Have you fought Garuda?

[Niiro]

With a ~28% meld rate going from III to IV

lolwhat

[Carraway]

lolwhat

Oops, off by 1%.

[Raldo]

It's worth noting that that is the weakest tier-4 stacked onto the weakest tier-3.

That type of materia may also have an inflated success rate because it doesn't have 4 values per tier, but I can't say that for sure.

[miokomioko]

It's worth noting that that is the weakest tier-4 stacked onto the weakest tier-3.

Which is 1000x more relevant than simply saying "Tier III > Tier IV"

We can probably stop talking about materia tiers since all they really determine is the minimum level of equipment they can be melded to.

[Enygma55]

Point still stands that you can get a decent rate on a double meld. It may not be the best materia but the payoff of a higher chance is worth it sometimes. Especially when you blow up the first 10 pairs @22% each costing you 500k per.

I've quit double melding my pants and settled for a high single meld because I actually did blow up 10 pairs and got fed up.

[solracht]

I thought lancaster (in his original post) was just illustrating how easy/cheap it is to get geared up now (technically was, but besides the point). Even with the weakest III and IV (27% chance), the melded pieces are still better than pretty much all non-materia options.

I think you jumped down his throat without taking the context of his first post into account.

EDIT: Sort of beaten by Enygma55.

[Niiro]

It's worth noting that that is the weakest tier-4 stacked onto the weakest tier-3.

That type of materia may also have an inflated success rate because it doesn't have 4 values per tier, but I can't say that for sure.

Yea, granted the comment wasn't necessarily wrong (well, by 1%) but when people are talking about multi-melds they're usually talking about ones that actually give significant gains over single melds.

Which aren't going to be 27%.

Or 25% for that matter. You'll be lucky to get 20 if you're using materia with good stats.

edit: perspective, the above double meld attempt would cost 550k in materia alone using the cheapest TIII and TIV (going off of recent prices)

A single perfect TIV costs 1m.

You would need on average 3-4 attempts to succeed, and you would have 4 Matk to show for it.

[Carraway]

And for people who care a great deal about their performance, that extra 4 m.atk is worth it. And the extra 8 m.atk off a triple III->III->IV is worth it. Especially for BLM, the job which sees the highest returns off any kind of incremental gear upgrades.

[Niiro]

Which isn't what players with tight budgets are doing.

Which was the topic at hand.

[Carraway]

Which isn't what players with tight budgets are doing.

Which was the topic at hand.

If the costs seem insane, try upgrading your gear by farming your own mats, doing your own SBing with full sets of gear, etc.

Tight budget or not, the dividends on improving your BLM gear are dramatic, especially if you're fighting Garuda. While you can kill her with BLMs with just single melds, the more DPS your BLMs can put out (and all of your party members overall), the smoother the fight becomes.

[zzapp]

For Garuda your best setup would be:

HEAD: Spinel Circlet +1, INT materia as much as possible
Body: Limsa Body/ AF Body
Legs: Sorcerers Tights / Woolen Tights +1 with at least 24 INT
Feet: Mahogany Pattens + 1 : MATK Potency / Lightning Potency
Hands: Mages HalfGloves
Accessories: Mages Ring / Zircon Ring + 1 / Zircon Bracelets +1 / Mages Earring / Spinel Choker +1

Main/Off hand:
Lightning Brand + 1 with at least 10 INT (To Best ifrits at least) Should aim for 30+ easy 2x 16 Meld
Auberist Allegory

This works using either Buttons in Blanket / Button Mushroom Saute and BRD minuet.
This is the Best in Slot (BIS) situation for Garuda other fights may need a ring / shield switched out for MACC shield/Ring
This does not factor in the new Grand company gear, although only thing worth contemplating is the Limsa accessories which would need 4 items meaning loss in other slots and therefore not as good.

Another Weapon option is the sanction cudgel although, dying = loss of sanction and therefore i dont really deem this option useful although if your a gimpish BLM (mostly single melds) this is the best option for you providing you keep refreshing sanction and teleporting back (Hamlet to refresh Anima :D)

Just one final question on BLM gear setup - specifically the hands. Do you think Mage's Halfgloves are > double melded ringbands with +76 magic crit potency? I realize the halfgloves are a constant while the ringbands are applicable only on crits. Thanks.

[Niiro]

If you were to lowball it and assume Garuda's level to be, say, 54 (I'd think it higher) +76 crit potency would increase your crit damage by almost 11%.

If you had capped crit rate (20%) it would increase your net damage by ~2%.

That's with a capped crit rate, which you won't have, and assuming a lvl 54 Garuda, which I doubt is accurate.

I'd just stick with Mage's halfgloves.

[Enygma55]

It depends really in this particular instance. With the blm burn strategy, you want as much bang for your buck. That 10% bonus dmg you get from a Thundaga and Burst crit could mean the difference between winning and losing in a Garuda burn fight.

In general use, the halfgloves would probably work best.

[Toth]

Once again reaffirming that gear is not as important to a Blm burn as is knowing how to use your all spells and abilities within your MP limit. My group wiped 3x with garuda under 5% and I was worried my gear was too subpar. Then the leader reminded all of us to use Fire > Fira when Thundara is down and that did the trick. Starting at 60%, Thundaga combo, Burst combo, Fira combo, Thundaga, Convert, Fira combo, Thundaga combo was the key for me. I also used Freeze before the final push due to the spell's long casting time.

Won the next 4 times without issue.

Question though: Has anyone only gotten 1 headdress in a fight? Our last fight gave us all 1 and it seemed odd.

[Fievel]

Once again reaffirming that gear is not as important to a Blm burn as is knowing how to use your all spells and abilities within your MP limit. My group wiped 3x with garuda under 5% and I was worried my gear was too subpar. Then the leader reminded all of us to use Fire > Fira when Thundara is down and that did the trick. Starting at 60%, Thundaga combo, Burst combo, Fira combo, Thundaga, Convert, Fira combo, Thundaga combo was the key for me. I also used Freeze before the final push due to the spell's long casting time.

Won the next 4 times without issue.

Question though: Has anyone only gotten 1 headdress in a fight? Our last fight gave us all 1 and it seemed odd.

Only one? Odd, I've yet too see this or hear of it.

Also yeah, properly playing BLM helps way more than any gear will, doesn't mean people should run around in full AF though.

[Dakin]

Once again reaffirming that gear is not as important to a Blm burn as is knowing how to use your all spells and abilities within your MP limit. My group wiped 3x with garuda under 5% and I was worried my gear was too subpar. Then the leader reminded all of us to use Fire > Fira when Thundara is down and that did the trick. Starting at 60%, Thundaga combo, Burst combo, Fira combo, Thundaga, Convert, Fira combo, Thundaga combo was the key for me. I also used Freeze before the final push due to the spell's long casting time.

Won the next 4 times without issue.

Question though: Has anyone only gotten 1 headdress in a fight? Our last fight gave us all 1 and it seemed odd.

What were your parse #s at using full fire combo? For the 60% burn, I generally cycle Thunder > Thundara, casting Fire when Thunder and Thundara are on CD, and doing double Thunders when Fire and Thundara are on CD

[Enygma55]

If you take too long to kill her from when you enter, you only get 1. Basically you get 2 for a speed run. Don't enter and afk for 10 mins waiting for timers and yes spell rotation is very important to the role of maximizing BLM.

[Fievel]

If you take too long to kill her from when you enter, you only get 1. Basically you get 2 for a speed run. Don't enter and afk for 10 mins waiting for timers and yes spell rotation is very important to the role of maximizing BLM.

Interesting, didn't know that.

I guess it's because she's sort of difficult to not speed run, group I go with doesn't do the blm zerg exploit and we still speed run each time, slower the fight goes the more chance you have of getting fucked over haha.

[Toth]

If you take too long to kill her from when you enter, you only get 1. Basically you get 2 for a speed run. Don't enter and afk for 10 mins waiting for timers and yes spell rotation is very important to the role of maximizing BLM.

Aha! Our tank d'c before we started and we had to wait for him to come back before we started. Mystery solved.

[Lokus]

Once again reaffirming that gear is not as important to a Blm burn as is knowing how to use your all spells and abilities within your MP limit. My group wiped 3x with garuda under 5% and I was worried my gear was too subpar. Then the leader reminded all of us to use Fire > Fira when Thundara is down and that did the trick. Starting at 60%, Thundaga combo, Burst combo, Fira combo, Thundaga, Convert, Fira combo, Thundaga combo was the key for me. I also used Freeze before the final push due to the spell's long casting time.

Won the next 4 times without issue.

Question though: Has anyone only gotten 1 headdress in a fight? Our last fight gave us all 1 and it seemed odd.

Using the Burst combo so early with full HP is only lowering it's effectiveness. I normally do a different cycle though that leads me to little to no MP so Burst will hit harder after a convert.

Thundaga combo > Freeze > Thundara combo > Firaga combo > Thundera combo (Excruciate after Thunder) > Convert > Burst > Thundaga combo > Thundara combo. Usually dead at that point but all this is moot in a couple days. Trying to figure out where to place Parsimony so I get just enough mp to finish off the Thundara combo before Burst.