MithraPride

Well, I've finally given into my set party's urgings to "Stop <bleeping> around and get another casting subjob because redmage/thief isn't gonna cut it after a while."

Knowing that I hate being a whitemage with the passion of a thousand white hot suns, I've gone to the lesser of the two evils. My logic being with the BLM's higher INT my enfeebles will be ramped up a lot. Plus I need improvement on my elemental magic more than my healing magic.

I got by as a RDM more by fighting and combat-curing than casting. So, this will be my first time really getting into the True caster mode. Besides, I can't wait for -aga spells... can you say... FARMING? :drool:

I know we have quite a few WHMs in the pack. But could anyone give me advice on becoming master of the elemental can o' whupass? And could I get some advice in just being a caster in general?

Takes a bit to read, but it's damn well worth it.
http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/db/jobs.html ... 556&num=84
That's a very good BLM 101

And I have an alt who's only lvl 10 BLM, so I have only tasted from the possibilites that lie in a Black Mage, but I try to time my Aero's and such with large things others do and voking, so I'm almost always casting, but never aggroed.

Wha ha ha! Nuke everything!! Never stop casting! KABOOM!!!

Kopopo wrote:Wha ha ha! Nuke everything!! Never stop casting! KABOOM!!!

And let the White Mages pick up the pieces of your trampled body. Also, that’s a great way to shut the Rangers up on “Look at how much more damage I can do.”

To be perfectly blunt, the only reason I can't do more damage than I do as a Black Mage is because I think I can survive four hits. I have to keep my hate down. Rangers have too much HP ; ;

I'd love to see if I could beat a Ranger in damage without giving up my life to do it. I have done a Freeze for 1161 damage though... thank goodness for Cover. ^^;;

I've been in parties where the melee team was so good that I COULD blast to my heart's content. Such a feeling of accomplishment...

Because i couldn't stand soloing anymore I went early to the dunes as a level 9 BLM last night. I decided that blowing 90% of my mana per fight, followed by 2-3 minutes of waiting was just too much. Level 8(123exp) to Level 9(22exp) took me, and i'm not joking, four hours of solo work slaughtering crabs and wasps in the fumiorles in s.gusty. 36-50exp per kill, one kill per 5 minutes = Way too long.

My first party in the dunes was last night was, if you'll pardon the phrase, a blast! I went up and was picked up by a group of level 9-10s that were motivated. PLD10, SAM9, BRD9, WHM9, RNG9, BLM9. It was so nice to be able to nuke to my heart's content with a paladin in the group. Sadly we only had time for about 4 lizards because of the late hour.

In other news, my next purchase will have to be Drain because as a RDM i purchased all the elemental spells i could the first time through. Does anyone know where i can quest for it?

Info on Drain quest:
http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/db/quests.html?fquest=82

Quite easy as you can purchase the needed blood from the AH for about 800g (Other -> Beast Made). The trick is you'll need fame and rank. In theory you can enter the Chateau at Rank 2-3 as a non-San d'Orian citizen, but I've not confirmed this being from San d'Oria myself. I could enter the Chateau as a San d'Orian Rank 2-3.

The easiest way to level San d'Oria fame is to the Selbina quest called Only The Best involving cabbages / millioncorn / boyhoda moss. I suggest cabbages as the gil required is minimal and the gil loss is rather minimal as well. The quest gives San d'Oria and Bastok fame at the same time. I went from level 1 to level 4 fame in Bastok after running this quest twice with a full inventory of cabbages, which was 34 stacks each time for me.

Klenath wrote:Quite easy as you can purchase the needed blood from the AH for about 800g (Other -> Beast Made). The trick is you'll need fame and rank. In theory you can enter the Chateau at Rank 2-3 as a non-San d'Orian citizen, but I've not confirmed this being from San d'Oria myself. I could enter the Chateau as a San d'Orian Rank 2-3.

The easiest way to level San d'Oria fame is to the Selbina quest called Only The Best involving cabbages / millioncorn / boyhoda moss. I suggest cabbages as the gil required is minimal and the gil loss is rather minimal as well. The quest gives San d'Oria and Bastok fame at the same time. I went from level 1 to level 4 fame in Bastok after running this quest twice with a full inventory of cabbages, which was 34 stacks each time for me.

Yup, I've been in the jail already for DRG quest, so that's easy enough. And i did the selbina quest with millioncorn that i bought cheap in Jeuno and made quite a profit on the quest if i remember correctly. As i powered up my fame so the damn RSE goblin would pay attention to me i also accomplished a grand total of 60-70 quests in the three nations. I'm 'Heroic' in Bastok and 'people are talking about me' in Sandy and Windy.

I did the "Only the Best" quest on five different occasions (four times with corn and once with cabbages) and got my Sandy fame from 6 to 9, Bastok from 1 to 9, Jeuno from 2 to 9, and my Selbina/Rabao fame from 3 to 9. Very, very easy and well worth it. When Sandy was in first I bought the corn at the grocery store for 43 and sold it to the shepherd in Selbina for 40. I did million corn more because you can turn in three at a time instead of five at a time like the cabbages. (More fame per trip.) What I would do is strip down to my panties (yes, that's right, I didn't go completely naked; I'm not one of those hussy mules) and load up all 40 slots with corn and take a bird down there. In all I only loss about 5-6k and maxed out my fame in all areas except for Windy/Kazham and Norg.

I did this quest as fast as I could in fear that SE would nerf it.

BTW, if Bastok has control of the dunes you can buy the cabbages in Bastok.

Dukuji wrote:BTW, if Bastok has control of the dunes you can buy the cabbages in Bastok.

You can also farm bunnies for them.

Think you can also steal them from the bunnies as well.

yaay! got to level 12 blm last night and got my drain spell!

Anyway, that's it for my leveling for a while. I have a football game to go to tonite tomorrow's my set party night, and this weekend is UBERCON! YAAY!

Advice for being a BLM?

INT is way more important than MP. IMO 15 MP is about equal to 1 INT in usefullness.

If you draw aggro STOP CASTING. Once aggro is gone, Drain it. Drain generates very little hate ^^

Use the spell Shock to lower the enemy's resistance to debuffs. Then debuff and THEN start nuking. This give the others time to get some hate that you'd overide if you jump right into the big guns.

Be very careful with -ga spells (do NOT cast them unless you are POSITIVE that there's nothing around).

Stick with lower level spells as much as you can. I find that I 'miss' (do less than full damage) much less with lower level spells than with ones I just got. I would cycle Aero, Fire, Blizzard for more damage than Water 2, Stone 2 and for less MP.

Non-taru MP sucks. Avoid using elements that the mob is strong against or that are weak to the current day. So if the mob is a crab (water element), and it is iceday, do not use water or fire spells (water element strong to those) or wind spells (wind is weak to ice). When it changes to lightnings day, do not use water, fire, or earth spells if you can avoid it. This will make your spells more efficient, which is a must with our MP.

Learn how to magic burst if you haven't. Magic bursts generate little hate for how how much damage they do. Little enough that the melees' weaponskills and the skillchain damage (ie Fusion) keeps their hate higher so don't be afraid to blow it away on those skillchains.

Eat pie. Mmmmm... pie.

Fayin wrote:Stick with lower level spells as much as you can. I find that I 'miss' (do less than full damage) much less with lower level spells than with ones I just got. I would cycle Aero, Fire, Blizzard for more damage than Water 2, Stone 2 and for less MP.

Never thought about that... thanks.

Non-taru MP sucks. Avoid using elements that the mob is strong against or that are weak to the current day. So if the mob is a crab (water element), and it is iceday, do not use water or fire spells (water element strong to those) or wind spells (wind is weak to ice). When it changes to lightnings day, do not use water, fire, or earth spells if you can avoid it. This will make your spells more efficient, which is a must with our MP.

And this is why I will NEVER be a summoner ladies and gentlemen, i can't keep this much info streight.

Learn how to magic burst if you haven't. Magic bursts generate little hate for how how much damage they do.

been there done that got the {Refresh}

Eat pie. Mmmmm... pie.

I prefer OJ

More Magey tips for MP

Hair pins: lots of good +mp stuff there, besides helmets hurt my ears when i wear them.

and for the first few levels of Black mage:
Ceremonial Dagger for +10 mp @ lv1, but the only problem is that is has 1 dmg. On seraph server they cost about 3k, which can be a lil pricey for a young mage just starting out in Vana'diel

Do the pie and the drink. Pies will give you +MP. Pies +1 will give you +MP AND +1/2 to MP recovery. The drinks will give you refresh effect. So they work great all together. For me, currently at 43BLM, I use the Pumpkin Pie and I carry 5 drinks on me which I only use when my mana drops below 100.

During fights, I usually start off the fight with Frost (lower AGI) and then Rasp (lower DEX). Then I just nuke from there on out. Thats just me though. Might not be the proper way of doing things, but it seems to work for me. ^^

Kahvi wrote: Ceremonial Dagger for +10 mp @ lv1, but the only problem is that is has 1 dmg. On seraph server they cost about 3k, which can be a lil pricey for a young mage just starting out in Vana'diel

/cry

lucky ceremonial daggers go for 10k on midgard...

My server seems to be "Melee heavy" making the rare SMN, WHM, or BLM a prized and welcomed addition to a party. Last i checked there were only 100 whms and 60 smn on seraph, so the daggers dont sell well... dunno about blm's on the server tho...

surprisingly, monster signa sells for at least 200k... but it's price may drop due to a surplus... bloody gil merchants always hunting them and practically every other NM on the server..

Fayin wrote:Once aggro is gone, Drain it. Drain generates very little hate ^^

Drain is the one spell that almost guarantees I will pull hate off the Paladin. Once I've been hit, the second the mob is hit with drain it has to come over and hit me again. Once Dark Magic is maxed for my level, I avoid Drain like the plague.

Maybe I run a high level of hate or something... but Drain is the most damage/MP spell you can use, and the mobs seem to know it.

Firemyst wrote: Drain is the one spell that almost guarantees I will pull hate off the Paladin. Once I've been hit, the second the mob is hit with drain it has to come over and hit me again. Once Dark Magic is maxed for my level, I avoid Drain like the plague.

Maybe I run a high level of hate or something... but Drain is the most damage/MP spell you can use, and the mobs seem to know it.

It is indeed the most efficient nuke, But I think the re-aggro you have there is just you If I take a hit or 3, I cast drain as soon as the tank takes the mob back as well and never seem to have a problem.
Is your tank a ninja?

Firemyst wrote: Drain is the one spell that almost guarantees I will pull hate off the Paladin. Once I've been hit, the second the mob is hit with drain it has to come over and hit me again. Once Dark Magic is maxed for my level, I avoid Drain like the plague.

Maybe I run a high level of hate or something... but Drain is the most damage/MP spell you can use, and the mobs seem to know it.

Dunno Fire, but if I cast a Drain right after the tank vokes, I never pull aggro.

I've just Zoomed up to level 15 tonite. Drain is my friend.

edit: I'm insane... went for an all niter.... Up to level 17... time to return to bastok for supplies and new spells.

keep your enfeebling skill maxed if at all possible. These affect your sleep spells which are a must I cant tell you how many times sleep spells have saved me and my party's lives. also watch and as long as your whm or rdm are not casting Dia throw out a Bio this does deal DOT but also lowers the mobs attack. There is some arguments that Dia and Bio cancel each other out I have never seen proof but better to not double them up. Start saveing now for atleast your dark and ice staves they will cost you atleast 200k for the 2 of them. Also if you can arrange it get your Moldavite earing and Shaman's Cloak both are not must but are a great benefit to you. As it stands if you can afford to buy to astral rings these are worth it to a mithra even if it cost +6 to int best I have heard is 2-3 more damage per 1 int point so if you can cast one more spell for 150+ damage then that greatly out weighs the 12-18 damage you would get from +6 to int. On the same not I have not noticed resistance being affected by int only damage resistance seems to be affected by elemental skill as I have seen tarus with full int gear get resisted on the same mob I get resisted on with them being 1 or 2 lvls ahead of me. Anyway hope this helps sorry for how long it is ^^.
Nim

Nimonie wrote: There is some arguments that Dia and Bio cancel each other out I have never seen proof but better to not double them up.

Bio & Dia are basically in the same line as all the elemntal enfeebles, just use a different base skill (enfeeble for dia & dark for bio) The others include rasp, frost, shock, burn, choke, drown (elemental skill). Now with these, you cant have element of opposite power active on the same mob.....they will overwrite or cancel each other. For instance fire is weak to water so you would be unable to have both drown & burn up at the same time. This follows the elemental correlation chart (which all Blm should know by heart imo) earth > thunder> water > fire > ice > aero >
Dark & light are slight dif in that they are strong & weak to each other. Nonetheless, they follow same pattern in that they mess with each other. The slight dif is that oftentimes the DoT damage will stack, but the effect is always overwritten. Dia lowers Def, & Bio lowers Att. Since Bio only really aids the tank, and Dia aids all melees, Dia is usually prefered. Bio has its uses though vs powerful one shot mobs like fishes or in parties composed mostly of mages.

Nimonie wrote:keep your enfeebling skill maxed if at all possible.

My main job is redmage. NO. PROBLEM. THERE.

I made it to Level 19 last night, so I can finally run screaming away from the dunes. Just for fun, when i got to jeuno, I checked the difference between RDM/THF and RDM/BLM. I gain 5 points of intelligence, and over 130MP. I can't imagine why i didn't do this before.

As for the Dia/Bio debate, Dia costs 1/3 the MP and is more beneficial. So as a redmage, i never even have it macroed. I'm aghast at the MP cost for Some of the higher elemental spells, but i'm getting used to managing the MP burn. I just will need to get aspir.

It can also work to your benefit to pay attention to how the tank vokes, and time the hate gaining spells with that so they voke right after you cast.

mithra RDM44/BLM20 gets 666 hp while wearing RSE hands and legs

anyway, set party tonite. lets see how well my new configuration does.

I went hunting for rams and lightning elementals last night as rdm/blm and struck out completely. didn't get a single one. Kinda depressed.

oh well.

This will depend greatly on keeping your dark elemental skills caped and learning what mobs actually have mp to steal. The most common ones you will be fighting are crabs and beetles.

last night saw me complete my fourth night at level 21 with a final kill pushing me to 22. Seems the Bismarkian Qufim Island has been infested with n00bs. Was finally able to get a decent party enough to cross the 22 barrier, and from here on I have a full power sub for my RDM.

From here i'm planning on continuing as a BLM until i get to 30. at which point provymon's will ensue! can't wait to wear seer's gear.