Black Mage Solo Guide By Alporhan

=Introduction= Welcome to my Black Mage solo guide for levels 60 to 65. This is a very good solution for your long LFG times. The time that this guide applies to is rather short, but I think it is worthwhile to try while you're in this level range, if not for EXP than to just get a good taste of how well Black Mage can solo, and that you don't have to be a slave to those long multi-hour LFG times any longer!

Purpose of this Guide
This guide was written for one main purpose, to give BLMs a decent solo spot for the levels of 60-65. This is similar to many of the 'Pet Guides' you may have read, but I see this as a bit less risky, and the EXP is better. The downside, however, is that there is really only 1 camp, and if it's taken you're basically done for. But, even if the camp is taken, 2 BLMs can still duo here rather effectively, especially in the early 60s.

Basic Blackmage Solo run-down
Well, before 75s, the main thing that allows us to solo, is our Ancient Magics, Flare for the most part, with Burst sometimes working. We will use these spells to do a massive amount of damage (if not 1-shot) an enemy. This can rack-up a ton of EXP, but also, as in all solo situations, there's a higher-than-normal chance of death.

Items and Other needs
As a basic rule of thumb, whenever you solo on Black Mage the items you will bring will be the same as when you go to party, with the addition of a Reraise Item. Food, namely Ginger Cookies or Wizard Cookies, and Melon Pies or Rolanberry Pies. You're going to want your eight Elemental Staves as always, and HQs never hurt, and the you should bring the rest of your EXP gear. Also, if you have it, or are thinking about getting it, Vermillion Cloak does wonders here, and you can always sell it back at 68 when you get a Black Cloak.

Precautions and Risks
As always, there is a huge chance of risk here, and until you get the hang of it, you're going to die a lot. For this reason I recommend that when you first attempt the solo spot, that you bring a friend, Red Mage and Black Mage both work, for come insurance.

=The Guide= Finally! Now that we're done with all that evil-risk explaining, we can finally get onto the contents of this guide, and you can start getting your massive EXP!

What the whole point is?
The whole point of this guide is to teach Black Mages how to get massive amounts of Experience by killing Chigoe type mobs in Aydeewa Subterrane near the zone to Halvung, which brings up another pro of this guide, there is a zone near where you will kill incase something does go wrong.

Getting to camp
This is probably one of the hardest parts. There isn't that much aggro on the way if you're careful, and it's not that far away. However, if you are careless, it's easy to get lost in the maze that is known as Aydeewa. Follow these instructions and you'll get there with minimal-headaches.


 * Go to the Chocobo NPC in Al Zahbi and take take your chocobo out to Wajaom Woodlands.
 * Once in woodlands, take your chocobo to the D-10 / E-10 entrance to Aydeewa Subterrane.
 * When you zone it, you're already half way done. Put Sneak and Invisible up, and follow the path.
 * You'll pass 2 slimes who aggro to sneak, just keep going until the path splits.
 * You should now be at H-9, you will see a ledge, don't drop, but instead, continue west to a room at G-9.
 * Cross this room, and you will find a ramp. Go up this ramp, and continue north.
 * After you find yourself at a dead end, go a bit west into a tunnel with a Quqirn in it, it doesn't aggro.

The Fights
You made it to camp? Wonderful! Now for the EXP. We're going to kill those little fleas that you passed just outside of your camp tunnel. Be aware that behind you there's a zone that you can take.

Solo
Okay, you're standing there, thinking 'what in Altana's name have I gotten myself into?' Don't fret because in just a few moments you'll be racking up huge amounts of EXP. Stand up, brush yourslef off, and cast Blind, Stoneskin and Aqulveil. (Sorry, but RDM sub isn't gonna cut it here). Note: AF feet rock here.


 * After you've buffed, walk up to a flea to aggro it. It'll run towards you pretty quickly. Sleep 2 it.
 * Make sure you still have all your buffs up, then cast Flare on it, use Burst if it's Watersday.
 * Now, depending on what happened, you have 2 choices.
 * If your nuke was resisted, sleep it, and nuke it again.
 * If the mob is now at 5% or so, you can normally just drain it to finish it off.
 * Go back, rest, rinse and repeat.

Duo
Ah, so you wussed out of doing it yourself eh? Well no worries, I did too.. With 2 people, Either 2 Black Mages or a Black Mage and a Bard or Red Mage, you have a lot of insurance, for very little EXP loss until you start getting closer to 65.


 * Have one of you pull, doesn't matter who, and sleep it.
 * Have (one of) the Black Mage(s) cast flare, now here's where it gets different,
 * If you have a RDM, have them cast thunder 2 when your nuke gets to around 40%, this should kill it.
 * If you have a BRD, just have them sleep, and you finish it off with a Drain.
 * Side Note: BRD is nice to have for sleeps, it's light based, so it will land a hell of a lot more often.
 * Step back, put you buffs back up, rinse and repeat.

Strategy
You have the killing down? Great! Now comes time for strategy. For general informational purposes, it's nice to know that the time you have to keep a chain is significantly shorter after chain 3 than before. We can abuse this fact to help us get Chain #5-6 here.


 * Pull one.
 * And kill it, duhh.
 * Full rest.
 * Pull another.
 * You're gonna wanna kill this one, too.
 * Chain #1.
 * Full rest.
 * Pull another.
 * Starting to see a pattern here?
 * Chain #2.
 * Full rest.
 * Pull a third.
 * Yeah, yeah..
 * Sleep it right before finishing it off.
 * Full Rest
 * Finish it off..
 * Now you have almost full MP, now go and kill 3 more, resting only ~100 MP between each one.
 * Voila! chain #6.

Also, if the fleas hit you, there's a chance that you'll get Diseaseed. Even with /WHM you don't have Viruna. So I suggest you just wait for it to wear if you're not currently fighting, but if you are fighting, then I suggest sleeping it and zoning, just incase :)

=Summary and Conclusion= This, in my opinion, is a very good camp for these levels. It'll give you some pretty good EXP for not having to wait for a party (Upwards of 6,000 EXP per hour with Sanction). It also gives you a basis to which you can base your later level BLM solo upon.