Farming Gear Question^^

[Icemage]

Just a quick correction to myself: Spoke with someone last night who confirmed that Charybdis is at most an 8 hour lottery pop, not 21.


Icemage

[locus]

When soloing as a white mage, ask yourself two questions:

1) Does it sleep? (Yes? Sub BLM and you can kill anything.)
2) How weak is it?

Contrary to Mr. Icemage's "Oh, WHM sucks at soloing" opinion (forgive him, he's been a taru since forever), I'd like to point out that farming as a white mage is very possible, if not more so than WAR (which is the worst possible solo job.)

Yes, RDM will generally solo higher level monsters more easily, but when it comes to weak monsters, you have the following advantages over RDM:

- Better WS. Spirit Taker is a lot more efficient/faster than Refresh will ever be. Use a Kinkoubo, or if you can't afford one, an Eight sided pole+1 should be plenty. If you're farming easy "Too weaks" like Tigers, you can go forever with Spirit taker and Retribution alone. RDM is stuck with crappy sword WS, and the best they can do is Vorpal, which they have to sub DRK/WAR/PLD for. (None of which are fantastic farming subs) Retribution is stronger than Savage Blade at 100%.
- Better logistics. Unlike RDM, you will always have teleport at your fingertips. This lets you get to Rabao fast so you can vendor stuff efficiently.
- You won't get raped by high level pots. (RDM do)
- You'll always have the na spells handy.
- Reraise 3. Regen 3.

People think WHM have a "weak" offensive power because WHM doesn't have much access to +attack equipment, unlike RDM. But WHM is not a weak attacker if you can compensate for that one stat. (WHM has good STR) Hint: Use +atk food. As a tested fact, using basic Mithkabobs, Hexa with a DS Maul will outdamage dancing edge on enemies that register as "low Defense". But I dislike using a club because Spirit taker frequently is superior for low level farming (especially with SA).

Minor correction to the below:
Charybdis does NOT cast Waterga 3. That is complete rubbish.

[Gman]

While I'm sure the WHM community appreciates your input locus, why come off so consescending and rude?

Is there some history with Icemage that provoked those comments?

Also, maybe you could enlighten me as to why WHM is better against high level pots than RDM. I'd love to know, since I've never tried them for myself.

[Zempten]

Gman...

That's why I went with the NIN ^^ Less competition ROFL, joking ^^

Anyways, I too am interested in how a WHM vs a High Level Pot compares to a BLM vs a High Level Pot.

[Icemage]

Also, maybe you could enlighten me as to why WHM is better against high level pots than RDM. I'd love to know, since I've never tried them for myself.

Pots are kind of a special case. They have pretty good magic resistance - it's not insurmountable, but even RDMs have trouble Silencing them sometimes, and nukes used against them are inconsistent at best, which takes away the magic damage advantage of RDM. They're also weak to blunt melee damage, so clubs/staves/h2h deal extra damage against them, which closes the damage gap from the otherwise superior damage-over-time from swords + enspells that RDM use.

Against weak pots (i.e. Delkfut's) WHM probably does farm faster than RDM does.

- note: Locus is right about Waterga III. My mistake. If anything, Maelstrom is worse than Waterga III would ever be though, since you really can't Stun it very easily (and kind of pointless to do so anyway since it's a TP move). He's still not incredibly tough, but as I said before, can be tricky if you get a run of bad luck and he starts spamming 4x attack for a few rounds.

I'll have to disagree with the "sub BLM and you can kill anything that sleeps" comment from Locus though. There's quite a few things that you "can" sleep that you won't kill as WHM/BLM. Sleep I/Sleepga I simply doesn't last long enough to be tactically useful for WHM other than allowing you time to recast Stoneskin or to zone, not to mention it can't be applied repeatedly the way Sleep II can without building sleep resistance in a hurry. My RDM friends can solo Steelshells in Boyahda with ease for skillup - something I simply can't do as WHM/BLM.


Icemage

[locus]

re: Icemage comments

Nah, it's just a way of teasing Icemage since I rarely post on these boards anymore even if I do read them, but I do respect him. He's generally pretty well-informed, but needs to be challenged (not always corrected, just providing a different viewpoint) on minor technicalities.

For example:
-Normal enemies do not build sleep resistance over time. You're thinking of Ballista or Gravity/Sleep on NM (Ouryu is one special case, for example, where the monster actually does build sleep resistance over time). I've kept Tough monsters sleeping for over 60 minutes before with no sleep duration reduction, and yes, I was using my WHM. If normal enemies built resistance, Solo BLM would be impossible (and I do that while waiting for parties).

-Sleep lasts long enough as long as you don't fight anything higher than EM (Tough not reliable). What you actually do is play like a solo bard. Full buffs, regen 3 -> Melee the enemy, but stop when you have about 200 mp left. Sleep > Stoneskin > Blink, rest. Enemy wakes up, Sleep > rebuff if needed > Rest. Once you're at full MP, repeat. It takes you about 3 times the time it takes RDM to kill anything, but it can be done.

-What your Rdm friends are failing to mention is that you can do almost the same thing with Rdm sub for phalanx. (and semi-frequent MP sleep breaks) I'd rather not try it as a taru (awful Maxhp), but your -30% damage JSE earring beats anything they can equip once your hp hits the yellow mark. I've done it before, but yes, it's nowhere as safe as soloing them as RDM. Genbu shield helps, but Earth staff is probably too weak. (I hate the RDM JSE earring)

Maat > Crab and I can tank Maat without a sub. Crabs are no problem in comparision. Hell, Estya could solo goblin Alchemists at level 70(NOT RECOMMENDED), which is more than a Warrior could do, so WHM really isn't that awful of a solo job. -_-

-About Waterga 3, it depends. But yes, you are correct. Waterga 3 would be preferable to maelstrom since it generally isn't spammed and usually can be stunned/silenced. It does do about 3x the damage of maelstrom though and in special cases (Moving Island BC ugggh) I'd rather take the maelstrom over the chainspell Waterga 3 please -_-

[Jei]

Farming easier stuff I always envy Whm for their Hexa ^^ Gotta try to get dagger and sword's quest WS and see how much I'll like em

[Icemage]

Actually, Locus, regarding the sleep resistance on normal enemies, they do in fact build resistance. The reason I mentioned Steelshells specifically is because I've tried it. After 3 sleeps, wearing +21(241 total) Enfeebling Gear, my success rate on Sleep/Sleepga falls below 50%, and the average stick time goes way down. After 5 sleep attempts (successful or otherwise), stick rate becomes virtually 0. I'm sure I could have improved it using a Dark Staff, but that rather defeats the purpose...

Sleep II has a long enough duration to make it possible to re-apply without risk of raising resistance, but I assure you Sleep I/Sleepga just doesn't cut it against anything above easy prey. Even a half-resisted sleep will force you to build resistance, and everything goes downhill from there.


Icemage