill this strategy is likely the "resistence to the effects of Modus Veritas", of which AV is likely included.
To explain the concept, say you land a helix that will land 60 seconds, then layer 9 MVs on it immediately at the same time (theoretical case here - there is obviously some timing error involved). The amount of time remaining on the helix after 9 MVs can be calculated:
60 seconds * (0.75)^9 =~ 4.5 seconds
Now let's say this new patch requires a 10 second wait period after the helix before any MVs can land (this is an extreme example... it's likely much much less):
(60 seconds - 10 seconds) * (0.75)^9 =~ 3.75 seconds
We find that the duration remaining after all MVs have landed is actually not that bad, even with a nasty 10 second delay on Modus Veritas usage... so what's going on?
It turns out that the most important thing is that all the Modus Veritas are landed as close to each other as possible. It does not matter when the MVs are started usually - only that they are landed very close to each other. To give you an extreme example of this, I'll give you 1 last example. Say this situation occurs pre-patch. 60 second helix, and 8 of the 9 helices are landed immediately after the helix lands, but the last person messes up and delays 2 seconds after everyone else. Let's see what happens:
[(60 seconds * (0.75)^8) - 2 seconds] * 0.75 =~ 3.01 seconds
By having that 1 person go late by just 2 seconds, the duration has been severely diminished - much more so than in the previous case where everyone went together, just 10 seconds late. I think if you logic this out in your head at how Modus Veritas works, this will make sense without the math.
Even with this, though, the strategy is basically useless since it's a near certainty that AV has some sort of resistance to Modus Veritas, making the "gank" useless. Considering the difficulty of pulling this strategy off, it's pretty much not worth it on anything that can be killed in a "normal" manner; however, I just wanted to point out that it still does work on things without this mysterious "resistance."
Cheers!
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EDIT: (11/09/09 Update Notes) MV is patched on certain NMs. The fact that you have to wait "X" amount of time after a helix lands for MV to be used actually does not affect this strategy. However, NM resistance probably will and AV is almost certainly on the list of resistance mobs.
>>「Absolute Virtue」 新SS <<
Screenshots had to be removed or severely edited due to some privacy complaints. Also, the videos are currently "private" until I get them edited somehow. You can view the descriptions still though. Sorry.
Overview
For the better part of 4-5 months, myself and a team from Odin Server comprised of TeamKanican, LimitBreak, and BBQGold members have been working on the fabled "SCH MV Stack" trick, which basically involves stacking the little-known JA "Modus Veritas", leading to exponential damage increases. As I write, this I am incredibly disappointed as this strategy was essentially outed on BG by a group that failed to even kill anything of significance with this method (basically AV); however, I suppose this is the nature of things when you deal with potentially game-breaking oversights in mechanics.
I write this on September 26, 2009, a few hours after the method was outed on BG, and fully expect a ninja patch within a week maximum. As I actually no longer / rarely play, it's impossible for me to muster up the coordination necessary to make one last ditch attempt at this idea before patching. In an effort to hopefully see Absolute Virtue killed before this inevitable patch comes down in the near future, I hope that this information provided here can give any group with the resources the ability to quickly pull together an AV attempt.
________________________________________
________________________________________
( Videos - The Basics )
( Damage Potential Charts )
( AV Attempt )
( Current Issues with Timing )
( History of the MV Stack )
________________________________________
________________________________________
Conclusions
If any group out there actually has even 6 Scholars with the merits (even OK if some do not have them) and wishes to make a real attempt, feel free to comment or contact me via BG PMs. This post is very insufficient in fully explaining the mechanics of this process. This post goes over the "1-shot kill" method involving 9 Modus Veritas stacking; however, there is an alternative AV killing strategy that was proposed involving a combination of normal tanking and locking methods combined with less potent 7-8 MV attacks. This is also a potentially viable killing strategy.
Overall, I feel a bit disappointed in the original poster on BG who outed this method's choice to do so. Having worked with so many in the community behind the scenes in hopes that ANY of our groups could record a single AV kill, it is very disheartening to see one out the culmination of multiple groups' work over the course of half a year or more. Despite this, no one should be surprised that a secret of this magnitude would eventually be outed - my only regret would be if this were to be patched in the next few days without a recorded AV kill.
Regarding the "moral" issue, I feel that objectively, you could make the case that nothing about Modus Veritas is being abused in this strategy. It was clearly meant to stack - it was clearly meant to double damage. The best phrase for this instance for me would be "an oversight in game-mechanics". Unlike the Salvage Dupe exploit, nothing is really being used here that resulted in oddities (e.g. disband allies, triple items drop from the sky). Still, it was clear to us all that this would be patched if SE knew about it, and for this reason, you could make the case of inherent guilt - we knew it was wrong so we hid it basically.
Personally, I make no attempt to "morally" justify the use of this method. All I can say is when it comes to Absolute Virtue, any method is fine by me. I have always believed, and still do, that the only true way to beat Absolute Virtue is to cheat or exploit. I sincerely hope some group, any group, is able to figure this out before we all decide to move on from FFXI to bigger and better things. Until then, best wishes to you all.
Cheers.
________________________________________
________________________________________
>>「Absolute Virtue」 新SS <<
Screenshots had to be removed or severely edited due to some privacy complaints. Also, the videos are currently "private" until I get them edited somehow. You can view the descriptions still though. Sorry.
Overview
For the better part of 4-5 months, myself and a team from Odin Server comprised of TeamKanican, LimitBreak, and BBQGold members have been working on the fabled "SCH MV Stack" trick, which basically involves stacking the little-known JA "Modus Veritas", leading to exponential damage increases. As I write, this I am incredibly disappointed as this strategy was essentially outed on BG by a group that failed to even kill anything of significance with this method (basically AV); however, I suppose this is the nature of things when you deal with potentially game-breaking oversights in mechanics.
I write this on September 26, 2009, a few hours after the method was outed on BG, and fully expect a ninja patch within a week maximum. As I actually no longer / rarely play, it's impossible for me to muster up the coordination necessary to make one last ditch attempt at this idea before patching. In an effort to hopefully see Absolute Virtue killed before this inevitable patch comes down in the near future, I hope that this information provided here can give any group with the resources the ability to quickly pull together an AV attempt.
________________________________________
________________________________________
( Videos - The Basics )
( Damage Potential Charts )
( AV Attempt )
( Current Issues with Timing )
( History of the MV Stack )
________________________________________
________________________________________
Conclusions
If any group out there actually has even 6 Scholars with the merits (even OK if some do not have them) and wishes to make a real attempt, feel free to comment or contact me via BG PMs. This post is very insufficient in fully explaining the mechanics of this process. This post goes over the "1-shot kill" method involving 9 Modus Veritas stacking; however, there is an alternative AV killing strategy that was proposed involving a combination of normal tanking and locking methods combined with less potent 7-8 MV attacks. This is also a potentially viable killing strategy.
Overall, I feel a bit disappointed in the original poster on BG who outed this method's choice to do so. Having worked with so many in the community behind the scenes in hopes that ANY of our groups could record a single AV kill, it is very disheartening to see one out the culmination of multiple groups' work over the course of half a year or more. Despite this, no one should be surprised that a secret of this magnitude would eventually be outed - my only regret would be if this were to be patched in the next few days without a recorded AV kill.
Regarding the "moral" issue, I feel that objectively, you could make the case that nothing about Modus Veritas is being abused in this strategy. It was clearly meant to stack - it was clearly meant to double damage. The best phrase for this instance for me would be "an oversight in game-mechanics". Unlike the Salvage Dupe exploit, nothing is really being used here that resulted in oddities (e.g. disband allies, triple items drop from the sky). Still, it was clear to us all that this would be patched if SE knew about it, and for this reason, you could make the case of inherent guilt - we knew it was wrong so we hid it basically.
Personally, I make no attempt to "morally" justify the use of this method. All I can say is when it comes to Absolute Virtue, any method is fine by me. I have always believed, and still do, that the only true way to beat Absolute Virtue is to cheat or exploit. I sincerely hope some group, any group, is able to figure this out before we all decide to move on from FFXI to bigger and better things. Until then, best wishes to you all.
Cheers.
________________________________________
________________________________________
Overview
A Scholar in Dark Arts functions essentially as a Black Mage, requiring standard nuking sets such as maxed damage and high skill. In Part IV, we covered the elemental skill set for Scholar and reached the conclusion that when maxed, functions at similar efficiency to a near maxed Black Mage; however, the gear required to reach this difficult to near-impossible to attain. So while theoretically a maxed Scholar should function at equal or better capacity to a maxed Black Mage in Elemental Skill in the long term, this is actually near-impossible to see in practice due to current gear limitations.
In this post, I hope to move back into normal nuking sets outside the realm of resist rates and do a real in-depth comparison of the nuking efficiencies between Scholar and Black Mage. I had previously done a rather basic analysis of the nuking capabilities between the 2 jobs, and this time hope to provide a little more depth. Previously, I only provided comparisons between Black Mage and a Scholar nuking under various charges, but did not consider the fact that charges are not infinite. This analysis will attempt cover this issue.
Lastly, I hope take the basic concepts behind the Scholar's inherent MP efficiencies and apply it to an underused set of nuking equipment - the maximum Enmity Down set. For various reasons, this set never became popular on Black Mage; however, because of the innate MP efficiency advantage of the Scholar's nukes when paired with stratagems, in addition to gear selection differences between the 2 jobs, this set can be used to great effect on a Scholar.
I highly recommend at least taking a glimpse at the math portion of this post; however, if you would like to skip over this section, begin reading at "Scholar Efficiency and Gear" and focus on colored text and conclusions.
Also, please forgive the randomness of the pics. I just threw together anything that had me on SCH.
Enjoy!
Scholar Guide (Part I)
Scholar Guide (Part II)
Scholar Guide (Part III)
Scholar Guide (Part IV)
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________________________________________
( Gear Sets )
( Scholar Versus Black Mage - MP Efficiency )
( Analysis Including Charge Limitation )
( Scholar Efficiency and Gear )
( Why an Enmity Down Set? )
( Cases Using Enmity Down Set )
( Enmity Down Set and Black Mage )
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________________________________________
Conclusions
I realize this post is long, even for my standards, so I'll try to provide as best a summary as I can of the take-home points. I highly encourage you read the contents of this post if you want to cite this for any potential arguments though. The math and "assumptions" are absolutely critical for you to accurately use the numbers I have provided. But still I realize it's good to summarize... so here's this post in five easy statements:
(1) A completely naked SCH in Parsimony nukes at a higher efficiency than even a perfectly geared BLM.
(2) Even when considering the fact a SCH doesn't get infinite charges, it still nukes at a much higher efficiency.
(3) The use of a "Max Enmity Down" set for SCH requires little to no "cost" in inventory slots.
(4) This Enmity Down set is potentially very useful in a variety of both mundane and endgame situations.
(5) SCH makes better use of this Enmity Down set than BLM due to inventory differences and its innate abilities.
My intention for this post is not to fuel a Black Mage versus Scholar debate, something I know this Scholar guide series has been cited for on a number of occasions. I would like to continually point out that (1) Black Mage has and always will be my favorite job; (2) I am most competent on Black Mage; (3) all my unique solos were first accomplished on Black Mage; (4) my most difficult solo (LBC) could not be done on a Scholar in its current form. I do not care to fuel this debate in these guides - if I choose to it would be in a separate post.
The undeniable fact is that Scholar provides an unrivaled MP efficiency in Dark Arts, even when spamming nukes at an insane rate of 4 nukes a minute (something you would be hard pressed to pull off even in a solo). This post hopefully illustrates both this and the added fact that its innate efficiency gives it advantages when using non-damage-maxed gear sets like the Enmity Down set described in this post.
My hope for this particular post is just to give you the best and fullest understanding of what characterizes a nuke-based DD and why a Scholar can amply compete with, if not straight up blow BLM out of the water in many nuking situations. To be fair, this post does not talk about maximizing damage in short bursts, which is something Black Mage still excels at; however, I still feel that this post covers the vast majority of nuking situations, where MP efficiency is by far the most important stat.
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Pic of the Day
( Macha's Coat )
Drama Thread of the Day
It's a good one.
Wait... Seriously?
( Special Task Force )
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________________________________________
A Scholar in Dark Arts functions essentially as a Black Mage, requiring standard nuking sets such as maxed damage and high skill. In Part IV, we covered the elemental skill set for Scholar and reached the conclusion that when maxed, functions at similar efficiency to a near maxed Black Mage; however, the gear required to reach this difficult to near-impossible to attain. So while theoretically a maxed Scholar should function at equal or better capacity to a maxed Black Mage in Elemental Skill in the long term, this is actually near-impossible to see in practice due to current gear limitations.
In this post, I hope to move back into normal nuking sets outside the realm of resist rates and do a real in-depth comparison of the nuking efficiencies between Scholar and Black Mage. I had previously done a rather basic analysis of the nuking capabilities between the 2 jobs, and this time hope to provide a little more depth. Previously, I only provided comparisons between Black Mage and a Scholar nuking under various charges, but did not consider the fact that charges are not infinite. This analysis will attempt cover this issue.
Lastly, I hope take the basic concepts behind the Scholar's inherent MP efficiencies and apply it to an underused set of nuking equipment - the maximum Enmity Down set. For various reasons, this set never became popular on Black Mage; however, because of the innate MP efficiency advantage of the Scholar's nukes when paired with stratagems, in addition to gear selection differences between the 2 jobs, this set can be used to great effect on a Scholar.
I highly recommend at least taking a glimpse at the math portion of this post; however, if you would like to skip over this section, begin reading at "Scholar Efficiency and Gear" and focus on colored text and conclusions.
Also, please forgive the randomness of the pics. I just threw together anything that had me on SCH.
Enjoy!
Scholar Guide (Part I)
Scholar Guide (Part II)
Scholar Guide (Part III)
Scholar Guide (Part IV)
________________________________________
________________________________________
( Gear Sets )
( Scholar Versus Black Mage - MP Efficiency )
( Analysis Including Charge Limitation )
( Scholar Efficiency and Gear )
( Why an Enmity Down Set? )
( Cases Using Enmity Down Set )
( Enmity Down Set and Black Mage )
________________________________________
________________________________________
Conclusions
I realize this post is long, even for my standards, so I'll try to provide as best a summary as I can of the take-home points. I highly encourage you read the contents of this post if you want to cite this for any potential arguments though. The math and "assumptions" are absolutely critical for you to accurately use the numbers I have provided. But still I realize it's good to summarize... so here's this post in five easy statements:
(1) A completely naked SCH in Parsimony nukes at a higher efficiency than even a perfectly geared BLM.
(2) Even when considering the fact a SCH doesn't get infinite charges, it still nukes at a much higher efficiency.
(3) The use of a "Max Enmity Down" set for SCH requires little to no "cost" in inventory slots.
(4) This Enmity Down set is potentially very useful in a variety of both mundane and endgame situations.
(5) SCH makes better use of this Enmity Down set than BLM due to inventory differences and its innate abilities.
My intention for this post is not to fuel a Black Mage versus Scholar debate, something I know this Scholar guide series has been cited for on a number of occasions. I would like to continually point out that (1) Black Mage has and always will be my favorite job; (2) I am most competent on Black Mage; (3) all my unique solos were first accomplished on Black Mage; (4) my most difficult solo (LBC) could not be done on a Scholar in its current form. I do not care to fuel this debate in these guides - if I choose to it would be in a separate post.
The undeniable fact is that Scholar provides an unrivaled MP efficiency in Dark Arts, even when spamming nukes at an insane rate of 4 nukes a minute (something you would be hard pressed to pull off even in a solo). This post hopefully illustrates both this and the added fact that its innate efficiency gives it advantages when using non-damage-maxed gear sets like the Enmity Down set described in this post.
My hope for this particular post is just to give you the best and fullest understanding of what characterizes a nuke-based DD and why a Scholar can amply compete with, if not straight up blow BLM out of the water in many nuking situations. To be fair, this post does not talk about maximizing damage in short bursts, which is something Black Mage still excels at; however, I still feel that this post covers the vast majority of nuking situations, where MP efficiency is by far the most important stat.
________________________________________
________________________________________
Pic of the Day
( Macha's Coat )
Drama Thread of the Day
It's a good one.
Wait... Seriously?
( Special Task Force )
________________________________________
________________________________________
Overview
Disclaimer before I begin...
Unlike my other recent SCH posts, I chose not to include this particular post within the "Scholar Guide" series because I realize that not every player uses a PC and/or chooses to use the unofficial Windower and its plugins. I do not make any attempt at a "morality" argument in this post, but simply state that Spellcast and Windower are beneficial to those who choose to use it. If you condemn the use of Windower and Spellcast, I respect your opinion and your right to voice said opinion.
In this post, I want to go over some tricks I developed over the course of my 3 months using the Spellcast Windower Plugin on Scholar. This is one of the most difficult to learn, yet most game-changing plugins in the Windower arsenal and if you agree with the use of 3rd party aids, I highly recommend any Scholar serious about playstyle to learn and use it. I'll begin this post by stating an opinion:
It is physically impossible for a human being to reach near maximum potential on Scholar without the aid of a plugin like Spellcast. The Scholar job involves 10+ useful, spammable job abilities that must be called upon quickly and in a myriad of situational cases. Even with extended macro books, there are not enough macro slots in FFXI to be called upon quickly enough to cover all situations. Spellcast allows you to deal with the vast majority of these situational cases on 1 macro palatte, and can drastically improve your play speed and timing.
Sample Code is in Purple Italics.
Enjoy!
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( Smart Standing Macro )
( Tabula Rasa Stratagem Spam )
( Addendum Based Spell Correction )
( Stratagem Based Gearing Options )
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Conclusion
More than any other job in FFXI, Scholar gains the most from using a plugin like Spellcast. The job simply has so many abilities, spells, and spell-ability combinations that it would be impossible to macro all this to maximum efficiency without a 3rd party aid. In the 3 months I had the pleasure of using this plugin on Scholar, I drastically changed both my playstyle and even inventory since I was now able to use situational gear I was unable to work in prior due to macro limitations.
I also want to use a small part of this post to give credit to Aikar, the creator of the Spellcast plugin, which he calls his "baby". The customization of the plugin itself gives any job incredible flexibilty and I would encourage anyone willing to use Windower plugins to pursue it on jobs outside of Scholar. For those new to programming, I suggest learning Spellcast using Aikar's BLM template - this was the template I built my Spellcast code around while learning it myself. For those truly interested in maxing out with Spellcast, I also encourage you to check out other aspects of it such as stacking Fast Cast gear in "Precast" mode. There are already many good sources and code for general functions like this so I won't talk about it here.
In this post, I chose to only go over specific examples of how to use Spellcast to improve various aspects of Scholar play as opposed to just posting my entire Spellcast code (which honestly is a complete mess and would make a programmer's eyes bleed). I feel that understanding each individual part of code is more important and ultimately more beneficial to anyone trying to learn Spellcast on Scholar.
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Life Outside Odin
Instead of the typical "Pic of the Day" and "Drama Thread of the Day", I want to spend this section talking about life outside Odin for me the past 2 months...
( Life Outside Odin )
________________________________________
________________________________________
Disclaimer before I begin...
Unlike my other recent SCH posts, I chose not to include this particular post within the "Scholar Guide" series because I realize that not every player uses a PC and/or chooses to use the unofficial Windower and its plugins. I do not make any attempt at a "morality" argument in this post, but simply state that Spellcast and Windower are beneficial to those who choose to use it. If you condemn the use of Windower and Spellcast, I respect your opinion and your right to voice said opinion.
In this post, I want to go over some tricks I developed over the course of my 3 months using the Spellcast Windower Plugin on Scholar. This is one of the most difficult to learn, yet most game-changing plugins in the Windower arsenal and if you agree with the use of 3rd party aids, I highly recommend any Scholar serious about playstyle to learn and use it. I'll begin this post by stating an opinion:
It is physically impossible for a human being to reach near maximum potential on Scholar without the aid of a plugin like Spellcast. The Scholar job involves 10+ useful, spammable job abilities that must be called upon quickly and in a myriad of situational cases. Even with extended macro books, there are not enough macro slots in FFXI to be called upon quickly enough to cover all situations. Spellcast allows you to deal with the vast majority of these situational cases on 1 macro palatte, and can drastically improve your play speed and timing.
Sample Code is in Purple Italics.
Enjoy!
________________________________________
________________________________________
( Smart Standing Macro )
( Tabula Rasa Stratagem Spam )
( Addendum Based Spell Correction )
( Stratagem Based Gearing Options )
________________________________________
________________________________________
Conclusion
More than any other job in FFXI, Scholar gains the most from using a plugin like Spellcast. The job simply has so many abilities, spells, and spell-ability combinations that it would be impossible to macro all this to maximum efficiency without a 3rd party aid. In the 3 months I had the pleasure of using this plugin on Scholar, I drastically changed both my playstyle and even inventory since I was now able to use situational gear I was unable to work in prior due to macro limitations.
I also want to use a small part of this post to give credit to Aikar, the creator of the Spellcast plugin, which he calls his "baby". The customization of the plugin itself gives any job incredible flexibilty and I would encourage anyone willing to use Windower plugins to pursue it on jobs outside of Scholar. For those new to programming, I suggest learning Spellcast using Aikar's BLM template - this was the template I built my Spellcast code around while learning it myself. For those truly interested in maxing out with Spellcast, I also encourage you to check out other aspects of it such as stacking Fast Cast gear in "Precast" mode. There are already many good sources and code for general functions like this so I won't talk about it here.
In this post, I chose to only go over specific examples of how to use Spellcast to improve various aspects of Scholar play as opposed to just posting my entire Spellcast code (which honestly is a complete mess and would make a programmer's eyes bleed). I feel that understanding each individual part of code is more important and ultimately more beneficial to anyone trying to learn Spellcast on Scholar.
________________________________________
________________________________________
Life Outside Odin
Instead of the typical "Pic of the Day" and "Drama Thread of the Day", I want to spend this section talking about life outside Odin for me the past 2 months...
( Life Outside Odin )
________________________________________
________________________________________
EDIT: In this post, I talk about the idea that 1 Elemental Skill possibly equals either 1 MACC at all skill levels, or 0.9 MACC above 200 skill (similar to melee skills). At the time of this post, there was no conclusive evidence to reject either, hence my post mentions either could be true. In a post by Robonsto, weeks after this post was originally opened, he was able to show with reasonable statistical significance that 1 Elemental Skill DOES equal 1 MACC at all levels, UNLIKE melee skills. I repeat, unlike melee skills, 1 Elemental Skill equals 1 MACC at all skill levels.
Overview
In the previous sections, I've gone over some basic macroing strategies, an introduction into SCH solo in Dark Arts, and a look at SCH in Light Arts focusing on the -50 enmity set. In this post, I hope to go over specifically how Scholar fairs relative to BLM concerning magical resistance rates in elemental magic. As you should know by now, Scholar is given strong, but not ideal skill ratings of B+ in essentially all categories of magic. This post will tell you how to maximize your magical accuracy specifically for elemental magic in addition to how the lower base skill of SCH compares to the "ideal" elemental magic DD, BLM.
Before beginning, I feel like any job that relies on magic should read this post as it takes a look at properly maximizing your magical accuracy using new data which is not anecdotal, but statistically based. Some of the concepts here were quite new to me as of a month ago, and I suspect a good portion of the community has not caught on to these new set of tests. Special thanks to both the person originally conducting the test, who I will refer to as Lodeguy in this post, and the translator, Robonosto. Much of this data collection and analysis is still ongoing, so please keep this in mind when reading.
Finally, near the end of this post, I will be discussing the state of Scholar in terms of balance relative to the Black Mage job. By the end of this analysis on resistance rates, it should become clear that a Dark Arts SCH is not only more MP efficient, self-reliant, and versatile than BLM, but also nearly equal in terms of resistance rates on most resistant type mobs. As a player that basically specializes in both these jobs, I will try to make my case as to why and how much SCH is imbalanced relative to BLM.
I know many of you have been looking forward to another SCH post, so I hope this doesn't disappoint.
Scholar Guide (Part I)
Scholar Guide (Part II)
Scholar Guilde (Part III)
Scholar Guide (Part V)
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( Magical Resistance Testing )
( The '320/120' Build )
( The 'Super INT' Build )
( My Elemental Resist Set )
( Cheap Elemental Resist Set )
( Black Mage VS Scholar )
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Conclusions
This post contains links and summaries of some amazingly well conducted magic accuracy tests. I highly suggest that anyone interested in maxing out their mage jobs to read at least the summaries and to build their magic sets around it. While the focus of this post is elemental magic, you can easily apply the information to other sets such as Enfeebling and Dark Magic.
In this post, I made the case that Scholar is the ideal magical DD in FFXI endgame given ideal gear for both Black Mage and Scholar jobs due to a much higher inherent MP efficiency. The only thing that can potentially hold Scholar back is the elemental magic resistance rate - an issue which is becoming increasingly less noticeable as equipment and job updates increase. Given this, a Scholar with the proper resistance and nuking sets truly is the strongest magical DD in the game - a situation which should be alarming in terms of game balance considering it's a hybrid job, but very cool if you are a Scholar.
While some of the equipment needed to compete with the Black Mage job on resistant NMs is currently hard to obtain - ranging from difficult (e.g. Argute's Belt) to essentially impossible (e.g. Aureole), remember that any equipment update can only benefit Scholar and not Black Mage since it is already capped in terms of resistances. I encourage any Scholar serious about the job to take a careful look at the best options for elemental resistance sets and strive to attain them. A Scholar's lack of equipment would be the only thing holding it back from being the strongest magical DD. While resistance gear is much easier to attain for BLM, given ideal gear, a SCH is better. At this point, Scholar is truly a compete job as it has received its AF2, AF1+1, and both Merit categories. While obviously meant to be a sort of hybrid job, to me it is clearly no longer the case when given ideal gear and builds.
While I have been extremely hard on the current state of the Black Mage job, I will point out that I do still use Black Mage over Scholar for most mid-level to difficult soloing - this post only really shows that it is inferior to Scholar in group play and HNMs. Why? The issue deals with "fatigue" and the Scholar charge recast - an important limitation that prevents the job from being completely outright broken.
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( My Top 10 )
Drama Thread of the Day
Really? Seriously?
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Overview
In the previous sections, I've gone over some basic macroing strategies, an introduction into SCH solo in Dark Arts, and a look at SCH in Light Arts focusing on the -50 enmity set. In this post, I hope to go over specifically how Scholar fairs relative to BLM concerning magical resistance rates in elemental magic. As you should know by now, Scholar is given strong, but not ideal skill ratings of B+ in essentially all categories of magic. This post will tell you how to maximize your magical accuracy specifically for elemental magic in addition to how the lower base skill of SCH compares to the "ideal" elemental magic DD, BLM.
Before beginning, I feel like any job that relies on magic should read this post as it takes a look at properly maximizing your magical accuracy using new data which is not anecdotal, but statistically based. Some of the concepts here were quite new to me as of a month ago, and I suspect a good portion of the community has not caught on to these new set of tests. Special thanks to both the person originally conducting the test, who I will refer to as Lodeguy in this post, and the translator, Robonosto. Much of this data collection and analysis is still ongoing, so please keep this in mind when reading.
Finally, near the end of this post, I will be discussing the state of Scholar in terms of balance relative to the Black Mage job. By the end of this analysis on resistance rates, it should become clear that a Dark Arts SCH is not only more MP efficient, self-reliant, and versatile than BLM, but also nearly equal in terms of resistance rates on most resistant type mobs. As a player that basically specializes in both these jobs, I will try to make my case as to why and how much SCH is imbalanced relative to BLM.
I know many of you have been looking forward to another SCH post, so I hope this doesn't disappoint.
Scholar Guide (Part I)
Scholar Guide (Part II)
Scholar Guilde (Part III)
Scholar Guide (Part V)
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( Magical Resistance Testing )
( The '320/120' Build )
( The 'Super INT' Build )
( My Elemental Resist Set )
( Cheap Elemental Resist Set )
( Black Mage VS Scholar )
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Conclusions
This post contains links and summaries of some amazingly well conducted magic accuracy tests. I highly suggest that anyone interested in maxing out their mage jobs to read at least the summaries and to build their magic sets around it. While the focus of this post is elemental magic, you can easily apply the information to other sets such as Enfeebling and Dark Magic.
In this post, I made the case that Scholar is the ideal magical DD in FFXI endgame given ideal gear for both Black Mage and Scholar jobs due to a much higher inherent MP efficiency. The only thing that can potentially hold Scholar back is the elemental magic resistance rate - an issue which is becoming increasingly less noticeable as equipment and job updates increase. Given this, a Scholar with the proper resistance and nuking sets truly is the strongest magical DD in the game - a situation which should be alarming in terms of game balance considering it's a hybrid job, but very cool if you are a Scholar.
While some of the equipment needed to compete with the Black Mage job on resistant NMs is currently hard to obtain - ranging from difficult (e.g. Argute's Belt) to essentially impossible (e.g. Aureole), remember that any equipment update can only benefit Scholar and not Black Mage since it is already capped in terms of resistances. I encourage any Scholar serious about the job to take a careful look at the best options for elemental resistance sets and strive to attain them. A Scholar's lack of equipment would be the only thing holding it back from being the strongest magical DD. While resistance gear is much easier to attain for BLM, given ideal gear, a SCH is better. At this point, Scholar is truly a compete job as it has received its AF2, AF1+1, and both Merit categories. While obviously meant to be a sort of hybrid job, to me it is clearly no longer the case when given ideal gear and builds.
While I have been extremely hard on the current state of the Black Mage job, I will point out that I do still use Black Mage over Scholar for most mid-level to difficult soloing - this post only really shows that it is inferior to Scholar in group play and HNMs. Why? The issue deals with "fatigue" and the Scholar charge recast - an important limitation that prevents the job from being completely outright broken.
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十大ニュース
Instead of a typical set of pics, I decided to post my own personal 十大ニュース, which basically an activity started by ElmerThePointy where you list out the top 10 things or events for you in the past calender year in FFXI.( My Top 10 )
Drama Thread of the Day
Really? Seriously?
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chasethestars
chasethestars