The Arcanist Thread.

[Niiro]

I hinted this to an LS member last night when they said they were done with THM at 15. I mentioned that I was still working on Swiftcast for SCH and they should think about it for SMN as well. We'll see what happens. We're both only 30ish at the moment anyway.

A SCH/SMN without swiftcast does not deserve a slot in any party.

Between insta-raises and insta-resummons it is an invaluable skill. If I could only have 1 cross class skill for either job it would be a top contender.

Being able to get people up and going without taking precious time and MP away from the healer(s) can truly be a run saver. It's not like SMN's damage rotation is demanding to begin with, it's mostly DoTs and your pet is always on the job anyway.

One thing that bothers me tho is in my Swift->Resurrection macro I've actually had to go as far as putting a /wait 2 in between. /wait .5 works, but in a situation with virtually any congestion its failure right goes up a lot and /wait 1 is even prone to misfiring sometimes in groups. Annoying.

[Tokitoki]

May be a strange question, but is it worth it at all to meld crit for Succor and Aldoquim (sp?)? Probably not, but thought I'd ask.

[MrSamuels]

I imagine crit will be stat weighted just like any other MMO where in the random factor will never outweigh what Determination will do until you reach a point where you can constantly or near constant crit.

[Seravi Edalborez]

So I got Ifrit's Codex in the time between this heal test and now:

Quick test of ~15 heals per trial run

Fairy summoned with 358 MND
359-382 Embrace
Taking off gear didn't seem to effect the values.

Summoned naked (274 MND)
279-293
Putting gear back on didn't change

Summoned with Cleric Stance (251 "MND") yielded same (good) results as the MND gear test.
Incidentally Selene's Embrace doesn't seem any worse/better than Eos's (without Rouse or other healpot+ abilities on, of course).

Edit: With gear pet had 2628 HP when summoned. Without, 1845.

Full stats, naked then geared
HP 1901, MP 3369, STR 179, DEX 204, VIT 210, INT 237, MND 274, PIE 243
HP 2684, MP 3663, STR 179, DEX 204, VIT 264, INT 251, MND 358, PIE 282

(also adding Determination to the geared numbers: 218)

Going from Embossed Book of Electrum to Codex, stats went to
HP 2785, MP 3748, ... VIT 271, INT 239, MND 364, PIE 293, Determination 236
(net: VIT +7, INT -12, MND +8, PIE +11, Determination +18)

And this made a pretty big impact on Embrace range:
422-443
pet HP went up to 2729

[Pepinot]

So not only bad blind and stupid, but inefficient at managing MP. Rock on, PUGs.

I'm only a level 33 Scholar, so pardon my ignorance here...
Is there ever a situation to justify casting Ruin2 in your rotation? Is the Blind effect that minimal?

[miokomioko]

I haven't done any serious things with my ACN/SMN that would actually drain my MP by a meaningful amount yet, so unless I'm back-up curing or reapplying DoTs, I'ma' spam that Ruin II while I run around, bro.

[Seravi Edalborez]

Yeah only time to use Ruin II over Ruin:

1) You're moving
2) You're doing a non-GCD right after to fill the gap of "well now what do I do"

Like if I have spare time at the end of a DoT cycle and nobody needs a heal yet, I'll do Ruin > Ruin II > Energy Drain (or something).

Finally cleared Amdapor. First 2 bosses went off almost painlessly, 3rd boss took a few tries since not everyone knew/understood about purple line + balls mechanic (myself included). I dunno if the bump up to Ifrit's Codex was what tipped this into "manageable" territory or if I just got a decent group for DF or both. Not complaining either way.

[Pepinot]

So the Blind debuff isn't very effective? Shouldn't manage to keep this debuff at all times to mitigate damage?

[Gokulo]

So the Blind debuff isn't very effective? Shouldn't manage to keep this debuff at all times to mitigate damage?

It's not very good and it has diminishing results.

[Seravi Edalborez]

It lasts less and less as it's reapplied like most CC debuffs (sleep bind stun silence disease)

[miokomioko]

If MP management is not even a question, Ruin II is superior. It can't be interrupted by anything and it adds a (lol) debuff.

If you're in a fight that actually lasts long enough to make that +50% MP cost questionable in the long-run, then you shouldn't even touch it.

[Pepinot]

Thank you all for your input.

Back to an earlier question I posted, may you guys share your thoughts on micromanaging Selene or Eos? What mode do you guys have her at (Obey, Steady, Guard)? Do you hotbar their skills, and actively command them to initiate one over the other?

[Elcura]

If MP management is not even a question, Ruin II is superior. It can't be interrupted by anything and it adds a (lol) debuff.

If you're in a fight that actually lasts long enough to make that +50% MP cost questionable in the long-run, then you shouldn't even touch it.

I've had SMNs complain about no MP in boss fights because of Ruin 2 spam despite Aetherflow. Unless you're moving (or the monster is) or getting hit there's little reason to cast Ruin II.

Thank you all for your input.

Back to an earlier question I posted, may you guys share your thoughts on micromanaging Selene or Eos? What mode do you guys have her at (Obey, Steady, Guard)? Do you hotbar their skills, and actively command them to initiate one over the other?

You don't really micro manage them. Summon them, leave them as is and they'll perform fine. I've only ever had to manually use Seline's skillspeed ability.

[Niiro]

Same, I just let them to their own thing, only manual managing I ever really do is ordering them to stay at certain locations like in the middle area for Ifrit, they won't cast on targets too far away and you're usually at near max casting range for that fight to avoid knockback.

Also those bitches are invincible, I leave her there through plumes, dashes, etc. Never seen her die.

[Seravi Edalborez]

Also those bitches are invincible, I leave her there through plumes, dashes, etc. Never seen her die.

Hell, a "you fucked up" Hellfire barely does 2k to them if memory serves (for what little that means). Summons only really seem inconvenienced by stuff that's "dodge or die" in rapid succession and/or heavy DoT effects on them. It's also kind of nice that Succor will hit them.

[Elcura]

Same, I just let them to their own thing, only manual managing I ever really do is ordering them to stay at certain locations like in the middle area for Ifrit, they won't cast on targets too far away and you're usually at near max casting range for that fight to avoid knockback.

Also those bitches are invincible, I leave her there through plumes, dashes, etc. Never seen her die.

Yup, tough as nails. Though I have seen on occasion the fairy will move closer to someone who needs healing. I wasn't really paying attention, but I do remember them moving in the opposite direction and casting then coming back to me, as well as moving ahead of me to cast.

I'll have to pay more attention in the future, because it could've been an entirely different set of events happening but I'm pretty sure they do move to cast.

[Seravi Edalborez]

I don't think you're crazy. I placed her by melee/tank during Garuda hard and when phase 2 started I just noticed she wandered over to us without me having told her to Heel yet. Though another time she stayed on the other side like a dumbass until I saw her through the storm. It's 50/50 for me. Sometimes she doesn't seem to get knocked back but not sure if this is just from her having Succor on for the hit or something else.

[LD]

Garuda (maybe Emerald Carby as well) will hold off casting Contagion while you're casting a spell in case it's a dot that can be extended. Can't take too long though, she WILL apply it with only like 1 DOT up.

[shepardG]

How in the fuck are people running out of MP on SMN >< I just hit 50, but did a darkhold at 49. I ran out of MP with about 25% left of the boss.... So 10 seconds later, I pop aetherflow, 3 back to back drains and i'm sitting at 1500MP again... litterly spamming Ruin2, fester, and occasional cures to our BLM who was lagging. And I never use Ruin anymore, it's pretty much always Ruin2 and laugh all the way to the bank.

and my dot rotation of course, incase people are like " DO YOU EVEN DOT BRO???"

[Rocl]

Though I have seen on occasion the fairy will move closer to someone who needs healing. I wasn't really paying attention, but I do remember them moving in the opposite direction and casting then coming back to me, as well as moving ahead of me to cast.

I'll have to pay more attention in the future, because it could've been an entirely different set of events happening but I'm pretty sure they do move to cast.

They'll move to alleviate LoS errors as well. You can set a fairy on the opposite end of a pot in Amdapor to avoid Catastrophe and she'll run out to heal the tank and run back behind the pot. Not that it matters much since they only take like 25% of the damage players do, but it's very cool to see her running back and forth.