[Sabaron]

I did BLM/NIN from 30-36 and it did nicely and I'll tell you what my impression was.

If you are going to do it, you have to actually use the jutsus otherwise you're just wasting the extra kick the sub gives. Each jutsu reduces the mob's resistance by 30. Therefore, when you follow-up with a nuke, you get fewer resists thus more efficient mp usage for nuking.

Between the /WHMing and the /NINing. As /WHM I cast cure probably once every 4-5 fights. I was always out of mp, and resists were frequent. I had to carefully control my nukes to make sure I didn't go over. With /NIN I always had extra mp (despite the smaller pool), my nukes rarely got resisted, and I got a small amount of [mp free] damage off the jutsus themselves (from the Magic Attack Bonus trait). I also always pushed one nuke beyond my hate limit using Utsusemi to protect myself. OMG says "Utsusemi won't save you from too much overnuking." In order to actually push that level...the level where 3 shadows and 1 solid punch to the jaw will leave you with hate, you'd have to be nuking the thing while it was beating on you... so just don't do that... As for the Clear Mind, OMG states that /WHM gives you Clear Mind.. It doesn't. Clear Mind of the same level does not stack. BLM always gets Clear Mind at a lower level than WHM, and BLM gets one more level (V) over WHM. /WHM never gets you Clear Mind and as I stated, pre-jutsuing the target will lower your resist rate which increases your damage/mp ratio.

I maintain that BLM/NIN is not selfish. It's smart especially if you already have two healers in the PT. PLD with WHM? BLM/NIN WHM with RDM? BLM/NIN. Another situation where BLM/NIN is nice is if you already have a BLM/WHM. set yourself up as BLM/NIN and the BLM/WHM can follow your spell wheel.

I used BLM/NIN from 30-36. Therefore, any reference to any other level range should not be implied in the above especially use of /NIN before access to elemental jutsus (which is wasteful imo). WHM sub at certain levels gives access to important spells (Level is your main BLM level) --Blink (38), Raise (50), Stoneskin (56), Erase (64), Reraise (66). Those have to be taken into consideration as well, especially since Blink and Stoneskin eliminate the need for Utsusemi: Ichi and an extra Erase can be immensely beneficial when you're dealing with certain AoE status attacks.

Saying that "you have to be useful" seems to indicate that other DD's should shirk their damage boosting sub job abilities in exchange for the occasional Cure II. Perhaps I should ask all those DRK/THFs to do that... Black Mage is not a support character. Of all the characters in the game, Black Mage is most purely DD. BLM has no defensive ability to speak of and his selection of spells is limited primarily to those that cause damage. Support characters, it can be argued, should have Cures. Damage Dealers should not be held to such a responsibility.