Sublimation and Food

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Just got to thinking during some PT downtime on SCH. My Taru has four MP merits and maxing MP never really seems to be a problem for me on this job, but my HP is always a sticking point. When we found out that Sublimation was affected by base, I realized the HP to MP gear I have kinda sucks since it actually hurts my returns on Sublimation.

So I started thinking, at least for a couple slots, to grab some HP gear and maybe HP food as well. Catch would be finding HP foods with MND and INT stats, though, wouldn't it?

Dunno if its the best idea, I'll stick with my Marron Glace for now, but it was just a thought.

[IfritnoItazura]

I'd go with hMP food. ._.

Maybe MND+ food when on heavy enfeebling duty, or INT+ food on heavy nuking, but otherwise, hMP should be more helpful than anything else to get from food for a mage.

If you get 50+ HP out of food, that's a maximum of additional 12 MP with every use of Sublimation, or 18MP with Scholar's Mortarboard, if I understand how it works correctly. The improvement of MP over time isn't as clear, since there's also the 30s recast time for Sublimation to account for (have to let lie fallow for 30 seconds between actual charging).

If we have some HP figures for your SCH, then we can tell how much improvements HP food would make in terms of MP recovery over time.

[Icemage]

I need to get 3 more levels on Scholar to test this. :/ Should be interesting to see what effect, if any, my gear/merits end up having on Sublimation, since I use zero HP -> MP conversion gear.


Icemage

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Its just I've started to depend less and less on +hMP food, which may change where there are non-aspirable mobs, but I've found Penury, Clear Mind III, Aspir and +hMP gear to be sufficient so far.

I've been doing Kuftal Crabs tonight and I hardly ever drop below 400 MP.

I've been SCH/BLM tonight, putting me at about 516 HP max and there would 546 HP were I not using the Electrum rings, so with these rings I'm gettin 130 MP returned on Sublimation tops. I'm gonna grab some MND/INT rings for those slot, these were just trasitional rings anyway.

[Icemage]

I'd really like to test how Sublimation reacts when you change gears (i.e. is it worth it to gear-swap into high HP gear right before you activate Sublimation, to extend the max effect?).


Icemage

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

That's kinda what I'm trying to figure out, really, I think I'm gonna look into it after PT later. Might give it a little test after I find a good HP food.

[Neomage]

This seems like a relatively cost-effective solution...

Dried Date
Stackable: 12
Food Effects: (30 minutes, All Races)
* HP +10(Not a lot, but it helps)
* MP +20
* Agility -1
* Intelligence +3

Sold By Khaf Jhifanm - Aht Urhgan Whitegate (H-11)
Price: 200 gil

Or, for a more pricey alternative that is a little more effective:

Witch Nougat
Stackable: 12
Food Duration: (60 minutes, All Races)
* HP +50
* Intelligence +3
* Agility -3
Must be crafted or bought on AH.

[Feenicks]

Boscaiola gives HP+18% (caps at 120HP@base 666), MP+35, STR -5, DEX -2, VIT +2, MND +4, hMP +1.

Hedgehog Pie gives HP+55 and MND+3 as well as some other goodies but has a INT penalty of 3.

Steamed Catfish will give you HP+30 and INT+1 but your MND will be penalised by 3.

Pamama Tart will give you HP+10 and INT+3 but probably if you're getting HP boosts that low it's not going to make much of a difference to Sublimation.

Strangely enough there's hardly any food which gives a substantial HP bonus as well as INT and MND bonuses, it seems like you have to cop a penalty on either one if you want a HP boost.

All info is sourced from the wiki.

[Neomage]

Well, as I mentioned before the Witch Nougat has no penalty to MND, but it offers no bonus either. Still, 50 HP and 3 INT is decent if you really want it. I suppose it would be more effective for a taru then a hume, since tarus have such small HP as it is.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Couldn't find many of the suggestions on the AH, but found some stuff so I'm gonna see how that works out. Peperonico its called, gives HP +30%

No magey stats, but it should answer my questions, i'll post my results after about a half hour.
______________________________

Results as 52SCH/26BLM (Electrum Rings removed):

• HP was raised to 652 (582 before food)
• Sublimation returned 146 MP, same as before I used the Peperonica.
• No change from Food.

Results as 52SCH/26RDM (Still no Electrums):

• HP was raised to 672 (609 before Food)
• Sublimation Returned 152 MP.

Results as 52SCH/20MNK (Still no Electrums):

• HP was raised to 649 by /MNK
• Sublimation Returned 162 MP.

So HP food had no effect on Sublimation whatsoever, but base HP determined by level and subjob clearly does. HP to MP gear lowers Sublimation's returns. /MNK may have returned more MP had I taken it to sub level. Oddball subjob to consider if you're just Curebombing, I guess.

Now to find some straight HP gear to test with

[Icemage]

I just hit SCH 35 tonight and did some tests.

Tarutaru RDM75/SCH35.

Natural HP with 7 levels of HP merits: 979

With no +HP gears, Sublimation drained 242HP but returned 244MP.

With full Convert gears on (1219HP), Sublimation drained 302HP but returned 304MP.

I then stripped back down to 979HP with no +HP gear, activated Sublimation, and then equipped all of my +HP gear. Sublimation drained 302HP and returned 304MP (?!), even though I didn't start from full.

I then used Convert to drop my HP down to 304. Activating Sublimation produced exactly 0 ticks before the charge was full, draining zero HP and returning only 2MP.

Next, I went all-out on +HP gears on almost every slot. Starting from 677/1289 HP, Sublimation stopped draining me at 643HP (49.88% of max HP), draining 34HP (but like above, returned 2 more than it should have, 36MP).

Then I tried starting from a full 1289HP. Sublimation drained 320HP and returned 322MP.

---

What I think is happening:

I think you get credit for 1 "tick" of drain without paying the HP cost the moment you activate Sublimation. After that, the game checks to see two things:

(1) Checks to see if your current HP is below 50% of your current maximum (with gear). If you're under that total, the process stops and you can no longer charge any more MP regardless of how close to the cap you are.

(2) Checks to see if it has charged enough MP to be ~25% of your current max HP. If it has, it stops charging.

----

+HP items used in these tests:

Master Caster's Pole: HP+20
Walahra Turban: HP+30
Promise Badge: HP+10
Pigeon Earring x 2: HP+20
Crimson Scale Mail: HP+40
Creek M Mitts: HP+65
Bomb Queen Ring: HP+75
Intensifying Cape: HP+30
Vendor's Slops: HP+25

All of the above were correctly recognized as being HP boosters for purposes of calculating Sublimation.


Icemage

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Cool, so HP gear does work with Sublimation, its just food that doesn't. Thanks for looking into it. MP and +hMP foods it is then.

I agree with your #1 and # 2, I noticed in various instances in which I pulled hate , Sublimation's effect stopped sooner if I took considerable damage. I suppose thats a failsafe to keep Sublimation from killing you if you get knocked to critical HP. That definately explains why my MP returns from Sublimation were occasionally low.

I guess this means I'll be looking into some HP gear for SCH when I need to make liberal use of Sublimation. And maybe finish /MNK for shits and giggles.