Black Mage.. SOLO ONRY

First off let me apologize, due to finals I haven't been on FFXI much or posting but finals will be over soon.

I never considered black mage a big solo job, well I knew they could sleep, nuke, sleep, nuke but that's not exactly a way to gain a consistent amount of experience points per hour. However I discovered a new method I was experimenting with yesterday in which a black mage can solo and gain as much experience points per hour as an average xp party setup.


This trend seems to be becoming more popular since I begin reading and seeing it more and more and it's really an awesome way to gain xp. The DD role in xp pts never appealed to me which is why I turned to solo jobs like bst when I wanted to level a DD job however I may turn back to blm now that I have this new and fun way gain xp.

Here's how blms can do it:

- You find a camp with beastmen monsters that are much higher than what you'd normally fight in a 6 person xp pt, this camp has to have at least 1 beastmen monster that has a pet (smn, bst), whether it be an elemental, goblin's leech, rarab, or whatever, any pet will do.

- Now since the pet is always a few levels below the level of its beastmen master, if the camp you chose is good, the pet of the beastmen should be right in the level range of the monsters you'd normally fight in a xp pt at your level.

- Ok now here's the real trick, if you pull the pet of the beastmen while the beastmen has its back turned, you can pull just the pet. And so long as the beastmen doesn't turn around or see its pet fighting you, it will go about its business.

- Pets of beastmen monsters have very low HP, at my level it's around 500-600 HP, which means a few blm nukes can wipe them out fast, as little as 20 seconds. Once you get above 50 and learn ancient magic, you can one-shot these pets. Either way you can pull off consistent chains this way, just as a normal xp pt would.


Once the pet is dead, the beastmen monster will summon a new pet within 30 seconds, and you can use that time to rest and recast anything you need to. Now obviously this isn't without risk, it is soloing afterall. Since you're in areas that have monsters that are much much higher than you'd normally have to deal with, things can and will go wrong.

• - If you get aggro from something else in the area, while fighting/resting.
  
• - The beastmen turns to face its pet as you're casting a spell
• - You get resisted too much and can't kill the pet fast enough

...Or any other number of things, you could find yourself eatting dirt. Of course black mages do have some things that can help them such as elemental seal, sleepga, warp, but usually when dealing with monsters this high above you, aggro = death. Soloing will always be risky, however that's where half the fun comes from, just reraise yourself and continue. Now this strategy isn't limited to just black mages either, other jobs like blue mage can do this too.


What you need to get started:

• - A desire to level blm, duh! Without wanting to level black mage and spend alittle gil on equipping yourself with decent gear then forget this.
• - Decent gear. Yes while true in soloing you have no one to impress but yourself, this strategy heavily depends on not getting resisted and doing high damage fast. Magic Attack Bonus and +int gear / food helps a great deal. Also you may want to look into spell interuption/HP/Vit/Def gear as before 50+ you will most likely be getting hit.
• - A ninja sub! Yes while blm/nin may look silly to people, it's what you need to survive! Before 50+ it's almost required to have nin for utsusemi. This is because you can't kill the pets in one hit before 50, so in order to get those 2-3 spells off to kill the pets, you'll need shadows up (SS and blink don't cut it). Also with a nin sub you can dual wield wand for a nice boost in stats. By the time you hit 50+ you can go back to a whm or rdm sub.
• - The ability to take risks and try something new. Yes this is different than the normal xp pt style and soloing again is very risky. You will die, probably lots of times before you get the hang of soloing. You can think you know this game well enough to do this perfectly, but soloing definitely takes practice to get good at.
• - Reraise earrings. No explanation required, you'll need one, especially subbing nin may wanna consider a few hi-potions or HP drinks.

Well that should give you a good overview of the solo life of a black mage, I look forward to getting more into this when I get more time to play. I hope some of you aspiring blms out there may choose to give this a try too. Here is an awesome camp guide for blm solo camps that so far has worked out great for me, I'll keep you updated on my blm solo experiences as time goes on.