New Player, Requesting Help

[Kuolemanlaakso]

I've been playing for around a week, and i've had very few issues up until now. I'm using a Black Mage, and as soon as I went to do Stone Vigil in the story, I hit a wall. I've not done many dungeons, only the ones it forces you to do, and I died fairly quickly in there. Naturally I got the usual comments in the chat, I want to know what to expect and how I should approach it before I try again.

Level 50 Black Mage, completed all job quests available to me.

[SannaR]

Did you not complete it? Need more information. If you were pulling mobs off the tank then you needed to either A use lucid dreaming or B slow down your casting. Try to make sure your gear is as up to date as it can be and isn't broken or near it. I haven't touched black mage since 4.0 but I'm fairly sure you still want to use Fire 1 unless Fire 3 procs with Fire 2 on packs. Switching to blizzard to replenish your mp. Everything in Stone Vigil is sleep-able except the black dragon monsters. Not that most groups seem to care to use that as a last resort to try and prevent a wipe on trash pulls. Also don't forget to use your thunder spells. If the tank wasn't doing their job then that's on them.

[Taika]

Yeah, to help you need to know what happened to cause your death. General newbie help questions for dungeons are: is your gear up to date for the dungeon level and are you following the tank and only attacking things they have pulled? Are you using your AoE rotation (basically Fire II on that level) instead of single targeting monsters (when at least 3 monsters alive), and are you using Diversion / Lucid Dreaming to lower your enmity if needed? If so, there isn't much you can be doing wrong.

Maybe you accidentally ran ahead and pulled extra monsters for the party, or ran into the traps in the dungeon with low HP, or got hit by some boss mechanics you aren't sure how to evade? Let us know more and we can hopefully help you.

[Frizze]

Yeah, without a bit more info its hard to specifically answer your querry. So here generic advice, and hopefully some of it is useful. Most important rule: Dont run ahead of the tank and only attack the mobs that theyve already angered. Stay close to the group so the healer can reach you if needed. AoE on groups, single target otherwise. Dont be afraid to tell people youre new to a dungeon or ask for help understanding a mechanic you dont get. If youre playing on PS4, investing in a cheap keyboard can do wonders for your ability to communicate. The higher level you get, the more important it becomes to avoid enemy AoEs when you can.

Now some generics that are specific to BLM(the above applies to everyone). The break-even point for your AoE rotation is basically 3 enemies. With that many or more you get more damage from Fire 2 and Thunder 2 then you do from the alternatives. Have you learned your stances? Astral Fire is your damage stance, Umbral Ice is for recovery. Ideally you get a fully boosted AF(3 stacks) with an F3 cast, repeatedly cast F1/2 for your damage until you run low on mana, then use B3 to switch to UI(gives you all 3 stacks) to regen your mana(apply/reapply your thunder DoT while regening), before using F3 to get back to burning. If you mess up the rotation and dont have enough for a B3, you can still use Transpose to switch and start the regen going. Also, look at your role skills. You always want to have some set to make your job easier. As a BLM i always have swiftcast set, and i almost always have diversion and lucid dreaming set for aggro management. Personally i round out my load out with mana shift and apoc most of the time, but surecast addle and erase can be useful(or amazing) in the right situation too(break theoretically too for the long-ish duration heavy, though i dont think that situation is currently in the game - at higher levels drain is too weak to be all that useful). And dont forget you can hit manaward to negate or blunt some incoming attacks when needed.

And if you were looking for specific boss advice for that dungeon, heres a couple hints. Basically, youre re-taking a fallen keep from the dragons that moved in. So dont stand in front of them to avoid breath attacks. During the second boss in particular, a dragon shows up outside the window to cause trouble. Use the cannons in the room to scare it off so you can fight in peace. And just generally, avoid aoes and ground puddles left behind.

Editors note: I went to check your gear to make sure it wasnt part of the problem, but it looks like you logged out on weaver most recently so my character search proved not that helpful.

[Hasrat]

Depends on where you were dying: bosses or trash.

If bosses, the first one has some incredibly strong attacks that will squish you if you don't understand the mechanics. When he runs off to a wall and faces the arena, you're meant to stand behind him to avoid a heavy breath attack. You're also meant to not stand directly in front of him, to avoid a strong frontal swipe.
The second boss has damage over time whirlwinds you should hopefully understand not to stay in, as well as an untargetable add that inflicts unavoidable damage until someone (hopefully the healer) shoots it down with the cannons.
The final boss is obviously just about avoiding clear AoE zones.

If you were dying to the trash, one thing to note is the aevis enemies can be dangerous, especially in groups. There's a few areas where pulls can get out of control.

Being level 50 with your job quests done, you should at least have your i90 job gear, so gear shouldn't be a huge problem. It's also worth knowing, if you haven't already, that SV is right around the point where BLM's rotation changes significantly. You're no longer bound to Transposing between astral and umbral. B3 and F3 become your transition spells, allowing you to spend less time in umbral recharging MP, and more time in astral, burning things down.

[Kuolemanlaakso]

Thank you to all who responded. My issues were, embarrassingly, at the very start, with the trash mobs. I was rushing mobs like I was in previous duty finders, because it had never not been effective before this. I realised that I was just being a moron, combined with a non-too-helpful team I got teamed up with, it was doomed to fail. Anyway, yesterday I queued it up again, having spent some time learning my new rotation minus Transpose (I still use it when everything is dead to get to full Mana between fights, but otherwise I don't need it now), and a little bit of reading up on that specific area, the new team (who might I add were awesome, a Healer who knows how to heal! A tank who tanks!)We got through with no issues. I'd read up on the bosses so I knew what to expect for each one, and it was fairly simple. Shortly after I did the Garuda fight, and got commendations, so I must be learning my role, slowly. I'm now level 54, and my next learning curve I expect is at 56 with Enochian?

[Kuolemanlaakso]

Adding this because I have a 1000 character limit. in SV my problems stemmed from me not reacting to what was around me. Once I knew that the trash in there is a bit more dangerous than what i've seen up to then, I changed up to using Fire II a lot more, to nuke mobs rather than single enemies. It worked well, I felt like I was useful. I have a big issue with feeling like i'm not doing much but this run was different, I genuinely felt I was doing the work.

[Frizze]

Eno on its own is just a passive damage buff. When its active you get 5% more damage. You need to be in either the AF or UI stance to activate it, and it drops if you no longer have one or the other going. Thats it. Not a huge difference. It will become a key piece of your level 60 and 70 rotation(it has to be active to cast B4/F4 or to charge Foul), but on its own its just a bit more damage. And i understand what you mean about feeling powerful doing the AoE rotation. BLM is one of the best classes in that regard(also one of the best in terms of single target damage - weakness is we dont synergize well by providing buffs for the rest of the team like some classes do). The next steps on the learning curve should be the more advanced AoE rotation(one that uses flare effectively with good uptime), and the level 60+ single target rotation(adding the 4 tier spells in). Any questions of course, and im sure someone here is happy to help.

Forum note: You can edit your posts to go over the character limit. We all do. Just type out the whole thing, copy, cut it down to something that fits, then edit and paste in what you removed. This post was 1207 chars long, and i made it fit with a quick edit.

[Kuolemanlaakso]

Thank you for the tip, and the advice. I had a question, if you don't mind. I've never bothered with Thunder spells, since I got the first one early on and it was fairly bad compared to Fire and Blizzard. My question is, should I be using it now at level 55? I read a lot of things saying to use it for DoTs, should I start incorporating it into my rotation now?

[Taika]

Disclaimer: I haven't played BLM since Heavensward and level 60.

When you consider if a DoT is worth using, you need to take its total potency into consideration. Thunder has initial potency of 30, but it also hits the target with a 40 potency hit on every tick for its whole duration. All DoTs in the game hit once every 3 seconds. As Thunder lasts 18 seconds (6 ticks) and it has 40 potency per tick, its DoT potency is 240 (40x6) + the initial hit of 30 potency. So the total potency of Thunder is 270. Fire has potency of 180, so if Thunder is given enough time to tick, it will beat Fire in DPS (although Fire potency is increased under Astral Fire, I don't know by how much). Furthermore, Thunder damage increases with Thundercloud trait procs.

I'm pretty sure Thunder is always useful to use on a single target, at least, but I have no experience of current AoE Thunders. Hopefully someone who plays BLM in its current form can give you some practical advice on its use.