BLM/WHM or BLM/RDM(or RDM/BLM)

[Noremaku]

I know there are probably a lot of topics related to this already, but I felt I needed to make a new thread focused on my specific problem; If there is an existing thread on this, please excuse me as I am not aware of one.

Anyway, when I first got the game, I picked a blm (taru), as I was attracted to being the nuker, etc. I had been pondering on what to do my support job as. I assumed whm would be good, but when I tried whm to get it ready for later, I found that it was extremely hard to lvl solo. I then tried rdm, and I loved the combination of magic and melee. I have now realized that with any job I'll end up having to party sooner or later, and that the inability to lvl a whm solo might not be a good reason to not do a blm/whm. Which should I (prepare to) do? I've already spent a lot of money and time lvling and equipping my rdm, and yet would a rdm/blm (or a blm/rdm) end up worth while? Should I throw away that effort and choose whm? I've heard that rdm loses its effectiveness as a melee fighter at later lvls, and the whole reason I liked the rdm is because of its melee capability. Please help me decide.

[Bamce Sylph]

blm is the standard sub for redmages, so at least u won't be looseing out there, chainspell-escape= yay

[Digital]

IMO, go either BLM/WHM or RDM/BLM. RDM sub isn't too great. You get Fast Cast, but all other RDM skills are gotten after 40 (except for despel, but at 64+ you'll generally always have a RDM or BRD around). As for RDM melee: yes, it will suck at later levels, though, RDM is such a busy job you really won't have time to swing. If you only want RDM for its battle mage style, DRK might be more what you want (high melee damage and black magic spells). So, from what you posted, I would suggest leveling up whm. It's pretty easy to get to 10, and after that you can get a PT easily.

[Noremaku]

Ya, I only liked the RDM for its fighter capabilities, so I think I'm gonna end up subbing WHM. Thanks guys. Only thing is that I spent a lot of gil and time on RDM. I guess all the spells will work for WHM though, so that's a plus.

On a side note, how do you go about leveling a WHM? I tried it once, I got to level 2, and it was challenging since I had no ways to deal damage other than with my staff. Will it get easier? Or is WHM just going to be like that, since it's supposed to party?

And what's your advice on levleing a BLM too? I've been having trouble with that too, but I think it'll be easier when I can buy the tunic at lv 8 among other helpful equipment.

[Bamce Sylph]

u can sub blm to your whm and nuke stuff should help for the first several levels, but by 10-11 its fairly easy to get groups from there out

[Tsama]

Well Judging from the questions he is asking I am going to say that he can't even use anything as a sub yet.

Don't take this wrong but the money that you spent on your RDM isn't anything. Trust me wait a little while and you will see what spending alot of money is. From what you say I am going to guess, that Drk really would be best for you. Since it seems like you like rdm's melee ablity.

I would personally say go rdm/blm once you can. That or blm/rdm (I personally like this combo. You get alot of good spells.)

It will be your choice in the end.

Last thing though is that you might want to see what makes you not like whm, because getting to lvl 10 is easy. It can be done in a day.

[Erasmus]

AFter 40 or so blm/whm and blm/rdm are equally useful. Blm/rdm does a little more dmg( and more utility) and blm/whm heals a little better. IT all boils down to what you would rather lvl, RDM or WHM or both. Also in the earlier lvls rdm/whm is more valued in a pt. But later rdm/blm becomes the way to be.

If you are looking for a mix of melee and magic, definately go drk. After 41 rdms, are too busy doing other things and dont get to melee much. You have to debuff, magic burst, help heal, refresh all the mages, redebuff the monster when debuffs run out. Its hard to find a chance to get a swing in. A drk ( especially with a rdm in the pt) can hit hard in melee, gets cool armor , and gets some decent spells too. You will get all the 2nd tier elemental spells by 75, as well as the blm darkness spells only earlier than the blm would in most cases. You also get a few drk unique stat drain spells.

If you wanna to major magic dmg, go Blm/Rdm, or Blm/Whm.

EDIT: sorry about that lol. Didnt mean to have Blm/rdm and blm/rdm... meant for 1 to be blm/whm

[AtraposBLM]

Originally posted by Erasmus

If you wanna to major magic dmg, go Blm/Rdm, or Blm/Rdm.

Doesn't leave much room for choice, does it? lol

[Noremaku]

Thanks, everyone. I'm now alternating between BLM and WHM in preperation for BLM/WHM, and it's working great, now that I got spells like Dia for WHM. I've also found that partying works rather well. (kind of a no-brainer )

[evilution]

when i level'd my WHM (my 2nd sub) I just bought em a stack of Mithkabobs and kept the highest +1 pole / club equipped.

got me to 10 fairly quick

[AtraposBLM]

I'm finding that to be more and more the case...

getting from 1-6 wasn't so hard with my black mage. Stone pretty much took 60-85% of a creatures life off, so poison + a few staff whacks and I killed the thing. Getting from 8-10, however, was comparitively much harder. Meat Kabobs would have turned my pitiful melee damage into something halfway decent...so instead of having to solo EP's all the time (soooo boring), I could've taken some DC's and such. Pineapple juice would've also reduced the downtime a lot so that I wouldn't have to spend 50% of the time resting.

I took this idea to leveling other subs as well. After unlocking samurai, I decided that I wanted to play around with it for a while. Using meat mithkabobs, I could one-hit kill DC mobs, and easily *chain* tough's. As a taru...that's pretty ridiculous. I'd imagine the results would be even better for a galka/elvaan melee.

Getting an extra 10 damage = huge.

[Noremaku]

I didn't get a lot of that, mainly because I don't have a clue what the food items do. Anyone mind explaining?

[Erasmus]

Meat mithkabobs add +5 str and like 20% dmg ( i think its 20% not sure.. there are lists). What this results in is about 2x dmg at low levels. I got from 1-12 as taru sam in 3 hrs. Chain #3 was the highest i got. Also I begain messing aroudn with drg last night. I was using meat mithkabobs. I pretty much 1 shotted DC-EM up until lvl 5. At lvl 3 a 3brd/whm was putting together a 6 person pt. I generally go by the no PT except a duo or trio until 10 rule. So i declined and the brd got an attitude like I sucked and was missing out on the greatest xp ever. I had jsut hit 3 btw. 15 min later the brd hit lvl 4 as i hit lvl 5

Juices make you regen mp at a certain rate depending on the type. Some juices regen hp instead of mp though. Like i said, there are food charts all over the net. Another thing you can do as a mage ( especially early on) is eat apple pies. They are a few k a stack and are +3int +25 mp +2 mp regen while sitting. This reduces downtime, increases dmg, and more than doubles a lvl 1's mp pool. Its the blm equivalent of a meat mithkabob.

[Noremaku]

Thanks everyone! You all helped me out a lot. Now I am playing another character (a WAR), but I'll still be playing my BLM.