Recommended spells/subjob for fighting elementals?

[DavisMarkin]

Hello. Due to the fact that my RDM has just hit 30, and is nearing the point where I _must_ get Dispel, and level up PTs never earn much gil (if any, and item drops are rare), I was wondering what spells I should get (beyond silence, the various bar-element, en-element, and the standard RDM debuffs <blind/dia and-or bio/slow/paralyze>). Also, which is the better sub? BLM or WHM? Or should I sub RNG to use Wide Scan so I can beat others to the punch? I'll be fighting easys, but can I do decent challenges?

Poor and desperate,
Davir (30RDM/17WHM/12BLM) (yes, I know BLM is low, but I'm working on that)

[Jei]

about sub job, I posted my opinion in this page
A little confused...

[Secrenja]

Ignore bar-spells, get every enchant spell.
Get every enfeeb, keep cure and protect up-to-date
Gravitys a must.

[Discordian]

He's talking about elementals.

I go rdm/thf when I go out. That way I get more cluster drops and it makes my trip more worthwhile. Also fight something before you take on the elemental to get TP up, something nice and small that won't damage you very much or hurts MP, then you can hit it with an attack that either deals damage well, or hit it with flatblade to interupt a spell that it casts to rebuff itself.

Silence and dia are a must, slow works as well.

[Wafflesrevenge]

What are some good spots to find these elementals? 4 more levels to 30 and I find my crafting skills lacking would like some loot

[Discordian]

La Thane plateau is a good place for elementals, Konschat produces earth elementals and I think the occasional wind elemental.

Near level 30, do wind elementals. Most others will destroy you. I'd look at getting level 31 before trying to take them out. It can go downhill quick.

[DavisMarkin]

Thanks Discordian. I've been trying to work on THF, but it's hard without a valid subjob (blah...). Also, I had thought that the level of the elemental was based on zone, but, I guess I may have been mistaken. Still, Wind is good anyway, cause a bunch of my friends are in serious need of those.

[Secrenja]

IN konschtat-
Earth and lightning elementals will apear around the crag.
*tries to draw a map*
X=crag
E=elementals, ive seen both lightning and earth elementals in those locations
.___________________
|.....................................
|.........E..........................
|.......EXX........................
|.........XX.E.....................
|..........E.........................
|.....................................
|___________________
They usually appear VERY close to the crag. Also good idea to hunt the normal rams if you see em

If you go to lathiene from valkrum, the first left that leads to one of those huge gorges usually weilds an elemental. Ari and water appear in that area.

IN valkrum, you could take down the fire($$$) and earth elementals. I've seen earth elementals appear after the aggro bat cave when traveling from bastok to selbina, and and I've seen 2 spawn in the area right before the first bat cave near the gold bat cave/zone to the tunnel.
I've seen a fire elemental appear once in the oasis on the hill, and fairly close to the lathien zone.


Since you're level 30, you may be able to take on the lightning and light($$$) elementals in quifim. I've seen lightning appear by the pugils/clippers to the immidiate left when you exit the "hallway" after coming out of the tunnel with weapons. Also seen them right in front of delkfutts.
I've seen light elementals appear to the right of delkfutt, as if you were going to go see kraken.

[Apple Pie]

First of all, you at least need En- spells and have to choose the right element. For instance, when you fight with Water Elementals, you have to use Enthunder. Since elementals absorbs 75% of physical damages, RDM has an advantage over other jobs.

Second, for enfeebling magics, you need Blind, Gravity, Paralyze and Slow. Put your first priority on Paralyze and Slow because the former often inturrupts their spell-casting and the latter prevents our spells from being inturrupted by their attacks.

Third, for enhancing magics, Protect and Shell are must-have. Well, I'd like to emphasize that Stoneskin in conjunction with Phalanx makes a huge difference. You are almost invulnerable if they are "Decent Challenge" or weaker. Even without Phalanx, Stoneskin seems to absorb 250+ damages at my LV. The amount of damage it absorbs depends on your enhancing magic skill and MND. Compare the MP cost between Stoneskin and Cures needed to recover 250HP. Stoneskin is absolutely better.

Then, -spike spells are all good. If you are around LV30, I think you already get Blazespike. In addition, Icespike (LV40 RDM) sometimes paralyze them and Shockspike (LV60 RDM) stuns them.

As for Bar- spells, it's not necessary but it is nice to have it. All bar- spells are strengthened with the latest patch and even against incredibly tough monsters, it often works. So cast the one with the same element that they have. For example, use Barthunder on you when you fight with Thunder Elementals and it helps you to resist Shock and Thunder a lot.

Finally, when you play with both Fire, Ice and Thunder Elementals, you can't forget about Dispel because they cast Blazespike, Icespike and Shockspike respectively. I believe Water Eles do Aquaveil, too.

By the way for LV50s, Delkfutt's Tower is a good place to get both Light and Thunder Elementals. It's up to the weather there but we often have thunderstorms.

There are one or two elementals in each level and with treasure hunter ability of THF, I sometimes get two clusters of thunder (means two dozens of thunder crystals) from one elemental. Therefore, if I'm lucky, I'm able to get 7 - 8 clusters in half an hour. Each cluster is sold around 1000 - 1200g in AH. So, how much you can get in an hour?

[shaunathan]

I believe Water Eles do Aquaveil, too

yep, I can confirm that. I've watched one cast it.

[Tempest198]

At 30 as RDM/RNG (level 1 rng sub) I could take elementals in highlands, la theine and tahrongi canyon easily. Those should be no problem at 30. RNG sub can help you figure out where they spawn, after that you could go for another sub that is more suitable for elemental hunting, but RNG scan really helps figuring out where they spawn.

[Discordian]

Elemental levels ARE dependant on zone. I would not recommend fighting the ones on Burbirmu Pennicila until the mid 30's. The zone is a little higher level than vulkurm and they can hit hard. Quifim's lightning elementals are also pretty tough. Probably another mid 30's game. Focus on La Thane, that should be your best pay off and you are close to where you can auction them off.

[kenoshi]

Elementals are one of those mobs that u just can't trust cons.

I would not attempt a DC one. Easy cons are iffy unless they're low easies. For the best gain, stick with elementals that cons worthless to you, kind of pointless to farm mentals that cons otherwise since they'll take forever.

Enspell is a must of course.

[Apple Pie]

Elementals are one of those mobs that u just can't trust cons.

That's correct.

Elementals in both Delkfutt's Tower and Qufim Island are all LV35-36s but it isn't safe for mid LV30s to early LV40s players to fight with them alone. Ghosts and Elementals are much stronger than others. We should be at least LV12+ higher than theirs.

Here are some statistics.

La Theine
Air and Water Elementals [LV18-20]

Valkurm
Earth and Fire Elementals [LV28-30]

Konschtat
Earth and Thunder Elementals [LV18-20]

Ordelle
Air and Water Elemetals [LV33-36]

If you want to know more, I'll post it.

BTW, I went to Delkfutt's Tower as usual and got three clusters of thunder from one thunder ele... Pretty cool.

[Karinya]

Originally posted by Apple Pie

That's correct.

Elementals in both Delkfutt's Tower and Qufim Island are all LV35-36s but it isn't safe for mid LV30s to early LV40s players to fight with them alone. Ghosts and Elementals are much stronger than others. We should be at least LV12+ higher than theirs.

I once fought an "easy" Air Elemental, had it silence me twice out of 2 tries, and resisted 3 of my 3 silences.

Fortunately, I had a pre-combat Enthunder (didn't have Enblizzard yet, but Enthunder did decent damage) and was able to put up regen and some cures in between silences, so I pulled it out.

Oh, and this is very important - stand very far away from the elemental to cast your precombat enhancements (En, bar, protect, shell, regen, stoneskin and phalanx if you have them). I stood a little too close that time :sweat: and didn't get baraero or barsilence up.

Poison is also very good; elementals are very resistant to physical damage but (at least air) don't have very many HP, so poison does relatively more, bypassing their defense.