Theory (BLM, WHM and SMN) : FFXI General Discussions

Hello everyone!

First off i would like to welcome you to the topic of Mage Theory!

Ok. I have my WHm at lvl 65, my SMN lvl 34, and my BLM 18.

I have many choices for subjobs, i recently got on my BLM..and its so much more fun then all the classes ive tried (i have brought every other class up to 15, so i know if i like it or not)
So, ive heard the BLM exploit on the boat ect. But i still remain in the ways of pt and legitness. So i was thinking, i can get allot more MP with a taru BLM /SMN sub, but i know the WHM sub can be a HUGE lifesaver.
I think i will be very versitile and go BLM/WHM and so when i lvl in quif and have HP at Jeuno, we can get a raise by my WHM if needed. Now is this too much trouble? should i just go with the flow and play BLM/WHM like anyone else would? or use the advantage of my 65 WHM. Please post your comments thankyou.

P.S. I wish this forum remain a Mage strategy forum, no flames, no hate post, no arguements ect. Everyone just plz put their good ol daily 2 cents in.

I Just made a BLM is it good for a solid BLM/WHM combo all the way to lvl 75?

subbing smn is nice esp. if u got all the avatars. better at higher lvl tho. i pted with a whm/smn and he got garuda that gives blink. tt's something nice : D

Hi all...

i made myself as a blm/smn because of the auto refresh ja" that the smn would get at lvl 25.

did not want to stick to the old felle combo of blm/whm...

now i am enjoying a flow of never use finish mana and if u have fenrir prime. people gonna love u man

Yum blm/smn are good stuff

hecky ya!

It really depends on your PT situation.

Please do not go BLM/SMN. Also, please do not Burn/Shock on mobs that have low resistance to magic.

An party should be oriented to gaining a lot of experience points by getting chain 5's and having low downtime. In order to accomplish this effectively...you cannot rely on solely the WHM healing/removing status ailments. As a high level WHM, I have met a lot of different types of BLM's....Blm/smn, Blm/rdm, Blm/whm, even (cringes) Blm/nin.

Since you're whm is level 65, you must have gone to Labyrinth of Onzozo already. The torama there are rough - paralyzing/silencing every few secondes. As a whm, i found it quite difficult to med and maintain a high level of mp to chain as well as paralyna and silening the tank. It became easier for me when the BLM/WHM helped out with the -na'ing and our chains became much higher. Almost no RDM my level ever sub WHM b/c the +int from BLM is valuable in having their enfeebles stick which is the real duty of RDM - enfeeble and refresh. As you level up more, you'll find out that you fight skeletons are real easy and crumble to fire type spells, but if you're not helping out the melee, you're just screwing the party over. Skeletons cast Black Cloud which blinds and does AOE damage to the melee. The AOE damage is easily remedied with a whm curaga, but Blind is a bid harder to remove with just one person -na'ing it. Blindna has a long recast time. And not blindna'ing the monk for 10 seconds after you blindna the ninja may result in skillchain pushed back 20 seconds.

However, this assumes high level. what about low levels? I suggest from 1-32 (as long as you're in newb parties) to sub summoner because the newbs there will make you heal with their 5 warrior/1 mage set up. If you go into an experienced party, change subs to maintain chains. From 33-49 it depends where you're leveling as well. I believe if you fight Crawlers, flies, or bats, summoner sub would be best option b/c you can pull if there are links, they have low evasion/low damage ability/resist less to magic. If you fight beetles/anticans in Altep, a whm sub would be more useful as the Antican AOE silence may get the WHM or the beetle may just be taking too long to kill and draining the WHM mana.

At level 50 though, summoner job is seen useful with Blinkga. But analyze the pros/cons of it. 1) takes around 100 mp i think. 2) forces you to get close to enemy - aoe = dead taru. 3) Adds about 30 more mp than a whm sub. To me, this doesn't justify the use of summoner sub. If you wanted to get blinkga, get a real summoner. Although WHM raise wouldn't be too entirely useful since either the RDM or BRD/WHM (most likely the easy to find RDM) would have it, it -will- cut downtime, if toss the occasional cure 2's.

Main objective of the above is to show that /whm will help cut downtime with back up healing. But there are some instances when this is especially important. When there is no real WHM, but instead a SMN/WHM, you need to sub WHM to help heal when the SMN casts blinkga. When there is no real whm again as in a NIN/BRD/RDM/BLM/+2 melee party, you'll need to help up backup cure just in case.

You may say auto-refresh is good, but as long as you have a bard or rdm you'll have the MP regen you need. Blinkga doesn't save party because utsusemi will overwrite blinkga and blinkga isn't as good as utsusemi since you will still have a chance of getting hit with Quake when an Antican Signifier casts it on you then if you hat Utsusemi up. Blm/smn may be good for soloing when MP regen is needed, but in the party situation it's more of a hindrance imo.

BLM/NIN is stupid unless you fight God's/Serket where AOE's will not eat through Utsusemi. BLM/RDM only useful whenever you get dispel/phalanx since the less mp as well as the less curing power doesn't justify the marginal increase in +int and faster casting times.