How to gear BLM best

[Excer]

From what I've read/experienced:

INT increases combo damage
MATK increases base damage

Magic Accuracy of about 460~ is enough to not get resisted most of the time.

For those unable to spend a lot on gear, prioritise MACC and INT above MATK. I'd recommend Electrum Scepter + Shield (one with macc on) especially if you're Twin Adder (Gridanian Shield) as these are 2 of the best pieces gear outside of melds for MACC. AF is fine but if you have the gil for single melds I'd recommend upgading the hat and legs first - Felt Hat of Intelligence and Woolen Tights are my personal choices. For the hat you can meld either INT or MACC, and the legs you can meld INT and MND or INT and PIE - whichever you choose is up to you.

From then on I'd use your jewlery slots to boost your MACC to the required level then focus on INT - filling in the slots with MATK when there are no alternatives. Your belt is best used for an emnity- meld but those are expensive so you may not be able to afford this.

[Geo]

Without food I am at

409 int
535 mag atk
435 mag acc

I pretty much see the same results you are seeing with slightly higher top end numbers.

For fun I popd a mega int pot and collusion pulled with thundaga for around 1700+

Nice thundaga...

[ShadowWolf]

If your Grand Company is Grid, you could give a shot at the "mask,earring, Grid Shield" Mask is 20 Mag. Attk, earring is 4 Mag. attk, Grid Shield is 10 Mag. Acc. If you wanna go mass Grid Company Seal farming (Grid only remember, dont know the other GC stats) can get the pants too, Int +8 with -20 enmity with the other items in conjuction. would allow you to nuke more with less worry of hate build.

[MariyaShidou]

Hi Mariya,

Wow, very nice. If I may ask, what's your gear setup to achieve that M.ACC amount? (I'm guessing you might have Triple Melds for INT / AMP as well?)

Not really, except for the Mahogany Pattens I double meld as many M.Acc as I could >_> just for fun lol. If they ever make Garuda vulnerable to Sleep, I mind try 600 M.Acc.

[Geo]

Not really, except for the Mahogany Pattens I double meld as many M.Acc as I could >_> just for fun lol. If they ever make Garuda vulnerable to Sleep, I mind try 600 M.Acc.

SillyBLMs>.>

[Deli]

GC grid belt also have +3int on it. I save the mask for int hat since I use thundara combo pretty often.

I still not sure how's int+10 boots vs M.att+20 shoes on "whole" thunder combo damage tho.

[charlemagne]

Anyone have something realistic for those of us that are newer players and don't have millions of gil to blow on double/triple melds?

I don't have millions of gil and managed to create a pretty decent blm gear set in a few days. On anything other than boss fights wear nq necklaces and spiritbond them for a good rate of return on INT materia, sell the lower tiers and keep the tier IV. Natalan wolf parties can see you spiritbond four or five necklaces easily and any spare materia will subsidise your build. Good gil can be made using aoe rapega on cursed eyes in nanawa mines to sell the chocobo feathers for arrows, I've made a million a day from the eyes before. Have a crafter make you something with a couple of T3 materia on it, you are almost guaranteed to make a good profit especially if you have produced the materia yourself. There are loads of ways to make gil quickly in this game without having a high level crafting job yourself.

Edit: apparently the price of the feathers has crashed since I last farmed them, Vulture feathers still sell well for good gil though. Spending several minutes browsing the item search counter before farming usually highlights something worth farming on any particular day.

[Alkimi]

Yeah from prices I've seen retainers you could pretty much just buy a piece of gear+materia from markets > stand in Ul'dah til a passer by melds it for you > put it back on retainer and sell for a profit.

People are dumb I guess.

[zzapp]

Without food I am at

409 int
535 mag atk
435 mag acc

I pretty much see the same results you are seeing with slightly higher top end numbers.

For fun I popd a mega int pot and collusion pulled with thundaga for around 1700+

Just curious how you got to these stats for you blm. You have to have triple melded brand (with at least 2x meld int) or Garuda's Van, and triple int hat, would be my guess? Thanks.

[Alkimi]

Managed to get myself to 401 INT with no double melds at all, although this is with sanction and food:

Lightning Brand (Single T4 +20 INT)
Flame Sergeant's Targe (+7 INT with 4 or more GC pieces)
Ul'dhan Officer's Cap (+40 INT with Sanction)
Ul'dahn Officer's Overcoat (+10 INT and +15 magic acc with Sanction)
Mage's Halfgloves
Mage's Rope Belt
Woolen Tights (+12 INT with T4 Wise Man's Vision)
Wizard's Crakows (+9 INT)
Mage's Earrings
Spinel Choker +1
Flame Sergeant's Bracelets (+7 INT with 3 or more GC pieces)
2x Zircon Ring +1 (+36 INT)
Buttons in a Blanket for food

Puts me at 401 INT, 501 atk magic, 464 magic acc

Granted it's not spectacular but it's still better than 90% of the BLMs out there and it's without any double melds. It will certainly do me until I have more gil to throw at some double melds or converting gear stops giving me MND III materia 90% of the time.

Oh yeah, just try not to die and have backup gear!