Flash! (Not what you think >.>)

[Araycat]

So... I'm about to get flash for my whm... but I am thinking... should I ever use it?

I know it grabs a lot of agro, but from what I heard is that it's still a useful spell. It supposed to make the mobs accurary drop real low for about 6-7 seconds. I know the pally uses it, but I heard from a friend he combines it with the pld and it really helps to keep him from being hit

So pretty much my question is:

Should I cast flash?

Will the agro I get from it make the mob go to me? Or would it generate less agro than me healing him for damage?

And if I cast it, will the mp I use for it be less than the mp healing

Thank you

[Tifa]

I use Flash in exp parties all the time (as often as the timer resets). However I recommend capping your Divine Magic Skill beofre using this. Without the high skill level it won't blind the enemy long and won't really be worth your 25 MP. But with whm's A skill rating in divine magic, capped skill will make this spell really good

To be safe you should probly not think about casting this a lot until you get your AF armor (-10 total enmity), and at the same time paladins will get their own AF armor with +enmity.

I will usually wait for the tank to provoke 2 times before I cast my flash. Last thing: make sure you don't cast right before the pld casts his Flash or he won't gain any hate from it.

it will prolly take you some experimenting but once you can use flash safely you will be so glad you did.

[Rawls]

Its useful for soloing in order to get sleep off (or any other spell for that matter) so i could Blink/Stoneskin and reapply debuffs.

[Gryff]

great with nin tanks when they lose blink.

[BlueIX]

I like to cast Flash to help me get Stoneskin up if I lose it if I happen to be soloing something for some reason.

[lionx]

I have to gauge my hate when using this, usually i try to use it whenever possible, but i try to gauage it so that i wont steal hate because of it. Try to use it at a opertune time with a skillchain is going where hate is spread a bit, or after a Provoke(if PLD already used Flash if theres a PLD), or if theres little healing or Utsusemi down for whatever reason....and i do it without AF, its just a bit more risky and you have to know how much hate the spell does and will it nab the hate off if you use it..thats all. Use common sense.

[Kitalrez]

To add my 2 bits here, the PLD in my static party and I have a standing agreement: I am to use this spell pretty much whenever it pops up again. I have it macro'd (CTRL-8), and this macro is starting to wear out my keyboard more than the Cure III macro is. This is an EXTREMELY useful spell for party play, but as others here have implied, only if the tank can control the hate.

How I currently time Flashing is by waiting for the PLD to use his. As soon as this happens I start watching his hp bar... normally it goes up as I chain my little Cure IIIs, but the second I notice it go down again by a significant amount, (say over the 20-50 range), I hit my macro. Obviously, you've gotta allow a bit of room there for when the mob does a special attack, but once I see significant damage that isn't a special, I blind the thing again. By doing this, we only have about a 15-20 second gap in there where the mob can actually hit the PLD unhindered. This cuts waaaaaay down on the amount of mp I notice I'm using per fight, and also produces less total aggro for me, (since I'm cureing less hp). About once every couple of battles I manage to pull enough aggro to actually take a hit, and I've yet to get myself into the red zone of hp, even fighting coffer level mobs.

If you are worried about aggro shift, you may not want to use this spell, and I fully understand your perspective. On the other hand, if aggro is sticking pretty well where it should be, this can really help out the situation and speed up that battle. It'll also level Divine skill like nothing else, so it could be worth using just for the skill raises to improve Holy MBs.

What can help with managing aggro so you can sneak in a few good Flashes are:

1. Are you making certain to not use your highest level cure until it's actually necessary? I.E. Aggro 101 basic, chains of Cure create a lot less hate than a single Cure II.
2. Does your tank have an aggro management plan worked out for himself? If you aren't sure, ask him/her. My PLD has a system going where he does a Cure III, several chains of vokes, then a Flash. Until this most recent level where the RNG got Sidewinder and our THF got Tripple Attack, we couldn't blast aggro off him with dynamite, even with a mistimed Freeze.
3. Are you the sole member of the party who can and actually does heal people? If yes, you probably don't want to use this, because you've got a pretty high aggro count as it is now. On the other hand, my PT includes a RDM who gets bored enough every once in a blue moon to heal the PLD to full while I'm trying to keep him in the yellow. If your party includes someone like this, by all means consider this spell... when someone else helps with heals, aggro spreads out enough you can sneak in spells like this.

But if you do steal aggro with Flash, remember that you've just dropped the target's accuracy by a massive amount. If you're wearing decent armor for your level (Holy or Divine BP, etc), you won't probably get hit much before the now-annoyed tank pulls it off you again. Also you can consider raising your evasion by helping people out with missions or quests to areas with weaker monsters with physical AE attacks. I used to help people with the Castle Oztroja leg of Rank 5, because every time a lutenist or conquistador did sweep I got some easy evasion gains. Evasion and Defense aren't fail safe if you pull aggro from Flash, but they make it a lot less scary while you learn.

Hope that all makes sense for you.

[LockeCole]

Personally, Flash is a wonderful spell. It can save you a few cures or in a ninjas case make him even more invulnerable. BUT... when you first get it at level 45, I'd advise you to stay away from it unless necessary. The hate it generates is HUGE, and you will pull aggro by using it a few times in early stages. You can test it out a few times, but I'm pretty sure you'll come to the same conclusion.

I'd say wait till you get 1 or 2 AF pieces, and your paladin get 1 or 2 AF pieces as well. The hate-- you get and hate++ he gets should offset the hate received (specially since his flash gets more powerful). If you have a ninja tank only use it when he needs to recast utsusemi:ichi, as if you randomly throw it out, then it might not be there when he actually needs it (again, it's subjective).

[Icemage]

Hate generation from Flash is not an issue if you're managing your casting correctly.

Prior to receiving your AF armor, I'd recommend maintaining Blink up at all times, and STAY CLOSE to the monster. Don't melee, but stay in melee range. The worst thing you can do with Flash is cast it at long range and have the monster come flying away from the melees (making them unable to attack it).

Generally speaking, to make Flash useful, you have to use it almost as fast as it resets, so switch off with your PLD tank so you don't overlap your flashes. You WILL get attacked from time to time until you get some of the -Enmity from your AF - this is where Blink comes in handy, since it is pretty good at intercepting incoming attacks, and lasts quite a while for minimal MP cost.

Nowadays at level 68, PLD tanks I party with always open fights with Flash, then Provoke, so I never really have to worry about generating too much enmity unless I'm tossing around Curaga II/III or Cure IV (and I almost never cast Cure IV anymore... Cure V is just sooo much better).


Icemage

[Shann_Phoenix]

Using flash is rather safe with a good pld tank but i bit harder with a nin tank.

With a pld, just wait after the 2nd provoke and you should be safe to flash all you want if you pld can maintains his hate to a decent level with cures.

With a nin tank, i usually flash only if utsusemi is down and nin can't recat the Ni version. Otherwise, i'll use at mid fight or after the SA/TA. Using it when the mob is about to die is also a good option.

Flash is also good for mobs with high dmg specials like spiders and exorays with pld tanks. Mob use high dmg specials, you can flash giving your pld more chance of not getting interrupted when casting is next cure. Also flash is faster to cast than cure 3/4, meaning this might give your backup healer the time to land those cures instead of watching your tank get creamed before someone can land a spell on it.

In some case you have to be carefull with flash, i fought antican in quicksands caves tonight and used flash carefully because these mob have a special that cancel hate. So the more you flash, the more chance the mob stays on you longer if it does the sand trap move.