BLM AF, do I NEED all items?

[Altruist]

I'm sitting here at 60 with the AF gloves feet and wand, I have no other blm AF and at the same time really see little point in getting it. I have a shaman's cloak that I plan to replace with blm jse latter on. I've been using RSE and seers for pants lately, I'll probably go solo some monsters with my rdm and get a few more points towards my trial sword, but I really have no intention of going to monastic or dragging peeps off to do blm AF3 unless someone else is doing it.

So besides asthetics is there any real need for the AF besides the gloves and pants?

[kazuri]

Eh, it all depends really. You 'should' have all parts of the AF, just because they're all good depending on certain views. For instance, have whatever pants you have for INT+ and stuff, change into Wizard's Tonbans when you're casting Drain, Aspir, etc. The Coat's the same for when you're casting Enfeebles (like Sleep), etc. Also don't forget the enmity-. I never ever imagined it this way, but Atrapos has stated (and now I take it seriously) that the more enmity- you have, the more chances you have to cast spells; causing more dmg without hate. If you have the full BLM AF set on, this can mean well about 2-3 more -II spells, if not resisted; that's about 300~500dmg, which I think is some worth well damage, na?I was indeed planning to use Shaman's Cloak instead of Wizard's Coat/Petasos, just like you. However, I still wanted to obtain the pieces, testing them out myself and seeing what's better. Besides, although I preferred Cloaks over anything, Wizard's Petasos is still l337. :>

[Coinspinner]

Re: BLM AF, do I NEED all items?

Originally posted by Altruist
So besides asthetics is there any real need for the AF besides the gloves and pants?

Body for sleeping things I guess.

[Nodoka]

I carry my AF at all times (Except shoes, because they suck badly). However I only use the Hat and Gloves. The body and pants are 'ok', but really situational. I used RSE pants instead of pants until I got Errant Pants. Later on you'll get Errant Body and the AF hat pretty much goes great with it.

[TheMidg]

Get Full AF.

End of story.

[inspyral]

enmity- is your friend

The last two pieces of AF have the most enmity-, and if you don't have them, you run the risk of pulling aggro much more often. Even with the best tank in the world, enmity- will still prove extremely useful. I usually wear my AF and guage how well a given tank is holding hate. In typical xp parties, I'll don full AF + mp gear at the start of a chain, blow the extra 125 or so mp my mp gear gives me(bio2, ele debuffs, and maybe a stun or ele II spell), and switch to INT gear. If I think the tank is doing a sufficient job at holding hate, I'll switch to Shaman's cloak and appropriate ele staff for the spell I'm casting(or I'll just keep Ice Staff equiped for the ele skill, although I switch to an INT wand for wind based spells since I don' have a wind staff yet). If in the course of my routine casting/nuking I manage to pull aggro, stoneskin/blink will usually eat up any hits aimed in my direction. If I continue to pull aggro on a regular basis, I'll usually forego the Shaman's Cloak for full AF and the full -10 enmity.

[Coinspinner]

-Enmity still hasn't done a thing for me. Maybe with a WAR tank or a really bad Ninja...

[Ulmo]

hey alt, personally i just used shaman's cloak straight up to 68...i mean i had the af, but it didn't seem as useful and from 65-68 i pt'd with almost only ninja tanks and enmity was never a problem...i'd say maybe get the pants if you are having hate problems but they won't do much imo...imo a full set is good only for looks and the body for the occasional sleep (which more-than-likely won't get resisted w/o the body anyway)...and at 72 will you really wanna trade your jse for errant body + hat (giving up refresh)? because at 73 you can get weskit + demon's helm (which is what i use for magic bursts now) and hate has never been an issue...just my experiences...

[AtraposBLM]

meh...I found that any time I switch to shaman's cloak with a less-than-stellar tank, I was grabbing hate way too frequently. Yes, you'll replace it at 68, and at 68, tanks have more tools to hold hate than they do at 58. Therefore, the arguement that things will get better in 10 levels doesn't really hold any validity to me.

Is it entirely neccessary to have all your AF? No. Is it helpful? Definately. The shoes...not so much. I probably wouldn't have ever completed the thing if one of my friends didn't want them so bad (and need my help ;P). The rest though, range from situational, to amazing (bah, sorry, forgot to say that the wand is utterly useless as well...its been so long since I got it and tucked it into storage that I kinda even forgot it was part of our af o.o). Let's break it down:
AF Hat - Best hat to wear from 58->68. Period. +4 int, -3 (?) enmity. Yes, you can say that enmity- doesn't help, but that's if you're privelaged to group with a stellar tank every time. I was not so lucky, so AF definately helped me stay alive. MP is a bonus.

AF Body - You ever have a group with a rdm that's a little too slow to react to adds? Or the same with a bard? Or a time where you need to use Sleepga II in an exp party because more than 1 mob linked? Add this peice to your macro - it helps a TON. Also, if you ever plan on farming any of the elementals in Tu'lia, this peice comes in handy. And to whoever said that landing sleep would be easy without this...well, sure, maybe, but I never managed to land sleep consistently without the body. Plus, again, -enmity and +mp. Not to be disregarded.

AF Hands - If you don't have these, and don't think you need them, stop being a BLM. If I'm leveling on anything at all, I'm wearing these. I'll find other places for Magic Attack Bonus (like my moldavite). +15 elemental skill is too big to pass up in one slot. This, and the +7 from my elemental torque is enough to fall back onto so that I can cast consistent spells, and still have them very high damage (if I'm exping off something that's in the VT-IT range, instead of the IT+-IT++ range).

AF Legs - All throughout your 50's and 60's, you'll be exping off crabs. You can aspir crabs. AF legs help your aspirs. Why wouldn't you want them, again? Not to mention the fact that they help your most MP efficient spell land as well (drain). Again, -enmity and +mp, not to be disregarded, however, if you're playing a non-taru race, for normal casting, your RSE will most likely be better (my RSE was useless for me, so these turned out to be the best pants I could wear...sadly enough. Thanks to the new additions, though, I have some farming to do...when my internet stops kicking me every 10 minutes ; ; ).

So if you really want to...skip your shoes. The others you should have, and to be honest..the shoes help a ton in soloing things that are higher level than you. Ah well...that's just situational as well..but isn't that the same thinking that goes behind getting all the staves? lol. Something for every situation...that's what BLM's are for

[Irinicus]

Quick question on AF3 hat. When u investigate the ??? at H-7, and it gives you the message about there is nothing out of the ordinary or something to that extent, is this the message you need? If not, what is supposed to happen at h-7??

[Jei]

Don't know which spot it is but the last spot you need to use your 2hr when you checked.

Completing all the AF is better. At least if you level up other job you will be able to recieve your Coffer quests.

[Irinicus]

Right I know about the second spot I just forgot about the msg you get from the first spot, lol. Thanx for posting though.

[Roldarin]

Another reason to finish AF: you can store your full AF as a key item by trading it to the right NPCs in the various cities. So if you taking a break from a particular high level job, you can save some space.