Blue Mage Soloing

This is fun stuff, out of curiosity are there many solo fights left you consider challenging? You seem to be running out of wyrms.

Yeah there are still quite a few I'd like to do still.

Heh, I know if I ask a Draylo question should expect a Draylo answer, but I meant specific NMs or BCs you think are still a challenge. I recently did EBGTWyrm on BLU and I want to try something new.

Also, curious if you think the new scrolls of instant shell/protect/stones kin will have any effect on BLU soloing subjobs.

Well you already have that option with the grounds of valor books giving shell 5 equivalent for most fights. If its a battlefield that wipes buffs, it could allow use of /nin or offensive SJ provided you don't need convert or other /rdm benefits (barspell, etc.) and its a potent shell.

Cleaner ver of 2hr combo, still being quirky but this one actually connected:

@2:00 to skip buffs.


Will post gear/spell sets later today.

Excellent work Man with /run on the scene I see some interesting changes to solo Heavy Casters with Lunge being able to Magic Burst it just seems super sexy in my eyes...

Alright, I need to know. How do you evade so much? I have.... similar gear to your evasion set. Not exactly cause I've been away for a while but similar-ish. I tried to solo a Tough orobon in adoulin the other day, and he would just not miss. I switched out haste for evasion gear, set eva+ trait, and used auroral drape and he still would not miss. So if I can't get a normal mob to miss, how do you get these NM's to miss?

ItemSet 294836

You have to understand that these new mobs in Adoulin are MUCH higher levels than before. My hybrid eva set works incredibly well everywhere BUT Adoulin. Hell, I'm normally the tank when it comes to my low-man group. Then Adoulin comes out and I'm getting my *** handed to me by bunny/squirrel things. You're not the only one, don't worry.

I've found /nin and the following spellset works really well for me, just fighting in full DD gear in the new areas.

Animating Wail
Delta Thrust
Heavy Strike
Empty Thrash
Fantod
Sudden Lunge
Benthic Typhoon
Triumphant Roar
Battery Charge
Magic Fruit
Actinic Burst
Winds of Promy.
Dream Flower
Cocoon
White Wind
Auroral Drape
Sub-Zero Smash
Zephys Mantle
Chaotic Eye

Traits:
STP
DA
Auto-Refresh
FastCast 0.5
Conserve MP

Active:
Refresh, blind/silencega, para, single target cure, ~700 curaga, 50% def, flashga, erasega, 15% attack boost, def/magdef down, plague, stun and sleepga.

/nin shadows are a huge MP saver and native DW3 allows for alot more flexibility in spellsets. Good use of sudden lunge and actinic burst > sleep on adds give you an effective 100% evasion rate (sudden lunge alone is a huge boost to survival rate).

I'd probs switch to /war more often if I had a mage following me for protect/debuffs/cures, but for solo play or in small group play when you are the only "mage" and defense is low, it works very well.

Sudden Lunge is your #1 friend soloing T mobs in Adoulin. you can pretty much keep something stun locked.

Yeah I wouldn't bother with evasion builds on higher level content. I stick with PDT set and other dmg migitation means (shadows mostly.)

Awesome job again Draylo :) I was dying from laughter with the 25 "Bahamut is too far away." lol We've all done that at least a million times in this game.

Strategy post:

Used Almace/Evasion Shikargar.

Fire resist set used:
ItemSet 262474

Evasion set (swap ammo for fire sachet):
ItemSet 222596

-At start of fight he has a few buffs on (Stoneskin, Phalanx, Shell/Protect.) so those need to be dispelled. Initially tried /rdm dispel to save set points but it doesn't land in standard gear (didn't try macc gear but don't have the inventory space for that anyway.)
--I also tried Osmosis to steal his Shell V but it didn't seem to work. It was my initial attempt where I was going to take it slow and I already had Shell II on so it might have worked but I didn't use that again due to the large set point cost.

- In majority of my attempts I brought him to 83% in order to deal with the first Megaflare before I started my skillchain. I'm sure if all the spells connect you could just start at 100% after dispelling him. Tried to make sure Benthic DEF down and Dia2 were on before starting skillchain. Otherwise, pretty straight forward in the video as to what happens next outside of any specifics.

-Sudden Lunge works very well, but I tried to save it for the skillchain and couldn't use it inbetween so I didn't mess it up.

-His flares are pretty laughable with a good fire resist set and barfire.

-His summon call can be stunned, after he does the animation for calling his Wyrm and becomes stunned it won't pop until after the stun runs its duration. I never got a chance to test the adds, but they hit for 200ish dmg in addition to annoying spells.

-Most of his ws look really awesome lol, such a shame you can barely see his face for most of the fight. Impulse looks just like Final Fantasy X! Some of his ws are potentially dangerous too, one does petrify so beware of that at the start if you plan to take him to 83% for first Megaflare.

Spell Set:

Hi i'm new to soloing and heres my first ffxi vid, didnt end well :P but meh thought id upload anyhow :P

I completely agree with you, I prefer subbing NIN over anything else in the new areas. Shadows between sudden lunges save on so much self curing as well. And even with the best of the best EVA set, the monsters still have insane accuracy. My THF friend has issues evading...

The biggest problems in the new areas for me have been lag and people being stupid. I've lost track on how many times I died because my macros lagged. And almost dying when soloing a nest because a JP DRG joined in and kept waking my slept adds.

I haven't been subbing ninja for it. I've done /RDM, /WAR so far and just used my -DT set with occultation since the roots are aspirable.

I haven't even considered /NIN. /RDM has been completely sufficient for soloing everything over there so far from Velkk to Umbrils, and has very much come in handy for soloing/duoing Reives since you don't have much time to toss out Dream Flower before WoR's stun wears, making Fast Cast and Aquaveil very useful. I haven't tried /WAR yet, may have to give it a go.

Fast Cast is a huge bonus and I have a great fast cast set to go with it as well, but I just can't get over the huge mp cost of occultation... It irks me to no end. I never never never get MP recovery either, SE hates BLUs.

What I've been do to avoid getting hit between Dream Flower recasts is tossing out Actinic Burst. Basically AB > WoR > DF. You can also replace WoR with another AOE (i.e., circle blade) if MP is becoming an issue.

I get by fine with Zephyr Mantle tbh. Still 4 shadows at a fraction of the MP cost, casts fast with proper FC setup and trait and has a much faster recast than Occult. Usually have it set for conserve mp anyway

If I'm on a colonization/lair reive hunt I deff prefer /RDM over /NIN. With phalanx/protect3/cocoon/icespikes/-DT set you can withstand 3-4 interuptions on dream flower if you get really unlucky with crits or w/e.
Conserve MP trait really takes the edge off of occultations cost, but it's only really needed for the initial full pull > sleep i find. After that you have AB > WoR > sleep as you say. I still need a few pieces for my fastcast set to use zephyr mantle reliably. (Just finished another omega pop today so hopefully tomorrow I get the legs to upgrade instead of 2x head again...)

Being able to convert is a huge plus for me if I'm stuck taking down roots/rocks alone. ~800MP lasts 10 mins easily and its nice to know I have the ability to fully restore my MP. Especially after you need to blow alot of it when a random decides to "Help" you by smacking your links who just ignore them and keep fully focused on you.
Went through this earlier today and was having to WoR > AB > WoR > WoR > AB pretty much every time they were available while trying to tell folks to leave them alone ><. Sooo much love for icespikes in that situation!

On another note, timers plugin is such a godsend for keeping track of sleep duration :D.

If i dont expect to need alot of MP (farming normal mobs etc.) or hold multiple mobs all the time, I prefer /NIN for native DW so I can set TH and other debuffs/buffs without to much hassle.

I recall Z Mantle being a shittier blink than occultation in that the shadows don't proc often, was that changed or something?

Not sure, it doesn't have too bad of an absorb rate really. Noticeable difference, but not so noticeable as to cause major issues.

what spell sets are people using for reives I've been doing them on my pup but haven't had a chance to try blu but it looks amazingly fun

Had this in another thread. I use /rdm, but with Reive Unity, you can probably get by with /war and not using Occultation. So the spell set would end up being in total:

Most of my damage comes from AoE attacks as /RDM, but if you're going /WAR, definitely change up these spells to focus more on job traits by removing stuff like Charged Whisker, Occultation > Zephyr, getting rid of Temporal Shift altogether(I usually just keep it for safety purposes if people wake mobs and I have to wait on Dream Flower recast). If you're going to solo a reive, especially as /RDM with AoE attacks, I recommend Reaving Winds to be sure that nothing goes awry.

Here's mine:

/NIN


Traits:
Fastcast 0.5
Auto Refresh
Store TP
Double Attack
Conserve MP

/RDM


Traits:
DW3
Double Attack
Store TP
Auto Refresh
Conserve MP

They vary depending on who else is around, what type of mobs are there etc. but thats generally what I start with and make adjustments from there depending on my needs.

Don't be afraid to juggle some spells around after a fresh dreamflower if you find you need/don't need certain spells. Use and abuse MP Drainkiss, you can safely get 2 off before sleep starts to wear for 100-200 MP return per cast. It's not so important when you have convert from /RDM, but you can swap it in for 10 mins after converting if you really need it, or drop conserve MP trait for it + blood saber.