Quetzalcoatl.Kimora said:
»Using same armor, I get 1180 Curaga IV and 1129 Cure V. They are different now, and Cure VI was weakened much worse.
Since you didn't provide your actual stats to go along with that picture, will try to back-calculate things.
Assuming you're at 50% cure potency:
1180 Curaga IV means 787 base amount cured
1129 Cure V means 753 base amount cured
787 Cure V under the old formula required 1110 power.
753 Cure V under the new formula requires 610 power.
If we assume capped healing skill (424), but exclude merits, and add in 25 skill from AF3 body and Augur hands, we get 449 skill total (will round up to 450 for easy math).
Under the new formula, that means you need another 160 power from mnd and vit. Assuming an approximate 3:2 ratio between the stats, that means 240 mnd and 160 vit.
If we apply those same values to the old formula, we get 3*(240+450/5) + 160 = 1150 power. That implies that mnd and vit stats were closer to each other than the above estimate. This could be done with 220 mnd and 180 vit to reach 1110 power, while those same stats would give 605 power in the new formula. Close enough.
Now do that exact same comparison outside abyssea. Drop mnd and vit by 70 points each to account for lack of cruor buffs.
Old: 830 power == 737 base for Cure V
New: 552 power == 735 base for Cure V
And there you go, almost identical. Also remember that the amount shown to be cured using the new formula is slightly weakened because I didn't work out the exact stat combo (went with just 605 power instead of the actual 610).
Basically, you're not wearing 'just' the same gear; you're using the same gear plus a ton of extra stat buffs. Since the raw stats are worth more under the old formula, the combined effect will go down when using the new formula. Essentially, your comparison only works in Abyssea because of the significant boosts to mnd in there. Since the value of mnd was reduced, and there is no replacement you can switch to, of course the results for your cures will go down.
However in terms of just what you can actually gear for without the excess buffs of Abyssea, there is almost no real change for Cure V (Cure VI is still worse, though).