DynamisBums BLM's please read

[Izzy]

Black Mages:

There have been a few thing I've noticed in recent runs. Since there are a lot of new Black Mages, I'm going to post a similar guide to what all the veterans were taught when we started:

1. Do not sub anything but WHM. There is no reason to sub anything but WHM. You can't convince me that subbing ANYTHING but WHM will help you more than subbing WHM.
-Benefits to subbing WHM:
--You don't have to be a thorn in everyones back asking for -na spells every 10 seconds. You are completely self-sufficient.
--I hope you enjoy casting once every 2 mins, because if you sub anything but WHM in Xarcabard, that's how often you will be casting. You need to be able to erase the slow off yourself. It will affect your sleep recast time as well. Your sleep recast will be longer than 1 min 30 seconds, which is how long an unresisted sleepga II lasts. Which makes you a very dead BLM.
--If you sub RDM, you are going to MPK everyone in the LS during timed nukes. When I call a time to nuke, if you're RDM sub, your nuke will go off before everyone else's, cause all the mobs to pop before your comrades nukes go off, and we'll have an alliance of dead BLM's. You can't gravity statues (not that you need to), so that's not a good enough excuse. You can cast fast enough to hit any statue coming after you without it, so that's not a good enough excuse either. This is not a debatable thing like different subjobs for PLD. If you sub anything but WHM, I'm not putting you into an alliance until you change. You're jeopardizing the run, and the safety of the other 35+ people there. We don't have the amount of BLM's to have some of you sub RDM and the rest sub WHM and do the timed nukes. So that's why EVERYONE needs to sub WHM.

2. I've noticed WAY TOO MANY BLM's nuking a statue, then just standing there and taking a facial from them instead of stunning them and running away. Those things run slower than grass grows. After you nuke it, stun it or run away, then begin casting your next nuke.

3. Cast sleepga II please. Your order of things to do when a huge pull comes should be:
-Cast sleepga II on incoming mobs
-Take out all statues that are still waddling around
-Cast sleepga/sleepga II as necessary as other mobs wake up.

Your job isn't only to nuke things, it's also to sleep things. (P.S. RDM's that doesn't mean you can slack off. You should be on the front line sleeping that crap AS SOON as it's in range.)

4. Keep yourselves alive. I am guilty of not doing this. You have stoneskin/blink available to you, use it. If you're missing HP, heal yourself. If you're poisoned, poisona yourself. You may think you're being a trooper waddling around with 50hp casting burst II on stuff, but I'll tell you the same thing I told Carl, "If you're dead, you're not helping everyone." Taking the time to heal yourself to full will take 10 seconds, raising you and unweakaning will take more than 5 mins.

If you have anything else you wanna add, feel free to chime in. I also have no problem discussing this with anyone (except the WHM sub thing Q_Q). If you have a better idea, feel free to let us all know and we'll see if we can make it work.

-Izzy

[Teorem]

Most of this I agree with: BLMs are in their own party most of the time and should be self-sufficient. You should not be relying on other mages to keep yourself alive, and you should be able to help the other BLMs in your party at the same time.

I also agree with the observation that many BLMs tend to stand and let a statue beat on them instead of running to a safe position and finishing off the statue from there. PLDs are also guilty of doing this to statues and to bound enemies--you do not need to stand right next to it and let it continue to damage you when you can move and keep hate and not take damage in the process.

I do not, however, agree completely with:


3. Cast sleepga II please. Your order of things to do when a huge pull comes should be:
-Cast sleepga II on incoming mobs

When there is a link, what should be happening is that RDMs are at the front using Sleepga first. Then, after some time has passed and assuming the targets are all slept, RDMs and BLMs can use Sleep II and Sleepga II as needed to continue to keep things asleep. Sleepga II should never be the very first spell cast, especially in areas like cities where it's not as likely for your normal Sleepga to be resisted anyway.

This makes it so that:

- an enemy is incapacitated for up to 2-2.5 minutes (Sleep > Sleep II) instead of 1.5 minutes (Sleep II > Sleep II)
- a single BLM isn't the next target of multiple Vanguard/Kindred when they eventually wake up (which can also be helped by tanks getting hate on slept enemies, but assuming there are some that are missed for whatever reason)
- multiple BLMs aren't all using Sleepga II at once, which is wasteful during the recast period
- RDMs, along with other people casting Sleepga from a subjob or BRDs using Lullaby, are able to help BLMs more with crowd control (Sleepga/Lullaby will not always have no effect because another BLM landed Sleepga II right before)

BLM death count has been far too high lately and while part of it is due to testing out new strategy and refining certain pulls, a good portion of it can still be prevented.

[Izzy]

Teo is right, the sleepga II's need to be casted around 30 seconds after the RDM's inital sleepga hits for maximum sleep time.

For those who want to be exact.

Sleep/Sleepga: 60 seconds unresisted
Sleep II/Sleepga II: 90 seconds unresisted

[Halon50]

Don't forget about stun!

[KainHighwind]

Your job isn't only to nuke things, it's also to sleep things. (P.S. RDM's that doesn't mean you can slack off. You should be on the front line sleeping that crap AS SOON as it's in range.)

There are times when mobs need to move out of the way of aggro before they are slept. As a whole, I think the LS should backup a bit. Statues are super slow and mobs don't catch up to you that quick. Pullers can usually take a few hits fine. I don't think they need to be slet THAT early. What I see is blm, pld and rdm like to run up to the next camp before the current one is dead. For example, last Jeuno. There's a pull with 3 ninjas, or another with a bunch of monks. We save them for last in the targeting order. Then you have people that like to run up to the next camp before the dangerous mobs are dead. It would be nice to see everyone but the puller to stay back at the camp. Every stun or flash can help, especially on those mnk and nin mobs. The puller should be able to pull to the camp and not die. I don't see a reason to make an effort to sleep them as soon as possible. At least not until they get to the camp. Before then, it doesn't matter.

[Izzy]

DB BLM's, please respond to this once you've read it. I want to make sure you're all reading this as last Beaucedine showed me some of you haven't. I won't be putting you in Dynamis as BLM until I have your "initials" here that you've read this.

[Hawker]

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[Reimeii]

^_^/

[Halon50]

F this I'm never coming BLM again!

RDM/WHM, on the other hand, yes plz!

[Draiman]

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[Carmisse]

word

[Chaela]

:)

[Kanaye]

Pop

[Eisul]

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[Papillion]

gotcha

[Kiljaeden]

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[Gryffyn]

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[Bartuc]

just wanted to say screw YOU

also you should have aquaveil on at ALL TIMES

[Carmisse]

Tuc is full of it :mad:!

[kariessa]

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[Seventhseeker]

Here are the guidelines we use for our linkshell. Hope it helps:

Black Mage Basics in Dynamis

When I originally wrote this article, we were new in Dynamis and had a lot to learn. We were working out strategies for a linkshell our size, which was a little over 30 at the time. There were other strategies out there, but they were geared for linkshells much larger than ours, some as large as 64. Our biggest problems were time isues. In Dynamis, time is everything. I really mean it when I say that seconds count. They add up real quick. Time means the difference between a win or the loss of a run. It also means the difference between how many mobs are killed which is equal to how many pieces of AF or currency drop. Pulls must be made one right after the other (providing Mp and Hp are good) without stopping in between fights. Mp management is crucial here. If the mages run out of mp then the run slows down or may even stop. Bad pulls resulting in a full alliance wiping can ruin an otherwise great run.

The following are some general guidelines:


1) Always keep Stoneskin and Blink up. Although we all accept this and use Stoneskin and Blink, these buffs do not last long. Before you engage a new set of mobs, cancel your old buffs and recast. Do not wait for your buffs to wear off before you recast them. This way you can be assured that your buffs will not wear off during battle. Always be aware of you buffs status. AOE can strip them off and you may not know it.

2) AOE (Area Of Effect Spells) cast by spawns do not have a huge range. I see mages on every run that are standing right next to a mob that is casting aga spells or using AOE TP moves. One AOE move and your Stoneskin and Blink are gone. One more AOE move and you are either heavily damaged or KO'd. There is a sweet spot where you can cast your nukes and be out of range of the mobs AOE. Find that spot and use it.

3) Sleep Duty: Red Mages are normally assigned to Sleep Duty or Crowd Control. Black Mages should always assist the Red Mages in keeping the mobs under control. RDMs have Sleepga, BLMs have Sleepga II. If a RDM cast Sleepga, then it should be followed up by a Sleepga II from a BLM about 40 seconds later, or if the mobs wake up early. Mobs will come after the last person to sleep them. If you know that you were the last person to sleep a group of mobs, move away from them to a safe place and cast Aquaveil, so that if they awake you will have enough time to sleep them again before they can get to you.

4) Statues: When casting on Statues, make sure there is enough distance between you and the statue so that your nuke will land before it gets to you (Once it hits you it will interrupt your casting). Once your first nuke lands, you will have hate and will need to kite it. Get enough distance between you and the Statue so that you can cast another nuke before it reaches you again. If you need to kite a Statue, make sure your kiting path does not bring you close enough to anything that will aggro. There will be times where BLMs will need to solo a statue. This is the technique we use to solo statues with ease.

5) If you see a fellow member going down, help cure them. Watch out for each other.

6) Assisting the Tank: The assist command is /assist "Odion" Let the tank get some hate before you start casting, then use level II and level III nukes if in city zones and level4 nukes and AM II spells in the Northlnd zones. Your job is to ASSIST in bringing the mob down. These mobs go down fairly easy anyway. Overnuking causes the mob to leave the group and come after you, stopping any damage from melee. If the mob is leaving the group and coming after you, then you are not doing your job correctly. If you are using level II and III nukes and the fight continues with the hate staying on the tank, then you are doing your job correctly. You may use larger nukes at the end of the fight, but only if your higher nukes results in killing the mob. In the Northlands (Beaucedine and Xarcarbard) mobs are much more resistant to magic. You can use level 4 nukes and Ancient Magic without a lot of trouble. However the above rules still apply. If you are taking hate from the tank, use a lesser tier nuke.

7) MP: Keeping your MP at a reasonable level is a must. It is vital for keeping the run flowing smoothly. As said before. If the mages run out of MP, the run will slow down or even stop. For Taru Black Mages I recommend not letting your mp drop below 400 unless it is a situation where you need to go all out to kill an nm or group of mobs. Other races do not have as much mp as tarus so they will need to be more careful. Also, Melee kill Dynamis mobs quickly. The alliance does not have to depend on the Black Mages to kill everything. Don't be afraid to sit back and heal your MP when you need to.

8) Subjob: In Dynamis we require that all Black Mages sub White Mage. There are several reasons for this. A) RDM sub has a fast cast trait which means if we need to time nuke a mob, or group of mobs, the time that the nukes land may be off as much as 2-3 seconds between those that sub WHM and those that sub RDM. Also some members should not wear gear that enhances the Fast Cast trait such as Loquacious Earring, Rostrum Pumps, etc., making their timing worse. It has been argued that those with RDM sub just need to start their nukes a second or two later, but that rarely works out. http://www.darkstaticls.net/forum/style_emoticons/default/cool.gif There are times where BLMs need to cure themselves and others of status effects. With WHM sub you can easily cure yourself of status effects.

9) It is a Linkshell requirement for all BLMS to carry a stack of Echo Drops and a Reraise item to all Linkshell events. Make sure that you have these items and not "Bum" them off of somebody else.

10) Stay Alive: Some Deaths in Dynamis are unavoidable, but many are not. If you are dead, you cannot contribute to the fight. Also, the time it takes to get raised, become unweakened, and get HP/MP back, hurts the run. By using the guidlines above you should be able to avoid a lot of damage and death.

Hope this helps

Scrappy

[Salmijr]

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[Izzy]

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I think I love you already Q_Q

[Salmijr]

I solo staues all the time, have yet to die . ^^

[Krish]

K (I don't have anymore initials. I'm like Madonna that way; probably the only way I'm like her)

[Alarial]

lol
Ok, I guess I'll jump on the bandwagon too. I read this back when I hit 75 blm and again now that Salmi has re-brought it up! Do I get a cookie for reading it twice?
Yes.

[Nikkib]

I read the origional post last night before windy and the whole thing today :P

[Felix^^]

Do I get partial credit if I am down to 9 echo drops?
hmmm, i better buy anither RR item.

-Felixcat

[Helissa]

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