30 and 15?

I've been told that now I'm level 30 on my THM, I need to stop/go back and level an Archer to 15 to get Raging Strikes and Quelling Strikes. How important is this doubling up on Combat classes? These is a LOT of repetition in those first 15 levels, even if it's in different area and the names of monsters change...LOL

I'm a 30 not a 18 in THM. Don't know why the profile hasn't picked that up....

It's extremely important. You can not function in endgame without all your cross class abilities, especially Raging Strikes and Quelling Strikes.

Then again, Stormblood expansion will bring a revamp of the cross class ability system, so things might change in 2 months.

Very important overall you want to have most classes at 50 for cross over skills.

The main thing is to unlock Black Mage which requires you to have Archer at 15 and leveling up classes to 15 isn't that bad. Do class quests and complete the class hunt logs and you should be able to reach 15 pretty fast. There is also Palace of the dead which you should be able to unlock by now since you are lv30. Run floor 1-10 over and over again in PofD and you should be able to reach 15 in no time. I also suggest you unlock Arcanist and get it to at least level 4 so you can get Physick which in endgame is pointless but as you level up now should come in handy pre lv50.

Immediately, it's not super important. You can still function, and there's nothing so terrible that you won't be able to get through. But the more you level THM without unlocking your Black Mage job, the more you (or other players) will notice the difference in skill/ability. You'll be stronger as a BLM, as well as unlocking job-specific skills.
Tbh, the early job skills are kinda low priority, probably won't see much use in those level-appropriate dungeons. Most of what you'll be missing is just the stat boosts from the job (and Raging Strikes is nice to have), and towards the end, the job-specifc gear.

Yeah, the real reason you want to level archer to 15 is to unlock the black mage job stone. It isnt something you need immediately(a few jobs get make or break skills at 30 while BLM only gets Convert at that level - nice but not game changing), but its something you want sooner rather then later. The stat boosts and job exclusive spells and gear make it absolutely required at some point, so you may as well get it before that point comes(and really, if you have the novice ring you can get archer to 15 in like an hour or two max). As for cross class skills, raging is level 4 so youll have that just by doing the bare minimum. Quelling doesnt come until level 34 archer, but its a skill you shouldnt need much before level 60 so you can put off getting that for awhile if you dont enjoy shooting arrows. And ill co-sign Aveno's advice about spending 4 levels as an arcanist too(which will likely take less then 10 mins). The heal you get is very useful until you get to a high level. Youll never be confused for an actual healer, but i saved parties on a couple occasions with well-timed heals(usually after a healer lost connection to the server momentarily) and it made a lot of solo fights much easier.

Physick (from ACN4) isn't a real thing, at least not in parties. Solo, it finds occasional use if you need to Sleep something and then spam Physick on yourself.

In a party, if you're in a situation where someone needs healing so badly, Physick will not restore enough HP to make a difference -- that is, if it seems the party was "saved" by BLM Physick, the party still would have survived if the BLM had been casting splody spells instead (and this is really the preferred method of survival for those who would rain destruction from the heavens). Cross-class Physick only serves to prolong a fight with no positive change to the outcome.

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Originally Posted by Rongway

Physick (from ACN4) isn't a real thing, at least not in parties. Solo, it finds occasional use if you need to Sleep something and then spam Physick on yourself.

In a party, if you're in a situation where someone needs healing so badly, Physick will not restore enough HP to make a difference -- that is, if it seems the party was "saved" by BLM Physick, the party still would have survived if the BLM had been casting splody spells instead (and this is really the preferred method of survival for those who would rain destruction from the heavens). Cross-class Physick only serves to prolong a fight with no positive change to the outcome.

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uhm, not really. pre-50 healer and caster share their gear, wich means BLM have a decent Mind stat. healing requirements aren't that high either, a BLM can in fact heal an entire dungeon. and when the actual healer dies a BLM with physick can save the day in a bossfight.

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Originally Posted by Tint

pre-50 healer and caster share their gear, wich means BLM have a decent Mind stat

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This is (1) a very temporary state, (2) a partial state, and (3) an inconsistent state.

1) Pre-50 45(AF quest) doesn't last very long, and forming bad habits early leads to us having to explain to Lv60 BLMs on the Wall why they need to stop casting Physick or Sleep and focus on ALL THE SPLODIES.

2) Casters still wear casting accessories, so from Lv28 on, even the allegedly "decent" healing potency is still less healing than the tank is getting hit for, and the best way to survive is by killing the boss with ALL THE SPLODIES. Anything before Lv28 has such trivial healing requirements that neither the healer nor tank will die unless one is trying deliberately to get killed.

3) The first time through a dungeon in shared gear, a BLM's mind stat will be much different from later syncked runs wearing caster gear. A BLM50 syncked down to 31 will have lower healing potency than a THM28 in sharedmagic gear. Fire spells, on the other hand, will have only increased in potency, so again, ALL THE SPLODIES.


Should a BLM learn Physick? Yes. Definitely. During solo quests, when there is nobody else to break your Sleeps, if you're overwhelmed, you can Swiftcast Sleep and spam Physick, recenter yourself, and then get ready to blast what remains of your targets into the Seven Hells.

But in party, there are two major difficulty categories.

In the first, the mobs hit weakly enough that even with no healing, you can survive by killing them with fire before they can kill you.

In the second, the mobs hit hard enough that the incoming damage is greater than your outgoing healing. Each GCD you spend on a heal will buy the tank maybe 0.5s of extra survival time, but the target will live for at least another 2.0s. Rather than prolonging everyone's suffering, just kill the thing that's attacking you.


tl;dr: BLM is about ALL THE SPLODIES!!

all i can say is i have seen a BLM healing the last boss in stone vigil more than once (even in full 50+ gear without any mind on it) after the healer has killed himself. if the BLM would have attacked instead of healed it would have been a wipe, because the boss had too much HP left to burn him down.

there are also thousands of posts all over the forum about why a healer should dps - so why should a BLM not heal, when the actual healer is dead, when it can save the run?

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Originally Posted by Tint

there are also thousands of posts all over the forum about why a healer should dps - so why should a BLM not heal, when the actual healer is dead, when it can save the run?

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Because we have SMN that can actual raise the dead healer. Sure it's a bit of a dps loss when that happens, but it's easier to recover from than a blm spam healing the tank. Not only do you lose immense dps in the party (well based on level 45 dps lol), the fight will also take much longer, making that other dps and the tank having to work much harder. I can see a BLM dropping a physick on a pld in higher level content, since not every healer notices the divine shield buff, but that's about it. BLM's as well as SMN's in general shouldn't heal, but if sxxx hits the fan, let the smn do it and not the blm. I would actually kick the blm if I see him heal because that's none sense.

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Originally Posted by Tint

there are also thousands of posts all over the forum about why a healer should dps - so why should a BLM not heal, when the actual healer is dead, when it can save the run?

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A healer with 1500 mind and 200 int can nuke with the power of 1650 int.
A BLM with 200 mind and 1500 int can heal with the power of 200 mind.
Even in the 40s, you're looking at healers with 300 mind and 330 effective int, while BLMs have about 125 mind and 300 int.

Your comparison has no merit.





Back on topic,

Abilities you want as a BLM:
Quelling Strikes (ARC34) - This is in many ways more important than Raging Strikes, as it will allow you to do lots of damage without building lots of hate. You don't have to drop everything right this second to level archer to 34, but you will eventually need this ability and find yourself unable to do your job without it.
Raging Strikes (ARC04) - 20% more splodies, 11% of the time.
Eye for an Eye (ACN34) - Puts a buff on a party member that lets them counter with a damage down debuff. Can be used just before combat starts or at the end of a break, without interfering with you bathing the enemies in flame.
For solo, Physick (ACN04) - For solo.

Virus (ACN12) is not particularly useful, as a healer will have either Virus or Disable, but since you have five slots and no better ability to use, you might as well slot it, and use it on a hard physical hitting trash mob during a big pull so the healer gets marginally more Gravity/Holy time.