This is a small guide that I hope well help any other BLM players out there. This is the first guide I have ever written so if it seems a bit chopy at times please bear with me. Now on to the guide.

CONTROLING YOUR AGRO:
A very important thing to learn as a BLM is controling your agro! Rember you have tiny hit points and that robe is just got looks. If a monster gets ahold of you good its over for you. You need to keep a close eye on when a warriors provoke is going to be ready. Most warrior will have a timer posting to group chat so you will have a general idea of when he will be able to save your butt again and keep in mind that the WHM is going to be using alot of the warriors provokes up so try to make him use it on you as little as possible. NEVER Chaincast on a mob in a group unless things look really bad! This simply produces agro that could have been avoided and causes down time for your party afterwards! The bottom line is most of a monsters hate list is controled by damage delt to the monster, if you nuke to hard to often you will find you self hanging from the teeth of something not so plesant!

CHOOSING THE SUB JOB THATS RIGHT FOR YOU:
The most common mistake when picking a subjob for a BLM is to think that White mage is the only choice worth making. You DO NOT want to sub any sort of melee so i will list the 3 main subs and why you would take them.

White Mage:
Making a white mage your sub job will allow you access to a nice new line of spells. It will allow you to heal and cast a nice range of protect spells and late game even allow you to rise. This sub job will give you the second best boost to your MP, a pretty low INT boost, a decent MND boost, and a almost unnoticable hp boost. You will gain Auto Regen later on, a second clean mind, and 2 boosts to your magical defense.

Red Mage:
This is one of the most underrated sub jobs for BLM! By taking Redmage you will not get nearly the white magic power as you would with WHM and the spell line does get pretty Repeative but you will get a couple Red mage only spells such as Gravity. You will get the second best INT boost, a decent mp boost, a low hp boost but much better than WHM and a small mnd boost. The job traits are where the red mage sub truly shines, you will get the Fast cast ability, an extra magical attack plus,oen magical defense plus serval resist pluses and a second clear mind. The fast cast abilty is invaluble! This class truly makes your BLM what it was ment to be, an attacker

Summoner:
You will generally hear never to sub this class but for some people it is the perfect sub. The only spell typed things you will gain is the ability to summon but since your summons will be very weak with this subed i recommend against using them much. The pluses and job traits are what make Summoner a good sub job, you will gain a massive mp boost and a massive int boost (the best of both offered). For Job traits you get you will get ANOTHER mp boost,a second clear mind, a resist to slow, and the mother of all job traits MP refresh with more or less mean you will ALWAYS have the spell refresh cast on you and will regain mp very quickly (although you do get this late in the sub levels, at 25)

In short read carefully and pick the sub that you think best suits you not what someone else thinks best suits you.

THE BLACK MAGE AND HIS 2 HOUR:

Ahhh ManaFont, this abilty is WONDERFUL! Sadly it is often misused! The most common mistake of using ManaFont is simply using it at the wrong times. You need to rember when you use this and open up casting chances are your dead, Any monsters that are on the party are going to come for you fast and hard! This means ONLY use it in the most DIRE of times never waste it for a fast fight (ive seen this serval times). What you will want to cast when you use ManaFont really kinda depends on your sub job job and the situation. First off if you choose RedMage your ManaFont becomes very deadly as not only do you have mana free spells for 30 seconds but your casting them at an improved rate! This could spell instant doom for alot of enemys if you turn on the nukes. If you subbed white mage you may want to open up with your strongest cures on everyone in the party before you die, more than likley saving everyone but you and you know its just feels good to be the hero. If you happened to sub Summoner or before you sub your best bet is simply going to be to use your most powerful spells.

SOLOING WITH YOUR BLM:

Soloing with a BLM is honestly not recommended in the higher levels but while you are below 10 or so or just cant find a group here are some tips for you to follow.

1. Do not rely on the Bind spell to much it is pretty unreliable and can get you killed.
2. Dont forget to enfeeble your mobs, you would be suprised how much differnce a bio and a blind can make.
3. Disreguard all rules about chain casting, you want to kill them as fast as possible because you wont stand up to hits long.
4. Try to know the timing of your spells and start casting them as soon as a monster has hit you to lessen your chances of having your spell interuppted.
5. Know when to run, If you are pretty sure you are going to lose near the start of a fight dont chance it start running for the nearest zone and rember to let others know if your bringing an agressive monster.
6.Try to avoid using your melee attacks if your using a wand. It may seem like that tiny bit of extra damage is worth it but rember it takes time to disengage if you need to run.
7.Know your foe, Try to use a Element that a monster is weak against and know which spells wont work on the monsters your are fighting (drain against undead for example)
8.Buy and use the spell Drain ASAP this spell can save your life often but be careful when using it, as it does has a long recast time.
9.Keep your skills as close to max as possible the more times a spell does not work on a monster the less likely you are to survive the battle.

GROUPING WITH YOUR BLM:

Their are serval important things that need to be known to use a BLM effectivly in a group. The number one thing is agro control which we went over ealier. The number two thing is that you have a large supply of spells that arent just nukes, learn to use them and use them well. For example if a monster is resisting alot of spells try to get the spell shock to stick on it since it lowers MND it also lowers magical defense. If you have the ablity to heal try to save mana in fights in case the WHM runs out of mana or begins to take a beating.Finally Try to avoid using the -ga line of spells this can pull adds down on the party and will drain your mana very quickly.

This guide was written by StarScream on the Ifrit Server Owner of the ManaKnights Linkshell.