Bar-spells worthless/other newbie WHM ??'s

[IfritnoItazura]

Hm, 3hMP/4hmp for the coffee, 5hmp for the Chocolate (area effect food that could piss off you party if you use it at the wrong time), 5hmp for Ginger cookies sold from a vendor for incredibly cheap, or 7hMP from the Wizards Cookie.

Yes, cookies have better stats, but I find them annoying. Frequently, I'd forget to use one, then have to get up again. Or, the food effect would wear off in the middle of resting. A constant, always there hMP+3 is better than hMP+5 from a fussy food for me. I'd have to think harder about three hour hMP+3 vs. Wizard's hMP+7, but I'm not in the habit of buying those.

I actually prefer Buche au Chocolat (hMP+4) over the NQ Imperial Coffee--its AoE is pretty small, and on my BLM I share it with the static RDM.

[Olorin401]

Bar-status spells don't prevent that status from landing, it shortens the time the spell stays active. They are of dubious value.
Bar-element spells on the other hand are very usefull. BarFire can mean the difference between wiping or living through a Goblin Bomb for instance.

The equipment you use also makes a huge difference in the overall effectiveness of your Bar-Status and Bar-Element spells. I'm not just talking about the bonus you get by wearing Blessed Briault or Cleric's Pantaloons. As mentioned before your Enhancing Magic skill level also makes a big difference in the resistance quality of these spells. That means the bonus given by Enhancing Torque and your Artifact/Relic armor do make a difference.

Likewise, I've also found that having the proper elemental staff equipped also makes these spells more potent. For example, equipping a Water Staff gives a 10% bonus to Barfira. This holds true for barstatus spells also - If you equip an Ice Staff before you cast Barsilence, it would also have a 10% potency bonus.

[Taskmage]

Likewise, I've also found that having the proper elemental staff equipped also makes these spells more potent. For example, equipping a Water Staff gives a 10% bonus to Barfira. This holds true for barstatus spells also - If you equip an Ice Staff before you cast Barsilence, it would also have a 10% potency bonus.

I'm not in a position to confirm this atm, but I'm pretty sure it's not true. Using the corresponding elemental staff doesn't make the spell increase your resistance any more than normal. Elemental staves do have a bonus to resistance on them when you have them equipped. That's probably the difference you saw.

[Necropolis]

Likewise, I've also found that having the proper elemental staff equipped also makes these spells more potent. For example, equipping a Water Staff gives a 10% bonus to Barfira. This holds true for barstatus spells also - If you equip an Ice Staff before you cast Barsilence, it would also have a 10% potency bonus.

I don't believe this is true either. With capped enhancing, Cleric Pantaloons, and 2 merits in bar spells I get 110 resistance no matter what staff I have equiped. Anything with +enhancing skill could potentially up the resistance a bit more, but I'm unsure as to how much would be needed to notice this.

[Olorin401]

I'm not in a position to confirm this atm, but I'm pretty sure it's not true. Using the corresponding elemental staff doesn't make the spell increase your resistance any more than normal. Elemental staves do have a bonus to resistance on them when you have them equipped. That's probably the difference you saw.

I don't believe this is true either. With capped enhancing, Cleric Pantaloons, and 2 merits in bar spells I get 110 resistance no matter what staff I have equiped. Anything with +enhancing skill could potentially up the resistance a bit more, but I'm unsure as to how much would be needed to notice this.

I would suggest testing it out. I've done so with Neptune's Staff/Barfira quite a bit over the past three months (I have lots of chances since I do Dynamis a LOT) and it's made a noticeable difference in the +fire resistance among my party members. Like anything it's not a 100% solution, but at least from what I've seen it works.

Now that I think of it, I haven't asked my other group members to try it. Hmmm..

[Necropolis]

I would suggest testing it out. I've done so with Neptune's Staff/Barfira quite a bit over the past three months (I have lots of chances since I do Dynamis a LOT) and it's made a noticeable difference in the +fire resistance among my party members. Like anything it's not a 100% solution, but at least from what I've seen it works.

Now that I think of it, I haven't asked my other group members to try it. Hmmm..

I'll try it when I get home tonight. I know that water staff, like all elemental staves, have the +15 to the opposite element, but I believe it wears once you change weapons.

If it says it gives a 10% bonus to the staff itself, I would get 110 from the spell, 11 from the bonus, and then the +15 from the staff itself, bringing me to 136 resistance. 15 of that would go away from swapping weapons of course, but I don't believe I've ever had my resistance that high unless I was wearing equipment with additional resistance.

This is interesting. Would you happen to know if HQ staves give a +15% likewise?

EDIT: Bah, just checked on wiki, and the staves indeed give a +10%/15% bonus to spells of that type (barfira is water based, so water/Neptune's staff). I was happy just carrying my light/dark staves on whm, now I gotta lug them all around with me. Thanks Olorin.

[IfritnoItazura]

Likewise, I've also found that having the proper elemental staff equipped also makes these spells more potent. For example, equipping a Water Staff gives a 10% bonus to Barfira.

Lie. >_>

Just tested it on BLM51/WHM25 with Barfira; party member reports fire resistance of 67 without weapon, and 67 with Water Staff equipped.

(Water Staff itself adds Fire+15, but that's not transferable to party members, and it does not add to the power of Barfira.)

[Necropolis]

Yea I miss interpretted what wiki said. Says it gives a bonus to spells of the type of staff, but I think those are elemental spells only. Just assumed with the link to spells that those were all enhanced by the staff but they weren't.

I tested on 75 whm and on a 75 rdm. I get the same resistance regardless of the staff I'm using at the time.

But the staves do enough IMO. Add elemental resistance would of been a nice bonus, but I'm still happy with them.

Anyways....where were we going with this? Ah yea...bar spells are useful, bar-element are always usefull, bar-statis aren't really as usefull untill later on, or at least in my opinion. Not that they hurt any, but not necessarily required at your level quite yet. (I do recommend bar-sleepra for mandys, but thats about it)