What to focus on gear wise

[Niooo]

So, I have returned from a long break (2011), and I was BLM Main back in the day. I feel like BLM isn't a really popular job anymore, not to mention with all the spells I find it hard to use a controller to scroll though all my macros. What job isn't so heavy on macros? Also, I hit 99 BLM and have full sparks gear. Where do I go from there gear wise? I see I can upgrade my old AF and AF+1 Gear, is that worth it? With CoP and ToA done I am focusing on RoV so that will be done soon and I'll do more with Adoulin stuff.

[Pixela]

Reddit is a far more active place for your questions related to gameplay.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxi/

[BobbinT]

Reddit is a far more active place for your questions related to gameplay.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxi/


While I partly agree with that, some countries unfortunately banned reddit due to certain content. Even I have to use proxy just to view reddit.


With that said, I'm probably the least person to ask for this advice. Though from my experience as casual, WAR & THF are still great and defo sub DNC for survival. As for RoV, might want to concentrate gearing up first since the bosses at least from chapter 2 onward are no jokes, especially the final ones. That, or could ask friends to help carry you so that you could benefit from RoV ASAP since those will greatly help.


Back during WotG/Abyssea era, which is when I finished all missions from all content, BST really helps me out solong like more than 90% with exception of few that requires specific job to get past. But I heard lately that BST has been getting more and more problem, so I'm unsure if this still holds true. And unfortunately I already completely abandoning BST when doing Adoulin content back when it was fresh introduced, mostly because I managed to get the twilight armor set from Shinryu which gives me the auto-reraise ability and have been mostly doing content as WAR later on. The pieces unfortunately are very outdated by today's standard, although there's adoulin necklace that also gives auto-RR (only works in Adoulin area and only gotten after finished all SoA missions).


TLDR though, my advice is WAR/DNC. ;)

[Nyarlko]

So, I have returned from a long break (2011), and I was BLM Main back in the day. I feel like BLM isn't a really popular job anymore, not to mention with all the spells I find it hard to use a controller to scroll though all my macros. What job isn't so heavy on macros? Also, I hit 99 BLM and have full sparks gear. Where do I go from there gear wise? I see I can upgrade my old AF and AF+1 Gear, is that worth it? With CoP and ToA done I am focusing on RoV so that will be done soon and I'll do more with Adoulin stuff.

The only reasons that BLM is not popular atm are because: Death was nerfed against the highest level NMs (which was the go-to strat for a long time,) plus bard is great again and that melees jobs' gear has reached the point where they can match/overgear most content, so they are more likely to survive evil aoes while putting out big DPS/WS numbers, even when zerging and missing skillchain opportunities. BLM only tends to be impressive when in a SC+MB setup, has slightly more restrictive party composition possibilities, and everyone has to pay attention so that skillchains are made for the BLM to burst.

Other than the nerf to Death damage though, BLM is still just as powerful as it ever was (and actually more powerful due to gear/stat creep since the heyday.)

As far as reforging goes:
All BLM should have AF body, as it can basically give us infinite MP. AF legs are nice for Drain/Aspir once you are able to 119+2/+3 them, but not worth worrying about before then.
Relic body is a rather accessible Refresh+2 piece (kicks in at 109,) and hands have a hefty chunk of Magic Burst damage+ on them and may be easier to get on a low pop server than alternatives.
Empyrean feet are also a must-have for Mana Wall use, abuse and shenanigans. XD

If you haven't played with Mana Wall much, the way it works is that while it's active for a max 5min duration, any damage you take is dealt to your MP instead of HP until you run out of MP. It also has a flat -50% damage reduction which is applied before any other damage reductions, so normally, if something hit you for 100dmg, it would be reduced to 50mp lost. Empyrean feet+1 increase that by -15%, so you would only take 35mp lost. You can increase this even further with the BLM cape from Ambuscade (-10%) and the Mana Wall job point category (up to -20%) for a grand total of -95%. That 100dmg hit can become a measly 5mp damage dealt, which is easily compensated for with just a bit of Refresh. :D A maxed out Mana Wall makes a BLM nearly invincible and is amazingly fun to play around with.