- What exactly is free nuke? Last time I played was when SCs and MBs were actually used and that's what you focused on. I got chewed out a bit today because I was casting Tier 6 spells and told I should be casting Tier 2's to save mana and that I'd do more damage this way in a dps/mana ratio. Is this true? How would this translate to soloing JPs on apex mobs?
Free nuke = nukes that aren't being magic bursted
Whether or not you can afford to use T2, 3, 6, etc. depends largely on your buffs, how much damage you're doing, what you're going to do right after this, etc. so it's REALLY hard to say whether or not you "can afford to" use a T6. Maybe you were blowing a lot of MP, maybe you were about to walk around for 5 minutes with Refresh and ballads up, IDK.
For soloing apex mobs, you will probably need to be careful with your MP because trusts don't give that much refresh and you won't be able to recover your MP that fast. AF body will be a life saver here and can actually allow you to nuke completely for free (if you're doing a nice MB).
When you're in a group with buffs and other people making SCs, I would advise AGAINST using AF body, since you can do more damage without it and recover MP other ways (buffs, Myrkr, etc.)
Basically, how the hell is BLM played in any and all end game content these days?
In most endgame content, it's not played at all. For most other content, it's played almost the exact same way.
Sortie: Magic burst skillchains on the bosses. Often, the group will have the BLM do some objectives solo (like the accuexes) but that's situational. For Aminon (later on) it's typically Death/Comet being magic bursted.
Odyssey: Magic burst skillchains.
Omen: Magic burst skillchains. Maybe do a free nuke for 15k (if that objective is up)
Vagary: Some specific magic burst ratios, have to 1-shot a mob, do some other specific objectives (if popping perf/plout).
Most other content: BLM not welcome.
There are other things you can/should be doing, like putting Impact (if you have the cloak) up on the mob, landing Burn (if possible) to increase your damage, or applying debuffs like Sleepga/Breakga, or stunning to keep the enemy(s) from murdering everyone. These things are pretty situational so it's hard to say exactly WHEN you should be doing them. Use your judgment and/or ask your team what they would like.
- Is there a set that I should be focusing as priority? I'm seeing in multiple guides that the Wicce set is the BiS free nuke set, but there's so many other pieces of gear for other sets its making it difficult to make sense.
I would build a single set, like "MB set" and then work on another set "Fast Cast set" rather than focusing on a single set "wicce set" or "archmage's set." This will help you to get up-to-speed faster, plus FFXI gearing rarely works that 1 set is used for everything, so it's better to focus on tasks than similarly-named gear.
You don't need to get every best-in-slot piece right away, but at least make the set and put in the best thing you can think of, and then aim for the best-in-slot piece as well. This way you can establish your macros/equipsets the way you want them and just hot-swap the pieces as you get them, without changing how you play.
- I have no experience using LUAs for gear swap. The most I did back in the day was /equip lines in cast macros lol. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
You don't really need GS to play BLM, to be honest. It provides some small advantages, but it's a bit overkill for the pace of most BLM play. If you want help setting up your lua I can't really help, but if you want macro advice for playing with /equipsets, I'd be happy to share what I have/how I play.
There's probably more but that's off the top of my head. I'm trying to be the best BLM I can be but I'm very much outdated on how to play the job and I WANT to be able to get picked up for activities instead of being a songbot.
As I alluded to earlier, BLM isn't really used in...well the vast majority of endgame content. This is why you're being told to level BRD, TBH. There is a LOT of content where BLM is either totally useless or impossible to bring, and even when it can be hamfisted in, it's going to underperform other jobs.
FWIW, BRD is absolutely not a song bot in 2025. At this point BRD is basically a DD that happens to also cast some songs here and there. Typically this means buffs every 10~11 minutes and a debuff occasionally, and that's about it. The rest of the time, the BRD is typically doing damage. It's still a massive investment, and possible that you would not enjoy it, just wanted to clarify that it's not at all a job focused on casting buffs anymore, that makes up like...5% of what BRD does.
