Bubble Trouble: A Geomancer Guide

I'm still failing to see how you're having Luopan survivability issues specifically in W3 that you don't have in W2 and W1.

Are you talking about the W3 megaboss? Then yes I can understand.
If you're talking about anything else it doesn't really make much sense to me? Like I said a few post above.
I mean there are legitimate Luopan survivability concerns but not in W3 specifically more so than you have in previous waves.

Furthermore you tipically kill stuff so fast and move "camp" so fast that the Luopan doesn't really remain in the same spot for long anyway.
In W1 especially I think I stopped bothering with Luopans on anything that's not a Red Eye. Stuff is dead before I even get a chance to apply Luopan effect to them lol (~2-3 seconds not including Luopan cast time and the tagging action of your choice, be it a direct dispelga/sleepga or a buff on someone with hate.)

That’s exactly how I do it too. W1 and 2 unless it’s a red eye pop I’m just doing an indi bubble. W3 you can do GEO bubbles for each circle and it’s still not going to die, you have to use full circle everytime to move it for the next circle. W3 bosses other than the circle blade spamming PLD don’t need it either.

I’ve been trying to tell people that neck is useful for like maybe 4 or 5 fights in the entire game and that’s it. Idris users got a ***option with the JSE necks.

Neck is still useful imho, it's just that the "current" content implies constant movement where you can't really make a fixed campa nd bring stuff there, most of the time (we sometimes do that on W2 Red eyes actually).

If/when we get different styled content Neck is gonna be awesome again.
And I was one of those who went "meh!" when neck was released, can read it in this thread, but I had to change my mind, it's truly awesome in situations where you can make use of it. (i.e. when stuff is a bit more "static" and there's less constant movement between difference places)

If you have no problems keeping the bubble alive which is mostly everything, what the hell is the neck doing? That’s my issue with it. Other jobs get extra dispel or more erase it increased damage all stuff to help regardless. We got something that Might help if idk we didn’t already have 87.5% DT a ton of pet regen demeterilze and life cycle? I mean good grief that neck just isn’t needed the vast majority of the time.

Yeah i was talking about W3 mega boss, not crystals bosses

I said most of the time, not all of the time.
I was mostly arguing about this being "more difficult" in W3 than it is elsewhere.
In specific situations the Neck can still be useful.
Things that I can think of:
1) Group of NMs pulled all together in W2 (even moreso with with WAR and NIN NMs)
2) W3 Megabosses
3) W3 Dragoon
4) W3 WAR
5) W3 BLM, BLU and GEO? Maybe, but they usually don't spam AoE back to back, they have cast times. Well GEO has the nasty Luopan explode but you're gonna be fighting away from it anyway.

But yeah, most of the time the Luopan isn't really at risk of dying, in Dynamis at least, we were discussing meleeing in Dyna right?


Anyway getting the topic back into the Melee DD GEO.
Before the Sheol B patch GEO was pretty limited in options.
You basically had the old Onca Suit approach (which was good originally, but not enough anymore) or another one what required very specific gear, some of which is really rare to obtain.

Blistering+1 R15 and Those hands R15 changed things for good and I feel those 2 items really do open up a lot of options in the other slots.
This brings us to: which weapons do you use?

Summing up their main stats underneathI think Maxentius might probably be the uncontestionable winner in terms of pure DPS output, but it makes things more annoying to handle when you want to "lock" your weapon when engaged, but "unlock" it if you're gonna have to cast an Indi/Geo spell while engaged.
With Idris MH you don't have this issue but the base stats on Idris aren't really fantastic. AM3 is good in theory but it's not in reality because of the DPS you lose from using Exuviation and from wasting 2x WS to reach 3k TP.
Then there's Tishtrya. Realmrazer is arguably our best physical WS and Tishtrya makes it 10% better.
You also get STP+10 and TPbonus+500 of course. Sadly Realmrazer doesn't scale damage with TP.
Furthermore, still have Max's MH lock issue, and if I have to go that way then I'd rather use a Maxentius if you ask me.
Then you have Mageshasher +1 R15, which is pretty awesome.
This is a nice OH option but it could be a pretty hot MH too for people who lack the other mentioned option. Don't think it beats Maxentius but likely beats Tishtrya?

Speaking of OH only, other than Magesmasher+1 and Kaja Club we still have the old Gada and Nehushtan.
Nehu's augs can go higher than Gada and you have a degree of control over them.
Plus Nehu gives more "general" accuracy, but less hand-specific accuracy (less skill).
What kills Nehushtan is the huge delay imho.
Which is exactely what makes Gada so interesting instead, lowest delay ever among the weapons mentioned so far.

I dunno, all in all I think the best pure DPS output, leaving outside crazy DM augs on Gada, is likely gonna be Maxentius MH, Magesmasher OH and then spam Black Halo.
That's a winner for Physical but honestly should work pretty nice for Flash Nova spam too because of the Mab/Mdmg on Maxentius and the WSD+15% on Magesmasher.
Would Kaja Rod beat Magesmasher+1 for pure Flash Nova?
I wonder.

C. Palug Hammer is pretty nice offhand as well.

For flash nova gotta fit in daybreak somehow.

Mabey Tishtrya/daybreak for Seraph Strike builds be ok?

Damn I forgot it existed, it's pretty awesome indeed.
Gonna update the image above.

I think Cath Palug is one of the best OH, especially if you're not riding on AM3 (for which Gada with STP could win, with its low delay?).
It also gives pretty nice bonuses for Flash Nova, granted I assume the additional mdmg/mab are probably pretty close to Magesmasher's 15% WSD.

What's gonna win? The nice WSD bonus that stucks oh-so-well with Maxentius' Black Halo?
Or Cath Palug's multiattack?

I truly wonder.



For Flash Nova you're of course right on Daybreak but I was assuming a setup mostly focused on Physical that would also work decently on Flash Nova as added bonus.
If you wanna spam FlashNova Only then of course Offhand would get stuck to Daybreak and MH would be either Maxentius or Magesmasher+1.
What would win, higher mage-stats or 15% WSD? My gil is on Maxentius but I feel Magesmasher wouldn't be too far off behind.

I don’t really want to argue the neck either so I’ll move on as well

I tend to stick with the Idris main hand but I also have it R15 so have a bit more accuracy and base D. I agree maintaining 3k for the Multiattack seems just bleh In practice if not in theory. As for OH options if you are in the DD party getting HM and an accuracy song, you’d be surprised how long the tp offhand club is viable now. I can use it through all of W1 and 2 and again in the W3 boss who seems to have terrible evasion. If doing this the best WS option is actually judgement (still main handing idris that is) and puts out some very favorable damage.

My accuracy before food and outside buffs is now a bit over 1200 for MH. Those last Sheol B augments are just fantastic.

I'm a bit skeptic on the TP club offhand, but I'll trust your word at that :x
I was of course considering mostly "proper" offhand options.
With a TPbonus club though Maxentius MH would even more be a massive DPS boost I'm afraid.


Just like you I'm very reluctant in Mainhanding anything that's not an R15 Idris for the major annoyance that the weapon swap/lock represents to me, but I suspect the damage difference is gonna be pretty big.


Granted, I dunno, at this point we should argue: is the DPS contribution by GEO a nice bonus that allows the GEO to make the runs less tedious while giving a small dps contribution to the alliance? Or is the GEO dps a substantial addition that makes a noticeable difference in the farming efficiency of the whole run?

If it's the former who *** cares really, just enjoy what you're doing, it's not a job after all, is it?
If it's the latter then I dunno, I'd be doubting myself.



Malakef what % DPS do you usually parse on an average Dynamis run, as GEO?

8% is honestly about the best I can do given who is on DD that run. And no doubt maxentius is the best DD option but I just couldn't stand all the swapping and blinking and wanted a small safety net of more DT for the bubbles as well. If not OH the tp club I actually just OH the Max for more accuracy but I should probably use the C. Hammer for more DA.

C.hammer is awesome, how could I forget it exists?!
But if you plan on making good use of Idris' AM3 then a Gada with STP aug might come up ahead.

Which WS do you use mostly when you're mainhanding Idris and offhanding the TPbonus club? Judgement I assume?
Scales nicely with TP.
Doubt Black Halo gets that good without Maxentius' 50% damage bonus and Hexa Strike wouldn't really benefit that much from 1000TP bonus, so it's gotta be Judgement right?

Yes judgement is the go to WS for this. It’s the savage blade of club WS basically.

Whats are your séraph/flash, judgement and others ws sets? I havent really worked on these yet

My sets are still work in progress. Heres what I'm thinking though.

ItemSet 374637
Heres what I want to aim for.

For Nova, Almaric+1 will give higher magic attack, but is really lacking on attributes. Seraph/flash Nova also have a STR mod.

Almaric+1 Path A: Legs/Feet/Hands= 28 STR, 79 MND, MATK 167+30(set)
Jhakri +1 Legs/Feet/Hands= 90 STR, 82 MND, MATK+121, WSDMG+7

I'm assuming that matk would beat the STR and WSDMG? Looks like I need to get moving on that set.

Here is my flash nova set.

As for wave 2+ I had to crank up my accuracy a bit. Store TP Telchine Bod/Feet are just too much of a hit.

Also another niche set that can be nice: Occult Acumen
If you are in an Aspir Friendly Environment, dropping a couple tier Vs or AoE nukes will get you some nice tp return at a distance/on the run.
ItemSet 374666

Merlinic Augs INT+1~6 Acumen+9~11 Macc/Matk +15~30
Cape Augs: INT/Macc/Store TP

+76 Occult Acumen if augs are all +11
Store TP in the rest of the slots.

I looked back at your melee sets from the last page and noticed you had lots of STP which is the path I used to go down to. Now though that we can easily cap haste and get some really high accuracy I have decided to work on actually caping, or near caping, delay and adding in multi attack.

With max gear and magic haste and /nin we need 11 DW to reach the cap. The main issue here is we can either over cap it a bit, or under cap it a bit. The primary options are 10 DW on cape, 5 from Suppa, and 4 from Eabani earring. I really dont want to overcap with a combo of back and earring so my current line of thinking is to use 10 DA on the back and then use both the DW earrings leaving me just 2 DW shy of max delay reduction.

My current set is below and provides with no food or buffs MH (R15 Idris) acc 1202, STP 25, 2 QA 2 TA 11 DA, and 9 DW. This represents bare minimum as OH options change those values.
Thoughts? Also anything for the ammo or ranged slot come to mind? Used to Hasty Pinon +1 for haste purposes but now thats unneeded and don't want the -stp.

Why are you excluding Shetal Belt + Suppanomimi? That's exactely 11% Dual Wield.
Because you don't wanna lose Windbuffet Belt +1?
That's a powerful belt indeed, but to do that you lose 10% DA or 10 STP on Cape, so that comes at a cost too.

Right I guess i'm looking for the right amount of sacrifices? Is it the MA or the tiny bit of DW?

I dunno, it changes a lot according to the job, the setup, weapon used, buffs, blahblahblah.
For my jobs and the situations I tested most of the time Reiki+Eabani (and 10DW or 10STP in cape) was winning over 10% DW on cape + Windbuffet+1.

For GEO I dunno, on a hunch I'd say Shetal+Suppa could win against the other scenarios of
1) Excess DW (cape + earring = 14% DW)
2) Not enough DW (just 10% on cape)

As Simonses would say though, remember you don't *have* to aug the cape up to 10, you could leave it at 7% DW and then add Eabani for 11% DW total.
I'm too OCD for that, but YMMV lol

Thanks I actually overlooked that belt. I've never actually done that HTBF before.

I believe it drops off Shika X, they all have individual drops as you beat them. You dont even need to finish the whole battle.

back + shetal + suppa for pre-samba cap.
suppa + eabani for post-samba cap. (or back for 1 over cap)

and work on those steps so the fact you're an attack & acc starved geo won't be as obvious.

There's also Ternion Dagger +1 for OH, not sure how it compares to C. Hammer, but it does have lower delay and 67 acc to make up for the lower skill with some TA and WSD.

We aren't accuracy starved anymore and attack is normally fine now cause we talking Dyna melee party buffs which lets face it even GEO has over 3k attack in those cases. I also don't like /dnc when I DD. If you need it to waltz/cure cause you are tagging a debuff thats one thing but its not needed like ever really cause ***is trash now other than NM which i'm already hitting and tagging with my club.

Before all of this gear came out, I was not attack or acc starved for even VD1 ambu groups. Was able to push out 22k-28k Black Halos. GEO gets access to af ew nice clubs, and even some daggers with very high accuracy (Beryllium Kris +1), and likely they will be with a BRD + COR for some events. I never felt my attack was so low that I needed to contribute steps by subbing DNC. For most stuff, NIN sub was fine. We also have Shell Crusher, which is a huge boost if we need to weaken some enemies.

Anyways, late to this discussion. RIP Cetl Belt + Onca Suit days. I will not miss you at all.

if you aren't acc starved, why use a club that isn't Ukaldi in the offhand?
edit: missed that bit, that post didn't have gear posted so I mostly glanced over it.

That was literally what I recommended?

Edit* No Worries, I was like I thought we had just had this conversation?

Anyways I swapped out the belt for the shetal stone, earrings to suppa and brutal, back has 10 DA still. This caps delay, drops 2 acc, drops 2 QA and TA, and gained 5% DA. Probably not a huge difference either way but should leave me more flexible for any future gear implemented.

Still not sure on ammo options as I only looked through what I had in my inventory.

Ammo options for Geo are limited. You're mostly going to be limited to:

Hasty pinion+1
Vanir battery
Floestone
Amar cluster
Cheruski needle
White tathlum

Personally, I used to use hasty but now that is not necessary to make up the haste, and the stp hurts a little. Vanir battery is next to nothing of a bonus but probably the best next to white tathlum, assuming you don't need accuracy or attack and are going for a small bonus elsewhere. I just use floestone since attack is harder to come by.

So since I'm still working on Idris and locked behind coalitions.

Im thinking of messing with an Aeonic Club/Offhand TP bonus for fun. Atleast til I finish Ergon

You would be off loading what is equal to 3000TP Judgements every single WS at 1000TP. Seems fun

I'll probably toss some extra astrals at it for a little more acc too.

Do you think that would beat a Maxentius/Ukaldi spamming black Halo? The +50% bonus is pretty huge

True, Honestly it's just something to mess with. I was also wondering how Aeonic/Daybreak would do with Seraph Strike. The numbers at 3000TP are pretty good.

Im running out of Aeonics to do, so I dont feel too bad making this