RDM Race and Sub

[Apple Pie]

As one of red mages, the life is much easier with BLM sub because I don't have to care about MP consumption very much.

Unless I am asked to sub WHM, I always want to sub BLM. However, what I want and what other 5 people want aren't always the same. Therefore, I am careful of choosing my subs when invited.

For LV68+ red mages, I strongly recommend having both BLM and WHM sub ready. As a matter of fact, my default sub is WHM now (check my character info) although it was BLM before.

LV68-70: Gustav Tunnel
LV70-73: Dragon's Aery
LV71-74: King Ranperre's Tomb

For example, these are some of popular places to go but if we go there with BLM sub, the rest of PT members may be upset at heart although they don't say so.

Well, at least among the Japanese, those who only have BLM sub has almost no chance to receive invites because there are a lot of us looking for groups at LV65+. almost all of us writes "SJ: BLM/WHM" on their search comment. I sometimes have to write too much (such as staves and torques I have) in order to win this tough competitions.

The more subs we have, the more places we can go and the more things we can do.

[bonovoxpsu]

i'm sorry apple pie.... i'm putting my foot down.

i am NOT lvling whm. i just hate it. i can't bring myself to do it.

>.>

please massah, please! don't beat me!

*cowers in front of apple pie*

[Kilgraw]

I'm a firm believer in having multiple sub jobs leveled up for when the occassion arises. Rdm is considered the Jack of all Trades job, yes? Having many sub jobs can only emphasize this fact.

[bonovoxpsu]

Originally posted by Kilgraw
I'm a firm believer in having multiple sub jobs leveled up for when the occassion arises. Rdm is considered the Jack of all Trades job, yes? Having many sub jobs can only emphasizes this fact.

i disagree, rdm is not jack of all trades. and if i'm xp'ing, i want a whm.

you say rdm/whm is a viable substitute? just wait till an accident happens and a few lvl 68's in your pt die. see how many accept your Raise 1. see how happy everyone is to ahve an rdm/whm instead of a whm...

and i'm not saying its bad! i just don't do the whole /whm sub.

[Kilgraw]

/Whm doesn't just have to be a substitute Whm. You can have a Whm in your pt and still find /Whm useful. Being able to keep Bar'element'ra spells up for your melees for those high damage AoE spells, an extra person able to use 'na spells, an extra Erase... All of this is helpful. Sure, I like to use /Blm in parties too, but really, /Whm is slightly more party oriented. Again, to each his own. I simply like being able to provide whatever role my pt is in need of.

[dirtyclown]

i'm fighting mobs with area effect status attacks right now and i wouldn't change my white mage sub for anything. you can have your extra clear mind trait and your warp and your foofy conserve mp. i'll take my status cures and improve party efficiency.

[Patchinko]

I am currently leveling up WHM in what little spare time I have on FFXI (lvl25 right now) and I'm not a fan of it, but I do it because there are a number of situations in the coming 15 levels where it will prove useful, even though I am in a set PT with a WHM and therefore will continue to use BLM sub for PT. Being a RDM, I feel obliged to have both options available for any extracurricular activities I may take part in in the future.^^

[Apple Pie]

i'll take my status cures and improve party efficiency

This is the biggest reason I decided to level WHM for my sub.

White mages are able to hundle status cures by themselves but some spells such as Blina and Erase have longer (10+ sec) recasting time. If we leave attackers blinded for 10 - 20 seconds, we need extra 10 - 20 seconds to finish the battle and moreover, they get mad. As a result, the whole PT mood gets worse.

Then, the primary job of white mages is to heal our HP. If noone else in the PT assists status curing, they cannot concentrate on their primary job and they have to consume more MP than other two casters resulting in more downtime.

Darter uses Cursed Sphere
- PLD/WAR took 200 damage
- RNG/WAR took 200 damage
- THF/NIN took 200 damage

WHM is casting Curaga. What should we cast at the same time? Of course, another Curaga. 2x Curaga is more efficient (from MP and casting time) than throwing 3x Cure III.

We may not have to level WHM if we don't want to. We can still go up to LV75 only with BLM sub. However, I just want to do my best to contribute to the PT as much as possible. I need WHM sub out of XP PT as well. My friend NIN isn't willing to duo when I see me subbing BLM

[Uroboros]

1-30ish /WHM is better, sub doesn't really matter so much yet though
30-62ish /BLM is better, Conserve MP and a giant string of Aspirable enemies
62ish-75 /WHM is better, Toramas, then Erase get, then an endless string of fun with AOE Blind/Poison/general damage

My two cents. Status cures, Erase, and Curagas are huge though. It's another subset of responsibilities to take on for a job that's busy already but past a certain point those are just way more important IMO than BLM debuffs that don't stick, Aspir that stops being effective on what you're exping on, and Chained Escape that good parties shouldn't have to rely on. The main thing keeping /WHM from being more popular, I think, is /BLM being more utility for any situation whereas /WHM is pretty much just maximizing your party support but doesn't give much solo/screwaround utility. That, and Erase being 400k can be a tough pill to swallow for a sub.

Last comment, /WHM has nothing to do with replacing WHM, it augments them. Watching a Taru WHM with 900+mp have to burn down to 300 already on only chain 3 just doing status cures because no one can help isn't so efficient and can't be that fun for the WHM. Also, I hate partying without WHM regardless, having to individually Proshell melees every half hour is so damn irritating especially when it's an automatic manahosing everytime I have to Pro/Shell IV each person, even if just melees it hurts. I'd take an AFK WHM for Protectra/Shellra alone. XD

[bonovoxpsu]

you're all right, i know you're right.

i still am not letting go of my blm sub.

FIGHT THE POWER! :p :spin:

[Ruic]

Levelling WHM or BLM is cake. I took BLM from 10-30 in 5 days, on about 3-4 hours of party play a day. WHM from 10 to 30 in about 10 days, but only about 2 hours of play a day. I took the following levelling path:
Shakhrami 10-14 -> Korroloka 14-20 -> Qufim 20-24 -> Yuhtunga 24-27 -> Yhoator 27-30

I've not regretted levelling either. I use them often for BCNMs, quest situations, etc. But I still prefer the /NIN in XP parties, because I am just that much more effective using all of my equipment to full potential.

I ultimately plan on levelling NIN BLM WHM RNG DRK BRD SMN THF to 40, just so I have access to those subjobs. I already have WAR there, and it wasn't hard at all. The only reason I am not rapidly raising the jobs right now is that I need to be saving gil for another sniper ring (halfway) and my various other gear. If I were to continue BLM, WHM, etc I would feel compelled to purchase Erase, the teleports, Stonega II and Warp II, and other biggy spells, leaving me broke.

Don't overestimate the difficulty of levelling a subjob. And don't underestimate the usefulness of having multiple subjobs available. The only SJ that I have yet to put to extensive use is WHM. This is because my static has a WHM, and 2 others are /WHM. /BLM has been helpful for some BCNM types. /WAR is my favorite when it comes to wading through RSE, or farming some EP or barely TWTBW mobs. I use /RNG in skill-up PTs, or for hunting widespawning mobs, though /RNG won't become truly useful until 59 when I can use Sidewinder. /NIN is my favorite for XP PTs, or fighting EMs or higher.

The most important thing you'll get from levelling other jobs is not a levelled subjob either. Levelling other jobs offers insight and understanding that you can utilize to make effective party combinations, or play your favorite job even better. So go for it!

[bonovoxpsu]

all that coming from a guy who uses a /nin sub for xp...




zing! :sweat:

[Irinicus]

what sense will it be to /whm when there will most likely be a blm/whm. If thats the case, it does the same thing as you if u /whm. So that being the case, then /blm by all means. You already have the cures to be the backup healer, the blm/whm has the status cures as well as the whm. I would rather have a rdm/blm in my party than a rdm/whm anyday.

[dirtyclown]

what sense will it be to /whm when there will most likely be a blm/whm

think anticans and their various AoE spells. blind messes up melees pretty badly, having 3 blindna being cast is even better than just 2 or 1. also, in my case white mages seem to be lazy and won't cast a status cure spell unless asked. i know melees hate to ask for status cures all the time since they don't want to annoy the mages, but most mages are unobservant. so i sub white mage and throw status cures as soon as the particular status inducing spell or ability is used. i used to hate watching tanks and melees getting hurt by poison and the white mage not doing anything about it.

[Karinya]

Well, that annoys me too, but I can't afford to give up conserve MP when the WHM is too lazy to haste. Which is disturbingly many of them on Carbuncle.

(begin rant against bad WHMs)
I'm not giving them 150 free MP every two minutes so they can sit there at 75%+ mp all the time casting no enhancing spells whatsoever (ok, 2 every half hour ) and only occasionally status curing. That's just a bad WHM that isn't using their job to its potential. Sure, I could sub WHM and do half of their job too - well, once I get Fast Cast III and the AF hat, anyway, otherwise I just don't have time between enfeebles, refreshes, dispel, more enfeebles, MB, backup healing, more refreshes, dispel again and did I mention enfeebles? - but why encourage them to neglect their own job's responsibilities?

I've even seen some WHM too stupid to use regen 2 - if there was one WHM spell I could have at my level (that I can't get through /whm), that's it. The MP efficency and the low hate are just amazing. But, of course, it's too high a whm level to *ever* get as a rdm/whm. Eventually I can get erase, though. That'll be nice, because most of the WHMs I party with probably won't have it.
(end rant against bad WHMs)

Besides, I've gotten several no-BLM parties lately, and trying to debuff crabs and beetles without Shock is really not recommended. Plus no backup sleeper so I better have Elemental Seal. (Losing a BLM's damage is also bad, of course, but I can't fix that with my choice of subjob - /BLM doesn't make *that* much difference for nukes.)

I keep whm sub leveled, but hardly ever use it so far (I used it for Genkai 1 bombs and bones - beware of being stuck in Eldieme without warp, though.) I've heard of people leveling on coeurls but haven't been in any such party yet - beetles in garlaige, beetles in crawlers nest, crabs in kuftal, then crabs in boyahda. Horribly slow kill rates and low chains (#3 is above average, #4 is rarer than coffer keys), but at least they're aspirable - another reason not to give up /blm.