Scholar Merit 1 AdjustmentFollow

Hopping between Arts is something I refuse to do outside of dire circumstances. Ultimately, this means if I'm in a BLM party, I need to figure out if dedicating myself to nuking with T4s will be more beneficial to the alliance than throwing out Storms, either single or AoE'd.

The tricky part is getting some to understand why I may not take on the full cycle. MP limitations are one aspect, but hate control is also a consideration. If I'm upping a BLM's nuke damage by 100+ with the storm and them in an Obi, I increase their chances of drawing hate and possibly compromising the group. Furthermore, even if I do Storm 5 BLMs, the odds of their combined free nuke bonuses outdoing my own individual nukes are unlikely unless I'm fighting something where resists may be an issue or they're focusing exclusively on MBs (in which case, I would be, too).

There are exceptions to this, like if I happen to have a BRD and/or COR to help my MP along, but those situations are far too rare since our BRDs usually wind up in melee parties and we have like 2 CORs that are usually on BLM, anyway.

If you're fishing for a general opinion on SCH merits, I think they're lackluster. The Grimoire Timers should also bring additional skill bonuses so people would actually consider meriting them. The Helix merits need to include an INT equivalent to the formula so we could actually consider using them on harder stuff. The only thing I'd change about Sublimation merits is maybe adding -3 seconds on the JA timer for each level. MV's timer is way too prohibitive for me to consider it along with Helix spells sucking on what I usually take SCH to. So, adding a -1:45 per level couldn't hurt here. It'd put it a bit more in tandem with a full duration Helix, but I could live with -1:30, too.

T2s get it worse. Double charges on the stratagems blow. Cut 'em to singles and I could live with them doing their MACC/-Enmity thing by level. And while I know some cream themselves over Stormsurge, I really wish it was +3 stat per level like we'd initially hoped with Voidstorm mirroring what we have now with other elements.

Sadly, people will kick and scream against this just because SCH is SCH. I'd love to see a lot of job merits get overhauled along with level-progressed abilities, though.

I don't agree with this. Storming 5 BLM's should not be weighted against your nukes, because doing one shouldn't prevent us from doing another.
A better comparison should be: Will storming 4 BLM's outweight the extra damage 2 (or 1) Stratagems could provide if applied on me? And the answer is yes, easily.

Personally, I think us paired with the BLM gives the most damage potential. It sucks losing Addendum: Black, but you don't always need it.
In plenty of events I don't even switch back to Addendum. Using my stratagems on helixes and using T3's is still a very respectable source of damage; while not being chained to any Art.

And on that note, since we're talking about merits. 5 Minute Enlightment can also be used instead of Addendum if you only need 1 nuke. And I have used it for this cause in plenty of situations; like getting ready for the MB after storming but only having 1 stratagem left.

It boils down to MP for me. Doing the cycle every 3 minutes if in Black means ~198 MP and the pain in the ass of bloated timers that might cause me to miss a sudden MB attempt. That's a couple Parsimony'd nukes to me, where considering what I may get to nuke on SCH with my LS, can mean anywhere from 1500-2200 damage (Add another 750-1100 if I do a third). Could the BLMs go balls out and top that in their combined nukings? Sure, but that's where I mentioned hate as the caveat. I have no interest in MPKing them to satiate some epeen and there are times where they get the NM's attention without it. Regardless, we'd need to rest eventually, doubly so for them if we're sans BRD/RDM/COR in the party and Aspir isn't a viable option.

Sometimes I do just stick to plain ol' DA, but that's only if I can make a Helix work well. That's the time I'm likely to arts hop now and then. Really, my biggest problem is being something other than a healer. I don't mind it now and then, but it's certainly not why I leveled SCH.

Very well put Kaetara. ^^

Though I will say this! SE needs to add sch to one of the mage sets in Salvage. As well as dnc. Its silly that sch and dnc cant use the gear there.

Well, no wonder why you're having troubles: Don't cast single targets in Black arts, just AoE them.

Just to show you the math, in your situation of having 5BLM's+SCH. Doing them individually in Dark Arts costs 216MP (6 storms) and a sh*tton of time.
Doing them with Accession costs 60MP. That's 156MP extra MP on an once per 3 minute action costing you at most 2 stratagems.
To put into perspective, the most MP you could save off two stratagems are two Parsimony'd Thunder IV's; which only save you 137MP.

Also, the argument about hate is ridiculous. By that logic DD's shouldn't get songs or haste either. Sounds like a lousy excuse more than anything.



Edited, May 28th 2009 1:34am by Drakonite

On a random note, what about Klimaform? do you guys AoE that onto the others, or do you find it to not be worth the effort? In my experience it's been pretty sweet for upping my nuking damage, but I haven't experienced endgame with SCH yet. (Also I like to use Alacrity with Klimaform to cut its recast, so that's another stratagem, though again I don't know if that applies to endgame.)

Physical DDs shouldn't be stupid about hate, either. However, if they're getting it, odds are they're by the mob (RNG excluded), not causing a risky reposition that could prompt a flail-like maneuver or conal attack to your mage line, and are more dispersed in enmity decay when comparing DoT to Spike (with hate shed from AoE ranged mages may not be privy to). This doesn't even touch on the DD possibly having TA to up their own personal survivability (Though this does help the nukers if it's consistent enough).

The times I'm nuking on SCH usually involve the Sandworm HNMs. Even if I've been a bit on the conservative side, I've drawn hate on Guivre, Serket, KA, and Lambton alike. While you could consider the first two exceptions to hate mechanics with how they fight or their move list, it's still something that could leave someone dead or cause undue strain on the rest of the alliance. I know some like to construe that killing things faster is killing things safer, but that's not a guarantee.

Edited, May 28th 2009 6:18pm by Seriha

Rofl! Gawd if i have to explain to one more "blm" about how weather effects work.. You would think that they knew this already...