Ice's Guide to WHM: Barspells

Barspells and Their Importance

We've run into this issue a few times and optimization of barspells is something that is often neglected by WHMs when it's pretty easy to do. When it comes to some of the more powerful mobs with elemental attacks, the difference between a neglected barspell set and an optimized one can mean a wipe. Of course, as I've mentioned before, it's never just the WHM's fault. Everyone else on the frontlines should be investing in MDT gear. That said, though, an optimized barspell set combined with a tank's optimized MDT set has the potential to be extremely powerful.

MDT (Magic damage taken) caps at 50%, or 128/256. A Fully merited Shellra V (excluding augmented cleric's +2 pants) will automatically put you at 70/256, which is about half of what you need. You need less than 25% in MDT gear from there to cap MDT. After that, you can always add on MDB (Magic Defense Bonus) or individual element resist. MDB, as far as anyone seems to know, has no cap. 24% in MDT is not hard to get. Icet is a gimp ass motherfucker and he has around that on both NIN & MNK. So, no excuses for the melee/tanks… get that MDT. Help your WHMs out.

Anyway, enough about frontline MDT sets. Back to WHMs and their barspells! There is only one thing that directly enhances the potency of barspells, and that is enhancing magic skill. There are a couple other ways to enhance them a little more indirectly, but I'll get to that in a bit. First priority when it comes to barspells (due to relative ease) is really just capping that enhancing skill out. Here's a few screenshots of Siani showing how Enhancing Skill affects barspell resistance numbers. First, Enhancing Skill screenshots:

Now for the barspell numbers (refer to Wind resistance):

The first screenshot of 129 is your average WHM's barspell number. In fact, it might even be lower, due to lack of skill. The second is a little better due to Light Arts from SCH sub (136). The third is Siani's current number with maxed enhancing and some gear (175). For some dumbass reason I don't have enhancing skill merits and I'm missing a few pieces of gear, so this number could be a little higher. For the record, every four points of Enhancing Magic skill will increase the bar number by one. This is why you get an increase of seven in the bar number by adding in Light Arts, which gives Siani an extra 28 Enhancing Magic skill. Realistically, with a few slight improvements (merits/gear), I'd be looking at an additional +28 Enhancing Skill (16 from merits, 12 from gear upgrades). That'd put me at 182. You can push this slightly higher with the absolute best gear.

So, about that barspell gear… where do you start? First off, if you take a look at the screenshot of Siani in her barspell gear again, there's really nothing too impressive going on there. The majority is rare/ex gear that is easily obtainable. There's nothing very expensive at all in the set. Like I said before, this isn't a hard thing to optimize.

By far the most important part of a WHM's barspell set at this point in the game is their empyrean +2. Nothing else comes close. Why, you ask? Let's take a look at the set.
http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Orison_Attire_%2B2_Set

There are three things to note about this set in regards to barspells.

#1: The set bonus (augments elemental resistance spells)
#2: The large enhancing skill bonus on the feet
#3: The Afflatus solace bonus on the body

So what is the set bonus exactly? Well this one's really interesting. When you cast a barspell in at least three pieces of the Empyrean +2 set, your barspells now have the chance to completely nullify attacks of that element. Tests so far have shown that with 5/5 Orison +2 equipped, barspells have a 10% chance of nullifying attacks of that element. That's huge. As far as the effect each piece has on the set bonus, I wasn't able to find any good tests. However, considering that 5/5 = 10%, I think it's safe to assume that every piece added past 3/5 increases the chance by 2%. So, 3/5 = 6%, 4/5 = 8%.

So, combine that with the large Enhancing bonus on the +2 feet (+20 Enhancing)… that's pretty nice. It gets better, though. We haven't talked about the body and its Afflatus Solace bonus yet. You might ask what Afflatus Solace has to do with barspells… well, thanks to the Orison +2 body, Solace does have something to do with them now. The Orison +2 body is supposed to enhance Afflatus Solace so that it improves barspells. How?

Looking at this test here, it seems that the +2 Orison body gives barspells a +10 mdb bonus. This isn't the kind of bonus you're going to see in actual barspell numbers on your status screen, but it does exist. The Blessed Briault works in a similar manner, in case any of you guys ever wondered why you didn't see a larger barspell number when using the piece. However, thanks to the Orison +2 body's contribution to the barspell augment, the +2 Body is the clear and obvious choice. Blessed body is obsolete.

The no-brainer thing to do here is to get 5/5 Orison +2 and use that shit in your barspell macros. The Orison +2 set should be the current core of any WHM's Barspell set. The only personal dilemma I have concerns the legs slot. You'll see in my earlier screenshot of Siani with her barspell gear on that she's wearing Cleric's Pantaloons +2, as opposed to Orison pantaloons +2. The Cleric's +2 add a straight +25 to barspells as well as an additional +18 Enhancing Skill. This piece alone brings my barspell number up 29 points. If I'm actually right about the Orison +2 augment, and every piece after 3/5 contributes 2% to the max of 10% with 5/5, the dilemma is:
29 straight barspell points
vs
2% chance of nullifying attacks of that element

So, the question is, which one will actually end up being better? Without extensive parsing and knowing exactly how barspell tiers work, it's hard to say. Unfortunately, no one did that testing for me, so I don't have an answer for you guys here. For now, I'm going to stick with the Cleric's on barspells and the Orison on cures. I'd say the Cleric's are worth the small investment at this point if you want to play it safe. It's a pretty huge bonus no matter how you look at it.

So, we've talked about the Orison +2, and we talked a little bit about Cleric's Pantaloons +2. What's left? Not a whole lot. The vast majority of the barspell enhancing you're able to do as WHM comes from Orison +2 / Cleric's Pantaloons +2. Past that, there's only a few pieces you can get, and most of them are just straight Enhancing Magic skill pieces. Here are most of the pieces you should be keeping in mind:

Waist: Cascade Belt or Olympus Sash

The Cascade Belt is cheap as shit and provides a +3 bonus to Enhancing Magic skill. It also has +7 MND on it, which is great for your Stoneskin macro. The Cascade Belt can additionally serve as a cure piece outside of lightsday if you're a cheap-ass motherfucker. I don't recommend this, but there are other slots that need upgrading worse, so it's nothing to be ashamed over when you're just starting out.

The Olympus sash offers an additional +2 Enhancing over the Cascade Belt, but is also significantly more expensive, and offers no MND enhancement. If you wanted the best for every set, you'd have to carry around both the Cascade and the Olympus. For me, inventory space is already way too tight on WHM, so the Olympus is difficult to justify.

Back: Merciful Cape

AFAIK, aside from a RDM-exclusive item, this is the only fucking cape in the game that has Enhancing Magic skill. It's from Sea and it's a bitch to get. My dumb ass spent two weeks getting Siani an Altruistic instead of this. What a waste that was. I'm down to get a few of these if anyone else is though. Why not? It's a pretty sweet enhancing skill piece, and it has other uses too.

Neck: Enhancing Torque or Colossus's Torque

If you look up the Enhancing Torque, you'll see it is quite expensive… overly expensive, even. The sad part is that it wasn't always expensive. Back in the day it was dirt cheap. Now that gearswapping has become easier and more common, though, the price has gone up quite a bit. You're thinking "Well, shit, how is my cheap ass gonna make use of my neck slot now?" THERE IS A SOLUTION! The answer is the Colossus's Torque. It offers the same Enhancing Skill bonus, and even more (+10) if it's Lightsday. Let's make an event out of this one too. Siani still needs one as well, and I'm sure there are some SMNs who could use Alexander.

After that, all that's left is earrings, rings, and main/sub. Your only options for earring slots are the Augmenting Earring (4mil, elusive for a measly +3 gg) and some dumb Shantotto random chance earring (Aptus Earring) that might get +2 on it if you're the luckiest asshole on the planet. Well, apparently it's possible according to wiki, but I haven't seen one. Enhancing skill rings don't exist AFAIK. That leaves main/sub…

Hands-down the most important piece after Orison +2 / Cleric's Pantaloons +2 is the Beneficus.
http://wiki.bluegartr.com/bg/Beneficus

Enhancing Magic skill +15 and an MDB of 5. That's pretty fucking nice for a club, and it's probably the largest bonus to barspells you're gonna find outside of Orison +2 / Cleric's Pantaloons +2. The club comes from a cactuar in Abyssea - Altepa.
http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Cuijatender

It's a relatively easy NM that can be done with a small group of smart people. It's also never camped by anyone, so let's get a few more clubs for any WHMs that need it sometime.

So I've talked about the importance of barspells.
I've talked about how they work.
I've talked about how to make them good.
Get on it.

If you are interested in improving your barspell set as a WHM and want help, I'm always interested in improving WHMs and making their job easier, so hit me up. Let's make some events out of it too. If you have any questions about barspells, feel free to ask them in this thread. That's it for this section; stay tuned for more on WHM.

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