Direct Questions To Experienced BLMs

[nanatsu]

Re: Direct Questions To Experienced BLMs

EDIT: Oops didn't read the thread thoroughly enough. Ignore me please.

[UnnamedGalka]

Re: Direct Questions To Experienced BLMs

For Bio, I cast it for PLD tanks.

Personally, I rarely ever use Bio. In general, Dia is much more practical.

You are alowed 1 elemental dot as far as I've known.

No. Elemental DOTs stack as long as they're not opposing elements.

The two most common combinations are:

Frost + Rasp + Drown (enfeebles a mob's melee capabilities...a favorite of tanks and melee DD)

Burn + Shock + Choke (enfeebles a mob's magical resistances...great for nuking and enfeebling)

You can also use combinations like:

Frost + Shock

Burn + Rasp

Choke + Drown

etc.

Combinations of opposing elements like Drown + Shock, Frost + Choke, etc. do NOT stack. Naturally, a dominant element will always take precedence over the element it trumps.

Burn <is> very situational, and I rarely if ever cast <it>.

I absolutely love Burn. As a BLM, it's my favorite elemental DOT.

Try casting it before you MB...you will definitely see a difference in damage.

[WishMaster3K]

Re: Direct Questions To Experienced BLMs

^_^ Hooray for thread bumps. Anyway, I got BLM to 37 and it's been some time since I had to level it. As RDM 71 atm, I've noticed distinct differences in my Elemental compared to the BLMs Elemental. For one, they're about 40 or so points higher than me due to gear or whatnot, and that's depressing, but it's ok, cause My Enfeebling is insanely strong.

I noticed that a lot of BLMs, on purpose or not, may cast Burn before casting spells of opposite association, even if it only means that the INT is dropped so that the other spells may land. I usually am forced to sub WHM tho, due to Silena, Paralyna. And when I am subbing BLM, it's usually for ease of escape or mobility when we go to Ro'Maeve or futher. Hence, I'm fighting Weapons and I don't have time to do anything except refresh and dispel.

Which actually. . . despite me not casting things like Paralyze, Slow and Gravity, it seems that just Dispelling the 80 buffs they come to pts with seem to be fine. . .

And what the hell is up with Pots and them resisting Dispel? -.- That pisses me off.

[Jei]

Re: Direct Questions To Experienced BLMs

I think blm/rdm isn't better than blm/whm. It's just like Rdm/whm and Rdm/blm, both are similar with a little different tweaks that help us fit better into certain situation.

Talking about /Whm, stuff like poisona can be useless VS certain mobs but very useful against others for example crawlers and dems flies, you know you want it. Anticans, who doesn't like silena ;D?
no to mention you can never use raise as /Rdm, so, when you're out helping low level friends with missions or quest and they die, meh, bad for them xD
cure 2 at 22blm/11whm is also really nice. I doesn't mean you're going to become main healer, but it's there, and a good blm imo is a blm that help supports the group too, not just do damage and nothing else.

The first spell that bring /Rdm up to par with /Whm IMO, is dispel at level 32. You can add Phalanx into the list too, it is a really nice spell.

At the end just use your own judgement and use whatever that you think will maximize your utility for your party.
What and where are they going to hunt? And will they benefit more from /whm or /rdm? That will be up to you to decide. The best BLM is the BLM that knows what group needs and can adjust their style to best maximize the potential of the group, as a whole.

Hmm some example I can think of, level 75merrit PT.
You merrit in sky with the non-casting weapons, Rdm is great. Fast cast to help stun their whirlwind is a nice bonus.
You go lufiase meadow, the rams there have HP maxdown D: having erase > all.
You hunt skeletons in KRT with a MNK PT, you know you'll need cursena and blindna. And curega.

[Balfree]

Re: Direct Questions To Experienced BLMs

Balfree, what benfit do you see from both /RDM and /WHM in an EXP party? What was your rationale behind choosing /RDM over /WHM?

RDM gives me more INT, Faster Cast(people dont notice? wtf! it's SO THERE, and rostrum boots to help? o lord, it rocks), Higher enfeebles (Isnt rdm enfeebler? I often play a role of enfeebler/nuker, so i decided to bring RDM instead of WHM), Dispel(There's allways someone in pt with atleast a /whm sub, meaning they should have Erase, imo, that's all it's required, Dispel is alot more useful imo, specially on... all mobs =P, pratically) and i think that's it, but i would say Fast Cast is what i like the most, whatever anyone says, i just cant land an MB in time if i change to /whm now ._. i'm to used to the .5 sec boost you get from RDM hehe..

Anyway >.> it's a matter of preference, i see more BLM/RDM than BLM/WHM these days anyway, so i can't be wrong alone can i.

[nanatsu]

Re: Direct Questions To Experienced BLMs

Higher enfeebles (Isnt rdm enfeebler? I often play a role of enfeebler/nuker, so i decided to bring RDM instead of WHM)

I was under the impression that if you already have a magic skill then your sub does not affect it. For example, as a rdm if you have C elemental skill, then having a blm sub does not automatically raise it higher at all. It only affects jobs that don't have the skill in the first place. Is this not the case anymore?

[UnnamedGalka]

Re: Direct Questions To Experienced BLMs

I was under the impression that if you already have a magic skill then your sub does not affect it. For example, as a rdm if you have C elemental skill, then having a blm sub does not automatically raise it higher at all. It only affects jobs that don't have the skill in the first place. Is this not the case anymore?

Subjobs don't have an affect on actual skill level.

But I've always had a theory that they do affect skills in some way. For example, subbing RDM to BLM will slightly increase your enfeebling accuracy and duration.

I first noticed this with my BRD back in the day. I was having a lot of trouble skilling my staff. One day, I accidentally brought a BLM sub instead of a WHM to a skill up PT. Maybe it was just me, but during that party, the rate of skill-ups with my staff actually seemed to increase somewhat. Since BLM have better staff skill than WHM, I attributed the seemingly increased skill-up rate to my change in sub.

I haven't really tested this theory any further, so I can't say for sure.

[nanatsu]

Re: Direct Questions To Experienced BLMs

Eh sorry but I've never noticed anything of the sort x_x So I honestly don't believe that to be true in any way shape or form. Not to knock you for what you believe, I just personally don't buy it.

[WishMaster3K]

Re: Direct Questions To Experienced BLMs

RDM gives way more INT than WHM. And it is possible that with BLM sub, you get better melee stats (to a degree, it IS a Mage sub on a BRD main >.>;;; ) So there are small differences that could add up to a larger whole.

[nanatsu]

Re: Direct Questions To Experienced BLMs

On the whole, I believe it's the whm job that has the better melee stats between whm and blm.

[WishMaster3K]

Re: Direct Questions To Experienced BLMs

I said it is possible, but I', not sure, being as how Clubs and Staves hate me and my Red Maginism. WHMs have awsome club skill, that's given. Oh well, moot point. 1h sword FTW

[Gwynn]

Re: Direct Questions To Experienced BLMs

My prefered cycle is:

Frost -> Rasp -> Drown (take out a few if getting lower on MP) -> Drain -> Aspir -> Begin Nuke cycle.

By the time you start nuking the mob should be well below 3/4 HP and the tank should have sufficient hate. Just don't overnuke obviously.

I'm 34 BLM atm and I've found this to be pretty effective.

[Karinya]

Re: Direct Questions To Experienced BLMs

One thing that I haven't seen mentioned so far in this thread: Mycophile Cuffs. If you are leveling BLM and WHM as subjobs and they're at 32, your main is probably 60+ so you should have no trouble soloing the NM (actually you can do it much lower), and the -enmity is great for both BLM and WHM. The drop rate seems to be around 50% so bring a couple sets of trigger items.

Also, load more of your damage at the end of the fight. This does two things: give the tank more time to build up hate, and make it less of a problem if you do pull hate because the fight isn't going to last much longer anyway. (Ideally, you'd take hate off the tank at just the moment the monster dies anyway).

Basically my playstyle: Open with some low-hate DoTs (poison, bio if desired, elemental enfeebles). Maybe throw one or two medium sized nukes. Sit. If there is a skillchain this fight, stand to MB. Once there is enough hate built up on the tanks that you can start continuous-nuking and not get hate until it's dead, go for it (unless saving MP for later in the chain). If you have extra MP after a fight (esp. relative to the main healer) and there are a lot of wounded, do some healing. Sit until the next monster arrives.

[Icemage]

Re: Direct Questions To Experienced BLMs

Which actually. . . despite me not casting things like Paralyze, Slow and Gravity, it seems that just Dispelling the 80 buffs they come to pts with seem to be fine. . .

If you have it, sub Bard and use Magic Finale to give you a second option to Dispel for 0 MP. Finale ALWAYS works on Weapons, even when subbed. Alternatively you can sub WHM for emergency Teleport in Ro'Maeve (Escape doesn't work there).

And what the hell is up with Pots and them resisting Dispel? -.- That pisses me off.

Pots have high magic resistance in general, and they have a special move called Spectral Barrier which makes them completely immune to magic of all types for ~30 seconds (including Dispel).


Icemage

[WishMaster3K]

Re: Direct Questions To Experienced BLMs

I've noticed. And when you see a Thundaga3 resisted on the SC, as in, RESISTED, well, yeah, hurts the soul.