Final Fantasy XI Then...

[Daragon]

I wouldn't worry about defense gear as a blm. Chances are in a party situation, the mob won't have long enough to kill you anyway if you take too much hate, and if you get aggro solo, its unlikely that the best armor a blm can wear defense wise would be enough to keep you alive.

As for blm gear dropping from BCNMs, I don't see that problem. 100% (I think) of my gear has been quested or bought for a price I could happily afford (TH2 aside as I didn't have it when I bought most of my expensive stuff). Sure, I'm missing an astral ring or 2 but I'm happy with my 700 mp and my +28 int, and it seems that parties I join don't have a problem with it either.

Other than the moldavite earring (simply because I can't find anyone willing to help me camp the NM spawn for 2 hours) and maybe the Astral ring, you name me a piece of blm gear that a lvl 60 blm would wear, chances are I either own it or its simply an un-necessary expense. Apologies in advance for the offense that I have most likely caused a few of you with my "take" on the situation.

[Tobal]

What does +MND do for RDM anyway? I know it increases Cure Potency and magic def/resists, but is 1-2million really worth 3-5 more HP point cured?

I would say a BLM doesn?t need uber equipment to be useful to party, you may get a couple of resists to your nukes here and there but over all an average equipped BLM can out damage most melee any day of the week and for free.

[talizker]

First xp party nobhead to bring up the fact I'm using level 30 gear at level 50 would undoubtedly have me kicking the crap out of my PS2.

I still use my RSE Feet and Legs in XP Parties and will continue to do so for some time I think. Don't feel that you have to have Lv50 gear if Lv30 is more effective!

What does +MND do for RDM anyway? I know it increases Cure Potency and magic def/resists, but is 1-2million really worth 3-5 more HP point cured?

MND effect the lenght of time the some enfeebles stick (such as Paralyze and Silence) and thus is very important. As per my earlier comment I certainly do not feel that these are worth 1-2M !!!

[Darwock]

I wouldn't worry about defense gear as a blm. Chances are in a party situation, the mob won't have long enough to kill you anyway if you take too much hate, and if you get aggro solo, its unlikely that the best armor a blm can wear defense wise would be enough to keep you alive.

I do need good defense as I fight solo quite a lot and I do notice the difference when I start outgrowing my equipment in comparison to the level of mobs I'm fighting.

[talizker]

From RDM 101:

MND - This is a very important stat, as there are many spells that are directly tied in with it. MND increases the power of Cure spells (up to the soft cap), the Banish line of nukes (for /WHM sub) ,increases your resistance to White Magic, increases the effectiveness of your own White Magic spells (such as Slow, Silence, Paralyze, etc), and has miscellaneous boosts to spells like Stoneskin. You will be spending a lot of time searching high and low for good +MND items to wear.

[C']

Got to agree with people above me. Level of gear is not important it?s the stats that they offer. If a level 30 piece of gear is the one that offers best, most useful, stats for your job then that is the piece of equipment to go for. Even if you are using it for 30 levels or more.

In fact, such equipment is always better for events that cap at a lower level. My headpiece is level 24 and there is quite simply no piece of equipment better to do my job until level 70 and it means when the time comes to do Promyvion, BCNM40 etc it is one less piece of gear I have to worry about having.

The only exception to this is PLD and (tanking) WAR but only because DEF is one of the most important stats and that only goes up by having up to date armour.

I bet everyone member of the LS can name one piece of equipment that they still use despite being 'outdated' in terms of level numbers.

[Tobal]

Samurai can easily go for lvls and lvls with out having to update key armour, stuff I can remember

Boots -
lvl07 to lvl70 leaping boots (upgrade to Sam lvl70 JSE)
lvl24 to lvl70 Fed.Kaykan (the way I went, +att is more useful than dex/agi to me)
other options
Fumas for +haste but not worth the price or giving up +dex/agi of Leaping or +4att/rng.att of Feds
AF boots ? solo or tank only, nothing better.

[Tsingtao]

Even with PLD the up to date gear is a trade off, I used level 29 hand and feet up until my AF peice due to the +VIT and +AGI stats on them. Even now I have level 40 legs and until very recently a level 40 lump of head gear.

Def caps out for PLDs at some point and then VIT takes over as more important. I usually test this by throwing off defender early on in a new level or whne I change mobs. If there's little or no impact to damage and the damage band is stable then it's time for more VIt to move down the damage curve.

[C']

Last night?s party experiences started off worryingly. Got in invite from a player who was anon. Went over to Jeuno to find the PT close to being formed. However just as we had 6 members the leader informs us that he is lvl70 and was forming the PT for his friend. Odd but we managed to get a 6th person and it was on.

I?ll admit I was worried about the premise upon which this PT had been built but thought I?d give it a try as it had a nice mix of jobs (NIN, THF, WAR/nin, WHM, SMN, BRD) and we headed to Bibiki Bay to level off birds.

First off, this was the first PT I have been in where the SMN played a DD role and it was really goo. Having avatars melee alongside us offered a nice damage boost and the blood pacts were cool. The SMN switched between Shiva (to combat the birds? ice element weakness) and Carbuncle when he needed to recover MP (he had Carbuncle Mitts).

We worked well as a group. We hit chain 5 each time with each mob giving between 150-250exp and we ripped through them quite quickly (sadly not quite quick enough to hit chain 6). Downtime was non-existent and the JPN WHM was absolutely exemplary with Haste and seemed to have a sixth sense of when to use Flash between my Utsusemi recasts. The most downtime we had was after my first stack off Shihei ran out and I left my other 4 toolbags in my mogsafe

Considering how good the PT was operating I should have hit 63 for sure but here?s the thing?

I died 4 times in that party.

Normally dieing 4 times in one party is a sign that the PT is not very good but I can honestly say that we were victims of pure bad luck and my deaths were the fault of no one.

First time puller linked 2 goblins and offered to die but was told to pull both and BRD could sleep one. Sadly Lullaby got resisted and the BLM goblin hit me with Thundaga III killing me instantly. With 2 gobs on them, the PT wiped quite spectacularly.

Second was having a mob pop right near to camp and link with the one we were fighting. I couldn?t recast Utsusemi in time and got wasted. PT actually survived that though.

Third was due to the PT near us calling for help on what they were fighting. They?re puller and claimed a BST goblin along with its rabbit pet and another rabbit had linked. The 2 PTs managed to kill the gob and its pet but this rabbit was some ind of demon bitch bunny from hell and proceeded to wipe out everyone. Party Wipe #2 What annoyed me about this was not the dieing but the fact that our WHM had to Raise II everyone. Obviously he used Raise II on our PT members first and our BRD and SMN offered to help speed up the other PT?s revival (and speed up our return to EXPing) with normal Raises. Not one person volunteered to take the regular Raise meaning our WHM (who was Japanese) spent ages giving Raise II to 2 parties. Considering it was that party?s mistake that led to the resulting massacre, it really frustrated me that they weren?t willing to take a slight EXP hit. Our group made sure the WHM received copious amounts of the /praise emote to make sure the other PT realised what a sterling effort the WHM put in.

Finally death was just unlucky tanking. Mob managed to removed shadow after shadow (with no evades whatsoever from me) and Utsusemi wasn?t available and I got felled due to 2 rounds of Double Attack mixed with Critical Hits. Dead NIN ;_;

But honestly, despite the deaths I do consider it a good PT. Never quite got 63 but it is but 1.8k exp away. Also got 3 and a half stacks of Fire Crystals (which I can use to turn a stacks of Iron Ingots into stacks of Iron Sheets for 20k profit per stack) 3 Beastman Seals and a Kindred Seal.

Oh and before the PT I got Woodworking to 53. 7 levels to go

[bokawel]

Tobal, are we still on for that Optical Hat run on Sunday? Bayan said it would be on the 13th Sunday...but Sunday is 14th

can you confirm we still on for this run? thanks man, sorry to keep you waiting on this...but i hope it will be worth it for both of us...

cheers

[Darwock]

First off, this was the first PT I have been in where the SMN played a DD role and it was really goo. Having avatars melee alongside us offered a nice damage boost and the blood pacts were cool. The SMN switched between Shiva (to combat the birds? ice element weakness) and Carbuncle when he needed to recover MP (he had Carbuncle Mitts).

This gives me a warm happy feeling, cos that's the route I've chosen to take with summoner and not many people seem to consider it the correct way to play that job (I had whms moaning upon joining the group and seeing a smn present etc). However I find it to be the most fun. As I get higher up the levels and the avatar maintenance costs go up though, I do see the importance of the carbuncle mitts to this plan - with them I can conserve my MP and keep my TP high without being completely useless.

I need to be around level 70 to get Fenrir anyway so I'll hopefully sort out the carby mitts at the same time.

Sorry got a bit diverted from the real subject of your post, sounds like another nasty party experience anyway - although if it's fun I tend to find deaths don't matter so much. One shining example of this was a DRK I partied with in Garlaige, he died 5 times in the short space I was with them!! Yet he took it in good humour (probably helped that the RDM healer was a good mate of his mind you)

[C']

sounds like another nasty party experience anyway

Not at all. I consider it a great PT. Raise II doe sgo some way to numbing the pain of deaths

[Darwock]

Well after everyone's advice yesterday I managed to come to a decision on going back to level 30 equipment, and got the mitts +1. No crown +1's available so I'll need to wait for that, but once I've nabbed that and a dark staff I guess I'll go back to levelling. As a result I can no longer afford Tornado though, so I will continue the farm/skill-uping of summoner in the meantime.

Speaking of which, Ifrit astonished me last night by hitting an EP33 death wasp with burning strike for 503 damage! That's almost the equivalent of an astral flow blood pact - I haven't skilled up recently so I've no idea why he's been hitting so hard of late. I've hit countless wasps with that over the last couple of weeks and the normal damage is 180-250. It wasn't even Firesday, it was Lightsday. But whatever, keep it up Iffy!

[C']

You'd have liked the last fight Darwock we had. We put together a Distortion SC as the SMN wanted to Magic Burst with Diamond Dust.

1236 damage

[Darwock]

Nice

I didn't think AF blood pacts could be used in MBs! I tried it once on a tremor ram and nothing happened, which I figured was due to the fact it was an AoE - I guess my timing must have been wrong though! Gonna work on that ASAP!

Ah wait, no I've seen my error - I figured the AF pacts would count as skills but they obviously count as magic, whic excludes the possibility of doing it solo. Oh well.