Black Mage Questions

[Zeronic]

Heey all,
I got my girlfriends Black mage to 50 a couple of weeks ago. (told in an earlier thread she is sick and cannot play often, bonus points to the guy who told me of twitch and serviio).
She is mainly gathering and crafting atm to earn money for Vanya gear since she absolutely despises the AF gear. Being busy with that I thought of a few unanswered questions regarding the BLM.
1. Manawall/ward. What's the use of these? I mean, I use them during Ifrit's hellfire etc. But what does it actually block? I know manawall works against pure physical attacks, but is it worth using against special attacks of some HM primals etc?
2. Aetherial Manipulation. Does anyone use it? I rather run since even if I made some sort of mouseover macro it takes more time to find a partymember ( or hover over the list) then to just activate run and go. Perhaps it is good to use with a focustarget macro?
3. Speaking of Focustarget, do blackmages actually need it and what macro do you use for that?
4. A gear question. Since I know mostly what I want to fill I can manage just fine. However, my girlfriend likes the classical BLM more. That being the Blue garb with the yellow pointy hat. She also likes to carry a shield (although I will be playing with relic+1).
Thus, she want the vanya hat/chest and a Darksteel buckler. I have actually no clue how to optimally meld those though. Anyone have any idea?
Thanks in advance for your help!

[NeoAmon]

Heey all,
I got my girlfriends Black mage to 50 a couple of weeks ago. (told in an earlier thread she is sick and cannot play often, bonus points to the guy who told me of twitch and serviio).
She is mainly gathering and crafting atm to earn money for Vanya gear since she absolutely despises the AF gear. Being busy with that I thought of a few unanswered questions regarding the BLM.

1. Manawall/ward. What's the use of these? I mean, I use them during Ifrit's hellfire etc. But what does it actually block? I know manawall works against pure physical attacks, but is it worth using against special attacks of some HM primals etc?

You would be amazed at what can Manawall do, heck it even works on Twintanaia. So long the attack is physical and so long you cast it before the boss starts casting, you will 100% block the dmg and any secondary effect. Example would be Demon Wall in AK, cast Manwall before he casts repel and you will block the dmg and the knock back. This is true for many attacks including some of Twintania's. Manaward is used for anything that is not physical such as Titan HM Plumes.

2. Aetherial Manipulation. Does anyone use it? I rather run since even if I made some sort of mouseover macro it takes more time to find a partymember ( or hover over the list) then to just activate run and go. Perhaps it is good to use with a focustarget macro?

Meh, maybe in PvP but atm, even with macros it is lacklustre. If you want to dodge something as a BLM, you want to make as little movement as you could so you can start casting right away. For example when I dodge plumes on Titan HM I run to the edge of it and start casting again.

3. Speaking of Focustarget, do blackmages actually need it and what macro do you use for that?

Every class needs it in Coil. I use it for rot passing & Twintania.


4. A gear question. Since I know mostly what I want to fill I can manage just fine. However, my girlfriend likes the classical BLM more. That being the Blue garb with the yellow pointy hat. She also likes to carry a shield (although I will be playing with relic+1).
Thus, she want the vanya hat/chest and a Darksteel buckler. I have actually no clue how to optimally meld those though. Anyone have any idea?
Thanks in advance for your help!

Can't help you there soz, don't have the shield or use one hand BLM wp.

10 characters.

[Sleigh]

"1. Manawall/ward. What's the use of these? I mean, I use them during Ifrit's hellfire etc. But what does it actually block? I know manawall works against pure physical attacks, but is it worth using against special attacks of some HM primals etc?"

Manawall is for when you pull aggro, and for certain specials. Notable ones that get stopped are ADS's High Voltage and Twintania's Divebombs. It's often just used for when you rip aggro, intentionally or unintentionally.
Manaward is for magic attacks, usually for big specials, but it's usually not a big help unless you or your team screwed up (like if Garuda were to have a lot of rocks broken, for example). That said, it can save your life if you know you're going to eat something you can't survive like when you're down on HP.

"2. Aetherial Manipulation. Does anyone use it? I rather run since even if I made some sort of mouseover macro it takes more time to find a partymember ( or hover over the list) then to just activate run and go. Perhaps it is good to use with a focustarget macro?"

The only time I've it in a real fight is back in the early days of Garuda HM, when I got hit by a tornado. It let me get back with my group. Other than that ... never.

"3. Speaking of Focustarget, do blackmages actually need it and what macro do you use for that?"

On PC this is shift+F. It helps for Twintania for her Dreadknight phase, Hydra (I guess), and passing rot. Currently there's not much need to use focus target to be honest, except those examples.

"4. A gear question. Since I know mostly what I want to fill I can manage just fine. However, my girlfriend likes the classical BLM more. That being the Blue garb with the yellow pointy hat. She also likes to carry a shield (although I will be playing with relic+1).
Thus, she want the vanya hat/chest and a Darksteel buckler. I have actually no clue how to optimally meld those though. Anyone have any idea?"

Depends on what you want to do.

If ignoring Coil: Piety until 251 > Determination/Critical Hit Rate > whatever
If going for Coil T1-4: Accuracy until 432 > Piety until 251 > Determination/ Critical Hit Rate > whatever
If going for Coil T5: Accuracy until 432 > Vitality until over 4K HP > Piety until 251 > Determination/Critical Hit Rate > whatever

[Waliel]

Manawall is for when you pull aggro, and for certain specials. Notable ones that get stopped are ADS's High Voltage and Twintania's Divebombs.

There is no obvious method of telling boss attacks apart in term of magical or physical. A prime example would be ADS High Voltage, you would think it is Thunder magic attack but it is physical. Some attacks are easier to tell a part from others, some are not.

High Voltage is magic damage at least on turn 2; I managed to test this yesterday. Manawall did nothing against it and Manaward absorbed the damage almost fully, resulting in a 400 hit or so.

[Leiron]

Vanya hat/chest if HQ will be maxed out on Int.
So you would meld, and I believe the priority would be

Determination~~>Crit~~~>spellspeed

I cannot remember though. >_<

[Waliel]

You can block Titan Landslide with Manawall, too. Not dodging them on the first phase is one of my favourite things to do, but it could also help you survive some in the later phases.

[Zeronic]

Thanks, this answers some questions of mine. Following up for more then.
Manawall/ward: I get the idea, didn't know it worked on repel. But thats just the whole point. When is something considered physical and when is it special? Usually I just activate both of em when I either pull aggro or see a big attack coming (like tumult). Wish castbars of mobs would have different colours for magical / physical attacks.
Perhaps you could use it on landslide? Or bombs?
Aetherial Manipulation: Ok, that settles it then, not using it.
Focustarget. I knew it was Shift+f. I just never saw a use for it till now, Hydra perhaps would have been handy (for fear while killing adds) ill remember that for next time. Any other situations where a focus bar would be handy?
Vanya/darksteel gear: I am planning on doing coil. So I will probably fill it with Vit/Acc then. The problem is I don't know the cap for these items. What if I overmeld and screw up the item?
also, I keep seeing this on the forum... wth is 10/char?

[Sickkiee]

You don't need to meld acc on those crafted items since our hit cap is pretty darn low for coil. Just meld crit/vit/det first, in that order (simply cause crit is so expensive T_T). Focus bar for us BLM's is pretty useless in most fights since every single boss fight is pretty much single target type stuff barring Twintania.

You can block the landslide with manawall so that's a fun fact (blocks any and all physical attacks). Usually things that push happen to be a physical attack (repel/landslide/divebombs).

Not too sure on 10/char.

[NeruMew]

Pretty much you've got things covered with their replies :P

Good recommendations on Manawall.
I personally like using aetherial manipulation when you have to move decently large distances, for example to stack back with your group or catch up to them if you fell behind for some reason. Other than that -shrug- if you macro it for an auto target it would be much more useful though. Anyway, it's just there, use it if you like it or don't if you don't, it can have its uses that's all.

And as they said you can use Manaward to prevent unavoidable dmg, requiring less healing afterwards, as to which spells they are useful for (Manaward and Manawall) I do not ahve a complete list, but you should use em on what they said before, and if you see something else that it might work on, try it! :P

P.S.: We should totally try to compile a list of what Manawall and Manaward work on respectively. =D

Edit: I forgot! 10/char is used to complete the minimum 10 characters requirement for making a post. For example, NeoAmon made his reply inside your original quote (which is glitchy and the original quote wont count as characters until you type your first 10 characters, then everything will count, fucking your character count up and taking you above the limit in some cases lol. XD)

[NeoAmon]

There is no obvious method of telling boss attacks apart in term of magical or physical. A prime example would be ADS High Voltage, you would think it is Thunder magic attack but it is physical. Some attacks are easier to tell a part from others, some are not.

Here is my own personal observation:

If the spell/skill meant to wipe the party if they failed to dodge/silence/stun it is most likely a physical attack regardless of the animation or the name. This observation is not universal and can be argued against or with. However, when you come across High Voltage in DL/Crafted/AK gear High Voltage will most likely wipe the party. An amazing healer can keep the party up but in general High Voltage as example is meant to be a severe punishment. Yet this rule does not apply to Twisters for example. There is also the matter of personal opinions, so yeah really there is no logical method of determining if the attack is physical or magical.

Magical attacks on the other hands tend to be strong but not a one shot mechanic, I can't really say for sure if any boss in Coil uses magical attacks but the rest of the game does and you would easily notice that Mana Ward did effect how much you got hit for.

Last note about Mana Wall/Ward, as amazing as they seem to be, they are really only saving one person that matters the least, the BLM. When the party for example get hit by Twintania Dive, it does not matter much if the BLM still standing, unlike for example a SMN who can effectively raise someone. So yeah both spells are amazing at covering our ***** when it comes to human errors but it won't save the raid from a wipe in most cases.