Magic Burst Set?

Im relatively new to GEO and following the GEO guide on wiki.

Im a bit confus3d over the High Tier 3 set and the Top set.

HT3 uses 4/5 Ea +1 with Bagua Sandals +3 giving MBbonus +44 and MBbonus Ii +35.

Top tier uses all Empy +3 giving significantly less to those bonuses (+35 and +10 respectively). What am I missing? Is Empy +3 set for bursting the best?

Here is another contender: https://www.bg-wiki.com/ffxi/All_Jobs_Gear_Sets/Geomancer

I think the one on that page is probably better than the high tier you are describing, except that there should be another set for when Cardinal Chant is max potency. Probably the only change there is Ea Hat +1 for Geomancy Galero +4, though. MBB1 would be at +39 still with Bunzi's. If you were to use Wizard's Rod (and not both /DNC), you'd also have to make some other swap.

Also worth noting that Agwu's Pigaches aren't better than Azimuth Gaiters +3 (in the non-CC set) until you get pretty close to rank 30.

The second set on the all jobs gear sets page, the magic burst one, is the current BiS for Geo bursting.

Agwu hands and feet, empy body/legs, EA hat +1.

Bunzi rod gives a 10% to MBB on top of the armor.

On recent content int is more important than pure MBB, and both agwu and empy are heavy on int as well as magic accuracy and MBB.

EA might have the MBB but lacks both int and magic accuracy compared to empy/agwu. The EA hat is a big boost though, still gets a lot of use.

I refuse to do cardinal chant sets, have fun with that.

the important part you need to consider is what mob you're fighting. I'm not suggesting that you build a different set for each mob, but most people have a low resistance (general purpose) and high resistance set. the low set you can afford to lose some magic acc and int for more mab and burst bonus, but that's going to be mostly outdated content or maybe trash mobs in sortie. sortie bosses for example have a high int requirement, so you'll need more magic acc and int if you want to stand a chance of not getting resisted. the set dodik mentioned is more for high resistance, but it's also a solid general purpose set. geo sadly lacks native burst bonus, so it's not going to hit the same kind of numbers that a blm or sch will in end game content.

last point, chant, while interesting, isn't worth gearing for since most fights you can't really rotate for ideal placement. and if you're dealing with fetters for example, you may end up in a bad rotation anyway.

MBB II +18 from the Galero +3 actually maybe isn't worth it compared to Ea +1 (MBB+7 and MAB) anyway?

I think if you were in the position to guarantee it, it might be worth using, but take sortie for example, that would require rotating mobs around your position, and while possible, it's unlikely you'll be able to convince a group to do that, especially when the geo is traditionally the weakest nuker in a mage method. Would be interesting to test though

Cardinal chant is a broken system and I refuse to use it no matter how theoretically useful it could be.

If SCH can’t use ebullience and GEO has storm, how is it the weakest nuker in the party?

SCH doesn't rely on ebullience, it relies on empyrean feet.

Fair enough with feet, but I still think it’s fair for a group to accommodate positioning for a GEO

If you think a group is going to reposition mid fight to accommodate a geo's cardinal chant bonus I got a bridge to sell you.

It's not impossible to do, but according to this post, that would require the tank to pull the boss to the west wall and the party would run to the boss's starting position to benefit from Cardinal Chant. It's an extra step that nobody will be doing because the GEO isn't specifically the primary source of nuke damage, and it only benefits the GEO and nobody else.

I never said anything about rotating the boss. I’m simply saying if you can start out with the boss west of you, do that.

You just said "accommodate positioning for the GEO"? That implies adapting the group's position (and/or moving the mob) for the benefit of the GEO.

Dude, you can argue with someone else about YOUR interpretation of me saying “accommodating positioning for the GEO”. I don’t think the whole group should move after/during/etc to accommodate the GEO. That’s stupid.

But if you can START the fight out east of the boss(and not have to move again) and don’t, you and your group are bad and should feel bad. This is still accommodating the GEO.

Well more power to you if you can get your group to move. I personally would not bother positioning properly and would just set up camp as close to the door as possible.

Out of the dozens of GEOs I have partied with or Sortie groups I have been in as the GEO, there have been a total of 0 people who ever considered positioning for Cardinal Chant for the benefit of GEO. Whether you start in the proper direction or not, I promise you, that absolutely is not on anybody's mind (unless you bring it up to them).

I multibox my own geo and positioning for cardinal chant is already too much effort.

I mean, 56% more damage on magic bursts does seem... pretty good.

However, the other bonuses on the other directions seems... good enough anyways?

I think if its a fight where 56% damage bonus is worth it, where magic bursts are your primary source of damage, and the fight takes more than 20 seconds, then sure, Id say its probably worth it.

I think the onus is mostly on the tank though, they're choosing where the enemy ends up so just like, if you're gonna magic burst with a geo, just take the extra 1 second of effort to place yourself east of the geo.

I'm not sure 56% is the number to use here since:

If you're in a different direction you get a bonus, just a different one
Most GEO aren't using -ra spells for nuking (because you'll die if you try)
In order to get half of that, you need to put on a head with 0 MAB and low INT
The % is MBB, which isn't a flat % of all damage (because of where it appears in the magic damage calculation)

It's still a bonus and all that, but it's never going to be a 56% increase in your damage.

Taken alone, it is 22MBB, which gets added to the ~60 MBB you already have for 182/160, around +13%. AF+4 hat makes it 40MBB but you trade away Ea's stats (7MBB and some MAB) for it maybe +15% total? Collimated increases the bonus by 50%, so maybe more like +25% when it is up?

Anyway, imo it can be coded up in gearswap and improves damage so why not use it? A few thousand extra damage is rarely unwelcomed.

Thanks for the link to that BiS burst set. The only item Im missing is the Regal earring, so I use Friomisi. And my Empys are +2 not +3 yet. I cant justify 24M for the Ea +1 right now, so NQ for now. May drop that gil when I get the other bits.

I did notice a difference in my sortie group last night. But we are a new group starting out so lots to learn.

Been really working on my GEO sets for my static group. I have all the burst gear in this set with the exception of Regal Earring (I use Friomisi).

https://www.bg-wiki.com/ffxi/All_Jobs_Gear_Sets/Geomancer

The Oddy gear is all base though, and my question is at what point do the Agwu hands and feet set beat out Empy +3? This link assumes R30 which I am way off. Bursting is not my priority ofc, but I like it :p

I understand some GEO don't care for the cardinal direction. But does the Geo.Galero head just need to be active on mid-cast set when nuking?

So I'll start with my breakdown for the agwu pieces

The hands and feet are the important pieces to look at here since the ea's hat +1 will win out overall. That being said, if you only have the base hat, you may want to test the damage to see which is better.

The agwu feet will match the mab of the empy feet at level 15, however, they will have lower magic acc, magic damage and int, where this piece shines is with the addition of 6 burst bonus, so for me personally, I started using it at level 15.

The hands are a little trickier to pinpoint a specific break where it's "better". At level 18 they match the MAB value, but are lower in int, magic acc and magic damage, but have the 8 mb 1 and variable mb2, so again, my personal choice was to use them at level 11, because that's when the mb 2 trait is at +3, even though it has less mab. But realistically, you can probably use them anywhere from 11 on.

As for the geo hat, if you're wanting to use it, then yes, you'd have that in your miscast set. Keep this in mind though, you'll be sacrificing your guaranteed damage of the EA hat or the empy hat for the possibility of boosted damage, and the af hat has 0 mab on it natively, has less int, and magic acc and magic damage than the empy hat as well.

it's certainly an interesting concept, but should be treated as more of a bonus, than something to be organized around.

Do the trig and automate it!

Revenge of your 6th grade math teacher!

Thanks a lot for the additional info :)

My static were happy to work around facing west for magic bursts in Sortie. And it really wasn't difficult to do. I thought it would be quite finicky, and in corridors it is a bit. But it's the bosses where I concentrate on that most, and my party have been really good about it.

I'm keeping the Ea Hat+1 on for bursts rather than using the Geomancy one. For the record we are regularly getting around 26-30K a run now with mage strat. Not brilliant ofc, but we only started about a month ago.

Side question: Why is Geomancy set preferred over Azimuth set for MND based enfeebling? I understand the Geo set gets a +60 boost to MAcc when all 5 pieces are worn. But at +3 for both sets Azimuth still wins out on Macc and ofc MND. Am I missing something?