Revisiting /mage in an FoV era where Refresh is cheap and plentiful

[Lunaryn]

I spent a considerable amount of time last night leveling MNK/BLU from 17 to 21 in a party (dunes+qufim), and while it was a character short enough on tabs that I ended up relying on super kupower signet refresh instead of FoV refresh toward the end, I was impressed by the combo's performance. I realized that a lot of the arguments against subbing mage jobs to melee main jobs at low levels tended to focus rather heavily on the paltry maxMP of such combinations. However, maxMP is not as significant a consideration when one is constantly under 1-2 mp/tick refresh, particularly given the low cost of many early spells.

I thought it might be good to reopen discussion about the use of such combinations, of how high level-wise FoV refresh can take you before it's not enough to keep useful spells flowing, etc. Note that this is not about high level xp or meripo; for obvious reasons any time a ToAU camp would be a preferred leveling spot FoV refresh is irrelevant, and I doubt the usefulness of 1mp/tick would survive to anywhere near such levels anyway.

Dunes and Qufim levels are particularly worthy of discussion given how little many typical melee subjobs provide at these level ranges.

(Incidentally, the party was a fairly ad-hoc pickup, although it worked pretty well. To give you some idea, I was the puller (using Wild Oats).)

[Durahansolo]

Re: Revisiting /mage in an FoV era where Refresh is cheap and plentiful

(Incidentally, the party was a fairly ad-hoc pickup, although it worked pretty well. To give you some idea, I was the puller (using Wild Oats).)

HAHA, I was a puller once in CN as BLU/NIN with Wild Oats, it was an interesting party to say the least.

The FoV refresh + the Kupopower refresh is a nice combo. I leveled on 2 mage jobs during the past week and that refresh was most welcomed. Eventually my fov tabs ran out so I tossed in a Juice on myself every now and then to add to the fun. I need to do some higher level FoVs with my 46 BLU so that way I can stockpile some tab so I won't run out again lol.

[ItazuraNhomango]

Re: Revisiting /mage in an FoV era where Refresh is cheap and plentiful

I did DRG/BRD for Paeon at Valkurm and Qufim levels, IIRC. Is the nearly constantly 1 HP/tick better for the entire party or worse than ability to drop a Cure 1 anytime on demand, I can't say.

Poisona and Barwatera may be helpful for fighting flies, I guess?

May be best to have one melee on /BRD or /DNC, and another on /WHM?

[Lunaryn]

Re: Revisiting /mage in an FoV era where Refresh is cheap and plentiful

DRG/BRD has the added advantage of giving an offensive wyvern, though I haven't tried it outside of solo. Kam's used DRG/DNC to good effect.

I suspect /BLU is one of the bigger beneficiaries of FoV refresh, given so much blue magic uses weapon skill, and there's a lot more opportunities to use cheap offensive spells than cheap defensive spells.