BLM Guide (Part IV)
Overview
Sea is a particularly Black Mage-friendly zone - Just about everything is manaburnable, NMs included, and you can easily do a good 75% of these NMs with nothing more than a team of Black Mages; this is a good reason why the RMT probably have so much success in Sea. As far as bettering oneself as a Black Mage up here, there are a number of really interesting solos and techniques you can use - soloing Ix'MNK, spending about 20 hours farming 5 Euvhi organs for Relaxing Earring, getting Ghrah Chips, etc.
In this post, I want to focus on something a Black Mage can do for their LS that is perhaps less obvious. The one NM in sea that generally everyone feels a BLM is horrible at is Jailer of Temperance. Obviously magic does 0 damage on it, so it makes sense to think something that focuses on magic damage is useless; but this is really not so. With enough practice and knowledge of routes, it is possible for a single BLM to run through all 5 JoT spawns, solo the placeholders, and HOLD Temperance for an indefinate period of time entirely SOLO using a technique called "Pinning".
So what is the point of this exactly? Jailer of Temperance is one of those annoying NMs that requires you to traverse the entire map - there are tons of aggro mobs, annoying escort NPCs, and fairly difficult routes. In short, it's a HUGE timesink for your linkshell if you're in sea farming triggers. While you can just wait at 1 spawn and kill a placeholder every 16 minutes, this is even more inefficient. However, if you are able to secure Temperance with the use of only 1 member, you can drastically increase the productivity of your sea run. Everyone can just go on to something else like say trying to pop Ix'DRK, while a BLM attempts to pop Temperance. If it happens to pop, everyone can just rush over.
In this post, I'll pretty much go over exactly how this is done - from the routes to take to the holding process. In addition, I'll go over some subtle techniques you can use as a Black Mage to pull this off - it gets somewhat difficult once Temperance is actually spawned. Really the point of using this example in the Black Mage guide is to show how many really tiny things regarding gear choices and play can affect the efficiency of not only your own play, but your LS's as well. It also, again, highlights the strength of the Black Mage style I have outlined previously.
To reiterate so no one misses this...
The goal is to only pop and HOLD Temperance, not kill it!
Previous Sections:
Black Mage Guide (Part I)
Black Mage Guide (Part II)
Black Mage Guide (Part III)
Black Mage Guide (Part V)
Black Mage Guide (Part VI)
Black Mage Guide!
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General Knowledge about Temperance
- It runs retardedly fast - flee speed at all times (think Faust)
- All forms of magic damage do 0 damage to Temperance
- Temperance has 3 forms and is only susceptible to one of these at any time - blunt, piercing, slashing damage
- All types of DoTs still work if landed, including magic ones
- Uses the SAM 2-hour Meikyo Shisui multiple times
- It has NO repop timer or downtime (you can pop it right after it dies)
- Chance spawn about 5 seconds after killing an Eo'zdei is killed
- Pops aggroed if you are near the alcove at the time
- True sight aggro
Some key things to focus on about Temperance...
It will outrun you without gravity... Easily. Unless you have a bunch of powdered boots or a Hermes Quencher, there is no way to outrun this without the use of Gravity. It also hits like a ton of bricks, has a very fast attack speed, and can double attack. Generally, this is considered the most difficult tier 1 sea NM by far.
Note that there is no repop downtime on this. You can spawn it again pretty much right after it dies. Typically it takes a little bit to find it again though. There are 5 spawn positions on the top floor of the Grand Palace (one in each alcove in the 5 towers) - note that the top floor where JoT spawns is the one you enter on. The one that requires warping is the basement. I won't go too much into detail about this as it's very well documented elsewhere (try the Wiki).
The Wiki also contains maps with the escort routes and teleports. If you are interested in trying this, you MUST know these routes inside-out. I'm always fairly surprised as to how many people in Sea LSs can do these NMs for over 6 months and still not know the basic routes in Sea. Make sure you know these - you will be solo and no one is going to help you if you get lost. Even more, if you get caught in a bad situation and need to bail, you need to know where everything is to possibly find a teleporter.
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Quickly Tranversing the 5 Towers - What Route to Take?
Speed is incredibly important on this. You're farming and if you take 30 minutes to get to a tower, you're hurting your LS and you should probably just bring the whole army to pop this if it takes that long. The single biggest time-waster on this map is the escort. Waiting for that NPC, which basically has to crawl half way around the map, can easily cost you 10+ minutes as it can aggro mobs, which are slow to kill solo.
Luckily, you can hit all 5 towers only spawning 1 NPC escort! Because of this, you can really easily tranverse all 5 towers in 20-25 minutes flat (includes killing time) - it really is that fast, even solo. The key trick to this is the fact that the sealed doors open going backwards. Everything I write from here on regarding routes is written with the assumption that you actually know the basic routes in the Grand Palace.
For quick reference to the Grand Palace map, just use this link that shows the entire thing with escort.
The order in which you do this is roughly...
Enter from the left side door
Tarutaru Tower Placeholder (South West F-13)
Get Escort (F-10)
Finish Escort (H-7)
Hume Tower Placeholder (North H-4)
Backtrack to Mithra Tower
Mithra Tower Placeholder (North West C-8)
Portal Down to Basement (D-9)
Run to and use ??? One-Way Door (G-10)
Run to portal at Galka Tower and Portal up (K-12)
Galka Tower Placeholder (South East J-13)
Backtrack to Basement
Go to and use Elvaan Tower Porter (L-6)
Elvaan Tower Placeholder (M-8)
If still no Pop, use Escape
This really seems like a lot of things to do; however, there are many tricks which can drastically speed things up, especially when moving from Tower to Tower. There are many temporary zone switches which allow you to shed aggro. This lets you essentially train your way through nearly all the mobs.
That's pretty much the basic outline of the route, I'll go over how this actually pertains to Black Mage strategy next.
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Training Mobs - Enfeebling, Standing Setup, and Gaiters
The number one factor that is going to determine how quickly you can do this is your ability to move from tower to tower quickly without dying. Many times, as previously mentioned, you are heading for a particular zone (like a portal). In these instances, you will lose any aggro upon zoning so it's perfectly fine to train. Some instances, you will be able to literally train your way across the entire zone. In these situations, the 3 biggest things to consider are your enfeebling magic setup and usage, your standing setup, and the use of movement speed enhancement.
Everything in this zone is sleepable with a decent enfeebling gear setup. Below is the enfeebling setup I currently use for sleeps (admittedly it is actually rather weak).
MainPluto's StaffDark Magic "Potency" +15%RangedPhantom Tathlum HeadGenie TiaraEnfeebling Magic Skill +11BodyWizard's Coat +1Enfeebling Magic Skill +12HandsZenith Mitts +1 LegsGenie LappaEnfeebling Magic Skill +11FeetHerald's GaitersMovement Speed +12%BackUmbra CapeDamage Taken -6%WaistQiqirn Sash +1 NeckEnfeebling TorqueEnfeebling Magic Skill +7Ear 1Loquacious EarringFast Cast +1%Ear 2Sorcerer's EarringLatent Effect: Damage Taken -30%Ring 1Tamas Ring Ring 2Snow Ring
The focus on equipment for this setup was Enfeebling Magic Skill, Speed, Damage Down, and finally HP and MP balance (in that order). This gives me only 271 Enfeebling Skill (pre-new merit) and still manages to do the job just fine - you could really add another 31 Enfeebling Skill with 8 Merits, Altruistic Cape, Enfeebling Earring, and Master Caster Bracers (always active in sea with Signet). Again you actually don't need that much on the order of Enfeebling Skill to reliably sleep the mobs in this zone.
A big key here is using your enfeebles - 4 Sleep spells, Gravity, Bind, and even Stun, correctly. There will likely be mobs flying all over the place, so this is a great exercise in multi-targeting, and quick/fluid macro usage. I personally use macros on sleep spells (one of the few exceptions, I usually use simply ). Basically you rush towards the portal keeping this in mind:
1) Sleep or bind anything that will aggro if you run by it
2) Dark Element Ghrahs simply run by and stun if sleepga is attempted. Bind/Gravity if needed afterwards
3) Aspir anything you can when timer is up to maintain or gain MP
4) USE ALL 4 SLEEP SPELLS
Make sure you can quickly access all 4 sleep spells via macro. You will sleep a lot of mobs in a short period of time and need quick access to all 4 due to heavy recast timers. It's also a good idea to use a macro of /recasts (mentioned in a previous post) so you can keep track of your timers while running without menu.
(Pulling the Placeholder usually requires you to do so between 2 Ghrah mobs - definately wait for a good time to pull so you don't aggro these. If you mess up, they are easily sleepable; it just slows you down.)
The other 2 important things - standing setup and movement speed enhancement, have been gone over before previously. Obviously the Gaiters thing is out of your control usually - you either have them or you don't. Due to the amount of running you'll be doing (most of the time with 5-6 mobs behind you), they are really great to have for speeding this process up.
Beyond these basic keys, the only real advice I have for this part is to just be very wary of your surroundings at all times - know where the nearest portal or zone is. This is really more of a test of instinct and reflexes than anything. I really wish I could video this portion just to show everyone how amazingly fast and safe this process is when done correctly.
So lets assume Temperance has popped (I'm also assuming you could solo that Eo'zdei placeholder). Now for the fun part!
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Temperance Pops! Don't Panic!
A lot of very quick thinking is going to be required when this thing pops. It will most likely pop aggroed and immediately starting B-lining towards you. Prior to getting the final kill shot on a placeholder Eo'zdei, make sure you have the following:
- Reraise (should always be on anyways)
- Stoneskin and Blink
- Elemental Seal
- At least 200 MP (rest prior to kill if needed)
- Gravity was not just used (ie. it's not in /recast mode)
- No normal mobs are currently aggroed to you
The goal here to start is to simply land Elemental Seal'd Gravity without dying in the circle room. Temperance really comes at you with a vengence right from the beginning though, so you must be calm when you do this - pre-planning your actions ahead of time can help.
(I've posted these same pics about 4 times by now - this was the first attempt at me doing this - shows a couple things - always use Elemental Seal, even on the first cast. Also shows damage taken when using a good Standing Setup. This is more of a good example what NOT to do as I completely panic in this.)
With Blink and Stoneskin, you will be able to absorb at least 3 hits, possibly 4. Of course there is always the possibility that is opens with a double attack and both happen to bypass Blink (if your Stoneskin breaks at this point, you will most likely be interrupted). The key is to just remain calm and focused. With /RDM sub and correct timing, you should be able cast gravity between hits. Also note that running away will do absolutely nothing once it catches you as it's going to outrun you from that point on anyway.
Make sure your Standing Setup has a good amount of physical damage down - Staff and Cape are really enough probably, but Sorcerer's Earring can be a life saver here as you can very easily be put into red in a matter of seconds by Temperance. Once Elemental Sealed Gravity is landed, RUN. You will be able to outrun it at this point; however, gravity won't stay on for too long and resistance builds quickly. Just run around in the circle area.
You probably have about 30-45 seconds before the gravity wears and you're essentially screwed if you have not confused it. Take the time to scream that Temperance is up at whatever tower to your LS so they can start running for you. After this, it's your job to hold it.
The next step is crucial to survival and takes a good deal of tact.
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Holding Temperance - The Use of "Pinning"
Gravity is on and your linkshell is on its way. Depending on what tower it spawned in, you may have to hold for at least a good 10 minutes (Galka and Hume Towers being the worst). I keep saying how Temperance runs at flee speed and pretty much destroys you in a couple seconds, so how the hell is a Black Mage supposed to hold this for 10 minutes? The answer is poor AI. Again, I'm pretty sure a lot of players have done this accidently or even use it knowingly.
Read the next 2 paragraphs closely!
"Pinning" is a type of kiting that can be used when you have a fairly large circular kiting zone (in this case, the square room in the towers. When you are directly across from a mob seperated by a circular obstacle (for example you are at 12 o'clock and the mob is at 6 o'clock), the mob is forced to choose between going clockwise or going counter-clockwise. The AI is extremely poor at choosing the right direction.
When you have reached this point where Temperance is directly across from you, find the nearest pillar (there is 1 at each of the 4 corners of the kiting area). When you hit the pillar, switch directions, run a few steps and watch - Temperance will switch it's directions as well and start running that way. Now switch again when it switches - it will switch with you! Keep repeating this, keeping in mind to ONLY move 1-2 steps in each direction before switching again. Try to get your timing down. Once gravity wears, if you do this correctly, it will get stuck and can't pick a direction as long as you keep this up - hence the term "pinning".
(I am showing a couple of pics showing this strategy; however, they will not be of Temperance - taking a screenshot would risk actually losing the hold so I cannot do that. This is really best seen in real time so it's something you should try for yourself to see. These 2 pics taken one after another - shows the use of the "pillar" and the 12 o'clock 6 o'clock positions.)
What is really funny about this on something that runs extremely fast like Temperance is how it changes directions even when it is clear that changing will make it run further to get to you. When you try this on Temperance, you will take just 1 tiny baby step each direction while Temperance will take about 5 giant steps and be halfway to the next pillar already - yet still it will go back and switch directions! Once you have pinned it, just keep at it until people arrive.
This technique isn't difficult, but it does take a bit of practice. It's a good idea to test this out for yourself on something that runs slower (say one of those Eo'zdei placeholders). From this point, you can hold Temperance for as long as you want, assuming you don't mess up. After like 5 minutes of this, it really starts to hurt my fingers a bit, but hopefully it doesn't take more than about 10 minutes for your group to get to you. As far as communication, there is no way you can type anything once you start this - so either tell everyone before gravity wears or use vent.
Once help arrives, you're pretty much done! You've just saved your linkshell a lot of annoyance!
(Couple pics showing how you can easily train a good deal of mobs rather quickly - focus on being quick and fluid with enfeebling macros, knowing routes, and of course, making a good defensive standing equipment setup. Note that if you use Gaiters, you probably won't even have to sleep anything half the time.)
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Conclusions
I think that while task I went over isn't something that one would normally brag about (afterall, you're not actually killing anything other than 5 placeholders probably), it's really one of those things that is more difficult than it looks to do quickly and safely. It all comes down to reflexes and quick thinking - something I think many players have a hard time with. I notice a lot of people generally do extremely well when everything has been pre-planned for them, yet start to panic when something unexpected happens. In addition, this little trick really helps your LS out a good deal and keeps the monotony of sea farming somewhat interesting.
I'm sure a lot of groups have their own methods of popping Temperance, so maybe this isn't something needed for a lot of groups; however, the real point was to showcase more strategies regarding a solo Black Mage. In my opinion, this is fairly difficult to pull off efficiently and requires a lot of different difficult techniques, ranging from macro fluidity to high end kiting technique.
If anything, I think showcasing things like this continue to show how the notion of a "Glass-Cannon" Black Mage is really limiting and just incorrect. Black Mage is given so many tools other than it's nukes, as well as a very good variety of equipment. Given all these things, a well played Black Mage can pull off a great deal of things in a multitude of situations - some so well, a single Black Mage can easily do things a group of 3-4 other jobs could not, quicker and safer.
Black Mage Use and "Zerging"
Long story short - Black Mage is strong enough as it is when poorly played. Just follow the RMT on your server for a reminder how easy this job is to use and get the job done. However, Black Mage is extremely broken and overpowered when well played. This really brings up an interesting debate which I have found has become more prominent since this blog has started.
TK (the LS I'm in), is well known for low-manning everything (something I like to highlight on this blog), usually through to usage of NIN tanks and BLM backline Damage Dealing. A knock on us I get a lot is the fact that we "BLM zerg" everything - which in some part is true, but here's the defining factor and the biggest flaw in the argument:
The average LS on Odin server takes a good mix of everything - a good deal of melees, and probably 3-4 Black Mages for your common Skillchain Magic Burst strategy. TK only takes 3-4 Black Mages PERIOD. We just don't have the melee and end up with less players overall. So there are 2 ways to look at this - if you go by absolute number of Black Mages used in a fight, well we still have less BLM because we use less players overall (rarely do we take over 4 Black Mages to anything because we don't have that many players to get that many DDs and support). On the other hand, if you look at this from a % of DDs that are BLM, well ok we're near 100%.
So which is considered more of a "BLM zerg"? Having 5 Melee and 4 Black Mages, or just having 3 Black Mages (we will average about 3-4)? It's a really funny argument when you look at it from this point of view and it stresses something very key in the success of any low man LS - that while this is a video game, there is still a concept of "skill" and it does play a role. That is the entire point of these Black Mage posts! When 1 Black Mage can pop and hold Temperance for you while an average group of 6 Black Mages probably couldn't even hold it without zombie tactics, this is a great example of how Skill affects LS strength and efficiency.
When talking about Black Mages, it's easy to just hoard them - they work pretty damn well just hoarding them. But because Black Mage is just in general, overpowered, it's true strenghth as a job comes out when you low man things using them. I think TK is a great example of this.
With that thought, I hope you enjoyed this overly long post. Sorry for not updating as much.
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Pic of the Day
OK, so at a couple people's request I'm going to post these drama shots at Fafnir (waaaay back, very old).
I editted them so you cannot the names of any LS or person involved in the drama unless it's TK.
DO NOT post replies filling in the names/LSs or I will remove them (don't do it Chili!).
TK had nothing to do with this pull - never touched or attempted to touch it, but the drama was pretty good. Basically LS A claims it and one of their SMNs immediately uses Spinning Dive from the back and flails it. It happens so fast, everyone is unable to random in time (I think 2 LSs refused anyway, but wouldn't have happened regardless). LS B claims it when it turns yellow (not everyone is dead). Drama ensues. Chilicheese, in one of his most memorable flashes of brilliance, ends the screenshots with one of the best combacks of all time.
Chilicheese>> Don't wipe so early and we would have had time to random and that wouldn't have happened... sorry?
(Angry Guy)>> STFU asshat
Chilicheese>> For someone that applied to TK a few weeks ago you sure are whistling a different tune now (angry guy)!
This guy had basically sucked up to him a ton in an attempt to get in TK recently, so it was pretty funny to see him call Chilicheese an asshat. Even funnier, that person was ALREADY in this LS at the time and was trying to bail, which made the comments just even funnier.
If anyone cared to read what I arguing with Ashira about in party chat, that is actually how the JP LSs on Odin deal with gray area situations - if no random occurred, many of them will take it if it's yellow and you even look like you're about to wipe. This is why a lot of drama happens on these gray area pulls. This is why you should always random on Odin!
It's moments like these that make Dragon's Aery the best place on Odin. Note the guy at the end mt'ing in say "this is gonna be good". Everyone is just waiting for the ticking time bomb that is HNM drama to go off. Although, as someone I talked to recently said, "drama is a whole lot funnier when you're not involved".
Drama Thread of the Day
http://killingifrit.com/forums.php?m=posts&q=155491&d=150
BG is currently down and only Ashira got the secret forum invite ;_;
Luckily there was a new drama thread on KI from our very own Odin server.
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Sea is a particularly Black Mage-friendly zone - Just about everything is manaburnable, NMs included, and you can easily do a good 75% of these NMs with nothing more than a team of Black Mages; this is a good reason why the RMT probably have so much success in Sea. As far as bettering oneself as a Black Mage up here, there are a number of really interesting solos and techniques you can use - soloing Ix'MNK, spending about 20 hours farming 5 Euvhi organs for Relaxing Earring, getting Ghrah Chips, etc.
In this post, I want to focus on something a Black Mage can do for their LS that is perhaps less obvious. The one NM in sea that generally everyone feels a BLM is horrible at is Jailer of Temperance. Obviously magic does 0 damage on it, so it makes sense to think something that focuses on magic damage is useless; but this is really not so. With enough practice and knowledge of routes, it is possible for a single BLM to run through all 5 JoT spawns, solo the placeholders, and HOLD Temperance for an indefinate period of time entirely SOLO using a technique called "Pinning".
So what is the point of this exactly? Jailer of Temperance is one of those annoying NMs that requires you to traverse the entire map - there are tons of aggro mobs, annoying escort NPCs, and fairly difficult routes. In short, it's a HUGE timesink for your linkshell if you're in sea farming triggers. While you can just wait at 1 spawn and kill a placeholder every 16 minutes, this is even more inefficient. However, if you are able to secure Temperance with the use of only 1 member, you can drastically increase the productivity of your sea run. Everyone can just go on to something else like say trying to pop Ix'DRK, while a BLM attempts to pop Temperance. If it happens to pop, everyone can just rush over.
In this post, I'll pretty much go over exactly how this is done - from the routes to take to the holding process. In addition, I'll go over some subtle techniques you can use as a Black Mage to pull this off - it gets somewhat difficult once Temperance is actually spawned. Really the point of using this example in the Black Mage guide is to show how many really tiny things regarding gear choices and play can affect the efficiency of not only your own play, but your LS's as well. It also, again, highlights the strength of the Black Mage style I have outlined previously.
To reiterate so no one misses this...
The goal is to only pop and HOLD Temperance, not kill it!
Previous Sections:
Black Mage Guide (Part I)
Black Mage Guide (Part II)
Black Mage Guide (Part III)
Black Mage Guide (Part V)
Black Mage Guide (Part VI)
Black Mage Guide!
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General Knowledge about Temperance
- It runs retardedly fast - flee speed at all times (think Faust)
- All forms of magic damage do 0 damage to Temperance
- Temperance has 3 forms and is only susceptible to one of these at any time - blunt, piercing, slashing damage
- All types of DoTs still work if landed, including magic ones
- Uses the SAM 2-hour Meikyo Shisui multiple times
- It has NO repop timer or downtime (you can pop it right after it dies)
- Chance spawn about 5 seconds after killing an Eo'zdei is killed
- Pops aggroed if you are near the alcove at the time
- True sight aggro
Some key things to focus on about Temperance...
It will outrun you without gravity... Easily. Unless you have a bunch of powdered boots or a Hermes Quencher, there is no way to outrun this without the use of Gravity. It also hits like a ton of bricks, has a very fast attack speed, and can double attack. Generally, this is considered the most difficult tier 1 sea NM by far.
Note that there is no repop downtime on this. You can spawn it again pretty much right after it dies. Typically it takes a little bit to find it again though. There are 5 spawn positions on the top floor of the Grand Palace (one in each alcove in the 5 towers) - note that the top floor where JoT spawns is the one you enter on. The one that requires warping is the basement. I won't go too much into detail about this as it's very well documented elsewhere (try the Wiki).
The Wiki also contains maps with the escort routes and teleports. If you are interested in trying this, you MUST know these routes inside-out. I'm always fairly surprised as to how many people in Sea LSs can do these NMs for over 6 months and still not know the basic routes in Sea. Make sure you know these - you will be solo and no one is going to help you if you get lost. Even more, if you get caught in a bad situation and need to bail, you need to know where everything is to possibly find a teleporter.
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Quickly Tranversing the 5 Towers - What Route to Take?
Speed is incredibly important on this. You're farming and if you take 30 minutes to get to a tower, you're hurting your LS and you should probably just bring the whole army to pop this if it takes that long. The single biggest time-waster on this map is the escort. Waiting for that NPC, which basically has to crawl half way around the map, can easily cost you 10+ minutes as it can aggro mobs, which are slow to kill solo.
Luckily, you can hit all 5 towers only spawning 1 NPC escort! Because of this, you can really easily tranverse all 5 towers in 20-25 minutes flat (includes killing time) - it really is that fast, even solo. The key trick to this is the fact that the sealed doors open going backwards. Everything I write from here on regarding routes is written with the assumption that you actually know the basic routes in the Grand Palace.
For quick reference to the Grand Palace map, just use this link that shows the entire thing with escort.
The order in which you do this is roughly...
Enter from the left side door
Tarutaru Tower Placeholder (South West F-13)
Get Escort (F-10)
Finish Escort (H-7)
Hume Tower Placeholder (North H-4)
Backtrack to Mithra Tower
Mithra Tower Placeholder (North West C-8)
Portal Down to Basement (D-9)
Run to and use ??? One-Way Door (G-10)
Run to portal at Galka Tower and Portal up (K-12)
Galka Tower Placeholder (South East J-13)
Backtrack to Basement
Go to and use Elvaan Tower Porter (L-6)
Elvaan Tower Placeholder (M-8)
If still no Pop, use Escape
This really seems like a lot of things to do; however, there are many tricks which can drastically speed things up, especially when moving from Tower to Tower. There are many temporary zone switches which allow you to shed aggro. This lets you essentially train your way through nearly all the mobs.
That's pretty much the basic outline of the route, I'll go over how this actually pertains to Black Mage strategy next.
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Training Mobs - Enfeebling, Standing Setup, and Gaiters
The number one factor that is going to determine how quickly you can do this is your ability to move from tower to tower quickly without dying. Many times, as previously mentioned, you are heading for a particular zone (like a portal). In these instances, you will lose any aggro upon zoning so it's perfectly fine to train. Some instances, you will be able to literally train your way across the entire zone. In these situations, the 3 biggest things to consider are your enfeebling magic setup and usage, your standing setup, and the use of movement speed enhancement.
Everything in this zone is sleepable with a decent enfeebling gear setup. Below is the enfeebling setup I currently use for sleeps (admittedly it is actually rather weak).
MainPluto's StaffDark Magic "Potency" +15%RangedPhantom Tathlum HeadGenie TiaraEnfeebling Magic Skill +11BodyWizard's Coat +1Enfeebling Magic Skill +12HandsZenith Mitts +1 LegsGenie LappaEnfeebling Magic Skill +11FeetHerald's GaitersMovement Speed +12%BackUmbra CapeDamage Taken -6%WaistQiqirn Sash +1 NeckEnfeebling TorqueEnfeebling Magic Skill +7Ear 1Loquacious EarringFast Cast +1%Ear 2Sorcerer's EarringLatent Effect: Damage Taken -30%Ring 1Tamas Ring Ring 2Snow Ring
The focus on equipment for this setup was Enfeebling Magic Skill, Speed, Damage Down, and finally HP and MP balance (in that order). This gives me only 271 Enfeebling Skill (pre-new merit) and still manages to do the job just fine - you could really add another 31 Enfeebling Skill with 8 Merits, Altruistic Cape, Enfeebling Earring, and Master Caster Bracers (always active in sea with Signet). Again you actually don't need that much on the order of Enfeebling Skill to reliably sleep the mobs in this zone.
A big key here is using your enfeebles - 4 Sleep spells, Gravity, Bind, and even Stun, correctly. There will likely be mobs flying all over the place, so this is a great exercise in multi-targeting, and quick/fluid macro usage. I personally use macros on sleep spells (one of the few exceptions, I usually use simply ). Basically you rush towards the portal keeping this in mind:
1) Sleep or bind anything that will aggro if you run by it
2) Dark Element Ghrahs simply run by and stun if sleepga is attempted. Bind/Gravity if needed afterwards
3) Aspir anything you can when timer is up to maintain or gain MP
4) USE ALL 4 SLEEP SPELLS
Make sure you can quickly access all 4 sleep spells via macro. You will sleep a lot of mobs in a short period of time and need quick access to all 4 due to heavy recast timers. It's also a good idea to use a macro of /recasts (mentioned in a previous post) so you can keep track of your timers while running without menu.
(Pulling the Placeholder usually requires you to do so between 2 Ghrah mobs - definately wait for a good time to pull so you don't aggro these. If you mess up, they are easily sleepable; it just slows you down.)
The other 2 important things - standing setup and movement speed enhancement, have been gone over before previously. Obviously the Gaiters thing is out of your control usually - you either have them or you don't. Due to the amount of running you'll be doing (most of the time with 5-6 mobs behind you), they are really great to have for speeding this process up.
Beyond these basic keys, the only real advice I have for this part is to just be very wary of your surroundings at all times - know where the nearest portal or zone is. This is really more of a test of instinct and reflexes than anything. I really wish I could video this portion just to show everyone how amazingly fast and safe this process is when done correctly.
So lets assume Temperance has popped (I'm also assuming you could solo that Eo'zdei placeholder). Now for the fun part!
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Temperance Pops! Don't Panic!
A lot of very quick thinking is going to be required when this thing pops. It will most likely pop aggroed and immediately starting B-lining towards you. Prior to getting the final kill shot on a placeholder Eo'zdei, make sure you have the following:
- Reraise (should always be on anyways)
- Stoneskin and Blink
- Elemental Seal
- At least 200 MP (rest prior to kill if needed)
- Gravity was not just used (ie. it's not in /recast mode)
- No normal mobs are currently aggroed to you
The goal here to start is to simply land Elemental Seal'd Gravity without dying in the circle room. Temperance really comes at you with a vengence right from the beginning though, so you must be calm when you do this - pre-planning your actions ahead of time can help.
(I've posted these same pics about 4 times by now - this was the first attempt at me doing this - shows a couple things - always use Elemental Seal, even on the first cast. Also shows damage taken when using a good Standing Setup. This is more of a good example what NOT to do as I completely panic in this.)
With Blink and Stoneskin, you will be able to absorb at least 3 hits, possibly 4. Of course there is always the possibility that is opens with a double attack and both happen to bypass Blink (if your Stoneskin breaks at this point, you will most likely be interrupted). The key is to just remain calm and focused. With /RDM sub and correct timing, you should be able cast gravity between hits. Also note that running away will do absolutely nothing once it catches you as it's going to outrun you from that point on anyway.
Make sure your Standing Setup has a good amount of physical damage down - Staff and Cape are really enough probably, but Sorcerer's Earring can be a life saver here as you can very easily be put into red in a matter of seconds by Temperance. Once Elemental Sealed Gravity is landed, RUN. You will be able to outrun it at this point; however, gravity won't stay on for too long and resistance builds quickly. Just run around in the circle area.
You probably have about 30-45 seconds before the gravity wears and you're essentially screwed if you have not confused it. Take the time to scream that Temperance is up at whatever tower to your LS so they can start running for you. After this, it's your job to hold it.
The next step is crucial to survival and takes a good deal of tact.
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Holding Temperance - The Use of "Pinning"
Gravity is on and your linkshell is on its way. Depending on what tower it spawned in, you may have to hold for at least a good 10 minutes (Galka and Hume Towers being the worst). I keep saying how Temperance runs at flee speed and pretty much destroys you in a couple seconds, so how the hell is a Black Mage supposed to hold this for 10 minutes? The answer is poor AI. Again, I'm pretty sure a lot of players have done this accidently or even use it knowingly.
Read the next 2 paragraphs closely!
"Pinning" is a type of kiting that can be used when you have a fairly large circular kiting zone (in this case, the square room in the towers. When you are directly across from a mob seperated by a circular obstacle (for example you are at 12 o'clock and the mob is at 6 o'clock), the mob is forced to choose between going clockwise or going counter-clockwise. The AI is extremely poor at choosing the right direction.
When you have reached this point where Temperance is directly across from you, find the nearest pillar (there is 1 at each of the 4 corners of the kiting area). When you hit the pillar, switch directions, run a few steps and watch - Temperance will switch it's directions as well and start running that way. Now switch again when it switches - it will switch with you! Keep repeating this, keeping in mind to ONLY move 1-2 steps in each direction before switching again. Try to get your timing down. Once gravity wears, if you do this correctly, it will get stuck and can't pick a direction as long as you keep this up - hence the term "pinning".
(I am showing a couple of pics showing this strategy; however, they will not be of Temperance - taking a screenshot would risk actually losing the hold so I cannot do that. This is really best seen in real time so it's something you should try for yourself to see. These 2 pics taken one after another - shows the use of the "pillar" and the 12 o'clock 6 o'clock positions.)
What is really funny about this on something that runs extremely fast like Temperance is how it changes directions even when it is clear that changing will make it run further to get to you. When you try this on Temperance, you will take just 1 tiny baby step each direction while Temperance will take about 5 giant steps and be halfway to the next pillar already - yet still it will go back and switch directions! Once you have pinned it, just keep at it until people arrive.
This technique isn't difficult, but it does take a bit of practice. It's a good idea to test this out for yourself on something that runs slower (say one of those Eo'zdei placeholders). From this point, you can hold Temperance for as long as you want, assuming you don't mess up. After like 5 minutes of this, it really starts to hurt my fingers a bit, but hopefully it doesn't take more than about 10 minutes for your group to get to you. As far as communication, there is no way you can type anything once you start this - so either tell everyone before gravity wears or use vent.
Once help arrives, you're pretty much done! You've just saved your linkshell a lot of annoyance!
(Couple pics showing how you can easily train a good deal of mobs rather quickly - focus on being quick and fluid with enfeebling macros, knowing routes, and of course, making a good defensive standing equipment setup. Note that if you use Gaiters, you probably won't even have to sleep anything half the time.)
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Conclusions
I think that while task I went over isn't something that one would normally brag about (afterall, you're not actually killing anything other than 5 placeholders probably), it's really one of those things that is more difficult than it looks to do quickly and safely. It all comes down to reflexes and quick thinking - something I think many players have a hard time with. I notice a lot of people generally do extremely well when everything has been pre-planned for them, yet start to panic when something unexpected happens. In addition, this little trick really helps your LS out a good deal and keeps the monotony of sea farming somewhat interesting.
I'm sure a lot of groups have their own methods of popping Temperance, so maybe this isn't something needed for a lot of groups; however, the real point was to showcase more strategies regarding a solo Black Mage. In my opinion, this is fairly difficult to pull off efficiently and requires a lot of different difficult techniques, ranging from macro fluidity to high end kiting technique.
If anything, I think showcasing things like this continue to show how the notion of a "Glass-Cannon" Black Mage is really limiting and just incorrect. Black Mage is given so many tools other than it's nukes, as well as a very good variety of equipment. Given all these things, a well played Black Mage can pull off a great deal of things in a multitude of situations - some so well, a single Black Mage can easily do things a group of 3-4 other jobs could not, quicker and safer.
Black Mage Use and "Zerging"
Long story short - Black Mage is strong enough as it is when poorly played. Just follow the RMT on your server for a reminder how easy this job is to use and get the job done. However, Black Mage is extremely broken and overpowered when well played. This really brings up an interesting debate which I have found has become more prominent since this blog has started.
TK (the LS I'm in), is well known for low-manning everything (something I like to highlight on this blog), usually through to usage of NIN tanks and BLM backline Damage Dealing. A knock on us I get a lot is the fact that we "BLM zerg" everything - which in some part is true, but here's the defining factor and the biggest flaw in the argument:
The average LS on Odin server takes a good mix of everything - a good deal of melees, and probably 3-4 Black Mages for your common Skillchain Magic Burst strategy. TK only takes 3-4 Black Mages PERIOD. We just don't have the melee and end up with less players overall. So there are 2 ways to look at this - if you go by absolute number of Black Mages used in a fight, well we still have less BLM because we use less players overall (rarely do we take over 4 Black Mages to anything because we don't have that many players to get that many DDs and support). On the other hand, if you look at this from a % of DDs that are BLM, well ok we're near 100%.
So which is considered more of a "BLM zerg"? Having 5 Melee and 4 Black Mages, or just having 3 Black Mages (we will average about 3-4)? It's a really funny argument when you look at it from this point of view and it stresses something very key in the success of any low man LS - that while this is a video game, there is still a concept of "skill" and it does play a role. That is the entire point of these Black Mage posts! When 1 Black Mage can pop and hold Temperance for you while an average group of 6 Black Mages probably couldn't even hold it without zombie tactics, this is a great example of how Skill affects LS strength and efficiency.
When talking about Black Mages, it's easy to just hoard them - they work pretty damn well just hoarding them. But because Black Mage is just in general, overpowered, it's true strenghth as a job comes out when you low man things using them. I think TK is a great example of this.
With that thought, I hope you enjoyed this overly long post. Sorry for not updating as much.
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Pic of the Day
OK, so at a couple people's request I'm going to post these drama shots at Fafnir (waaaay back, very old).
I editted them so you cannot the names of any LS or person involved in the drama unless it's TK.
DO NOT post replies filling in the names/LSs or I will remove them (don't do it Chili!).
TK had nothing to do with this pull - never touched or attempted to touch it, but the drama was pretty good. Basically LS A claims it and one of their SMNs immediately uses Spinning Dive from the back and flails it. It happens so fast, everyone is unable to random in time (I think 2 LSs refused anyway, but wouldn't have happened regardless). LS B claims it when it turns yellow (not everyone is dead). Drama ensues. Chilicheese, in one of his most memorable flashes of brilliance, ends the screenshots with one of the best combacks of all time.
Chilicheese>> Don't wipe so early and we would have had time to random and that wouldn't have happened... sorry?
(Angry Guy)>> STFU asshat
Chilicheese>> For someone that applied to TK a few weeks ago you sure are whistling a different tune now (angry guy)!
This guy had basically sucked up to him a ton in an attempt to get in TK recently, so it was pretty funny to see him call Chilicheese an asshat. Even funnier, that person was ALREADY in this LS at the time and was trying to bail, which made the comments just even funnier.
If anyone cared to read what I arguing with Ashira about in party chat, that is actually how the JP LSs on Odin deal with gray area situations - if no random occurred, many of them will take it if it's yellow and you even look like you're about to wipe. This is why a lot of drama happens on these gray area pulls. This is why you should always random on Odin!
It's moments like these that make Dragon's Aery the best place on Odin. Note the guy at the end mt'ing in say "this is gonna be good". Everyone is just waiting for the ticking time bomb that is HNM drama to go off. Although, as someone I talked to recently said, "drama is a whole lot funnier when you're not involved".
Drama Thread of the Day
http://killingifrit.com/forums.php?m=posts&q=155491&d=150
BG is currently down and only Ashira got the secret forum invite ;_;
Luckily there was a new drama thread on KI from our very own Odin server.
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