-AGAing the blm Fell Cleave

[Vicious]

It's more atmas and a good -pdt set that make the difference, but yeah, pretty much.

Atmas are obviously a part of your nuking set, and PDT gear is unnecessary.

[Mojo]

Use Atma of the Ultimate, Atma of the Minikin Monstrosity and Atma of the Ducal Guard. Cast Stoneskin/Phalanx then start pulling. Gather stuff up then you can start nuking, but chances are your Stoneskin will break before you get a nuke off. When you're HP falls below 50% (before cruor buffs, so around 540 for me as a hume BLM with HP merits) then you automatically receive 50% PDT (when Ducal Guard kicks in.) You'll be taking mostly 0s at this point so you can nuke in any gear and it works out quite well. I like to activate Manawall at this point then Sleepga > Stoneskin > Ja > Sleep > Ja > Sleep etc. You can kill every MNK type mob in any zone this way without any trouble. Tavnazian Tacos are good for this too.

[blowfin]

Atmas are obviously a part of your nuking set, and PDT gear is unnecessary.

Plenty of ways to skin a cat buddy, and it's not like you can't fit Sleepga into a Manafont cycle.

[Vicious]

Agreed, but some ways are faster than others; and given that aga farming doesn't speed up repops like single-target killing does, the speed at which you can drop them is pretty important. Besides, what's the point of Sleepga? They fire at about the same speed as a -ja nuke, so you're taking the same amount of hits whether you decide to alternate Sleepgas and nukes or just spam nukes. Ionno about you, but I'm gonna go with killing faster.

[blowfin]

Besides, what's the point of Sleepga? They fire at about the same speed as a -ja nuke, so you're taking the same amount of hits whether you decide to alternate Sleepgas and nukes or just spam nukes. Ionno about you, but I'm gonna go with killing faster.

I think it comes down to the situation really. I'm a fairly well geared BLM. I have my full nuking atmas, and I have over 30% PDT to idle in. However I still found that I couldn't keep up with the damage on some pulls (Taurus camp at Vunkerl for example) and throwing a sleepga in there gave me enough time to pop meds, rebuff. All that stuff. More of a choice between eating dirt and sleeping the mobs, not killing them faster.

Maybe size of pulls is different too, if you're getting by without a PDT set then you can't really be getting hit that hard to begin with.

[Vicious]

The only PDT gear that is necessary is Movement Speed + for pulling; nothing should be hitting you until you're at camp and have activated Font+Wall. I don't know if size of pulls is different, but 20+ is no problem with my strategy. The key is killing them as fast as possible to limit how much damage you take; between Protect/Stoneskin/Phalanx, a functionally quadrupled HP pool, FastCast/Elemental Celerity/Magian+2 staves, and optimal damage gear/Atmas, it's pretty hard to mess up... and that's before we factor in the ridiculous meds you have access to. But again, the key to this is killing as fast as possible, which means no wasting time on Sleepgas, no wasting time recasting buffs.

And Mojo, Ducal Guard is a waste of an atma for this. If you absolutely need PDT-50% to survive somehow, it's easily achievable through relatively common gear, and the damage gear you forgo to wear it pales in comparison to the damage you add with another nuking atma.

[blowfin]

The only PDT gear that is necessary is Movement Speed + for pulling; nothing should be hitting you until you're at camp and have activated Font+Wall.

Well that's probably why I like my -pdt gear right there. I don't really have any movement speed gear to use on BLM unless I use ambition Atma, which is a waste of a nuking slot. Probably time to redo my ASA pants and set them with movement speed and -pdt. Doesn't look like any relief is in sight for an alternate to gaiters.

Regardless, I don't see any reason to not be carrying and idling/pulling in a -pdt set.

[Vicious]

Yeah, without movespeed enhancement PDT-% for the pull is absolutely necessary, as would an initial Sleepga to recast Stoneskin before commencing with the nukes; my apologies for overlooking that detail. Personally I use ASA pants with Movespeed/Haste, as it's easy enough to cap PDT with other slots and Haste is hard to come by on mage leg armor. (Screw you and your double turban drops, Ultima) As long as the mobs run at normal speed, the difference between 8% and 12% is negligible for this purpose.

I only meant to state that PDT gear is not necessary to pull this off with optimal gear, as there's no idling being done when using the strategy I outlined.

[blowfin]

Yeah, without movespeed enhancement PDT-% for the pull is absolutely necessary, as would an initial Sleepga to recast Stoneskin before commencing with the nukes; my apologies for overlooking that detail. Personally I use ASA pants with Movespeed/Haste, as it's easy enough to cap PDT with other slots and Haste is hard to come by on mage leg armor. (Screw you and your double turban drops, Ultima) As long as the mobs run at normal speed, the difference between 8% and 12% is negligible for this purpose.

I only meant to state that PDT gear is not necessary to pull this off with optimal gear, as there's no idling being done when using the strategy I outlined.

No worries man, I just think it's pertinent to put things in context for people or you'll have a bunch of folks out there eating dirt and wondering why. You're obviously doing something different than me and it's good to know what those differences are and what advantages they give.

Just to clarify an "idle" gear set is really just a term for a gear set to use when you're not casting. So -PDT, Refresh, MDB, whatever you can fit in there really. Some people (including me) opt for an item of Igqira in there to proc. curses on the mobs. Generally speaking it's pretty common practice for people to have this macro'd around their spells so it's equipped the instant they're done casting.

[Miiyo]

I do this in all my exp party. I like to do it /sch mana wall first and then manafont. (just manafonting may get you killed if you don't immediately sleep after which i'm too lazy to do so. I just like to wreck havok.) blizzaga3 + alacrity firaja + alacrity aga3 again and you have death of about 5 mobs at least. for 7 or more i suggest a 2nd blm for sleepga or weaken one or 2 mobs before the slaughter begins. It's FUNNY seeing people just sitting there wondering what to do in an exp party and you're doing this cause mobs are dead before they can do anything.