The BLM Journal: A Month Later

After about a month or so, my BLM has grew slightly yet still significantly. My skills as a BLM are also coming along nicely as I've been learning a few new things here and there. If I have to give myself a self assessment, I'd give myself a 1/10!

So harsh on yourself Moggie... ;_;

I still have some glaring weaknesses that I'm trying to get out of the way, the most important one would be stunning. Despite the fact that I'm doing it straight out of reaction as best as I can (and I know my reaction, as long as I'm focused on it, is pretty top-notched), I usually end up completely missing the stun altogether while other people seem to land it just fine. Granted, some of these people that I'm comparing myself have some fast cast equipment on them (a DRK in my LS with Homam), I think I would still miss it regardless.

This leads me to think it is one of two things:

1. My computer is more than capable of running FFXI at high resolutions. However, I do have outside programs running and those things could be lagging me up.

2. I'm lying to myself and my reaction speed is really not all that great as I think it is. But to support that, I do play a lot of fighting games and I get things down to the exact frame. But to go against that, sometimes it is a bunch of predictions.

Now, the prediction thing is pretty hard for me because I'm not dealing with a human opponent right now, I'm dealing with a computer brain that runs through a script that randomizes itself. I've been told various many times to just "feel" the mob and stun. While, I feel, this would work in a fighting game (ex. You do a Dragon Punch in Street Fighter 2, you do it too early, you can still throw another one out), making this work in FFXI is pretty bad because once you miss a stun, that's 45 seconds (not counting haste and such) where you're unable to stun again. Now granted, there might be more than one person stunning but that isn't really an excuse there, he has the potential of messing up a stun as much as you do.

I still have yet found a way (or time) to practice this. With the frustrations I've been having with it, I may just end up keeping this my weakest skill and concentrate on my strong points. Maybe, like some other things, I'll just "magically" get it some day.

As far as my BLM has progressed in gear... really, there isn't much to say about it. Other than getting a few bare necessities :3 Nothing truly outstanding came my way... I mean, other than these Zenith Hands :3 Nifty~ (Thanks DRF!). Gil has become a problem with me though, hopefully I'll get lucky with some ENMs or something... I hope.

Kinda wished I had more opportunities to play my BLM more. I feel hindered without a proper RDM sub as I'm not really able to solo much of anything too well. It'll be something that I'll work on when the Level Sync thing comes into play (this monday actually!).

I recently also got my first Elemental Obi. I'm kinda worried because I am going to grab 2 more Obis and I'm probably going to be struggling with inventory space. Unfortunately, it's not the problem of storing these items (I am technically balancing 4 jobs: PLD/WAR/SAM/BLM), it's just making use of my 70 inventory spaces. Eventually, I'm going to have to dump some things back into the Mog House that I really don't need like some of the staves for example. In fact, lets analyze that right now!

Earth Staff = Used for Idle (Damage Reduction)
Water Staff = Used for Stoneskin (Kirin's Pole would replace this once I get one)
Wind Staff = Gravity and Kirin is all I can think of
Fire Staff = Nuking in it isn't so bad... I guess
Ice Staff = :3
Thunder Staff = :3 :3
Light Staff = Used for healing, don't need it /NIN
Dark Staff = :3 :3 :3

Well... that didn't help at all, did it? ; ; Any input on this?

I guess that's about it for today. My LS has been making some great strides lately but I'll post all that in a separate blog post, probably tomorrow.

G'day!