Bubble Trouble: A Geomancer Guide

I'm aware of how the gifts work, but this is silly, then. It would have been neat for Career GEOs to grind out their JPs to get an extra skill tier for their buffs. +10 skill is very lame. We shall wait and see, I guess.

Well it seems that SE is gradually adding more and more skill to be available for all jobs, just last update they added Chacharoon's cheer, one of the options is geo skill +1%, handbell skill +1%, healing skill +1%, enhancing skill +1% ~~ this translate to +4 skill to each category(not sure if it counts "gear skill" or not), by itself it doesn't seem like much, but combined with other "unlikely" and "soon to be implemented" options, a new tier might be discovered, for now i just chose cure pot II +5%, but also have 300k bayld on stand by, in case someone does the footwork for me and posts the much desired testing results^^

In same sense, JP gifts offer a little skill that while might not be immediately useful, according to SE -- with future expansion to the category might stack up to be a neat boost to our buffs/debuffs, furthermore, i consider that you should aim to cap all GEO JP categories, that's how juicy they seem-.-

Overall, both Mog Garden and JP grinding are the systems players have been dissatisfied with, and this is how SE motivates us to suck it up and go for it, extra bonuses to w/e area of the game you do most. If you're starting from scratch will take a lot of time indeed, about a month for mog garden... or more, for CaP farming, lol i know a friend of mine pays gil to JP group and they let him leech (1 party no cap difference) one of the options, otherwise... good luck.

Gonna need a more interested mind than mine to help me understand just what the fck this means. I actually haven't stepped foot in my Mog Garden more than twice (once was on accident, the second time I was trying to zone), and I dont know wat te point of it is, or ow to use it. Care to explain?

Also, my H and V buttons strangely were not working aboe oasionally...some keys are not appearing lol..... (see^^)

I believe it's actually a mistranslation. It's an increase in the skillup rate, iirc.

I can do better then explain, i can give you a LINK and you can read it yourself!!
http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Monster_Rearing

Edit: Derp, Byrth said it first. I'll STFU now.

Anyone serious about Geo can safely ignore this. 900 is the next tier for +1 Refresh, yet Fae seems to believe (despite being corrected on multiple forums, multiple times) that it's some magical gateway to enlightenment. Each Geo spell has tiers differing at varying levels.

From my own limited testing of capped skill (gear, merits, +7 cape) before Gifts were added, the +10 skill ring gave +1 accuracy to Precision, -1 evasion to Torpor, and -0.12% def to Frailty. I was unimpressed enough to just go with the Weatherspoon Ring without conducting more testing. +Geomancy really kinda spoiled us compared to +skill.

yes.... But what path did you do on the Artsieq????

what augment path is being recommended by the guide?

MAB path is still more Macc over the hagondes +1 so do we do MAB path or just full blown Macc path?

It really differs based on what your Hagondes augments are. Personally, I've got Path C Artsieq head and Path...B? (The MAcc path) feet. Every other slot either has dropped gear that's just as good as top tier augments, or good MAcc augments on Hagondes.

To be clearer, typically when someone says they used one set for MAcc, they mean it's purely for MAcc, for landing debuffs. MAB is for their nuking set. Though there's nothing stopping you (and depending on the content, you may even get better returns) from making a hybrid set between the two in order to eek out more MAcc at a small reduction in MAB.

For the artsieq i did:
body path c
rest path b

like malothar said.
I use my hag +1 mainly for nukes and pdt-mdt co si t has higher mab on them then artsieq, and the artsieq for anything that needs more macc. Artsieq hands are useless you can skip that one btw.
Also the mind bonus you get from path B works well with your healing part :)

Haven't seen anyone post any info on augments for Lifestream Cape so here's what I've found so far to be really good. ilvl 130 Incursion Mega Boss Gramk-Droog.

Geoamancy Skill+5
Ind. Eff. Dur. +15
Damage Taken -5%
Pet:
Damate Taken -4%

BG-Wiki JSE Cape Augments
Geo Cape Augment Ranges:
Geomancy skill 1~10
Indi Duration 10~20
Damage Taken -2~5%
Pet: Damage Taken -1~5%

I have taken GEO to incursion a few times now and was looking for advice. Which buffs are commonly used? We commonly 8man with BRD + WHM + DDS in one party and GEO + RDM in the outside party. I sub RDM and keep phalanx and SS up fulltime while supporting with heals. Frailty and Torpor I believe (eva down) so I still contribute outside. We spend much of the run on the boss when we do him. Anything I should alter? Advice? And which would you Geo/Indi?

After testing GEO and INDI, both spells provided the exact same bonus to the Group (Tested using Barrier), the only difference is what JA you use with them i.e Blaze of Glory on your Luapon provides a Large bonus, in terms of which to use this on (assuming you're not using Bolster) that would depend entirely on your DD's and whether they are horrible Accuracy wise, or if they land their attacks but their attack is made from paper.

However taking 1 brd 1 whm and 4 DD? is the most inefficient method imaginable, you can use 1 DD and 4~6 step skillchain every NM for Stupid Damage (Skillchain damage from 1 SAM 6 stepping actually deals more <--- damage than your Normal Attacks) this is more obvious in Yorcia.

In Yorcia I did

WHM GEO GEO BRD SAM COR

Xag'Nar lasted 2 minutes because Magic Damage Gimick, but Morsuie died in 6 ws's (74k light skillchain at end destroyed him).

Same method for every Notorious Monster up until Hyosca~ Geo-Vex makes your DD's avoid charm etc and having another for Attunement or w.e Magic Evasion + is in your DD party allows them to WS freely without getting Amnesia, slowed etc (Landing addle from WHM is a considerable boon).

GEO can also get stun down to 9~10 seconds easily and stun the odd move, but VEX really makes it un-required.

Wopket is just an irritating NM with large evasion, if your DD are missing alot in their highest acc sets (which is possible) then you have your answer about which buffs need to be your strongest (Torpor) etc.

If you're determined to take 8 people I would recommend

WHM BRD COR SAM SAM GEO
GEO RDM

This also allows the GEO in your main Party to do Entrust and an extra Buff (You could do Barrier or Vex if WHM is struggling with all the status Effects which is normally the killer for the event.

Yeah the concern was the buff from JAs regarding which to geo/indi. And I am talking Incursion. I wouldn't turn down advice from anyone but we do have a GEO who runs Yorcia regularly but has not gone to Incursion as it due to lacking BRDs in the shell. My biggest concern was MB. Gramk-Droog just takes too long and our RDMs eventually get overwhelmed with sleeping the fodder he spawns and fall. The LS COR doesn't get on often enough but his RDM is top notch so he might end up on that when we go together.

**Amended because wrote this using a phone **


SAM SAM BRD COR WHM GEO

GEO SCH SCH BRD THF RDM

Thats what I run with, Ilvl 128 Mega Boss dies in 2~3 minutes from pull.

Supports own this, more dd's just make it messy.

If the supports are not up to scratch then that's your first issue to address. Bringing lots of heavy DD can just slow the run down as skillchain damage is a huge factor that most people don't take seriously.

Not to mention increased tp feed making it harder for SCH's and the WHM.

Want to stress this, the THF is not there for WS at all, because that just interrupts the SAM's skillchains if they are working together etc.

His/Her job is to Box step and quickstep, quickstep at level 5 is 3 minute duration (refreshed everytime you re-step) and drops evasion by 24~

Box step is 3 minute duration also and drops defense by ~ 13% certainly not something to lol at.

Geo in Incursion depends largely on what content level you're running it at, party setup, and which party you find yourself in. Between 123-125 you can freely focus on DD aspects. Beyond that, unless you're running with a well geared sleeper/stunner you're going to need to weave in -MEva or +MAcc in the party with the casters. !28-129 I'd still recommend at least +MAcc full time. 130+ and you'll need both even with a well geared stunner/sleeper to prevent resists. On 133 you'll need Bolster under 25% to prevent stun resisting. Past there (I haven't bothered personally) I've read that you need JA buffed bubbles full time to land with any reliability.

A tip that's not specific to Geo, I'd see about changing the Rdm out from sleeping duty. Sch or Blm are both infinity better at holding the adds via Sleepga > Sleepga II > Breakga > repeat. Another option since you're having trouble with Gramk is to do the Pld + Rng setup. It's less efficient, but it's safer as long as you have competent Rngs, Pld, and a sleeper, don't even have to worry about stunners.

Has there been any guess at focus macc +?

Something I've been testing because I believed it was broken.

Indi Frailty is not lowering your targets Defence!

Testing done with Indi Malaise.

Prior ~ 1510
After Indi version was casted ~ 1510
After Geo-Malaise was casted ~ 2127 (clearly the geo version worked but indi did not?).

I then tried removing the mob from the geo bubble, well out of it's range, and then bringing it back within the bubble results in - No Debuff effect.

Indi and Geo BUFF spells that increase party members stats do however work (there seems to be some delay but it does work).

tested this over numerous spells and found similar results.


Results:

This means that if a mob moves during combat the GEO has to recast or they are providing no benefit (debuff wise) even if the dd's reposition the mob.

Further more adding Blaze on a GEO spell may result in the luapon being useless if the Mob moves out of it's range.

Posting this here in case people don't realise this and perform their job in a manner which does not actually help anyone, OR! In case it's a bug.

Idk what you are doing, but Indi/Geo spells are working just fine for me.

Simple quick testing in Ceizak showed that Indi/Geo-Malaise was working perfectly normal and the mob could reenter and leave the bubbles (tested with both Indi/Geo) and they'd get the debuff again so...

I'll post a video and show it, but I've been testing this for an hour, it's reportedly happening to other people also on this server.

It's not a bug. You need to be on the target's hate list for debuff Indi-closure spells to work. Geo-Malaise worked for you because the act of casting it put you on the hate list while casting the Indi does not(a second nuke would have received the Malaise effect).

Still good to make people aware of this. I'm sure a lot of GEO, like yourself, cast 1 Geo-closure per pull and are assuming their Indi is working on all the mobs but is only working on the one.

See this is not something I was aware of!

Trying this confirmed you are correct. Well it isn't on the guide anywhere that I noticed, this seems like it is something that should be bolded somewhere.

This is potentially why others are stating their indi spells are not having the effects they wanted, I'll let them know / point to this guide / page as reference.

Full Disclosure: I only use GEO as a Dual box so I never looked into it too far.

This is your issue.

It's extremely easy to observe using Indi-poison. Cast Indi-poison, and walk up to a mob. Nothing's gonna happen. HP will stay at 100%. Even if a party member claims it, still won't change.

Now cast sleep on the mob. 3~6 seconds latter, it'll wake up from poison dmg. It takes about 3 seconds for a geo/indi effect to apply after casting or moving into range. Then potentially another 3 seconds for poison to tick, in this case. Alternatively, you could cast something on the character who pulled the mob. Anything that gets you on the hate list.

You have to get on the the mob's hate list for Indi/geo effects to apply.

EDIT:
We didn't even have to figure this one out. SE told us about it in the dev update post that introduced GEO.

But it is true that there's no mention of the mechanic in the guide. There should be a note on it. Possibly in large bold red text. <,<

EDIT: #2
Huh. Interesting fact. For the purposes of indi/geo effects, "on the hate list" apparently includes agroing mobs. Which wouldn't normally be the case(or else supertanking wouldn't work)

I was messing around with it just now, and Indi-poison would work on mobs that agro'd me, but that I hadn't acted on.

One minor addition to "The more you know~" posts, with how hate functions in Incursion, it's one of the few (only?) areas in the game where you don't need to perform an action for your debuff bubbles to have an effect.

With how debuffs function, it kinda roles into the "which bubbles should I cast?" priority list. Indis are 50% of the MP of Geos, moveable, unbuffable by normal JAs, last a definite amount of time, and puts you into potential danger, while debuffs you must be on the hate list of the mob for them to take effect and they can die easily depending on the content, but they're able to be buffed to increase potency. Being aware of all of these things can shape you up to maximize your MP efficiency, while maximizing the value you're bringing to a party. Fighting lots of trash mobs? Fury will go farther than Frailty unless you have a way to safely tag all of the mobs such as Sleepga, or you feel ballsy in your -DT set and hit everything with some -Ras.

After a long time of wanting to give GEO a shot, I finally sat down and started working on it on an alt account. How up-to-date are the sets in the OP? And what should my first priority for GEO be other than AF/Relic pieces? This account has just about nothing from Skirmish onward, but my primary account will easily be able to carry it through content. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

There are a few changes to best in slot, refresh+2 legs come to mind, but yeah. It's up to date.
Dunna & a damage taken set.
Get some dark rings, (or a defending ring if you're so inclined). This will open up some spaces to equip pet: DT gear while keeping your alt at DT-50 including shell 5.

Utilize subjob as best you can. The most common is /rdm for enfeebles, phalanx, cure4, aquaveil, stoneskin, and 15% fast cast.
Though sometimes I need to /blm for sleepga and stun.

Did they nerf macc down and meva up? Seems like spells arn't geting resisted nearly as much as they use to.

Do you precast in your geomancy/handbell gear?

I noticed when I first started playing geo that if I only wear it in midcast, it doesn't work.

Later, I screwed up my gearswap file and all my indi spells became slightly weaker until I found the problem.