Smn / Blu

[Rain_Blade]

Re: Smn / Blu

Hmm... I must be thinking of Maat.

Either way, though, Aquaveil is a level 12 WHM spell. There's no way you can cast it in the avatar fight, with or without a subjob since the level cap is 20.

You can take any buffs you want in with you, however - so you can cast it before going in and have it for however long it lasts.

This is one of those times when you might use /BLU, since Coccoon is only level 8. It might save you a bit of pain and suffering, since you have Pollen to replace Cure I, as well as Coccoon which vastly outperforms Protect.


Icemage

Also, hmm. SMN / BLU does sound pretty effective in those fights.

[Ziero]

Re: Smn / Blu

Hmm... I must be thinking of Maat.
Either way, though, Aquaveil is a level 12 WHM spell. There's no way you can cast it in the avatar fight, with or without a subjob since the level cap is 20.
You can take any buffs you want in with you, however - so you can cast it before going in and have it for however long it lasts.
This is one of those times when you might use /BLU, since Coccoon is only level 8. It might save you a bit of pain and suffering, since you have Pollen to replace Cure I, as well as Coccoon which vastly outperforms Protect.
Icemage

Aquaveil is 10, I know this cause I have the spell and my Whm is only 10.

As for /whm vs /blu in this, something you should take note of is that both Cocoon and Metallic Body cost a fair bit of MP, have a noticebly high casting time and wear off faster then any protect. Though you could always have protect cast on you and get the best of both worlds making Aquaveil the only real self buff /whm offers. But /whm also gives dia, which in effect could be enough to help you win. Low mp, fast casting, unresistable, it'd be a difference maker in a close fight. I know it helped my friend win her fight against Levi, she dropped before him but he went down to dia shortly after netting her the win.

[Icemage]

Re: Smn / Blu

Aquaveil is 10, I know this cause I have the spell and my Whm is only 10

Bah, I should have researched it at FFXIclopedia first. *slaps self* I'm usually not so careless even in the morning. Been a looong time since I learned Aquaveil on my character (almost 4 years now... oO).

As for /whm vs /blu in this, something you should take note of is that both Cocoon and Metallic Body cost a fair bit of MP, have a noticebly high casting time and wear off faster then any protect. Though you could always have protect cast on you and get the best of both worlds making Aquaveil the only real self buff /whm offers. But /whm also gives dia, which in effect could be enough to help you win. Low mp, fast casting, unresistable, it'd be a difference maker in a close fight. I know it helped my friend win her fight against Levi, she dropped before him but he went down to dia shortly after netting her the win.

Hard to say which would be better, to be honest. Coccoon drops a LOT of damage off per hit since the DEF+50% is so powerful, and it stacks with Protect, which is extra-nice. Of course, the idea is to try not to get hit too much, period, other than to bleed some enmity, so I don't know how useful it really is compared to /WHM for the trial sized fights.

In any case though, I can't imagine wanting to use SMN/BLU in any moderate or high level situation. Blue Magic is so terribly gimped when subbed (almost as much as black magic is). The only exceptions are the healing spells, and the handful of hidden Killer traits you can get by setting combinations of Blue Magic.


Icemage

[Armando]

Re: Smn / Blu

As for /whm vs /blu in this, something you should take note of is that both Cocoon and Metallic Body cost a fair bit of MP, have a noticebly high casting time and wear off faster then any protect.

You mean Metallic Body costs a fair bit of MP and has a high casting time. Cocoon casts as fast as Cure I and only costs 10 MP for a 50% Defense buff.

[Silent Howler]

Re: Smn / Blu

Metallic Body also lasts for 4 minutes according to FFXI wiki, so it could last through the whole fight. Cocoon is only 90 seconds, but if you use it at the right time it could be a life saver.

[Necropolis]

Re: Smn / Blu

A friend of mine really does enjoy /blu, mainly for ballista though. While a lot of smn soloing is avatar kiting, you'll reach a level where carbuncle will cost 0 mp to keep out, so max mp is less important. You do want more MP for for blood pacts, but if you're just chipping away with avatar melee then the max MP really means nothing to you.

I havn't personally researched a lot about blu, but know that in smn burn parties, not everone subs whm (usually). Occasionally there will be a /rdm, /nin or /blu to various spells thier sub offers. For soloing, at least until you're aquainted with the process of smn soloing, I'd recommend /whm for reraise and -na spells. Once you're more confident with you abilities feel free to explore anything you think would be beneficial to your exp (or even soloing NMs).

That is one thing I love about soloing, my choice of sub doesn't effect anyone but me, so no one can gripe about how I should play a job they know nothing about.

[Armando]

Re: Smn / Blu

Metallic Body sucks pretty hard though. The stoneskin only blocks a pretty small amount of HP. It's actually more efficient to just cure yourself, though if you're going to rest to full at the beginning of a fight then it doesn't really hurt to use it that one time.

[Silent Howler]

Re: Smn / Blu

Really, there's no reason to rest for full MP at the beginning of the fight since you're just going to shoot it all down with Searing Light anyways. And after your first Searing Light your biggest concern is getting 44MP back up. So it might be better to use one long lasting damage reduction spell than try to squeeze in enough MP for Cure. Trying to squeeze in Cocoon would be more effective.

Also, at lvl 20 Smn/Blu has 5 more HP than Smn/Whm. And some of those spells I mentioned earlier can add up to +15HP, giving you a total of 20 more HP than Smn/Whm. Having Cocoon set also gives +3 Vit stat bonus. I think your chances of surviving are a bit higher with Smn/Blu.

[Lmnop]

Re: Smn / Blu

Has there been any post-2 handed update talk on this subject? It occured to me that at say... level 60. You probably have like 50 DEX? That means this severely guestimated smn/blu would have 25 higher acc than pre-update. This makes your Staff skill much more potent. Just using lots of Bludgeon and Healing Breeze and things seems like it could be quite effective. Basically, you'd end up playing a lot like a BLU main but replacing most of your blue magics with SMN BPs.

I would say leave your avatar out full time for some extra DoT, but I never honestly understood the need to put it away if you're not main healing anyway.

Comparing this to a BLU main: You both have auto refresh, you'd both have decently good acc, you'd both be capable of helping out the party whilst meleeing (though the SMN/blu more with BPs).

Once you get Spirit Taker, I don't see a reason not to.

Granted: We don't need yet another melee. But! Theoretically, is this concept that I threw together whilst typing at all sound?

[Icemage]

Re: Smn / Blu

Has there been any post-2 handed update talk on this subject? It occured to me that at say... level 60. You probably have like 50 DEX? That means this severely guestimated smn/blu would have 25 higher acc than pre-update. This makes your Staff skill much more potent. Just using lots of Bludgeon and Healing Breeze and things seems like it could be quite effective. Basically, you'd end up playing a lot like a BLU main but replacing most of your blue magics with SMN BPs.

I would say leave your avatar out full time for some extra DoT, but I never honestly understood the need to put it away if you're not main healing anyway.
Comparing this to a BLU main: You both have auto refresh, you'd both have decently good acc, you'd both be capable of helping out the party whilst meleeing (though the SMN/blu more with BPs).

Once you get Spirit Taker, I don't see a reason not to.

Granted: We don't need yet another melee. But! Theoretically, is this concept that I threw together whilst typing at all sound?

After getting access to Spirit Taker, I can maaaaybe see this working. Before then? Not so much. Not resting for MP is a chain-killer, seeing how SMN burn through MP so quickly on Blood Pacts. Unless you have a Corsair AND a RDM to back you up with Evoker's Roll + Refresh or something, I can't see this being a sustainable setup.


Icemage