How much spellcasting should I do?

[durecellrabbit]

At the moment I don't cast spells much. I use poison for pulling although I also have a crossbow I can use. I cast drain about once every few fights, my dark magic is very low and I'm waiting for Bio before I put a lot of work into lvling it, it get me about 20-25 health back if unresisted. I use my attack spells if I think they can finish off a mob quicker than waiting for someone to hit it, stone does about 18 damage unresisted and my melee does 20-30 depending on whether I use food or not. I've stopped using food for a while, I've died 14 times in the last 2 days and even if the food is cheap it adds up, also when using it I pull hate sometimes for a few hits on me. Is what I'm doing fine or should I cast more or less?

Also when should I rest? I lose tp doing it but no-one wants to skillchain with me so I can use a ws at the end and rest if I'm not pulling. However if I need tp, how much priority does rersting for mp get, I assume spell casting amount might change too so I can melee more?

[Ellipses]

Re: How much spellcasting should I do?

I can't really tell you much about how much and when and all that. I don't have DRK leveled, so I can only say what I like to see from DRKs I've partied with, most as WHM. I like to see my DRKs casting the Absorb spells and hitting the MB. Drain and Aspir, too. I know most of that comes later. At your level, I'd say just... use the magic to even out damage. If you're missing your melee swings a lot in a given fight, cast something to catch up a bit.

On Bio... If someone is going to skill up their Dark Magic in a party I'm in, I'd much rather they spam Drain and Aspir when they're up, even if they've got full HP (Drain still does damage if you have full HP). Or at least work out some sort of timing thing so that Dia is up for most of the fight (Bio at the end, maybe). I can't stand people who just cast Bio without consulting the other mages about it, especially on high-DEF mobs.

[zagex]

Re: How much spellcasting should I do?

I can't give you advice about what to do with skilling up your magic. I didn't have to worry about magic skillups since I played mage jobs mostly.

However in terms of mp, you can craft juices or rest if you're not pulling (and don't have mp). One time I remember some really weird pt where a Drk was pulling and tanking, and used juices to keep mp up (pre 40s). No idea why he was tanking, but I think it was cuz either the main tank sucked or just couldn't keep hate off the Drk.

Spells I didn't see much damage from nukes unless it was bursted, and Drain is unreliable at lower levels, you can get lucky and get 90hp, or unlucky and get 10hp, and this is with capped magic.

Past the low levels, I can't think of a single Drk whose ever rested (not counting downtime, and even then, they don't always rest). A Drk in my ls recently mentioned his Drk magic was kinda low... like lvl 30ish Drk magic skill around lvl 30ish... Once you get Aspir and you start fighting crabs, beetles, anything that has MP, that spell is amazing. You get skillups for Dark Magic, free mp, the works.

However, since you don't always fight things with mp, later on, unless you're using juices, your mp will be dependent on if your bard/rdm give you refresh.

[TheGrandMom]

Re: How much spellcasting should I do?

Since you aren't going to have refresh for a while, you're going to have to rest. I personally don't see a reason for drks to skill up elemental magic so I wouldn't worry about that much. But as for dark magic, yes, this is important to skill up. Elemental magic is rarely used in the later lvls on your drk, its just far too weak to be worth it. Your Absorb spells are by far a more important tool than elemental.

Rest when you can in the lower lvls. In the higher lvls when refresh is available, kindly ask for refresh from the rdm when you are at 1/2 or below mp. It's best to do this in a /t so the rdm isn't put on the spot or embarassed but if you get attitude in return, talk to the pt leader about the issue. If neither of them are cooperative then make sure to tell your pt and your sc partner that the reason you are tp'ing up so slowly is because you have to rest for mp. Tough patoots if it embarasses the rdm at that point. Now if you have a bard in your pt, try to race over to the mages after a fight and grab a ballad. Luckily bards get ballad at 25 so you can start doing that when ever you get a brd in a lower lvl pt. The only problem is getting a brd in a lower lvl pt, not too many out there. LOL

[Icemage]

Re: How much spellcasting should I do?

Step 1: Visit Windurst

Step 2: Join the Cooking Guild

Step 3: Raise Cooking to level 20

Step 4: Visit Kazham and buy lots of pineapples

Step 5: Go out and XP with stacks of Pineapples and Water Crystals and make yourself some pineapple juice to get back MP without resting.


Icemage

[Aeni]

Re: How much spellcasting should I do?

Step 1: Visit Windurst

Step 2: Join the Cooking Guild

Step 3: Raise Cooking to level 20

Step 4: Visit Kazham and buy lots of pineapples

Step 5: Go out and XP with stacks of Pineapples and Water Crystals and make yourself some pineapple juice to get back MP without resting.


Icemage

You forgot to add this step:

Step 3.2: Visit the gobbie in Lower Jueno. Get bag quests. Increase capacity of inventory to about 50. Will cost you about 600K to do so.

[Yagami Kunoichi]

Re: How much spellcasting should I do?

Having the space to do pineapple juice and later drinks as well would be very helpful for a lower level DRK, I'd agree. I'd also agree with ditching elemental magic. We can't even compete with a RDM for that category, so there's no point to it aside from occasionally looking cool. Your Dark Magic, on the other hand, you should always try to keep capped. This is harder if you're a Galka than if you're a Taru, Mithra or Hume. Enfeebling I've let fall very far behind, but it's very useful if you can get it at least somewhat near to cap. If possible, in fights, I almost always try to cast one absorb spell and I'll drain as needed. Aspir... well, make sure you know the mob -has- mana before you attempt to drain it. >.> You look really silly when you aspir for 0 MP.

[Stockyboy]

Re: How much spellcasting should I do?

Yeah, you can MB, or cast bio after every meele hit to get your dark magic skill up, it's seriously worth it when you can drain for over 300 at higher levels.

[DaveTheElf]

Re: How much spellcasting should I do?

the only spell i really used was in garlige citidel (sp) (besides drain and aspir)
and i was subbing BLM for areroga (sp XD)
which would hit for about 130-160, so was worth it
also choke was nice. (thank god for warp -_-)

then when you get the ABS-(stat) spells
i use 2-3 a fight. normally abs-AGI,VIT,STR (in that order)
and some times MND for the MB

[tdh]

Re: How much spellcasting should I do?

Actually, as shocking is it sounds, DRK has a higher rating in Elemental Magic than RDM. DRK has a B+ (Lv.256) and RDM has a C+ (Lv.230). Difference is that to the best of my knowledge DRK gets no Magic Atk Bonus, and not many DRKs bother to carry INT gear with them.

When I 1st leveled DRK, I had a HUGE head start in the magic department. I leveled RDM to Lv.30 to unlock all the advance jobs. So I had cap'd Enfeebling, near cap Elemental Magic, and a "head start" on Dark Magic. As time went on, all of those fell behind. It took a lot of BCNM's for me to catch my Dark Magic up. By Lv.45 I cap'd it, and could pretty easily cap it during EXP. Stun'n all those Gobby Bombs helped out of course.

At the lower levels, if you're a Taru, I'd say Magic Burst. Plenty of MP, and decent INT, outside of that I can't recommend it. I used to do it, but as an Elvaan I couldn't put up a number worth the MP lose, and the TP lose from not swinging my weapon.

At Lv.57, I start ever fight with Absorb-AGI, to helps with party Acc. Even if you're a Taru, I wouldn't cast more than 2 of these a fight. 33MP a pop, and again they're not a quick spell, and you can't build TP while casting. So find a happy medium. Don't over extend your MP, and don't lag behind with your Skillchain Partner. We spend a lot of our careers Skillchaining with jobs who build TP at an insane pace. IF you're casting 2-3 Absorb spells, for 66-99MP, you're going to fall way behind, and may not have MP for Stun when it's needed.

I would say that having Enfeebling Magic cap'd would be very useful. DRK does get Sleep II in the 50's. (I can't remember when exactly. I already had it from RDM. I didn't even know DRK got Sleep II.) If your Enfeebling Magic is cap'd, you may actually have a chance of Sleeping a link. (Believe it or not, I've managed to stick it when a RDM failed in Kuftal Tunnel. /shocked as hell.)

[one_klump]

Re: How much spellcasting should I do?

How much spell casting? not alot. my Drk is lvl 67 right now, and if I am lucky enough to get refresh/ballad, I'll cast either Absorb str/dex/or vit, maybe 2 of them. You would definatly want a bard in the party over a rdm, because he can stack attack songs on you and get an insane attack bonus.

Don't worry about casting elemental spells. ever. You can pull with bio if you want, but poison is faster.

Trust me, in exp parties after lvl 50 or so, if you keep casting absorb spells, your dark magic skill will take care of itself.

[Yagami Kunoichi]

Re: How much spellcasting should I do?

If you stun like you should, your Dark Magic will also generally cap reasonably quickly.

[Ellipses]

Re: How much spellcasting should I do?

I'd just like to reiterate, if you screw up my dia with your bio without discussing it first, I will eat your face. By which I mean I probably won't say anything and will just quietly fume about it, because trying to explain the concept to every single DRK, RDM, and BLM in the game gets really tiresome.

[Murphie]

Re: How much spellcasting should I do?

I'd just like to reiterate, if you screw up my dia with your bio without discussing it first, I will eat your face. By which I mean I probably won't say anything and will just quietly fume about it, because trying to explain the concept to every single DRK, RDM, and BLM in the game gets really tiresome.

But yeah, seriously. What he said.

[one_klump]

Re: How much spellcasting should I do?

yes, dia > bio in most cases.

if your fighting low def mobs, like mandies, bio is fine.