Phalanx II

[hongman]

Ok, so I have always merited towards what I deem most useful, and now the circumstances have changed.

I am now going for Phalanx II full, dropping Para II.

Wiki isnt working for me atm ; ;

I was looking for some firm stats of damage reduction, skill levels, duration, etc etc.

Anyone care to enlighten me?

[Kirsteena]

Re: Phalanx II

You mad fool you....

Lasts 120 seconds upon first unlocking.
Each additional merit increases damage shield effect by 3 and increases duration by 30s up to a maximum of 180s.
Damage prevented Formula for this spell is [(enhancing magic/25) +1 + (3 x MeritLv)] (example: Level 2 merits with 275-299 enhancing skill will give the target of this spell -18 damage taken)
Max damage resisted with 3 merits (in Phalanx II, none in enhancing magic and no equipment): 20
Max casting range is 25' which is useful for casting upon kiting tanks.

To calculate damage reduction etc. http://www.forsakenhearts.net/ffxicalc/

[hongman]

Re: Phalanx II

Nice app!!

DIT: Kirst, you think I am doing the right thing? For the LS i mean?

[Kirsteena]

Re: Phalanx II

I'll be honest - we have too many rdm with the same merits - Phalanx II IS a useful one - of the other four, it is the one I half wish I had done. I have too many other jobs to merit though, and half the time I'm on blm anyway, so really, you are the logical person to do it - think of the other two rdm who I suggested...

[Taskmage]

Re: Phalanx II

Damage reduced by Phalanx II by merit level and enhancing skill:

Phalanx II (level 1/level 2/level 3)
250-274 - 14/17/20
275-299 - 15/18/21
300+... - 16/19/22

[hongman]

Re: Phalanx II

Well, yeah. It was a hard decision to drop all my Para 2 merits, and when I do so in game Ill probably shed a little tear, (lol) but it seems to make sense.

Ohter 2 RDM - who? lulz they are never at any events bar Dynamis.

[hongman]

Re: Phalanx II

What kind of gear do I need to hit 299? If its not anything overly silly, I may actually go 8/8 on Enfeebling and put some into Enhancing

Maybe 8/8 on Enfeeb
4 in Enhancing
4 in Nukage

[Taskmage]

Re: Phalanx II

Well ..

Warlock's Tights +15
Duelist's Gloves +15
Enhancing Torque +7
Glamor Jupon +3
Augmenting Earring +3
Merciful Cape +5

That's 256 + 48 = 304 from just gear. Everything but the gloves and the cape are pretty easy to get ahold of, and you can replace the cape with a single enhancing merit to get over the 300 threshold.

[Callisto]

Re: Phalanx II

I have no merits, and I'm at 293. AF1 legs, AF2 hands, and a torque. I'm working on Merciful cape and 1 merit, which will put me at 300 even. It's not that hard to get to.

My personal recommended setup is to drop Bio III and Dia III, and keep level 2 Para II and Phalanx II, and level 1 Slow II and Blind II. I get an absolute ton of use out of Phalanx II, and Para II is great when boosted, while Bio and Dia III really do not give that much higher returns for their MP cost and merit space, but that's my opinion.

[Kirsteena]

Re: Phalanx II

Frankly, I'm not that impressed with Para II - compared to Slow II, the benefits are harder to see.

[Callisto]

Re: Phalanx II

Since putting up to level II I noticed a pretty nice boost in Proc rate, at level I I wasn't to keen on it. Also, Slow is generally easier to land fully at level I in my experiences, and bumping up won't make it exceed the 37% Slow cap as far as I'm aware. I'm not sure exactly what bumping it up actually does aside from increased accuracy, my guess would be that you'd need a lower MND difference to land it fully.

[Kirsteena]

Re: Phalanx II

Fully capping it puts it at the 37% slow rate, assuming the mnd difference is great enough. Level 1 I believe it is about 30%. I noticed a huge difference when I was levelling it up from 1 merit in it to 3 merits and a mnd set up.

Para II is just more variable.

[WishMaster3K]

Re: Phalanx II

After a bunch of discussion, I see no need to level Phalanx II past it's second level.

Well, this is my personal opinion. Might be a different story for other RDMs out there.

I just can't imagine not having Para or Slow II, so I'm going to take all 3 of those to the second level or merits.

[Mhurron]

Re: Phalanx II

a mnd set up.

How much MND are we talking about here and against what?

[Taskmage]

Re: Phalanx II

Well, according to Armando, most mobs have attribute ratings of C or less, so assuming a C rank for race, main and sub job, a level 80 will have 87 mnd. According to this post Slow II level 1 caps out at 33.33% when your mnd exceeds the target's by 64, and Slow II level 3 caps at 37% when your mnd exceeds the target's by 70-80ish, so you would need 151 mnd in the former instance and 157-167 mnd in the latter. That's to cap. According to the same post, Slow II reaches 30% slow at about target+40 mnd, which is the same value that Slow I reaches at about target+75 mnd.