Obi's from Sea

[Bokmog]

Hi, I'm a returning player and I've been building my BLM. I've got the VW gear and the +2 AF from abby, but I'm curious if anyone has an opinion on the weather obi's from sea. Are they worth farming anymore? A friend of mind told me about the changing of the weather with sub SCH so I would imagine they would be worth my time. Do any of you have an opinion?

I've currently just been stacking MAB and MP since I'm galka. I've got full MP merits and i'm currently 10/12 INT merits, soon to take MND to 12 for WHM SCH RDM and SMN. Any input would be nice. Also, any other information or tips on gear setup would be appreciated as well.

[Economizer]

For elemental obi, since they can't currently be merged into a single piece, you should select them carefully so you aren't cluttered with inventory.

Sorry about not having the proper names for these, but the element is the important thing anyways.

• Darkness
  Aspir/Drain/Sleep/Comet. However /SCH doesn't give the weather, meaning you'll be reliant on weather and day bonus such as in Dynamis.
• Light
  Cure spells. Sub job SCH doesn't grant light weather and in Nyzul Isle where it does grant it you'll want to be SCH main due to Embrava. However if you ever plan on curing as a SCH, get this Obi.
• Thunder
  Thunder spells. Sub job SCH doesn't grant this weather, but thunder spells are your most powerful, so consider this for alliance situations.
• Ice
  Ice spells. Sub job SCH grants this weather. Definitely get this, since the spells are the second most powerful after thunder and you can call up the weather with /SCH.

Your MP merits are okay, but you might reconsider them as you find more sources of Refresh and MP regeneration handy from gear and abilities, but this is still a bit preference based.

Only merit MND if you only ever plan on playing mage jobs - MND is now less effective at boosting single target cure spells then it used to be, so it will mostly be for White Magic enfeebles, certain weapon skills, and somewhat for area of effect cures.

As for gear, checking out FFXIAH's search functions will help you settle on good gear, especially since there is a ton of new gear. Keep in mind that magic crit damage isn't a very large boost, conserve MP is very helpful for activating your AF3 set proc, Magian damage staves are very good for elements you want to focus on (although if you are lazy, get a Chatoyant staff since it functions as an HQ 51 elemental staff, it also functions much better with obi due to the 10% weather boost), get the Twilight Cape for usage with elemental Obis for a further 5% day/weather boost, make sure you at least have a Moldivite/Hectates earring but try to get a Novio as well, there are now rings with magic attack bonus on them including the augmented Demon Rings from certain abyssea zones. Good luck.

[Bokmog]

Thanks for the reply! I am almost finished with Apajamas I and I'll be building the ICE and Darkness magian staves. I have WAR and a VIT axe built, but I really enjoy being main mage (even though i'm galka). I dont mind relotting my merits, but do you have suggestions for galkas? main is BLM and I plan to eventually have an equally skilled and geared WHM SMN BRD & SCH.

[Economizer]

I have WAR and a VIT axe built,

Is this an Axe or a Great Axe?

but I really enjoy being main mage (even though i'm galka)

Race doesn't really matter that much, and even less for mages. The thing is that Max MP is getting less and less useful as time goes on due to the prevalence of refresh.

I would ignore outside advice for Max HP/MP and just do what feels right for you however. If you don't have a single merit in Max HP but never die because of it but have full Max MP merits and still run out of MP occasionally, then you're doing the right thing.

Looking at a stat calculator (which might be wrong) you have 1387/637 base HP/MP as a Galka 99BLM/SCH, as compared to a Hume or Mithra's 1162/907, an Elvaan's 1258/807, an a Tarutaru's 942/1104. Looking at this I could see why you might consider meriting MP.

I dont mind relotting my merits, but do you have suggestions for galkas? main is BLM and I plan to eventually have an equally skilled and geared WHM SMN BRD & SCH.

If you plan on melee, STR, and then maybe DEX. If you don't plan on melee, INT, and maybe MND (very iffy if you aren't going to enfeeble a lot, since I doubt you're into WHM melee, but I suppose it helps to cap Stoneskin and boosts Curagas more then single target cures). Since you can merit two stats to cap, STR/INT are tempting if you like to bust out the staff on BLM/SMN/SCH, or if you occasionally play WAR. It's hard to say what your secondary stat should be merited as though, so feel free to do what you feel is right.

For your weapon category, meriting Evasion and maybe Parrying is a pretty good idea, as well as any weapons you tend to use a lot.

For magic skills, merit Enhancing Magic. It is essential for WHM/SCH, and helps other mage jobs like BLM hit Stoneskin cap. Then merit Elemental Magic if you enjoy nuking things. If your gear doesn't hit 500 Summoning Magic and you play Summoner enough, merit Summoning Magic. If you didn't merit something else, now merit Healing Magic (which is now good).

For job specific merits, they are roughly as follows. Merits with an (essential) right after them are key choices.

WHM is 5/5 Cure Cast Time, 5/5 Bar Spell Effect (essential), 1/5 Protectra, 1/5 Matryr, 3/5 Devotion (as per your preference, you may wish to put the extra two merits here into Protectra instead), and 5/5 Shellra (essential).

BLM is 5/5 Elemental Seal Recast, and 5/5 whichever element you favor over the others (probably Lightning or Ice). For Group 2, merit all spells, then put all the remaining points in whichever element you favor, although AM2 spells are generally not as popular as they once were.

I'll let people more familiar with SMN/SCH speak for those in depth but with SCH, 5/5 Helix Magic Acc./Atk. is a pretty good choice.

[Babekeke]

Race doesn't really matter that much

Of course it does, and for this reason:

The thing is that Max MP is getting less and less useful as time goes on due to the prevalence of refresh.

Therefore, Galka is THE race choice for any job. Since noone runs out of MP anymore, max MP doesn't matter. Max HP however can be the matter of life and death. A BLM with 1.5k HP can stand happy while Melees get hate back. A taru BLM dies. The only exception being mana wall, but a Galka can still get a much higher total of HP + MP than a taru anyway.

[Economizer]

Therefore, Galka is THE race choice for any job.

Extremely fair point. I was merely trying to make him feel good about playing a Galka mage without turning this into a complaint about Tarutaru's primary racial "advantage" not meaning much anymore. There may be a handful of things that feed off Max MP like Summoner's 2hour and the Empyrean Staff WS, but even those are pretty soundly defeated with the prevalence of Convert HP to MP gear in the majority of situations. It also doesn't help that STR based melee jobs dominate damage over even the best INT based Black Mages, making Tarutaru even more behind as a choice.

[Nawesemo]

Yes they're still valuable, paired with a twilight I think you get pretty close to weather/day bonus max, with Blm relic pants you are, ice and thunder dark.... I have them all but earth water just sit in the mog sack... Uh, I'm one of the guys clinging to my sorcerers ring and running around with 800 HP 24/7 though, but yeah I still use em. Taru Blm max int, ele, enfeb, mp, and im taking my max merits out of mnd and putting em in str, don't get me wrong, I think mnd lands para, slow etc, but .... My whms/Rdms if I need them spells on the mob probably are taking care of that, ....why str..... I understand some of our better w.s.'s lower mobs mdef..relic/mythic (can't remember).. But meh I closet drk/rdm too. >

[Borgan]

BLM is 5/5 Elemental Seal Recast, and 5/5 whichever element you favor over the others (probably Lightning or Ice). For Group 2, merit all spells, then put all the remaining points in whichever element you favor, although AM2 spells are generally not as popular as they once were.

5/5 Elemental Seal recast? Why in the world would you pick that over Potency Merits? Max out Ice and Thunder Potency. Group 2 is fine, since you'll want them all for VW procs.

[Babekeke]

5/5 Elemental Seal recast? Why in the world would you pick that over Potency Merits? Max out Ice and Thunder Potency. Group 2 is fine, since you'll want them all for VW procs.

Not any more. All merit spells got removed from VW procs. Might as well just go 5/5 ice/thunder potency and 5/5 freeze/burst 2 now. Then only use them for MBing.

[Bokmog]

Yeah i got rid of all AMII and bumped freeze/burst 2 up. thanks a lot for the information guys, i really appreciate the input. I love playing BLM and i'm trying to be the best i can be at it galka and all.