[Sabaron]

I've had this wonderful little prize in my inventory for nigh on 3 weeks now, an Astral Ring that I got from T&T. As I've been levelling on Beetles and Spiders in Quicksand Caves, I notice that, my buffs aren't sticking, so I go and check the AH between parties for a Solace Ring (or better, Solace Ring +1) as I have been doing since I hit 40th level. I've noticed that while there is ample stock of the other 40 rings, Solace Rings are in short supply at all times.

Back to the Astral Ring...as a Red Mage of 40-something level with Refresh, I find that my mana pool is almost never anywhere near the last 25 mp, so I've been swapping out my Astral for a Tranquility Ring for the +2 MND since I can't seem to stick buffs on Beetles despite having 41+14 MND and 132 (capped) Enfeebling skill. Then I notice that I never put the Astral back on...because I never have time to fill my mp up to full+25.

I'm a Hume Male Red Mage and I'm questioning the usefulness of everyone who's everyone's favorite bauble...the rare and beautiful, Astral Ring. I think I'd be much happier with a nice Solace Ring to help me stick Enfeebles rather than an extra 25 mp that I never get to use anyway. Now, I can see the usefulness of such a ring for say, a Paladin, or even the odd Galka/Elvaan mage, but for myself, I can't see it as being anything more than an expensive fashion accessory.

Am I crazy? Do you use them? Do they help you out that much?

I think I'd be happier with the million gil...but I think I'll wait to see what people think.

[Taskmage]

I use an electrum and a mana ring to balance out my hp and mp for convert and then swap them out after the first spell. The thing about +mp gear is that it serves no purpose after you've already used the mp it gives. The extra mp you get every 10 minutes makes it definately worth using, but as you noticed it's only useful to wear right after the convert or the full rest.

[ikkleste]

i don't know what your other lob levels are but isn't the beauty of the astral that it can be used from such a low level? after all it's little better than an electrum once you pass 40. But in the dunes an astral and a pie can be equivalent to a whole extra healers worth of mp nearly. I'd say consider using it for you sub 40 jobs if they aren't leveled yet and you intend on goign back and leveling them. If you are only going to level RDM mage wise , then it might be worth taking the money and running, and just swapping electrums in for convert.

[Joon]

I have my astrals macroed into my resting macro. If I'm near full mp with astrals on when the fight begins, I might cast a few spells that don't require any MND or INT rings. Once the extra mp I have with the astrals on is depleted, then I go into my usual enfeebling routine with the INT & MND rings swapped in.

[Taodyn]

Looking at your job levels, it's fairly obvious that you prefer the Mage jobs. While the Astral Ring may not be of great necessity to you now, it would be extremely advantageous for your other Mage jobs.

Take, for example, your summoner. If you sell your Astral now, you won't have it should you choose to level summoner later.

Getting rid of an item that can be very important may be short-sighted. I'd suggest holding on to it unless you're sure you'll never need it.

[Dryhus]

I only use Astrals in my Convert macro. Once I've Converted and Cured myself to ~75% HP, I started swapping MP items out for INT/MND items. However, if I have surplus MP I don't want to waste, I cast spells that aren't stat dependant. Examples of such spells are: Refresh, Haste, Dia, and to a lesser extent Cures (once you hit the soft cap, your MND isn't doing much).

[Karinya]

I don't use MP rings at all on my rdm. The way my macros are set up, I always have more important things to swap in than rings, so I just put on one INT and one MND and leave them on.

I suspect many of the people who advise swapping rings all the time are using third-party programs to increase the number of lines in their macros.

In any case, even if you *did* want to swap in max MP rings for Convert, the MP difference between Astral and Electrum is nowhere near worth the cost difference (unless you have more money than you know what to do with). So the main question is the one Taodyn raised: do you want to keep them to use on your WHM, BLM, BRD or SMN? Astral rings are equippable at much lower level than almost all other +max MP gear.

Based on your level information in your sig, you will need to level one or more of those very soon if you aren't actively leveling them now. So the astral rings may be useful for *that* job, even though they aren't worth the price for RDM.

Once you've got all your other jobs leveled as far as you want to level, sell the astrals and put the gil to more productive use.

[tdh]

I have an Electrum Ring and an Ether Ring for my RDM. I use them for Convert and that's about it. For everything else I do, I have the correct items equip'd. I have so many equipment swap macros it's sickening. INT build for Black Magic spells, MND build for White Magic spells, correct Elemental Staff, and the proper torque.

Of course at Lv.41 you won't have access to staves (Lv.51) or torques. (Lv.65) As of late I'm hearing more and more RDMs are having problems landing their spells with decent gear and cap'd skill when I don't recall any troubles doing any of it at all. My only real problems with my Enfeebles pre-Torques were getting Gravity to stick even for 30 seconds, or landing Silence Lv.62~64. I've even had some of them ask me what items they should be pick up to help them get some more MND.

But even with the best gear, every now and again you're going to have to reapply something, or randomly get that one resist. Just toss it back out there, and in my experience the next cast usually gets the job done.

[swingfly]

I use a Bomb Queen Ring for Convert. Taru ftw

As people said, use it for Convert and resting. The Ether + Electrum combo should be more than ok for that though so unless you plan on leveling Whm and Smn as well, I'd sell the Astral Ring and get a pair of Saintly +1/Solace +1 Rings. It would probably be good to have a buffer of gil for level 51 when there's a lot of staves to be bought

[Dryhus]

Originally Posted by swingfly

Saintly +1/Solace +1 Rings.

If you're ditching an Astral Ring because you don't plan on leveling lowbie mages anymore, then certainly there is no reason to hang onto a Saintly +1. Also, Solace +1 only provide DEF over Solace Rings for a lot more money. I'd stick with 2xSolace Rings and 2xWisdom Rings for MND and INT respectively.

[swingfly]

Oh you're right, Solace +1 are a waste. Saintly +1 though is an option because of the rarity of Solace rings and the fact that they give the same bonus. This depends on the price differance of course (or if you know some crafters, either with Bone 90+ or GS around 70 you could ask them to make you the rings).

[Dryhus]

EDIT: Nevermind, I misread swingfly's last post.

[Sabaron]

As far as the Solace Rings go, on Asura NQ is 150,000gil and HQ is 200,000gil. The 50,000gil for 2 def is the same as what I paid for my cape +1 for 7th level, so I'm willing to part with 50k for the very nice Def bonus on a slot which normally carries none. The problem is that on Asura, no one ever makes Solace Rings. All the other rings are quite common, but finding a Solace Ring is quite difficult. I would already have two of them were it not for this lack of supply.

[Icemage]

More and more of late, I find myself gravitating towards purchasing good all-around gear for with lower level caps because I hate scrambling for gear when asked to help with the lower level capped activities (Baron's Slops, Trump Crown, Eremite's+1, Saintly+1, Astral Ring, etc.).

Open advice to Sabaron: Hang onto that Astral Ring. It's still useful after you've hit level 75, particularly as a red mage. I still use mine from time to time as a Tarutaru and am always glad to have it with me despite having access to a number of "superior" mage rings (Tamas Ring, Bomb Queen Ring, Demon Ring+1, etc.).


Icemage

[Sabaron]

Oh, I'll probably hang on to it. I still want to do BRD and BLU and it will be useful for both of those as well as when I go back for more SMN.