Manaburn Guide by Alporhan

Introduction
Welcome to Alporhan's Final Fantasy XI Manaburn guide! I have noticed that many of you have been looking for a solid manaburn guide. Having BLM75, and I thought I would write a guide covering the later end of the manaburn (and in my opinion, the most enjoyable) experience.

What is manaburn?
To those of you who have never manaburned before, it's a bit different than your regular party experience. When used effectively, it can lead to insane amounts of EXP per hour, and a generally fun playing experience, especially for a party. However, if used incorrectly, it can lead to mass muli-player death and massive experience loss. For those of you who don't have any clue what a manaburn is, it's basically having a group of BLMs and a refresher (usually BRD) using their magic all at once to eliminate an (or multiple) enemy(-ies) quickly.

How it works
Basically, the standard manaburn party is BLM BLM BLM BLM BLM BRD. How you start, is you have your BRD pull a monster (if they're new, make sure they have blink and stoneskin up) with Elegy, and bring it back to camp. Once it's back at camp, have your bard use Foe Lullaby to sleep the mob. Now, have one BLM pick a time on the clock, and say that time in party chat. When that times rolls around, have all 5 BLMs nuke their strongest nuke (Flare, Firaga 3, and Tier 4s are normally the weapons of choice in manaburns). In most cases, the mob will be dead, but sometimes if there were too many resists, or it's just a harder mob, you may need a drain or a Tier 3 to finish it off.

What do I need to manaburn
Most importantly, you need the setup that I mentioned above. It doesn't have to be exact, but something in the neighborhood of BLM BLM BLM BLM BLM BRD. RDM works in place for BRD, and sometimes SMNs can take the place of BLMs, but normally not. Other things you may need include a reraise item, food, and your spells. Basically take it like a regular EXP party as far as preparation goes.

Before you head out
Make sure everyone has Sanction/Signet and is subbing the same thing, though it is not necessary, when all of your BLMs are subbing the same thing, the nukes tend to land closer to each other than when some are /RDM and some are /WHM. Make sure everyone has appropriate gear, including the 8 elemental staffs.

What are pros and cons of manaburn
Well, as with most things in life and in FFXI, the things with the higher risk turn out to be more rewarding. Throwing 5 BLMs with no tank at some very scary mobs doesn't sound like the best idea in theory, and it can be very ugly, but as long as you follow the above instructions you shouldn't have very many problems, and can wind out pulling in the neighborhood of 16,000+ Exp an hour with sanction bonus, and even more with an empress band.

Campsites
While there are many campsites one can choose for their manaburn, I am going to stay with what I did, which is basically all in the Treasures of Aht Urhgan Expansion Pack, because many of the other camps, especially later (which still are very good EXP) require sea. I've also found that Sanction helps a lot. Even though the Refresh is pitiful, the Experience Points bonus in Besieged Areas is incredible.

Level 60-65
Mount Zhayolm -- Here we will kill the Magmatic Eucras (the Crawlers) around H-8 and I-8 these are not very hard, and sleep well, which is always nice. Make sure you keep barfira up, because in the odd event that they get a TP move off, the flame breath can wipe your entire party pretty easily. Also, just as a side note, to any RDMs who have picked up BLM, you're capped dark magic (caps at 200 on RDM) will come uncapped in this section, so make sure you drain after your nuke!

Level 65-68
Mount Zhayolm -- Kill the womaura prince, or the womauracampas. You can either camp at J-7 and compete with all the solo/duo BLMs, or make the trip over to G-7 or C-9 where there is usually less competition. Just remember, the regular womauras (the moths) are True Sight and have a huge magic Aggro range.

Level 68-71
Bhaflau Thickets -- Kill the Marids, around G-8, they spawn chigoes when they do a WS, so have your BRD or RDM be on sleep duty, these are really good EXP if you can keep a high chain (w/ the chigoes for chain 9-10, then kill marid for a lot of bonus EXP)

Level 69-74
Once Firaga 3 comes into play, puddings become fun to play with. They take massive damage from nukes, but can be hard to sleep for a BRD, and even harder for a BLM or RDM. You can find these at H-7, but be prepared for a lot of competition. But from my experience, most of the solo/duo BLMs who come here are basically half-AFK so your manaburn should be able to kill faster than them and move them out.

Level 71-75 (Alternate)
Caedarva Mire -- This camp, I don't think may know about, it's near the Az. Staging point, but there's a ledge that prevents you from accessing it from that staging point. So you have to take Dvucca isle and walk through Reef. Anyways, at K-5 you will find rams, these rams are really good EXP, you have to Bliz/Thundaga, (you need 5 unresisted nukes to get them >5% where a T3 or multiple drains can finish them off).. EXP starts to slip here if you have 75s in your party, but it's good before that. This camp is great for when puddings are taken.

Summary and Conclusion
I hope that you've enjoyed my guide, and hopefully found it helpful. Manaburn is a great way for EXP without having to wait hours on regular EXP parties, ans because of the wait, there're normally at least a few other BLMs looking. Try and set up a static or do something interesting. Have fun. :D