[Bdawgbud]

Hello all, been working on a BLM Guide for solo at 75, like techniques 9/10 BLMs DONT know, and i thought id share with you. It can be found at http://beginningsffxi.co.uk/BlackMageIndex.html which is my LS's website. Id love to have any comments/suggestions. Keep it constructive please however.

[Criosist]

hmm you seem to have written that the Moldavite Earrings +5 MAB is +5% damage i dont think this is correct somehow +Magic attack% and + magic attack bonus are 2 very different things in both theory and calculations

[[Cookies]]

If you want me to be constructive; terrible.

+5 MAB != 5% damage.

MAB is magic attack bonus, it isn't a straight % addition to damage, otherwise it would say MD+5% (magic damage +5%).

Oh and as for the Apollyon NW solo. I'm not impressed whatsoever. Not only did you get lucky with portals but you didn't kill Pluto or Zlatorog either.

[Amentis]

Cookies why are you so mean today

Oh and as for NW Apollyon, there's a guide on here by Whimsical I think, which is pretty much perfect. I love her forever because of that guide :<

But, of course, you're correct. This isn't all that great of a guide, I hate to say. Also, I noticed in your pudding solo area, you mention to save ES for sleep emergencies. You failed to mention, however, that puddings aggro JA. I can just see some poor nooby blm getting gang raped by puddings cause he ES'ed out in the middle of them.

[[Cookies]]

Cookies why are you so mean today

Oh and as for NW Apollyon, there's a guide on here by Whimsical I think, which is pretty much perfect. I love her forever because of that guide :<

I'm just in a bitchy mood! Oh and Whimsic is a guy.

[Amentis]

Whimsical, not Whimsic. Unless they're the same person.

http://killingifrit.com/forums/index.php?s...t&p=2182815

[[Cookies]]

Hmm, I was sure Whimsic wrote a guide too.. Nevermind then, my mistake!

[Amentis]

Yay, happy Cookies! I dun like sad cookies :< They don't taste as good.

I MEAN WHAT?!

[[Cookies]]

I'm always happy!

[Kaparu]

hey whats goin on in here

[Amentis]

Nothing that concerns YOU, Mr. Korazin hater!

God blm forums have been slow lately... :<

[rambus]

As far as the gide, the light blue backround with the orange links clashes and har on the eyes. I am not even going to try read it because i can barly read the links.

if what cookies said is true then hes right never say 5 mab =5% damage.... EVER FFS

[Bdawgbud]

Hmm i guess i was wrong on the MAB part, ill have to look into it more and correct it. On NW that video was 6months ago (1st completion) and since then ive cut my Kaiser kill time to like 15-20mins max

[shigo]

Hello all, been working on a BLM Guide for solo at 75, like techniques 9/10 BLMs DONT know, and i thought id share with you. It can be found at http://beginningsffxi.co.uk/BlackMageIndex.html which is my LS's website. Id love to have any comments/suggestions. Keep it constructive please however.

Like Criosist & [Cookies] said, you have to change your wording for MagicAtk.Bonus.

+5 damage translates into a 5% direct increase to nuke damage without Target Base Magic Defence Bonus filtering it.

The way black mages Boost thier Ice and Lightning, each merit adds 2 MAB to the element which is equal to +2% damage.

Proof that Magic attack Bonus is a % increase:
(Based off Blizzard IV)

Standard NQ Behemoth Damage: 1275
Ugga Nukes on NQ Behemoths: 1335
Total increase: 60

Standard Kaiser Damage: 875
Ugga Nukes on Kaiser: 915
Total Increase: 40

My stats dont lie

The quotes above from your guide need correction.

Magic Atk.Bonus is indeed a "% increase" as you stated, but doesn't need any proving. You can see for yourself from the data you provided for Uggalepih Pendant. If MAB was truly a multiplier then your damage should of came out as 1377 & 945, but your damage increases are different values.

Example #1 is +4.70%

Example #2 is +4.57%

No matter what, high quality staffs always come out as +15%

As far as my kill strategy, Here is what works for ME (maybe not you):

* Open with Thunder 4 (about 1450 Damage)
* Stun if its a spell that needs it, otherwise Gravity while he casting Blaze Spikes (this happens 66$ of the time as opener)
* Blizzard 4 (about 1400 Damage)
* Bind
* Aspir
* At this point the flan tends to cast its 2nd spell, i generally wait to see what it is be4 i killshot it
* Once i Stunned or watched Spell 2 i then Freeze 2 for the killshot (1900 damage about)
* If its not dead i drain and if that doesnt kill it i use bio

The strat is fine except for bind. Bind is only for emergencies and shouldn't be included.

insert OP's stoneskin guide

You should've added that the total required MND for a max stoneskin @ 200 Enhancing is 114

How to increase your enfeebles:

Should've added magic accuracy


Now I'll comment on the stuff you added that I liked

As far as my kill strategy, Here is what works for ME (maybe not you):

* Open with Thunder 4 (about 1450 Damage)

as over the course of that fight it got me about 500 MP over the course of that whole fight (20 MP per minute).

I've seen so many BLMs that start a battle w/o opening in a nuke. Starting with damage (especially on a happy casting mob) is the proper way to engage with the mob because they'll always retaliate with a spell instead of running after you (where bind, gravity, or sleep is more beneficial).

A lot of BLMs also don't seem to understand the concept of free MP. The added refresh is a piece of gear that should be put to full advantage. Most of the time I see BLMs using this piece only when their MP is already too low and needs recovery. The piece should be used always in between spells (if possilbe). Have you ever said to yourself, "Fook, I need 3 MP or 9MP" whenever you see the message "You do not have enough MP to cast that spell". You could've casted that spell you wanted if you would've used your refresh piece more.

So yeah thanks for adding that.

Ok, now the following info I'm about to post is going to sound like I'm putting you down or on the spot, but I'm being honest.

The first thing I said to myself when I read your guide was "Oh jeez...". This was after I read sentences 5 & 6 of your first paragraph in introduction. You read his guide and was inspired by it. Now there's nothing completely wrong with that, but you seemed to replicate his guide in a smaller less informed way. There are too many similarities apparent. Amentis's comment on how he didn't like it was probably from the fact that it wasn't detailed enough. It was too short and didn't contribute much. It was generic like most of the other guides out there (except for the two notes I pointed out earlier). Most of the info in the guide is common sense.

You see that's the thing I don't understand about these job "guides" is that ~95% of the content in them is logic. If you would've put some thought into the mechanics of your job, you would've seen that... oh shit... that's pretty obvious, why didn't I think of that? You want to know why... because you weren't putting your part into the thinking process for your job. You read someone else's thoughts which they've put work into and made them your own. Now I'm not saying reading guides is cheating or a wrong doing. I'm all for gaining more knowledge. You never might know what you'll find. The old saying, "You learn something new everyday" is true. To the day, I'm still learning about my job. For example, I have yet to unlock Sea and do several other forms of endgame content. I still have much to experience from, learn my mistakes from, and learn from just sitting back and looking at the "overall picture".

What I'm trying to say is, what did you read in Kaeko's guide that you should have already known? He went very in depth with his postings (which made his guide popular), but most of the stuff in there should have been anticipated if you originally thought for yourself. ~90% percent of the BLMs that read his guide probably said, "oh shit... that's pretty obvious, why didn't I think of that?". You should always be trying to better yourself in every way possible. Bettering yourself does wonders to your "feelings" inside and ability to act.

Another problem with guides is how important it is for your information to be 100% accurate. Misinforming others can be dangerous and leads to lots of confusion. Imagine if someone writes a guide and becomes popular, but some of the info contained is incorrect. Others who don't question it, read it, and accept it as correct and then spread their knowledge which is incorrect or the source of the knowledge (which spreads into the community). For example when I was a n00b the word on the street was that if you carried a cardian card on you, that specific cardian wouldn't agro. A lot of people were spreading that info, even I was. Reason being was because I didn't question the source. You shouldn't believe everything you hear. You should always question those that are higher (Professor, parent etc) than you unless you know for a fact that you're both on the same level. If you're doubting yourself with something, just for safety double check before you spread this information.

Oh I forgot to mention one more thing for guide making. One of the final directories in your guide had a macro suggestion section. I suggest you keep out info like that which isn't universally accepted. Everyone that plays the game can't use the information you provided properly. Earlier you advised how BLMs should create a separate macro just for the Uggalepih Pendant. That's good advice and is the way it should be done. Maybe you could redo the macro section and allocate material similar to that which would be a good read for not only PC users but PS2 & Xbox BLMs.

I hope you see where I'm trying to come from with the info I typed up for ya.

Goodluck~


For more info on BLM mechanics and philosophy check out my book ©2006 BLMakings on Amazon today. PM me and I'll throw in the coupon. (its a joke people don't look for it XD)

shit this took me a long time to post @.@ it's noon already!?

[Kaeko]

Soloing isn't inherently difficult, it just requires the person to be extremely meticulous about details and a whole lot of repetition. These are things you can't truly teach in a guide. Someone here mentioned that I focus on mostly/all 'duh' ideas and concepts and I'd totally agree. Probably the most complex thing (if you exclude specific zone strategies) is using a standing setup, which is rather obvious.

Since you seem to be able to take your own videos, I'd focus on videos because a lot of players can't provide that. Back in like 2004-5 when I started trying to solo things, I started with videos (Whimsical's really really old Apollyon NW Pluto/Ram and ENM Brothers ones are good examples). Good players will pick videos apart and try to figure out the little details the player does that they could mimic. I'll give you a couple examples:

*******

I used to have a lot of issues soloing ENM Brothers before getting all the nice gear - didn't even have a full set of HQ staves. I watched Avesta's BLM video and saw that he would intentionally pull the NMs to the back of the hall then walk the smaller one away from it, giving you a good extra 10 seconds after Sleep II wears to kill it because the large one has to run back. This wasn't something that was explicitly stated in a guide or anything, it's just something you notice watching a video and attempt to mimic.

I learned about the existence of the Distance Plugin watching Whimsical's Apollyon 1F/2F NM videos (lol). I'll admit it's cheating I just really don't care because I'm too used to it and it's too useful. I used to just guess and eyeball the ideal place to nuke, but after watching how methodical his solos were I immediately downloaded the Plugin.

On a more basic level, if you watch Avesta videos, you can just notice the speed at which he manages to flip through menu and switch gear (used to do it legitly, now I think he uses plugins like in his recent Suz video). The general speed and accuracy at which he does things are good areas to try to break down individually.

Anyways, videos can be a very unique way to showcase yourself and be a good learning tool at the same time. Ironically, I think if you were to hand videos of yourself out to others, you'll probably learn just as much on how to improve yourself as you would teach others since others can break your play down. It's a good thing. I made 1 video (a NW solo) a while back and even though it was only out for like a few days, I got a ton of feedback on little stupid things I was doing which I could fix.


*******

Videos are also good for 'wow factor' if you manage to do something very difficult and unique. I regret not being able to make videos of things like LBC and ApoNE and it really diminishes my ability to explain them. They also help you to gain very strong credibility if you're good. Sometimes I see players post on various forums with really really good information and ideas and they get overlooked, then someone well-known will bring the exact same thing up and everyone clings to it like the holy grail of FFXI - showing off helps you gain credibility, so long as you do it with some tact and humility.

Lastly, while I'm very flattered that you'd mention me in your guide, don't gush about another person and their guide. It's your guide, not mine. If you gush about someone right off the bat, you're just advertising someone else's work and not your own. If you feel strongly about mentioning me, do it at the END, not at the very beginning. Last thing I want to read right off the bat in someone's guide is about someone ELSE'S guide. Avesta is a rather obvious inspiration for my own solos - but I don't talk about him beyond simply mentioning him and linking him for further information.

[motoh]

Sanitized. Thank you constructive posters, the rest of you, sleep tight. Santa's watching.

~M

[Gyth]

I'm not following your spellcast code for obis.
It seems to me like you'd be wearing the obi whenever there isn't opposition, even if you're not getting anything beneficial.

And is spellcast stable now?
I stopped using it when it kept unloading on me.

You see that's the thing I don't understand about these job "guides" is that ~95% of the content in them is logic.

Another problem with guides is how important it is for your information to be 100% accurate.

Just because something is logical, doesn't make it true.
And science never would have gotten anywhere if we couldn't stand on the shoulders of the giants that came before.

I'm not saying you should blindly believe everything you read.
But it is much easier to verify something than discover it.

[splynk]

I'm not following your spellcast code for obis.
It seems to me like you'd be wearing the obi whenever there isn't opposition, even if you're not getting anything beneficial.

And is spellcast stable now?
I stopped using it when it kept unloading on me.




Just because something is logical, doesn't make it true.
And science never would have gotten anywhere if we couldn't stand on the shoulders of the giants that came before.

I'm not saying you should blindly believe everything you read.
But it is much easier to verify something than discover it.

Gyth, do you still play? Trueballerz is back on Asura, if you still care. Akatsushi is his name.

[Diamicles]

if what cookies said is true then hes right never say 5 mab =5% damage.... EVER FFS

are you related to John Madden? Sounds like something he would say.

Madden imitation go: "If the team gets the lead then they will probably win if they have more points."

[Gyth]

"%DayElement"!="$%SpellElementOpp"'

Obis only effect their day/weather.
Equipping an obi that matches your spell will never hurt you (other than losing possible int).
To get the penalty you'd have to equip an earth obi on earths day while casting thunder or something.