Mages of Today

[Crosis]

It's also making me feel strange seeing nothing but Elvaan BLM's leveling up now. Elvaan have the worst INT, and second-worst MP in the game. Compared to a Taru, who would do like 10x the damage that an Elvaan would do. Especially when seeing that Elvaan BLM's don't go for any other equipment other than DEF equip.

I'm sick of defending Elvaan Blms to nobs like you. You realize the 13 int difference between a taru and elvaan accounts to about 50 extra damage per nuke? Wow. So when the taru pulls hate with his 1300 damage nuke over the elvaans 1250 nuke and dies, who is still standing to cast another spell? Granted you were comparing low lvl blms, but dont fault the race just because they were stupid to not wear the right gear for the job. As if there arent any badly equipped tarus running around.

 

[Pompidou]

If Elvaan Blms have a handicap, it's probably the mp rather than the int. Int only adds 1-3 damage, and affects enfeebling accuracy. Enfeebling isn't really a blm's primary duty. In fact, I often have to argue for the right to cast an enfeeble or two each battle for skill purposes when I'm with a rdm, which is all the time because of my static. Sadly, int has no bearing (or if you're in that *other* school of thought, negligable bearing) on nuke resist rates. Only Elemental Skill does. Thus, an Elvaan and a Taru who keep their Ele skill capped, and get the goods like AF gloves and Ele Torque, will have the same resist rates under similar situations.

MP isn't a huge handicap for non-Taru blms, if the melees are competent. If every battle is draining that intelligently casting (not chain-nuking) Elvaan Blm's mp to 0, don't blame the Elvaan. There's a problem with the party as a whole.

If you're partied with a non-Taru blm who completely sucks, look not to the race for your explanation. Look to the gear. For the most part, any blm with a full assortment of elemental skill gear will deal respectable damage. Things like MA Bonus gear and ele staves will give blms of any race a much bigger damage boost than int.

 

[Thnikkaman]

Yeah, but wouldn't you rather have that little extra damage? And I've noticed bigtime how much INT does in the game. I replaced my dual Astrals with dual INT+ and got two INT+ earrings, and replaced my staff with a +1 Wand. Thus, my MP went down by like 70, and INT went up by like 10 or so, and I was doing like 50 more damage than I was before. And at level 30, 50 damage is quite a bit. Either way, race/job combos aren't that big of a deal, but if you know what you're gonna do, and you end up pulling through with it, why don't you just pick the right race for the job? That's extra attributes that you've never had before.

(To make the game more interesting, FFXI should add racial abilities or something. I dunno. That way people won't make wrong race/job combos)

 

[Daggett]

I usually expect something I ordered to come in the mail, but then I realized it was veteran's day and remembered there's no mail on that day....

 

[Stouter]

You see a White Mage in Garlaige that doesn't know how to cure. And when that WHM does cure, it takes it forever to get to it. Like... my friend was in a party a couple nights ago... and the WHM let two people die because she wasn't paying attention. I partied with another WHM a couple months ago that took him so long to cast Cure, I was dead before I got the mob down to like half health.

...

I even Escape people from dungeons if I'm not in a hurry to power level or party or something.

Ever think maybe the reason these whms are so useless is because of PL'ers? If you're a whm in a party being PL'ed, do you actually learn how to play whm?

 

[Stouter]

And the whole thing with n00by mages is, well, not really new. It's been a problem since I started playing a year and a half ago, and continues to be a problem today. The only thing I have encountered that may be considered an increase in the problem, is a declining willingness of mages I have met to listen to advice. RDMs who can't refresh, BRDs who can't elegy or requim, WHMs who can't haste or regen, BLMs who don't understand what a Magic Burst is, SMNs who don't know that any command besides 'Assault' exists in their pet menus.

Then again, there's also the NINs who never bothered to buy any ninjitsu besides Utsusemi, the PLDs who don't understand why they should use Provoke more than once a fight, the RNGs who don't want to was ammo pulling, then use Barrage and EES while the mnk pulls, and wonder why they die, the DRGs that won't get rid of their 'DEATH FROM ABOVE!!!! OMG YOU D13 N0\/\/z!!1111one11! JUMP!!!' macros, the SAMs who don't understand what a Skillchain is, the DRKs who complain when they use Berserk, Souleater, and Last Resort on the same WS, then die, the THFs who use SATA 32 seconds before there's actually a mob at camp, the WARs that insist they can tank as well as a NIN, the MNKs that insist on getting CH 6 with 100 Fists when the WHM has 24 MP, and the BSTs who enjoy MPKing random parties just because they happen to be getting fast exp.

So yeah. Coming from a melee standpoint, I can totally see where a bad mage would stand out, and cause you grief. But coming from a mage standpoint, I will personally vouch that it goes both ways. XD

A few things, brd and requiem, not needed unless you are in long fights, it's basically like saying a blm is a noob cause they don't cast poison II during fights that last less than a minute. And long fights with bard in exp aren't that common.

Whm that can't haste, I dealt with these from 40-52 nin, I only had one person that would keep me hasted in these levels, and it was a rdm. Most whms took several tries to get the first haste from, then had to be asked again each fight. Luckily now I've got my own personal whm that keeps me hasted all the time.

The drg quote made me laugh, that's the main reason I hate leveling with drg's. It's not because they can't fit into a SC chart and do damage at the same time, and not because they are sub-par without their wyvern, which they often will be end game due to AOE, it's all because of the annoying jump macros.

Why would a thief NOT use SATA 32 seconds before a mob arrives at camp? SA and TA are on a 60 second timer, so in a 50 second fight, if they wait til the mob makes it to camp, that's one SATA for the fight. If they use it 32 seconds before the mob makes it to camp, that's 2 SATA's they can land that fight.

And as rng I would pull chain 6 when the whm had less than 50 mp, but only if I knew we could get it for sure (short pull, barrage up, both myself and SC partner with TP, and blm with enough mp for a big MB)

It's easy to call a job noobish if you don't completely understand it, but unless you've played it to the level that you are criticizing it at, then think a little bit harder about what you're complaining about, and wonder if maybe there's a reason that the person is doing something you find odd.

 

[Skaw]

If Elvaan Blms have a handicap, it's probably the mp rather than the int. Int only adds 1-3 damage, and affects enfeebling accuracy. Enfeebling isn't really a blm's primary duty. In fact, I often have to argue for the right to cast an enfeeble or two each battle for skill purposes when I'm with a rdm, which is all the time because of my static. Sadly, int has no bearing (or if you're in that *other* school of thought, negligable bearing) on nuke resist rates. Only Elemental Skill does. Thus, an Elvaan and a Taru who keep their Ele skill capped, and get the goods like AF gloves and Ele Torque, will have the same resist rates under similar situations.

MP isn't a huge handicap for non-Taru blms, if the melees are competent. If every battle is draining that intelligently casting (not chain-nuking) Elvaan Blm's mp to 0, don't blame the Elvaan. There's a problem with the party as a whole.

If you're partied with a non-Taru blm who completely sucks, look not to the race for your explanation. Look to the gear. For the most part, any blm with a full assortment of elemental skill gear will deal respectable damage. Things like MA Bonus gear and ele staves will give blms of any race a much bigger damage boost than int.

No flame, just info here, Pompidu, but you can still skill up magic casting something that won't stick from someone elses enfeebles. Just like you can still gain healing skill casting Cure on someone who has full health, or dark magic casting aspir on something that has no MP.

 

[Stouter]

No flame, just info here, Pompidu, but you can still skill up magic casting something that won't stick from someone elses enfeebles. Just like you can still gain healing skill casting Cure on someone who has full health, or dark magic casting aspir on something that has no MP.

Easiest way to skill up enfeebling is casting dia. You can't get a skill up on a resisted enfeeble, but can get a skill up with a dia for 0 damage. It only costs 7 mp, and won't overwrite Dia II Bio or Bio II.

I skill up my enfeebling by solo'ing worms, silence > dia spam works wonders, aspir every minute, drain if you take damage. When you're out of mp, just run away, and it will go back underground.

 

[Blabj]

Easiest way to skill up enfeebling is casting dia. You can't get a skill up on a resisted enfeeble, but can get a skill up with a dia for 0 damage. It only costs 7 mp, and won't overwrite Dia II Bio or Bio II.

I skill up my enfeebling by solo'ing worms, silence > dia spam works wonders, aspir every minute, drain if you take damage. When you're out of mp, just run away, and it will go back underground.

This man has the plan! Thats the best thing to do when you're capping enfeebs. Although at higher levels you'll be hard pushed to find a worm that you can skill on (Kuftal Tunnel, alot of them link and are very close to things that will aggro and die... I don't think there are any in quicksand caves...)

I just make a routine to cast dia before the whm gets a chance, so I get the full potential of a skill up, since my enfeebling is rather crappy, to say the least.

 

[Trippyhippy]

The one I notice the most are Bards who wear nothing but MND and MP equipment. Especially when they're Mithra or something that actually NEEDS Charisma.

+Chr is utterly worthless for a bard 95% of the time. Guess how much I wear during normal exp? +5-10 depending on what mp gear I give up. +chr has no effect on minuet, finale, madrigal, the power of threnody, elegy, or foe requim. It affects resist rates, but brd have close to no resistance problems as is (especially if using matching elemental staffs for debuffs), plus brd songs don't cost mp so the occasional resist doesn't hurt. The only time a brd needs all the +chr they can get is when sleeping adds. This is easy to handle by having your sleep macro switch in all your +chr gear, but even then you get rapidly deminishing results past +30 chr. I keep +33 chr ready to swap in when I need to sleep on my brd, any other time I wear all the mp gear I can get.

In fact, lots of times I have to spam "(Refresh) (Can I have it?)" to the RDM. Even then, the first priority of Refresh is themselves, then the BLM, then the PLD, then the DRK, then the WHM.

Slap your red Mage. A Proper refresh order would be Rdm > Pld > Whm > Blm > Anyone else.

They always cast Refresh on thierself first because when it wears off, that lets them know when it's time to start the cycle over.

I'm not gonna defend Black Mages at all. There are more of them that suck because it has close to the highest Damage output of all the jobs at the moment, so everyone and there brother is leveling it.

 

[pauk]

This man has the plan! Thats the best thing to do when you're capping enfeebs. Although at higher levels you'll be hard pushed to find a worm that you can skill on (Kuftal Tunnel, alot of them link and are very close to things that will aggro and die... I don't think there are any in quicksand caves...)

I just make a routine to cast dia before the whm gets a chance, so I get the full potential of a skill up, since my enfeebling is rather crappy, to say the least.

There is in Quicksand caves, the ones that drop ancient salt and Uleguerand Range has worms as well.

 

[Stouter]

There's also some around the ant that drops shaman cloak, but there is a link risk there too, and only one or two good spots without ants.

 

[Thnikkaman]

I'd slap the RDM for not doing the whole Refresh thing, but my hand would get tired fast, because every RDM I seem to party with does that. Plus, I don't wanna do an emote like (/slap) anymore because last time I did, I got MPK'd for it.

 

[Passions]

i think its funny that you think rdm needs a refresh order, and it has to be in that order or they suck ass.
when i play rdm i go down the line of party members, i start with haste on myself and then refresh and then haste the next person refresh the next, ect, ect. if they need haste they get if they need refresh they get it. i dont care if its a drk first they get refresh in the order of my party members. once its up it never drops, haste or refresh, unless there is a long down time in the party. so the whole rdm>pld>whm>blm>other makes me laugh cause if you keep up on refresh, the order shouldn't matter.

 

[Kensou]

It happens because... mages seem to be to the new speed levelling job (moreso than before). When Rangers were the "in thing" people were levelling the job with crappy subs, Ninja only at level 12, lack of equipment, no arrows, just because they're rangers.

I guess when more people level a certain job, you'll have a better chance of partying with idiots.

I agree, notice that the jobs that level the fastest are the ones filled with idiots, it took me a year to level my BLM to 75, that was a year ago, took a friend of mine almost 2 years to get RDM to 75, and he's an awesome RDM, does his job properly and fits it to the ocassion, took me almost a year to get MNK to 75, I guess if people would go a little bit slower, not saying everyone should take a year to level a job to 75, but I mean, the faster you level the less experience you will get, even bad PTs are good for player experience.

I have to say though, it's mostly people's fault some jobs level faster than others, most people want to party in *ideal* conditions, or they simply don't want to try different set ups, they always *MUST* have a refresher if not they already have written on their heads that the PT can't work without one.

People also have to learn how to PT in any kind of circunstances, a while back I had a BLM in PT demanding refresh.

Another thing, good tanks seem to spoil Black mages nowadays, BLMs think they can nuke all they want when they have a PLD, good Refreshers spoil healers and so on.

I Partied with a static that was NIN WAR THF RNG BLM WHM, no refresh whatsoever, WHM subbed BLM so no Auto-Refresh, we didn't have money for expensive gear, no Black cloak no vermillion cloak no scorpion harnesses, no Eryutos bow, and we'd still do 5~6k an hr, it CAN be done, we just gotta open our minds some more.

In my oppinion if people are going to speed level a job, they should work more on it, as in to learn more about the job, it's posibilities and it's limitations and how to make it versatile on different ocassions and not just level it because you get PT invites always or faster, but because you're having fun with the job and you really like it.

 

[Kirayamato]

kensou rocks lol

 

[Blackmagik]

as far as i know only AF2 (Relic) BLM Gloves give MB Dmg, everything else Magik Atk Bonus

 

[Thnikkaman]

it took me a year to level my BLM to 75, that was a year ago, took a friend of mine almost 2 years to get RDM to 75, and he's an awesome RDM, does his job properly and fits it to the ocassion, took me almost a year to get MNK to 75

I've been playing over 2 years and I still haven't gotten 75. Heck, I'm still 14 levels away from 75.

kensou rocks lol

lmao, agreed

 

[Stouter]

I Partied with a static that was NIN WAR THF RNG BLM WHM, no refresh whatsoever, WHM subbed BLM so no Auto-Refresh, we didn't have money for expensive gear, no Black cloak no vermillion cloak no scorpion harnesses, no Eryutos bow, and we'd still do 5~6k an hr, it CAN be done, we just gotta open our minds some more.

Your party setup:

initial voke with utsusemi from sub (I assume war/nin)
ninja tank
melee DD with utsusemi sub (again I assume, rng/nin)
thief, person to stick extra hate on ninja tank

Yes, in your party setup, you can get good exp without a refresher. You have minimal healing needs, your whm is there mainly for haste and status cures. When you have a pld tanking, you need a refresher if you want that 5-6k/hr.

And EBow is over-rated. I've outdamaged EBow and hellfire+1 rangers in exp using O-Bow, and they were benefiting from my acid bolts as much as I was

 

[yorii]

(To make the game more interesting, FFXI should add racial abilities or something. I dunno. That way people won't make wrong race/job combos)

..... Its the plaver not the race that makes or breaks a job...
Please think, what if you want to lvl a job that is not for your race some time....