[Rida]

k so I've started to cap Thunderstorm and work on my Add-on MAB set but my question is which merit 2 BP to cap (if any) next?

Meaning should I cap Wind blade ( I heard its a powerful BP) or just work on getting all of them?

Only asking this due to in BLM world obviously Ice is the next potent element for nuking, but the SMN 70 BPs obviously dont follow that pattern.

Secondly does the Garuda head piece and Levi hands effect MAB or only attack specifically?

Quote

Too much necrobump.

People are showing more and more of a lack of intelligence.

Also quoting the last post on the actual topic on Merit 2 BPs to highlight the reason Im posting this topic XD <In b4 Spira Modzillas me!>

[dakpluto]

Well, first thing you heard wrong is the "Wind Blade is great damage"

All the merit BPs have the same base damage. Unlike black magic where the elements change in strength, ours are constant.

The first general rule of thumb you will want to follow on decided your 2 is to make sure you have one for Light Skillchain, and one for Dark Skillchain. I also centered in making sure I had one for a fragmentation skillchain, as that one comes up a lot also. A second requirement for me was making sure the avatar in question had a good "oh shit" BP on hand. Let's say I'm hitting my grand fall and a big AoE happens, I have spring water right on hand before I release my avatar. Very nice at something like Tiamat.

That's why my 2 are Grand Fall and Wind Blade.

[Demireamer]

dakpluto, on 13 September 2009 - 05:39 AM, said:

Well, first thing you heard wrong is the "Wind Blade is great damage"

All the merit BPs have the same base damage. Unlike black magic where the elements change in strength, ours are constant.

The first general rule of thumb you will want to follow on decided your 2 is to make sure you have one for Light Skillchain, and one for Dark Skillchain. I also centered in making sure I had one for a fragmentation skillchain, as that one comes up a lot also. A second requirement for me was making sure the avatar in question had a good "oh shit" BP on hand. Let's say I'm hitting my grand fall and a big AoE happens, I have spring water right on hand before I release my avatar. Very nice at something like Tiamat.

That's why my 2 are Grand Fall and Wind Blade.

this might be the smartest thing i have ever read on the smn forum.

most smn like he said go with 1 for light 1 for darknes

personally for light i picked wind blade for 2 reasons wind MB to Fragmentation, one of the most seen LV2 SC and 2 Karura Hachigane making ti slightly cheaper then the others to cast

and for darkness i picked Geocrush cuz it stuns may seem like a little thing but 1 less swing helps that pt that much

NOTE: i don't not have these skill fully merited and after reading Dak im thinking about levi lol


edit "Secondly does the Garuda head piece and Levi hands effect MAB or only attack specifically?"
its ATT+ not MAB+ ^,^

[dakpluto]

Thanks Demi

And yea, I forgot to answer that last part. No, Garuda headband and Levi gloves have no effect on Magical BPs.

Only items that affect Magical BPs is augments on Redingote, Nirvana, and augmented items that specify Pet: Magical Attack +x

SMN skill does affect the magical accuracy is over cap. Exactly how much per skill is unknown.

[Demireamer]

and Astral Pot, althow i personally have never seen it in game, and have done the pulling the stings on my smn easily over 20 time, if the item is real not not just a joke by se

give ~22 so says wiki but will only work for 1 avatar every 30min with 20 changes

these are probly the reason it is not named.

[Rakshaka]

I chose to max out heavenly strike for situations where a nuke/sleep strat is viable, that, and not many mobs resist ice. I chose to put one point in each of the others for versatility , although the only other ones I really use are geocrush (for long range stun), and grand fall (for finishing off imps in the mire in certain situations). When it comes to T2 merits there's a lot of room for customization to fit your specific needs. Figure out which ones work best for you, and go for it

[Rida]

Yeah I was hoping that it wasnt based on the same damage as BLM (even though I got a Thunderstorm already) due to me hardly using this Avatar compared to say Garuda or Levithan. Thanks for the answers straight to the point. The Garuda head piece question was also basically so I wasnt limited in my Kupo d'etat choice, but it seems ill have to choose Magic Atk bonus.

[Lilsoulreaver]

Demireamer, on 13 September 2009 - 10:14 PM, said:

this might be the smartest thing i have ever read on the smn forum.

most smn like he said go with 1 for light 1 for darknes

personally for light i picked wind blade for 2 reasons wind MB to Fragmentation, one of the most seen LV2 SC and 2 Karura Hachigane making ti slightly cheaper then the others to cast

and for darkness i picked Geocrush cuz it stuns may seem like a little thing but 1 less swing helps that pt that much

NOTE: i don't not have these skill fully merited and after reading Dak im thinking about levi lol


edit "Secondly does the Garuda head piece and Levi hands effect MAB or only attack specifically?"
its ATT+ not MAB+ ^,^

Levi-hands? What piece of gear is this?

[Komugichan]

Lilsoulreaver, on 15 September 2009 - 10:53 PM, said:

Levi-hands? What piece of gear is this?

Evoker's Gages are what is being referred.

I personally am probably going to max out Shiva to start off with (so she is worth as damn) I also got one on Garuda not sure if I will put remaining on her or Ramuh.

[Shalafi]

dakpluto, on 13 September 2009 - 05:39 AM, said:

All the merit BPs have the same base damage. Unlike black magic where the elements change in strength, ours are constant.

BLM AM2 is all same base, but only those spells.

Go for Geocrush and Meteor Strike to be an original.

[spira]

what most of the people said so far.

I'd recommend to go with whatever you'd expect yourself to use most, because theres no dmg difference between the 6 of them if they are capped.

I went with Thunderstorm (for a good BP that can MB light) and then put one point in the rest cos I wanted to have access to all of them.

If you use the BPs by way of summon, BP and release, then you really won't need any other BP than Thunderstorm - it works efficiently enough on anything that doesn't have an outright magic/thunder resistance. If you need a Darkness MB, Heavenly Strike cos most BLMs MB Darkness with that element, and Bards tend to threnody accordingly.

If you intend to leave the avatars out to melee, then I suppose Garuda is a hot contender since she is easily cheaper than the rest of the avatars by 2mp/tic with Karura. Being able to leave the avatar out longer for less means you can charge TP and dish out more DMG. If you're like me and celestials cost 1mp/tic on their own day already, then putting 1 point in everyone of them and letting them melee for TP is an option too. Also, once you've gotten past 120?(i forgot the numbers) TP, then having 1 point merited is just as good as 5 points. The extra points just makes it so that you don't need to build TP / makes the BPs stronger from the get-go.

[Knyte]

I'm thinking 5/5 Heavenly Strike for darkness (is it true that Shiva's Rush gives back like a crap load of tp if all 8 hits land?), Wind Blade 4/5 for light, since most of the time Garuda is the avatar of choice, and 1/5 on Geocrush for its stun effect (toss out an Earthen Ward, then a Geocrush, then run)

[spira]

comment about rush is true, but not exactly accurate..

Rush is only 5 hits. with each hit giving around 8% tp (because avatars were unaffected by the TP nerf)... meaning if you get all hits in, it's 40% tp a pop... so by the time you're ready for a next Rage, you'd have a good amount of TP stored if she meleed.

[Knyte]

yeah my mistake, still nice though.

[dakpluto]

Of course you only have a max chance of %77 of landing every hit, and this assuming we are capable of hitting 95% at this time. If we can, for example only reach ~90%, then it drops down to only 59% chance of landing all 5.

Hence one of the main reasons Rush is such a horrible BP.

[Knyte]

Is that with capped summoning skill?

I remember someone on this board saying that they got some good numbers as their summoning skill got higher..unless they just got lucky and nailed all 5 hits

[DarkRift]

Rida!


What Dak said makes a lot of sense. I personally just liked ramuh so i went thunderstorm. Do what you enjoy most imo, but if you want to be as efficient as possible Wind Blade makes a lot of sense.

I mean think about it for a sec... We typically have Garuda out because of perpetuation, and physical pacts. It would make sense to also merit the bitches BP. Then you have a lot of options with a premier avatar. Although again... i love ramuh!

[dakpluto]

Knyte, on 28 September 2009 - 10:08 AM, said:

Is that with capped summoning skill?

I remember someone on this board saying that they got some good numbers as their summoning skill got higher..unless they just got lucky and nailed all 5 hits

Well, yes and no on a couple of things.

Fact of the matter, is we still have no idea how much Summoning skill is needed for capped accuracy, or if we have even hit capped accuracy on BPs yet.

And numbers don't really go up with more summoning skill as you do more damage. The numbers go up because you are hitting with more accuracy so you have less whiffs and more hits. But the base damage is not affected by summoning skill.

But regardless the game has a 95% accuracy cap, which is why Rush has a horrible % chance of landing all 5 hits. So even at capped accuracy, since Rush has a lower base damage per hit, you will find that the damage trade off is horrible on damage per TP gained, even if followed with Merit BP.

P.claws > gain TP >Wind Blade will have a higher DoT than Rush > gain TP > Heavenly Strike

[Austar2.0]

Mathematically speaking, MNK has a worse chance of landing all 8 hits of Asuran than your Rush BP. But I easily land all hits with capped acc, so I don't see why capped acc on a 5 hit wouldn't have similar results.

[Demireamer]

Austar2.0, on 28 September 2009 - 09:43 PM, said:

Mathematically speaking, MNK has a worse chance of landing all 8 hits of Asuran than your Rush BP. But I easily land all hits with capped acc, so I don't see why capped acc on a 5 hit wouldn't have similar results.

lets see if im getting the math right (A^x)*(B^y) = Z
where
A=likeness of a miss
B=Likeness of a hit
x= times missed
y= Times Hit

for maxed acc
([5/100]^x)*([95/100]^y) = Z
rush ~ 77%
Asurean ~ 66%

for rush

5 hits 77.37809375%
4hits 20.36265625%
3 hits 02.1434375%
2 hits 00.1128125%
1 hit 00.00296875%
miss 00.00003125%

so you have a 99% of getting 3-5 hits

for Asurean

Miss 00.00000000390625
1 hit 00.00000059375
2 hits 00.000039484375
3hits 00.00150040625
4 hits 00.0356346484375
5 hits 00.54164665625
6 hits 05.145643234375
7hits 27.93349184375
8hits. 66.34204312890625

giving a 99% of getting 6-8 hits
over 94% in it being 7 or 8

can you realy tell when it 7 or 8 hits?

this math tells alot but my GF next to me tring to get to sleep so im not going to say it all now