To Be(ne) or not to Be(ne)

[hero]

hmmm, but if you are the lone survivor and everyone else is dead, you can still raise them.

[Calianeri]

Of course you'll have Reraise on if you're above lvl33. Right? That lessens the "danger" of Benediction if your party can't kill the mob or you can't protect yourself beforehand. Reraise is your friend. Find good times to cast it and you're golden, it stays active for a nice long time.

I like Icemage's advice on Blink and Stoneskin, but you have to account for the long cast times and somewhat high MP usage of those spells... just another reason to be aware of how your party's doing and what the potential dangers are.

Also, at some point your puller will learn that if they get a really bad pull that the party can't handle (links, aggro, etc), sometimes it's best for them to NOT bring the mobs back to the party at all. Hopefully they can reach a zone line, but if not they should consider just taking the death and saving the party the potential pain and suffering. That sort of thing (smart sacrifices) will reduce the times you need Bene in the first place.

[RinoaxHeartilly]

I usually die when using Bene, it's probably because I panic though x_x; I will always use bene if someone dies and one or more members are in the red.

People had advised me to zone the mob once I use bene, and most of the time I'm too far from the exit to zone it and it results in my death - but I'd rather the mob chase me and kill me then having everyone else die from it in my party.

So you're saying that staying and fighting is more effective then zoning? I want to try that meathod but I'd like to hear more opinions.

/ja "Benediction" <me>
/p Casting BENE, WATCH ME RUN LIKE HELL!

[Icemage]

You should never panic as a WHM. You are the last line of defense for the party - if you panic, people will die. Keep calm, stay prepared, and you will see much better results.

Just by example, I use Benediction regularly (once every 4 hours or so) while XPing, and I haven't died to using Benediction since I was level 23 or so (I'm level 51 now).


Icemage

[Soonyi]

To me, I feel that Raise is a reactive spell, not a proactive one. A Whm's job is to make sure everyone in the party survives, and imho, using whatever means they have and at any cost. I would rather see myself lose xp from dying than to see 5 people losing all their xp, and then Raising them one at a time to save them 25% xp each... Besides, as Icemage (and other high level Whms) have put it, Bene does NOT necessarily mean certain death.

RinoaxHeartilly: It depends on the situation... If the Zone is too far away, then you might as well give yourself (or atleast your party) a fighting chance. If there's a Zone close by, then by all means, as you had put it, run like h3ll!

Soonyi.

[hero]

it's very circumstantial

[Siven]

I tried to put the question as directly as possible. It's more of a moral choice than one of tactics, i.e. you lose 10% or your PT lose a combined 50% EXP. It's OK though since I still got what I wanted to know.

[Somajan]

If you have a paladin in the party it would also be a good idea for him to know that Invincible generates even more hate towards the monster. That has been a major whm saver in my parties where the whm had to use benediction., especially since most of them don't really read these very informative forums.

Sorry, I know my job is out of place but I'm just reading this forums for some insight on how to level up whm to 15.

[efDisk]

Gonna make a quick addition to the canon of Benediction knowledge.

Benediction will also wake up party members. (Similar to Curaga). I know this from personal experience, and in this unique case, I think you'll agree it was a good use:

Situation:
In Yahorta a Goblin added on to the party. Half the party fought the goblin, the other half fought a mandragora. I'm healing both, getting beat up. Cast a few Curagas, which didn't add to the situation. The Goblin suicide bombed, and we were hurting. Curaga goes off, and just after the mandragora cast sleepga.

Guess who just made his hatelist? I break out my hammer, and find myself getting pounded, note, I have a little mana left, maybe one heal. But, I have benediction, and its close to death. I can't solo it, but my party might have a weapon ability. Benediction goes off, and as it goes off I mention that.

They wake up, everyone hits weapon ability, and we live.

So I guess the moral of the story is, if you can survive the beating you'll get from using Bene, I say use it.

[Vaiyo]

Benediction isn't necessarily a suicide either even without all the tactics used by Icemage (granted, I am a lot lower in level and I am sure that if I were in his level range, I'd probably die as a result).

Here are some other things you can do (asides from tactics) which can help save yourself from benediction death.

1) Keep more up-to-date on armor. If you're rich enough or have the patience to farm gil a few days at a time, I've actually found myself being able to somewhat keep up with the melees in terms of defense ratings. With Protect II, I am able to reach 140 in defense. Also, don't use staves ... use club+shield combo.

2) Work up your parry, shield & evasion skills. This kinda extends upon the first. If you have a club & shield, not only can you parry & evade but you can also block - all of which completely negate damage. Easiest way I found to do this is to go to lower level zones and do some tanking; at 33, I am able to go to Valkurm and take on goblin leechers to help boost some skill.

3) DO NOT run after benediction unless you're absolutely sure everyone can make it to the zone safely. I found this out the hard way and I think someone else also also mentioned it. It is counter-productive because no one can kill the mob while it is in motion and it creates havoc to greatly reduce the chances of anyone 1) getting the mob off of you and/or 2) killing it before it kills anyone. So unless you have a plan and a zone to safely carry out that plan, don't run around recklessly.

These are just some things that I do to help make benediction more survivable. Even without stoneskin/blink, I have survived tanking after benediction most of the time (I think my record is 19 out of 24 times that I survived benediction thus far) - plus it's funny sometimes to see a mob come after you and it's *parry, miss, miss, block, parry*. ^^