Elemental debuff discussion/advice threadFollow

For the longest time i ignored my elemental debuffs, what a fool i am ;_; Now I would like info and tips on how I should do them.

I found the chart that shows which ones stack, and I understand that, but now I would like some advice on which combo I should cast. Also I am wondering, does bio count as one? I would think not, but does it stack with say drown? (lowers str i think)

Heres the table for example.

Fire > Ice > Wind > Earth > Thunder > Water > Fire
Burn > Frost > Choke > Rasp > Shock > Drown > Burn
INT > AGI > VIT > DEX > MND > STR > INT

For those who dont know, the elemental debuffs wont stack up with anything immediately weaker or stronger then it on the scale. For example, Burn (fire) wont stack with Frost (Ice) or Drown (water). For this reason you can only stack a maximum of 3 debuffs at once on one monster. Those combos are either AGI, DEX, STR (all melee attributes) or INT, VIT, MND (melee and casting attributes).

Now I have heard 2 things. First I heard that lowering INT will cause it to resist less your elemental spells. I have also heard that MND will do this. To me, I would think INT is the stat responsible for resisting elemental spells but I'm really not sure. Can someone please answer this?

And what are some popular combo of debuffs? I cant imagine that casting 3 would always be very efficient, but maybe 2 would work well. For me, I would think one to lower its defense against melee and one to lower its chance to resist my magic. Of course it would also depend on the enemy we are fighting. Another strategy that would work well on some monsters is lowering its damage by lower either STR and/or DEX. I hear that lowering DEX is worth more since it effects chance to hit and crit, but again I assume it would depend highly on the monster.

So to recap my 3 questions are:
1. What elemental debuffs do you like to cast and why?
2. Does bio stack with the other elemental buffs, especially drown
3. Which stat is responsible for lowering its resistance to magic, MND or INT?

I have never been able to get more than one elemental debuff to stick. Have you verified this personally? The first one always hits if the mob is weak to that element, but the second one always has no effect because it already has one on. As for bio, it isn't considered an element per se, and thus stacks with any other status effect. As for magic resistance, I've heard it's tied in with MND, but to be honest, when Shock is in effect, it doesn't seem to make much of a difference, although this could be because the mob affected doesn't have much mind anyway (i.e. Crawlers, Scorpions, etc.). I'll have to research this more. Good question! ^^

As far as my "favorite," I would say it would have to be whatever debuff the mob is weak against because it has a higher chance of hitting. Each debuff has its unique advantages, so they're all good, though Burn and Shock are less useful if the mob doesn't use magic (I have a feeling non-magic using mobs have low mnd/int anyway and thus it doesn't matter much).

Generally, the very first spells I cast are shock followed by burn. These are to increase my own spell effectiveness, and they are generally the debuffs I prefer. And choke stacks with those for some nice defense enfeebling.

These are pretty much the only elemental debuffs I use so far, with one exception. If we're fighting fliers or ITs so high above us that the melees have trouble landing their blows, I cast frost instead of burn to help them land more hits so they can build up TP faster for skillchains. My husband is a dragoon, and he says he can definitely tell the difference frost makes against high ITs.

Now if the mob's regular physical attacks were really decimating the tank, I would probably go with the rasp/drown combo, but to be honest I haven't been in a situation yet where I thought they would be more useful than shock/burn. Anyone else?

I've found that this casting order works for me:

Bio * : Lowers mob attack so melee'ers aren't beat up too badly
Shock : Prepare mob for barrage of Enfeeblements
Blind :
(
if you have access to them, and the Whm/Rdm is too busy to cast them
Paralyse
Slow
)
Poison : Get a little extra damage in + it helps with the enfeeblement skill
Choke : Lower VIT - figure it can't hurt
Burn: Prepare mob fo barrage of Elemental spells
<ELEMENT_NUKE> : Either top of the line or highest lvl of mob WEAKNESS, or whatever seems to be working due to weather/moon phase
Aspir : (if applicable, get some MP back for casting all those debuffs)

Rinise and Repeat as necessary, i.e. if something didn't stick the first time around, go back and cast it again. If something wore off and I actually saw the message cast it again.

But basically, the idea is to get as many enfeeblements out there before I start nuking - theoretically should save on MP in the long run, after all there should be 5 DOT damages spells going, plus it allows the tanks to build up hate before I nuke.

If there is a Rdm, I'd always rather let them cast the non-elemental debuffs, as they have a better chance of them not being resisted.

Bigger question I have is: Does Burn help Shock and Choke get resisted less? If so, then my casting order might be off

-p

thanks very much for the helpful replys and sorry again about the double post ^^

I would like to note that Shock will decrease their resistance to Black Magic also. I know this for a fact, I've spent a large portion of my BLM career only casting Shock, and it has always decreased the monster's resistance to ALL my magic. Until this post, I've never know INT increased magical resistance, everything I've heard has said MND is responsible for it. I'll go out and do some field research, and let you guys know the results :)

I'm pretty sure bio II> Dia II

And now I'm really confused, when I asked what stats between mind and int was used to resist blm nuke spell, everyone, and I mean ->EVERYONE<- told me it was mind, so I just bothered buying shock, and nobody ever told me I should cast burn instead, some people told me burn increased nuke damage a little, but no big deal.

And now you're all saying burn will both lower the enemy's chance to resist my spell and raise the damage I deal to them?

And in a fight I usualy just bother casting bio II/blind/shock (and maybe poison II when I'l get it), asking the whm or rdm to cast whm debuff because my mind is pathetic, only casting em when I really have to, if the enemy is vt I usually just cast one debuff or two, or if it's a tough I don't debuff at all. I wanted to be a blm to nuke things, why should I spend all my time casting 20 debuff, if I kill the enemy faster it means less damage and more time...

Oh and I'm also curious to know how often your nuke get resisted by an it monster (without bard song, just with your shock, or burn..), last night in crawler nest it was watersday, water weather, thunder is one of the weakness of crawler, and yet my thunder still got resisted often... I have +11int item at lvl35 and I'm a taru. And I noticed the enemy resist my nuke MUCH less often with their +int song and their threnody, I'm thinking about only getting in a party if a bard is in it too now...

Edited, Sat Feb 14 17:59:47 2004 by Gabz

Yep, its official. Burn will let you get more bang for your buck with nuking. It's made a difference of about 10 damage on average with all spells when I cast it. I believe the theory presented earlier in this threat is correct...INT is responsible for how much damage something takes from Black Magic, while MND is responsible for resistance. To be safe, cast both Shock and Burn :)