Scholar Discussion #3 (post March patch)

[Not Kuno]

Thanks for that then.

[Aemora]

I got the AF2 body on Wednesday. I only have Sublimation merits (3/5) in Scholar atm because I'm still trying to cap Cor (I fail at Meriting :<). Soon as I got it, I altered my macro set by creating a duplicate macro set of Sch, that when I am in Sublimation mode, nearly all my casts are with Af1 Hat and Af2 Body, apart from Nuking. Few tweaks here and there to certain scripts, re-writing the entire macro lines, and I'm away. In Sublimation mode, I wear Af1 Hat and Af2 Body, in Normal mode I wear Ix.Cloak...

My math works out that I get 250mp back (I'm taru) every 3 minutes in Sublimation mode. That's 62-63 ticks worth of Sublimation with Af1+Af2, 83-84 with Af1, 125 with neither.

Af1+Af2 = 3 minutes (roughly)
Af1 = 4:12 minutes (roughly)
None = 6:15 minutes (roughly)

Gotta say, I wasn't impressed when the Af2 set came out because of the lack of Refresh on the Body. But once I tweaked my macro system so that I get optimum use of my Sublimation items, it's fkn amazing... I'm consistatly sublimating at every opportunity I get, the MP return is pretty damned good. With Af1+Af2, full Sub merits only takes an extra 39 seconds to fill, with Af1 it takes 51 seconds, Neither takes 75 seconds.

My point eventually is that Sublimation merits are awesome because it takes a lot shorter time to cap if you have both the Af1 Hat and Af2 Body consistantly on most of the time (few exceptions here or there) than without. New AF enhancing this Merit yaddayaddayadda...

Edit: Just realised that Refresh is also 3 minutes long and gives you back 150 MP. 250 MP > 150 MP! lolRefresh. 30s downtime of no Sublimation isn't worth an arguing point neither, as no Rdm I've ever played with has kept me consistantly Refreshed.

[Kainos]

I still like 5/5 MV 5/5 Helix though. It's a strong 1 time damage tool. For instance, in Nyzul, you can do like a 230 damage Luminohelix > MV and do about ~2500 damage for 79 MP. Good for bosses and those annoying melee resistant mobs.

Has any further testing been done on stacking MV(everyone 5/5) with other scholars? would a pty of 6 = 15000 damage? (6sch x 2500)

I can see if you heal alot or solo and need the mp why you might want 5/5 sublimation.
I guess it depends on ur LS b/c there arent that many scholars still, but for me the possibility is too great to just write off MV merits if it stacks. All you need is one well equipped SCH to land first tick and if you get enough sch in alliance/pty? it could be like a zerg but with magic

I havnt seen any info with testing on this, i would imagine it would be very hard to find 5 sch with 5/5 MV merits. Im not great at math but is there any testing on this I missed besides what was posted earlier in this thread? if not i am going to hold out still on finishing group 1

[Not Kuno]

Thanks to Kaekos bit of info I decided to just go with 5/5 MV merits. Fully capped SCH merits, thanks guys for the help. ;o

[Kaeko]

Finding 5+ SCHs with 5/5 MV merits on the same server is nearly impossible. Most go Sublimation as their second T1 merit I think. So it's very hard to test this MV gank idea. Even if it worked, it would get patched beyond the first few AV/PW kills

To add more about MV merits, a fully merited MV used right after helix is about a 60% damage increase. So if you did a helix that would have done 1000 damage, it does about 1600. Though only every 10 minutes, if you're focused on damage efficiency and gank efficiency, it's quite a strong boost. This is especially true when you max your Helix set and start doing 150-250 Helices.

Sublimation merits are stronger now with this AF2 body. I'll try to run the "MP earned" sort of calculation if no else does it soon.

[Sodalitas]

I contacted a GM regarding the current state of Enlightenment merits, and this is what he had to say:-

http://img293.imageshack.us/img293/5...7090237dc8.png

I messed with the wording of my questions to see if he would be able to elaborate a bit, but I don't think it changes anything. Enlightenment is working as intended - all of SCH's magic skills are boosted to B+ (the "optimization of white and black magic capabilities") and spells from both addenda are made available for the next spell, but white magic penalties to casting time, recast time and MP cost still apply under Dark Arts and vice versa. His comment about how the discription[sic] was obtained from community sites and written by players made me scratch my head. Add that to the consistent misspelling of "description" and it gives me a tiny glimmer of hope that he might be wrong, but I'd say chances of that are slim to none.

I have to say I'm slightly disappointed with Enlightenment, but Enlightenment definitely still has its uses, but it's not as good as it could've been. That puts me at 5/5 Stormsurge, 1/5 Enlightenment now, and neither the new Stratagems nor additional Enlightenment merits seem enticing enough to warrant meriting, and the 2-charge cost is just too prohibitive. Guess I'll be putting merits into MV now since I tend to sit on a fully-charged Sublimation and use it only when my pool runs low enough to get back the max possible stored MP.

[Seibar]

- In the help text for the scholar's new Group 2 merit point ability "Enlightenment," the reduction in recast time is incorrectly displayed as 1 minute 30 seconds. The correct figure is 1 minute 15 seconds.

*fixed* today

sad that they fixed the recast time and not the problems you guys have been having with the description though

[Reapz]

I guess it really is this way intentionally then, in that case I will be leaving it at 1 merit, seems nice for getting RR2 back up while in dark arts or a quick much needed na spell and that's all. 5 Stormsurge 4 Focalization 1 Enlightenment it is!

[Deftscythe]

If anyone gets the AF2 hat please post. I really want to verify the casting speed on it. I made an error in a previous post about it hitting -35% casting time.

It's really...

-10% Arts
-15% Fast Cast II (/RDM)

You need -35% to hit final tier.

Loquacious Earring = -2%
Warlock Mantle = -2%
Rostrums = -2%

You need -10% from gear to hit this tier. So what the AF2 head and AF1 feet give matters a lot. If it's -3% or higher you'll be able to break tier supposedly.

Well I got the hat tonight. Recast reduction is 5%. I'm still testing but so far I haven't gotten any casting time reduction. I keep getting 18 second casts on tele-mea which only accounts for the 10% from light arts.

[Toth]

Just curious but does anyone with 5/5 Stormsurge merits know what total + stats Voidstorm gives?

[Not Kuno]

Just curious but does anyone with 5/5 Stormsurge merits know what total + stats Voidstorm gives?

3


Also Dynamis doesnt love sch because I havn't seen a single piece drop from any zone. >(

[Lordwafik]

3


Also Dynamis doesnt love sch because I havn't seen a single piece drop from any zone. >(

Our SCH body is officially freelot :< gimme gimme rest

[Ratatapa]

Got Pants in Bastok yesterday

yay for drain aspir bio macro?

[EternalSnow]

I capped my helix merits. Now working on capping stormsurge.

[Telamond]

Am I the only one who doesn't see the "awesomeness" in Stormsurge?

[Not Kuno]

Am I the only one who doesn't see the "awesomeness" in Stormsurge?

It's awesome in comparison to the other merits.

[Nevex]

Am I the only one who doesn't see the "awesomeness" in Stormsurge?

I find it mediocre at best.
SCH is already busy doing so much stuff I can't see myself wasting MP/time/charges on very marginal stats boost.

On the other hand, Tranquillity and Focalization at least actually considerably boost your 2h if you macro them properly, even though outside of that the 2 charges cost makes them inpractical to use.
Enlightenment is just awesome if you spend most of your time in Dark Arts, not so much the other way.

[Rocl]

Just Accession + Hailstorm if in BLM PT, Accession + Firestorm if in Melee PT tbh. You could go and like try to give everyone their own storm but that, my friend, is impractical!

[Apollyon]

I find it mediocre at best.
SCH is already busy doing so much stuff I can't see myself wasting MP/time/charges on very marginal stats boost.

On the other hand, Tranquillity and Focalization at least actually considerably boost your 2h if you macro them properly, even though outside of that the 2 charges cost makes them inpractical to use.
Enlightenment is just awesome if you spend most of your time in Dark Arts, not so much the other way.

Everyone has been saying that about Enlightenment, however PERSONALLY, first spell I thought of was Sleep II. I spend a lot of time in Light Arts in Dynamis and Einherjar, and the ability to access Sleep II is huge in my opinion. If I'm in Light Addendum and I need to cast sleep 2, I have to change to Dark, pop Dark Addendum to access it. After getting back to Light Addendum, I have blown 2 charges just to be able to CAST the spell. Not to mention if it needs to be AoE, that's 3 Charges. The ability to access Sleep II at no skill or charge loss it great, and only 2 charges to access Sleepga then return to Light Addendum.


(Don't get me wrong, it's still only an unlock)

[Telamond]

I only play SCH in Enhancing/Healing/Crowd-controll mode, during end-game. The reason why I only merited Arts recast and Sublimation potency on my Category 1.

Enlightenment reduces the stratagems used by one, in the case of a quick Manifestation + Sleep 2.

Say that you're in Light Arts mode, and you need a quick access to a "Sleepga II". Least stratagems used would be to do Dark Arts, Enlightenment, Manifestation Sleep II. Reducing the used stratagems by one... The rest just seems like a big waste of time to me.