Pros and cons of smn and blm

[Rongway]

You also want to make sure that you don't eat attacks for the sake of DPS, a bad DPS is a dead DPS

BLM has oGCD abilities with "Additional effect: Ignores mechanics". They should be used to eat attacks when available. Premeditated use of these abilities is a good BLM thing.

[SeriousxSarcasm]

Gonna be honest, I started as THM, and got bored with it before I even got to BLM. xD I love the burst damage, but it's sooo slow. Stand still, press your buttons in the right order (Fire/thunder spells in astral fire, ice spells in umbral ice. Higher level skills (like Enochian) looks like they add a higher skill level requirement, but doesn't seem to increase the complexity or mobility at all. I actually intend to level my BLM to 60 at some point, because I've been assured it gets more fun at higher levels, but haven't bother yet lol.

Now reasons I like SMN, I actually started as THM thinking Black Mage was going to have all the awesome Bio/etc spells I loved in the solo Final Fantasy games (spoiler: it doesn't. -_-; ), so that's one reason. Second is how versatile the "rotation" can be. There's a dozen ways to put out your opener depending on the situation. Are mobs dying too fast to bother with Fester/Painflare after your initial Bane? How competent is the healer? ('cause you might have ta save that swiftcast for a res instead of spending it on Shadowflare). Can't hit the boss because dodging mechanics? That's fine, your pet and DoTs are still doing damage even while you're farting all over the arena.

Lastly, I love a busy Job! So many buttons to press, so much to pay attention to. @u@ There's your DoTs and Dreadwyrm opener, you gotta watch your tank and healers (for a well placed e4e/virus when they could use it), you have battle res - and therefore should be the first to notice when someone dies so you can beat the healer to it. Also all the micromanaging of the pet. :3

But I will be the first to admit that it's not the job for everyone. XD Lots of people can't deal with the pet management (it's why people see titan-egi as useless. Dude, I've tanked expert roulette with him before, he holds aggro better than half the tanks I get in there lol!), and/or don't understand how to adapt their opener to different situations (you would not use the same abilities on a single boss as opposed to a mob of 12).

[GunksFoy]

snip

I won't deny that Black Mage does feel a bit slow at times, especially right after Ley Lines falls off. However, it does stay interesting and can be great trying to squeeze spells into your limited buff times. And while mobility is certainly not a Blms strong suit, that is part of the fun. If you want to do top dps, you need to learn to utilize Manaward, Manawall, Aetherial Manipulation, Swiftcast, and even Scathe in *very* rare situations, to the best of your ability. These are the keys to a good Blm and what makes it fun (Besides nuking an enemy with fire IV.)

I admit Smn is very fun, especially with the inclusion of Tri-Disaster and DWT. There are tons of buttons to press, lots of things to pay attention to, as well as party utility. However, you will never see the kind of dps on Smn that a Blm can put out, if you care about that kind of thing.

In the end, I would strongly recommend getting them both to 60 and playing around with both of them to get a feel for which one you prefer.

[ADVSS]

I have faster runs with a blm/smn than i do with a smn/smn

[Neela]

I admit Smn is very fun, especially with the inclusion of Tri-Disaster and DWT. There are tons of buttons to press, lots of things to pay attention to, as well as party utility. However, you will never see the kind of dps on Smn that a Blm can put out, if you care about that kind of thing.

If we are taking puppets and Faust aside... you have to have a really good knowledge about the fight/content mechanics to bring your big numbers on top of the smns dps - movement is your thoughest enemy here, smns just smile... but yeah in a perfect world they should stay on top but I rarely run into random blms who really know how to optimize their options without giving the healer more aoe-dmg to compensate as they should....

[SarenyiaSarenyia]

I went ahead and leveled sch and smn since. I wanted a healer to. Don't like summon at all so Looks like after I level my melee I will be going for black mage! Thanks all!

[GunksFoy]

If we are taking puppets and Faust aside... you have to have a really good knowledge about the fight/content mechanics to bring your big numbers on top of the smns dps - movement is your thoughest enemy here, smns just smile... but yeah in a perfect world they should stay on top but I rarely run into random blms who really know how to optimize their options without giving the healer more aoe-dmg to compensate as they should....

It takes a pretty excellent smn to pass a good blm in dps. Even in movement heavy fights, blms have all the tools necessary to keep dps up if they utilize them right. I very rarely suffer at the hands of movement thanks to Manaward, Manawall, Swiftcast, Aetherial Manipulation, Surecast, and procs. Though the last 2 do require some knowledge of the fight. The best blms can improvise on the fly and decide what to use to keep dps up. Smns will lose dps if there is too much movement as well as they still have DoTs to cast, DWT, and shadow flare. They just don't drop off quite to the extent that blms do, and it requires more movement to effect them as well.

[Kill3rkoi8082]

Summoner and Black Mage are the same in DPS just the difference is continuous or burst damage. Just play what you want and enjoy!

[GunksFoy]

Summoner and Black Mage are the same in DPS just the difference is continuous or burst damage. Just play what you want and enjoy!

This is actually not true. I absolutely agree that you should play what you want and the amount of DPS done should not factor in at all, but Blm has quite a bit higher damage threshold than Smn. We shouldn't spread misinformation for the sake of telling people to play what they want!

[Silverquick]

This is actually not true. I absolutely agree that you should play what you want and the amount of DPS done should not factor in at all, but Blm has quite a bit higher damage threshold than Smn. We shouldn't spread misinformation for the sake of telling people to play what they want!

Its not misinformation my friend... they do the same damage... in fact the SMN is actually higher on AoE damage than the BLM, the BLM is higher in single target.

That said...

I do not notice much difference in how fast any given target drops when playing one vs the other... they do similar amounts of damage at the same levels and in the same gear... because I play them both in the same gear I used up through the levels.

Here's your difference... you can't SEE it as a SMN... because your DoTs don't show in the Battlechat. Nor do they pop huge number over the mob as they're going off... for the record at ilvl 220 mine are ticking for 1100-1500 per tick when stacked. And that's before we get into the other damage I'm doing from the other things, like Ruin III and Painflare, Deathflare and Fester. Or even include Pet damage.

They both take time for their real damage to kick in... you have to build up to it with BLM the same way you do as a SMN.