[spald]

1) solo/duo NW limbus to top floor? or solo/duo Brothers?
2) Can they still get decent xp solo/duoing princes and pudding?
3) Still useful endgame?
4) still completely useless in non-manaburn merit parties?
5) Also, I hear sch is pretty much blm+1. Being able to nuke solo better as well as more useful in merit and endgame parties. Something about much dmg-to-mp ratio?
6) Lastly, what's with these new grips? Are they really like +2 skill for each element (when I left, nobody really knew what magic acc was and just assumed acc~=skill)? Because I see people picking that +1 int grip over it and that doesn't really make sense (unless SE changed how int works).
Thanks.

Edit: I also just saw there was an issue with sleep/gravity/bind and ES not really lasting as long. Is that still the case?

[Ellatrix]

1. yes
2. yes (~10k/hr)
3. yes
4. yes
5. depends event and given support, if I want to blow something up I still go BLM
6. not worth the inventory
7. enfeebling was fucked up briefly after an update and they fixed it, works like it always has

[rambus]

I disagree with the SCH thing, yeah SCH can support and gets in the way of nuking but if you full time nuking i think its able to beat blm.

kind of showed it bit by formula too

I stupidy went to that homan NM thing as sch/blm and was able to hit 150 int though food and hailstorm and stuck the DOTs without issue
*I do not activate SCH/BLM at all but just saying -.- the skill difference in the jobs in meny situations has little impact. (anytime where you do power set on stuff as blm can be done as sch, the few harder resist mobs im still trying to come up with a complete conclusion)

[spald]

Good to hear all that. Now, I've also been gone as long as before all these fancy new ra/ex gear sets came out. If I'm buying most of mine from the ah, is it still (for nuking)
Main: staves (what's with this 7eyes thing)
Ammo: p tathlum
Body: weskit (I like how genie is so cheap now)
legs: mahatma
feet:???

That Ix'something robe with refresh/regen doesn't look bad though, but I don't really see anyone buying or using.

[Daggermaster]

Good to hear all that. Now, I've also been gone as long as before all these fancy new ra/ex gear sets came out. If I'm buying most of mine from the ah, is it still (for nuking)
Main: staves (what's with this 7eyes thing)
Ammo: p tathlum
Body: weskit (I like how genie is so cheap now)
legs: mahatma
feet:???

That Ix'something robe with refresh/regen doesn't look bad though, but I don't really see anyone buying or using.

7eyes is only good for buffs and spells that arent enhanced by ele staves(blink, phalanx, spikes, etc) p. tathlum works, weskit works, mahatma legs work. use Yigit feet from lebros caverb assaults(can buy for 20k points) Ixion cloak is garbage, dont even toutch it(except if you idle it it, thats its only real use :<)

[spald]

7eyes is only good for buffs and spells that arent enhanced by ele staves(blink, phalanx, spikes, etc) p. tathlum works, weskit works, mahatma legs work. use Yigit feet from lebros caverb assaults(can buy for 20k points) Ixion cloak is garbage, dont even toutch it(except if you idle it it, thats its only real use :<)

well it's good to see how much SE has given blm in the way of sellable gear in the last three years.

[pathwriter]

Black Mage sucks, Stormwaker nuking is where it's at.

[Terranova]

Morrigan's Gear can be very nice for certain situations as well. It takes a LOT more work, dedication (i.e. Luck (i.e. Wasted Time)) and gil to get than any of the previously mentioned gear, though. If you already know about this stuff, I apologize - I'm not sure how long "a few years" is.

As a random side point, Mythic Weapons came out, which are a ToAU form of Dynamis Relic weapons. They don't take as much gil, but a MUCH greater time commitment to obtain (The goal is to have 'mastered' every single end-game ToAU event). However, don't get your hopes up for Black Mage - we got the Laevateinn, which, although shiny, is a big ol' fat piece of crap and can still be out-done by HQ staves. (Which have dropped drastically in price over the past few years, by the way.)

There's probably more stuff that's happened to Black Mage over the past few years, but I don't feel like thinking about it too much. Hope this helps ^.^;

[spald]

Morrigan's Gear can be very nice for certain situations as well. It takes a LOT more work, dedication (i.e. Luck (i.e. Wasted Time)) and gil to get than any of the previously mentioned gear, though. If you already know about this stuff, I apologize - I'm not sure how long "a few years" is.

As a random side point, Mythic Weapons came out, which are a ToAU form of Dynamis Relic weapons. They don't take as much gil, but a MUCH greater time commitment to obtain (The goal is to have 'mastered' every single end-game ToAU event). However, don't get your hopes up for Black Mage - we got the Laevateinn, which, although shiny, is a big ol' fat piece of crap and can still be out-done by HQ staves. (Which have dropped drastically in price over the past few years, by the way.)

There's probably more stuff that's happened to Black Mage over the past few years, but I don't feel like thinking about it too much. Hope this helps ^.^;

I'm somewhat familiar with acquiring Morrigan's set. Thanks though.
A couple more questions:
1) What exactly is the 320 skill /120 int rule now. Something about matching int. Is 120 the normal monster int at 75? or the normal HNM? Either way, the int isn't that hard to acquire for a taru, but getting 320 skill kind of means you have to put away your morrigan's/zenith mitts and take out that old af1 again as well as a few other bad substitutes. What exactly does that 320 skill do?
2) Why exactly do grips suck? Are earth/wind/dark at least vital for enfeebles and dark magic, and that bugard +1 is better for nukes?

[Terranova]

1.) The 120 INT rule came about because it was discovered that very few HNM's have over 110 INT, and that resist rates are floored when your INT is at least 10 greater than the monster's INT. (One of the exceptions to the 110 INT HNM rule is Kirin, who Rambus recently found and proved here to have 149 INT.) Not sure about the Elemental Magic skill... Rambus can fill you in on all those details. (I'd actually quite like to know myself.)
2.) They don't suck, they're simply

not worth the inventory

Black Mage requires LOTS of gear, and there's quite literally no more room for grips that give a paltry +2 accuracy per grip per element. The Bugard Strap +1 (+1 INT) is the equivalent of +1 magic accuracy in most situations, though, and also factors into damage. And you get 10 MP and some MND for stoneskin. Whoopee.

[rambus]

1.) The 120 INT rule came about because it was discovered that very few HNM's have over 110 INT, and that resist rates are floored when your INT is at least 10 greater than the monster's INT. (One of the exceptions to the 110 INT HNM rule is Kirin, who Rambus recently found and proved here to have 149 INT.) Not sure about the Elemental Magic skill... Rambus can fill you in on all those details. (I'd actually quite like to know myself.)
2.) They don't suck, they're simply Black Mage requires LOTS of gear, and there's quite literally no more room for grips that give a paltry +2 accuracy per grip per element. The Bugard Strap +1 (+1 INT) is the equivalent of +1 magic accuracy in most situations, though, and also factors into damage. And you get 10 MP and some MND for stoneskin. Whoopee.

very few mobs* not just hnm, only common mob i know of that is close to that is 110 int off the cav imps.

baykko may have a high amount of int but it also may have some MDB or "shell effect" to result in the low damage.

I consider the ele grips sucky, +3 or w/e it is is too low of amount. if we had say like anther sotrrage thingy and where all gave 100 spots i may consder them, but INT does have an impact as well, due to the low space in the game it is hard for me to make an unbiased jugement, in the end the real answer is the benift does not outweigh the cost of the inv space and losing the 1 int. the only one I woud advise getting is dark one. reasion being is because it would help you sleep ( one of the most used function from blm) and the fact that drain/ aspier does not benefit from int at all. rest can rot in hell.

as far as skill im starting to believe there my be great decay effect after 300, getting any more would have to be linked to higher level differences. not only ddi i get good resusts from kirin on having 307 skill andn ot more with the 153 int on top of it but there is also been founded a cap for enhancing magic. after you get 300 skill you get no benfit from more ( i wanted to see how this impacted stoneskin if adding over 300 skill paded it but you need very low amount of mnd to prove it) the point of the 300 skill thing is logic will tell us maybe SE made this the cap for all magic. there may be a different tair at 310 blue skill but I have not seen enough proof of that ether, be interesting to see how much this 300 rule applied. I think PLD said something along the lines of having 300 skill in shield too.

there is also a possibility with the way augmented items are delt now can put morr set out of date.
( I would kill someone and thier puppy if i get to put 4 mab on a mah hap like on that aquillos >.>)

[spald]

Thanks for all the info. One last question. Has a decent formula been found for dark magic to maximize drains and aspires? Is it still just put on as much +skill as possible and forget every other stat?

[Nerull]

Dark magic skill, magic accuracy, and prayer.

[Carynaira]

I like some haste on there too.

[Nerull]

well yeah... I kinda just meant to maximize damage.

In all, skill>accuracy>haste/FC>-enmity