Man, going to BLM from WAR is difficult

[dred ashaman]

I just made a taru blm today, wanted to see how it plays. Coming from a galka war, I am having a hell of a time. I'm up to lvl 6 in about as many hours, but I have died so much, i could be close to 8 now. With my war/mnk, I could go to like lvl 8-9 without dieing, but this is totally different.

Now, I go with mostly decents mons, and water/poison/stone them till they die, but i have trouble when they start interrupting my casting. I try to time it with their attacks so it wont get in the way, but its a realy pita. I'm finding it very frustrating, a big change from hack and slash and rest every once in awhile...

Any advice? I have all the spells for my lvl, basic armor and a +int and +mind wand... I couldnt imagine lvling a whm!

a-a

[Coinspinner]

Drop that useless wand, get an Ash Pole, and keep upgrading to the next staff with the highest damage. You use this to HIT the monster btw, I see so many baby BLM with poles equipped who don't draw their weapon when fighting. To avoid being interupted, start your casting as the monster begins swinging at you. At level 7 you get Bind, which will allow you to get one or maybe two spells off before the monster reaches you.

[DavisMarkin]

Agreed, definately get a pole and work that staff skill when soloing at the low levels. The damage difference is HUGE! When I was soloing easy prey, I generally pulled using my highest damage spell, Blind, then started beating on the mob. It would die fairly quick (I took a bit of damage, but not too much). Also, I'm guessing since you went from WAR to BLM, you probably don't have /WHM for healing to decrease downtime, but you could just get WHM to 4-5 (or at least 3, won't take very long). This would give you Dia and Paralyze later on (you won't see Protect/-ra though, since that's L7/L14 for mainjob). You could also just stick with /WAR for the time being, but I'd recommend starting on /WHM if you plan on going the BLM route for any serious length of time.

Davir-35RDM/21BLM/21WHM

[dred ashaman]

Yeah, this is a totaly new character, so no whm skills yet. I do attack when the mobs hp gets low and I have a 12 or so club skill. Since I wrote the original topic, I am up to 8 now i think, so I'm getting better at it. I have the ash club now, looks like an ankh, and it does more damage...

-pestilence-

[ZenXIII]

Don't use clubs (anything ankh shaped), use staves (anything 2 handed).
And of the staves, use poles.
You'll eventually want to use *wands* in order to get the +int and +mnd, but where you are now there is no reason to use a 1 handed weapon as a blm.
BLM don't get the good damage ones that WHMs get, and they also can't equip most/any(?) shields.
So, take the above advice, buy an Ash Pole (i believe that is the level 5 one that does a crazy 10 damage ^^) and WHACK at the mobs.
A good strat is to stand far away from a mob (out of cast distance) click "attack" to get your staff out, then slowly walk towards the mob slamming on your damage spell macro. Once you are close enough to cast, let it fly, then blind (you can also poison) and when he gets close enough to you, you'll already be swinging. Works like a champ.
But, BLM also just really can't (easily) take the same monsters a WAR or MNK can early... they are more fragile and don't have the VIT to take some hits from an orc grappler at level 5.

[Klumps]

Go to Konschtat highlands at level 9; there's a nook on the western wall of it (about halfway up) full of rock eaters, which are level 7-11. These are a great way to solo up until around level 12, at which point you should be able to get groups in valkurm.

BTW, rock eaters are worm mobs...meaning they don't move. So, the rock eater pings you with stone for 7-15 damage, and you shoot back with aero or water for 35 or 26 damage or so. These are a nice safe way to solo level up in the early levels.

[Scatman]

What Coinspinner said about the timing of the spell preparation is very important. Even if you don't want to stay as a BLM, if you want to do any melee casting (ie paladin, drk), it's very important. Many of them have never played a caster, going up from warrior, so I always see them getting interrupted because they prepared at the wrong time.

[Yuanlung]

BLM don't get the good damage ones that WHMs get, and they also can't equip most/any(?) shields.

Actually, there are a couple shields that we can use. Fairy shield is one such sheild. We can also use swords too! Although we do not have the skill to make it useful without a sword wielding sub.


Personally I used a dagger at the beginning because I could not stand the long delay between attacks with a pole. At level 9 I switched to a Willow Wand +1.

[dRqmist]

I hear ur pain ashaman...
I started out as taru blm and it seemed like an eternity to get past lvl 6... i deleted the char and became mithra thf instead
with subjob and stats of mithra, lvling mage was so much easier than taru...

[Vicynax]

Switch to your warrior.. go slap on ur staff, and go whack some easy-decent con mobs for awhile or just do it in group to get the skills up fast. Then when u switch back to your blm, your staff would already be maxed for the next few lvls.. this should help you some when u are meleeing

[Yuanlung]

For weapon skill, I just ask a high level friend to grab something hard for me, takes it to 1/2 hp, then sit there while I tapped it to death with my little wooden stick.

I had been neglecting my club skills since I started to party a long time ago, but I was able to get it capped in a few kills this way.

[funhorroreyes]

hehe

this post subject is funny, since I consider blm to be the easiest job in the game (once you get into your teens of course)

[9mm]

got the answer

well the best for a black mage is to have a dagger but when you attack magical monsters u should have a silenced dagger well any way u should attack with magic after the monster attacks u and it'll be easier if u put spells in to a maccro in the start menu in the instruction manul it tells you how to do it and u should probably attack weaker monsters and if u go in to the canyon u should get a party with if u attack yadugo acloytos they give i spells but not all the time if u start a party get a 2whm,2war,1blm,and1 monk but should party only with people that r the same lvl as ui think im in the same sever ill try to helpu out some time im lvl 12 but warriors are easier because they are stronger and have more health but my guys name is nickhunter so look for me and write to me at hunter2882003@yahoo.comand tell me your guys name

Thats all u need to know :-)