Mage job quandaryFollow

I'm having trouble deciding which mage job to level. I'm mostly interested in leveling a healer/buffer, which eliminates blm. As some background, I'm a galka with both pld and drk to 75, so I can merit all magic skill for whm, rdm, and sch. Whm was my main on another character for two and a half years, so I'm familiar with what the job is capable of. It has changed a lot though with the advent of /sch and it's new job abilities. I loved the job, but I also find rdm and sch fun. All three of them are around lv 40, so I've had some experience with all of them (although admittedly, I soloed most of the way for all of them as /bst). I do mostly solo and low man stuff in end game. The main need would be for added flexibility in a low-man limbus group and Nyzul Isle.

Benefits for me leveling whm would be that I really like the job, and /sch and the updates would be fun to mess around with. Also, while I've never actually seen it, from what I've read on the forums Mystic Boon is pretty awesome. The major drawback would be that having whm wouldn't really benefit an all mage group, which would be a very real scenario for some limbus zones and the major thing I'm missing with my current two jobs. However, none of my friends have whm lvled, so it'd be unique.

Rdm would be great for buffing and enfeebling, but I'd be really sad about the loss of reraise and regen II. And as a galka, my convert ratio would be pretty crappy. On the plus side, I recently acquired a Joyeuse for my pld. Rdm is a solo powerhouse, but my pld solos pretty well as it is, and I won't ever acquire the gear necessary to solo truly menacing prey. I don't have many friends that have rdm lvled, so it would be a very welcome addition to a small group. My main duo partner and bff in game is a drg, blu, and blm, all of which would compliment rdm very well.

Sch is a bit of an enigma to me. I know it's a really powerful and flexible mage job, and it plays pretty similarly to whm. How well does it do in context of solo and low-man? Can stoneskinga and AOE en-spells offset the lack of haste and/or refresh? A couple of my friends have sch lvled, which doesn't benefit from having a rdm for refresh.

I appreciate any and all comments, including the obligatory "stfu noob, play what you like."

I'll bite.

If a healer/buffer is what you want, SCH is probably your best bet as a Galka. It relies much less on MP and more on JA's and timers. Not to mention that a Light Arts SCH is usually unaffected by gear; meaning that you could probably pile on plenty of +MP gear without affecting your performance.

It's also an OK mage-party buffer thanks to Weather/Stormsurge/Klimaform-ga. And if you're feeling like it, you can also play "BLM" with it. Which is great for those manaburn setups you seem worried about.




As for a totally unrelated note. Have you considered SMN? It seems to have everything you asked for: Buffs, Stoneskin, Haste, Solo Opportunities, Healing Capabilities, and is now Manaburn friendly as a refresher thanks to Diabolos's favor.
Not to mention that Galka's can get a pretty damn good HP/MP ratio with it.

Not saying that Galka is totally screwed here, but for RDM, max MP actually does matter more than it does for other mages because for us it's essentially another form of MP recovery (Convert). If you've ever seen Elvaan or Galka RDMs use Convert without a +MP set and notice that they're just about out of MP again already after healing themselves back up, you'd understand what I'm getting at here.

This just means that you should have the sense to pack in as much +MP gear as you need to at least match your HP (and if you can easily achieve this, like if you're Taru, also work on building your +HP) for when you Convert, and macro it off once you've used up your "extra" MP.

Edited, Dec 18th 2009 9:40am by Fynlar

Depends on what you're talking about Solo. SCH is more than capable of soloing for EXP; and also has a plenitude of solo's available to them.

SCH functions more like a BLM. If BLM can solo it; chances are SCH can as well.

I appreciate all of the candid comments. It has been very helpful. I may not be that much closer to deciding which job to actually level, but at least I have a broader scope of the benefits and drawbacks of each. It's tough to choose what job to level when you like all of your choices. Maybe that's a good problem to have. I'll just respond to a couple things quick. First, my mage job doesn't *necessarily* need to be the ultimate soloer. Pld/rdm solos pretty similarly to rdm on things that can be melee (as far as I understand at least), and I'll eventually finish my bst for the niche mobs that have decent natural pets around. A decent solo mage job will simply allow it to see the light of day more often. I don't have too many merits right now, and I get most of them through campaign and FoV. I have 2/8 sword merits (which will be finished someday regardless of mage job) and 3/8 mp merits. I'll try to get another 2 mp merits at least, and decide what to do from there. One thing that would be very helpful out of a mage job would be desirability for a merit party, although as far as I understand whm, rdm, and sch are all pretty desirable. The pts would pretty much be all PUGs since I'm not part of a big linkshell.

I got smn up to 37 on my other character and I really didn't enjoy that job. I actually just unlocked smn on this character about a month ago, so it's still sitting at lv 1. I currently carry around a relatively simple mp set for my pld and drk for full mp situations where I could benefit from a free Dread Spikes or Cure IV. Admittedly, part of the reason that I rerolled as a Galka was that I thought that I was a skilled enough mage that I could overcome the mp penalty. The added challenge makes it more fun and being able to keep up in a lv 38~ pt as the solo mage is pretty cool.

I love having partial sentences quoted.

Edit: But you're probably right, I'm not giving SCH enough credit.

Edited, Dec 19th 2009 8:25pm by chewzer

SCH is actually a very good soloer, better than BLM in some ways. SCH and BLM work very well together, especially as SCH buffs a BLM and can contribute to the damage.

SCH allows you to make low man fights easier. For example I duoed as SCH and PLD/RDM, Operation Desert Swarm. Anything that can be grav'd/dotted etc can be done better by SCH on the whole, unless you need stun. SCH's dots and weather are damn handy.

That being said, for merits you'll want RDM or WHM for birds but SCHs go down a treat on Mt Z for BLMs, if you want to duo.

Level all 3? /grin