Scholar - Geohelix & wtfEbullience

[Plight]

Just hit 61SCH today and decided to test out Geohelix, as there seems to be very little information about it in the 20 page sticky. In Exp so far, its damage has varied wildly, so these tests were done on Wild Rabbits in West Ronfaure for consistency. All tests were repeated at least 5 times.

First off, base line damage without arts, gear, weather, MAB-neutral support job (/WAR), 50INT and 184 Elemental skill was 69.

First test was to add 4 INT to this setup (Tamas Ring at Lv61). Damage went up to 73. The second test was with Shaman's Cloak, which adds the same 4 INT and, additionally 5 Elemental (and Enfeebling) magic. Damage stayed constant at 73. Conclusions so far: INT affects damage of helix spells, while magic skill does not.

Next test was to see whether Dark Arts offers any bonus to Helix spells (the associated bonus to skill has already been proven irrelevant). No equipment, Dark Arts damage was 69. No increase. The test was repeated with Light Arts to see if there was an associated penalty. Damage was 69. Conclusion here: there are no inherent damage bonuses or penalties associated with Light or Dark Arts. All further tests were with Dark Arts up to reduce MP cost/recast.

Next test was adding 4 VIT to the naked set (Bibiki Shell). Base damage remained 69. This was expected, but necessary for testing a Terra's Staff. Next test was Terra's Staff only, damage rose to 79, a 14.45% increase. Conclusion: 15% bonus from HQ staves applies to helix spells.

Next test - MAB+5 via Moldavite. Damage went up to 72. Conclusion: MAB works on Helix spells, though +4 INT offered higher damage than +5 MAB.

The final test was the effect of Sandstorm. Results here were a bit odd: damage went up to 75 consistently, more specifically weather appears not to be a random proc on the potency of helices, but instead a static bonus. Still need to test real weather at some point.

Throughout the above tests, damage was very consistent; two resists occurred both for half damage, otherwise there was no variation in damage. Tried a few more casts with Ebullience afterwards, one set of casts resulted in 96,51,103,103,103 damage. The 51 makes sense, as a half-resist from 103, but I can't explain the 96.

tl;dr: INT, MAB, weather, and staves help Helix spell damage. Skill and other base stats do not (but might affect resists). Additionally, Ebullience is weird.

Much thanks to Remembrance for spamming Haste and Refresh for half the night.

[Ruth]

The 51 makes sense, as a half-resist from 103, but I can't explain the 96.

96 is consistent with a resist taking off 1/16th of the damage.

[fantasticdan]

The 51 makes sense, as a half-resist from 103, but I can't explain the 96.

96 is consistent with a resist taking off 1/16th of the damage.

Since when do spells resist to 15/16? I guess that might be the cast here, but that's not consistent with anything.

[SephYuyX]

Resist rates are: full, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, and 1/16.

[Maxxthepenguin]

It could have just been a really smart bunny

[Spekkio]

what day was it? could have been a roll for a day modifier on windsday, though it seems a hair too small to quite be explained by that.

[Plight]

Sorry, forgot to mention this was all done on Iceday.

[eva00r]

Can you please test out a few more things ?
- Unresisted Duration
- How many seconds does it take to land a damage ?
- Pushing INT through to find soft cap

[Plight]

Sure, I'll test those and any other suggestions after kings; got nothin' else to do today.

[Byrthnoth]

If damage goes up 1/INT indefinitely, that could lead to some awesome INT whoring. SCH should be able to get at least INT + 63, with 68 w/ Aquilo's. I'm just going to throw this out there, but based on the numbers we're seeing it seems it's probably the DoT is dINT + some spell-dependent constant that's varies from about 16-30. When Kohana tested against a 75BRD, the numbers were significantly lower.

Ebullience seems to increase Helix damage by 50%, weather by the standard 10%, and staves by 15%. Assuming you can get 50 INT over HNMs (which should be possible), then you should be able to land ~100 damage helices if you play things right even without Modus Veritas.

Just to confirm, the Helices do the landing damage as their DoT, right?

[Wizerd]

If damage goes up 1/INT indefinitely, that could lead to some awesome INT whoring. SCH should be able to get at least INT + 63, with 68 w/ Aquilo's. I'm just going to throw this out there, but based on the numbers we're seeing it seems it's probably the DoT is dINT + some spell-dependent constant that's varies from about 16-30. When Kohana tested against a 75BRD, the numbers were significantly lower.

Ebullience seems to increase Helix damage by 50%, weather by the standard 10%, and staves by 15%. Assuming you can get 50 INT over HNMs (which should be possible), then you should be able to land ~100 damage helices if you play things right even without Modus Veritas.

Just to confirm, the Helices do the landing damage as their DoT, right?

That's what Kohana said, but the tests in this thread were on one-shotted mobs.

[Plight]

- How many seconds does it take to land a damage ?

About a 5 second casting time with Dark Arts active.

- Unresisted Duration

Looking like 1 minute 30 seconds

Also, Geohelix will overwrite itself. Kinda makes testing duration difficult with another SCH who likes to overwrite mine.

[LinktheDeme]

- How many seconds does it take to land a damage ?

About a 5 second casting time with Dark Arts active.

- Unresisted Duration

Looking like 1 minute 30 seconds

Also, Geohelix will overwrite itself. Kinda makes testing duration difficult with another SCH who likes to overwrite mine.

do other element helix spells stack with them?

[Charla]

According to the scholar discussion sticky they overwrite each other.

[LinktheDeme]

which makes scholar totally useless on any hnm if you have more than one. That's gay

[Tomino]

which makes scholar totally useless on any hnm if you have more than one. That's gay

having 1 deserved spot in any HNM alliance is already enough for a new job, I believe.

[Toth]

SCH and DNC seem better suited for low man stuff like Salvage and Assault and multi-alliance events like Dynamis and Beseiged/Campaign than on HNMs.

[Kirb]

which makes scholar totally useless on any hnm if you have more than one. That's gay

Not necessarily. Modus Veritas seems to be stackable. (Although that was with a single SCH using MV twice.)

[Delekii]

Modus Veritas also has a 10 minute recast, not that great for a spell you would want up most of the time that only lasts about 1-1.5mins before MV.

I am yet to see a Helix in game, but does each "tick" of damage show up in the log? And that said, if it does, does each tick give the mob TP separately?

[Alistaire]

Same damage with difference of 5 elemental skill is inconclusive. It could be like Bio dot.