[Teslas]

Hello KI people-

I got extremely bored with a laptop without internet, and after at least 20 questions a week about enfeebling magic I figured I could just refer people to this document. After writing this, I felt like an incredible loser, and drank lots of alcohol and went out to get laughed at by laides for a few nights. Now that I've... recovered I guess... I'll post it.

I put this here for review and comments before I posted it somewhere else. So please, review and comment. Post any blatent grammatical mistakes or structural mistakes like saying "Gravity" where I may have meant "Slow." This is going to be posted on a board that uses a constant character width similiar to GameFaq's, so some things may not line up correctly. If you wanna keep the thread clean, send me small mistakes in a private message.

Keep this civil people, try not to personally bash each other. You can bash me if you wish, I wont pay any attention to it. But if you would, refrain as to not clutter up the thread. Be sure to back up your points with evidence or logic, or at the very least a lie that sounds believable.

[WALL OF TEXT]

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--Understanding Enfeebling Magic--
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This isn't an end-all explaination to the workings of the magic system in final fantasy XI. It is, however, my complete understanding of the system since I've been playing red mage-- day 1 of NA release. I will make sure to make a clear distinction between my opinions and indisputible fact.

Thanks for your time, and forgive the overuse of "for example,"

Teslas -Fairy RDM

A short note on the spell "Dia":
I will not include Dia in any lists because it is "non-resistable." If Dia II lands on an enemy, it lasts a set amount of time, takes 2hp/tick damage, and its defense is decreased by a constant percentage. This has been tested to be around 10%. (Dia I is 1hp/tick and 5%~) If it does not land, the mob has some sort of complete magic immunity. The only variable is dia's initial damage (0-7dmg, more with light threndody or MAB), which let's face it, doesn't really matter. Bio is also like this, but it is a dark magic based spell and wont be mentioned either.
A short history of Dia:
Dia was originally Divine Magic based which would more closely explain the apparent opposition and similarities to the spell Bio, as well as our having divine magic skill. It was changed to Enfeebling magic before NA release. Most likely this was done because Dia is considered Red Magic and not White Magic. Enfeebling Magic being a Red Mage's A+ skill, they changed the first spell red mages learn to their native skill. White mages can learn it too, but after red mages of course (same with Diaga and Dia II). It is the only "Red Magic" that another mage job can learn. Well... apart from Regen originally being Red Mage only, but we wont go into that.
[/babble]

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--The Basics--
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There are basically two categories of enfeebling magic: INT based enfeebs, and MND based enfeebs. Both are affected by enfeebling magic, and both are affected by magic accuracy. It is strongly believed that MND does not affect INT based enfeebs, and INT does not affect the MND based ones. There is very little to no evidence that Magic Attack Bonus has a direct relation to any or all of the enfeebling spells. A "constant effect" spell simply means that the spell is either inflicted upon the enemy or is not. For example, there are no varying degrees of silence or sleep.


MND based (white magic):
Slow (Earth)
Paralyze (Ice)
Silence (Wind)

Slow-
It has been tested that MND directly affects the percentage of slow that the target receives. The more MND the greater the slow%. There may be a check against the enemy's MND.

Paralyze-
It is widely accepted (as accepted as 2+2=4) that the proc rate, or the amount of actual paralyzed actions, is directly affected by the MND of the caster. The more MND of the caster, the more often it procs. It may be checked against the target's MND value upon casting.

Silence-
Constant effect spell.


INT based (black magic):
Bind (Ice)
Gravity (Wind)
Blind (Dark)
Sleep (Dark)
Poison (Water)
Dispel (Dark)

Bind-
Every time damage is dealt to an enemy, it has a chance to immediately unbind that enemy. It seems that this chance is greatly increased with the difficulty of the enemy. A bound Kirin will most likely "unstick" as soon as someone does a twenty damage aero II to him, whereas a bound TW-VT mob has a very good to decent chance of remaining bound after a 500 damage nuke. Whether or not this chance to unstick has to do with any stats is unknown.

Gravity-
The movement speed reduction is a constant effect. In an update some time ago, mobs were made to build up a resistence to the spell Gravity. The more often gravity is cast on a target, the less and less effect it will have, making it harder to land gravity, and reducing its duration. In addition, Gravity was made to lower the target's evasion. This effect has suppsedly been tested to be around -5%~

Blind-
It is rumored that the amount of accuracy that a mob loses is affected the the casters INT. I have not seen any evidence of this, and have never tested it. It would make sense that INT may directly affect Blind's potency, but a Blind that has a constant effect is possible as well. Testing this would be a little less than simple. I nor anyone I know has done so.

Sleep-
Enemies will seem to slowly build up a resistence to sleep, especially Notorious Monsters. In ballista this effect is even more evident, as special rules apply. The spell itself is obviously a constant effect.

Poison-
The DoT for Poison and Poison II are constant effects. Poison I is 1hp/tick and Poison II is 10hp/tick.

Dispel-
Dispel is rather special in that it has an incredibly high innate magic accuracy. (Like Stun, but to much less of a degree) Your dispels will not commonly be resisted outside of complete magic immunity of some sort, or things of dramatically higher level. It has a constant effect of removing one of the target's buffs.

Remember that some Notorious Monsters and normal mobs simply cannot have certain enfeebles landed upon them. Mysticmaker Profblix for example cannot be Slept or Silenced, no matter what you do. Bones cannot be slept using the Sleep spell no matter what you do, etc etc.

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--The Big Question, Enfeebling Magic Vs. Magic Accuracy Vs. Stats--
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Oh boy, here we go. So much misinformation has been circulated about this topic without so much as a shred of a thought.

There are two basic things to consider when throwing an enfeeb on an enemy:
1: The stats and gear of the caster
2: The stats (and gear if it's a player) of the target

--The offensive side: Your stats and gear--

We all know that +enfeebling magic helps to land enfeebles. We all know that +MND on a MND spell and +INT on an INT spell, if nothing else, at least feels right to do. And most recently, we were able to merrit and wear gear that granted "magic accuracy." With a name like that, how could it not affect enfeebles?

It is also evident that enfeebling magic's duration and chances to land have somewhat of a "base" value. I will explain the lose usage of the term "base". Enfeebling Magic and Elemental Magic are actually quite a bit alike-- enough to where using one to help explain the other is easy to do. If you are new or don't know much about elemental magic, don't worry, it's not necessary. All values for duration of enfeebles are arbitrary. There might be concrete, constant durations, or at least ones based on stats, but they're not hilariously obvious.

-Example 1:
Assume we're fighting a hypothetical "Doom Rabbit"

Player casts Slow on the Doom Rabbit.
-three seconds pass-
Player casts Paralyze on the Doom Rabbit.
-fight continues for say... two minutes-
The Doom Rabbit's Slow effect wears off.
-two-three seconds pass-
The Doom Rabbit is no longer paralyzed.

Most of you have seen this before. It seems that when everything goes well, and enfeebles last a long while, their duration seems fairly equal based on when you casted them.


-Example 2:
Assume we are fighting the same hypothetical "Doom Rabbit"

Player casts Slow on the Doom Rabbit.
-three seconds pass-
Player casts Paralyze on the Doom Rabbit.
-30 seconds pass-
The Doom Rabbit is no longer paralyzed.
-33 seconds pass-
The Doom Rabbit's slow effect wears off.

Again, most of you have seen this. Sometimes enfeebles do not wear off after the same amount of time has passed. (We will discuss this further in the defensive side). This discrepency in duration has at least a partial explaination:

READ THIS NEXT LINE. IT'S IMPORTANT.
Enfeebling magic is partionaly (fractionaly) resisted in a similiar way to elemental magic.
READ THAT LAST LINE. IT'S IMPORTANT.

Any black mage will tell you elemental magic affects how much they get resisted. For example, whether Aero IV does 200 damage to kirin or 400 or 800 can be directly affected by pumping up elemental magic. (Assuming they dont sacrifice INT or MAB to lose base damage). In much the same way, Enfeebling magic can last a hypothetical max length of two minutes, or one minute, or thirty seconds, or fifteen seconds, or seven seconds, or be completely resisted outright. This is especially evident with the spell Bind.
And for our convenience, Red Mages have a lot of nukes and +elemental skill gear we can play with. If you're not aware of these fractional nuke resistences, go see for yourself. If you're 60+, god help you for not having already come to this realization.

The fractional resistance to enfeeble theory completely explains the discrepencies in duration, as well as being resisted completely. In case you mised it, complete resists occur when the mob resists an enfeeble past the threshold of taking effect. As a respectful mention to someone else making an observation, there may be an additional "complete resist" factor based on the target's stats which will be discussed later.

The next question is how we're able to help our enfeebles obtain their maximum duration, and as a result, actually landing. And another point, and make sure you read this:
TESTING IS ABOUT REPETITION
You must do things over and over or they mean nothing. Dumb luck is a powerful way to influence lazy dumbasses.

Enfeebling Magic-
No doubt Enfeebling Magic has an effect. This becomes especially evident later in the game when we can remove 15-57 skill from ourselves by stripping down. Try to land Bind on XP mobs stripped down nakid without merrits. It becomes a chore to do multiple times in succession successfuly. You may also notice that it wears rather quickly. This is best done before +ice acc and +enfeebling merrits on something like aura statues. You'll come to appreciate skill greatly. But hey, I'm sure you already did.

Stats: MND and INT-
Apart from the observable and rumored extra effects these stats have on enfeebles, I, and everyone else, believe they affect your "accuracy" to some degree. Again, strip nakid you sexy thing, and throw some test enfeebles on aura statues or something else. Sucks doesn't it? Now, load up on all your normal +MND or +INT gear that you'd wear, but keep the +skill/+acc gear off. You may want to throw in a mythic wand and some other gear so you approach or exceed +50 of the stats. Your enfeebles will land a little better, nowhere near as well as they were with that +30 enfeebling magic (or whatever you might have have). You'll also notice that if your paralyze lands on, say, the aura statue, it probably is proc'ing at a decent rate.
A suggestion: in some of the harder, mostly alliance-based fights later in the game, sacrificing Enfeebling and Macc+ for MND may be a wise decision. 2-8% more slow and a higher proc rate on Paralyze will save your tanks XP. Even though the spells will most likely wear much faster, 2-3 red mages in an alliance can handle this easily with modest attention to the chat log and decent communication. The extra 6mp you spend to recast Paralyze early, or because it was resisted, will save your white mages MUCH more in return. In addition, tanks shed less hate if they're hit less often. This, in my opnion, is where Elvaan red mages finally shine.

Magic Accuracy-
By far the cheapest way to appreciate magic accuracy (as far as gil, not time) is to see it in merrits. +15 wind accuracy can be seen very well during prolonged NM fights involving Gravity. Apart from that, strip down again in ullikummi's room and bring along some of that god awful RDM JSE. Idealy you'd have as much as you possibly could. HQ cap, HQ chausable, and HQ pants. Again, you'll see that, by golly, it helps you land enfeebles on enemies. Maybe a little less than the same amount of +enfeeble, but maybe a little more than the same amount of +stat.
This is where the Thanatos Baselard Vs. Elemental Staves debate should be placed. It is known that the staves give MAB to their corresponding elements. It is very likely and very obvious in my opinion that the elemental staves add a certain amount of magic accuracy to their corresponding element as well. If you believe the accuracy (or maybe even MAB) outweighs the +4 skill on the dagger, then use staves. If you think the skill on the dagger is more important, then go with the dagger. Keep in Mind the Dagger allows you to pair it with +3INT from the Astral Apis or +2MND from the Numinous Shield(+3/Shield+1). Also keep in mind the Staves have +stats of their own. For example, +5INT on the Aquilo's Staff for Bind is mighty nice.
In my opinion, the HQ staves are clearly better than the Thanatos Baselard in every way imaginable. As far as NQ staves go, the dagger+shield combination may actually be able to compete. I base a lot of my opinions of +accuracy on the same relationship of melee accuracy to melee skills. This guide is not about melee accuracy, so I wont go into that relation. Basically though, +1 accuracy is -NOT- the same as +1 skill.
It seems as if a lot of red mages, especially the "older" ones, have a distaste for magic accuracy in their gear. I also feel this way for no good reason. I think it's a grumpy old man opposed to change type of thing.

As far as landing an enfeeble, and nothing else:

As a loose rule:
1 skill > 1 magic acc > 1 stat

And in my rough, completely unfounded opinion:
4 Skill > 5 Macc > 9 Stat
(keep in mind those are greater than signs and not equals's)

Those are the basics of the offensive side. But to truly appreciate efficient combinations of gear it is necessary to understand what you're flinging spells at.


--The defensive side: Their stats--

Absolute Truth: MND affects your resistence to enfeebles. If you'd like to test this, head in to dioranmaamana-ahlahsa-ghelsba. Have two red mages of the same or similiar (hume/mithra) race go in nakid. Start throwing debuffs at one another. They should land most of the time (Unless you're an elvaan throwing INT based thigns on another elvaan) After you've had your fill of wasting echo drops and venom potions, have one of the mages equip their mythic wands, MND rings, and errant/mahatma gear. +50MND will be enough to see a difference very quickly. They'll resist your enfeebles outright more often, and their effects may last much shorter.
There is a theory that I do not agree with that compliments the fractional resist theory, and here it is:
There are two enfeeble checks, the first is the fractional, the second is a check directly against the target's mind that determines a "random" complete resist. This would explain some slightly erradic behavior with high MND mobs' resistence rates.

Absolute Truth: Elemental resistences affect resistence to enfeebles. If you have wind resistence, you'll resist silence/gravity more often. Again, walk into ballista to test this one, or go find things with known high elemental resistences. I'm sure you've found yourself saying "wtf?" when a ghost or skeleten gets the odd dispel resist off. They've got great dark resist.

Shades of Grey: Magic Defense from Shell effects. Basically, Shell raises the mobs's resistence rates much in the same way as they do nukes, and much in the same way elemental resistences apparently do.

Shades of Grey: Magic Defense Bonus. Dear lord does this have some widespread implications. Most noticably, it strongly implies that Magic Attack Bonus affects enfeebles. I am not sure whether it has an effect, if it's one sided (meaning MAB doesn't help, but MDB does), or to what extent anything goes. I'll refrain from talking too much on this aspect, test it out for yourself. Going to go for a "probably not".

Improbable: INT ffecting resistence rates. While it is known that INT does affect base damage of nukes done against something by the attacker, it is slightly less known that the target's INT also affects this value. Whether it affects enfeebles or only certain ones seems unlikely to me. I am simply throwing it out there.

Laughable: While this should probably be placed in the offensive section, I put it here. Basically, The direction you face during casting has an effect on the spell's magic accuracy based on the element, much like crafting. While I have to admit this is at least possible, I'm too lazy and too proud and too egotistical to even consider trying it out. All I can say about this is... 'kay. If you were to test it, it would be much easier to do with nukes, but please, don't.


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--Conclusion--
--------------

I went into some things further than I wanted to. I didn't go into some others as much as I would have liked to, and I'm sure I forgot a few more points than I would have liked to.
Anyways, hope that helped guys, now quit sending me /t's while I'm in limbus about it. Once again, any and all comments are welcome in /t's, messages, posts, or private forum messages.

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--Appendixes--
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--Ingame Message Appendix:

"The Arbitrary Name receives the effect of Whatever."
Congrats, you've landed an enfeeble.

"Whatever has no effect on the Arbitrary Name."
The same debuff is already on the monster.

"The Arbitrary Name resists the (effects of the) spell."
You just got schooled, son.

"Resist! The Arbitrary Name resists the spell"
Don't feel too bad, A job trait like Resist Paralyze on Dark Knights just kicked in, that lucky bastard.

"The Arbitrary Name's Slow effect has worn off" "The Arbitrary Name is no longer asleep."
The enfeeble wore. Most enfeebs have different notices, such as gravity, paralyze, etc.

"Brand-New-Red-Mage-That-Melees-During-Dynamis obtains a Duelist's Chapeau."
You now have every right in the world to take another human being's life.


--Enfeebling Stats Appendix:

Red Mage:
A+ 276 cap
Black Mage:
C+ 230 cap
White Mage:
C 225 cap
Dark Knight:
C 225 cap

Enfeebling Magic can be merrited 8 times for a total of +16 magic skill. This takes 210,000xp (21 merrits) and consumes all raises in the magic category.


--Enfeebling Gear Appendix: (Red Mage Onry)

Best possible assemblage of +Enfeebling Magic gear:

+3 Enfeebling Earring Lv.35 (ear)
+15 Warlock's Tabard Lv.58 (body)
+7 MC Bracelets Lv.65 (hands)
+7 Enfeebling Torque Lv.65 (neck)
+4 Thanatos Baselard Lv.74 (sacrifices main slot which most of us use staves in)
+15 Duelist's Chapeau Lv.75 (head)

Rare/ex from Sea:
+5 Altruistic Cape Lv.73 (back)
+5 Narsomething Seraweels (Not sure of spelling or level, 70+) (legs)

For a total of 353 possible enfeebling magic. (349 with a staff out)

[/WALL OF TEXT]


Back to KI-

Thanks for the continued information and help guys.

Random DoT information courtesy of Siren-Vail:
http://ffxi.killvoid.com/forums.php?m=posts&q=125577

[Leif]

Also, Enfeebling torque is lvl 65, and the duelist's chapeau is 75.

The "Amniosity" cape should be Altruistic, not sure on level though.

Other than that, good guide. I think it will help new RDM much (and experienced).

[Superbleh]

Teslas :
Shades of Grey: Magic Defense Bonus. Dear lord does this have some widespread implications. Most noticably, it strongly implies that Magic Attack Bonus affects enfeebles.

Well, a few BLMs have said before that the 'magic potency' merits they get seem to be making a difference with Paralyze and Stun (Ice and Thunder), and as far as anyone can tell they're just Magic Attack Bonus. But I wouldn't bank on it being the same. Could be interesting if true.

And Enfeebling Earring always gives +3, I dunno why you think it wouldn't.

[Teslas]

Leif :
Might want to add that the +3 enfeebling earring ONLY works if your skill is NOT capped.

what the hell?

Leif :
The "Amniosity" cape should be Altruistic, not sure on level though.

yeah, that sounds right. I was thinking of the way you triggered to pop the NM

[Ohemgee]

Lv73 on cape...and ugh jesus at the amount of reading D:

[Ryuushin]

Leif :
Might want to add that the +3 enfeebling earring ONLY works if your skill is NOT capped. Also, Enfeebling torque is lvl 65, and the duelist's chapeau is 75.

The "Amniosity" cape should be Altruistic, not sure on level though.

Other than that, good guide. I think it will help new RDM much (and experienced).

Err..? The earring doesn't only work if your skill isn't capped...

[Teslas]

Halleberry :
thats a pretty good guide some one sticky it. only thing im kinda confused about is SE said enfeeble last a random amount of time, i never gave it a second thought but i do kinda notice on too weaks that they wear off around the same time

SE will also tell you that nukes do random damage, and melee damage is random. It is at least to a certain extent.

[kammera]

I'm pretty sure the enfeebling earring works with capped skill....thats why it cost so much. Whos going to care about +3 enfeebling for that much money other than a, more than likely, end game rdm?

[Rhyis.]

The earring works at capped enfeebling. Saying it doesn't is just plain silly.

And for poison, the amount of slip damage is determined by our enfeebling magic skill and has a constant duration of two minutes. At 301 enfeebling Poison II will eat 11HP/tick, 440 total damage. There's never been an actual set formula for it, so I can't tell you at what levels the damage increases. Nor can I say what the damage cap is. At a guess, it's probably 12HP/tick at 351.

[Elyas]

Nice! I demand a STICKY!!

[Chinchi]

/clap
nice.

[Ohemgee]

@Rhyis, Poison2 is 10/hp a tick constant, not 100% sure. But yeah.

[Rhyis.]

Negative.

[Ohemgee]

Meh, D: lets go test the higher skill vs lower skill.

My 332 vs your skill w/e it is

[Kolvar]

I have played RDM for 75 lvls on one charcter and quite a few lvls on another character and I just learned stuff I never reall though of.

btw: I am happy you agree that our JSE is a huge joke.

[Zato]

WOW! Glad this is stickied.

This will help me out on my way down RDM lane.

[zhan]

Kolvar :
btw: I am happy you agree that our JSE is a huge joke.

Meh, I have HQ legs, I prefer them over mahatma slops. Only thing Id take over them is the Ultima slops. For head space even a NQ Elite Beret is better then it, and AF body > JSE body.

Btw very nice guide, should be very helpful to a lot of people.

[Rhyis.]

Ohemgee :
Meh, D: lets go test the higher skill vs lower skill.

My 332 vs your skill w/e it is

I already played around with it when I was level 60. It didn't do anywhere near 400 damage. That's how I know it's not a fixed number. It's hard to test 75 vs 75 though, with capped enfeebling merits already putting us at 292. Gear doesn't bring us that much higher. Go find a level 50 RDM, make him poison II something, then poison II the same type of thing. You'll do noticibly more damage.

[Rukya]

Awesome guide, thanks very much ^^

There's something that left me a lil worried though...

"Enfeebling Magic can be merrited 8 times for a total of +16 magic skill. This takes 210,000xp (21 merrits) and consumes all raises in the magic category."

So does that mean you can only raise to full cap one thing in the same category?
Would it be wise to raise all to a certain point then or focus on the most important?
If I raise Enfeebling to max 8 times, can't I raise Enhancing after to max too?