Opinions On These Two Jobs?

After I finish leveling ninja, I want to take up a mage job for some variation.

I am stuck deciding on BLM or RDM.
I like the utility of a RDM and the readily available party invites making it easy to level, but I don't really enjoy healing.
For BLM I see the great use at endgame events for nuking things and seems fun to go boom with.

Just looking for opinions on what is more fun to play.

You can level RDM the loooong route using FoV. I hate healing too, but if it means a better job that is needed for everything then I'd suck it up and push it hard.

BLM will get invites, but not steadily around 45-50. It's all about soloing on that job, but you can exp/hr better than most parties so it won't take that long to go 1-75. Have patience as you may die a lot from resists or just bad luck.

BLM is my only 75 and it was fun for the most part, but I haven't experience too much EG to get back on my cloud.

I'd stick with RDM because of it's overall utility.

I am actually thinking of something like this. But After leveling DRK SAM PLD DRG WAR in that order. I'm not sure if I can get myself to level a {back line job}. I am probably going to level Blue Mage sometime soon. But as for you? If you don't enjoy healing, I'd say don't level RDM. lol

Taking into consideration the factor of fun. My personal opinion in one short answer would be BLM. It really depends on the style of play you prefer though.

Red Mage is always busy, whether it be a good or bad thing for you in that sense. Rotations, rotations, rotations. You will merit faster, yes. But you already have NIN, which is a merit job...or at least was back when I still merited. Red Mage end game is nothing but a rotation of Haste, Refesh and tossing in Dispel, which a BRD probably had already done. You also debuff. But after that, you wait til something wears, or wait until timers are up to restart your rotation.

Black mage is a lot more slow leveling, and I will not lie is a complete and total *** drag to solo 1-73, with the exceptions of some camps that are holy ***batman awesome, and often outparses parties. End game, BLM seems more fun to me. And seems to hold more power in which way the fight will go. You can stun that Fulmination that would otherwise have assowned your alliance, or miss it and feel ashamed. Not taking into the account of nuking. Which is always fun, timeless and never gets old.

Summed up, whatever fits your playing style. My opinion? I like BLM a lot better.

What do you wanna do? do you wanna be important in events or just another band wagen hoper? lol all bashing aside both are ok but BLM is more needed then RDM sence almost everyone in FFXI has 75 RDM.

I've got BLM and RDM 75 and I would say that BLM was a lot more fun than RDM. Frustrating at times, but a lot more fun.

As far as not liking healing though, I would suggest leveling RDM to 37 before touching BLM. You'll need to have RDM as a sub for BLM anyway, so you may as well start with that first to see how you like it.

If it turns out you don't like the RDM role, at least you have it ready to sub for BLM =D

I only really level'd Rdm past 37 out of the two, but I'd imagine Blm is more fun, just sucks on hitting 75. Rdm is cool, but is very boring when all you do is Haste/Refresh everyone. =/

I'll just say it's not completely irregular for some linkshells to require BLM from a choice of jobs, or require just BLM as an option, which I haven't seen with any other job. It's generally a pool of like, PLD RDM BLM BRD, but BLM being the only job that's singled out as a requirement. Plus it looks really freaking fun, while the only cool part about RDM is the gear, and it basically looks like a work-horse job, much like Bardo. </3

Honestly I would not recommend leveling Blm to anyone who doesn't like soloing things. You'll solo Bst Pets, Qiqirn & Chigoe's for most of your life these days. When your not odds are you are a support healer more than half the time.

Rdm provides a fair amount of versatility, your XP party invites WILL be for healing, but that doesn't mean that's what your limited to. Up to level 40 MANY MANY jobs can solo at 4k/hr, if you have some friends that want SJ's leveled just grab them, level sync and go at it. (my favorite XP spot is actually near 5k/hr solo + Xp band at level 17~21).

Solo Exp really doesn't cut it in today's FFXI around level 55 or so when you start getting more than 4k/hr average parties (yes you can get 20k+ summoner burns, or 18k/band MMM or PL'd Qufim for good xp too but really face it you get 4k/hr average pre-colibri which gets you a level every 1~2hrs).

I'm not to up to speed on good FoV camps so I'm not to sure where's good with that, but I have soloed all jobs to 20, most to 37 and a few beyond that. After 2 or 3 trips through the dunes & quite a few broken parties in qufim it's just faster to solo most of that and around 30+ start LFP when you can get into Goblins & Kazham (non PL'd), Garlaig or depending on setup/experience Crawlers Nest.

Imho level
20 means you know if you like a job, about here you can decide if it's for you. Probably 10hrs or so of working out how weapons work and what abilities you have, how durable you are and what equipment you might need.

37 if you can take it to AF. By now you've probably been in a few parties and know what they expect from you and if you think you can handle it. If you don't like them you should understand how well you can solo and if it's worth it to go further.

60 if you could stand going to 75. At level 60 you should have a good idea how things work and what you might be looking forward to. You can walk around in full AF (although that's not as cool as it was 4 years ago) and should be able to make recommendations and ask pointed questions for things you haven't figured out yet.

**These levels apply to people who aren't rush leveling jobs as fast as they can with every level sync party they get still using their level 15 gear. If you are looking at what to do next you might find that you fit into a group a bit erlier but are guideline levels. They also correspond to "key" points in most jobs (SJ level 37, full AF 60). Other "key" levels might include 45 (Th2), 50 (G1), 55 (XP/level tipping point), 65 (Maat's cap) where your opinions might change.

** ok so it was a bit off topic but back on now.

My suggestion is Rdm not the least because it should be 37 for leveling Blm later and if you don't enjoy it at least you managed something (as blm really isn't a needed SJ for rdm)

Areis, your advise and guide is so pre-WoTG, you really need to revise it. Lvling BLM is no longer a nightmare due to the exp parties available in the past since you can get 11-12k exp an hour with a good setup. I got BLM50-75 in two weeks thanks to WoTG (which was not an easy feat thanks to ToAU) and that wasn't based on campaigns. That was actually manaburns. Sure, there is a bunch of soloing before going to WoTG camps but that's fine. More KS/BS for you.

And you're advising him to lvl a job where he has no interest in healing. Well guess what, Bshizzle, you're going to be doing a lot of healing EG wise on RDM. A lot of healing in meripos. You're gonna be a refreshing/hasting/curing tool as RDM75.

:)

Keep in mind that in a good BLM burn [think zitah, goblin's pets] you'll make 12-15k an hour with little effort.

That's not true by any means. You will be hitting chain 4 at the most on some of the pets there. And Pso'Xja is a much better exp spot 51-56 and the most I got was 7-8k an hour and that's because of all the hMP'ing you'll be doing. >.>;;

I just took BLM through all of those camps like a month ago. >.>

Wait, you're forgetting the main point here. He's an elvaan, just do RDM!

That's mean. ; ; I'm elvaan too. /cry

You know you really want to lvl up Scholar instead ;D

Don't really wanna say about SCH cause not really the topic but I can see SCH being the most fun to play out of the 3 if you don't have a mage job already. As for the usefulness I can't really say.. I've not seen much SCH at the little amount of endgame stuff I do.

I had WHM so I picked BLM. RDM felt like I'd just be stuck curing people up to 75 again. Though I do see RDM being more useful than BLM overall.

i did both and i love both. however, both have pluses and minuses.

RDM rdm is fun! you can do almost anything, solo crazzyy stuff, have the option to melee(sometimes) nuke, heal and great for invites!
drawbacks, people hate on rdms who try to do things thier own way like meleeing. also when it comes to ls's almost evverryyonnneee has this job and will not only want the gear but youll have less of a chance getting in a ls due to everyone having it

BLM is fun, you are in high demand n end game. some ls' wont even take you if you do not have the job at 75. the drawbacks are you usually will get job locked to blm if you have it, and lving past 50 is a royal pain in the ***.

hard call seeing as ive done both id be torn on saying which would be better w/o really knowing you.

im curious as to where all these wotg exp places are, please tell, id love to be able to help some of my friends lving blm.

Wait, these camps aren't server known or something? o.O

@Kyri, the most common spot seems to be (J-6), Vunkerl Inlet, at LV63~+. Can get a LV60 manaburn party going, I actually solo'd 60-70 on SCH at that camp.

Now why couldn't such camps exist over a year ago... took me a year to finaly hit 75 off the back off besieged 60-70 because I hated solo >< lol

As far as which job to do, i'm trying RDM atm and it's a nightmare... heal/haste/debuff/refresh and god forbid you get a pt where you need to dispel often too >< I can't stand it but I do look forward to the versatility of being 75.

BLM can be extremely fun as 75 or extremely tedius, depends how much you get stuck playing it. Thankfully my SAM is well geared and i'm good with PLD so I usualy only have to go BLM when we have a shortage.

BLM is considerably easier to play than RDM imo and if you got good gear on it you can solo well with grav/bind/sleep/nuke, just takes longer to level even with FoV solo/Wotg exp party.

I know people are going to argue with this, but here's my /ontopic:

In my honest opinion, you should level SCH and get the benefits of both jobs, while having more fun than both combined.

Take it from someone with 75RDM, 75SMN, 75SCH, 66BLM, and 56WHM. SCH is by far the most fun mage job.

From what I see, BLM changes a ***load from where you have it to 75 lol , AM2, Aga III, etc, that seems like a ***ton more fun to me. If you like DD, BLM is wtg. If you like soloing, healing, etc. RDM.

Edit**



Excellent advice.

One of the best places to lvl BLM from 63+ is mana burn in Xarc_S. With a good puller, you can average 20k+ an hour not only capping your xp if you're 75 but getting a butt-ton of merits in a short amount of time ( I got 30 in 2 days which for blm is epic lol).

I chose BLM over RDM simply because I didnt want to main heal and I wanted to have a useful job for endgame that I enjoyed. Like everyone else has said, pick the one you enjoy the most. Level them both to 37 and go from there. Then which ever you chose you have your sj already done ^.^

Another consideration is how much you enjoy soloing. I'm not talking about BLM soloing to 75, I'm talking about the sense of accomplishment soloing things that most jobs cannot. While I admit RDM is painful and frustrating to get to 75, it also has TONS of benefits at 75. Depending how you gear RDM it can be a support role job (enfeebles / haste / refresh ***) solid healer, soloist or tank. The soloist / tank role really shows the utmost understanding of the job as a whole. I personally grind my teeth when asked to play the typical RDM but I never regret leveling it because it's utility. Besides, it always fun when someone says "your gonna get owned" and you walk away unscathed. ^^ I remember doing the MNK AF fight in Castle Oztroja as RDM/BLU... Cocoon, Phalanx, Tavnazian Tacos, AF2 Legs with Ice Spikes, paired with Genbu's Shield, Jelly Ring ect... you could afk and let that mob kill himself. I'm sure several other jobs could do this fight just as easily but it still made me lol. My vote goes to RDM!

P.S. I'm Elvaan as well

Aaroca has no love for the elvaans :(

Well I am leaning towards BLM.
and what's all this about SCH ??