Random Question Thread IX: Mathology 101

[cdgreg]

This may sound stupid, but to the guy who's looking to merit RDM for solo....before you go waste all the time meriting make sure you're actually GOING TO SOLO. Try it out a few times, wait a few weeks, make sure you still are. I dinged 75, swore to everything holy I was going to solo the world on RDM, maxed out bio III, etc, etc, then never fucking solo'd anything, other than like 2 zips. I eventually went back and re-did all T2 merits for phall II and whatnot.

[Byrthnoth]

This may sound stupid, but to the guy who's looking to merit RDM for solo....before you go waste all the time meriting make sure you're actually GOING TO SOLO. Try it out a few times, wait a few weeks, make sure you still are. I dinged 75, swore to everything holy I was going to solo the world on RDM, maxed out bio III, etc, etc, then never fucking solo'd anything, other than like 2 zips. I eventually went back and re-did all T2 merits for phall II and whatnot.

This is good advice. Non-2-hour RDM solo takes a certain personality. All of your fights will be long and boring. I still go BLM whenever I can manage it soloing.

PS. Rog, you solo J.Faith using DoT/Zone? RDM/NIN for shadows or /BLM for Aspir to keep MP up? How long does it take? Do you DoT -> Nuke if he chooses to Stone 4 you, and can you outrange his -ga IIIs consistently with hallways being at right angles as they are?

I'm a little skeptical to try this in sea now, as people may steal it on my newer more crowded server, but I have wanted to get some Thirds for quite a while so maybe I'll give it a shot. xD

[sruon]

Bio3 is fairly worthless really. I'd take para2 over it any day.

Just posting this here, use it as you want.

Bio 3
400(520)/2.5 minutes, 54 MP
1600(2080)/10 minutes, 216 MP
3200(4160)/20 minutes, 432 MP

Bio 2

240(310)/2 minutes, 36 MP
960(1240)/8 minutes, 144 MP
1200(1550)/10 minutes, 180 MP
2400(3100)/20 minutes, 360 MP

Brackets is expected damage when adding a non resist direct damage on cast

[Thorny]

Most worthwhile solos resist para nowadays, why bother.. the ones that don't can be done with no real difference without it.

As far as faith, macroing what little resist stone gear i have(staff, stone mufflers, enhancing torque) as well as barstone/barpetrify doesn't get resist rate on breakga above 20-30%. Duo is very easy kiting, if you're not already 20' away then just aim to not hit your partner with breakga instead of trying to range it. I can't see zoning being very difficult either, especially if you have bio 3.

[Karbuncle]

I'm in the (S) Area and my friend just invited me from Windurst (S) and i was in Fort Karug (S).

Have you always been able to do this or did they break Invites in a good way >.>?

[sruon]

Region The Sarutabaruta Front

F

* Fort Karugo-Narugo (S)

W

* Windurst Waters (S)

^

[Karbuncle]

Ah, i was looking more at the Dots being the region like they are in Conquest.

Good to know =D

[Kilik]

Where in the POLUtils are the augments listed? People were talking about the "Occasionally attacks 2-4 times" augments in the dats and Im assuming that was the program they were using to see it.

[rog]

This is good advice. Non-2-hour RDM solo takes a certain personality. All of your fights will be long and boring. I still go BLM whenever I can manage it soloing.

Most soloing doesn't really take that long. 90% of nms take between 20~50 minutes or so.

PS. Rog, you solo J.Faith using DoT/Zone? RDM/NIN for shadows or /BLM for Aspir to keep MP up? How long does it take? Do you DoT -> Nuke if he chooses to Stone 4 you, and can you outrange his -ga IIIs consistently with hallways being at right angles as they are?

/nin. Iirc it took me around 1.5 hours? I've only done it once, and was overly cautious. Not sure how well nuking after it starts casting would go, since it moves very fast, and you don't want it catching up to you before you can use the portal.

I'm a little skeptical to try this in sea now, as people may steal it on my newer more crowded server, but I have wanted to get some Thirds for quite a while so maybe I'll give it a shot. xD

Eh, faith pops are dirt cheap, so all you really risk is losing a bit of time. I definitely wouldn't pop it if there's a bunch of people around though.

Most worthwhile solos resist para nowadays, why bother.. the ones that don't can be done with no real difference without it.

Sure, plenty do, and other times the mp cost makes para1 better. However, unless you're going for a record kill time, the extra damage is rather meaningless, and para2 can potentially save you at times. Not to mention para2 is nice to have for other things, while bio is only useful for solo/manaburns.

[Windfoxster]

Sorry if that's quoted shitty, tried to do it manually from previous thread. What kind of setup did you use and how easy was it for ya?

Pretty easy and we had some relics to make it easier (tizona and horn). Did it with 5men;whm sam blu brd rdm/blm.

Initially plan was for rdm to run in and sleepga but Excenmille started early lol
We picked bugard > blms orcs > war orcs? > Kingslayer
Whm just focus on Excenmille, pretty straight forward. Yeah those adds are squishy and low hp. Friends did it with 4 before he helped me.

[Byrthnoth]

Most soloing doesn't really take that long. 90% of nms take between 20~50 minutes or so.

See, this is what I mean xD. The mentality that killing 1 NM per 30-45 minutes is a good deal is what some people lack.

For instance, even though you can solo Iriz Ima in 30 minutes with pretty standard gear on RDM, some people would still rather be in a 6 person party that kills him in 5 minutes and waits for ??? repop 5 times. I have to admit, when I started taking RDM/NIN seriously this is pretty much how I felt. On BLM I felt like I was fighting monsters, on RDM I felt like a competition to see which of us got bored and dropped first.

Also, how did you handle the end of Faith? Chainspell Bliz 3?

[Demosthenes11]

rdm solo is ridiculously boring and makes me want to kill myself.

[Callisto]

Anything special to RDM soloing Amphipteres/Zinitra, or do you just straight tank and whittle down with bio/poison?

[Dooom]

rdm solo is ridiculously boring and makes me want to kill myself.

While I agree on soloing, I do enjoy duoing/trioing with it, which can require similar merits and tactics. Point is, even if you hate soloing, solo-style merits may still work for you if you change "I'm gonna solo shit!" to "I'm gonna low-man shit!".

[Jeryhn]

While I agree on soloing, I do enjoy duoing/trioing with it, which can require similar merits and tactics. Point is, even if you hate soloing, solo-style merits may still work for you if you change "I'm gonna solo shit!" to "I'm gonna low-man shit!".

Not sure I agree here. Low-manning is typically about getting the most out of your MP through conservation, which Dia3 or Bio3 won't lend themselves to compared to the minimal gain to DoT/attack down/defense down you'll get in return, not to mention the problem with shorter durations unless the spells are fully merited. Dia2 and Bio2 cost less MP, last 2 minutes, and have pretty comparable results.

Pretty much, you should only merit Dia3 if you're serious about zerging shit, and you should only merit Bio3 if you're serious about soloing, and in both cases, you should max out merits on the spell.

On the other hand, in low-man situations, Phalanx2 and Paralyze2 have more practical applications. Not many people like Paralyze2 because its so comparable to Paralyze1 a majority of the time, but where it shines is not on saving the occasional shadow from a paralyzed melee attack, but on shit that likes to drop big bomb nukes because paralysis effects have a chance to interrupt spellcasting (KSNM Behemoth comes to mind). Phalanx2 is especially good on lower floors in Salvage, or can mean the difference between sending out a stream of Cure3s vs. Cure4s in stuff like duoing ENMs or NMs or what-have-you.

And of course, Slow2 5/5 is a given and is definitely something every RDM should have because its usefulness applies to every situation everywhere. No contest.

[Chen]

1 merit in dia iii for einherjar is a good thing

[Dooom]

Well, it really depends what targets you're talking about. When melee start getting involved then yes, it's a whole different ball-game, but if you're doing ix'drk or something with two rdms instead of just by yourself then it's not all that different.

[Windfoxster]

Anything special to RDM soloing Amphipteres/Zinitra, or do you just straight tank and whittle down with bio/poison?

Amphip: just straight tank with slow/para on it. And nuke bliz/dots.

Zirnitra: Bring around ~6D echo drops, run around the rocks. Dots and bliz.

[Eldelphia]

I wasn't playing FFXI when it was added, so which jobs can get something decent from Succor to the Sidhe? A cursory glance suggests THF and PUP get a good deal while MNK and WHM get the shaft. I also assume any staff weapons are terrible.

p.s. reverse rocket calculonometry > mathology.

SMN, SCH do ok.

[noodles355]

Thf can get a pretty pimp weapon with luck, yeah, as do pup. Smn can also get good stuff, as well as drg. Warrior can potentially too. Though, for DD jobs now I'd probably focus more on Magin weapons than Sidhe ones.

Rng one is good too if you're too cheap for Ebow. Same Dmg/Delay as Selene's, which means you only need 10STP for 6hit compared to Ebow's 13STP.

Mine's augmented with Str+4, Ratt+11 WSAcc+13, compared to Ebow's Str+3 Agi+3 Racc+2, Ratt+23, and the base bow has +1Dmg and +50Delay over ebow.
It's definitely worse, but a good option if you don't think 2mil or hours camping is worth it for a job you hardly use.