Merits For A Endgame RDM

No because a real analysis of dmg mitigation would have to involve talking about how much slow helps you put up utsu and I REALLY don't wanna touch that. It's only in blood tanking situations that proc rate directly equals dmg mitigation.

Slow and para have increasing returns (though there's a grey zone on slow) and if you're really going down that road I could argue that para procs reduce how often you have to put up shadows/stoneskin, leading to more damage dealt over time. But really, I'm not interested in marginal gains ***.

Also, if Bio III is that noticeable for you then stop running in circles and start nuking/meleeing.

It's exactly the same for Slow if you aren't bloodtanking, both spells help with recast and casting times.

That is true, yeah. Guess I got a bit off topic going into what's most beneficial between the spells rather than for the OP. I'd lean toward Paralyze in this case, though. Even if it is lol

And like I said before, slow doesn't just exist to let you put up utsu, it still reduces the number of attacks so it still does SOMETHING. Is it worth the extra merits, probably not, but it still has an effect.

Paralyze doesn't act the same way slow does. Where did you hear paralyze has increasing returns?

Increasing in terms of what it does for your overall performance, he just said, less casting ichi/ni/ss/etc, same applies for regular tanks. Since a single para proc is effectively 100 slow on a hit, probably more since delay resets after a para proc.

Slow II will only be beneficial during that situation, if you're kiting... Which is only 2-3% of the time during the entire fight?

That is minimal.. Am I right?

I never said don't cast slow.. In fact, my slow II is 5/5.

But paralyze II will be much more beneficial then slow II..

If you're kiting..

Even kiting they both only apply to that 2-3% you get bound or stunned, unless of course the mob casts. Slow should be the prioritised spell for casting always.

Slow actually has some pretty ugly decreasing returns, didn't really realize it until I actually looked at numbers. Pretty much looks like DA.

It's a minimal portion of the fight, yes. But it's also 1. the most stressful part of the fight 2. in most cases the deciding factor of winning/losing. So, is it of minimal CONCERN/EFFECT? *** no, it's a deciding factor. Not only that, but it's one that you can consistantly rely on.

If Paralyze II usually lasted 2 minutes, I'd agree completely that you should maintain it on potentially deadly monsters. And I'd agree that it'd be wholly more important in the scenarios I've explained above. However, the way it is implemented in the game as of now, I disagree. Completely.

No need, I had it flipped around in my head... It is decreasing, but not so dramatically that I'd call it insignificant.

If you are stunned while kiting, and the monster catches you and gets a swing..

Slow will have 0 effect since the god damn delay has already been waited out while you were kiting it >_>

Paralyze could possibly proc.

Slow Will not.

Edit: If you're dumb enough to stick around longer, slow will effect the second swing :P

Neither slow nor para seem so good to have fully merited that I feel compelled to max them out... They're not insignificant but at the same time, you pretty much can't tell the difference between a rdm with 1 merit or 5 merits in them.

Just throwing this out there to put more fuel on the fire!

Slow: 180sec duration (barring resists)
Para: 30~120sec random duration (barring resists)

What if you get a Bind/Grav resist when kiting or you make a mistake or even lag? Slow is always useful.

Maybe you don't do Zip often, but that stun is something horrible and it can usually get 2-3 swings off. I also prefer to cast shadows immediately after stun wears rather than run away taking further hits, so yeah, it's not just 1 swing, and that's with DA being ignored.
Oh and yeah it likes to bind too, being bound beside it I'd definitely prefer slow to already be on rather than have to cast it and effectively waste my Ni doing so.

Thank you, people seem to think it has the same duration of Slow, but it's like throwing a dart at the wall with blindfolds on.

It's likely that you'll see at least 3 attack rounds if your bind was resisted. Also, if the monster attacks fast enough, you won't be able to cast Utsusemi: Ichi during the monster's delay while under fire. If Slow II is already on the monster, however, you will have much more leverage for completing Ichi, while waiting on your Ni timer.

Show me where I said Slow II wasn't useful...

I said it wasn't as beneficial as Para II during kiting.


During Straight tanking.. It's a different story.. Slow II will *** some ***up

You guys just have too many problems

I like bio 3 for blood tanking too ;).

No seriously it's amazing what you can just lowering the mobs attack and raising your def. Not even getting into phalanx/stoneskin/pdt etc

It's not that we think that, it's that duration is irrelevant information. Neither one's duration changes with merits.

Not anymore. Haven't done sky in a few years.

Bio3 5/5 does 220 more dmg in 2 and a half minutes than Bio2 does in 2 minutes. Not to mention it also weakens the enemies attacks more than Bio2 does. So yea I'd say its pretty valuable. Bio3 4/5 does 40 more dmg than Bio2 does in the same amount of time and only costs 18 more mp. So even at 4/5 Bio3 is hands down better than Bio2.

Oh yea, btw that's assuming the Bio2 is cast from a job with 291+ dark magic skill. If not then Bio3 is even that much greater. If you drop down to an Rdms average dark magic skill that would mean 5/5 Bio3 does 300 more dmg and 4/5 does 120 more dmg. If the fight takes 30 minutes that translates into Bio3 5/5 doing 3.6k more dmg than Bio2 would do. Wanna talk blm Bio2? Then its still roughly 2.5k dmg more in 30 minutes. Idk to me 3.6k more dmg sounds pretty awesome and mp efficient. So I guess the question is, is 3.6k more dmg, and ultimately saving you a ton of mps worth it? If it is than Bio3 is much much much much much much much better than Bio2.

God I hate keeping paraII up sometimes.

Eitehr I have to watch the chat log very closely or just randomly recast it. Especailly with its random proc nature. In same gear against same enemy I've had it not proc for full duration of like a min and the next day go off like 10 times in a row