[Bheemz]

WWCND?

Fixed.

[Garota]

I love racism in FFXI Makes me hapy comparing one race to the other and bashing on another...

[Requim]

MP is worth mentioning for galkas because they have ~half the base of a taru (@75 858 vs 476 as /rdm). Elvaan's are 599 base, mithra and hume a 675. Once you get into your groove, sure, MP does't matter much because you won't be full for most of that anyways, so for 100-200 where that's just resting a bit longer, that holds, but when you're talking over 400 difference? That adds up fast since HMP increases the longer you rest, so the taru will spend less time having to rest and when they do rest it's more efficient. I'll agree that for the most part mp really doesn't matter since you shouldn't be full mp that often, but considering most of the time you shouldn't be nuking in mp gear (most of your nuke gear doesn't have much mp on it) that means a galka is either sacrificing a lot of skill/int/MAB for 1/4-1/2 their nukes or they are nuking 3-4 times at full skill/int and then resting. BIV is 164mp, TIV is 171 mp, and AMII 287. Tarus are the extreme case where they are getting 2-4 more nukes than the galka, but comparing against mithras and hume galkas are consistently 2 nukes behind, which when you can only get max 8 before running out of mp, that is a pretty debilitating difference.

However, if you put the time in with good gear you can definitely succeed. End game blm relies heavily on gear and merits, so if you put the time in you can definitely make it work. It's not that you can't succeed, it's just a hurdle. As a taru infatuated with meleeing I encounter the race differences often, but having spent a lot of time on my DDs I can make them work. If you're serious about being a career blm I would suggest to be a more average race to make your time easier if you haven't invested much time on your galka.

To pretend that racial differences are negligible is silly. There are differences, some races can do things others can't. But for most situations those differences can easily be negated by gear and merits. My linkshell has a galka whm who does great (yay galka sublimation and devotion). Galka mages can definitely work, however, blm galka is by far the weakest of the galkan mage choices because you need to nuke at half mast with your mp gear on for your first several nukes or halve the total nukes you can do. Also your sorc ring macros will be a bitch. Certain combos can be different, but work like taru plds having extra mp or a galka whm with extra hp, but some combos just suffer like taru sam and galka blm.

[azagarth1]

Just go galka blu you can technically nuke and galka makes rocking blus!

Im not saying this because im a biased galka blu either lol....

also the 860 vs 480 mp diff from taru to galka blm isnt really as bad as it seems. Most taru blms i know merit up hp anyhow because of survivability issues, having 700~ hp isnt really great when aoes can get ya. Galka will merit mp up. Meaning you will rest at 560 mp really vs tarus 860 for a 300 difference. Still big but thats just 2 nukes is all. Add the fact that to proc soorc ring a taru will be at like 600hp.... that to me is scary, galka will sit at 885 w/o hp merits if i remember correctly, that is much safer.

[Nattack]

also have fun /healing every battle.

should be doing this anyway unless you're full, unless taru suddenly gained an infinite mp trait.

[Ganbaruzo]

Just go galka blu you can technically nuke and galka makes rocking blus!

Im not saying this because im a biased galka blu either lol....

also the 860 vs 480 mp diff from taru to galka blm isnt really as bad as it seems. Most taru blms i know merit up hp anyhow because of survivability issues, having 700~ hp isnt really great when aoes can get ya. Galka will merit mp up. Meaning you will rest at 560 mp really vs tarus 860 for a 300 difference. Still big but thats just 2 nukes is all. Add the fact that to proc soorc ring a taru will be at like 600hp.... that to me is scary, galka will sit at 885 w/o hp merits if i remember correctly, that is much safer.

i think im going to go blu actually lol, im lvling thf right now and i want to unlock dnc bst and blu

[Requim]

2 nukes when you can manage like 6-7 is a pretty large chunk. Not to mention you'll have multiple nukes in suboptimal gear. For soloing this can mean the difference from keeping a chain from routinely having to rest several ticks less. HP can definitely be a factor, but I'ld still value MP over HP.

However, if you plan to level up other jobs, even other mages, galka can do very well. Galkas can make great white mages since they can easily break 1k MP and don't need to worry about gear swapping as heavily as a BLM. Galkas are awesome for any melee solo from the vit and HP, also only 2 less strength than elvaans.

But in the end you're just choosing the worst possible combination of job and race in my opinion. It's like playing a taru melee, you're just at a disadvantage, and this is coming from a taru with mnk/war/sam/drg/pup. It is a terrible idea, you're always at a disadvantage, but if you're serious about it you can make it work.

[Nattack]

the difference between a taru melee and a galka mage is pretty different though. having 10 less str only shows over time, rather than MP pool/efficiency, and the severe detriment of a galka mage having to rest every second spell.

[evilpaul]

If you're doing group activities on BLM being Galka versus being Tarutaru isn't going to matter much.

[azagarth1]

Ya that statement is pretty accurate. I been playing around with how i will gear my blm, it wont be uber gear but realistic for my playtime atm. The gear will land me at 800+ mp with full mp merits. Thats in nuking gear. To hit that mp though you do have to sacrifice a few small int increases. But honestly it wont matter much. If your going for tier breaking you will be on a hnm and thus probably have 7tic refresh lol.... so nothing to really worry on when max mp arises.

its really not as bad as people claim. I see more elv blms then any race but taru it seems.... on all 3 servers i been on. I have yet to figure this out lol... But when you really get to it galka would be better then elv and yet i never hear bad talk on elv. We have more int and that will always be more important then max mp.

here is the gearset i would use, Galka blm gear obviously not the best but by no means would this be gimp. In my eyes this is bare minimum that should be allowed on blm to be passable in a endgame shell, all is easy for your shell to get you; None of it is hard or expensive really. This i feel is a strong base and if you do go mages only as a galka tamas ring would give you 30 more, and other upgrades also could add some more mp, such as zenith crown+1 (relatively cheap) for +30 more mp, and zenith feet (not so easy to get but any land shell you will get them semi fast) which would give another 20mp for 1int loss. That puts you at over 880mp, thats beyond enough seeing as most jobs dont go much farther then that. The downfall is you will be a good deal of int behind your fellow blms, but not enough imo to worry about. People who lv galka blm in my eyes arent trying to impress anyone lol... we leave that to the tarus since we technically can never out dd a equally geared one. Who cares really though blms is mainly an endgame job thats used in large groups where individual performance isnt as important as the whole.

I dont recommend lving blm as only job ever for a galka though. Its more like "lv it and a dd so you can be useful in every event".

[Nerull]

There are these these things in FFXI called macros... they allow you to swap between different sets of gear whenever you like.

My point is, you shouldn't only have one set of gear. Whether you're a taru, galka, or anything else, wearing MP gear full time is pointless, as you will not always be at full MP. The prudent thing to do would be to have an MP gearset and a max damage gearset, equip the MP set when resting to full, and use that set for 1-2 nukes before swapping to the damage set.

[Hogie]

I've seen galka blm that do excellent damage on HNM. It's much, much harder to reach said damage as a Galka, as opposed to Taru, but it IS possible.
Just gotta work a little harder.

Also, MP does not matter at endgame, every blm knows this.

I strongly disagree with this. I would love to see 6 galka BLM's bring down Ouryu or Tia quickly. Galka gets what.. 3 or 4 big nukes without using a max MP set? Taru get at least 5 depending on merits and gear.

Yes i do agree that most things you fight your not going balls to the walls all the time, but when you do need to a Galka wont be able to keep up.

[evilpaul]

I'd like to see this Linkshell that fights Tiamat that only has Galka BLMs.

I'd like to see the LS that fights Tiamat that can't bring him down because one of their BLMs is a Galka, but was OK before.

It seriously doesn't fucking matter.

You might not be able to do some crazy solo as Galka that 90% of the Tarutarus here can't do either.

If your Linkshell is Galka-only you might have troubles with...Ouryu V2 (is there a Galka only endgame shell on any server?).

These are such ridiculous fucking examples that they hardly bare mentioning.

[Ganbaruzo]

I'd like to see this Linkshell that fights Tiamat that only has Galka BLMs.

I'd like to see the LS that fights Tiamat that can't bring him down because one of their BLMs is a Galka, but was OK before.

It seriously doesn't fucking matter.

You might not be able to do some crazy solo as Galka that 90% of the Tarutarus here can't do either.

If your Linkshell is Galka-only you might have troubles with...Ouryu V2 (is there a Galka only endgame shell on any server?).

These are such ridiculous fucking examples that they hardly bare mentioning.

omg lol now im gunna have to make a all galka ls on gilgamesh !!!! XD anyone wanna join?

[Krilldog]

I am a 75 Galka BLM.

I am a carrer MNK.

I don't do end game, because I left the game back when ToA came back and I have been back for about 3 months-ish.

I had leveled BLM to 47 before I left, and decided to pick it back up for the challenge. (turns out it wasn't much of a challenge at all with mana burns) Simply because I was so used to being a Monk and jsut being a Melee DD.

At any rate, the first thing I did when I decided to pick up BLM again was I came here and read up on gear. Like mad.

I read every single post on all the stickies above.

I don't have access to a lot of gear for the simple lack of end game shell or Dynamis.
Quite frankly I don't want to do any of it right now, I am too busy.


I am meriting my BLM now.

Evil Paul has it right.
I can't really solo for shit. Mainly because I am jsut not that good at it and I am slow on gear macro swaps, but I just don't ahve the MP to pull off constant pulls/sleeps/nukes.

But in a group, my MP pool isn't a concern.
I have just under 700MP, but I do NOT stack MP. I have some MP plus gear on but for the most part I stack INT, and am going for Mgc Attk bonus gear.
My Social shell will be doing Uggy pendant runs next weekend.

My gear is pretty much AH stuff, since I, again, don't do end game or Dyna.

I have all the staves, no HQ's yet, farming my ass off for them.
Igira weskit, Mahat Body for resting. Black Robe, Desert Rope, Rainbow cape (I refuse to pay 250k+ for one more INT), AF Hat, Demons Helm+1, Jet serawheels, Ether ring, Snow Ring, Moldy Earring, Phantum Thalum, Bugard Strap+1, Dune Boots, but I am working on Rostrum and other gear.

Now I am just giving that as BG information.

As evil paul said, In groups I have no problems keeping. Yes, I rest more, but I have parsed myself in Burns and in PTs and my damage is fine.
I am not kidding myself. I am not going to be the damage dealer an equally merited/geared Taru BLM.
But that doesn't mean I can't or don't perform.

In the end, you don't have to worry what others are going to say about your BLM.
I have done it, and many more before me.
You just have to deal with the people doubting you and then the compliments when they have to eat their words later.

Just perform to the best of your ability, have your macros, and be the best BLM you can.

It's like I told this Hume BLM in a burn on some Puddings when I popped a Cream Puff and not like a Maron Glace or a Rol.Pie +1.

Hume "Dude, why don't you get HQ pies or Glace for more MP?"

Me "Would you rather I churn out an extra nuke or two for half the damage you are putting out, or a less nuke here and there for about what you're doing?"


It felt good to be accepted as a "Good BLM" by damn near every BLM I have PT'd with.


Also, Galka BLM/Nin is the one to invite when you need a puller for your Pet PTs b