1-10 Mage leveling

[Pandaz]

Is there any general trick to making this less painful. Its really bad, I am glad I picked up BLM first and not WHM, I can't even imagine the pain.
I am at level 7 now, so it's almost over, but I spent the last level grinding in melee mode most of time since stone isn't that much faster then just meleeing the gate-area trash.

If it helps, I am in Bastok.

Please, advice..I am dreading having to go through 1-10 as a WHM :/

[nazlfrag]

Re: 1-10 Mage leveling

It is best to get a job to 18 and get your subjob first, but with no sub you can still level to 10. For a black mage, use a staff for good damage, and whack the mob. Blind and paralyze might be worth casting. Eating pies is good for +mp and +int, though you might want to try meat jerky for stronger hits. You can use selbina milk and juice to heal your hp and mp. Get a little cheap food and stick to the starting zones and you should be fine.

[Jei]

Re: 1-10 Mage leveling

hmm you should grab some ginger cookies or apple pies, either 1 of them. Ginger cookies help you regain MP faste rwhen you sit, apple pie will add INT and MP, makes it easier for you to kill stuff.

For ginger cookies, check the regional control, the nation that is #1 in conquest, will have a circus. And you can buy ginger cookies for 10-20gil each from the circus.

Apple pies are quite cheap. Shouldn't be more than 3-4k for a stack of 12.

When soloing as BLM, I recommend you cycle between your 2 strongest spells. The trick is to kill as fast as you can. Prolong the fight, and you'll run out of HP pretty fast. BLM defense is like toilet paper. You should be able to kill up to even match without much problem if you time your spell right. But decent challenge might be safer.

About timing your spell. Start casting the spell as soon as you see the enemy start swining. You should be able to finish your spell before enemy's next swing and not get interupted.

[Icemage]

Re: 1-10 Mage leveling

From extreme range: Bind > Poison > Water > Stone > Water > Stone > etc.

Solo as BLM is pretty painful once you creep past around level 6 or 7 unless you have funds for useful foods and/or medicines to make your life easier.

EDIT: Oops forgot BLMs don't have access to Bio at level 7. :D Changed to Poison.


Icemage

[Severance]

Re: 1-10 Mage leveling

I rocked a staff and attack food.

[ikkleste]

Re: 1-10 Mage leveling

I couldn't disagree more with Jei.
Cookies are pointless when it only takes you four ticks resting to fully restore your MP.

IMHO melee is the way to go.

I leveled BLM first and it nearly put me off the game. IMHO BLM is tougher than WHM.
WHM will get less downtime thanks to cures, but using BLM to nuke your way through is going to mean resting after every other fight even against Easy Prey.

Eat melee food. Use a proper melee weapon, club not wand, pole not staff, dagger maybe, hammer for WHM. Eat att food. Stick to EP once you get past level 7ish. Then just use your cure to prolong your uptime. The difference at these levels between stats of a melee equiped WHM and a melee job isn't much but by using cures well you can effectivly have a massively extended HP pool. Therefore you will spend less time resting. BLM won't get the extended HP pool from cure but can get out of sticky situations with a well timed nuke. You'll still have less downtime meleeing EP than you will nuking. A melee equipped blm can still kill a fair few EP without resting by meleeing, (and you've got your mp for bind or a nuke to get you out of trouble) but nuking even on ep you'll be resting every other fight.

As soon as you can invest in a Empress band from the gate guard with your conquest points, costs 1000cp. this will knock a 1/3 off the time it will take ou to get a level.

[Ravd]

Re: 1-10 Mage leveling

yeah i cant seem to get past level 7 either, even with my whm sub its just a tough spot even with useing empress band. i dont kno if i agree with going full out melee and only using nukes and enfebling just in case, but u should def melee with the food but keep up with ur magic cause u still have to keep it tapped at same time. i imagine it will get easyeir as u get higher but the only way i can say is go after the ep and pull, mostly cause thats the advice everyone gave me. lol to me the ezest job to level has to be rdm, and everytime as soon as i start seeking i find a party, and i mean as soon as i start seeking my max wait so far has been 5 mins.

[forster]

Re: 1-10 Mage leveling

Assuming you are using signet, and have enough CP, you could always use your Emp. band. The xp boost speeds up 7-10 greatly.

I usually use it for levelling a new job at 7, and it will run out mid way through 9 usually.

doh- sorry ikk, didnt see that last bit of your post ><

[Murphie]

Re: 1-10 Mage leveling

Another useful piece of advice for young Black Mages is to fight worms! Seriously, I went from 7-11 in no time at all just by soloing worms in Konschtat or LaTheine. Just load up on MP and INT, and nuke, nuke, nuke your way to better exp.^^

[Lilani]

Re: 1-10 Mage leveling

It is best to get a job to 18 and get your subjob first, but with no sub you can still level to 10. For a black mage, use a staff for good damage, and whack the mob. Blind and paralyze might be worth casting. Eating pies is good for +mp and +int, though you might want to try meat jerky for stronger hits. You can use selbina milk and juice to heal your hp and mp. Get a little cheap food and stick to the starting zones and you should be fine.

Just a couple of things. Yeah staves are great for mage soloing, but when you get in a party situation you need to use clubs with +INT.

And BLM doesn't get paralyze, it's a WHM spell, lol. But it's still a good suggestion. Pull the mob to you with blind so that it doesn't hit you as much, and cast poison too if you like. And when you get bind be sure to use it. Stay as far as possible from the mob (and yet in range to cast spells) and cast bind. Nuke it to kingdom come.

And if it wears off just melee/cast as usual. But if your MP is low, then meleeing/casting might be better for you.

[Ravd]

Re: 1-10 Mage leveling

yeah thats my main tactic right there but i never can kill it fast enough while its binded or ill get them linking me still a good sigjestion u just cant be stupid like me and just stay in the middle of were they all are

[Azalie of Fenrir]

Re: 1-10 Mage leveling

Black Mage 1-10
Stick to melee mode until at least level 10, and use poison to pull the mob to you. Get a high damage staff, like an Ash Pole (level 5) for your level, as daggers are useless in those early levels, and wands just plain... well you know...

If you find the mobs are not dying as fast as you would like, than cast a damage spell to end it quickly, and move on to the next target.

As for food, I strongly recommend using Grilled Hare, as it gives +30% to your attack and a strength bonus. If your nation has control of Zulkheim you can buy Selbina Milk at that regional vendor. Selbina Milk adds a 1HP/tick regen (40 Max). It's cheap and helps a lot.

Don't worry about capping your elemental magic, as it will cap relatively fast in the dunes.

Happy Nuking! 's

[DigitalisAkujin]

Re: 1-10 Mage leveling

I found white mage easier then black mage but I'm a hume.

At those levels your race matters a lot. The difference between a Tarutaru lvl 5 BLM and a Hume lvl 5 BLM will be almost double dmg.

[Pandaz]

Re: 1-10 Mage leveling

Wow, thanks for the great replies. I logged off after hitting level 7 (and getting my emp band ).

Hopefully today I will have enough gil from the crystals to buy some food and a higher damage staff, but honestly, I think I leveled a monk faster before the XP changes :/

I am not really sure if there are better areas to grind, like I said, I have been doing hornets and worms outside of Bastock (right outside the gates) since they are easily the fastest things I can kill, but they only give me about 20 xp a pop.

I tried going to N Gusta and was totally wrecked by Quads there, I am not quite sure why someone suggested that too me..

Anyway, thanks for all the tips.
As a side note, I am pure BLM since I just picked up a brand new copy of FFXI and haven't actually unlocked a subjob yet; that being said, I only have stone blind and bind to work with.

Hopefully I will be level 10 by the time I post again, cheers!

PS: I'm a hume too, I actually was considering BRD/WHM and also wanted to keep some melee options more viable.
I am almost regretting not going Elvaan for the damage boost at earlier levels :/

[Ravd]

Re: 1-10 Mage leveling

yeah elvaan rocks lol not so good for the mp /crazy face