Capped Stoneskin on BRD?

[Hogie]

Anyone know if its possible to get capped stoneskin on BRD without carrying around like MND earrings? Would it be more beneficial to use some enhancing gear with such low enhancing magic?

Right now with 124 MND and capped 105 enhancing skill i get somewhere around 280 Stoneskin.... really just wana bring it up as close to cap as possible.


As a reference my gear is like this:

Neptune (5)|Raptor+1(2)
Zenith (3)| n/a | n/a | n/a
Errant (10)| dvt +1 (6) | Tamas 5 | aqua (5)
Ixion (5) | P Rope (5) | Mahatma (8 ) | Mahatma (6)

[Korremar]

I did the math on this before, shame I didn't save the calculations. Suffice to say, it's easy to get close to the cap, but actually capping it out is prohibitively expensive; enough to dissuade most people who aren't BRD main from doing it. I'll redo the math real fast and repost it, I've got like an hour before Limbus.

[Conrad]

Suzaku Sune-Ate is +15 MND. Also Yigit Turban is +5, and I use Enhancing Torque also, but I already have that for SCH.

[Hogie]

Suzaku Sune-Ate is +15 MND. Also Yigit Turban is +5, and I use Enhancing Torque also, but I already have that for SCH.

Wow i dont know how i didnt think to use suzy boots...... i guess i have a use for them now

[rog]

mines 368. - FFXIAH.com

could easily cap it with pride staff, raptor strap, and geist earring, but no where to put them =/

or if i didn't have gorget, then it'd already be capped with promise badge.

really, the few extra damage isn't worth the cost unless you already have the gear for rdm/blm/etc, and 310~330 isn't be too hard to get anyway (depending on race, a taru also has 8 less mnd than i do as an lolelf). the little extra is certainly nice, but not worth getting million gil earrings just for ss, for brd.

[Korremar]

Ok, did all the math.

3 Enhancing = 1 MND

Stoneskin = 3X - 190
350 = 3X - 190
540 = 3X
180 = X

105 Enhancing /WHM = 35 Stoneskin

The only enhancing pieces a BRD can wear are Enhancing Torque, Merciful Cape, and Augmenting Earring. This gives a combined total of +15 Enhancing, or 5 Stoneskin; logic dictates that you can easily achieve more then 5 Stoneskin's worth of MND using those 3 slots, so these pieces should be ignored. We now need 145 MND total to get a capped Stoneskin. This is assuming you have no Mind or Enhancing merits.

Taru and Mithra BRD/WHM75 have 64 base MND, the lowest of the races; if you aren't taru or mithra you can adjust accordingly. You now need 81 MND to get a capped Stoneskin. Your current setup gives you 60 MND, 21 short of the necessary.

You have the optimal pieces in grip/hands/pants/waist/back/rings.

Kirin's Pole MND+10; +5 over current; 16 needed
Suzaku's Sune-ate MND+15; +9 over current; 7 needed
Promise Badge MND+5; +5 over current, 2 needed

Goliard Chapeau, Marduk's Jubbah, or Communion Earring will give you the +2 required; Mahatma Hat and Mahatma Houppelande will give +1 each for a combined +2.

Assuming you want to use a Stone Gorget, you need 7. The previous options are viable; additionally there are the Choral Roundlet +1 for MND+6, and Celestial Earrings for MND+3.

[rog]

Ok, did all the math.

3 Enhancing = 1 MND

Stoneskin = 3X - 190
350 = 3X - 190
540 = 3X
180 = X

105 Enhancing /WHM = 35 Stoneskin

The only enhancing pieces a BRD can wear are Enhancing Torque, Merciful Cape, and Augmenting Earring. This gives a combined total of +15 Enhancing, or 5 Stoneskin; logic dictates that you can easily achieve more then 5 Stoneskin's worth of MND using those 3 slots,

actually 1 enhancing skill increases the damage ss absorbs by 1, and 1 mnd increases it by 3. augementing earring is just as good as geist (though it costs more), so if you already have one, but not communion earrings, then you may as well use it for inventory+1.

Kirin's Pole MND+10; +5 over current; 16 needed

brd can't use that. best brd can use is pride staff, which is 7 mnd.

[tsola]

brd can't use that. best brd can use is pride staff, which is 7 mnd.

Actually BRD can use Alkalurops, which is 10MND. Obviously this isn't the easiest piece of gear to obtain though.

[rog]

Actually BRD can use Alkalurops, which is 10MND. Obviously this isn't the easiest piece of gear to obtain though.

duh. sorry, i guess after the first few times i heard someone suggest using it to replace staves, or for anything other than slow/para, i must have repressed all thoughts of it.

[Korremar]

Oops, my bad, completely forgot that BRD can't use Kirin's Pole. Hurf.

[DWol]

I'm working off Hume, which has decent MND, but generally, unless you have Alkalurops or are Elvaan, you need to use earrings to get there in an effective manner.

Keep in mind, BRD can use Stone Gorget, but not Stone Mufflers. Besides that, the neck slot's highest choice is +5. Even if you can't "cap" without using the +mnd from neck, it's always better to use the Stone Gorget anyway. Since +30 Stoneskin HP from it is gonna beat out +15 SS HP from the +5 mnd.

Further, though Pride Staff is the second best weapon for bard Stoneskin after Alkalurops, it's only 1 mnd over Chanter's Staff, which can double over for use in both marches and threnodies you don't generally carry staves for. Pride Staff has no extra use, making it very ineffective to carry on BRD. It's almost never worth it.

Best pieces and alt possibilities:
Weapon: Alkalurops (10); Pride Staff (7); Chanter's Staff (6); Neptune's Staff (5)
Grip: Raptor Grip +1 (2)
Ranged: Nazar Bonjuk (1)
Head: Maat's Cap (7); Choral Roundlet +1 (6); Goliard Chapeau (5)
Neck: Stone Gorget (+30hp Stoneskin); Promise Badge (5)
Body: Marduk Jubbah (12); Mahatma Hpl. (11); Kirin's Osode/Errant Hpl. (10)
Hands: Marduk's Dastanas/Devotee's +1 (6); Devotee's/Yigit (5)
Rings: Tamas/Aqua/Communion (5)
Back: Ixion Cape/Aslan Cape (5); Prism Cape (4)
Waist: Penitent's Rope (5)
Legs: Bard's Cannions [8]
Feet: Suzaku Sune-ate (15)

A note on using Ixion Cape/Aslan Cape: You're lowering your HP by 20 by swapping them in to gain 15 HP's worth of Stoneskin. It's usually stupid to do that unless you usually use elemental znm grips. In those cases, have your macro take out the grip (replace it with something else, or just de-equip it) then put on your cape. It'll effectively keep your HP level the same as soon as you switch your regular cape (jester's +1/Astute/whatever) back in. Alternatively, if you use Bard's Cannions instead of Mahatma Slops or whatever, it has +17 HP, so you can equip that before swapping capes for cast instead of fiddling with grips. The same applies to those who don't have Stone Gorget and thinking of using Morgana's Choker. Not worth it to lose 40 hp that you may or may not get cured back before eating damage to gain 15 stoneskin HP. Just use a Faith Torque or a cheap ass Promise Badge.

[DIABEETUS]

sorry if i'm missing something, but why don't you just 2x MND etude yourself? would help with carrying around all this extra gear.

[Arkanos]

A note on using Ixion Cape/Aslan Cape: You're lowering your HP by 20 by swapping them in to gain 15 HP's worth of Stoneskin. It's usually stupid to do that unless you usually use elemental znm grips. In those cases, have your macro take out the grip (replace it with something else, or just de-equip it) then put on your cape. It'll effectively keep your HP level the same as soon as you switch your regular cape (jester's +1/Astute/whatever) back in. The same applies to those who don't have Stone Gorget and thinking of using Morgana's Choker. Not worth it to lose 40 hp that you may or may not get cured back before eating damage to gain 15 stoneskin HP. Just use a Faith Torque or a cheap ass Promise Badge.

I don't think that's a huge issue considering anytime you're on brd and can cast stoneskin, you likely have auto-regen ticking back the lost HP from gearswaps anyway.

[Skjie]

For hands, I think that you are thinking Yigit, and not Goliard.

[Mocker]

sorry if i'm missing something, but why don't you just 2x MND etude yourself? would help with carrying around all this extra gear.

Why not carry extra gear when you have the room? It's not always practical to stop up and put etudes on yourself, or to lose out on ballad every time you want to cast stoneskin. In the case of the discussing whether or not to buy expensive things to cap out stoneskin, generally it won't be worth it unless you're somewhat of a perfectionist.

[rog]

sorry if i'm missing something, but why don't you just 2x MND etude yourself? would help with carrying around all this extra gear.

you don't seriously think that it'd be practical to stop and etude yourself everytime you want to cats SS (not to mention losing ballads), do you?

[Arcaneo]

not that most of this gear is cheap or easy to come by but:

- FFXIAH.com

= capped SS w/o food or merits for Taru bard using 64base mnd & 145total mind.

[Fredjan]

It's not practical to rely on etudes; I'd rather rely on the gear alone and it's really not that bad on inventory to get the job done.

I cap stoneskin with:
Pride Staff, Raptor Strap +1, Goliard Chapeau (Yigit Turban gives 4, this gives 5), Promise Badge, Geist Earring, Kirin's Osode, Dvt. Mitts +1, Aqua/Tamas Ring, Ixion Cape, Penitent's Rope, Bard's Cannions and Suzaku's Sune-Ate. Gives me +79, making my total MND 145-146. I can get +81 if I use a second Geist Earring and my Mahatma Houppelande instead, but I like having extra MP from Osode and Loquacious Earring (capped as it is anyway, so 2 more is overkill).