+MND and +INT vs E. Staves

[Murphie]

Re: +MND and +INT vs E. Staves

I think Mog meant with regard to meleeing, but maybe not.

[Mhurron]

Re: +MND and +INT vs E. Staves

I don't have a Joy toy. Way to rub it in my face, Mog.

I hate you so much!

Ya, damn you Mog.

[Icemage]

Re: +MND and +INT vs E. Staves

Different mages need different staves.

WHM: Light, Dark
White Mages use primarily Cures, and they rest a lot so Light Staff (+10% cure potency) and Dark Staff (+10 hMP) are the critical ones. Earth Staff, Ice Staff and Wind Staff are somewhat useful for Slow, Paralyze, and Silence. The other 3 elemental staves are pretty useless to WHM.

BLM: Ice, Dark
Black Mages focus primarily on elemental magic, with a side helping of Dark Magic. Ice Staff is by far the most important since it adds both INT and Elemental skill as well as +10% ice damage (making it appropriate for every type of magic except Wind if you don't have the corresponding staff). Also because Distortion is a crowd favorite, and many enemies are weak to ice magic. The rest of the staves are situational - most are somewhat useful, but much less often than Ice and Dark.

RDM: Ice, Earth, Dark, Light, Wind
Paralyze, Slow, Sleep I/II, Cures, Silence all benefit in accuracy and/or Potency from these staves. The remaining 3 don't really do much for RDM unless you're casting one of the elemental nukes aligned with that staff.

I don't know enough about how BLU operates in the 51+ range to say much about how a BLU would use staves (most use BLU/THF and avoid the question entirely, but I've seen some BLU/WHMs who play a primary healer role instead, in which case they're like WHMs in their dependence on Light and Dark staves).

SMN seem to be pretty dependent on all of the staves at 51+, depending on which avatars are seeing use. My guess would be Dark for Fenrir's Ecliptic Growl and resting, Earth for Titan's Earthen Ward, and Light for Carbuncle and Cures.


Icemage

[Murphie]

Re: +MND and +INT vs E. Staves

Interesting perspective regarding BLM. I've always been of the opinion that all a BLM really does in most parties is cast elemental magic (not just Blizzard), so having each of the Elemental Staves is key. I suppose others may see things differently.

While I agree that Dark and Ice should be the first ones a BLM should get, the rest of them are just as useful as Ice for a BLMs purposes.

[Mog]

Re: +MND and +INT vs E. Staves

/cry. so much hate in this forum.

[Murphie]

Re: +MND and +INT vs E. Staves

Don't feel down, Mog. It's really easy to hate you.

[Mhurron]

Re: +MND and +INT vs E. Staves

Interesting perspective regarding BLM. I've always been of the opinion that all a BLM really does in most parties is cast elemental magic (not just Blizzard), so having each of the Elemental Staves is key. I suppose others may see things differently.
While I agree that Dark and Ice should be the first ones a BLM should get, the rest of them are just as useful as Ice for a BLMs purposes.

Yes and no. The 50's are just as bad for resists as BLM as it was for RDM. Often times through those levels you will do more damage using the Ice Staff for everything for the Elemental Skill over using the Staff corrisponding to the element of the spell being cast.

Early 60's it gets a little easier. By then every BLM should have all the Staves for use with Tier 3 -ga's and Tier 4 spells.

Don't feel down, Mog. It's really easy to hate you.

That's just funny.

[Mog]

Re: +MND and +INT vs E. Staves

Different mages need different staves.
BLM: Ice, Dark
Black Mages focus primarily on elemental magic, with a side helping of Dark Magic. Ice Staff is by far the most important since it adds both INT and Elemental skill as well as +10% ice damage (making it appropriate for every type of magic except Wind if you don't have the corresponding staff). Also because Distortion is a crowd favorite, and many enemies are weak to ice magic. The rest of the staves are situational - most are somewhat useful, but much less often than Ice and Dark.

The 10% ice damage doesn't apply if you're not casting an ice spell though. Moreover, if you cast a *wind spell, it will be 10% less effective than if you don't have anything equipped at all. As blm, it's important to have ice, dark, and thunder staves the most. The rest of them are situational. (ex. fighting raptors in Cape Terrigan, casting debuff magic, etc..)

[Icemage]

Re: +MND and +INT vs E. Staves

Thunder is a bit more often used than other non-Ice staves for BLM, but only marginally. Fragmentation and Impaction skillchains are only slightly more common than other elements. Otherwise if you're just talking about non-bursted nuking, ice remains the best element unless the target has a specific weakness (Water against Raptors, for instance). Thunder gets a slight nod because on Fragmentation (wind/lightning) skillchains, you cannot use Ice Staff very effectively (well it will still help you land a Thunder spell even so, but Thunder Staff is obviously better).

Obviously if you were to get staves in order of usefulness as BLM, it would be Dark, Ice, then Thunder. I consider Water, Wind, Fire and Light to be roughly equal in utility. Earth staff is only really useful against Torama, and then at end-game as a defensive swap for the 20% damage resistance; as a spellcasting staff it's hardly ever used by BLMs.


Icemage

[Mog]

Re: +MND and +INT vs E. Staves

Water fire and earth are probably the least useful for blm. I exclude wind because of the simple fact that blm might be subbing rdm. If that were the case, you absolutely need wind for soloability (sticking gravity)

[Murphie]

Re: +MND and +INT vs E. Staves

Well, thankfully on Bahamut the staves are so cheap I didn't have to make any decisions. I just bought 'em all. Wish I had HQ tho.

[hongman]

Re: +MND and +INT vs E. Staves

I will hopefully have my last 2 staves by the weekend. I cant even remember which I have and which I dont, I thought it was a must to have all of them and then to macro in the appropriate elemental matching the spell being cast.

[Kirsteena]

Re: +MND and +INT vs E. Staves

Not a bad way to think to be honest. And really the NQ staves are stupidly cheap on Bahamut.

[Mog]

Re: +MND and +INT vs E. Staves

Not a bad way to think to be honest. And really the NQ staves are stupidly cheap on Bahamut.

They're cheap on all servers, especially seraph. But you know what isn't cheap....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQifYc62LSM

[hongman]

Re: +MND and +INT vs E. Staves

Ok......