[godsaiyan]

Hi all. I know by now i should know how to magic burst (please don't rant about it i feel bad enough as it is) but due to soloing mage jobs more so and being invited into poor parties in the past, the opportunity hasn't come yet. Now i ask if anyone knows of a few magic bursts, i would check wiki but pc at home is on the fritz and work has an internet filter, stopping me viewing it.

Basically i need to know what spells to cast and when to cast them, eg. what skillchain must i then follow on with what spell, etc.

I thought i must get the basics down before i hit 75 with any nuking mage so please help a poor man out.

[Ellipses]

You just have to know the skillchains and their associated elements. You can cast any spell of the right element for the MB. For the level 2 and 3 SCs, you can cast a spell of any of the associated elements.

Transfixion - Light
Liquefaction - Fire
Impaction - Lightning
Detonation - Wind
Compression - Dark
Scission - Earth
Reverberation - Water
Induration - Ice

Fusion - Light & Fire
Fragmentation - Lightning & Wind
Gravitation - Dark & Earth
Distortion - Water & Ice

Light - Light, Fire, Lightning & Wind
Darkness - Dark, Earth, Water & Ice

As far as recognizing the skillchains themselves, you can either turn off chat filters so you see the name of the skillchain, figure it out from the weapon skills in use and a chart, work it out with the party ahead of time, etc. It's probably going to be the same one or two SCs throughout a party (unless members are replaced), so you should be able to recognize it pretty easily once it's going, and you'll probably be casting the same spell every time. So it's not like you need to memorize gigantic lists of combinations and react on the fly. Just figure out what's happening in this party and roll with that.

[godsaiyan]

Originally Posted by Ellipses

Transfixion - Light
Liquefaction - Fire
Impaction - Lightning
Detonation - Wind
Compression - Dark
Scission - Earth
Reverberation - Water
Induration - Ice

Ok so just to make sure i understand, when i see say Detonation, i should cast a wind element spell for the magic burst to take place?

[Ellipses]

Right. The spell has to finish within 5 seconds of the SC animation ending, so there's a matter of timing to work out, too. Depending on the spell you're casting, waiting until you actually see "Skillchain: Detonation" in the log might be too long. With, say Aero, you'd probably be fine. With Aero IV, you'd need to start casting before the second weaponskill is even used.

That's why I say figure out what your party is actually doing, and just learn to watch for that. Once you learn that Joe uses Tachi: Superbad, and Dave uses Blade: Mojo, and that leads to Detonation, you can just watch for Tachi: Superbad to know what's coming up. (Unless Tachi: Superbad > Swishing Blade is also in play to make Reverberation or something, then it gets trickier.)

It's a hell of a lot easier if they're communicating TP back and forth and saying "Ready!" and such, but if they're not doing that, they don't really have much room to complain about you not hitting the MB, either.

[Mhurron]

Originally Posted by godsaiyan

Ok so just to make sure i understand, when i see say Detonation, i should cast a wind element spell for the magic burst to take place?

You'll never get it off in time.

As Ellipses said, you're going to have to have communication between the two doing the skillchain and the BLM. The BLM has to be already ready to cast at the right time for it to work, and the right time differs between tiers.

The timing bit will be trial and error until you get to casting AM at lvl50. IIRC, an AM magic burst has the BLM starting to cast, waiting 8 seconds then telling the other to to go.

[Armando]

Also bear in mind that Magic Bursts don't just provide bonus damage, but also bonus magic accuracy. It's not done in EXP, but it's good to know that you can MB an enfeebling spell to make sure it lands. It may help you out in some odd situation (maybe landing sleep on a hard to sleep BC mob or something.)

[Nuriko]

If I happen to get the chance, I'll try to cast slow on a mob if I'm WHM, see Scission or Gravitation (or Darkness I suppose, but I'm probably going to try for Paralyze then), and am on the right macro set. It's a nice little bonus at times.

[ShadowHolyFlyingDragon]

It just burns me up that Skillchaining and Magic Bursting are not done very often at all, if ever, in xp parties anymore.

That use to be the staple back in the day and it was a lot of fun. It was cool to see a mobs HP bar suddently drop by 40%. It was cool to work and team up hand in hand with your pt mates to pull it off.

Renkei was a cool name to say for the NA cuz JP was saying it. At one time, it was a golden age of blms. Blms magic bursted and everyone got along and everything was bliss.

lol the last time i magic bursted was on the fly during a camping of steam cleaner at sky. I noticed that the melee we're using ws's that made light a few times and when i saw their patterns start crossing up more, i would start casting Tornado 2 on windsday just as soon after the 1st melee ended his ws. 2nd melee would use spinning slash or something (can't remember) and bam light would hit and I bursted for like 1852.

I don't think I had bursted like that since 2006 lol....

[Donnovan]

Timing your spells is everything with MB. Having a good understanding of renkei will help you as a caster, in terms of knowing what element to cast with each renkei. Best way to learn the timing is just to practice. I've seen BLM's MB ancient magic in my PT's before. Again, it's all about timing and practice. You'll know you did it right when you see Magic Burst in your combat log. Don't be afraid to experiment!

[Armando]

AM Magic Bursts aren't timing so much as planning in advance. The BLM doesn't time anything, it's the melees that time the skillchain so that it happens slightly before the BLM is done casting.

[Elwynn]

Originally Posted by ShadowHolyFlyingDragon

It just burns me up that Skillchaining and Magic Bursting are not done very often at all, if ever, in xp parties anymore.

Blame the lolibri and their Feather Tickle. Now hardly anyone wants to hold on to TP since naturally, anything that doesn't work in meripo must not work anywhere else. (the reverse of the usual problem with "meripo mentality")

[Raydeus]

Originally Posted by Armando

AM Magic Bursts aren't timing so much as planning in advance. The BLM doesn't time anything, it's the melees that time the skillchain so that it happens slightly before the BLM is done casting.

I have yet to see any melee planing their SC around the BLM's casting in xp parties.

Also, melee SCs are very repetitive so you can easily time AM burst without even letting anyone know you are going to, all you need to do is look at TP reports and SC calls. I did it many times while playing a friend's character and it finished mobs pretty good, so it's quite doable and easier than it seems.

[Armando]

I have yet to see any melee planing their SC around the BLM's casting in xp parties.

I've seen it done, but not in recent years.

[Mhurron]

Originally Posted by Elwynn

Blame the lolibri and their Feather Tickle.

Weak def, high EXP yield for the work required ToAU mobs that die so fast it makes BLM having to rest for MP a huge hinderance.

Last party I was in that had a MB would be the party in Bibiki Bay that got me to RDM70 the day after ToAU was released.

[Solymir]

I will always cherish leveling my first job to 75. It was a War, Mnk, Blm static and we would just add a tank, healer, and third dd as needed. I still remember the first time we coordinated Distortion + Freeze. The Blm would have to start their macro which would start casting the spell and then like 2 seconds later notify me when I needed to do my weapon skill to start the chain. It was kind of like waiting for christmas. Even after ToAU came out and we got high enough in level we would choose to go to the puk/mamool camps vs colibri so we could setup the chains.

Now that I'm trying to level my Blm on the side, I'll be lucky if I ever see a single party with melee in it. Then if they actually setup a skillchain it will be like winning the lottery. However if I find some decent Mana burns parties I won't care. There will be plenty of times in end-game events where I can see my spells Magic Burst.