Subbing whm - the search for efficiency

[Wiseman40]

I'm doing some experimenting with the /whm sub as a mnk, war, and nin. I'm trying to discover which of those can kill easy prey and DC enemies faster (with less downtime) and I had a couple of questions.

I can see that regen is more mp efficient than a direct cure - but how is the efficiency on spells like blink and stoneskin? Is it efficient to cast these during a fight? The casting time on stoneskin seems a little long, so it will lower my dps a little, but if it's much more mp efficient than a cure I may do it anyway to reduce downtime.

[aegina]

Re: Subbing whm - the search for efficiency

are you referring to soloing or in a normal xp party?

[Jei]

Re: Subbing whm - the search for efficiency

hmm for soloing, stoneskin from sub whm will have quite a limitting power. It will not be as useful when you are taking hits all the time I think because it will wear of pretty fast to the point it's not worth your mp.
If you are casting as main whm or rdm, stoneskin can be really useful. it will be able to absorb more damage and can last pretty long absorbing many hits.

in party fighting tough stuff is a whole differenst story. You cast them to safe yourself from a few powerul blow the mob might swing at you. It doesn't matter even if those spells only last 1 hit: it will safe your life.

[Wiseman40]

Re: Subbing whm - the search for efficiency

are you referring to soloing or in a normal xp party?

Even I'm not noob enough to try this in an xp party...

Doing this to solo easy prey.


Normal experience parties I use mnk/war... If I feel like soloing I do mnk/whm (this is turning out to be a lot of fun by the way, you should try it).

[aegina]

Re: Subbing whm - the search for efficiency

it may not answer your question directly, but when i solo, i like to sub ninja and use a xbow with bloody bolts and holy bolts. the /nin keeps me from getting hit, and the bloody bolts keep my hp up when i do get hit. they also do pretty good damage when they drain hp from the mob, too. using this way, i have been able to kill easy prey without too much trouble before. though i have never tried to xp this way, i assume it may be possible... though annoying, time-consuming, and horribly expensive. i believe bloody bolts can be equipped by ranger, thief, and warrior.

the few times i have tried to kill ep stuff as a whm or as a /whm, i usually just cast blink, regen, and stoneskin (etc) before the fight started. then when it wears, it wears and i don't try to recast. i always found the long casting time to be too much trouble to try to cast it during a fight.

i have never dared to try to solo kill monsters to xp before. the few times i have tried to kill things near my level, i have always come so close to death that i felt it wouldn't be worth the risk. one death can lose you a LOT of exp >.<

[Wiseman40]

Re: Subbing whm - the search for efficiency

Very true - thanks for the help, you did answer my question.

[sevenpointflaw]

Re: Subbing whm - the search for efficiency

WHM is main, so that being what I'm most familiar with, I have bad (or good) habbit of /whm on other stuff.

War/Whm & Mnk/Whm
Mostly good for farming EP/DC mix if you don't have the choice f TW/EP, and then its mostly for Paralyze, Slow, Silence, and Dia. Curing is nice, but I've found I do that less often, usually only curing when my HP is red at the end of a battle. Cure until HP and MP are about equal, then rest to cute down healing time. Obviously cureing comes in handy if you get links, agro, etc. Stoneskin is nice if you need to make a getaway. Blink isn't worth the casting time, IMHO, unless you already have stoneskin up.

Nin/Whm
This actually plays similar to Rdm/Nin in a few ways. Usually I will put up stoneskin and then Utsusemi before entering battle. Especially before you get Ni, the stoneskin is nice to have for mandies and other mnk type mobs with double hit, or AoEs that eat shadows. The enfeebles obviously aren't as useful, if you have the proper ninja tools, and again cure is nice to have if you get in over your head. Blink also does not stack with Utsusemi, if I remember correctly. All in all, Nin/Whm isn't near as good as anything else /Whm.

Hope that helps. ^^

[Icemage]

Re: Subbing whm - the search for efficiency

What level range are we talking about here? I'm assuming at least level 56, since you can't cast Stoneskin from a WHM subjob until then.

With WHM subbed, Stoneskin absorbs very little damage. Certainly not enough to merit spending the time to cast it, much less the MP. Even for main job WHMs, it's tricky to pull off casting Stoneskin in mid-combat. It's ok I guess if you're just going to cast it before you start fighting, to give yourself more of a HP buffer.

Blink is pretty marginal too, but at least it casts fairly quickly and absorbs 2 hits. I don't know that this is a worthwhile investment against EP enemies though, as they don't tend to hit that hard. Regen is probably a better investment of your limited MP pool (though you get the benefit of the monster not gaining TP from the blinked hits).

Honestly, you might as well sub Ninja and just use Utsusemi: Ichi (and eventually Utsusemi: Ni at level 74+). Won't have to worry about MP reserves, and Utsusemi is guaranteed to stop hits (unlike the less reliable Blink). WHM sub on NIN works, however, as you can safely Stoneskin, Regen, etc. while hiding behind shadows, and it can fix a lot of stuff that would otherwise wreck you (Paralyna, Poisona, Erase, etc.).


Icemage