Omgwtfbbqkitten
07-10-2007, 05:04 PM
I had been meaning to get around to a topic on COR in manaburn and since there has been light discussions about it, but nothing in great detail. If you're a RDM, BRD or BLM there's also a bit to draw from this, I'll mainly be focusing on how COR fits in to manaburn, but I'll note some differences between their roles in the setting.
This post will really just focus on meritpo manaburns in Mount Z, there are other places to go, such as skeletons in KRT, dhamels earlier on in Bibiki Bay, Qiqirn in the subterrane and undersea ruins, darters and crabs in Boyhoda Tree and crabs elsewhere. This is all at varying levels, but the most popular manaburn targets are puddings and wamoura princes in Mount Z.
First off, let's cover subjobs and break them down:
/WHM is a sub for a more stationary role in manaburn, its more for roaming burn PTs where the BLMs claim mobs. /WHM is pretty much for when you're not pulling the initial portion of a chain. Cure and buff, that's it.
/BRD is, quite obviously, for Ballad. But with the availability of Sanction Refresh, Refresh effect gear and the loads of +hMP gear and Refresh/+hMP buffs out there, I somewhat question the need for more MP a tick in this setting, and experienced BLM knows how to manage MP and the ones that don't stick out like sore thumb in manaburn PTs. I'd also save this one for where manaburns are lead by the BLMs.
/NIN is honestly my sub of choice. It's not an entirely selfish choice either, as it often keeps the RDM, BRD or COR from taking damage and affords them the option to Light Shot/Sleep/Lullaby or Gravity a mob. Its also the prime subjob for when your PT has competition because you now have to pull multiple targets to keep chains alive. It is also true that its hard to trust a BLM to cure anyone, so this saves them the MP they want to horde for nukes and saves your hide often.
Any of these subjobs can work for any of the three support classes, its really just a matter of experience, preference and who's leading. There's no wrong subjob for manaburn... cept maybe the other melee types :P I personally find manaburn boring if I'm not doing more than buffing or curing - I want action, so I choose /NIN.
A good manaburn PT should be ready to adapt to whichever you choose because a good manaburn can still achieve the same high EXP per hour, if they don't adapt, well, they must not like Corsair's Roll, a reliable Gravity/Refresh/Haste or Ballad very much.
Now let's break it down totally for COR. We don't have multiple sleeps to rotate like BRD and RDM, just one every 50 seconds to a minute, based on Quick Draw merits. If I'm to use Light Shot, I'd prefer to save it to protect BLMs from damage, set up a pre-emptive strike for the BLMs. I'm not sitting on Light Shot by any means, but it can protect just as much as it can stage a fight, so I like Utsusemi for the ability to give another means of pre-emptive strikes for the benefit of the BLMs.
Buffs COR can use are Wizard's Roll, Healer's Roll, Evoker's Roll and Corsairs Roll. I generally stick with Corsair's/Evoker's. Why Corsair's? Why not? A good Evoker's Roll in combination with existing +hMP gear and refresh bonuses should be more than sufficient MP recovery. I've also found COR Roll helps BLMs not wander too far from you when you stop roaming, cuz they want teh ExPz.
Gear? Peacemaker is the gun of choice. With rival manaburn PTs and soloists roaming about, COR should be using whatever fast means they have to claim, you're not here to DD at all, just support, pull and play decoy. Bring lots of light cards and Shehei for /NIN as well. Food is debatable here, its not really going to add much. Maybe if you went mage, but if were talking /NIN or /BRD, not so much.
Puddings are the common Mount Z target and have a generally nastier array of things to do you. Wamoura Princes are just slow and susceptible to sleeps, so they don't really pose as huge a threat.
Now, I've been told puddings shoot off -agas 70% of the time. Maybe they do if they're alive long enough and someone misses a stun. Most of the time the start off with Blaze Spikes, Rasp-type spells or a T4/AM and then they're dead shortly after.
When you have a COR/NIN, please don't stun anything but an -aga spell, its a waste of an opportunity to kill the pudding outright when its focused on COR/NIN and wasting magic on a COR/NIN's shadows. A swift cascade of T4s will take care of it and COR is already on to the next. And really, a well-timed Light Shot is as good as any stun anyway, so even -agas are debatable. Better to play it safe, just worry about Stunning -agas with people playing /NIN, learn not to knee-jerk stun everything else because they're not in danger.
OK, so lets set up how these PTs are done, I'm accustomed to Mount Z manaburns starting off with no roaming. I pull from chain start to chain #3 by the time everyone should be resting. I would put COR and SMN rolls on at start and by the time #3 hits, mages are resting to full, I apply Healer's Roll if needed and cycle the other rolls back on.
Why Chain #3? Well, for those that don't know, this because when you hit chain #5, the amount of time to kill the next mob to get chains from there is 40 seconds, at #3 you have a little over a minute to play with before you need to start killing again. BLMs with good +hMP gear, Sanction/Refresh gear, Evoker's Roll can stand to recover pretty fast. Doesn't matter if you're COR, BRD or RDM, good BLMs can manage MP very well and gear well to restore it.
Ok, so let's continue the chain. Here's where you start roaming for kills. Both BLMs and the COR should have /p chat macros set up to notify others of their intentions to claim, but in general its best to stick together until mobs start to dry up, then you spread out to find more. Let the COR grab initial hate if possible, watch for what the pudding will do, if it Blaze Spikes and Rushes the COR, that's his cue to light shot and move to his next mob and drag it to the BLMs while they nuke his current mob down. If the mob AM/T4s the COR/NIN, no light shot or stun is needed at all, let the mob do it, just nuke it.
Chain #8 COR should be watching to reapply buffs and BLMs should be ready to gather on them.
If you're doing well, you should have chain 9 or 10, if you're doing really well, you can have chain #13-15+. Mobs can dry up then its usually time to rest MP for next chain. Unless COR pulls a 5 or 6 on Wild Card and recharges your MP bar.
And that's mostly it. I think RDM can very much emulate what COR does for pulling, and NIN would be quite viable for them as well. Its just RDM is often called to remain with the BLMs full time to gravity, refresh and Main heal. But if you have a willing BRD or COR, they could stay with the BLMs. Those are hard to find, though
Some other Notes:
Sleepga is by far the most threatening thing a pudding can do, its fast and pretty accurate, out of all the spells a pudding has, this is the one you want stop the most. If the COR, RDM or BRD still has hate, the situation can be controlled, but if BLM stun is too late or someone did Drain/Aspir off the bat, it can get real messy really fast. Watch for it and Light Shot or Stun it ASAP.
Aga3s and AMs should be uses sparingly or not at all. CORs will pull double at times and that can lead to mobs accidentally woken up. T4s are often the way to go at lower MP cost. Plus even AM2s are cheaper than Aga3s and AMs and AM2s are cast more quickly. If you must burn a large sum of MP, save the light show for when you unlock AM2s.
Don't Drain a mob when its slept, its a damage spell, you'll wake it up. Aspir, on the other hand, will not wake the mob, so aspir away.
Don't use Bio, Dia or any DoT. This isn't a skill up PT, if a crowd control situation arises, you've made a mob impossible to sleep and that's a problem for everyone.
One BLM should have /WHM. I know you guys like to nuke as fast as possible, but no one likes downtime or to HP and run back to camp, have a designated BLM/WHM in PT and use reraise. A BLM/WHM still gets to AM2 and T4 his heart out, I promise.
If the COR hasn't done so already, make an <stnpc> macro for Light Shot. This is invaluable anywhere, and especially here where you may end up pulling double.
CORs shouldn't engage ANY mobs in melee during manaburn, its not only pointless on amorph-type mobs, but if you shift away from a slept mob to attack another, you lose claim, which is bad in a competitive situation, a soloing BLM or rival PT will not hesitate to steal it. This also applies to pulling and staging fights for TP burn PTs.
This post will really just focus on meritpo manaburns in Mount Z, there are other places to go, such as skeletons in KRT, dhamels earlier on in Bibiki Bay, Qiqirn in the subterrane and undersea ruins, darters and crabs in Boyhoda Tree and crabs elsewhere. This is all at varying levels, but the most popular manaburn targets are puddings and wamoura princes in Mount Z.
First off, let's cover subjobs and break them down:
/WHM is a sub for a more stationary role in manaburn, its more for roaming burn PTs where the BLMs claim mobs. /WHM is pretty much for when you're not pulling the initial portion of a chain. Cure and buff, that's it.
/BRD is, quite obviously, for Ballad. But with the availability of Sanction Refresh, Refresh effect gear and the loads of +hMP gear and Refresh/+hMP buffs out there, I somewhat question the need for more MP a tick in this setting, and experienced BLM knows how to manage MP and the ones that don't stick out like sore thumb in manaburn PTs. I'd also save this one for where manaburns are lead by the BLMs.
/NIN is honestly my sub of choice. It's not an entirely selfish choice either, as it often keeps the RDM, BRD or COR from taking damage and affords them the option to Light Shot/Sleep/Lullaby or Gravity a mob. Its also the prime subjob for when your PT has competition because you now have to pull multiple targets to keep chains alive. It is also true that its hard to trust a BLM to cure anyone, so this saves them the MP they want to horde for nukes and saves your hide often.
Any of these subjobs can work for any of the three support classes, its really just a matter of experience, preference and who's leading. There's no wrong subjob for manaburn... cept maybe the other melee types :P I personally find manaburn boring if I'm not doing more than buffing or curing - I want action, so I choose /NIN.
A good manaburn PT should be ready to adapt to whichever you choose because a good manaburn can still achieve the same high EXP per hour, if they don't adapt, well, they must not like Corsair's Roll, a reliable Gravity/Refresh/Haste or Ballad very much.
Now let's break it down totally for COR. We don't have multiple sleeps to rotate like BRD and RDM, just one every 50 seconds to a minute, based on Quick Draw merits. If I'm to use Light Shot, I'd prefer to save it to protect BLMs from damage, set up a pre-emptive strike for the BLMs. I'm not sitting on Light Shot by any means, but it can protect just as much as it can stage a fight, so I like Utsusemi for the ability to give another means of pre-emptive strikes for the benefit of the BLMs.
Buffs COR can use are Wizard's Roll, Healer's Roll, Evoker's Roll and Corsairs Roll. I generally stick with Corsair's/Evoker's. Why Corsair's? Why not? A good Evoker's Roll in combination with existing +hMP gear and refresh bonuses should be more than sufficient MP recovery. I've also found COR Roll helps BLMs not wander too far from you when you stop roaming, cuz they want teh ExPz.
Gear? Peacemaker is the gun of choice. With rival manaburn PTs and soloists roaming about, COR should be using whatever fast means they have to claim, you're not here to DD at all, just support, pull and play decoy. Bring lots of light cards and Shehei for /NIN as well. Food is debatable here, its not really going to add much. Maybe if you went mage, but if were talking /NIN or /BRD, not so much.
Puddings are the common Mount Z target and have a generally nastier array of things to do you. Wamoura Princes are just slow and susceptible to sleeps, so they don't really pose as huge a threat.
Now, I've been told puddings shoot off -agas 70% of the time. Maybe they do if they're alive long enough and someone misses a stun. Most of the time the start off with Blaze Spikes, Rasp-type spells or a T4/AM and then they're dead shortly after.
When you have a COR/NIN, please don't stun anything but an -aga spell, its a waste of an opportunity to kill the pudding outright when its focused on COR/NIN and wasting magic on a COR/NIN's shadows. A swift cascade of T4s will take care of it and COR is already on to the next. And really, a well-timed Light Shot is as good as any stun anyway, so even -agas are debatable. Better to play it safe, just worry about Stunning -agas with people playing /NIN, learn not to knee-jerk stun everything else because they're not in danger.
OK, so lets set up how these PTs are done, I'm accustomed to Mount Z manaburns starting off with no roaming. I pull from chain start to chain #3 by the time everyone should be resting. I would put COR and SMN rolls on at start and by the time #3 hits, mages are resting to full, I apply Healer's Roll if needed and cycle the other rolls back on.
Why Chain #3? Well, for those that don't know, this because when you hit chain #5, the amount of time to kill the next mob to get chains from there is 40 seconds, at #3 you have a little over a minute to play with before you need to start killing again. BLMs with good +hMP gear, Sanction/Refresh gear, Evoker's Roll can stand to recover pretty fast. Doesn't matter if you're COR, BRD or RDM, good BLMs can manage MP very well and gear well to restore it.
Ok, so let's continue the chain. Here's where you start roaming for kills. Both BLMs and the COR should have /p chat macros set up to notify others of their intentions to claim, but in general its best to stick together until mobs start to dry up, then you spread out to find more. Let the COR grab initial hate if possible, watch for what the pudding will do, if it Blaze Spikes and Rushes the COR, that's his cue to light shot and move to his next mob and drag it to the BLMs while they nuke his current mob down. If the mob AM/T4s the COR/NIN, no light shot or stun is needed at all, let the mob do it, just nuke it.
Chain #8 COR should be watching to reapply buffs and BLMs should be ready to gather on them.
If you're doing well, you should have chain 9 or 10, if you're doing really well, you can have chain #13-15+. Mobs can dry up then its usually time to rest MP for next chain. Unless COR pulls a 5 or 6 on Wild Card and recharges your MP bar.
And that's mostly it. I think RDM can very much emulate what COR does for pulling, and NIN would be quite viable for them as well. Its just RDM is often called to remain with the BLMs full time to gravity, refresh and Main heal. But if you have a willing BRD or COR, they could stay with the BLMs. Those are hard to find, though
Some other Notes:
Sleepga is by far the most threatening thing a pudding can do, its fast and pretty accurate, out of all the spells a pudding has, this is the one you want stop the most. If the COR, RDM or BRD still has hate, the situation can be controlled, but if BLM stun is too late or someone did Drain/Aspir off the bat, it can get real messy really fast. Watch for it and Light Shot or Stun it ASAP.
Aga3s and AMs should be uses sparingly or not at all. CORs will pull double at times and that can lead to mobs accidentally woken up. T4s are often the way to go at lower MP cost. Plus even AM2s are cheaper than Aga3s and AMs and AM2s are cast more quickly. If you must burn a large sum of MP, save the light show for when you unlock AM2s.
Don't Drain a mob when its slept, its a damage spell, you'll wake it up. Aspir, on the other hand, will not wake the mob, so aspir away.
Don't use Bio, Dia or any DoT. This isn't a skill up PT, if a crowd control situation arises, you've made a mob impossible to sleep and that's a problem for everyone.
One BLM should have /WHM. I know you guys like to nuke as fast as possible, but no one likes downtime or to HP and run back to camp, have a designated BLM/WHM in PT and use reraise. A BLM/WHM still gets to AM2 and T4 his heart out, I promise.
If the COR hasn't done so already, make an <stnpc> macro for Light Shot. This is invaluable anywhere, and especially here where you may end up pulling double.
CORs shouldn't engage ANY mobs in melee during manaburn, its not only pointless on amorph-type mobs, but if you shift away from a slept mob to attack another, you lose claim, which is bad in a competitive situation, a soloing BLM or rival PT will not hesitate to steal it. This also applies to pulling and staging fights for TP burn PTs.