What makes a 'HQ' BLM?Follow

In the manaburn DM thread people have been talking about HQ BLMs versus NQ BLMs.

In your view, what makes the difference between a HQ BLM and an NQ BLM.

Gear?
Merits?
Experience?


Also where would you place yourself on the scale of NQ-->HQ? Lets say that 0 = NQ and 10 = HQ. (and minus numbers are subpar)

Yes, like Treskar said above. It's not just one factor but a collection of elements and the various levels of each. I'm sure several BLMs have seen other BLMs with exceptional gear but they're lacking in skill or are not using the gear to it's full potential. You can also say the same for vice-versa, BLMs with exceptional knowledge/skill but lack in the gear department. They're decently equipped but make full use of every single piece.

There are also a lot of BLMs that lack party play experience. Although they're learning a great deal of solo intelligence, it's better to be well-rounded in all aspects of game play than just one. Teamwork and communication with fellow BLMs and others is quite useful. It's not entirely their fault, but BLMs with apprehension of party mechanics are growing more rare everyday.

There's also more to it than just that, so as you can see it's not just one thing.

EDIT*

I just read that thread you mentioned and that one poster mainly meant "elite" as in power (gear/merits). It really doesn't take much skill to manaburn DM, but it does require some basic commonsense... something a lot of people sometimes lack (notice I used "sometimes").

Edited, Aug 15th 2009 10:10am by Shigo

A HQ BLM is one who can beat or match my automaton's nukes with AMII... of which there seems to be rather few. XP No one seems to realize just how powerful/accurate a fully merited/geared automaton's nukes really are.

But seriously, I'd consider a HQ BLM to be one who has sets for enfeebling/nuking/survival/recovery at the least, and who's good at sleeping links, hate management, stunning, and supporting the healers if needed. All the best gear in the world won't save you as a mage without the knowledge and skills to apply it. This isn't like monk after all.

I've seen people with "ungodly hq" gear get resisted on sleeps in dynamis too, with someone in nq gear landing it in one shot. I've seen "NQ"- geared blms out-nuke and out-perform "HQ"-geared blms. I had been in a dynamis recently where a pup's automaton out-nuked 2 out of 5 of the "HQ" blms. The point i'm laying down is that gear plays only an equal, if not a minority part of being a "HQ" blm.

When a mommy BLM and a daddy BLM love each other very much, face northeast, get Advanced Support, and feel extremely lucky...

Gear/stats, after a certain point, are only minor factors in my book.

After that, it's more your instincts and reflexes. Are you a reliable stunner? Do you know how to kite mobs efficiently? Do you know when it's better to kite instead of just standing there? etc. etc.

To those used to doing such activities it may be second nature, but there are a lot of people to which those skills don't seem to come naturally, and as far as I'm concerned they make a far greater difference than having all those little extra bits of +1-2 INT on your gear or whatever.

I think it's 40% Gear 40% Knowlegde 20% merits. I think to be HQ you have know alot of stuff like how to sleep well with shadows down. You also have to be good under pressure and have macros, but you have to have some gear. Merits play a factor too but more so on more resistant mobs. Also a Hq blm better Conserve MP I hate the blms in the manaburns who insist on casting AMII after chain 3 to show off or finish with a TierIV when a drain could do it.

I'de rate myself um..

5/10

I have knowledge of the job but not the best gear. Also my stunning abillity sucks I try to hit the macro but the move always keeps going off, it's somewhat my fault somewhat lag. I'm good at kiting though, and under pressure most of the time lol and my macros are up to date for the gear I have.

Edited, Aug 16th 2009 12:24am by Dantedmc

Edited, Aug 16th 2009 12:25am by Dantedmc

This..irks me. Why would a BLM need Apollo staff? Get the ones you need first, Jupiter/Pluto/Aquilo/Austers are good for MANY situations.




To me, an HQ BLM is to gear swap, eat the right food and land those nukes. Play your subjob that is /Whm and /Rdm with those cures and enfeebles, help out your party and stun accordingly. Erase, Dispels, and CURAGA!!! are really really awesome to save your healer some MP.


I saw tons of blm used Thundaga on Kirin with Cobra gear, seriously the new campaign stuff had blinded the new BLMs to gear for lazyness. >_>

Experience in the game

Did you get 50 levels in quifim level sync partys killing crabs.

Did you sit in korokka tunnel watching summoners kill bats in level sync to make 50 levels in 8 days ? of course your not going to have the skills of someone who played the game 2-3 years. if your character has powerleveled up without doing anything other then watch bats fall or crabs die in quifim.

Do you understand the mechanics of jobs other then black mage well enough to know how your job fits into the party and how to effectively walk the hate line.
Leveling Thief, Paladin, Ninja and other jobs can help you understand the hate line.



A Thrifty Black Mage does not always make a Black Mage Bad.

I know many black mages who only carry 2 NQ elemental staffs and a normal af set of gear.

(AF gear isnt the endgame but its a good starter set.
Around lvl 70
(AF gear starts to go into storage and blm starts to have thrifty alternatives)

Dynamis gear isnt the best but its a good starter set.)
(you'll find better gears that are more functional or craft more useful items)


(Dark staff and Ice staff are fundamental) + Pluto and HQ staffs are very nice but on Remora they can run 500-600k each. casual players are'nt going to have 500-600k gil to buy the fine piece of wood.

(earrings and rings don''t ruin your characters abilitys but Not having the right ones on for a situation can make things more difficult.

Example ( would you rather wear 2 mana earrings and 2 astral rings going into a fight with ash dragon or would you rather put on some triumph earrings and 2 sun rings for more fire resistance.)

The example is kinda situational. but the answers a galka blm, taru blm, and elvaan blm arrive at for gear solutions. vary depending on what they need to perform their role in the party.


Experience with mobs your fighting. (knowing what you can get away with..)
Knowing when to manafont and go all out..

Knowing when to cast ESCAPE and when to sleepga2 to handle a bad pull.

Knowing how to gauge a bad situation in a party.. When your tank just ate dirt in crawlers nest or ate dirt in arpeggeo reef.

Check her sig. Also, i believe 8/8 implies that she has jupiter's, pluto's, aquilo's, and auster's.

Am I the only one who wouldn't really give a sh*t? They'd probably still be wiping the floor with me in terms of performance anyway.

My point is:

Prism Cape + Snow Ring is about 1M

Why bother dropping all that gil and time on full morrigans, etc, if you aren't gonna max out the set?

But if I'm the only one, I'll just shut up.

I give myself a 6~7/10, I do need to finish meriting, I took a HUEG break from meriting to level PUP to 75, merited loads on PUP, and have RNG70 now. I only have a handful of HQ staves, not quite 7/8 (Not doing HQ light.), and I kind of have a novio.

nah, the best ones are the full morrigan's blms that tell you they are barely half merited.

still playin regular haper? it's been awhile ^^

I'd give myself a 3. I know what I'm doing quite well, but I am incredibly lacking in the gear department and definitely sub-par in the merit department. I just don't have the time.

Edit: You people have no sense of humor.

Edited, Aug 19th 2009 10:24am by catwho

What makes a HQ BLM? In my opinion a mixture of top class gear, full merits and probably the most important of all, the knowledge of how the job works and maximising everything you do. Knowing elemental weaknesses of mob families and how to MB a skillchain without having to look it up are all good signs!

Where would I rate myself on a scale from 1 to 10? That's a difficult one, I have some very good gear which includes plenty of white box items, full gear sets for any ocassion, almost fully capped on merits and I've fought and killed almost everything in the game on BLM. I know the job well. I've been playing it in a HNM environment for about 18 months and the only things we haven't had a go at have been AV and PW.

I'd go for 7 or 8 out of 10. I'm still missing a couple of luxury pieces, although my LS does Salvage runs I'm at work when they do them so my chances of ever owning any Morrigan's pieces are slim to none.

Edited, Aug 20th 2009 9:27am by Gra

These are the same people that think because a spell looks pretty its obviously what they should be doing to help out the alliance.

OMG DON'T YOU DARE SAY FREEZE II SUCKS! IT DOES MORE DAMAGE THAN THUNDER4!

No.

How could no one have at least chuckled at this?

It should be more like 60/10/30%. Unless by "knowledge" he meant not being completely retarded, then maybe. Ffxi isn't rocket science.

Of course i have. But considering anyone who's not completely retarded can play blm just fine, i don't think it really matters.