[Taskmage]

Well for one thing, even though Accession Phalanx is pretty damn cool, Scholars only get one strategem charge every 4 minutes and Phalanx only lasts 3, so once you've exhausted your store of 4 charges it would be impossible to maintain Phalanx full time and you would sacrifice the use of strategems on any other spells to even try—correct me if I'm wrong.

Putting aside the redundancy of multiple rdms with maxed Slow II and Para II, I can think of a few situations where a strong DoT spell would be worth the sacrifice of utsusemi. My friend got me hooked on soloing/duoing wamoura princes for merits. Blink/stoneskin is more than sufficient for kiting those guys around, or even their adult versions.

There are also some HNMs, though I should say again that my experience there is somewhat limited, with ridiculously high auto-regen, such as Kirin and JoL. Having the strongest DoT possible on them to help counter that would be beneficial. More beneficial than -10% or -15% defense? Hard to say. I would think so but the question probably depends a lot on the damage strategy your shell uses to wear them down. This goes for farming normal Yovras too.

As for solo kited fights I don't know. To be honest I haven't even successfully soloed Fenrir yet. I think Avesta's Charybdis solo shows that /nin isn't always a strict necessity in a kited fight. Still a very good idea of course but the better you are at kiting and the more you control the fight the less additional defensive abilities are necessary. Ix'mnk for example never catches up to you if you're doing it right. If you're not, you're boned anyway. I wouldn't suggest bringing /sch to solo say Zipacna, who hits like multiple trucks and is kited in a very narrow area, but there are worthwhile solo targets with less offensive capability. Remember also that active Dark Arts gives you an additional reduction in recast time on Bind, which is another less obvious layer of defense.

[hongman]

Our NIN/DRK on past kited Kirins stuck a fair few Binds, was kinda like - ....wut?

****

I have yet to unlock SCH or look closely at the abilities, but from what is said here - Bio III (which I am dropping Phalanx II for) is looking VERY sexy indeed.

Although for the majority of NM soloing, I would still recommend /NIN over /SCH. Guaranteed 3 hits or single target magic is waaaay more beneficial that SS and Phalanx alone. Not saying these NM's could NOT be done /SCH or /Anything else, but /NIN is just far safer.

If you are of course doing it just to prove a point then go ahead, theres honestly a certain amount of luck involved with most NM's, so I guess as long as you are on the right side of lucky, its cool.

One NM I can see very useful /SCH would be for Genbu. He's the easiest to solo out of any soloable NM in the game, and /SCH would just speed things up. ALthough, he drops comeplete crap >.>

[Sabaron]

Originally Posted by Taskmage

Well for one thing, even though Accession Phalanx is pretty damn cool, Scholars only get one strategem charge every 4 minutes and Phalanx only lasts 3, so once you've exhausted your store of 4 charges it would be impossible to maintain Phalanx full time and you would sacrifice the use of strategems on any other spells to even try—correct me if I'm wrong.

A SCH/RDM can store 3 Stratagems and restores 1 every 4 minutes. So casting looks like this:

Access > Phalanx [2 left] (3 minutes pass)
Access > Phalanx [1 left] (1 minute passes)
<< Stratagem Restored [2 left] (2 minutes pass)
Access > Phalanx [1 left] (2 minutes pass)
<< Stratagem Restored [2 left] (1 minute passes)
Access > Phalanx [1 left] (3 minutes pass)
<< Stratagem Restored [2 left] (0 minutes pass)
Access > Phalanx [1 left] (3 minutes pass)
Access > Phalanx [0 left] (1 minute passes)
<< Stratagem Restored [1 left] (2 minutes pass)
Access > Phalanx [0 left] (2 minutes pass)
<< Stratagem Restored [1 left] (1 minutes pass)
Access > Phalanx [0 left] (3 minutes pass)
<< Stratagem Restored [1 left] (0 minutes pass)
Access > Phalanx [0 left] (3 minutes pass)
Out of Stratagems

At full Stratagems, a scholar can cast a 180 sec Phalanx spell 9 times in a row before running to 0 Stratagems--that's 27 minutes of continuous protection and a very powerful ability.

Originally Posted by Taskmage

Putting aside the redundancy of multiple rdms with maxed Slow II and Para II, I can think of a few situations where a strong DoT spell would be worth the sacrifice of utsusemi. My friend got me hooked on soloing/duoing wamoura princes for merits. Blink/stoneskin is more than sufficient for kiting those guys around, or even their adult versions....

Even with /SCH doing higher Bio damage, versus things you don't need Utsusemi for, wouldn't the extra punch of triple EleDoTs from /BLM be more efficient?


EDIT: Error corrected. I had 1 minute where 0 should have been on line 13.

[hongman]

Problem with landing triple DoTs on these NM's is resists, at least for me- trying to push that dmg/tick up with INT along with Ele Skill for resist isnt all that great (at least for me).

Maybe fully merited ele skill would help loads, but I can see keeping track and recasting 3 different spells while kiting and not being hit all the time more hassle than its worth.

[Sabaron]

Originally Posted by hongman

Problem with landing triple DoTs on these NM's is resists, at least for me- trying to push that dmg/tick up with INT along with Ele Skill for resist isnt all that great (at least for me).

Maybe fully merited ele skill would help loads, but I can see keeping track and recasting 3 different spells while kiting and not being hit all the time more hassle than its worth.

Well, Task was referring to Wamoura Princes which are not NMs and it should be much easier to land an EleDoT on a regular mob. You may not be able to keep all 3 up, but is it really even necessary? Does Bio III /SCH beat Bio III /BLM + 1 EleDot? +2 EleDoTs?

[Taskmage]

Iirc, the slip damage for elemental debuffs is [INT / 20]. At 100 INT, three of them would be doing 15 dmg/tick for 75 mp, as opposed to the (still theoretical) 14 dmg/tick of a good Bio III for 54 mp. I don't know what the base duration is from elemental debuffs so I can't compare total damage, but I know that the duration on them can be resisted unlike Bio. Tracking the three wearing at different times would be a pain in the butt, and each one has a longer casting time than Bio III.

About that damage number, my sch is still level 9 and I'm a merit short for Bio III. Haven't been getting to play lately nearly as much as I wish. But I might be able to confirm those first couple /sch tiers this weekend.

[hongman]

Oh, my bad then, thought it you was on about NM's.

EleDot damage is tiered by INT, so depending on your INT and equip...

Bio III at 233+ (assuming no other tiers) is 8dmg/tick iirc.

100-149 INT is 4HP/tick, so unless you could push 150+INT on RDM/SCH...

[Sabaron]

Originally Posted by hongman

Oh, my bad then, thought it you was on about NM's.

EleDot damage is tiered by INT, so depending on your INT and equip...

Bio III at 233+ (assuming no other tiers) is 8dmg/tick iirc.

100-149 INT is 4HP/tick, so unless you could push 150+INT on RDM/SCH...

So the (theoretical) next tier of Bio III is 14 damage and the current known highest tier is 8, so it's going to provide you with 6 more damage which is better than 1 EleDoT. That makes it viable since maintaining only one EleDoT (the one your target is weakest too) is much easier than maintaining 2.

[hongman]

Er, yeah.

[IfritnoItazura]

Had to Google for "バイオIII" to find the info, since the original site is some sort of lock down (I think?):

Dark Magic___Dmg/sec___Lv.1__Lv.2__Lv.3
???~210________7/3_____70____140___210
211~250________8/3_____80____160___240
251~???________9/3_____90____180___270

(Lv.1/Lv.2/Lv.3 total slip damage calculated for 30/60/90 seconds.)

Apparently, there's no 233 tier. =/

Bio III costs 54 MP normally, so 49 MP with Dark Arts up for RDM/SCH? Ignoring initial damage, it gives a ratio of 5.51 Dmp/MP.

[Callisto]

Hmm I had seen previously that the 8/tick tier was at 225. It'd be nice if they just made the tiers break in the same spot as Bio II lol...

Anyways thanks for digging that up, Itaz.

[Callisto]

Oooh forgot to post these as well, something I dug up on BG:

�֥饤���̿�������׻�����õ�롡���Σ�

�ŰǤνѡ��֥饤�󡢥֥饤��II��̿���������

���꤬�Ȥ����ϵ� Ǧ�ԤϤ��Ȥʤ����ŰǤνѤ򾧤���٤�

The short: Blind potency is determined by the difference between caster's INT and target's MND, with potency capping at -30 Acc for Blind and -40 Acc for Blind II, both needing a difference of 60 INT-MND to cap out.

Basically, you already knew that INT affects potency, but this also means that Absorb-MND and Shock are now nice to use for all 3 of your base debuffs(Blind/Para/Slow).

Edit: Good fucking grief the internet fails me today. Not sure what's up with the links, they worked fine last week.

[IfritnoItazura]

ブラインIIの命中ダウン計算式を探る (JP)
That appears to be the testing data for Blind II.

* * *
Summary for Blindness:

Blind II Potency
Accuracy Down = (Caster_INT - Target_MND + 100)/4
(Round down to nearest integer.)
Min_Cap: Accuracy-15
Max_Cap: Unknown

Blind Potency
Accuracy down = (Caster_INT - Target_MND + 60) / 4
(Rounded down to integer?)
Min_Cap: Accuracy-5
Max_Cap: Unknown

Kurayami Potency
Kurayami: Ichi = Accuracy-20
Kurayami: Ni = Accuracy-30

Side note: For evasion purposes, Kurayami: Ichi is as potent as Scorpion Harness and Optical Hat put together; Ni is even better.

[arkaine23]

Originally Posted by Raydeus

So the only real advantage from Slow II is that it's resisted less often? Maybe it would be good for lvl 80+ monsters that resist spells but for practical aplications (such as soloing) it doesn't seem to be worth it at all.

It would depend on how much +MND above that of the mob's will you need to reach cap though, if it's much less than with Slow I then it would be good.

But the way things look I'm starting to think Phalanx II is actually the best spell to merit.

Actually there are 3 advantages to Slow II.
1) Slightly more accurate than Slow
2) Upper cap of potency is higher than Slow
3) Lower cap of potency is higher than Slow and Hojo
4) Overwrites Hojo and Haste

#3 is pretty significant. Slow starts out at minimum potency around 13% when MND comparison is not good. Slow II minimum potency starts out around 20%, and I'm pretty sure the minimum potency raises a few % with each merit upgrade just like the maximum potency raises with additional upgrades.

[IfritnoItazura]

Duration of Bind Testing
From バインドの効果時間 (JP):

Tester: RDM75/WHM33 INT:126 Enfeebling:310 Ice Magic Accuracy+9
Tested with Wild Rabbit (Ronfaure).
Firesday, Iceday avoided.

Duration (avg): 29.33 sec
Accuracy: 95.6%
(105 tests total)

If I read this correctly, the tester believes the duration is random, normal distribution, and implies it's probably capped to 60 seconds. (He does emphasize currently being unable to confirm the 0-60 sec as "the window".) The time period is incremented at 2.5 sec spacing.

* * *

My thoughts:

2.5 sec interval sound a tad odd; it could be that the time step matches the Regen/Refresh tick, which is roughly 3 sec.

Additional testing would be nice, especially involving higher targets with substantially higher resist rates, to see if "partial resists" exist in terms of max or average duration. Also would be nice to find out if there's the relationship (if any) between amount of damage dealt to breaking of Bind from damage, and whether stats contribute to the "damage resist" aspect of Bind's potency.