How to play BLM efficiently?

[Psychochild]

Well, I'm a 45 Tarutaru Bard/34 WHM, so I know how to play, but whenever I'm playing BLM (level 14 right now, WHM sub), I feel like I'm not doing the best I can. I can't really get a feel for timing my magic attacks as to not draw agro, I can't find many good guides showing enemy elemental weaknesses online, and my enfeebles are often resisted, even though I maxed them out as a WHM a long time ago.

So essentially, I'm asking how to be the best black mage out there, if there are different sets of equipment I should carry around on me to boost my potential, where I could find a good renkei/enemy elemental weakness guide, and what's a general rule of thumb for timing magic attacks?

Much appreciated!

[Netrus]

You want alot of INT for your blm. As far as timing your MBs whenever you see the weapon skill that you MB after in your text thats when you start casting the spell needed. thats what i do anyways. thats about all i can provide tho. gl with ur blm

[Psychochild]

You want alot of INT for your blm. As far as timing your MBs whenever you see the weapon skill that you MB after in your text thats when you start casting the spell needed. thats what i do anyways. thats about all i can provide tho. gl with ur blm

I'm not speaking about magic BURSTS. I'm talking about timing magic ATTACKS. I've bursted before, but I seem to draw way too much agro doing regular magic attacks regardless of what I do.

[Netrus]

oh well u sed timing magic bursts before.. just dont nuke the hell out of an enemy. bout all i know to tell ya but i aint high in my blm to explain well ...

[Psychochild]

LOL. my bad. I mention attacks specifically in the first paragraph, but in the second, I typed in bursts. My fault.

[Netrus]

its all good. have you tried www.allakhazam.com they r a good source for enemies and such and i think they show there weakness on there as well. or you could get the strat. guide which tells the weaknesses in there also.

[yuukei]

Well I'm not a black mage, but I can tell you what I know from watching other black mages and talking to them.

It's less about timing and more about moderation. Space your nukes out. If the monster comes to you while you're nuking, then wait a little bit longer or until your tank has the mob under control before your next nuke. It really depends on the kind of tank you have. If your tank is really good, you can nuke more. If he loses hate a little too easily then you nuke less. If you start getting aggro, stop casting and stay in one spot. If there's any chance of getting it off of you that's the only way it's gonna happen.

A good time to nuke is right after a provoke. Basic rule of thumb is to always take your tank into account. Don't hang around if it's a terribly bad tank though. It'll only get you killed.

Netrus was right about INT. The more you have the better. For your WHM infeebles, however, you need MND for them to stick easier. But, you're there for magic damage. INT will help with blm enfeebles. Like poison, shock, rasp, etc. Don't worry so much about paralyze and slow sticking. You don't have the highest enfeebling skill or a lot of mnd. But if you really want to and have extra slots, put some mnd equips on to help with WHM enfeebles.

((edited))

[xcalibur2k]

I am also not high in my BLM level. So please excuse any mistakes.

The way hate management works is that you want to give the melees some time to accumulate a bit of hate before you go for the big nukes.

Many beginner BLM makes mistakes where they always go for the big nukes at the beginning of the battle.
So I think a good way to go about it is just start with smaller nukes and slowly progress to the bigger ones.

Maybe something along this line?

stone -> wait - > water -> wait -> aero -> wait -> fire

wait time is typically around 1 or 2 second. Note that at higher levels the list gets ajusted accordingly and you will probably not use the lower level spells anymore.

[Nodoka]

Start with enfeebles. I dont mean stun or sleep.. but blind (if your tank doesnt have flash) and the elemental enfeebles are great to start with. They work fairly well and dont get much hate. Once you cast a few of those start with a weak spell. For me, I open with Blizzard and maybe a thunder after the buffs. If Im not at full mp and Im fighting crabs, I'll do an aspir. Although I have III series spells.. I hardly use them. I just stick to Blizzard, Blizzard, Blizzard II, Blizzard etc because I have an ice staff, and that works wonders. :3

The thing about getting aggro is you need to stop what you're doing to get the mob on the tank. The only exception is if the mob is almost dead, just nuke the hell out of it. ^_^

[navpops]

Originally posted by xcalibur2k

Many beginner BLM makes mistakes where they always go for the big nukes at the beginning of the battle.
So I think a good way to go about it is just start with smaller nukes and slowly progress to the bigger ones.

Maybe something along this line?

stone -> wait - > water -> wait -> aero -> wait -> fire

no offense, but please dont do this. seeing a black mage unload every spell in his arsenal 1 at a time really bugs me

by level 21 you will have all the spells neccesary for each element. use them. for instance, crabs are weak to Ice and Thunder

on mobs that are weak to a spell, i, personally, use only spells of that element (except debuffs, that is)

this gives you 100% efficency. using Fire II at 39 becuase you just got it, on a mob thats strong to fire, and hitting for 4 damage, is NOT using your mp wisely, even if you're using a level 15 spell, if its more efficent,... use it.

at least thats how i do it

[AtraposBLM]

I agree mostly with the above poster.

Few other things to consider, but they're mainly based on the quality of the group, and don't come into play until level 30 or so. One, you need to moreso balance MP to last you through as many chains as your whm has, and also to balance how much damage you do. You also need to judge when it's ok to pull a little too much aggro, and when it's a really bad time to pull aggro.

Instances where it's ok to get hate:
1) Trying to finish a later exp chain (for your level, I'd say chain 3 would be pushing it)
2) Learning your tank
3) After somebody does something big (benediction, eagle eye shot, ect.)

When it's not ok:
1) Right before a renkei - As soon as I notice melee's are nearing 100% tp, I try to sneak in a LOW spell or two, but for the most part, I stop casting entirely, for a number of reasons. First, and most importantly, I don't want to be casting a spell when the melee suddenly decides to go. That most likely means I'll miss my burst, and groups don't like that Second, I don't want to pull hate because if I do, a number of things can happen:
I can cause a melee's ws to go off, but fail due to range, wasting his 100+% tp
I can cause a sneak attack to mess up because the monster moved
I can throw off my burst because the monster interrupts my spell or the melee's timing is thrown off
2) As previously mentioned, any time you party with a thf, make absolutely sure you watch for their sneak attack animation, and DO NOT MAKE THE MOB MOVE after they do it. They get very angry, and you miss out on a big damage hit.

Other than that, you'll find that you'll pretty much be able to pull hate no matter what. That's why you need at least provokers...tanks just don't have enough tools to hold hate until a bit later in the game. Just have to realize that THAT is what drain is for. Don't have to waste the whm's mp at all, and you get to do damage for almost no MP. Make sure to buy it

[Tikki]

Another time when it's okay to pull aggro, and this can be iffy to judge at time, other times it's painfully obvious it needs to be done; when your melees are told to move the freaking monster to avoid a possible link and refuse to listen. Unfortunately it gets a little harder to do this as the tanks get better at holding hate.

[thiophene]

Personally, I think the easiest way to control the timing for someone who is having a difficult time is to just find the elemental weakness of the mob and cast that spell. Wait for the cooldown and cast it again.

This tactic doesn't work well for short cooldowns, such as stone, but once you get to blizzard and thunder, the wait becomes sufficiently long that you will lose a considerable amount of hate just waiting to recast.

[navpops]

this hasn't been mentioned, but its important to me -

when your blizzard does say, 10% of the mobs hp

DONT USE BLIZZARD WHEN THE MOB HAS 2%! thats wasting ... what, 80% of possible mp and damage

[Raiyu]

One other thing I have yet to see be mentioned, is when you're going for a high chain(4&5s), start resting before the mob is dead. Why waste 76 MP on a Blizzard II when you still have an exta minute left before the chain ends when the melees can successfuly kill it off in 25-30 seconds?

I have found that doing this at the beginnings of the chains (1-3) helps quite a bit in the MP reserve. Being a Hume I need all the MP I can save. . . . its nice to be able to keep up with the taru Blm MP wise and do the same if not more damage than him.