BLM tips.

[GrainsOfSand]

Okay, I've played FFXI since Oct. but quit by the end of February, I was mainly a Thief, was in a LS, knew renkei, how to sneak and trick, what stats to boost, etc. I was the type of person you wanted in your party(regardless of job).

However, I plan on getting back into FFXI in August but this time I'll be starting out as a Blm Taru.

I was wondering if there were any tips you guys could give me(besides hate control, finding elemental weaknesses, I know these things).

Some things I wish to know:

1: Debuffs.. I hear a lot about Burn, Shock, Frost. In what combos do these spells stack and for a refresh, what do they lower?

2: Is Bio honestly worth it? When should I use it, if at all, to make it worth the MP cost?

3: Any BLM things you learned along the way like special ways to set up your macros, using debuffs, food, etc.

I plan on going with the cookie cutter BLM/WHM.

Thanks in advance.

[Ailenroc]

I believe (someone correct me if I'm wrong) that Frost, Rasp, and Drown stack. The other stack is Burn, Shock, and Choke.

I would say Bio is worth buying (if that's what you meant), and if you meant worth using...there are situations that it is needed in, and situations it's not. Bio lowers attack and Dia lowers defense, I'm pretty sure, and since you've been playing a while, I'm sure you can figure out what mobs Bio is better against, and what mobs Dia works well against. At the start the MP cost for Bio is a bit steep, but later on, against the right mobs, I'd say it's worth it.

Nothing special for my macros. I have WHM macros on my ALT macros, BLM ones on CTRL. For food, I think pies work well, and maybe Roast Mushrooms? I'm using Apple Pies at the moment. Cost about the same as Mithkabobs I think.

Good luck! I used to be a THF, and now I'm a BLM, and I like it. Hope you do too. ^^

[AtraposBLM]

I can certainly share a few things I've learned on my road as a taru blm.

Number one - Bio is worth it for one reason, and one reason alone - it raises your Dark Magic Skill. If you can get drain as easily or easier than you can get bio, then there's really no need for it, although it does help raise your skill that much quicker. It's not that important though, as the only reason to keep dark magic up is so that you can aspir things effectively. You won't have to aspir anything until lv30 or so when you kill beetles in Altepa, so it's not too important. Then again, it's fairly cheap, and as a taru, you won't really notice the MP cost.

The elemental debuffs all have their uses, and eventually, you should have them all. However, the only ones that are really worth it for use in an exp situation are shock, frost, and burn. The others have their uses (killing avatars, doing BCNMs, skilling up, etc.), but the 3 best for exp are shock (helps enfeebles land better and longer), frost (lowers the mobs evasion, helps the melee), and burn (lowers the mobs int, which lowers your resist rate). I always use shock/burn on mobs that give me trouble with resists (like torama at lv60 - even with ice staff I got lots of resists, but burn made it virtually nil), and I use shock/frost for mobs that melees have a really hard time with (like crabs...)
The way you figure out what stacks with what is, you look at the elemental weakness chart:
Thunder > Water > Fire > Ice > Wind > Earth > Thunder
A debuff will stack with any of the others, as long as its not on either side of it (So thunder (shock) stacks with fire, ice, and wind, but not earth or water).

As for food, as a taru, I generally ate Apple Pie until lv30 or so, then I started being able to afford eating melon pies. I ate those until lv55 or so, when I discovered Apple Pie +1 gave +2 mp recovery. I gave them a try, and I've been hooked ever since. If I were to do it again, I'd start using them just about when I did. It's not usually worth it before lv35 or so, but at lv41, you start partying with a lot of rdm's, and MP isn't really much of an issue. I'd get a stack and use it in any party without a red mage after 41...by lv55, you should move exclusively to the +1 pies. They make a huge difference.

Even though you're a taru, and you can afford to slack off on gear a bit, make sure you do your best to get the most +int you can without going crazy. Keep every bit of your gear updated with HELPFUL gear - that means you don't really have to update all peices of your armor every time something new is available, but you should have all the best +int gear you can reasonably wear for your level.

In addition, at lv51, you should have enough gil to immediately purchase a dark staff. Depending on your server, you may even be able to buy an ice staff...but I'd say at 51, definately have a good 200-300k gil tucked away to buy the 2 staves. They make a big difference, especially in the reputation department

Lastly, since the invent of the /recast feature, I've learned to REALLY love it. With shorter casting spells, it's not so great. But for things like drain, aspir, and the higher tier elemental spells, it's a god send. Rather than having to guess when aspir/drain are ready (or use the clunky magic list), you can have your macro do it for you automatically. Make your drain/aspir macro the following:
/ma "Drain" <t> **or <stnpc>, whichever you prefer**
/recast "Drain"
Then, after you cast drain, if you hit the macro too soon, it displays to you how long you have until you can cast it again. Helps with Bind too in the early levels. I have recast on every one of my spell macros that has a recast timer longer than 5-15 seconds. Really helps on Stun, Drain, Aspir, Fire III=>Water IV, and sleep II / sleepga II.

One last note - for a while, I had party announcements for my spells. I thought that mine were ok, as they weren't the cheesy "<t>, feel the wrath of my fire!!!" kind, I just had "Fire => <t>". What I've found is it's much better to only announce things that you NEED to. If you're uncertain, ask yourself "If I was one of these other players, would the fact that I'm getting alerted of the action make me do anything different?". I'll give a list of a few of the times I think it helps:
1) More annoying than anything else as a blm is when you get an add, you try to sleep it, and a melee wakes it up. Then, you got an angry mob beating your face in, and you can't get sleep to cast again because you keep getting interrupted. That's why having something like "/p Sleep => <t> PLEASE DISENGAGE" and a "/wait 2" in your sleep macro can be helpful. This alerts the melee, and gives them some time to disengage. I never used the waits, because I felt like it would limit the speed with which I could respond. Looking back, I wish I had used the waits, as most times its not really that urgent...and if the melee wakes up the mob, you're a LOT worse off than if your sleep comes 2 seconds later.

2) Escape - If you need to escape out of a situation, most times it'll require members of the party to gather around you. I usually have 2 announcements, one when I cast, and one again a few seconds later. Having a <call> in them helps as well. Nothing makes you feel worse than when you use escape and someone gets left behind.

3) Stun (if I'm in a party with another blm or a drk) - 2 stuns don't overlap, so if I see it happen a lot, I'll put an announcement in. Usually don't have to though.

4) Occasionally, I'll put an announcement for which elemental debuffs I'm casting. The only time I have to is when the rdm is also casting them, and the party is JP. I'll leave the announcement on for a few mobs, then take it off again when they leave the debuffs to me.

I'm sure there are a few other times having a /p announcement is ok, but most times...it'll just annoy your party-mates over the course of an exp party. That being said...occasionally macro's can be a source of amusement, just make sure you realize that a cute macro is funny at first, but becomes annoying after a while.

[GrainsOfSand]

Thanks a lot, Ailen, Atrapos. I'll remember these things and use them, thank you for sharing.

Is level 51 the soonest you can get the elemental staves(Dark, ice, etc?). Also, Ice is used in battle, Dark while resting right?

Ailen, I was also on the Kujata server(and will be going back to it re-join my LS). Just thought I'd mention that.

/Duath of the Outlaw Syndicate/

[Scatman]

Originally posted by AtraposBLM
One last note - for a while, I had party announcements for my spells. I thought that mine were ok, as they weren't the cheesy "<t>, feel the wrath of my fire!!!" kind, I just had "Fire => <t>".

This was one reason I hated the lower level cramped zones. Seems like every newbie who's just discovered how to macro, always puts on some retarded /say line to their abilities. While it may seem fun to add something "creative", just remember everything sounds stupid when repeated over and over, so just save your party members and neighboring groups the pain of hearing it.

[Tifa]

[i]Also, Ice is used in battle, Dark while resting right?

Correct.

[Ailenroc]

Go Kujata! I'm not that high level, but look me up sometime if you need help with something I can do, if I'm not busy I'll probably be happy to help.

Everything Atrapos said sounds about right, and I'd listen to him since I'm not that experienced in the blm job yet. :sweat:

In terms of gear...I think it's important to have the +1 wands. The normal wands are dirt cheap, but the +1 ones aren't too bad for the bonus.

I agree with Scatman about /say or /p "creative" messages for spells. It just gets really annoying, really fast. >_>

[AtraposBLM]

we were all newbies once :spin:


Note, that I went on to say that I felt it was unneccesary to have those /p lines in the macro, just that I too made the mistake of having them


At lv51, you should definately buy a dark staff. It'll help tons. Depending on your server, you may or may not be able to easily afford an Ice Staff at the same time. I'd say that if you were able to get an ice staff at 51 easily, then get it...otherwise I'd say wait until you *stop* exping on crabs, and make sure you get your AF gloves ASAP. I didn't really notice an advantage of having an ice staff when I got it around lv55 or so, and I wish I had bought a dark staff then instead. I, unfortunately, was on midgardsormr...where the staves were still in the 1.5-2 million gil range until recently. I got lucky and only had to pay 1.1 million for both mine ; ;

[Gavin]

where as some people have got lucky and paid 650k for the both T_T. I paid 498k for my ice staff, and 2 weeks later it had dropped to 250k lol, god bless the AH.

[AtraposBLM]

yeah...I've completed getting the majority of my gear. The only things that remain are getting 2 diamond rings (don't need them for 2 levels), Errant Pants/Legs (2 levels, and they're so cheap as to not even factor in), Phantom Tathlum (Gonna kill the worm for it), and the rest of the staves.

The problem is I just don't want to buy any more staves...I'm so afraid they're going to plummet the second I buy them that I don't even want to bother with them for a while lol. At the same time...they're the best things I can buy...sooo...yeah ; ;

[Raiyu]

Psst! AtraposBLM... get the staves, they help sooo much.

When I got my full set recently, the first XP PT I joined had 2 BLMs... a well equipped Tarutaru with Ice/Dark staves... and me, a Hume with a full set of staves. For the first time...I out-damaged the Taru in everything but Blizzard spells(hence his Ice Staff).

Trust me, that extra 10% of damage helps tremendously and is the best investment a Blm can make.

[AtraposBLM]

nonono, I totally know they're worth it, hence my comment about them being the best things I could buy. It's just that I really don't want to buy fire staff for 350k...only for it to be the next ore farmed and have the ore drop to 150k and the staff drop to 200k. I've already lost about ~500k gil just because of the price plummeting, and my gil comes hard earned, so I don't mind spending it and saving it for expensive gear...but gear who's price is highly volatile...I'd rather wait and get it when the price has leveled off a bit. Nothing frustrates me more than over paying for things...

[cavill]

Originally posted by AtraposBLM
I can certainly share a few things I've learned on my road as a taru blm.

Number one - Bio is worth it for one reason, and one reason alone - it raises your Dark Magic Skill. If you can get drain as easily or easier than you can get bio, then there's really no need for it, although it does help raise your skill that much quicker. It's not that important though, as the only reason to keep dark magic up is so that you can aspir things effectively. You won't have to aspir anything until lv30 or so when you kill beetles in Altepa, so it's not too important. Then again, it's fairly cheap, and as a taru, you won't really notice the MP cost.

The elemental debuffs all have their uses, and eventually, you should have them all. However, the only ones that are really worth it for use in an exp situation are shock, frost, and burn. The others have their uses (killing avatars, doing BCNMs, skilling up, etc.), but the 3 best for exp are shock (helps enfeebles land better and longer), frost (lowers the mobs evasion, helps the melee), and burn (lowers the mobs int, which lowers your resist rate). I always use shock/burn on mobs that give me trouble with resists (like torama at lv60 - even with ice staff I got lots of resists, but burn made it virtually nil), and I use shock/frost for mobs that melees have a really hard time with (like crabs...)
The way you figure out what stacks with what is, you look at the elemental weakness chart:
Thunder > Water > Fire > Ice > Wind > Earth > Thunder
A debuff will stack with any of the others, as long as its not on either side of it (So thunder (shock) stacks with fire, ice, and wind, but not earth or water).

As for food, as a taru, I generally ate Apple Pie until lv30 or so, then I started being able to afford eating melon pies. I ate those until lv55 or so, when I discovered Apple Pie +1 gave +2 mp recovery. I gave them a try, and I've been hooked ever since. If I were to do it again, I'd start using them just about when I did. It's not usually worth it before lv35 or so, but at lv41, you start partying with a lot of rdm's, and MP isn't really much of an issue. I'd get a stack and use it in any party without a red mage after 41...by lv55, you should move exclusively to the +1 pies. They make a huge difference.

Even though you're a taru, and you can afford to slack off on gear a bit, make sure you do your best to get the most +int you can without going crazy. Keep every bit of your gear updated with HELPFUL gear - that means you don't really have to update all peices of your armor every time something new is available, but you should have all the best +int gear you can reasonably wear for your level.

In addition, at lv51, you should have enough gil to immediately purchase a dark staff. Depending on your server, you may even be able to buy an ice staff...but I'd say at 51, definately have a good 200-300k gil tucked away to buy the 2 staves. They make a big difference, especially in the reputation department

Lastly, since the invent of the /recast feature, I've learned to REALLY love it. With shorter casting spells, it's not so great. But for things like drain, aspir, and the higher tier elemental spells, it's a god send. Rather than having to guess when aspir/drain are ready (or use the clunky magic list), you can have your macro do it for you automatically. Make your drain/aspir macro the following:
/ma "Drain" <t> **or <stnpc>, whichever you prefer**
/recast "Drain"
Then, after you cast drain, if you hit the macro too soon, it displays to you how long you have until you can cast it again. Helps with Bind too in the early levels. I have recast on every one of my spell macros that has a recast timer longer than 5-15 seconds. Really helps on Stun, Drain, Aspir, Fire III=>Water IV, and sleep II / sleepga II.

One last note - for a while, I had party announcements for my spells. I thought that mine were ok, as they weren't the cheesy "<t>, feel the wrath of my fire!!!" kind, I just had "Fire => <t>". What I've found is it's much better to only announce things that you NEED to. If you're uncertain, ask yourself "If I was one of these other players, would the fact that I'm getting alerted of the action make me do anything different?". I'll give a list of a few of the times I think it helps:
1) More annoying than anything else as a blm is when you get an add, you try to sleep it, and a melee wakes it up. Then, you got an angry mob beating your face in, and you can't get sleep to cast again because you keep getting interrupted. That's why having something like "/p Sleep => <t> PLEASE DISENGAGE" and a "/wait 2" in your sleep macro can be helpful. This alerts the melee, and gives them some time to disengage. I never used the waits, because I felt like it would limit the speed with which I could respond. Looking back, I wish I had used the waits, as most times its not really that urgent...and if the melee wakes up the mob, you're a LOT worse off than if your sleep comes 2 seconds later.

2) Escape - If you need to escape out of a situation, most times it'll require members of the party to gather around you. I usually have 2 announcements, one when I cast, and one again a few seconds later. Having a <call> in them helps as well. Nothing makes you feel worse than when you use escape and someone gets left behind.

3) Stun (if I'm in a party with another blm or a drk) - 2 stuns don't overlap, so if I see it happen a lot, I'll put an announcement in. Usually don't have to though.

4) Occasionally, I'll put an announcement for which elemental debuffs I'm casting. The only time I have to is when the rdm is also casting them, and the party is JP. I'll leave the announcement on for a few mobs, then take it off again when they leave the debuffs to me.

I'm sure there are a few other times having a /p announcement is ok, but most times...it'll just annoy your party-mates over the course of an exp party. That being said...occasionally macro's can be a source of amusement, just make sure you realize that a cute macro is funny at first, but becomes annoying after a while.

*takes notes* Wow i learned 2 new nifty things that i will use when i log back on ^^