How to play BLM effectively

I've recently returned to the game after about a five month break and picked up with my lvl 50 BLM again. I've perused the forums a bit to determine what stats/gear to focus on buuuut- ALL the posts seem to deal with gear. I think I have a decent handle on how to gear my BLM based on my budget, but one thing is still missing- I can't seem to find a guide on how to properly play the job.

I don't currently have a linkshell to ask around in so I have no idea about which skills are the most useful to grab from PUG and ARC, when is the best time to use excruciate, when should I cast Thundaga vs. just casting thunder -> thundara. I see bits and pieces about these topics- mostly they deal with people insulting the "urdoinitwrong" BLM's for missing all the bonus damage from proper spell progressions/cooldown usage. Well, I don't want to be one of those mages!!

Does a decent (recent) guide exist? If not, can anyone give me a brief synopsis?

My current "relevant" stats (mostly GC stuff- no $$ for materia) [with sanction but w/o food or buffs] are:
macc- 464
int- 344 (a bit low, I know- using Flame Sergeant's Cudgel until I can afford materia for Lightning Brand)
amp- 500
underleveled subs: PUG- 15, ARC- 1

Any indicator of the best cross class abilities would be great!

Get Chameleon (ARC 42). It's one of the two ways you have to shed hate, and it's very important for keeping your damage output high, as well as saving your hide if you pull a little too much hate.

Otherwise, the only cross-class skills that are any use are Quelling Strike (ARC 22, I think), Featherfoot, and Second Wind.

you forgot decoy, although i rarely use it since it cost MP and is only good vs magic and ranged attack (enhanced is archer only trait for physical attacks). its the best choice for a 5th cross class ability.

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Originally Posted by ChaChaJaJa

I don't currently have a linkshell to ask around in so I have no idea about ... when is the best time to use excruciate, when should I cast Thundaga vs. just casting thunder -> thundara. I see bits and pieces about these topics- mostly they deal with people insulting the "urdoinitwrong" BLM's for missing all the bonus damage from proper spell progressions/cooldown usage. Well, I don't want to be one of those mages!!

Does a decent (recent) guide exist? If not, can anyone give me a brief synopsis?

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Any feedback on this?

Although BLM is fundamentally simple to play, many of the decisions are highly contextual on an encounter-by-encounter basis.

Often, you will want to tie your cooldowns -- Parsimony, Excruciate, Dark Seal -- to Thundaga, but only if Thundaga can do significantly more damage than Thundara, which may not always be the case. The timing on Excruciate also depends on whether you're using AF body or not, and even then, there is going to be some variance due to the way Excruciate works. Personally, without AF, I use Excruciate directly before the Thunder leading up to the Thundaga that I'm going to fully buff.

Beyond the minutiae, and beyond gear considerations, what generally sets apart one BLM from another is casts per minute. Being able to go through your rotation as quickly as possible while slipping in extra casts (without overtaking the tank in enmity) is a key component to BLM gameplay. To that end, I highly recommend either binding /facetarget to a very convenient key (I use E) or including /facetarget at the beginning of every single spell macro. The /facetarget command allows you to force the game to recognize that you are stationary and able to cast.

Rather than say "cast X Y Z on this encounter," I would suggest taking an analytical look at your gameplay whenever you're on BLM. Look at your damage/MP and damage/second ratios, think about the timeframe for how long you're going to be casting for a given fight, and adjust accordingly.

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Originally Posted by carraway

Although BLM is fundamentally simple to play, many of the decisions are highly contextual on an encounter-by-encounter basis.

Often, you will want to tie your cooldowns -- Parsimony, Excruciate, Dark Seal -- to Thundaga, but only if Thundaga can do significantly more damage than Thundara, which may not always be the case. The timing on Excruciate also depends on whether you're using AF body or not, and even then, there is going to be some variance due to the way Excruciate works. Personally, without AF, I use Excruciate directly before the Thunder leading up to the Thundaga that I'm going to fully buff.

Beyond the minutiae, and beyond gear considerations, what generally sets apart one BLM from another is casts per minute. Being able to go through your rotation as quickly as possible while slipping in extra casts (without overtaking the tank in enmity) is a key component to BLM gameplay. To that end, I highly recommend either binding /facetarget to a very convenient key (I use E) or including /facetarget at the beginning of every single spell macro. The /facetarget command allows you to force the game to recognize that you are stationary and able to cast.

Rather than say "cast X Y Z on this encounter," I would suggest taking an analytical look at your gameplay whenever you're on BLM. Look at your damage/MP and damage/second ratios, think about the timeframe for how long you're going to be casting for a given fight, and adjust accordingly.

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Those were very helpful considerations; Thank you!

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Originally Posted by carraway

Often, you will want to tie your cooldowns -- Parsimony, Excruciate, Dark Seal -- to Thundaga, but only if Thundaga can do significantly more damage than Thundara, which may not always be the case.

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I assume based on what I've gleaned from other threads that the relevant factor here is AMP vs INT? TBH this is one of the things I am still quite confused about.

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Originally Posted by carraway

Personally, without AF, I use Excruciate directly before the Thunder leading up to the Thundaga that I'm going to fully buff.

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Wouldn't this make it more likely that Excruciate procs on the Thunder or the Thundara rather than the Thundaga? Would you mind elaborating on why you do this? I'm not trying to be combative- I'm trying to learn.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by carraway

Beyond the minutiae, and beyond gear considerations, what generally sets apart one BLM from another is casts per minute... Rather than say "cast X Y Z on this encounter," I would suggest taking an analytical look at your gameplay whenever you're on BLM. Look at your damage/MP and damage/second ratios, think about the timeframe for how long you're going to be casting for a given fight, and adjust accordingly.

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At this point, I only have a single decent gearset that I wear regardless of what I cast (referred to in initial post). As I understand it, stack Macc to cap, then it's INT for Thunder progression, or AMP for Fire progression. But I haven't gotten far enough along to have access to separate gearsets. The main thing I was kind of mulling was damage/mp and I was wondering if that was the reason sometimes I read that BLM's don't bother with Thundaga.

It's not that I don't want to learn the job for myself, it's more that I am interested in the whole discussion but feel like I am late for the conversation. People make statements that sound like they are common knowledge, but they really aren't if a person was absent from the game when the knowledge was being accrued. Thanks again for the suggestions!

Excruciate gradually increases your crit chance as it ticks down. With AF body, typically I've proc'd the crit within 5-10 seconds of hitting Excruciate, but without it, it's more of a crap-shoot.

I believe that Thundaga does more damage/MP the softer the target is. Once a target has high enough defense, Thundaga becomes grossly inefficient (the chief example that comes to mind is Chimera, in Cutter's Cry).

I'm honestly not totally clear on the INT vs. m.atk valuation. INT is extraordinarily significant on Thundara, and seems less valuable point-for-point on other spells, due to Thundara's inherent and massive m.atk bonus while used in combo. My general philosophy is that if Thundara is doing over 50% of your total damage during an encounter, you should rely more heavily on INT than m.atk. Really though, you're going to want to provide yourself with as many gear options as possible and adjust accordingly based on your targets and the nature of the encounter(s).

The reason you might want to use excruciate on the first spell in the combo is that for most endgame your crit rate is so low that even with the buff there's a pretty good chance that your first spell won't crit. Subsequent casts while the buff is up further increase the chance of a crit on spells that it's going to have more impact.

One other thing to add, I like to start boss fights with a fully buffed (Quelling strike, parsimony, dark seal, excruciate) thundaga or firaga. Basically gives you a 0 cost, low enmity first hit, and the extra time it takes to cast the top tier spells gives your tank enough time to firmly plant himself on the enmity list.