FFXI Vet returning - I need a battle plan!Follow

Hey everyone,
So I played this game quite heavily from 2005-2009 with a dozen or so friends from school. I wanted to get back into XI about a year or so ago. But at some point my account had been hacked by RMT, flagged by SE, and too much time had passed since account was terminated for them to do anything for recovery. So i dropped the idea until a couple days ago when i got in touch with a friend who had started playing again! He convinced me to start from scratch as the leveling system has changed with FC parties, and i could get back in the mix of things within a couple months of solid gameplay. The first time around I mainly played melee jobs, Sam War Drk Nin Pld ect. This time around I'd like to do things a bit differently and level mages to start, and then mix in a melee or two, once i can farm myself another relic or emp weapon.

I'd really like to play BLU the majority of the time, and have it be my main focus. But i'm at a loss here, most of the info that i can dig up is outdated or i don't understand the lingo. Below are some key points that i need a hand with understanding, and if you guys can think of anything else that would help, it would be much appreciated! Relevant or not i'm doing WHM first so my buddy and i can farm +1, +2 aby gear to get me started. Something else to note both of us will be dual boxing. I've started an alt which will have WHM BLM RDM leveled for utility reasons, procing in aby, FC parties, skill ups, sky, sea, aht urghan quest chains.

Blue Mage

-Merits, mainly concerned with attributes here, go straight STR? or DEX?. If i ever level another DD they will most likely be THF & RNG (more in depth guidance for blu merits is appreciated!)

-Gear, what would you go for first!?

-Sub Jobs, will be doing RDM, WAR, NIN, DNC over the next few days. between rdm and dnc which is best for soloing? I'm assuming /war is best for straight DD build?

-Spell gain, I'm sitting in an FC right now as i write this, spamming pollen to keep my blue magic skill as high as possible. I plan on grabbing all spells from 1-99, but are there any that you flat out never use or will never use? so i could skip over those for now and grab later.

-Skill ups, do multi-hit blue magic spells have a chance on each hit to raise your blu magic skill, like multi hit weapon skills? (apologize for ignorance as i haven't tested yet)

-Gear sets, I'm familiar...well used to be familiar with spellcast, and i plan on using it once i have an adequate amount of gear that needs swapping for certain spells ect. Could you touch base on some of the main spells/weapon skills that require a certain gear set? I notice Blu's running around with MAB+ sets... i see our meritable weaponskill Requiescat is MND based(and is this even worth using or having a gear set for)?

Well this FC is coming to a close, and i'm gonna go get prepared and do the 95 LB fight. I'm sure i'll have more questions as i get some time to think things over. I'm sorry for my ignorance! as I'm sure there is a ton of it in this post. Any and all information to help me get back on my feet is appreciated! Thanks for taking time out of your day to read this!

-Jim

Thank you, you hit the main question i need answered.. weather or not to go STR merits. I think i've got a handle on everything else, just need some experience now.

1. Go straight STR if you're BLU main, will benefit THF probably. G1 really depends. CA recast will increase your dmg output on lower lv content such as Dyna/Nyzul/Ein/Salvage etc(but not so much in VW) . I don't find much use for BA recast personally. Monster Correlation sucked most of the time, unless you change merit before you CW burning certain type of mob or something. Physical Potency is okish, according to BG-wiki it doesn't increase dmg but only acc, may help landing Heavy Strike on some higher eva mobs in dyna, other wise not so much. Magic acc helps in VW mostly, when you need to proc, other situations not so much. Personally I recommend CA recast+ Physical or magical depending on what event you do more often.

As for G2, Assimilation 5/5 is must have. Diffusion/convergence can put 1/5 if you need it, diffusion 5/5 is only good if you lowman a lot without a mage for AoE haste. Convergence is semi-useful when you need some macc/mattk boost, or making AoE spell single target. Put any unused merit into Enchainment.

2. RDM DNC SCH all have it's own advantage for solo depending on what you solo and how you solo. /RDM is good for aquaveil, free fast cast, Stoneskin, phalax and MDB. /DNC is good for Evasion bonus 2 and instant TP cure, and quick sneak/invis through dangerous area. /SCH is good for celerity stoneskin spam, you can spam Stoneskin REALLY FAST with this, and potentially good for some NMs you can't evasion/shadow tank. Plus Aquaveil and conserve MP, and light arts for more cures.

3. /WAR is the strongest DD SJ yes, and most useful SJ these days for pt DD situations unless you're in dyna and need proc. I use it in Nyzul, Abby and VW all the time in pt.

4. Req is worth using/gearing and worth meriting for BLU mains IMO. It provides stronger darkness SC than CDC, and a must have WS if you plan to do Nyzul uncharted on BLU for flan NM. It sucked very much in VW due to attack penalty, but it's still situationally useful especially in Nyzul.

5. Nightfyre of Fenrir posted many BLU gear sets on AH.com you can check, and often update everytime new gears added. http://www.ffxiah.com/player/Fenrir/Nightfyre#item-sets. Some gears are a bit hard to get though, so you have to do some research for replacement sets to make it work.

It's kinda hard to give suggestions on how to do your gear sets because if you're still lving, it may be a bit hard to obtain some gears, it's better if you post a gear set you're using and let others give suggestions based on what you can get.

But basically TP set:cap haste, stuck in DA/TA if possible, fill the rest with DEX or attack or crit-hit rate+ depending on the mob, and swap for acc on higher evasion mobs.

Physical spells: Heavy Strike need to cast in acc and STR gears, other spells can ignore acc since you won't cast spells on high level mobs anyways. Other spell just gear for their mods while hitting certain tier in blue magic skill. List of spells and their mod info: http://www.bluegartr.com/threads/37619-Blue-Mage-Job-Findings?p=5038571&viewfull=1#post5038571

Evasion set: Good for solo/lowman etc. On most mobs you can do hybrid evasion sets with haste and still cap evasion, any higher lv mob do full evasion set etc.

MDT- set: With shell V you only need about 25 MDT-, fill back/ring slot with shadow ring/engufler, fill in other slot with MDB. Swap them in when mob casting spells to save you.

WS set: Req is MND mode, but you need attack as well. Sanguine is mattk, CDC gear for DEX/DA/TA/attack/crit-hit rate, Vorpal is about the same except it's STR.

Also if you're going to do VW, can also build a macc set to land procs.

Mattk is good for nuking and Sanguine, but it's actually a less useful set on BLU IMO.


Hope that helps.




Edited, May 1st 2012 11:47pm by Afania

Edited, May 1st 2012 11:49pm by Afania