The Thin Black Line is here to protect you! Tuufless, our resident cute Taru (every site needs one!) is here to tell you all there is about magic and mages of all colors, especially Black. So much potency in such a small package, delivered straight to you! Today, we'll explore beastmen pets in light of the glory that is Xarcabard [S].
Ever since Treasures of Aht Urhgan shunned Black Mages from parties, Black Mages around Vana'diel were forced to find other ways of getting experience points, which led to the development of leveling off Beastmen pets. Since then, beastmen pets have long been the favorite of aspiring nukers and is now the de-facto route for those who aspire to wear the pointed hat.
With the recent July version update introducing at least one excellent pet camp in Xarcabard [S], which I have been obsessing over lately, I figured I might as well talk about leveling off pets for the time being.
What is it?
As the name suggests, your target xp mobs are beastmen pets. Essentially, you are looking for a Beastman whose job is either BST or SMN, and taking their pet as your xp mob. Oftentimes, people either solo or duo pets, but there have been entire 6-man parties that set out to kill pets.
For now, I’m going to refer to both Beastmaster pets and Summoner elementals as just beastmen pets, regardless of which it actually is.
Why does it work?
Beastmen pets have one very interesting characteristic- they have abnormally low HP for their level. Technically, any job can get solo xp through killing pets, but the task favours mages for two reasons.
First, mage attacks are ranged, which makes pulling very convenient. However, the important factor is that mages specialize in dealing burst damage—that is to say, only mages can deal lots of damage out of nowhere. Melee jobs have to build TP before they can use a weaponskill, while mages can stand up from resting and immediately deal a 1000-damage nuke.
That is not to say that other jobs cannot enjoy the perks that come with pets— player-controlled Beastmasters can also level off beastmen pets, using their own pet to mitigate the damage dealt by the beastman’s. However, melee will struggle a little more, because they cannot kill the pet as quickly as mages can, and may need some outside assistance, like a powerleveler to see them through safely.
What do I need?
Level 24 is an important level because you get both Utsusemi: Ichi from /NIN and get to wear Reraise Earrings. Level 42 gives you Gravity from /RDM. Which you use will depend on personal preference, although as a general rule, /NIN favours camps that are cramped or involve pets that move faster than normal, while /RDM is better for more open camps.
You will also need to keep up to date with all your spells and gear, as this is a solo task, you will only have yourself to rely on. As advance warning, you will die a lot, especially if you are just starting out. Remember your Reraise!
How do I start?
There are lists scattered around the internet that can tell you where to find pets appropriate to your level. I personally use this one over on FFXIclopedia.
Before you start, you will need to know the basics about mob behaviour. First, the pet will always assist the beastmaster, but the Beastmaster will only assist the pet if it sees the pet engaged. This means that when you need to pull the pet from behind or at least from the side of the Beastmaster, so the Beastmaster does not see the pet.
You will also have to be mindful of the terrain, as mobs have erratic pathing when it comes to uneven terrain. Usually, this is a good thing, especially when it comes to soloing NMs, but in this case, it means the pet might illogically run in front of its master and cause it to link if you try pulling it from the side and there's a slope involved.
Next, all pets do not link with other mobs of the same family. However, outside mobs will still link with the pet, so you will need to exercise caution when dealing with pets that come from linking families, like Leeches and Rabbits, especially when there are other family members around.
If the beastmaster in question is actually a Summoner, there are two things additional things to keep in mind—first, summoner elementals have more HP than beastmaster pets, though still within a manageable range. More importantly, elementals will always start to cast a spell immediately upon aggro. The problem here is that elementals will stand still and will not follow you immediately once you pull, so there is a very real possibility of the Summoner turning around and linking with the elemental, especially if the elemental opens with Ancient Magic.
Once you get there, your xp/hr rate will depend on the following few factors:
First, how quickly you can kill the mob? This is the most obvious one, but still bears mention. This is the part where nukers outshine melee jobs, because they are able to quickly deliver damage whenever it is needed.
Secondly, how open is the camp? Camps that are in small, cramped places generally see lower xp/hr rates because you may be forced to just wait long periods of time for the Beastmaster to turn around before you can pull. Essentially, the more directions you can pull from, the better your xp/hr rate will be. Camps that are in open give you lots of freedom to move around, so instead of waiting for the Beastmaster to turn around, you can move to a good location yourself.
There is an exception to this rule, and that applies to Black Mages and Ancient Magic. Normally shunned because of their inefficient use of MP, Ancient Magic spells have much higher base damage for their level range and are single-target. This means that Black Mages are able to one-shot pets until around level 60, depending on how well they are geared. Black Mages that can one-shot pets will see their xp/hr will skyrocket as they are freed from the restriction of having to wait for the Beastmaster to turn its back—if the pet dies in one-shot, the beastmaster will not link, even if the pet dies in front of it.
Finally, how many Beastmasters are around? Typically, with one Beastmaster, you can expect to get Chain #3 consistently. Two or more Beastmasters let you go up to Chain #5 or possibly even Chain #6.
Xarcabard [S]
With that in mind, I’d like to conclude by introducing the inspiration for this post- the new pet camps in Xarcabard [S].
This camp has everything a pet soloist could ask for- it is very accessible, literally right where you teleport into Xarcabard [S]. It is open, which means a lot of room to maneuver into good positions, and lastly, I counted up to five Beastmasters (Gigas Floggers) in the area. The picture you see above shows you what one can do with a camp like this.
For those who have yet to try this way of leveling, I highly encourage you to do so. Best of luck!
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
The Thin Black Line- On Beastmaster Pets
Saturday, July 11, 2009
The Thin Black Line: Convert 101
The Thin Black Red Line is here to protect you! Tuufless, our resident cute Taru (every site needs one!) is here to tell you all there is about magic and mages of all colors, especially Black Red. So much potency in such a small package, delivered straight to you! Today, Tuufless puts away the pointy hat, and takes out the almighty chapeau.
Before my bit of a hiatus, I very briefly spoke about playing mages in general. For today, I’m going to change gears and talk about something very specific, focusing on Red Mages in particular. Let’s look into what is arguably one of the most powerful Job Ability in the game- Convert.
Be forewarned- this turned out to be a lot longer than I originally expected. ^^
1. What is it?
From bare basics, Convert is a job ability on a ten minute cooldown gained at RDM40 that swaps your HP and MP bars on a 1:1 basis. So, a RDM with 780hp and 40mp would Convert into 40hp and 780mp.
Convert can be enhanced through Group 1 merits, each upgrade reducing the cooldown by 20 seconds to a minimum recast time of 8:20.
2. Why is it so powerful?
Convert gives RDMs something that no other job in the game enjoys- a complete MP reset. To illustrate just how powerful Convert is, I can Convert 900mp every 8:20 because my Convert is fully merited.
That gives me an effective mana restoration rate of:
900mp/8.3333 minutes = 108mp/minute!
As a comparison, Refresh only gives 60mp/minute while Gjallarhorn Ballads give 100mp/minute. Yes, that means that Convert can be more powerful than a relic horn’s Ballads.
It is because of Convert that Red Mages are the only class that can keep chugging on endlessly at what it is doing, earning itself the “battery” nickname, because as long as you don’t completely wipe out your entire MP reserves within ten minutes, you are free to just Convert and start the cycle all over again.
Because of Convert, mana management for Red Mages work differently compared to other mages- Red Mages are able to function without resting at all; all they need is to stretch their MP to last until the next Convert timer.
3. The whole Convert process.
Essentially, the whole Convert process can be summarized into the following four steps:
With a brief explanation,
1. Swap into Convert gear.
First, you would change into a Convert gear setup (more on this below) which is a combination of gear that sets up for maximum returns on your Convert.
2. Convert
This is self-explanatory, although one thing to note is to please not join the ranks of Convert deaths by doing this step next to a mob with Area-of-Effect moves.
This is also the part where you would typically put in some silly comment, telling the whole party that you are Converting, and for the resident White Mage, to please not /panic at the sight of your HP plummeting down to double digits.
3. Cure IV while still in Convert gear.
After Converting, your HP would be dangerously low, so you need to quickly Cure IV yourself to get out of danger. However, you must still be in your Convert gear while you cure yourself, because you are likely to have more MP with your Convert gear than any of your other gear sets. If you were to swap out of your Convert gear and Cure IV yourself normally, you’d lose that extra MP.
4. Swap out of Convert gear, continue normal activities.
The whole Convert sequence is essentially complete, so you can continue with your normal activities until the Convert timer resets again.
3a. Macros
I personally use two macros for my Convert.
The first macro swaps me into my Convert gear and Cure IVs me, while the second macro actually Converts and Cure IVs me again. Some people would slip a Divine Seal in there as well, but I personally choose not to.
4. Making a Convert gear setup.
The first thing to keep in mind is the efficiency of your Convert to avoid wastage. Because Convert swaps your HP and MP around on a 1:1 basis, the ideal setup would have your max HP and max MP to be the same, thus eliminating any wasted HP.
For example, If you have 900hp, but have only a maximum of 700mp, then your Convert will result in a full MP bar, but you would have effectively “lost” 200mp’s worth. On the flip side, if you have 700hp but have a maximum of 900mp, you would only Convert into 700/900mp, which could be improved by having more HP in the first place.
Most Red Mages stop when they see the 1:1 ratio, however, one’s Convert setup can be further improved by adding on one more consideration.
Maintaining a good 1:1 ratio is one thing, but ratios just tell you how much your HP and MP should be relative to each other, but don’t actually tell you what your HP and MP should be.
So, one needs to plan out just how much is enough, as follows:
If we take myself as an example, the actions I am most likely to do right after Converting will be either an Enfeeble, a nuke, or a Cure. My Enfeebling setup has just 989mp, my nuking setup has 991mp and my Cure setup has 950mp. So, I’m going to try to engineer my Convert process such that I end with 991mp after everything is done.
Adding 88mp for a Cure IV gives me 1071mp. This is the minimum number I need to reach in my Convert macro. Likewise, I will also need at least 1071hp, so my Convert setup should have 1071hp/1071mp.
4a. Special considerations- Murgleis
Murgleis is the Red Mage’s Mythic Weapon, and looks like this:
The interesting line here is obviously, “Augments ‘Convert’.”
But is this weapon really worth it? What Murgleis does is alter the Convert ratio from 1:1 to 1:2 as long as you have more than 50% of your maximum HP. That is, for every 1hp you Convert, you get 2mp in return. Sounds good right? Look closer.
Murgleis lets you take 500hp and Convert it into 1000mp. However, unless you can think of scenarios where you would constantly Convert at just over 50% max HP, Murgleis doesn’t do much. All it does is save you from having to Cure yourself to top up your HP while in your Convert gear (basically a savings of 88mp.) Even worse, if your HP is less than 50%, Murgleis doesn’t do anything for your Convert!
In short, don’t bother with the Red Mage Mythic. It is just not worth the slot unless you have more gil than you know what to do with and really, really want to save on 88mp every ten minutes.
5. Using Convert
With the whole Convert process, what about when should you actually use Convert?
Essentially, there are two separate schools of thought on this matter. One is more passive, and saves Convert as an emergency pool of mana, while the other is more aggressive and advocates using Convert as soon as the timer has reset.
5a. Saving Convert
The defensive approach tries to hold off Convert for as long as possible until absolutely needed. Essentially, you don’t want to Convert unnecessarily and be caught in a situation where you are waiting on the cooldown.
By reserving Convert in this way, your Red Mages will act more like the other mage classes, and will have to be more watchful over their overall mana consumption. It also largely denies the full use of one of the more powerful job abilities in the game because you simply aren’t using it that often, and could technically be forever waiting for that proverbial rainy day to come.
Thus, this style is suited for harder, more unpredictable fights. Several HNM fights for example, involve moves that suddenly deal large amounts of damage, and it would be very useful to have that extra MP to fall back on if such moves appear a little too frequently.
5b. Using Convert whenever possible.
The other, more aggressive style Converts whenever the timer has reset.
By doing so, the focus shifts towards a Red Mage’s active contributions over a given time period. The Red Mage will try to expend his entire pool (down to at least 88mp for the initial Cure IV) while the Convert timer resets, and then Converts as soon as the timer is up again.
The advantage of this style is that you fully maximize the utility you gain from Convert, and are given a much larger effective pool to work with over time. In fact, as long as you are not overly aggressive, you are largely freed of most forms of mana management and can afford to be much more liberal with your mana usage, like nuking the mob.
The drawback of course, is that should a situation arise and things get tough, you will not have Convert available as a crutch to lean back on.
This style is more suited for easier, repetitive fights like merit parties where the party flow literally just chugs along with no real variance. In such cases, the Red Mage really becomes the battery behind the scenes.
6. Should you merit Convert?
There are seven Group 1 merits for Red Mage- six of them are elemental Magic Accuracy merits, while the last is the one in question- Convert recast.
As mentioned earlier, meriting Convert recast lowers the recast timer by 20 seconds per upgrade. Five upgrades brings your Convert down to a 8:20 recast.
With an ability as powerful as Convert, you might think it’s a no-brainer to immediately throw your merit points into it, but some would argue that it is completely unnecessary, and that lowering the recast down to 8:20 actually gives them too much effective mana. What’s the point of lowering Convert’s recast when good mana management means you don’t have to use it that often?
The truth is, Convert does cut Red Mages quite a bit of slack as far as mana management is concerned and you can function perfectly well with a 10:00 recast.
What I do feel meriting Convert is good for is that it gives you more leeway in terms of managing the aggressive and defensive playstyles. After all, the big draw towards the conservative approach is the ever-present “What if?” scenario. What if you Converted aggressively, and something happened within the next ten minutes that requires me to Convert?
Lowering the recast at least alleviates some of that pressure in that this window for error goes down, so that even if you Converted aggressively to find that you probably should’ve saved it, at least you won’t have to wait as long. Once the timer’s reset, you’re in the green again.
One additional perk of meriting Convert involves something quite different- meriting Convert lets the RDM squeeze in an extra Convert in timed situations, like BCNMs. With a 30-minute time limit, a Red Mage with a 10:00 Convert would Convert three times in the duration of the fight. If the cooldown was reduced to 8:20 on the other hand, you would be able to fit in four Converts within a 30 minute time period.
Finally done!
In the end, these are just some of the things you will need to think about when it comes to dealing with this one job ability. I have to admit, this got a lot longer than I originally anticipated, but it really does go to show what kind of considerations you can take with just one ability.
As for my merit situation, I personally upgraded Convert five times and have never looked back. I quite enjoyed writing this article, and I hope to look into some of the finer aspects of mage play , so if you have any questions or ideas to explore, please let me know!
Monday, June 22, 2009
The Thin Black Line: From afar.
The Thin Black Line is here to protect you! Tuufless, our resident cute Taru (every site needs one!) is here to tell you all there is about magic and mages of all colors, especially Black. So much potency in such as small body, delivered to you every Friday! Today, Tuufless tries to get as far away from his subject as possible.
Previously, I briefly touched upon mana as one of the defining characteristics of a mage and talked about being wise with your mana consumption. The next basic trait of a traditional mage that I would like to bring up is that the vast majority of mage contributions to a fight come from a range (again, with exceptions like BLU).
Like last week, everything here will be very basic, since these are still fundamental concepts that we are dealing with.
For the uninformed, a player-controlled mage's casting range lies somewhere around 21.5" although this varies depending on the size of your target mob.
Flexibility
To start, I'll be the first to admit that I'm not going to win any prize or anything for saying that a mage’s casting range is much greater than melee range.
However, this gives mages a sense of flexibility. When fighting a mob, a melee job has to run up close to attack and a tank generally has the mob plastered against him or her. A mage on the other hand, can stand anywhere within 21.5" from the mob and still be able to contribute. Another way of looking at this is that your frontline is free to take the battle anywhere they want, as long as they stay within that 21.5” circle from the mages.
Because the area a mage can affect is much greater, mages don’t have to compensate as much for changes in a mob’s location. If a mob shifts from its location midfight, the entire frontline has to adjust to compensate for this, but the backline can usually just stay put, with maybe a couple of minor adjustments.
A mage's flexibility due to range is not just based on position- a mage is able to affect any targets within his or her casting range, and as such, all that is needed is effective targetting. One reason why one White Mage can provide effective healing for an entire party is because all the party members are easily accessible from the White Mage's location. Imagine if your White Mage had to physically run up to each party member that needed healing before being able to Cure the player, and how much harder things would be.
Safety
Ranged actions also largely negate the “squishiness” of mages, since one of a mage’s best forms of defense is simply not to get hit in the first place.
However, in the event that a mage does move to the top of an enemy’s hate list, range means that there will be a little bit of time available for appropriate measures to be taken. This little bit of time is significant- if you’ve seen a Black Mage solo Operation Desert Swarm, the very fact that mobs takes time to cover the distance in between you and the mob is critical in letting you to fire off that Sleepga.
While it is true that several mobs have abilities that affect a much larger radius than just melee, there will oftentimes still be that narrow band where mages can still contribute to the fight while staying safe. An example of this would be The Wyrmking Descends, where many of Bahamut’s crippling moves only affect players within 20.0”. Thus, standing anything between 20.1” and 21.5” from Bahamut allows mages to still contribute to the fight, while avoiding Bahamut’s moves.
Some other fights involve mob attacks that extend beyond casting range, like Khimaira’s Fulmination (30”). Fortunately, mages still have other options available to them, such as using the terrain to their advantage.
Terrain
Mages are in greater position to take advantage of any terrain features that may dot the surrounding area because of range.
Range allows mages to take advantage of terrain to further protect themselves by putting favourable terrain obstacles in between the mage and the mob. Sometimes, as in the above Khimaira example, differences in terrain height can be used to keep the mage safe from Fulmination. The key point here is that the mage is still in a position to contribute towards the fight.
Actual terrain obstacles also serve to increase the effective distance between the mages and the mob because even though the mob may be within casting range, it is forced to sidetrack in order to get to you. Good examples of this are the ramps that surround the Ix’DRG Aerns or the cliffs just before the dragons in Dynamis-Xarcabard.
Both these examples use a difference in height from keeping the backline safe, but in the event that a mage takes hate, the mob will have to cover much more distance to reach the mages, even though the mob stays within casting range throughout.
Fin.
With that, I'll wrap up this aspect of understanding how mages play. There is one final small thing that I would like to cover before moving onto more practical parts of playing a mage, as opposed to sticking with basic theory, so please stay tuned for that!
Friday, June 12, 2009
The Thin Black Line: Even Taru can run out of MP.
The Thin Black Line is here to protect you! Tuufless, our resident cute Taru (every site needs one!) is here to tell you all there is about magic and mages of all colors, especially Black. So much potency in such as small body, delivered to you every Friday! Today, Tuufless talks about saving your MP, which he is probably going to use on me after the whole "Khromasoul affair".
It all started one day at the Colibri camp. After suffering merciless humiliation and torment at the hands of Omoikitte's Dragoon wyvern, Ringthree, old-man extraordinaire, inexplicably disappeared, gallivanting somewhere in isolated meditation for about a week (as old people are wont to do).
His sanity breached, his parting words before he left revolved around some crazy online magazine-esque idea of his. Somewhere in the midst of all this, I agreed to contribute.
One would think that upon his return, Ringthree would have some revelation about the inner workings of our world, but instead, all he could muster up for salutation was "I need an article by Wednesday."
For those who don't know me, my name is Tuufless from (you guessed it) the Odin server. I am the one that put the “taru” in “Campsitarus,” and I’m a mage at heart.
So what am I going to talk about? As Ringthree so eloquently put it,
"as a master of White, Black and even Red magic, [I] will be providing insight into how best to play magic using jobs in all aspects of game play, damage dealing, healing and support." (edits mine)
In all seriousness, my jobs to date have all been mage-oriented (with SCH on the way now), so much of what I write in this column will be based off my experiences playing mage jobs, although no prizes for guessing which one I consider to be my “main.” :P
For the first few entries, I’d like to just briefly talk about mages in general and look at some of the basic mechanics behind playing a mage. I understand a lot of what I write may be obvious, or overly abstract, but bear with me here. ^^
Thus, without singling about any one particular mage job, let’s start with the obvious difference between melee and mage—Magic Points.
MP101: Introduction to magic.
As mages, our primary activities revolve around a limited resource—magic points, MP, or more commonly referred to as just “MP.” Bear in mind that this is a general statement and not absolute, as there are several front line jobs that are also reliant on MP for their primary activities (like PLD or BLU), just as there are backline jobs that are not reliant on MP at all (BRD).
One common comment about mages is that because of our versatility and utility, the mage classes on the whole can appear to be rather overpowered. One tradeoff for such power is that mages are rather soft and squishy (after all, cloth robes and pointy hats don’t exactly provide the best defense), but the real tradeoff for such power is our reliance on MP- it is our ammunition, and like a Ranger that has run out of arrows, without MP we cannot contribute in any real meaningful way.
The flip side is that MP is finite (even for tarus!), and because MP ultimately determines how much mages can contribute to a fight, there are some environmental limitations imposed on mages, for example, even though BLM may be the king of offensive magic, it will not out-damage a melee character if the melee character is allowed to go up there and melee over a prolonged period (like in xp parties).
Thus, MP management is a key aspect in the way a mage plays. In short, MP management is about reducing your overall MP expenditure over time, which is actually a two-fold effort—reducing the amount of MP you consume, otherwise known as MP conservation, and replenishing your MP supply, or MP restoration.
MP conservation
On the surface, MP conservation can be quite simple- the basic principle is to get the most out of each spell. There are some job traits that help out in this respect, such as Conserve MP or Light/Dark Arts. However, as far as player input is concerned, MP conservation means that one should minimize “wasted effort” and do things like try to finish off a mob at low health with Thunder II instead of Thunder IV (a particular pet peeve of mine at the Pudding camp), or not use a Cure V to heal a party member when Cure III would’ve been sufficient.
However, that’s not all there is to it. Another aspect of MP conservation that often gets looked over is the conservation attached to your own performance. As mages develop, getting merits and better gear, their performance goes up. However, their MP conservation rate also goes up because while their returns from a spell increases, the cost of the spell remains the same.
Part of the reason why Noble’s Tunic is so good is because not only does it provide Auto-Refresh, but the increase in cure potency also makes all your cures that much more MP efficient. As Black Mages get stronger, they will find that getting a Chain #5 off puddings solo is easier, not just because they do more damage on their nukes, but partly because they also find that they feel they have more MP to work with.
MP restoration
An earlier example of MP conservation would be finishing off a mob with Thunder II instead of overkilling with Thunder IV, or trying to limit the necessary MP that you spend. On the flip side, MP restoration deals with replenishing your MP pool as quick as possible through various means, lowering your overall MP expenditure over time.
Note the emphasis on the time factor here, which explains the relative weakness of +hMP items. Assuming you rest for two minutes, a +1hMP item only generates 5.5mp/minute. While yes, they do help, their contribution is so marginal that unless the battle is so prolonged that you get to rest multiple times, most mages think of hMP as a bonus, rather than something to try and actively maximize. That is why when it comes to inventory planning, pure +hMP items are usually the first to get the boot.
Time also explains why Convert is one of the most powerful abilities in the game. To illustrate, Refresh generates 150mp in 2.5 minutes, or 60mp/minute. Assuming you generate 800mp when you Convert, you already have a restoration rate of 80mp/minute, which can go up to 96mp/minute if Convert is fully merited.
To give you a better idea of how powerful this can be, Ballads with a Gjallarhorn produce 100mp/minute, which is only just slightly above a fully merited Convert! In fact, just to equal a Gjallarhorn’s performance, you only need to have a fully merited Convert recast and convert 834mp each time, which is something that is very doable for all RDMs out there.
End-{Tab key}
I hope you, the reader has gained just a little bit of insight into the world of mages, and some of the basic driving forces behind what we do. As a long-time mage myself, there are a few other places here and there that I would like to tap on, but more importantly, I need to hear some of the things that you all would like to know.
The excruciating process of watching Ringthree level up his BLM (often with accompanying /facepalms), had led me to be aware that there is a wealth of knowledge out there that I have long-internalized and now simply taken as granted. As such, ideas from anyone, new or old, about themes or topics that could warrant further exploration could lead to much greater insight, so please {Help me out!} by leaving a comment down below!
#1 ~ Monk
#2 ~ Samurai
#3 ~ Ninja
#4 ~ Dragoon
Chaotic Pellucidity
Teabags and KY Jelly
The Bloggaru!
