Am I making bad gear choices?Follow

The link is broken so I can't be specific.

MAB is very limited until 68+. You have moldy earring and a few other pieces, so imo wear all the MAB you can get (which is only likely to be 1-2 items) then load up on INT.

Skill for resists obviously, at 62 I guess you are still 1 shotting elementals in the [s] zones? So as long as you don't use burst on earth elementals then you shouldn't have many resist issues.

Everything looks good except the hands. Use the AF hands instead and sell the sly gauntlets. 15 elemental skill will do far more for you than 3 int.

HQ staves are a major upgrade for BLM as well. I saw in your link that you had listed Aquilo's Staff at least. If you don't have the rest of the HQ staves, try to aim for that, as they will provide the greatest damage/accuracy boosts for any single equipment slot. Additionally, make sure you're macroing in the correct staff for the elements of your nukes and enfeebles (and make damn sure you're not using the opposite staff for any given spell's element, or you'll see negative results).

NQ staves are acceptable until you can make bank for the HQ's. Until you reach 75 your most damaging spell (and thus, most valuable staves) keeps changing through the levels, but at 75 the important HQ staves are Aquilo's (Bind, Blizzard IV), Jupiter's (Thunder IV, Stun), Auster's (Aero IV, Gravity, Silence), and Pluto's (Sleep, Drain, Aspir, Bio, resting) - not necessairily in that order, of course.

Other upgrades or playstyle improvements for immediate consideration:

- Sorcerer's Ring gear: This ring (as you probably already know) only kicks in under 76% HP - the resources necessary to activate it before level 73 are pretty exorbitant (and afaik, near impossible for Elvaan/Galka). It's fantastic that you're aiming for it (close to NQ->HQ staves in terms of upgrades), but just know that it won't really become a reasonable upgrade until you can take advantage of Zenith gear.

- 'Idle' macro; swaps in PDT-% gear like Earth Staff/Cheviot Cape(68)/Jelly Ring(65)/Patronus Ring(60)/Goliard Trews(75), topped off with a Black Cloak(68) for Refresh. This is used when you're not casting anything important, or if you pulled hate/are standing near an AoE-spewing mob, or are running through a zone and low on MP/dragging aggro along, ect. Smart use of this kind of macro can save your butt sometimes. Earth Staff and Black Cloak are simple and cheap enough for a starter Idle set for your level, at 20% physical dmg reduction.

EDIT: Just remember that the above set is ineffective for magic attacks - Jelly Ring even exacerbates them.

-Stoneskin gear: At level 68 and above you can start using /RDM for Stoneskin. BLM's Enhancing skill caps at only 200, so it takes 114 MND to cap it out at 350 damage absorbed. If you want to plan ahead for your BLM, capping SS is a good place to cover; Elvaan have an easier time capping SS than other races too, with higher base MND.

-Resting gear: Every little bit helps - especially when you can shave off a tick or two of resting completely (each tick you shave off gives you 10 extra seconds of time, maybe time enough for another exp chain). At level 62 you can probably reach +15-19 hMP easily, but the best resting gear (obviously) comes above lv.70. (As a reference, at lv.75, the most hMP you can stack in your gear is +41, barring FoV augments - hard to reach, though.)

Edited, Nov 28th 2009 10:56pm by Murfore