24 days? That's way too long!Follow

24 days since last activity in this forum! Let's breathe some life back into it!

Let's have a talk about gloves to use in magical blood pacts, since there have been some interesting developments recently in that regard. Until now, it was Caller's Bracers or bust. There was nothing to compete with the set bonus aside from adding a bit of summoning skill which is a complete joke. Now there are two new pieces (three if you count NQ & HQ). This is really more of a place for me to work out the math than to prompt any discussion, but since it's so dead here I figured I'd post it when I'm done!

Nares Cuffs
MP+3%, MAB+13, hMP +4, Avatar: MAB+8

Auspex Gages
MP+50, Interruption-17%, Enhances Avatar Attack, Increases Blood Pact Damage

Spurrina Gages
MP+60, Interruption-20%, Enhances Avatar Attack, Increases Blood Pact Damage

BGWiki indicates the Auspex Gages increase BP damage by 4%. It stands to reason that the Spurrina probably increases by 5%. The question is: It's obvious that Auspex/Spurrina is best for physical BPs, but which is better for magical, 4-5% damage, or 8 MAB?

First we need to decide how much MAB we're talking about. Let's assume fairly ideal conditions: 5/5 MAB merits, and most of the available gear:
Trait: 40
Merits: 10
Magian Staff: 13
Esper Stone: 1
Summoner's Horn +2: 4
Eidolon Pendant: 2
One Diamond Earring: 2
Tiresias' Cape: 1
Caller's Sash: 2

Total MAB: 75

This means adding 8 MAB would increase damage by about 4.57%.

BP Damage should only be at +10% due to Caller's Doublet +2, which means adding another 4% (Auspex) should increase damage by about 3.64%. Adding another 5% (Spurrina) should increase damage by about 4.54%.

Wow, that's a lot closer than I expected it to be. It seems Spurrina Gages & Nares Cuffs are pretty much equal, unless you have poor MAB in which case Nares are better, or Nirvana in which case Spurrina are better. I think personally, I will not be using Nares Cuffs, since the Auspex/Spurrina also doubles as a physical BP piece whereas Nares is for magical only. So it'll save me an inventory slot to just use gages for both physical & magical.

This changes a great deal in Abyssea, or other places where you're able to augment your avatar with extra MAB. If you add additional sources of MAB, I think the Auspex/Spurrina will quickly pull ahead. For example in Abyssea with Beyond+Ultimate, the gages should decimate the cuffs.

I kind of doubt it'll be higher than 5% but I suppose it's possible! Some of the stats on HQ sets do improve by a lot more than 20%; some even double. I'm not going to get my hopes up, though. I am currently trying to craft a pair of Hexed Gages -1 and have an abjuration ready for them, so if I ever get them I'll be sure to test them out.