Erase

[Vesper]

Well, yet again I am back and looking for some advice. I gotta say, so far however that this is the best place to look for it.

As I've said previously, I am in a statick LS PT, we XP exclusively togother which is really great. Right now though, we sorta ran up on a big fat wall called LB1 :mad: (this is my 2nd time havin to get this blasted quest done and ugh, its even worse than I recall), anyway, back to my point. I figured I'd use this time to farm/save up for some items that I really wanted such as:

Holy Shield: 50 Def: 13 HP: 10 MP: 10 MND: 1

Dark Staff: Dmg: 30 Dly: 366 STR: 1 DEX: 1 VIT: 1 AGI: 1 INT: 1 MND: 1 CHR: 1 Vs. Light: 15 MP Regeneration While Healing: 10 Additional Effect: Darkness Damage

These are the 2 big ones for me at this level range. Almost every WHM that I know on my server has stressed the importance of getting the Dark Staff, and looking at the stats, its pretty easy to see. The Holy Shield would pretty much be used to switch out the Royal Squires Shield +1 Im using now(Def: 8 Evasion: 3 Inside Nation's Control: MP: 7 Inside Nation's Control: MP: 7)

Well, we ended up getting into a discussion last night, that got rather ....well, lets just say there were differeing opinions. To me, an this is just my opinion, Erase is one of those spells that would really be nice to have, but just seems that I could use the cash I'd be saving up for things that would be somewhat more attainable. Admittedly, the Dark Staff is more than Erase(pretty sure its about 325k compared to the price tag on Erase of 150? I could be wrong though, never was good at remembering numbers). Well, the melee in my PT feel that it would be absurd to get things I "want", when we "need" Erase. Now I'm not at all against getting it, and I'm going to do what I can to save up every spare gil I get for it, but it just seems to me that I'd be waiting a heck of alot longer getting that then I would things alot cheaper that could up my MP supply.

For those that do own the spell, is it really that needed? I mean, I'm sure it helps out ya, but to the degree you just can't get by w/it out?

[Bahamut182]

You say you want to get the staff and shield, but you won't be able to use them both, so, unless you're going to switch to a club every once and a while, you don't need the shield.
On Erase.... It's not a spell you *need* (Untill 58 atleast, only time i've seen it used is to take off STR down from crabs... they use it alot, so erasing everyone would cost alot of MP, and it seems to wear pretty fast) So, i don't think you should be in a rush to get it, i'd get the staff before erase... but if you want to buy a spell, Raise II is much more important then erase.

[Ryons]

I have both and.. Erase is nice to have... but in terms of usefulness, Dark Staff > Erase. Dark Staff gives you much more MP and Dark Staff is useful in ALL occasions, while Erase is only useful in some occasions.

[Gryff]

dont bother with shield, you will be swapping between light staff and dark staff soon enough.

I'd say dark staff->erase->light staff in order of importance.

[Tifa]

Dark staff will help you and your party more than any other item you could buy right now.

[Rones]

Strange, on my server prices are opposite what you said. Dark staff is 150k and Erase is 350k atm. Don't bother with the shield, you'll use it so little its just a waste (runs about 150k on my server), yet some whm insist on buying it instead of a Dark staff for some unknown reason.

[Zaleshea]

Erase is 350 on my server as well. Get Dark staff.

[cavill]

I got Dark Staff, Light staff, Erase and Raise II.

Order i got them in:

1. Dark staff (got at lvl 50)
2. Light staff (got at lvl 54)
3. Raise II (got at lvl 56)
4. Erase (Got at lvl 57)

I switch between Dark and Light staff all the time, my fingers have gotten into the habit so its quite good, being at my lvl, i have been in quite alot of BRD + RDM parties and havent exactly needed Dark staff, my MP has been at full by the end of every battle but they are definately needed for those parties that dont have a BRD. Erase i am using quite a bit when lvling at Cape Terrigan, those crabs do use STR down alot so its been quite usefull there.

PS: Before i got Raise II and Erase at around lvl 54-55 i hardly got any party invites at all, sometimes id go 4-5hrs on seek w/o getting a party invite, as soon as i got raise II the invites increased a little bit, then i got erase and i get party invites constantly, even when not seeking so thats another bonus to having those spells, more invites =)

[Icemage]

Dark Staff > Raise II > Light Staff > Erase

Dark staff is probably the most important piece of WHM equipment in the game.

Erase is useful, but still not worth the price. Get it if you have nothing else to spend it on. The main problem is that any status it would remove almost always comes from a monster WS (Spider Web, Bubble Shower, Infrasonics, etc.) which tend to get spammed a lot. While the casting cost for Erase is relatively low, I've found that erasing such effects often doesn't do much good, since they either wear off very quickly, or get spammed so much that a chance of "reinfection" is very high.

The main exceptions to this are:

- Diaga I/II. Erase is nice for wiping away Dia effects on mages who need to rest, and for wiping off such effects from a tank.

- Bio I/II/III. Melees can't afford to take the huge ATK penalty. Erase is nice for cleaning off Bio spells.

- Choke/Frost/Rasp/Drown/Frost/Shock. Use Erase to negate these irritating DOT spells.

- Defense/Attack Down. Some enemies (Dhalmel, Bats) like using these forms of status attack, and Erase is the only way to get rid of them.

- Gravity. Use on Ninja tanks who get this effect, and on any battle where the mages are standing outside of Provoke range from a paladin.


Icemage

[Pillow]

Originally posted by cavill
PS: Before i got Raise II and Erase at around lvl 54-55 i hardly got any party invites at all, sometimes id go 4-5hrs on seek w/o getting a party invite, as soon as i got raise II the invites increased a little bit, then i got erase and i get party invites constantly, even when not seeking so thats another bonus to having those spells, more invites =)

I dont understand...how did they know you have erase? Unless you had a search comment, but why would you have one if you were not seeking? Most people dont bother in the 50s to put Erase: O anyway...I dont really see how that would increase your invited -that- much.. I have never been asked in a pt for me to erase someone, never, not yet anyway.

[Manatra]

The only time I've found that you *need* erase is when fighting spiders wtih a Ninja, despite the fact that they do spam spider web, the Ninja needs to be erased or bad things happen ;_;

[Darkedge]

At 46, a PT leader expected me to have erase, even tho we planned on fighting beetles and got unlucky with an Antica >>

Erase is now 390k-400k on Garuda, or at least it was a couple days ago. Dark staff doesn't seem as bad, however in my FFXI career I've never held more than 60k gil, so I need some way to make money aside from farming ._.

Anyway, Dark Staff does look like a must except for parties with RDM and BRD, Ballad + Refresh + my Roast Mushrooms kept downtime to a minimum.

[cavill]

Originally posted by Pillow
I dont understand...how did they know you have erase? Unless you had a search comment, but why would you have one if you were not seeking? Most people dont bother in the 50s to put Erase: O anyway...I dont really see how that would increase your invited -that- much.. I have never been asked in a pt for me to erase someone, never, not yet anyway.

Well before i have raise II and erase all i had in my search comments were Dark + Light staff OK. Now i put:

(Darkness) & (Light)(staff) OK
(Erase) & (Raise)2 OK

And id get multiple invites at the same time, i always put search comments when im seeking a party.
I also have been asked by a group if i had raise II or erase, when i didnt have it i would get turned down to join a party.

[Pillow]

Hmm I usually just keep mine simple, I always check the other WHMs comments tho, usually nothing more then I have.

@18,000
JP/EN OK!

[cavill]

Well in the late lvl 50's as a WHM, if u wanna get invited to a group before another WHM, it best to have Erase, raise II, dark and light staff in search comment so the party leaders know who to pick first!