I'm aware that stat caps exist, but at the time I read about them, probably around a year ago, I wasn't anywhere near hitting them. When you guys were talking about the 393? attack cap, I was kinda suddenly-sad as I think I hit that on 2-3 characters every event with my gear+synergy. I really should read up on all the stat caps, because I'm taking groups into fights currently where the tank has 500+ defense, 2 of the melees having 500-600 atk, mages with 500-600 mag, and healers with 450-500 mind. Oh and they usually all have 350-450 resist.
I wonder just how much I'm wasting here since I could wear a higher defense gear with a lot less mag if I'm already way past the cap, etc.
Unrelated, other than talking about synergy. Cid has replaced my Edward as my Support4 breakdown guy on FFIV events/dungeons. So glad to have Cid. I'm surprised he's a support person. In the original game, he was a high-hp, somewhat high-dmg, low defense, low accuracy fighter who had innate libra. But my level 67 Cid had much higher stats on HP/Def/Resist than my level 80 Edward.
Edit: Oh and cpp, I broke Echo based on your recommendation. I didn't read up on it before doing so, but looks like just 40% (moderate?) stat bonus? You recommend that over Sorceress RM4 (much more blm mage dmg) or one of the "much more ____ element dmg" rune materias? -- Currently I almost always use Haste on my healer, and Sorceress or Spira Savior on my Magic DPS.
Devotion is 20% MAG, and Echo is 15% MAG. For the Sorceress RM, are you talking about Sorceress's Vow (Rinoa RM4)? It's 1.25x Black Magic damage.
So it's all situational. The formula for magic damage is (MAG^1.15) * Sqrt(MAG/RES).
The multiplier just goes on the beginning. So we can actually put this into an equation and see which one comes out on top. We want to see if15% MAG is better than 1.25x damage, so we'll use a ? instead of a > or < sign.
(1.15MAG)^1.15 * Sqrt(1.15MAG/RES) ? 1.25 * (MAG^1.15) * Sqrt(MAG/RES)
1.15^1.15 * (MAG^1.15) * Sqrt(1.15) * Sqrt(MAG/RES) ? 1.25 * (MAG^1.15) * Sqrt(MAG/RES)
All of the stuff cancels out, and you get:
1.15^1.15 * Sqrt(1.15) ? 1.25
1.1743 * Sqrt(1.15) ? 1.25
1.2593 ? 1.25
Since the left side is greater, it means the +MAG RM is stronger, no matter what the enemy's resistance is.
That's not the only advantage though. Rinoa RM4 only works for BLM damage, whereas Echo's works for SUM damage as well, so it's more versatile.
There is one other RM though, which is Shantotto's RM4 (Witch's Cookie). It's a 1.3x multiplier to BLM damage, so it will be better than Echo's. But it's still not better than Devotion, which is 20% MAG.
1.2^1.15 * Sqrt(1.2) = 1.35, which is greater than 1.3
So in terms of raw power, Vivi > Shantotto > Echo > Rinoa
But Vivi and Echo have additional advnatages in that they work for any type of magic, not just black.