Thursday, March 19, 2009

/shocked: SCH Relic Body & SCH vs. BLU in Nyzul

This is quite a surprise! I didn't expect to get SCH Relic Body on... I think this is only my 2nd time to the glacier :o The first time here I got my BLU Body.

This certainly changes things slightly. I never actually looked at SCH relic armor to see which pieces are good, but I knew this piece looked very elegant... or as Fuupup puts it, now I look like a high school student :P

Let's see... what does this piece have:
DEF: 38 HP +15 MP +15
Enhancing magic skill +7
"Magic Defense Bonus" +5
Enhances "Sublimation" effect

Hmm... HP & MP are always good. Enhancing Magic Skill would be good for Stoneskin... if only I had that skill capped xD Enhancing and Divine are still significantly below cap since there's no real good way to skill it up besides spamming the spells. I guess they'll eventually cap with usage.

Magic Defense Bonus isn't anything special... but Sublimation enhancement is special. Together with the AF hat, this gives my Sublimation a 4MP/tick storage rate. I'm already noticing how much faster I reach a full Sublimation store. A full store for me is about 270MP. It takes just over 3 minutes to get a full store now, compared to 4 1/2 minutes.

Still, the original SCH AF body is still better for nuking due to the "Enhances Dark Arts" effect which adds skill to Dark Magic, Elemental Magic and Enfeebling, but the relic piece is good to keep on whenever I have Sublimation up. It does introduce an interesting question though... which is better? SCH or BLU for Nyzul Isle?

SCH vs. BLU in Nyzul
I switched back to using BLU/SCH full time for Nyzul after I realized that BLU has a higher MP Refresh rate. Consider:
BLU/SCH
- BLU Auto-Refresh Job Trait
- BLU relic body
- /SCH 2mp/tick
- Sanction
Total of 5MP/tick

SCH/RDM
- Sublimation - 4MP/tick
- Sanction
Total of 5MP/tick now, up from 4MP/tick

Both jobs have comparable max MP... but it takes BLU on average almost 7 minutes to get a full Sublimation store due to the slower storage rate. This is actually an advantage due to Sublimation's downtime. Consider every time I use up that stored MP. I have 30 seconds before I can reactivate the store again. That's 10 ticks of MP I'm not regaining. On BLU/SCH, that's 20 MP, but on SCH, that's 40MP. Meanwhile, BLU's passive Refresh traits still continue through Sublimation's downtime.

Other advantages BLU/SCH has over SCH
- Two types of healing -- Blue & White Magic
- Many more sleeps: Soporfic, Sleep Song, Yawn, Pinecone Bomb & Sleep
- Two dispels: Blank Gaze & Dispel
- 5% Haste-ga for the final boss with Diffusion/Refueling
- Defense Down spells with Speedspray
- Additional damage with Sword or careful spellcasting

Disadvantages:
- No Protect/Shell IV
- No Stoneskin-ga -- Unless I set Diamondhide, and even then it's not as effective
- No Stona or Erase
- Must be close range in order to heal effectively. Healing Breeze is AoE centered around me

The last two are actually big disadvantages. Having no Erase means that Bio and other spells have to be endured compared to erasing them all at once. SCH also has a much more efficient status effect removal with Accession.

Still, overall I think that BLU/SCH's advantages over SCH give it a significant edge in Nyzul, especially if you've ever encountered the dreaded "White Magic Restricted" floor :)


Next up... why Dancer can go on forever.



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