Need Some Advice

Hallo!
BLM has always been my main job. Before the new level cap increases I had spent the previous 18 months trying to get my gear to be the best that I could achieve.

Here is my current nuking set up. The selenian cap has int+4, mag acc +2 and mab +2.
I took a break at the time of the 85 increase and when I came back I found that everyone was nuking for a hell of a lot more than me. Even elvaan RDMs nuking with tier IV are kicking my taru ***.
So I need help!
I'm assuming that I'm missing out on some kick *** atmas? Which ones should I be aiming for?
I really need some help and advice, because I'm feeling like a total sad panda with all these piss poor nukes XD
Thanks for reading <3

you'll want Atma of the Beyond/Ultimate/Minikin Monstrosity. main reason those elvaans are out nuking ya! the gearset is still pretty solid apart from a few pieces, but its easily better than a lot of BLM i have seen recently

That's still a pretty decent item set. Luckily, BLM seals aren't *too* hard to get. Some Teal pieces can replace what you have now until you can get some friends together to go on some seal runs. After that, your AF3 will blow almost anything out of the water. The full +1 set alone is amazing.

Poz pretty much hit the nail on the head. Beyond, Minikin, and Ultimate will be your 3 Atmas of choice when you get to the point of using 3~

WB Brannie

Also the staff trials with affinity: magic damage are very nice. The lastest one with +5 gives a 30% increase in damage. They got a lot easier to finish inside abyssea with MAB and refresh atmas.

items to get very quickly,

gotiea back af blm iron giant misereaux coast abyssea 100% drop can be duod.

Get yourself some trophies from new abysseas and go for blm body literae (i think its called) exchanging them. until you get af3+2 its possible to be one of the best nuking bodies going, reason being mine has +4 int + 6 magic att bonus magic eva +1 as augments. Its possible to get up to magic att bonus +8 in total maybe +9 i cant remember which one it is. This would make genie no longer needed for you and its free....

can swap your ammo slot for a witch stone now which is +2 magic att bonus and they are much cheaper than before if your buying.

Feet wise I nuke in goliard until af3.

since you dont have a novio you could work towards blm af3 earring from altepa abyssea and eventually hecates earring but that may be far off for you depending on your LS

most other stuff in there like zenith and belt I use nuking too unless using obis

There's nothing "wrong" with your nuking gear, it's just a little behind the current standards set when AF3 armor was introduced.

BLM AF3+1/AF3+2 basically replaces all the gear in your 5 main armor slots.

BLM AF3 cape and earring, plus Witchstone, would improve the other slots somewhat.

If you have the time and patience, the Magian Trial elemental staffs can boost your MAB considerably.

Eradico Mitts are another option for hands besides AF3+1/AF3+2.

In Abyssea, Atma will probably make a much larger difference than gear. Minikin and Ultimate are potent choices, as others have noted.
There's a host of other options, too, including Beyond, Full Moon, Baying Moon, Clawed Butterfly, Kirin, Rescuer.

As a BLM, while there's definitely times where maxing out damage is useful (killshots, zergs, solo/kiting), knowing how to manage your enmity is far more important than a few more damage on a nuke. Mana Wall and Enmity Douse have made this a bit easier. Still, I recommend Atma of Allure as an important option for BLM Atma, too.

Therugia Clogs (I think they're spelled that way). are MAB +4 which is a good increse from the crackows.
Goetia Mantle (Your AF3 accessory #2) INT+7
Maybe some elemental grips and a couple atmas and you'll be fine
here's my nuking set:

If you don't already have a second INT ring, I'd go ahead and pick one up for use in Abyssea. The latent is ~75% HP before adding cruor HP buffs. Even with a 400HP Stoneskin, a decent PDT/MDT idle set, and Mana Wall/Enmity Douse, I'm still not fond of running around in Abyssea with ~800/1800 HP. Depending on what you're doing, you can potentially take a lot of damage very quickly, and in those cases, Sorcerer's Ring latent HP can be a death sentence.

With that being said, there are things you can do to improve. Your set really isn't too bad, and like everyone else, I've seen far worse.

Here's a quick checklist of things I'd work on if in your position:

1) Synthetic Atmas. If you haven't done so already, head to a Scars zone and talk to the Atma Fabricant. Based on your mission progress, you can get Atmas of Ambition and Full Moon right now. Those are both decent starter atmas for BLM. Also, visit an Atma Fabricant in a Visions zone for Atma of the Ultimate. This atma is one of the big 3 for BLM.

2) NM Atmas. You can do these with your LS or with pickups. You want to pursue Atma of the Minikin Monstrosity (from Durinn in Vunkerl Inlet) and Atma of the Beyond (from Hadal Satiator in Konschtat). These are the premier NM atmas for BLM, but there's a wide array of other atmas to hunt down for your other jobs.

3) Magian Staves. I'd work on Indra's Staff +2 and Varuna's Staff +2. They're a substantial damage increase over HQ staves, and since you've been on break, you can do some of the more annoying trials in Abyssea. With Minikin/Beyond/Ultimate, I blew through my final Varuna's Staff +2 trial on wyverns in ~4 hours when it would have taken substantially longer outside of Abyssea.

4) AF3+1. Upgrading BLM AF3+1 isn't too bad. If you have a few friends willing to help, you can knock out the feet, legs, and head pretty easily. I personally haven't started on the hands or body yet.

5) WoTG missions. If you're up to it and can find friends who also need to do the missions, there's a pretty decent reward at the end for BLM. For BLM, the reward earring can be augmented with MAB +4 (if you're in need of a 2nd MAB earring) or Macc +4 (for enfeebles) and Latent Effect: Refresh +1. The latent is active when you're disengaged, so at the very least, it's a fantastic idle earring for BLM.

6) NM drops/Dominion Trophy augmented gear. If you can/want, you can pursue some things like Goetia Mantle, Searing Cape, Witchstone, Eradico Mitts, Hecate's Earring, and a host of other things I can't list off the top of my head.

By killing NMs in Heroes zones, you'll receive Battle Trophies. You can trade these trophies to the Dominion Tactician for augmented gear. For BLM, Literae Coat is a good option. It took me ~10 tries, but I got a Literae Coat augmented with +4 MAB for a total of INT+4 MAB+7. Not bad.

***. I wrote far more than I thought I would. I hope this, along with everyone's imput, gives you a good starting point.

EDIT:



Literae Coat is augmented with MAB+4. Diamond Ring is augmented with INT+2.

There is where my standard nuking set stands right now. So don't sweat it Branwen, you're not the only one who needs to put more effort into their BLM. ;)

Gook luck to you, and don't forget to have fun!

Hi all, thanks so much for the input!! It's going to take me a while to pick up most of that gear, but at least now I know what to aim for :D

our new af3+2 has a little feature that augments our conserve mp trait, causing it to:

"Occasionally increases damage of elemental spells when Conserve MP is triggered. Increased amount is proportional to twice the ratio of MP conserved." (from ffxiclopedia)

so i just got 5/5 and figured i'd test this out.



went to aby kon highlands on iceday and used Blizz5 on a licorice....and did 14060! i had beyond,MM,and ultemia atmas.

im certain once you play catch up with your gear and atmas, you'll be back to putting them to shame in no time.

If you don't have Atma of the the ultimate, what are some options for the 3rd slot.

Sorry for necro.

Thanks.

I used Atma of the Full Moon before I got Ultimate. Minor boosts to INT and MAB and 5tp refresh means you can keep casting and still get a little boost to magic damage. I still use it sometimes instead of Ultimate when I know I'm going to be casting a lot and MM won't keep up alone. Especially good if I'm gonna be spamming Impact.

That said, I'm not a very good BLM so you shouldn't really listen to me.

Ya Baying or Fullmoon are a nice alternative.

I'm sure you could raise that number way higher with Hyorin Obi/Twilight Cape. Not sure how AF2 legs stand in a nuking set nowadays, but I know the cap with those types of items is something at like 35% damage increase, I think it was?

using hyorin wouldn't increase the damage if the nuke already got the day bonus technically, you'd lose 7 int for max damage. hyorin just guarantees the bonus.

i don't really know, i probably would if i bothered to use spellcast, or even play blm enough to ever take my af2 pants out of the moogle. but when i was skimming someone else's spellcast they had a condition where they don't use af2 pants if there's day and double weather, or something.

and i mentioned it because he didn't mention a scholar, and if the nuke already did get the day bonus, the damage would actually be lower with an obi.

I wouldnt bother using af2 legs for nuke matching day/weather use twilight cape/obi/zodiac ring keep 5/5 af3+2 on. Comparing Stoneja with 5/5 af3+2 twilight/obi/zodiac and stoneja with af2 pants w/o getting af3 set bonus the damages were about the same tested in Apollyon. My af2 legs been retired to mog safe, never thought id see that happen.