Usefulness of Asorb stat spells???

[Draconis]

Allright, seems on other forums that some Drk's seem to have differing opinions on just what exactly the Absorb stat spells do.


Namely, I know that Absorb Str, Dex, Charisma, Vit, etc lower those respective stats and give it to you.


However, there seems to be a contention when it comes to Absorb Int and Asorb Mind.

So let me ask this. Which is it that you cast for the black mages to be able to do more damage per spell? Am I correct in that you need to cast Absorb Mind to lower the Mob's Magic Defense rating? Or is it Absorb Int instead?

I just want to clear this mess up, as I have stopped levelling in order to purchase a peacock charm through farming. I'm sick and tired of missing the mobs, in what is my opinion, far too often.


Also, what do you, my fellow Dark Knight's, consider to be the order of Absorb spells to be cast during a battle. Namely, what absorb should we open with, what should we end with etc. How often should we use it, things like this.

I leave the floor open to discussion. My Thanks.

Draconis

[Tidane]

Absorb-MND should in theory lower the mobs defenses against Black Magic, so MND before INT. I usually don't bother with them though, BLM usually can magic burst for damage between 1200-1600, easily taking mobs from half health to 0. Depending on the mob, Absorb-AGI and Absorb-VIT seem the most important.

[Mikasa]

ok, now that you've read tidane's post, forget everything you just learned

anyways, since you will be fighting crabs and beetles until you want to die from lvl 50-70, start the begining of the fight with absorb agi and vit, then in mid fight, do agi once more.

make sure your rdm is refreshing you at all times, or you will be out of mana and need to heal, which loses tp, which makes you a bad melee

[Crowzukin]

MND is enfeeble resist, INT is magic attack/defense. I don't absorb them though unless I'm just playing around. Waste of MP.

If I see that the other melees are having a hard time hitting, I will do Absorb-AGI. If it's just me, or if I don't give a crap about the other melees, then I will Absorb-DEX. If it's a monster with exceptionally high evade, I will do both, preferably one right after the other, and just before the skillchain.

However if there is no BRD and/or RDM, then you will want to use your MP sparingly.

[Thorrion]

I've found absorb Agi/Vit to have almost zero effect on my or anyone elses melee. I only use it occasionally if a mob has high evasion, and even then it's just another chance to raise my dark magic since Drain/Aspir/Stun are still way more useful.

[Izual]

I find that absorb-int/mnd aren't really useful during leveling, because if you're able to land your absorbs without much difficulty, chances are the blm isn't getting resisted either Personally I prefer str and agi, depending on the situation. Drain is invaluable too, 250hp beats out the usefulness of an extra absorb.

[Mithrael]

Since I generally party with 2 BLMs, I tend to Absorb-INT at the beginning of every battle. It adds about 20DMG (just under 10%) to each of their top-end spells. This effect is more important on skillchains, so if the effect wears off during battle, I may or may not recast before skillchain. Just depends on how much MP I have and how close to dead the mob is. This 20-50 extra damage adds up to a lot over the course of a couple hours.

However, since some people desire direct proof, you can do the following:

1.) Go to an area where the mobs are too weak to be worthwhile, but can survive 3 of the same spell.

2.) Cast your test spell (generally something like blizzard.)

3.) Cast Absorb-INT.

4.) Cancel the INT boost from your buff icons. Note that you do not get a status message alerting you that 'The <t>'s INT down effect has worn off.'

5.) Cast your test spell again.

5.a) Optionally, wait until you get the message that says "The <t>'s INT down effect has worn off."

6.) Do steps 3-5 again with Absorb-MND.

Assuming your spell isn't resisted (1/2 damage or lower, this is why you should test this on something too weak to be worthwhile) you should see that the test spell does more damage to the enemy with Absorb-INT in effect. You'll note that your damage does not change when you cast Absorb-MND (it will still be the higher damage from after Abs-INT) because the INT down effect has not yet worn off. If this makes you a bit skeptical (it did for me the first time I tried it), find another mob and reverse the process so that you cast Abs-MND first. The best place to do this is somewhere like the Buburimu Peninsula. The mobs there can withstand 3 Blizzard or Thunder spells, but they should be weak enough that your Elemental spells will do their maximum capped damage.

MND is only resistance against White Magic enfeebles (check the RDM forum, they have some major number-crunchers over there who have a ton of data on this). I don't ever bother with this since the BLM's Elemental enfeebles seem to do a fine enough job of debuffing MND long enough for the enfeebles to stick.


Edit: Izual posted in between. Absorbing INT doesn't reduce the chance that the BLM will be resisted, it increases their unresisted damage.

[Draconis]

Mithrael and others.


Thank you very much for answering my questions. You all have been extremley helpful.


My Eternal thanks.

/bow

Draconis

[Izual]

Originally posted by Mithrael
Edit: Izual posted in between. Absorbing INT doesn't reduce the chance that the BLM will be resisted, it increases their unresisted damage.

There's still quite a bit of debate about that, just check the blm forum

In any case, I still think absorbing a physical stat has more of an impact. Maybe with 2 blm the extra damage might be worth it, but not everyone groups with 2 blm routinely:p

[Mithrael]

Right, if I were in a party that did not have 2 BLMs, I would probably only Absorb-INT before a really important Skill-chain. Maybe an Ancient MB on chain 4 or 5 when I have enough MP or something.

And yeah, I know there is a ton of debate about it :/ I tend to think that it's right though. BLMs in my Static Party have astonomical INT. Add to that the INT Elemental Debuff, Absorb-INT, food, and the Bard INT song and they still get resisted. The only real explanation is that their elemental skill is still too low since there are no Elemental Skill+ items at our level. Spell resists are roughly equivalent to our accuracy afterall... (You can pump up your max damage as much as you want, but if you don't hit it doesn't do much for you or your party -.- Hopefully with their AF, the elemental torques and the Ice staff (someday...) their resists will be reduced. It's really depressing to see Freeze MB resisted down to 65dmg...