A couple questions for the BLMs

[Tilanna]

I have a few questions for the BLMs in Blue Gartr, or any other high level BLMs. My first question is about the Errant Houppelande (errant body piece). I see many BLMs wearing Errant Houppelande and BLM AF hat, is this better than the Black Cloak? The Refresh and Elemental Skill on the Black Cloak are nice, and I've seen some BLMs wear the Black Cloak even at 75, but the +10 INT from the Errant Houppelande is hard to resist, so I'm wondering which do you use when and why?

I'll give a quick run down of my equipment just to see if you guys think I've missed something as far as my gear. Also, probably should have said this earlier, I'm a Hume ; ;

Weapon: Elemental Staves, I have 7/8, just missing Earth (Earth is going up in price, and Stone spells are so useless )
Ammohantom Tathlum
Earringshantom Earringx2 (working on Moldavite.. but I've killed the damn gob 6 times and no drop ; ; )
Rings:Astral Ringx2(Lv72 will upgrade to Diamond Rings, hopefully eventually Snow Rings)
Neck:Elemental Torque
Head:----
Body:Black Cloak
Hands:BLM AF gloves
Legs:BLM AF pants
Feet:Hume RSE
Back:Red Cape+1
Waist:Ocean Rope

Now I'm also wondering when should I start shooting for the HQ staves? The prices are ridiculously high, and I'm still trying to farm enough to get the errant gear, diamond rings, and eventually snow rings. Since the HQ staves are anywhere from 800k (Pluto) to 2.6 million (Jupiter), that is a bit much to try to save up for me right now. However, when I do have enough money, which would be the best HQ to have first? I'm thinking Jupiter, since Thunder is our highest damage spell at Lv75, but I'm not really sure if that's a good idea or not.

Now, about choice of subjobs. I'm currently BLM/WHM, my WHM is Lv48, I have Erase and the other stuff I need for WHM, but I've been considering leveling my RDM as a possible sub(It is Lv27 right now). I noticed some of the BLMs in Blue Gartr are BLM/RDM, so I'm wondering, what are the pros/cons of RDM sub over a WHM sub. Since I don't have RDM leveled, I can't tell how good or bad it is, but I don't think I could live without simple things like status cures and erase. But having RDM sub would allow me to do a few more things, like dispel, help with marathoning (gravity), and allow me a little more protection (Phalanx).

Thanks in advance ^^

[Veritas]

errant hpl is on me 95% of my play time. why?

+10 int (you get to put hat on too) and -7 enmity

thats not worth 8 elemental skill which doesnt help at all on some things. i got better results at 283 on some stuff rather than when i put on 316. poppo, pg's blm, uses pure enmity- and elemental stuff (af2 body/hat mahatma pigaches mahatma gloves etc) and he nukes really weak but less resists and no hate. i personally play low elemental skill high int medium enmity-, more fun for me to see 1662 on fafnir then 1100.

on a lot of things your nukes will only matter significantly on MB if thats coordinated in your ls(which it should be), and MB resist is low chance regardless of what you have on. i never use black cloak to nuke anywhere, from bunnies in west ronfaure to kirin, af hat/errant hpl/mahatma slops(i cant shell out 3.5mil for mahatma hpl when CoP might have some other stuff better)

race doesnt matter. baldy beats the crap out of a lot of taru blms because he's smart. player skill overrides race unless you're a very very poor galka in which case you might have some mp problems.

my gear is

weapon: fire staff/aquilo's staff/auster's staff/earth staff/jupiter's staff/neptune's staff/light staff/pluto's staff
ammo: phtm tathlum
earrings: moldavite/abyssal
neck: black silk/elemental torque/enhancing torque/republican gold medal
head: wizard's petasos
body: errant hpl/black cloak
hands: zenith mitts/wizard's gloves
rings: snow ring x2
back: rainbow cape
waist: arachne obi +1
legs: wizard's tonban/mahatma slops
feet: zenith pumps

HQ staff asap. i had this wierd distorted obsession with saving money for mahatma hpl. until malign knocked me out of it so i bought a bunch of HQ staffs. get jupiter's staff first, ignore whatever hb and mal tell you, thunder ownzzzzzz

and you cant get me to change to whm sub regardless of what you do. i quit before i play blm/whm again

[Malign]

[word] [up] to hume blms! tarus suck!!^^


as far as errant gear goes.. the only time to not use it and use black cloak instead is if you are getting major resists. once you hit 75, you will rarely have this issue. some blms (veritas for one) will always be wearing a black cloak when he isnt nuking to get those few mp back, personally, i like to keep my macros as uncluttered as possible so i mainly stick to one or the other. the main reasons for using errant and somethinglike af hat over black cloak is a massive int boost.. and -7 enimity..

as far as HQ staves go.. pluto and a nuking staff 1st... hellboy and i went aquilos for our 1st HQ nuke staff... veritas went jupiter for his 1st.. kinda personaly preference there.. but i would definatley say aquilo or jupiter 1st for nukes.


ive used rdm sub all the way up 75... never touched whm.. and i have no desire to. biggest adv. to rdm sub is fastcast... which is only around 15%-ish reduction in cast time.. but that can be all the difference. also, fastcast reduces recast time now. add to that a few key spells like gravity and dispel (phalanx is nice.. but not wonderful). things you will miss are spells like erase, curagas and status cures (paralyna and such)


one thing i would suggest about your current gear is ditch the astral rings asap. even the +6 int total you can get from the cheap lv 54 rings is better than the astral. i understand being a hume blm in a pt and having the taru whm just own your mp pool, but the int is much more beneficial for you.

good luck on moldavite..

my gear: changes with situation

head: elite beret/af hat/zenith crown
neck: elem torque
fingers: snow ringx2
waist: hume lvl 70 +4 int belt thingy
feet: blm af2 (hume rse up until i got af drop)
legs: errant/af2 legs
back: rainbow cape (warlock mantle as soon as i can find one)
body: errant/black cloak
ears: moldavite and abyssal
hands: zenith mitts/af1 gloves

weapons: staves.. (cept for earth and light.. bleh) and genbu shield and titan crudgel for sbmt

[Malign]

race doesnt matter. baldy beats the crap out of a lot of taru blms because he's smart.

[Hellboy]

[Insert long, informative BLM tips and statistics.]

[Veritas]

the af2 owns btw

mal's just lazy to switch his stuff. you never see my character around when i'm seriously doing something because i have equip change in everything and all my macros and joft used to whine constatnly about how he cant get refresh on me because my character keeps disappearing

someday when i get af2 body i'm reworking my macros so each has optimum equipment already switched into it and i can just work different main sets like sitting/nuking/runningaround sets. being blm is all about macros. that menu shit doesnt work

[Insert long, informative BLM tips and statistics.]

what statistics? i'm interested. i can bust out the elongated version of the blm damage calculation formula if you want

[Tilanna]

Yeah, all of my macros for spells have equip changes, Thunder III has change to Thunder Staff, Drain has change to Dark Staff (I use that also when resting to switch out to Dark). Still only Lv70 cause my damn static PT going slow as hell, I'm looking forward to AF2 though, if I can ever get it >_> I've had my static RDM /fume at me before cause I change equipment a lot

[Hellboy]

Yeah, drop the astrals and go for INT and magic atk bonus. In exp PT though, I like to use elemental torque and AF1 gloves (switch to AF2 gloves for MB) for my share of elemental skill in exp PTs unless I'm fighting against VT or T mobs in which I use zenith for magic atk bonus and maybe black neckerchief in place of the elmental torque. I NEVER use black cloak except when standing for refresh, 'cause you'll be losing an assload of INT.

That was useless information, and the only reason why I actually made this post was to show my equip. I'm sorry.

Main: Aquilo's Staff/Jupiter's Staff/Pluto's Staff/Wind Staff/Fire Staff/Earth Staff/Water Staff (._. my excuse is that I have to pay for my [cat] obsession)
Ammo: Phtm. Tathlum
Earrings: Abyssal Earring, Moldavite Earring
Rings: Snow Ring x2
Waist: Arachne Obi+1
Back: Rainbow Cape
Head: Igqira Tiara (princess hellboy), AF1 hat, Demon helm
Neck: Black Neckerchief, Elemental Torque
Body: Errant Hpl., Black Cloak, AF1 body
Hands: AF1 gloves, AF2 gloves, Zenith Mitts
Legs: Mahatma Slops, AF1 legs, AF2 legs
Feet: AF2 feet, Zenith Pumps