I’ve been looking into these pieces a lot lately, perhaps to try and figure out which pieces are worth the money and which are just crap. So far I’ve seen a few NA people with pieces- Corwin, Ruby, Aximilli and myself I can think of off hand.
The biggest thing I’ve been concerning myself with is the magic accuracy traits on the pants, head and the body. From what I’ve observed/read up on, there are 3 rumors as to exactly what it does:
A 1:1 ratio between corresponding skill and accuracy- The accuracy applies to offensive spells only, so enfeebling, elemental and dark magic are the only skills that apply in this case. So +3 magic accuracy would be +3 elemental, enfeebling and dark magic.
A 2:1 ratio between corresponding skill and accuracy- same thing as above, only +6 skill.
Accuracy serves as a % of current skill- the red mage’s skill raises by X% of it’s current value, where X is the amount of magic accuracy bonuses from equipment or merits.
Ex. 300 enfeebling skill + 3 magic accuracy serves as 309 enfeebling.
I have noticed a significant change in the resist rates of HNM/gods since I started dumping merits into wind, ice and earth accuracy. Before, especially during the latter stretch of Kirin, it was difficult to land gravity and have it stick for any decent amount of time. Now, I have hardly any problems landing it and the duration has increased. Because of this, I have to rule rumor one out. I’ve tested resist rates on gods with both staves and the thanatos baselard (+4 enfeebling,) and it was hardly noticeable. The merit description reads as “Increases accuracy of (element) spells by 3.” I have +6 wind accuracy, so it’s either +12 skill to the corresponding element, (which is more than two levels worth in skill,) or assuming 300 enfeebling magic, +18. With A+ enfeebling, it’s still only +5 a level, so that’s 3 and a half levels higher, and that seems like a bit much. However +12 doesn’t seem entirely unreasonable considering these merits are geared toward end game where everything is level 85+. So I think it’s a 2:1 skill to accuracy, which was my original thought when the JSE was released in the first place. The accuracy only serves to determine resist rates, and it’s a bit different than raw skill, (Dark magic skill adds both accuracy and attack, for example.)
The next question is, “Are people willing to give up stats for accuracy?” For dark magic, I’d say, “Of course!” but that’s only because RDM have E skill in dark magic, (cap at 200,) and get resisted more often than not. However for enfeebling it’s a little different. At each level there’s a certain range of effect that enfeebling spells have which I would believe is based on skill, (this applies to enhancing spells as well.) Spells like slow and blind are determined by a percentage and paralyze having a certain “proc” rate, (rate of effect.) Stats serve to determine which end of the range it falls on. MND for white magic enfeebles and INT for black magic enfeebles, of course. Using some of the wise gear in place of some of my other equipment, (zenith slacks or errant slops,) I also noticed the proc rate in paralyze decreased, despite using the same equipment otherwise. It’s difficult to determine similar results with slow and blind, and I don’t feel like grabbing a stopwatch to calculate how many tenths of a second faster a mob attacks or take a tally of how many times an DC mob hits me so I die. The only conclusion I could draw is that accuracy may increase the cap on the percentages at 75, but lower the potency marginally to balance things out. For elemental… I don’t really know. I think that’s sort of a personal preference. For stuff like fighting Kirin and gods, I don’t have time to nuke unless it’s like… Genbu, heh. I’m more focused on supporting people and if I’m /drk waiting to SP and stun. 75 XP I might consider it, considering arcana have a natural magic resist rate, (somewhere between 10-20% I think, ahriman being much higher) so any chance to reduce where I would get resisted normally, I’d probably take.
If I had a choice I’d keep around the hat, feet and legs, but that’s about it. The accuracy would be nice for end game stuff because landing it consistently is better than trying to have it be more effective and getting resisted. The hat despite it’s ugliness would prove more effective than af1’s +10 elemental skill, and some of us aren’t fortunate enough to have a duelist’s chapeau yet. (/poke Angiepoo) The legs for the sake of resistance and the feet would be nice to alternate between errant for enfeebling and another piece of MB gear, (I need more stuff to fit into the second macro I use for adding MB gear. >.>)
As far as the body goes, AF1 and crimson/errant > chasuble. +15 enfeebling magic is better than any of the ideas as to what magic accuracy does unless you have 330 enfeebling +. I'm sure as hell not spending 3.8 mil on something to add to a drain and aspir macro, and I play RDM as a support class and I'm not that aggressive with nuking.
Thoughts?
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