Dear Level 50-ish BLMs

[CubsWoo]

Hi.

As we all know, at 50, you guys start getting that Ancient Magic stuff. I mean, wow. Look at all that damage it does! It's sooooooo amazing that you can do 900-1k with one spell and it makes the critters falls down. Yay.

But stop forcing your fucking Freeze MB skillchains on us. Things I've noticed leveling my MNK recently:

1) It's somehow my fault that I can't open or close Distortion. Never mind that my weapon skills are doing 300-500 damage, we're wasting YOUR time because you have to Burst with Thunder/Fire/Aero II or Stone III instead of your new toy. I had a BLM totally ignore a possible Fusion chain on Beetles to focus instead on the totally reliable Split Shot -> Blade: Retsu chain.

2) Logic seems to fail when I explain that their Blizzard II is doing 300 and their Freeze is doing 900 at the cost of 4 BIIs. One of them said "Well, I get Conserve MP." So you can use that as an argument for Freeze and not BII? I'm confused. We kill the thing 15 seconds faster so you can sit for 2 extra minutes to get that 300+ MP back. Great.

3) When you screw up the timing and die because of the hate, don't blame the melees. You put yourself at massive risk every time you cast ancient magic, and if the mob wants to look at you funny because you dumped 900 on it all at once, I'm not going to voke it off of you. It's even less excusable in a non-PLD party, because at least there he can save your ass with Cover if they feel like it.

In conclusion, I don't like your AM bursts and you should feel bad for using them. Yes, they do OCCASIONALLY have their place, but tell the party to do one every fight at the peril of everyone's XP/hr.

 

[Sneakypants]

Amen. Too much mp and coordination to be forced as a priority.

 

[Panda]

/cheer cubswoo

 

[Sethala]

A few things...

(note that I don't know any numbers offhand, so every number I pull out is just a random guess)

1. About MP effectiveness: remember that only 1 spell can be MBd per mage. Yes, it's great if you MB Blizzard 2 for 300 at a quarter of the MP cost as a 900 Freeze. But if you then cast three Blizzard 2's for 200 each, it's the same MP for the same damage. Which brings us to...

2. Time effectiveness: In my opinion, too many people are obsessed with MP efficiency that they forget about time efficiency. Take my example above again. Both ways you deal 900 damage at about the same MP cost. But you do it a lot faster with Freeze.

3. Teamwork: All too often, it just so happens that the two melee forget that there's a third person in the SC: the BLM. It's very easy to see your partner has enough TP and start the SC while the BLM is busy doing other spells. And when that happens, they miss the MB completely. By MBing with AM, the BLM has to be the one to start the SC. That way you make sure that all three members of the SC are ready when it starts.

4. Weakness: It's also very easy to forget the second bit about AM: Hitting a mob with AM weakens it to a certain element. Freeze weakens Fire resistance, Flare is Water, etc.

Now, I'm not saying that everyone should MB with AM all the time. And I'm not saying that the SC should be made around the available AM. I'm just pointing out that it can be viable to use in exp parties.

(And yes, I know the numbers I used in points 1 and 2 are completely fictional. I'm sure you can come up with numbers for point 1 that make it look like AM is horrible, and point 2 is always debatable - is it more efficient to kill it with one strong, high-cost spell or use several weaker, slower, MP-efficient spells?)

 

[meeze]

the thing is with AM you have to wait till the mob will die as a result of that spell.

That sometimes means that melee have to hold thier tp. at the level where AM is popular most melee can get 2 if not close to 2 sc's off in one fight, if they have to wait till the mob is almost dead, they are storing close to 200 tp, therefore waisting a perfectly good sc and mb.

 

[Ploking]

I have been a BLM for 57 Levels and I have to say I only preform AM MBs if the party requests it. That is all. XD

 

[CubsWoo]

A few things...

(note that I don't know any numbers offhand, so every number I pull out is just a random guess)

1. About MP effectiveness: remember that only 1 spell can be MBd per mage. Yes, it's great if you MB Blizzard 2 for 300 at a quarter of the MP cost as a 900 Freeze. But if you then cast three Blizzard 2's for 200 each, it's the same MP for the same damage. Which brings us to...

I'm not talking about Bursted BIIs - I'm talking about the regular, unbursted BIIs as compared to Freeze.

2. Time effectiveness: In my opinion, too many people are obsessed with MP efficiency that they forget about time efficiency. Take my example above again. Both ways you deal 900 damage at about the same MP cost. But you do it a lot faster with Freeze.

The 'saved' time due to Freeze is often lost twofold when the BLM sits to get back the MP.

3. Teamwork: All too often, it just so happens that the two melee forget that there's a third person in the SC: the BLM. It's very easy to see your partner has enough TP and start the SC while the BLM is busy doing other spells. And when that happens, they miss the MB completely. By MBing with AM, the BLM has to be the one to start the SC. That way you make sure that all three members of the SC are ready when it starts.

Solved pretty simply by noticing when one of the people have TP and not casting spells until they start it. Whenever I start a SC I normally wait 5-10 seconds, not only for the BLM but also for a THF that may neglect to say that SATA isn't ready.

4. Weakness: It's also very easy to forget the second bit about AM: Hitting a mob with AM weakens it to a certain element. Freeze weakens Fire resistance, Flare is Water, etc.

If you're doing an AM burst NOT to kill the mob, I'm less concerned with what you just weakened the mob to and more that you're gonna eat a death for dropping 1k on it.

(And yes, I know the numbers I used in points 1 and 2 are completely fictional. I'm sure you can come up with numbers for point 1 that make it look like AM is horrible, and point 2 is always debatable - is it more efficient to kill it with one strong, high-cost spell or use several weaker, slower, MP-efficient spells?)

I would say, in 90% of the situations, yes, it's more efficient to burst with a II or II-ga than Freeze at this level. You also need to take into account, should the SC not end the fight, the extra MP used by the other mages to keep the BLM alive while the mob beats on them. Or the time used to Raise and wait for weakness when said BLM gets Sickle Slashed for just as much as the Freeze.

 

[Sethala]

Well, like I said, actual numbers change things a bit.

And I see I forgot to say my main point: no, it's not always good to MB with AM, but on some occasions, it can be a better thing than MBing with a normal spell.

And of course, for the MB part: some melee don't bother reporting TP regularly. They just wait until the other guy has TP and if they have over 100, they hit the WS to start the SC. Or if their SC partner has enough, they hit it as soon as they hit 100 and don't bother saying TP - which is annoying for the BLM, as they don't know if the non-reporting melee is at 90% TP or 20% TP. AM is just sort of a crutch that can be used by players that don't know much about reporting TP often.

 

[Mishaela]

I've been smacked with AM all the time and I don't get resistances lowered at all


Freeze MB is only really good if you need it to seal a EXP chain or something..if this is required to kill a mob, you're not gonna be burning a rediculous amount of mp, but you're also wasting effort of a party (one word: overkill). If Freeze was so great, there'd be partys of nin/blm and blm x5 doing this on mobs a good 10levels above them to get capped exp then popping yag drinks/hi-ethers while nin pulls another :roll:

Or something...brain's still fried~

 

[Eni]

amen~

 

[Sneakypants]

Going for the last kill in a chain and you know you've got some downtime after that fight, and you know you can kill the MOB or come really close, go for it.

As far as bursting with it, communication/preparation is everything since it's harder to time than a 2nd tier spell.

 

[alanon]

If Freeze was so great, there'd be partys of nin/blm and blm x5 doing this on mobs a good 10levels above them to get capped exp then popping yag drinks/hi-ethers while nin pulls another :roll:

These parties DO exist.......

 

[Direwolf]

Lets see... First off AM sucks... Second off... It sucks... Third off... BLMs who insist on using it suck.


All in all as much sucking is involved with AM as there is in a porn video.


Now for my support, AM is huge it is combersome it does alot of damage but consumes retarded amounts of MP. Yea seein the mob lose a quarter or more of its health in one fell swoop is fun and all... HOWEVER by doing so the BLM has either been slacking off on MP usage or is going to prevent an exp chain.

 

[Sneakypants]

All in all as much sucking is involved with AM as there is in a porn video.

Blanket statement...I don't see much sucking in my teen midget fisting video. In this case, I think AM sucks even more. ^^

 

[Ruck]

Oh you have Ham Fisted Midget Teens 3 also? I thought I was the only one. Great vid.

 

[Sneakypants]

Oh you have Ham Fisted Midget Teens 3 also? I thought I was the only one. Great vid.

Might be the one before that. It's got the guy doing atomic elbow drops in it as part of the caged wrestling scene...Which ends up in fisting! :lol:

 

[Sneakypants]

...So yeah, AM in parties :?:


:x

 

[Daveman]

I've never been a fan of AM, It was really cool at lvl50+51 to do 1.1k dmg and all, but before I had even reached lvl52 I was already tired of AM. It can work if done right to close a chain or something, but this is rare. First thing about AM: it forces you to cast like one spell per fight, which can be bad for your elemental magic skill, you create alot of downtime, and you usually either overkill the target, or put yourself at great risk.

But stop forcing your fucking Freeze MB skillchains on us.

This should also applied to pts, I remember having arguments with several pts, where I didn't want to use freeze, and they'd all but force me to.

 

[Ploking]

Dear god...

 

[anesly]

Dear god...

Yes?