BLM Sortie Do's/donts

Hiya all

I'm new to blm, but have done sortie on other classes.

I'm looking for 2 things as i gather my gear.

1. Tips and tricks for BLM in sortie (do's and don'ts"

2. A BLM lua, i have one currently, but i was hoping for something with that can match sc elements like my rdm or sch one. Sorry, i'm not great with these things and typically will just use others luas. Any other handy things in said lua is great


I follow the gear guides closely, and am 4/5 +3 empy currently, finishing up Laev and working on Hverg

I'm sorry if this is somewhere else in these forums, i've been reading for a while, just cant find anything and REALLy dont want to let groups down when i join for sortie.

Don’t run out of MP. Solo acuexes. Always go up last for G teleporter if it’s in the vampire “Break” room. And always hit 99999s or I am taking your Laev away. This is serious! Like clean out your desk turn in your weapon, you’re off the force type of serious. Don’t have Laev? Why are you on BLM?

Did you know -aja spells stack? No? You’re coming SCH bucko.

Remember to rush to the boss room, and start the fight after waiting 15s for your party members to catch up. If they miss out, they'll thank you for not having to do the fight.

Haha, ok, this is good advice

Is there any tips to hitting 2 casts in a MB window? like, i've been watching blms during my runs, and im just seeing them MB t6's, then a second cast if the SC window still open.

Also, what do you mean aja spells stack? again, new to blm, and i do NOT want to fuk this up!

Heya Xeones!

Splen is dead on for the bulk of why BLMs are great in Sortie, and I'd add that for most strats I've done, the BLM solo's A objectives (go into A area, pop Mana Wall, freenuke 5 enemies) then MB each boss. Use Burn on everything to raise party damage, make sure you're casting Klimaform on yourself, and go to town. I never run out of MP with a good refresh idle set and Sublimation, but always carry Vile Elixir and Vile Elixir +1 as an emergency or in case you're weird like me and like to randomly use Death to speed up encounters.

Do NOT neglect your Mana Wall and enfeebling gear - an emergency mana wall and Breakga will save the run.

Finally, my GS lua is a hot mess work in progress but you're welcome to see it! I pulled it off here eons ago and just monkey with it as I play.

https://github.com/enbrodo/ffxi


And to add to Splen here - Comet is also a -ja spell, and is worth using for your own Comet/Death/Vido damage as well as your COR's Death Penalty (tho who are we kidding those tend to hit 99k either way nowadays).

The -aja spells are something called Cumulative Magic spells, meaning they raise their element's damage on the target by 5% per spell for a maximum of 25%. https://www.bg-wiki.com/ffxi/Category:Cumulative_Magic

Super super important for Sortie bosses and always use your Empy pants when casting -aja spells.

Wow, super awesome info, and i appreciate the lua


Are there bosses/situations you're casting ja's over t6's? or it's just like i was saying before, t6 > JA to fit both into same window?


I'm a bit confused on this death thing

We cast death, all our MP is gone, we use myrkr, mp is back, we cast death again? where does comet fit in here?

Also, Hverg is just for the fast cast to cast death quicker? cant we hit 80% w/o it?

NOOB BLM ALERT lol, please be gentle

Oh, and a random Sortie tip for Black Mages - when tackling the D and H bosses, it's likely you'll encounter Vivisection mechanics when starting out. When that happens, the boss's elements are all reset and he takes little damage from any of your bursts. I always save my Elemental Seal for when this happens and use Meteor to get pretty nice damage in during this little panic stage before he uses another SP ability. It's pretty much the only use of this spell I have found in the current endgame.

You should always be casting the corresponding -ja spell when it's off cooldown to improve the party's nuke damage (typically going to be two SCH and a GEO) and does great damage itself. That is, unless you're already at 25% (5 uses) within a 110 second span.

Typically for first skillchain, I'll burst for example Firaja, then Fire V in the same window. If the next SC comes up before aja does, then I'll burst Fire VI -> Fire III and run down my list of options to squeeze in damage within the window. I very often swap to my free nuke set to conserve MP when casting -aja spells outside of an active skillchain, but you should definitely be bursting it when feasible.

For your other question, yes it's easy to cap FC as BLM. You don't need the empy to cap FC, tho its MP and FC is attractive for Death damage. The reason I brought up Comet is because despite the name, it is also a -aja spell for Darkness element. Using it on enemies weak to Dark is a good idea.

My FC set is less than perfect but this is what I use to cap:

ItemSet 394272

Abuse Manawall whenever you can, ie. Soloing A obj, exiting basement at difficult locations (easier for BLM to solo pull the area and breakga than involving other ppl), etc

Learn which bosses are susceptible to burn and impact, they make huge difference

I used to do death with hverg before prime staff, it's nice that you can cap recast without relying on valliance, but I definitely notice a lot more partial damage death with it.

Technically you only need to wear them for the first -aja every 110 seconds with +3, but full timing them would be safer.

Don't forget to go /BRD. Since mage setups don't usually bring bards along, it's good to help your friends out by performing for them.

Ty all so much

found this video also, will be taking notes!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyxkAbeEXls

Would anyone be so kind as to post their Idle set? How much refresh vs DT do you have?

This is what I use, 48% DT and 9 or 10 refresh depending on your current MP. If you're using a lua, can swap fucho out when your MP is above the threshold.

ItemSet 394276

One thing that could be helpful in getting as many nukes off within a skillchain window in quick succession is getting a feeling/timing for prenuking and also the global lock out after a spell is cast. Just something that takes practice and experience to feel out.

Prenuking: This can be tricky, but I tend to start casting my spells even prior to the SCH closing the chain so it lands just after the skillchain window opens. That way I get most of the cast time for the first spell before the window opens, allowing more time within the window to add more spells for bursting. I am typically able to get a 6-ja-4 within a single helix extended skillchain window this way. This is likely controversial, but using a 6 as your first spell, which has the longest casting time, does save up lots of skillchain window time, but I also see the benefits of using a -ja as the first spell. Keeping -jas up full time is of course important. The caveat with prenuking is if you go to soon it is extremely disappointing in that you did not get the burst benefit and also walled the subsequent chain. This often takes a lot of feeling out and easier with a static group as different SCHs can have a wildly different cadence to their skillchain creation. Probably not something to be overly concerned with now, but some food for thought.

Global spell lockout: Very relevant: https://www.bg-wiki.com/ffxi/Forced_Delay#Spell_Delay . You may have noticed a delay after you cast a spell before a second one can be cast. If you try to cast within this window nothing will happen and it sets up another short delay before you can start casting. This can really mess up chaining successive nukes. This is something you can even practice solo without skillchains on Apex crabs with trusts. But get a feel for when your first spell delay is complete and you can start to cast your new spell so you can chain them back to back. You can use visual cues, or just a feel for it. I find when those little Taru hands start to go down after casting a spell you are definitely clear, but try to find your best way to cast right when this forced delay is over to minimize downtime without tripping over it.

Otherwise, what other people have mentioned here is pretty spot on. Quick note for fast cast though, to affect spell *recast* timers, not spell casting time, the FC needs to be in the midcast set. While Agqus is really good, it is difficult to cap recast via FC in midcast without making some serious damage concessions. That is where something like Empyrean staff helps significantly with it's hefty 50% FC. Although if a RUN is able to maintain Valliance full time with good use of resets and Inspiration merits then other higher DPS staves become viable, alternatively Caster's Roll from COR is another option, but we are getting into the weeds mostly for Aminon here now.

all solid comments so far (in particular Saevel's additions- SUPER insight!), just wanted to add a few minor things:

1. dINT is your new Holy Grail, Constitution, Magna Carta, and Vedic Texts. 75era nuking was about trying to find a few smidges of MAB and you were king. SoA nuking was about insane levels of macc on top of a new style of gear just loaded with the MAB we used to struggle to find. But with Odyssey, we entered a new style of nuking/resistances- dINT.

So if you're staring at what used to look like a very equal debate in gear, but one is INT-focused and the other is MAB-focused, its now typically better to default to the INT. Easiest example of this is the change in grip default from Alber Strap in SoA days to Enki Strap now, and other slots can have similar debates.

2. food to boost your damage really isn't going to do enough to give up the security of a nice Stewpot. I know the snowcones are tempting, but without excessive MLs you will see even just one or two extra resists in the basement, and the damage difference in just a few resists vs full damage nukes far outweighs a little bit more MAB on the rest...half of which likely are capping anyways.

And these two things boil down to a sad truth- MLs matter a lot on BLM in Sortie, at least to a point. I'm not saying one needs to be a psycho and ML50 before they even attempt the gear on BLM...but I would say that ML30 makes a huge difference over ML15. Grab 'em when you can, hit key markers like 30 (makes /SCH much more viable with better Sublimation, Ebuillence, and an extra strat), and always be thinking about those INT numbers.

THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH

SO Many good tips in here, timing of nukes, how many to fit in a window, aja stacking, everything, i cannot thank you all enough

Go out there and make us proud :)

Laaaaaast question, regarding death. When it is useful?

Also, im seeing "free death" and death sets, can someone explain how this works? I nuke, it takes all my mp, whats the "death rotation"

Also, im guessing macc is very important here

I'm kind of one of those people who tries to gleam all the info before trying something out lol, dont wanna volunteer to be the blm in an event and fk it up :(

One thing i will add, and i want to thank everyone here, is the NUKE wall info that's been provided, i knew it was a thing, but didnt realize the intricate timing involved, so thank you all so very much.

Death is used in some specific situations still, primarily with "NQ" Aminon fights where a dedicated mage strat still is viable. Some may question why a group would still do "old aminon"- well, often you can pair that fight with more other bosses resulting in a very high muffin return than other setups. So if you aren't after Mesohedrites any more (or yet), its very viable.

A couple things regarding the execution aspect of Death strats:

-Aspir is extremely powerful against NQ Aminon, and often post-Death you can recover 50-75% of your MP right there.
-Myrkr matters. Building a strong set for the WS has real benefits.
-these days with proper gear and buffs, one needn't dedicate the entire gearset for Death to just +MP options. Find thru testing the threshold of MP you need to still deal capped damage, and fill in around that with more typical nuking stats and reducing the recast timer.
-solid damage from Comet and Impact are extremely important in this situation...its not just "I got a Death Set, I'm done".

Well sometimes your warp ring is down and you really need to get home quickly. If you ask Mr. Monster nicely, they'll use Death to save you the cost of a warp club!

I have thoroughly enjoyed your commentary here! haha, i'll keep it in mind when i need to die!

Update

Did my first sortie run on BLM, it went umm, decently. MAJOR issue im trying to sort is a lua/macros

Im struggling to map Aja's, t6's, 5's, 4's lol, obviously its a lot

What is your all go to method/macros/addons/luas, i have GOT to simplify this, especially if im going to hit 3 casts per MB window

I didnt know this was possible?

If you close with a helix (and you always should be, in a low damage set) then it's pretty easy to squeeze in 3.

some lua have a bind that cycles through elements so you only need one macro per tier, easynuke also does this (found in launcher).

The most important thing to do on BLM is to check if you have any party members with block aid disabled. The best way to do this is to cast warp II on every single one of them right after you zone into sortie.

I did a lot of BLM burst runs before falling back to melee, mostly because I wasnt being successful with BLM while I was being more successful just spanking mobs face.

The thing Celebrindal mention was really my conclusion why I wasnt doing well with BLM: Dhartok was being cleared like most videos, but I wasnt being able to beat Triboulex with BLMs (due me multiboxing, I never had enough time to play with the other bosses because of running and splitting obj) because my dmg was severely lacking.

One of the things that really makes a difference between Dhartok and Triboulex is their INT stat: Dhartok has 300ish while Triboulex has 500ish. Thats a very high hurdle. Giving how nukes are penalized by caster having lower INT than target, things start making sense.

So, the beast would be, how to reach those high numbers? I do noticed that 500ish number wasnt being randomly thrown on Triboulex, but purposely calculated to have that value: If I had a mid tiered gear and low ML, probably you would be sitting around 400~450 INT stat (i had more precise numbers but I lost them already). Then you would need to make up the difference with in fight actions. AKA, having a fully powered Burn kept full time; having an impact debuff full time; maybe resorting to some geospell or songs.

A lot going on with different party members to perform in such a small window that made me fall back to melee, that have less preparation and details to be taken care of.

But yeah, the do and dont:

DO:
check your dmg if its not hitting over 50k per nuke.
fix things from past errors. Pay attention to macc, mab, INT, fast casting, gear, weather

DONT DO:
dont fight again before you figured why youre doing poorly. Maybe its a matter of gear, maybe its a matter of buff/debuff, maybe its a matter of coordenation

Came here to say this.