Atma Of A Future Fabulous

So, recently finished the WotG Missions, and was looking to know how effective "Atma of a Future Fabulous" is for Magic Damage reduction.

I know Magic Damage Taken -% (like Shell) and "Magic Defense Bonus" are slightly different in how they are calculated, etc.

How potent is Magic Defense Bonus +50?
I assume it's pretty strong, since WHM Job Trait @ level 81 only gives MDB +18, and the highest MDB equipment stats are around +5 to +6 (Dalmatica, SCH AF2, Iron Ram Hauberk, etc.).

But, assumptions can be wrong sometimes of course. Anyone have any mathematical insight into this question?

Couldn't give you exact figures, but back when Aby-ule first came out, and my LS was spamming Zelus tiaras, our PLd was able to survive chain spell incredibly easy with FF.

I am not a numbers guy but:
It is Godzilla huge.
edit: Especially for those who low man and heal/tank at the same time with no 3rd party help.

The potency varies greatly with the amount of MDT the person has. If it's making an enormous difference, the person likely wasn't swapping appropriately to take magic damage to begin with. Also may have been lacking in furtherance abyssites. You can find discussion (including math) in PLD forums about the potency of MDB on a tank that has capped MDT; which any tank should easily have at this point in the game.

Seeing as how furtherance/merit abyssites are commonplace, MDT gear has never been more accessible, you actually have more HP than your bar shows factoring cureskin, and (good) WHMs have unlimited MP in Abyssea, it's really not worth an atma slot.

Back when I was farming carabosse gems this atma helped me tank the fairy on my pup(without Tornado2 would one-shot me).
Edit: I would fight in full dd gear.

Plus, it will make you feel

A good point (I think). So, what you're saying is that MDB will have a profound effect on a naked character, but on a character with Shell and MDT-% gear, the MDB effect will be less noticeable?

Even if that's true, wouldn't Future Fabulous Atma be a good choice for a non-PLD tank/melee, who might depend on non-MDT-% equipment to maintain certain "X-hit" and/or Haste TP builds?

Exactly. The effect is more noticeable when the WHM is casting barspell in gear that adds a MDB bonus effect to it and when you have all cruor buffs. The INT you have plays a factor in reducing damage when you're on the receiving end of a nuke.


The MDT gear doesn't need to be fulltimed. I would argue the overall effects of an attack round going off in MDT gear would be substantially smaller than sacrificing 20% crit rate or 30% crit DMG. Especially if your tank's damage spread is favored towards WS output. The loss of some Store TP for that attack round can be made up for in the damage taken as a spell hitting you feeds you 5 TP and you're not losing all your Store TP gear for MDT since for most people all that needs be sacrificed is some combination of rings/earrings, neck, waist, and back to cap, varying with which items you have.

I would reserve a spot for FF for any mob that pumps out large amounts of magic damage to which you'd be a target. 50 MDB is quite potent. Every time I put it on and fight a mob with others that don't have it on, I always take substantially less damage and am in a much more "insured" spot than everyone else. I spend less time in the red and make less work for the WHMs that I play with.

That makes it great for:
1) pick up groups where you don't know the caliber of WHM that you're playing with.
2) you're fighting mobs that constantly wipe buffs like pro & shell.
3) soloing magic NMs

In an ideal world you'd play with WHMs that can adapt fast enough to the mob, but that isn't always so. I'd only use it on DDs and tanks as well, your SAM is probably the only one that would make use of it.

Well as far as direct comparisons go, I tanked Durinn as nin with my friend on war to get our mules MM. At 85 or 90, I don't recall. I was wearing evasion setup and her wearing nothing special. His aga nukes hit me for right around half as much as her.

I use it when I'm gonna two-box Shinryu also. It tames his nuke power by quite a lot.

It's great for easily taking all the bite out of heavy magic enemies.

If your WHM doesn't suck, they should be familiar with moves that dispel and be able to cast Shell instantly. Otherwise they should be able to read the chatlog and re-Shell quickly. Otherwise you need a new WHM.

Pup/nin+sch/rdm, no cureskin. Saved space and money on an unnecessary gearset and was still able to kill her faster than thieves do. Apoc would have hardly helped with killspeed.

...

For a pup that goes solo stuff in aby, yes, it is truly unnecessary.

Some of the most powerful pieces in MDT sets are universal to all jobs. Sacrificing an atma slot out of laziness is up to the user, but its a terrible decision.

Yeah no kidding, but sometimes you need to play with the players available instead of the ones you'd like too.

A sweet MDT/MDB set isn't going to cut it for all occasions.

Assuming no other MDB, you'll take about 2/3 of the damage you'd take without the MDB+50.

This is true, but pretty much everything else in your posts was wrong. MDB has the exact same proportional impact regardless of INT or MDT and it also has decreasing returns, so additional MDB (such as from a WHM's barspells) will decrease the impact of further increasing MDB.

It's not hard to recast Shell. You should just *** at your WHM and make them realize that it should be a priority if they're too dumb to figure it out for themselves. :x

And yet I've never died from something that I would have otherwise survived with this useless atma. Imagine that.

My post was in the context of the bottom line of the usefulness of the atma when you have all of the other things (including MDB on barspell) factored in. Which is where I myself implied the decreasing returns. Where at that point the MDB of the atma itself makes such a minor impact on survivability as to not make any strategic difference at all. Nothing you can handle with that atma can't be handled without.

Perhaps I misread your posts then.

My mule doesn't know how to shell, he just likes to cure V at 75% and cure VI at 50% exactly.
I can *** at him until the cows come home, but it's almost like he has a mind of his own.
what a strange strange man he is :(

That being said, unless you just want to be extremely lethargic and just want to afk while you take all that extra time killing the monster, FF is a slot wasted.

FLOW CHART

Is there a WHM with more than 2 brain cells?

YES ----> Do not use Future Fabulous, it's a waste of an atma slot.
NO -----> Future Fabulous may be worth using.

As for potency questions, going from 0 MDB to 50 MDB will reduce the magic damage you take by 1/3. If you have the +18 from the job trait already, then +50 MDB is going to shave an additional 1/4 off with the 3/20 that the JT was giving you, giving you a total of about 40% reduction.

It's pretty much good for soloing. For the most part you probably don't need it solo (except maybe for BST, but I don't know anything about BST).

There is something that people don't often consider during these types of discussions though, that I think is worth mentioning. If using a defensive atma is going to benefit you in a way that it makes it easier for you to keep your cool, it may actually be worth using. All-out offense will almost undoubtedly leave you in a dangerous situation at some point, and people often make mistakes in a panic, which can lead to an embarrassing loss.

On these forums, we tend to discuss optimal setups. Myself, I love shameless and senseless maximization and optimization; however, "optimal setup" means exactly what it says - optimal. In reality, not all situations are optimal and one must take this into consideration and adjust one's playstyle accordingly. If you are particularly prone to stress errors, it may actually improve your overall efficiency to let off the gas a little and play more defensively. If you're stuck playing with less-than-optimal mages or something, same thing.

It is however important to understand that when you hold back to play it safe, you are not playing at maximum efficiency. This is not optimal. You are gimping yourself. Your playstyle is not equivalent in efficacy to someone who has an optimal setup and is capable of going all-out.

In other words, it's perfectly fine to play at reduced efficiency, just don't kid yourself into thinking it's ideal.

They're badly worded posts.