Importance of Moldavite Earring??

[Gman]

Ok heres the thing.

Yesterday, I'm in a decent exp group in Bibiki Bay killing Hobgoblins. The group was NIN, THF, RNG, RDM/BLM, RDM/BLM, SMN

Im a taru RDM and the other guy was Elvaan. Goblins seem to have incredibly high magic resistance. Not as in you get half resists, but you see more full resists than you care to see. Anyway, spell for spell (when they landed for full damage), I was outnuking the Elvaan RDM easily. If his Thunder II did 235, mine did 255 or 261. This was not the problem. The problem came when he could get fairly constant either full or half damage casts, when I'm getting FULL resist. I have 72 INT, plus another +21 from gear when nuking, as well as Ice Staff. He was using mostly same equips but he had a Moldavite. So while I was casting a Thunder II and having it do 27 dmg, he was casting Blizzard II for 233 dmg. Obviously he had his resists too, but they seemed to be less frequent than mine.

Anyone know if this was a bad luck exp session for me, or if Moldavite really does make that much difference? I would like to get one, but its always camped when I bring a group there to help. I dont feel like I could solo the Gob safely, so I havent tried. I feel really gimp without one of these now, especially when an Elvaan gets more consistent nukes than me. /cry /sulk

Any input appreciated.

[Lily]

Sounds to me like your elemental skill may have been lower than his. Your higher INT is being shown by the fact that when you don't get resisted, you were doing more dmg than he was. But I don't think moldavite has a play on resists, but only dmg. If you were being resisted more than him, then yeah I would have thought it was an issue with elemental skill lvl. Was he a lvl higher maybe? Is your skill lower?

[Sadeira]

moldavite earring has very little to do with spell resist rates. it's just a straight damage multiplier. you cast thunder it does 120 instead 100 (hypothetically speaking).

in fact, int has nothing to do with resist rates either, or at least has very little to do with it. all int does is determines your unresisted damage.

the real money is in ELEMENTAL MAGIC SKILL. which can be increased by level or items. elemental magic skill is the primary factor in determining rate at which elemental spells do full damage.

the real question is not whether or not he has moldavite earring or what his int was, it's what kind +elemental magic skill equipment does he have? the items that increase this stat (from the standpoint of a redmage) is the warlock's chapeau, wizard's earring (+5 elemental magic skill with blm sub), ice staff, and shiva's ring (active only on ice day). if he had at least an ice staff, then thats 10 elemental magic skill that you don't have so he gets resisted less.

also, what you failed to mention was level difference. from what i gather, the other rdm was at least 1 level higher than you. that 1 level difference makes a BIG difference.

[Gman]

Ok thanks for the responses. To clear it up, we were both level 63 when the party started. I have capped elemental skill, Warlocks Chapeau, and use Ice staff for every nuke. So when nuking, my elemental skill is the highest it can be, except if I had Wizards earring, which I guess I'll have to get.

He had AF hat and ice staff as well, but no wizards earring, so our Elemental skill was identical. He did level toward the end of the party, but I noticed he was getting resisted less before that. Elemental Torque and shivas ring cant be used till 65, so I know he didnt have those.

I guess I'll attribute this to fluke and Goblins having very high magic resist. Still, I would like to get Moldavite... its the best earring an offensive RDM can have.

[bonovoxpsu]

bump for the level difference.

and sometimes... the coin lands heads up. lets be honest, if you're both rdm/blm at the same lvl and just different race, honestly, stats are going to be FAIRLY close. sometimes, over a relatively small sample, you'll lose.

what i think may be the real case is, you just notice when you get resisted, so in your head, you magnify the situation. i do it all the time... hell, the elvaan may be thinking "JEEZ! that freakin taru always nukes more then me ; ; "

[Gman]

LOL, there was no level difference.... at least not for 90% of the time we were fighting.

Wish I could nuke like those damn Hobgoblin Facsinators... Thundaga 3 -> 600-700 dmg /cry

I was probably just paranoid Bono, like you said. Just I am not used to seeing Magic Burst! 37 dmg! with a Blizz 2 :/

[Sadeira]

eh, it happens. imagine what it feels like for a blm (me) to shoot off a thundaga 3 (which is about 307 mp) and have it resisted for less than 200 damage

[Gman]

Originally posted by Sadeira
eh, it happens. imagine what it feels like for a blm (me) to shoot off a thundaga 3 (which is about 307 mp) and have it resisted for less than 200 damage

Even on a MB? Ya, that would suck, since its a BLM specialty. It would be like a WHM casting cure 4 and it only healing 90 HP. Luckily this never happens ^^ Whm have it easy.. :p

[alpha1471]

Re: Importance of Moldavite Earring??

Originally posted by Gman
So while I was casting a Thunder II and having it do 27 dmg, he was casting Blizzard II for 233 dmg.

That happens quite often against IT+ outside of magic bursts. Also, were you casting Thunder II with an Ice Staff? Even though it gives +10 elemental skill, I found that using a Thunder Staff helps more with resists.

[Patchinko]

Gman, you can resist resists a lot by helping yourself to a Wizard's Earring. I know they are expensive, but thankfully RDM at our levels is relatively cheap, and it's a worthwhile investment.

If anyone doesn't know how it works (I've met some people recently who thought it was yellow health ><), the latent is activated by having a BLM subjob.

As for Moldavite, it can replace a Morion/Phantom Ear completely. At this point, all those are doing is adding one damage point to your nukes, whereas Moldavite will add a percentage of damage to your overall nuke damage. I keep one just because Wizard's Ear does nothing for enfeebling spells, but I always wear Moldavite... much more valuable (though it supposedly doesn't help with resists in any way, but then again neither does 1INT by now).

Finally, the corresponding elemental staff will help a lot more with resistance than the Ice staff will for all spells besides Ice spells. I would also buy a Thunder staff, specifically, if you only have Ice.^-^

[Sadeira]

failed to mention...

shock reduces mnd stat on mobs

what mnd does is enhance magic defense... i believe the resistant rate on elemental magic spells. throw shock on a mob and that may help with resists

this is based on my own theory, so if you have more accurate information about how reducing mnd helps with resist, please feel free to show it off.

[AtraposBLM]

Originally posted by Patchinko
Gman, you can resist resists a lot by helping yourself to a Wizard's Earring. I know they are expensive, but thankfully RDM at our levels is relatively cheap, and it's a worthwhile investment.

If anyone doesn't know how it works (I've met some people recently who thought it was yellow health ><), the latent is activated by having a BLM subjob.

As for Moldavite, it can replace a Morion/Phantom Ear completely. At this point, all those are doing is adding one damage point to your nukes, whereas Moldavite will add a percentage of damage to your overall nuke damage. I keep one just because Wizard's Ear does nothing for enfeebling spells, but I always wear Moldavite... much more valuable (though it supposedly doesn't help with resists in any way, but then again neither does 1INT by now).

Finally, the corresponding elemental staff will help a lot more with resistance than the Ice staff will for all spells besides Ice spells. I would also buy a Thunder staff, specifically, if you only have Ice.^-^

Agree completely.

However, I'll go ahead and add one thing that hasn't been mentioned:
Moldavite Earring gives +5 to your Magic Attack Bonus, as it says on the earring. What that DOES is, it adds 0.05 to your magic attack multiplier. Your base number depends on level. For a lv72 blm, for example, my base multiplier is 1.32. If I get Moldavite Earring (+5), Igquirra Weskit (+6) and Zenith Mitts (+5), I'd end up with 1.48, or a 16% increase in damage. Moldavite itself adds 5% damage to *all* spells.

Also, as Patch mentioned, other than increasing elemental magic skill, the only thing you can do to reduce resists is to use the correct corresponding staff. Nothing else is really going to help you much. Actually...you could also try using Burn, but I only use Burn if there are 3 or more nukers (blm/blm/rdm/whm/drk/pld party, for example), or if the melee's are higher level than me and the RDM.

[Gman]

Thanks for all the tips guys. I will take all into consideration. I plan to pick up a Wiz earring when I get home today and log in. It was very rare a month or so ago, but lately lots have been showing up at the AH, so they are under 150k. I'll pick it up and sell one or my Moirons. I will also price a Thunder staff, but I dont plan on making it a priority yet, as the SC is usually distortion in most groups atm. Maybe once i start joining level 65 groups that do lvl 3 Renkeis I might pick up other staves. I think when I hit 64 plus a buffer I will get down to business camping for Moldavite. I want it bad... just been unlucky so far. Wizards Earring and Moldavite Earring seems to be the ultimate RDM package.