Leveling BLM looking to TealFollow

I just made 72 last night, and am approaching the level for the Teal set. The hands and feet are underwhelming, but the set bonus seems nice. My kneejerk reaction is to keep AF hands and River Gaiters. Is this a good idea for 78, or is the fastcast significant enough to use less than ideal gear in hands and feet?

Don't nuke in full teal; the hands and feet are garbage for nuking. The hands are decent to keep around for enfeebling spells, and both hands and feet are decent for stoneskin (although augur's gloves are better).

I used River Gaiters until I got Goetia feet +1 simply because I never got around to doing much Assault for Yigit.

Vicious Mufflers are really nice and easy to get for your hands. IMO, the pop item is harder to get than killing the actual NM. He can be solo kite-nuked by BLM, even at 75, but he can get nasty with some of his spells, so if you are nervous bring a friend. Even better are level 84 Eradico Mitts. They drop (100%) off Ulhuadshi, who can be A)brewed solo, because he's in abyssea, or B)also kite nuked by a pair of mages (I did it as BLM/RDM and RDM/NIN) if you don't have a traditional WHM + Tank setup.

You can still get the casting time benefit from fast cast even if you don't full-time the full teal set. Have full teal on when you start the spell, and swap to good nuking gear before you finish the spell. You won't gain the recast time benefit, but you spells will go off faster. When you eventually get the goetia hat +2 however, it will beat full teal for nukes with elemental casting time -12%, and you won't have to gear swap it during casts because it's an awesome nuking piece as well.

Edited, Jun 1st 2011 12:00pm by RizzoRazzle