Final Fantasy XI Then...

[?pint]

Frost is indeed Agility.
You can stack the Light based elemental debuffs together (Frost/Rasp/Drown) and the Darkness based elemental debuffs together (Burn/Choke/Shock).

[talizker]

LOL, no idea where I got Frost from when I was clearly talking about Shock a few minutes back!!!. From BLM101:

Shock - MND debuff, lightning damage (decreases magic resistance)
Rasp - DEX debuff, earth damage (decreases melee accuracy)
Choke - VIT debuff, wind damage (increases non-magical damage taken)
Frost - AGI debuff, ice damage (decreases evasion)
Burn - INT debuff, fire damage (increases magical damage taken)
Drown - STR debuff, water damage (decreases melee damage dealt)

Combination:
1.)Shock-Burn-Choke
2.)Frost-Rasp-Drown
3.)Drown-Choke
4.)Drown-Frost
5.)Drown-Rasp
6.)Frost-Shock
7.)Frost-Rasp
8.)Burn-Choke
9.)Burn-Shock
10.)Burn-Rasp
11.)Choke-Shock

So Shock and Burn will go nicely together to lower MND and INT. Now all I need to think about is which one to use Elemental Seal on ^^

[talizker]

Well, used a little Shock, used a little Burn - Still no idea which one works best! Maybe it's so little difference most of the time you can't see it?

[Darwock]

How did you find the nuking in general? Did the damage remain consistent throughout? I'm curious as to whether the stolen shells really were the reason mine got less effective over time.

[Tsingtao]

Think it was the stolen shells last time, that's why I dumped shell but kept the rest. Damage output seemed pretty smooth throughout, think even I chucked in a few points worth.

[talizker]

Agreed. All the Nukes were hitting for a fairly contant amount (be it consistantly good or consistantly bad!) and I didn't really see a reduction as we went through. Basically I was using a combination of Stone II, Water II, Thunder and Firga (during Manafont) and the non-resisted ones were generally landing for 100+ If it wasn't 100+ they tended to be full resist (ie 8 ish!). Why can you cast Stone II for 100+ then when you do the same spell 20 second later it does 8? Then a little later it's back up to 100+ ???

[vwilsonuk]

Why can you cast Stone II for 100+ then when you do the same spell 20 second later it does 8? Then a little later it's back up to 100+ ???

Were you alternating them or casting Stone II then another Stone II? I've heard people say that repeating the same element straight after itself is less effective. Other than this I can't think of any reasons - I was getting similar results with magic bursts mind in Garliage the other day - one of us was bursting for 120 or similar and the other was bursting for 12 - same burst, same elemental, and not necessarily the 120 first and the 12 second.

[Darwock]

Yeah that really pissed me off Talizker. I was glad to not have to deal with it this time

I in no way lived up to my potential last night due to a missed 'unable to use item' when I drank my 2nd poison, so next time I'm going to astral flow from the start and just hammer away.

[C']

That's elemental resistance coming into play. When the game calculates damage done by a spell it works it out by comparing your Magic Attack stat (which incorporates your INT) against the mobs Magic Defence stat (which I think comes from MND but this has already been debated here anyway) then seems to throw in some kind of random variables (equivalent of a dice roll I guess).

If the calculation for that particular attack round favours the mob over yourself then the spell is 'resisted' and does reduced damage but next time you may get an unresisted, full damage, spell land for optimum hit points.

That is why reduce a mobs resistance to elemental magic is important. Let's go on the assumption that it is MND which affects resistance rates. If you lower a mob's MND stat you are not making it so that your spells land for more damage, you are reducing the likelihood of it landing for less damage.

If that makes sense?

Also there are other ways to lower a mobs elemental resistance. BRD and NIN both have spells that can lower a mobs resistance to one of the 6 natural elements (not Dark or Light). By using these a spell alligned to that particular element has less chance (but still a chance, there is always a chance ) of being full or half resisted. Again it doesn't make your spells more damaging per se, but does give you a greater chance of hitting for maximum damage (personally I will debuff a particular element prior to a skill chain to help the Magic Burst hit it's full potential).

[talizker]

Were you alternating them or casting Stone II then another Stone II?

I was generally alternating to avoid recast timer but after the first Stone II did 100+ I did another as soon as I could and noted the 8! Both Stone II and Water II were doing great damage with Thunder being average and Fire/Blizzard both poor.

[talizker]

If that makes sense?

Yeah, that makes sense I was pleased with the overall results of my Nukes and that was with an ES+Burn (lowering INT). I just couldn't decided on Burn or Shock at the time so just went for the 1st Macro I could get to!!!

Rare - are you still up for a BCNM40? I'm having a bit of a FFXI break for a few days (need to play GT4!) after 17 days of late nights (leveling WHM 0-15 and BLM 20-30). Tuesday would be ideal for me as misses is out for the night but other than that i'm easy...

[vwilsonuk]

If you lower a mob's MND stat you are not making it so that your spells land for more damage, you are reducing the likelihood of it landing for less damage. If that makes sense?

That does make a lot of sense - thanks for that Rare. I do sometimes wonder how people figure out which stats the game considers in each hit (ie INT vs MND, AGI vs DEX and all that). Must be an awful lot of trial and error. On some boards people talk about it with such confidence you'd think they'd reverse engineered the game code!

[C']

erm, I should be but as I've said I've been taking a break from the game of late so haven't been on much in the last couple of weeks.

I guess a BCNM40 is a good reason to return though

[C']

That does make a lot of sense - thanks for that Rare. I do sometimes wonder how people figure out which stats the game considers in each hit (ie INT vs MND, AGI vs DEX and all that). Must be an awful lot of trial and error. On some boards people talk about it with such confidence you'd think they'd reverse engineered the game code!

Yeah I know what you mean. However with the game being close to 3 years old now, people have had a lot of time to try and get an understanding of how things work. ^_^;

[Darwock]

There's still a lot of BS spread around too though. For example earlier this week in Yhoator somebody announced he was saving his provoke to make the goblin drop it's bomb ><

Once something gets posted on the net it can become fact whether it's true or not.