Copypasta'd from here, in case you somehow haven't seen already:

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The Furoticon team is making an online version of the game, and they're giving away free store credit to everyone who refers someone to have their project launched! Voting is free and they need 1,000 votes!

Here's all you need to do:

1) Make an Offbeatr account: https://offbeatr.com/users/login

2) Vote for Furoticon Online: http://tinyurl.com/FuroOnline

3) In your voting comments, say that I referred you!

And we both get 50 Furos!

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If you want to say that I referred you, I'm just Taz for all all intents and purposes. :) Be sure to register an account at www.furoticon.com to get your free store credit!

I cried. The style they presented the last episode in didn't help.

The word "epic" is heavily overused, but its original meaning very much applies to the ending of this anime.

Then again, what else can you expect from the company that later went on to make Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann? (Then again again, they did make Neon Genesis Evangelion before that, though . . .)

As you may have (not) noticed from my (lack of) frequency in posting to my journal, it's not something I do very much. Usually when I need to blow off steam, I use Twitter for that.

To be blunt, however, I'm getting pretty tired of seeing that lame and stale post I had tagged [MEME], and my [FFXI] tagged post is essentially a closed case. To the casual observer, both are quite tl;dr, anyway. So I'm bumping them off with this post, specifically about my four-letter tag usage. It's something that I decided to make tradition right when I was making the [MEME] post. The number four is actually lucky to me, personally, so using four letters, arranged all-caps in brackets, to sum up the field in which the subject is taking place . . . that just seems clean and elegant to me. :)

On an [FFXI] note, however, it did slightly bug me that the community team and the players didn't have an immediately clear consensus whether update notes posted on the official forums should be tagged "dev####" or "dev[####]". Not using the official forums much any more, anyway, other than the occasional lurk. I don't want my still low-level character to be cause to never be taken seriously again in an elitist atmosphere. But I digress. I do look forward to getting to level 90+, though I will need to get mathy again to decide what is the best route for me to take in equipment, especially concerning weaponry (I hear Chant du Cygne is kind of stupidly powerful, but I'd like to crunch the numbers when it becomes relevant to me).

Oh, also, for those of you who just comb through journals and almost never check your flood of submissions (because I do that as well), I've posted the butt badge a friend of mine did for me several months ago. I'm kind of embarrassed to share it, but do check it out and leave feedback. ^^;

Anyway, the time is currently hours-after-I-should've-been-in-bed o'clock, so I'm just going to pass out now as of this typing. v_v;

I blame  peanutbutterjellydragonpants . >_>



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CUTENESS MEME:

Appearance:
[x] = You have blue/green eyes.
[ ] = You blush a lot.
[ ] = You giggle.
[ ] = You're quiet.
[x] = You say random silly things.
[ ] = You have a baby face.
[x] = You wear a more down to earth style of clothing.
[x] = You don't wear halter tops or anything to showy.
[ ] = You're under 5 feet 6 inches tall.
TOTAL SO FAR: 4

Innocence:
[ ] = You're a virgin.
[x] = Just thinking of sexual things makes you blush.
[x] = Your idea of a date is really romantic.
[ ] = You sleep with a stuffed animal.
[x] = You like to cuddle.
[x] = You've never played the Nervous game.
[x] = You don't even know what the nervous game is.

TOTAL SO FAR: 9

Colors:
[x] = You like the color pink/light blue.
[ ] = You tend to wear bright/girly colors.

TOTAL SO FAR: 10

Personality:
[x] = You can be ignorant/oblivious.
[x] = You'd consider yourself shy.
[x] = You like happy upbeat music.
[x] = You like "Cutesy" music.

TOTAL SO FAR: 14

What YOU think is cute:
[x] = You like small animals
[ ] = You like babies a lot.
[x] = Small/mini versions of things make you go "AWWWWW!"

TOTAL: 16

Multiply how many you got by 4

64% cute

Yay, four-cubed!



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HARRY POTTER MEME:

GRYFFINDOR:
[x]You’ve never done illegal drugs.
[x]You have a lot of friends
[ ]You get along with everyone
[ ]You haven’t made fun of someone for at least two months
[ ]You love soccer
[ ]You love baseball
[ ]You’re into writing and art
[ ]Favourite music genre is pop rock
[x]You believe in “innocent until proven guilty” theory
[ ]One of your favourite colours is red or gold
[x]Good grades at school
[x]One of the worst things you can do is lie
[x]You plan on going to college/university

TOTAL: 6

HUFFLEPUFF:
[x]You’re content with mostly everything in your life right now.
[x]You laugh a lot.
[ ]You like to follow trends.
[x]Politics suck.
[x]You love to swim
[ ]Water polo is awesome
[ ]Pink is one of your favorite colors
[ ]Black is morbid & depressing
[x]You’re an optimist.
[x]You’re completely straight edged.
[ ]You’re very emotional
[ ]Rap, R&B, & hip-hop is your favorite music genre
[ ]You don’t believe in going steady at a young age.
[x]You’ve made fun of at least one person this week.

TOTAL: 7

RAVENCLAW:
[x]You’re depressed to a certain extent.
[x]You love to read.
[ ]You appreciate theatre & arts.
[x]Sports suck.
[x]You’re shy.
[ ]Loyalty is the MOST important thing in a relationship.
[x]Hate is completely unneeded.
[ ]Indie is your favourite genre of music.
[x]Every once in awhile you have little anger outbursts.
[ ]Lying is sometimes okay
[x]Blue is one of your favorite colors.
[ ]Serious is better than funny.

TOTAL: 7

SLYTHERIN:
[ ]There’s at least one person you hate.
[ ]Basketball is a good sport.
[ ]Football is amazing.
[ ]Black is a cool color.
[x]You’ve lied about something serious.
[x]You’re a very deep person.
[ ]You have considered suicide.
[x]Very loyal.
[ ]You like metal.
[ ]They make school seem more important than it is.
[x]You’re scared to grow up.
[ ]You’ve done drugs in the past month
[ ]Anger is one of your primary feelings.
[ ]You have trust issues.
[ ]Guilty until proven innocent.

TOTAL: 4

Gryffindor was at 7, but I unchecked "I like soccer" in favor of "Sports suck" in Ravenclaw. So between the two, Hufflepuff? I guess this means I'm one of the badass side-characters, then! :D

I think this whole thing can be more succinctly expressed with the D&D Alignment "Neutral Good," though.

Some folks over on my Twitter feed have requested that I spell out the exact situation that led to a very recent mathematical frustration of mine. Since the story is WAY too long for Twitter, I decided to use this (particularly since the interested parties are furries, anyway).

Anyway, in the game, Final Fantasy XI, I play a Red Mage. Or at least, I say I do. In practice it's been sitting at 30 for forever now because I slack off like a boss on my leveling (I want to get my White Mage and Paladin, each currently at 40, to 50 first, so I may use them as support jobs while leveling Red Mage to the new level cap of 99). So, admittedly, a lot of the big talk I may spout off at times is really all theory and no practice. I'm called out for this a lot on the forums I post on, so there's some motivation to get my butt to this dang "endgame" thing . . . whenever I find the time, that is. That being said, the issue I am posting about is, in my case, "theoretical," but for other Red Mages like myself that dare take up their swords, knowing which supporting spell is "better" would be very practical indeed.

Which leads me to the title of this post: A Red Mage's Enspell versus their Enspell II. The reason I got myself in to a mathematical quandary in the first place was because another "melee Red Mage," whom I highly admire and respect, said that the Enspell II line was "brokenly horrible." Naturally, calling the second-tier of a spell line inferior to its first tier didn't sit well with me, though this required me to do a lot of math because the way the damage on each spell is calculated, Enspells II are not, frustratingly enough, strictly superior to first-tier Enspells, either.

First, some conceptual groundwork before I get in to the actual math: "Enspells" refer to a line of White Magic spells exclusive to the Red Mage job. Basically, what they do is add some amount of elemental damage to one's base melee attacks. Enblizzard gives you additional Ice damage, Enfire gives you additional Fire damage, Enwater gives you additional Water damage, and so on. This general concept applies both to first-tier Enspells and Enspells II, and helps give Red Mage more of a flavor as the game's first magic knight. Having said that, let's go in to the differences between how the damage on each is calculated and where it is applied.

First-tier Enspell damage is simple enough. The base damage of the spell (that is, how much damage the spell adds on to your attack) is calculated upon casting based on a piecewise function of the Red Mage's Enhancing Magic Skill. At Skill > 200, Enspell base damage = Skill / 20 + 5. This damage is added as elemental damage to all melee attacks you make. Simple enough - the more you hit with this up, the more straight-up damage you get. This can also be boosted with (albeit rather rare) "Sword Enhancement Spell Damage" boosting equipment (though technically, you'll receive the bonus regardless of what kind of weapon you use).

Enspells II are different, to the point where some of the differences are just plain annoying. The base damage of the spell is calculated based on the same function, except each time the Enspell II damage is applied, the damage is increased by one, up to a cap of 2 times your base Enspell damage. To give further incentive for using these, an elemental resistance penalty is also applied to an enemy hit with the spells's effect for whichever element the spell is weak against (for example, Enstone II weakens resistance to Wind effects), which is nice not only for a Red Mage looking to make sure their Enfeebles stick without crippling their melee capabilities with a Staff, but is also a boon to any other magic-using job in the party looking to attack using a particular element.

So, pretty sweet, right? Except Enspells II come with a catch: they only add their damage to the *first* attack of each "attack round." In a more mundane situation, this wouldn't matter so much, as attack rounds (events after your melee weapon Delay timer counts down) normally only have one attack in them. However, for those using Warrior subjob and/or Brutal Earring for Double Attack or Joyeuse (a weapon that "Occasionally attacks twice," ~45% of the time), common old strategies of boosting damage output, this is a problem. This was, in all likelihood, done to reduce exploitation of the rare and coveted Kraken Club ("Occasionally attacks 2 to 8 times" . . . yeah), but this kinda screws everybody that uses multi-attack, all in the name of balance. Less explicitly, however, there is another, stupider catch to Enspells II, which is what I was focusing mainly on for my mathematical calculations. Basically, the "Enspell base damage" is calculated based on your Enhancing Magic Skill . . . during each individual swing. Which means that when you cast Enwater II in your Enhancing Magic gear set, when you switch to your melee gear set, you're losing a couple of points of Enspell damage to make sure your base melee damage doesn't suck, as opposed to first-tier Enspells, where your base damage is locked in upon casting. Oh, and remember that "Sword Enhancement Spell Damage" gear? It still applies to Enspells II, though it's applied as a constant and does not eventually double like the base damage does.

Based on these descriptions, I've come up with two equations to use to determine which Enspell would give more damage (for simplicity's sake, this is assuming the Red Mage is an idiot and does nothing but constantly swing his weapon for the duration of the spell; realistically, some time's going to be taken out for your regular spellcasting duties):

First-tier Enspell = (Enhancing Magic Skill/20 + 5 + Sword Enhancement Spell Damage Bonus) * Duration of the spell in seconds * 60 /Delay of your weapon * Average number of attacks per attack round

(Note that the Delay number, as listed on a melee weapon, is 60 times the number of seconds in between attack rounds. For example, a Sword with 240 delay has an attack round once every four seconds. The number is rarely this precise, though, as there are also Swords with 233 Delay, 223 Delay, and so on.)

Enspell II = ((3/2)(EMS/20 + 5) + SESDB) * (EMS/20 + 5) * Delay/60 + (2(EMS/20 + 5) + SESDB) * (Duration of the spell in seconds * 60/Delay - (EMS/20 + 5) * Delay/60)

This calculation is a crapload less intuitive, and is based on quite a few assumptions, so let me explain it: for a number of attack rounds (Delay/60) equal to your base Enspell damage (because it's increasing at a rate of 1 more damage per attack round and will eventually double, EMS/20 + 5), you will be dealing an average amount of damage equal to (3/2)(EMS/20 + 5) + SESDB. This is a mathematical shortcut. To justify it with an example, add together 18 + 36, then 19 + 35, and so on, and then divide each value by two. This should result in 18 instances of the value 18 * 3/2, and should work with any integer, assuming that the Red Mage produces enough Enspell II hits to reach the damage cap. As with the first-tier Enspell equation, it's also assuming an Enhancing Magic Skill > 200, but following the "enough hits to reach the damage cap" assumption, there is also the implicit assumption that your Enhancing Magic Skill isn't too high for that to be possible at your current Delay (Enhancing Magic Skill <= 20(Duration in seconds * (60/Delay)^2 - 5), or else the second term (the amount of damage dealt while you're at the Enspell damage cap) ends up negative, when in reality the smallest this term can actually be is 0).

Also, I just realized that I forgot to account for Haste when I first did this. Crap. Well, Haste speeds up attacks by 1/(1 - Haste%), so I suppose you'd multiply each term in the equations by that as well to get the total amount of potential damage added for the duration of the spell. This is kind of inexcusable, too, since by the time one could cast Enspell II, one can and should cast Haste as well. Ah, well, I guess this hypothetical Red Mage is an idiot anyway for assuming they're not going to be casting anything while they have the Enspell effect . . .

As I mentioned earlier, "Sword Enhancement Spell Damage" bonuses are applied independently, but I managed to work out how one can separate this term from the equations entirely and then add it where appropriate:

Total damage added from SESDB = SESDB * Duration of the spell in seconds * 60/Delay (* Average number of attacks per attack round, if this is a first-tier Enspell)

What I wanted to do first of all was figure out how much additional Enhancing Magic Skill from an Enhancing Skill set would require to be lost from a first-tier Enspell to outdo an Enspell II, assuming a single-attack weapon with 240 Delay and only Brutal Earring providing 5% Double Attack (Average number of attacks per round = 1.05) and no Sword Enhancement Spell Damage gear. I would roughly estimate this to favor the Enspell II, personally, but my goal was to use something simple yet realistic enough. (Though, again, it's not at all that realistic to assume 0% Haste, but anyway . . . ) Base durations of all Enspells is 3 minutes, though by the time one can use Enspells II one can also take advantage of Composure, which triples the duration of self-cast White and Black Enhancing Magic (and also provides +15 melee Accuracy, which is kinda nice, but I'm also implicitly assuming 100% hit rate . . .). So Duration in seconds = 540. I trying solving for one variable once, but all that was good for was revealing the failure of my Enspell II damage calculation at high values of Enhancing Magic Skill (which, by the way, for 240 Delay and no Haste, EMS < 575). So I made it two variables, X being Enhancing Magic Skill in a dedicated Enhancing Magic Skill gear set, and Y being Enhancing Magic Skill in your regular melee set, and attempted to solve for X - Y. Here's what I got:

(X/20 + 5)(540 * 60/240)(21/20) = (3/2)(Y/20 + 5)(Y/20 + 5)(240/60) + 2(Y/20 + 5)(540 * 60/240 - (Y/20 + 5)(240/60))

From here, I managed to work (with pencil, paper, and calculator) that monster to . . . this monster:

Y^2 - 19600Y/37 - 912500/37 = -14175X/37

As one might guess, I was in the middle of completing the square when I posted my frustration to Twitter, where akkeresu told me "ohai, here's some Wolfram Alpha for ya." (http://bit.ly/bwWb6V) Which was awesome! Except it told me that I basically ran in to a dead end, and cannot solve for X - Y. =/

I mean, next time I'd probably input different different theoretical values, maybe getting rid of the Brutal Earring Double Attack to simplify things, and adding at least 15% Haste for realism, but I can tell right away that it wouldn't alleviate the problem of me not being able to find what I'm looking for. =/ Too many dang variables, I swear (not even mentioning the ridiculous "100% hit rate and constantly swinging" assumptions)!

So, because the aforementioned fox-cat wanted to know precisely what I was looking for, well, now ya know. =/

Ultimately, I want to know, even if you have to assume an arbitrary 240 Delay, how high the multi-attack rate has to be and/or how great the difference in Enhancing Magic Skill counted has to be in order for a first-tier Enspell to completely outdo an Enspell II. If the parameters needed were easily attainable for a high-end Red Mage (and didn't gimp regular melee damage to heck), then Enspells II would, in fact, be "brokenly horrible." =/



Oh, and mandatory addendum: "melee Red Mage" bashing will not be condoned. I'm well a-freaking-ware there are times and places where it isn't applicable and what "I'm invited for." This is neither the time nor the place for that. The equations assume the Red Mage is a moron, anyway, so just assume he's soloing and pull your panties out of your butt, seriously. This is strictly for inquiring minds who want to know.



Addendum the second - I'm also further doubting my math on some of this, so if you see any potential conceptual mistakes, please let me know . . .



EDIT FOR LONGEVITY:

Enspell = (Enhancing Maic Skill/20 + 5) * Amount of Use in Seconds per Spell * 60/Delay * 1/(1 - Haste%) * Average Attacks Per Rround + tSESD * AAPR

Enspell II = (3/2)(EMS/20 + 5) * (EMS/20 + 6) + (2[EMS/20 + 5]) * (AUSS - [EMS/20 + 6] * Delay/60 * [1 - Haste%]) * 60/Delay * 1/(1 - Haste%) + tSESD

tSESD = "Sword Enhancement Spell Damage" * AUSS * 60/Delay * 1/(1 - Haste%)

To find added DPS for Enspell or tSESD, simply omit Duration In Seconds. Because Enspell II first builds up before staying at a constant rate, the total DPS of the spell will vary with how much it is used per cast. The total damage equation for Enspell II also assumes the second term to not be negative - that is, enough attacks connect to reach the damage cap. Naturally, all DPS values are subject to hit rate, but your results may also vary with enemy magic resistance as well as the current weather. As always as a Red Mage, use the appropriate spell as per your discretion.

I've basically given up on trying to find some simpler equation for determining which spell is "better." The best one can do now is plug in appropriate values in to each equation to determine what the situation at hand calls for.