Spell Tiers And Nuking Gear Choice

I know someone's mentioned this before, but I can't for the life of me remember who or where.

I'm rewriting my BLM spellcast and was wondering if anyone knew offhand the better impact on spell tiers for INT vs MAB?

If I remember right, I saw someone say that T1/2 would benefit more from INT+ because of their low base damage, whereas T3/4/5/AM2 benefit more from the MAB+ because of their higher damage.

Just looking for a bit of confirmation if someone can let me know <3

http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Calculating_Magic_Damage

is the only thing i can think of atm >:

but srsly how often are you ever gonna use t1-t2 spells ?
maybe to finish some easy mob but thats about it

personally i only have one nuke gear for it all

If you've chosen to fully merit ("5/5") AM2 spell(s), then those specific casts are getting a large Magic Accuracy boost. Therefore, it's much less likely that your AM2 nuke will be resisted. In this case, you can safely forgo Accuracy and load up on MAB+ against most targets.

Outside of that, INT+ isn't all that needed for nuking in Abyssea, presuming you're using the Cruor INT buff and some INT+ from Atma and food.

Outside Abyssea, for all non-AM2 casts, I believe it's important to follow this rough guide:
Elemental Skill+ = decreases the chance you will be resisted, but does not add damage to an unresisted cast.
Magic Accuracy+ = reportedly also decreases the chance you will be resisted, and does not add damage to an unresisted cast.
INT+ = slightly increases damage (not as much as MAB+) and slightly decreases the chance you will be resisted (not as much as Elemental Skill+).
MAB+ = greatly increases damage, but does not lower your chance of being resisted.


So, account for your race (base INT), merits (Elemental Skill, INT), and the level and traits of your target, and select your gear appropriately. If you're getting resists (anytime your nuke lands for 50% damage or less) more than 10% of the time, your Elemental Skill level isn't high enough. Adjust your gear accordingly.
If you're getting resists 5% of the time or less, then you can experiment by swapping Elemental Skill out for MAB.

if you wanted to get the max out of your spells you would have to do some reverse calculations and get the int of the mobs, then find the point at which ~1 int stops = ~1mab(becoming roughly ~2int=~1mab) for the mobs you are fighting and hit that int point(break it by 5-10 just to be safe) then use mab gear it slots that it provides a greater impact. Ignoring int in abyssea would be stupid as their are several pieces(empy + 2 feet for example) where you won't beat the damage added from int with any mab foot piece I know of(needs to provide >=~6.5(roughly, 6mab and 1 int) more mab).

The point at which mab>int changes by Tier of spell.
The question, As the tier of the spell goes up does the number at which 1 int becomes less than 1 mab increase or decrease. Is my understanding of what the OP asked and the question in which I have been seeking the answer to for a while esp with T5 at is allegedly a larger difference then T4(at least from what I recall from reading, I could be off).

A friend told me a while ago that there was a cap to MAB, is anyone able to confirm this? I took a look at the calculating magic damage page, but found nothing to suggest anything like that. Can anyone try to explain if this is true or false?

If there is a cap, it's a hell of a lot higher than you'll ever get outside brewing. Pretty sure there isn't one though.

So at this point in the game, where you have so much elemental magic skill, it's unfair, would you say it's best to stack on as much mab as possible, or should you include INT as well?

INT also contributes to damage, so it depends on how much of each is available in a given slot and how much of each you already have. I really recommend reading the wiki link posted earlier.