Chosing what spell to MB.

[Shiia]

Ok I am now a 61 blm. I have all the spells up to this point (including all ancients) There were always something I was wondering as a blm. That comes to what spell should I use when I magic burst.

Obviously if the melees have been whacking the mob for a while and they perform a skill chain I use my best nuke to burst. In most cases this is distortion so I burst with Blizarga2, Ancient spell at chain 5 if I think I can down the mob. Now, if the party had no thieves, and they told me that skill chain will be taking place when ever the mob arrives (they have tp so they opening with skill chian) should I still use BlizargaII or Ancient in that MB oportunity? For a while I have been bursting with my best nuke. Even with thief tricking the main tank When I burst, it still comes to me and won't get off till they whack me twice. (I always have blink and stoneskin...)

SO was thinking Should I use BlizardII to burst so that I don't get that much of hate. OR, Since I am using FloraColdady (sp? the HQ of Black Coldady again sp?), should I simply swap gear with AF (for -enmity) when bursting in this kind of situation? Opinions are welcome.

Damage I have been doing with blizargaII are between 714~750 non resisted. 380ish with resists. BlizardII bursted does somewhere around 380ish non resisted. And of course the targets always come to mee when I bursted with flood... about 1300~1380ish damage bursted (Reason I don't use much since I get too much hate).

[CarbonFibre]

I'm not a BLM, but I'd say it's pretty good advice not to burst ancient magic on a skillchain that opens the fight. Or wait, only do it if your tank is a NIN and there's no THF (j/k). Too much enmity doing that in the beginning, and it will make your tank have a harder time holding hate for each and every nuke you do throughout the rest of the battle (if it works how I think).

*Edit: Bursting blizzard 2 at the beginning could quite possibly give you hate anyway, it just wouldn't be as much as an ancient. Also, when setting up a skillchain, ideally you want a chain and burst that is something the enemy is weak against. Often times this is not possible with weapon combinations in the party (or not having the high spell at your level). Too many times not having a BLM I've been frustrated the RDM didn't have blizzard 2 yet, so sometimes you just have to figure things out.

[Irinicus]

Yes I agree, if you are opening the fight with a skillchain, go with tier 2 spell other than -ga2. Never open a battle with an ancient spell. Trust me I know this from experience, It was not a pretty sight.

[Roric]

Hmmmm, if you play like me then you nuke according to when the SC is. If I see the SC happening at the end, thus wasting my MB, I will nuke less in hopes of it starting sooner. Usually Ill aim to have the MB at the midway point, so we can get a nice renkei with good MB dmg for the kill ^^. Ga spells are good, but cost mana, regular spells are good, AM is like level 50ish ;p.

[Yuanlung]

Usually you'd want to plan out your skill chains before the killing starts, so you should already know what element(s) you can burst with. The selection should just be how big a nuke to use.


Usually my party tries to fire off renkei when the mob's HP is down to about 1/3 ~ 1/4, so it can take all we have to dish out. In the ideal situation, you'd go with the biggest thing you have besides the ancient. For me, that'd be a BlizzagaII on distortion. If you have too mach hate already or the mob does not have enough HP left, go with a smaller burst. We somtiems do Ancient MB before the 1/2 HP mark to try and make chain #5.


Sometimes you have more then 1 element to chose from. Please, please use the one the mob is weak to. Yes, the mob's resistance is lowered on MB, but you still have a greater chance of getting resisted on the mob's strong element. Everytime I see the other BLM in the party burst WaterIII without water staff on distortion chain on crab or pugils for 40 damage, I feel like slapping someone.

[SephirothYuyX]

Blizzaga2 is your best weapon atm.

[Shiia]

I think I only use water3 against raptors when I am bursting medium damage nuke (stronger than blizard2 anyway and weak against water). Thanks for the tips. Yes I do try to control the hate, not using any tier2 or 3 spells at the very start. In fact I open up the fight with 2 elemental debuff and with poison2. Although these spells doesn't do much damage their dot component does their job.

The skill chain timing varies alot. There are sometimes when you see a skill chain which leaves the mob to like 10% hp which I usually use Blizard1 to burst. THere are times when I see the mob's hp is 70% at chain 5 with melees not having the TP. I usually start using tier 2 and some tier 3 spells in addition to bursting with Strongest spell on mbs. in my case its usually Blizarga2. Ancient is really becomes tricky. Sometimes the melees are doing very very slow damage, missing and such. When the mob has more then 30% hp, I usualy use the ancient spell. No matter what spell I use, they will come to me anyways if the melees are missing alot. (since they don;t get much hate) Usually this leaves to like 5% hp which melees can quickly finish off or I can cast drain to finish him off.

7 more levels for Black cloak!!! (and this 7 levels is long as hell... orz...)