I am a new-ish SMN (38 atm) and grinding my way through the BLM solo guide. My question is: What are the best avatar BPs to use throughout the levels from say 38 - 75?
I was using Thunderspark for a while, but reverted back to poison nails and making compression skillchains. It works out fine (but slow), and my MP is usually pretty good.
I have a mule which I use to PL myself for emergencies, so I sub BLM.
Thoughts as to what is good throughout the levels?
Thanks!
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Question for you soloers out there...Follow
To Be honest Most my solo time. before 50 was fenrir + whack things with a staff :D never really bothered with blood pacts much i found they burned to much mp to be honest. used pineapple juice for lil mp refresh it's level 30 cooking which is easy as hell to get and also the juice is really cheap. works out at about 3,000 gil for 1hours refresh (1mp/tick)
at 51 things changed alot. most of my soling involved kiting snolls/bombs with carbuncle hoping they would self destruct nice and fast. with apollos staff carby is free (maybe with light too butant remember exact avperps at that level off hand) but theres never much opportunity to use bloodpacts. maybe earthern ward / ariel armor for the 15min blink/ss but mostly its just a case of letting carby feed mobs tp and hoping they self destruct.
on good days the exp doing this solo can be faster than alot of parties can get. but there is a factor of luck involved, some mobs will self destruct in 10 seconds. other carby might not blow up for 10 minutes.
i would suggest taking the odd trip out to smash some weaker stuff to try and keep your staff skills high. at 65 fenrir gets eclipse bite and iirc at 66 you can learn spirit taker. these combined are some awesome power. and you can pretty much run around eclipse biting the hell outta lesser colibris and using spirit taker to keep your mp high. (cobined with sanction, elesiphon and a vermy your mp will last almost an eternity) can farely safely use accuracy boosting foods to help with your tp gain as fenrir is almost certain to have hate constantly. i found exp was a little slower over time than the previous method of carbuncle kiting bombs but its definately alot more fun.
at 70 of course you get the big guns. predator claws, spinning dive, flaming crush etc etc, you might want to continue using fenrir mostly as he is 2mp/tick cheaper than the rest of the avatars which over time can help you quite alot. (works out at about 40 mp a minute cheaper) at 73 theres the karura hachigane for garuda will drop her mp to the same level as fenrir plus give the added bonus of some extra attack and defense which is great stuff, dont forget your trusty fenrir though. his eclipse bite is still powerfull enough to match your average predator claws and its 53mp cheaper iirc. coming to 73-75 theres some good pieces like nashira gages af+1 feet and relic pieces all of which can add up to some amazingly cheap avatars.
two things i havent mentioned yet because neither existed at the time my smn was on the road to 75 are djinn type mobs and scholar as a support job.
i believe djinn types mobs are similar in behaviour to snolls and bombs though i've heard ppl tend to use shiva/ramuh on them as these avatars somehow make djinn mad and blow up faster. someone else will have to give you more information on this and the level ranges that are possible.
/sch as a support job can also be incredibly powerfull. combining sublimation and aspir with spirit taker and elemental siphon plus your autorefresh stuff can make your mp almost infinite. there is a cost though. loss of stoneskin and reraise. i will eventually level sch to 37 as a sub for my smn and rdm but my current smn solo style sees stoneskin as to usefull to give up. reraise earrings are cheap enough to cover that loss.
which is the better solo sub i cant answer and views of smns i know are spread. if your gears and skills are on par with mine then siphon can hit you 300 mp and fenrir/garuda are only 2mp/tick perp cost and spirit taker usually gives me more than enough mp to spam rage pacts every 51 seconds. but then if what your fighting has mp / pretty nasty aoes then staying close enough to hit it with your staff isnt such a good idea thus sublimation and aspir really shine.
Edited, May 7th 2009 6:07pm by Dzian
at 51 things changed alot. most of my soling involved kiting snolls/bombs with carbuncle hoping they would self destruct nice and fast. with apollos staff carby is free (maybe with light too butant remember exact avperps at that level off hand) but theres never much opportunity to use bloodpacts. maybe earthern ward / ariel armor for the 15min blink/ss but mostly its just a case of letting carby feed mobs tp and hoping they self destruct.
on good days the exp doing this solo can be faster than alot of parties can get. but there is a factor of luck involved, some mobs will self destruct in 10 seconds. other carby might not blow up for 10 minutes.
i would suggest taking the odd trip out to smash some weaker stuff to try and keep your staff skills high. at 65 fenrir gets eclipse bite and iirc at 66 you can learn spirit taker. these combined are some awesome power. and you can pretty much run around eclipse biting the hell outta lesser colibris and using spirit taker to keep your mp high. (cobined with sanction, elesiphon and a vermy your mp will last almost an eternity) can farely safely use accuracy boosting foods to help with your tp gain as fenrir is almost certain to have hate constantly. i found exp was a little slower over time than the previous method of carbuncle kiting bombs but its definately alot more fun.
at 70 of course you get the big guns. predator claws, spinning dive, flaming crush etc etc, you might want to continue using fenrir mostly as he is 2mp/tick cheaper than the rest of the avatars which over time can help you quite alot. (works out at about 40 mp a minute cheaper) at 73 theres the karura hachigane for garuda will drop her mp to the same level as fenrir plus give the added bonus of some extra attack and defense which is great stuff, dont forget your trusty fenrir though. his eclipse bite is still powerfull enough to match your average predator claws and its 53mp cheaper iirc. coming to 73-75 theres some good pieces like nashira gages af+1 feet and relic pieces all of which can add up to some amazingly cheap avatars.
two things i havent mentioned yet because neither existed at the time my smn was on the road to 75 are djinn type mobs and scholar as a support job.
i believe djinn types mobs are similar in behaviour to snolls and bombs though i've heard ppl tend to use shiva/ramuh on them as these avatars somehow make djinn mad and blow up faster. someone else will have to give you more information on this and the level ranges that are possible.
/sch as a support job can also be incredibly powerfull. combining sublimation and aspir with spirit taker and elemental siphon plus your autorefresh stuff can make your mp almost infinite. there is a cost though. loss of stoneskin and reraise. i will eventually level sch to 37 as a sub for my smn and rdm but my current smn solo style sees stoneskin as to usefull to give up. reraise earrings are cheap enough to cover that loss.
which is the better solo sub i cant answer and views of smns i know are spread. if your gears and skills are on par with mine then siphon can hit you 300 mp and fenrir/garuda are only 2mp/tick perp cost and spirit taker usually gives me more than enough mp to spam rage pacts every 51 seconds. but then if what your fighting has mp / pretty nasty aoes then staying close enough to hit it with your staff isnt such a good idea thus sublimation and aspir really shine.
Edited, May 7th 2009 6:07pm by Dzian
I didn't solo most of my SMN (campaign ftw?). At 50 I soloed and duoed bombs. 350 exp was amazing. Then as Dzian said, Fenrir is a godsend at 65 on colibri. ( to this day he's probably my most used avatar.)
A good thing to pick up would be HQ elemental staves, if you don't already have them. They grant a - 1 perp. While that may not sound like much, trust me, it is. A friend of mine I duoed with had Plutos for Fenrir. He was elvaan, and I had a very good mp pool for a mithra. His Fenrir lasted much longer than mine, despite however much mp I had more than him. They are pricey, though.
Some Summoners will say at 71 you can solo imps in caedarva mire. I don't doubt this to be true, but I wouldn't suggest it until about 73. Some prefer to use Garuda if they have her Karura Hachigane head piece. Though some still prefer to use Leviathan because he is immune to amnesia. I prefer Levi, as it's highly annoying to have to resummon in the middle of battle, and then have the imp reach you and use amnesia right away, rendering your avatar somewhat useless. Also can suck if you got hate along the way, and was relying on a bloodpact to redirect hate to your avatar.
I'm also a summoner who prefers to /whm. Especially if I'm alone. Unless I'm soloing Shiva. I rarely get hate enough for stoneskin or blink to matter. So sublimation is great for when she uses sleepga and I was unlucky enough to get caught in it.
A good thing to pick up would be HQ elemental staves, if you don't already have them. They grant a - 1 perp. While that may not sound like much, trust me, it is. A friend of mine I duoed with had Plutos for Fenrir. He was elvaan, and I had a very good mp pool for a mithra. His Fenrir lasted much longer than mine, despite however much mp I had more than him. They are pricey, though.
Some Summoners will say at 71 you can solo imps in caedarva mire. I don't doubt this to be true, but I wouldn't suggest it until about 73. Some prefer to use Garuda if they have her Karura Hachigane head piece. Though some still prefer to use Leviathan because he is immune to amnesia. I prefer Levi, as it's highly annoying to have to resummon in the middle of battle, and then have the imp reach you and use amnesia right away, rendering your avatar somewhat useless. Also can suck if you got hate along the way, and was relying on a bloodpact to redirect hate to your avatar.
I'm also a summoner who prefers to /whm. Especially if I'm alone. Unless I'm soloing Shiva. I rarely get hate enough for stoneskin or blink to matter. So sublimation is great for when she uses sleepga and I was unlucky enough to get caught in it.
Server: Shiva
Mithra: Aaralyn
Three nations: Rank 10
75 WHM, SMN, BLM, RDM, PLD, DNC
ROZ: Awakening
COP: Dawn
TOAU: Nashmeira's Plea
WOTG: In the Name of the Father
Mithra: Aaralyn
Three nations: Rank 10
75 WHM, SMN, BLM, RDM, PLD, DNC
ROZ: Awakening
COP: Dawn
TOAU: Nashmeira's Plea
WOTG: In the Name of the Father
Awesome advice. I will definitely check it out. Luckily I have all my HQ gears from BLM/RDM, and SCH is leveled up, so I can experiment.
All I have to get now is Fenrir lol. Time to gear up and hit those prime avatars I guess. :-)
Thanks for the advice!
All I have to get now is Fenrir lol. Time to gear up and hit those prime avatars I guess. :-)
Thanks for the advice!
I started smn before wotg came out..campaign came out when my smn was 62 and I was 75 before FoV so your results may obviously differ.
I have barely ever used anything other than carby and garuda for soloing purposes.
There was a brief cluster of lvls..think it was late 30s, early 40s, when I used fenrir to kill EP beetles and spiders in altepa but then Id use carby again once it turned night time to kill worms.
Carby was optimal on any bombs and worms (worms pre lvl50) because he's cheap, free, cheap and then free again as you lvl.
the only exception on bombs is, as somebodies already mentioned, snolls in wotg. Snolls at the mid 60s to lvl70 in vunkerl inlet near the ??? for the tele jugner quest(believe its tele jugner) was some of my best exp ever solo..just make sure you time it right so you can get the full 2 hours in of thundersday and iceday for the most exp. That was the only time I ever used ramuh and shiva for solo purposes.
I never really ever used BPs at such a low lvl, most of my mp went into just carby kiting back and forth, using BPs could either get you killed or you'd have to zone from no mp. I remember being in pts that thunderspark was good forever up until, I think the 40s when fenrir started getting some cool BPs.
Garuda is super cheap and wonderful on imps if you ever make it to the 70s and especially so if you get karura hachigane. Ive not used leviathan since I got that headband :/ but leviathan is cool too because of spinning dive and his resistance to stupid imp things.
With FoV now things must be so much nicer and easier, Im so jealous. I wish I got refresh and reraise and extra exp.
I have barely ever used anything other than carby and garuda for soloing purposes.
There was a brief cluster of lvls..think it was late 30s, early 40s, when I used fenrir to kill EP beetles and spiders in altepa but then Id use carby again once it turned night time to kill worms.
Carby was optimal on any bombs and worms (worms pre lvl50) because he's cheap, free, cheap and then free again as you lvl.
the only exception on bombs is, as somebodies already mentioned, snolls in wotg. Snolls at the mid 60s to lvl70 in vunkerl inlet near the ??? for the tele jugner quest(believe its tele jugner) was some of my best exp ever solo..just make sure you time it right so you can get the full 2 hours in of thundersday and iceday for the most exp. That was the only time I ever used ramuh and shiva for solo purposes.
I never really ever used BPs at such a low lvl, most of my mp went into just carby kiting back and forth, using BPs could either get you killed or you'd have to zone from no mp. I remember being in pts that thunderspark was good forever up until, I think the 40s when fenrir started getting some cool BPs.
Garuda is super cheap and wonderful on imps if you ever make it to the 70s and especially so if you get karura hachigane. Ive not used leviathan since I got that headband :/ but leviathan is cool too because of spinning dive and his resistance to stupid imp things.
With FoV now things must be so much nicer and easier, Im so jealous. I wish I got refresh and reraise and extra exp.
Name: Daus
Resident of the Kujata server
ZM/CoP/ToAU/Bastok10: Complete
RDM75/whm75/smn75/dnc48/sch45/blm38/37drk/37nin
[http://Daisy7.deviantart.com]
Resident of the Kujata server
ZM/CoP/ToAU/Bastok10: Complete
RDM75/whm75/smn75/dnc48/sch45/blm38/37drk/37nin
[http://Daisy7.deviantart.com]
Pardon the threadjack but I had a more specific soloing question. In the early 40's (42 right now), what would be the most advisable way to solo? Are there any good bomb camps this early? Or is there somewhere else? My staff isn't leveled to reliably use it, so it'd basically be all avatar action.
~TaruTaru~
PUP99 WHM97 DNC96 DRG88
~Carbuncle~
PUP99 WHM97 DNC96 DRG88
~Carbuncle~
Your level is just about perfect for Djinn in Batallia Downs(S) or East Ronfaure(S) during ice and lightning days. I personelly did the ones in Batallia Downs(S) at the northwest area of the map (E-5 and F-5). There are 4 dijnn there and the area is safe except for some tigers(which can be avoided easily).
Thanks for the advice. I went out to Batalla Downs for the Djinn camp, and my avatar got slaughtered in seconds. Barely managed to outrun the thing :( Is there a better way to solo while I seek?
~TaruTaru~
PUP99 WHM97 DNC96 DRG88
~Carbuncle~
PUP99 WHM97 DNC96 DRG88
~Carbuncle~
Unlike other kinds of bombs, Djinns have an elemental TP bonus. What this means is, every time a Djinn takes damage of the same element as the gameday (e.g. ice damage on Iceday, lightning damage on Lightningsday), they get an instant 100% TP. More often than not, they'll use that TP to use their self-destruct ability, "Nocturnal Combustion" - which means very very fast kills for a lot of exp.
The most effective way to fight these as SMN is to begin on Iceday, using Shiva. Djinns aggro to magic and sight, so make sure you are outside of range before you begin summoning. Summon Shiva, use Frost Armor (ice spikes), and send her in to fight a Djinn. As soon as she is on her way, begin running away until you can't hear the battle music playing any more, and Shiva's healthbar disappears (only her name will be visible) - you'll want to run a few steps further just to be safe. Make sure you are facing away from the battle. As soon as Shiva's name disappears, immediately resummon Shiva, and pay close attention - if Shiva is facing the same direction you are (away from the battle), the Djinn is dead, and you can relax. If Shiva is facing the battle however, the Djinn is still alive and is on its way to kill you. If the Djinn is still alive, Shiva will automatically start heading out to meet it, and at this point, you need to run further away. Before you run though, if you can, re-use Frost Armor - but only do this if you don't hear battle music playing yet. If you do hear music, then you are within hate range of the Djinn, and using Frost Armor at this point will make the Djinn ignore Shiva and come for you instead. You'll want to make sure that any hate-generating spells or abilities finish casting before you hear battle music. Continue this process until the Djinn is dead.
When Iceday comes to an end and Lightningsday begins, switch over to using Ramuh instead. With Ramuh, you can use either Rolling Thunder (enthunder) or Lightning Armor (shock spikes). Rolling Thunder uses less mp, but it relies on Ramuh actually hitting the Djinn, and Ramuh will often miss. Lightning Armor is more costly in mp, but it is a lot more reliable. Feel free to experiment though.
It will take a little while to get used to the process, and you will probably die occasionally. Sometimes you'll encounter a Djinn that just doesn't want to blow up, and you'll run out of MP before you can finish the battle. But don't worry. It happens. I do have a few suggestions though - make sure you bring a Reraise Earring with you, and keep reraise up at all times. Also, if you are able, set your moghouse up with Moghancement: Experience. This will help to reduce your exp loss. Each time you head out from town to go on a Djinn run, get Sigil with Regen, Refresh, and reduced exp loss. And lastly, if you happen to be in the present before you head out, grab Refresh from the nearest book. It will wear off if you die, but it'll help with your MP until then. Beyond all of that, good hunting!
The most effective way to fight these as SMN is to begin on Iceday, using Shiva. Djinns aggro to magic and sight, so make sure you are outside of range before you begin summoning. Summon Shiva, use Frost Armor (ice spikes), and send her in to fight a Djinn. As soon as she is on her way, begin running away until you can't hear the battle music playing any more, and Shiva's healthbar disappears (only her name will be visible) - you'll want to run a few steps further just to be safe. Make sure you are facing away from the battle. As soon as Shiva's name disappears, immediately resummon Shiva, and pay close attention - if Shiva is facing the same direction you are (away from the battle), the Djinn is dead, and you can relax. If Shiva is facing the battle however, the Djinn is still alive and is on its way to kill you. If the Djinn is still alive, Shiva will automatically start heading out to meet it, and at this point, you need to run further away. Before you run though, if you can, re-use Frost Armor - but only do this if you don't hear battle music playing yet. If you do hear music, then you are within hate range of the Djinn, and using Frost Armor at this point will make the Djinn ignore Shiva and come for you instead. You'll want to make sure that any hate-generating spells or abilities finish casting before you hear battle music. Continue this process until the Djinn is dead.
When Iceday comes to an end and Lightningsday begins, switch over to using Ramuh instead. With Ramuh, you can use either Rolling Thunder (enthunder) or Lightning Armor (shock spikes). Rolling Thunder uses less mp, but it relies on Ramuh actually hitting the Djinn, and Ramuh will often miss. Lightning Armor is more costly in mp, but it is a lot more reliable. Feel free to experiment though.
It will take a little while to get used to the process, and you will probably die occasionally. Sometimes you'll encounter a Djinn that just doesn't want to blow up, and you'll run out of MP before you can finish the battle. But don't worry. It happens. I do have a few suggestions though - make sure you bring a Reraise Earring with you, and keep reraise up at all times. Also, if you are able, set your moghouse up with Moghancement: Experience. This will help to reduce your exp loss. Each time you head out from town to go on a Djinn run, get Sigil with Regen, Refresh, and reduced exp loss. And lastly, if you happen to be in the present before you head out, grab Refresh from the nearest book. It will wear off if you die, but it'll help with your MP until then. Beyond all of that, good hunting!
4 posts
I use Shiva's Double Slap at lvl 50 until lvl 65 Eclipse Bite.
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