Nuking vs. Enfeebling???Follow

Using most blmg enfeebling spells will cast a debuff on the creature, such as shock lowers int, plus they gradually lower the mobs HP. You usually want to cast a couple enfeebling spells first, and then nuke. This will save you from aggro, and help your other pt members out, I'll use drown, lowers strength, and shock, makes my nukes hit harder. then lay in to them.

Dia first to lower Defense

Paralyze mext to lessen Foe Attacks

Poison DoT

Blind.. lower attack

... Then do the nuking.... All of those debuffs do Add up..and are very helpful if you tak into acount that is Speeds up the Kill time...and save teh Tanks some damage.. thus saving MP for Healer and reducing downtime...

this is from a RDM standpoint though

BLM doesn't have Dia or Paralyze unless they sub WHM or RDM. The BLM debuffs are more mp intensive (Dia takes 7mp, Bio takes 22mp). If you're soloing, you should probably drop only 1 or 2 choice debuffs and then get on with the pounding. In a group, let the RDM do the debuffing, since they will typically have a higher Enfeebling skill.

If you're in a group and there's no RDM, though, then absolutely you should cast your debuffs. You can cast through the beginning of the battle to soften up the mob while the tanks generate their Hate, and then start dropping hammers.

The BLM debuffs give noticeable effects. Any RDM will tell you Blind works wonders for keeping the tanks healthy.

Shock - Lower enemies MND so that debuffs have great tendancy to actually work.

Burn - Lower enemies INT, so that when damage is calculated from a nuke the damage will be higher. The damage calculation for a nuke involves a INTvsINT comparison. If the enemies INT is reduced by 5, you will do more damage. Simple.

BLMs, don't forget to use Burn. On crawlers in the nest, I do 15 more damage with each nuke with a Burn on.

Z

The most important thing for a BLM to do is to not draw aggro. This being said, the worst thing any BLM can do is to start chain nuking right when the mob gets back. Cast a few enfeebles and then mabye med to get one tick back while tank builds agro. This becomes of HUGE importance later on when you have a thief in your party (when thf needs to sneak trick). But it is also important in other party situations so WHM doesnt have to heal you, melees don't have to chase mob around, and other support classes (like bard) dont have to wait for mob to clear (im bard and it makes my job almost impossible if mages draw agro). This being said, enfeebles are something a BLM can cast to help the party while tank builds agro. Bio cost 22mp because it is a pretty useful spell. Bio weakens the mobs attacks, thus melee/tank takes less damage which leads to WHM using less MP to cure which leads to more XP chains. About 30-50% into mobs HP a BLM can start nuking, but must time his nukes so that agro stays with tank. Once again... dont chain nuke unless you just need to put mob down if WHM benes or curagas or something... I hope I havent offended anyone I am just trying to explain how much harder you make it for everyone else if you draw agro.

Well... I guess Burn sounds like a good buy then!!!

As far as Aggro, it rarely happens to me... it seems the WHM normally gets the monster's attention. On the occasion I do get hit, it gives me a chance to you use my Drain spell, which is always fun!!!

So it sounds like my Black Magic or should be:

Shock than Burn than Bio than start Nuking???

i haven't played blm and dont know all the enfeeble spells they do but definitely something like Blind is helpful. you think it's not b/c hey the mob isn't missing like he's really blind, but i guess it's like the paralyze spell. every time it misses due to blindness, or doesn't hit due to paralyze, is a good thing.

a lot of battles last > 1 min. that is a lot of HP you just saved.

the others that are DoTs (damage over time) and stat debuffer are good too. like someone said, lowering INT makes the monster more susceptible to future nukes. so do those kind of spells first and they definitely are helpful.

the good blm will not unload all mana in one fight unnecessarily. if you enfeeble and do a few big dmg spell over several fights before needing to rest, you'll add more to the group than to unload on every single pull.

You could have cast quite a few nukes in the time it took you to enfeeble the monster but...

Nukes would cost much more MP, so by enfeebling the monster you are making it easier for the melees, thus saving you MP and the WHM MP because they dont have to heal as much.
Also you dont gain as much hate compaired to the hate you get from Nukes (monsters will still go after you for some enfeebles (Bio, Paralyse, ect...).

Personally in a party I would only want the BLM doing really high MP costing enfeebles. Being a RDM I always do my job, but some of the enfeebles like Bio cost large amounts of MP, and I would rather allow someone with larger reserves to cast it so that I can save some MP for Cures in case they are needed.
When creating a party I always look for a RDM, because they are the best at enfeebling.

Countless times have I seen a BLM try to enfeeble a monster and the monster resists it, next chance I cast the exact same spell and it sticks to him like glue =)

First of all...It seems a necessity to mention that some BLM enfeebles don't stack with other BLM enfeebles. IE: You can't stack all of the BLM enfeebles on one mob, they'll either:
1) Override each other
2) Say "Does not take effect" or something of that nature

There are certain combinations that work with each others, while some don't. For example, Drown + Shock can't be used. It simply won't take affect.

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"BLMs, don't forget to use Burn. On crawlers in the nest, I do 15 more damage with each nuke with a Burn on. "
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Given that you can only use 2-3 BLM enfeebles at a given moment, Burn is NOT a good use of your MP. This is simply because it may up your damage 10-15 per nuke, but how many times do you realistically nuke per mob...?

You'd be better off using Enfeebles that affect the Mob itself, such as Drown, which lowers its attack.
-5 nukes vs 100 attacks from mob, you pick which is better to alter.

My ideal Enfeeble lineup consists of Drown + Frost + Bio (II). I may sometimes switch this around if say a mob is resistant to water. And instead substitute Drown with Shock.

I'm currently a 51 BLM/WHM, and I normally wait till roughly 50% of the mob's life is gone before I open up nuking...depending on party and how the tanks/healers are doing. It is not a good idea to open up with nukes as it draws aggro. And enfeebles are exceptionally good to use, worth the MP in everyfight.

Once you start playing with RNG or SAM this will change, at that point BLM becomes a support attacker/debuffer (though not nearly as good as RDM at the debuffing part) That's why if you want to be a mage I'd recommend RDM or WHM rather than BLM, early on BLM is the star of the show, but at around lvl 40 he's suddenly playing second fiddle to characters that can not only do what he does only better, but who also don't fall over dead after one or two hits. WHM is about healing and that never becomes obsolete, and RDM's debuffing just gets better and better, but BLM's forte is damage and that gets eclipsed by RNG and SAM. The only other thing he can offer is debuffing, but by this point RDM is way ahead of him in this area and like RNG and SAM doesn't fall over after one or two hits.

Edited, Fri Jan 16 17:02:11 2004 by Lobivopis