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Magic Bursting: Everything you need to know

First off I would like to thank all of you for the response I got to my previous guide and that you voted it "Kick Ass!" still after 23 votes.
This encouraged me to start working on my second guide which covers the topic 'Magic Bursting' and I'm sure all of you have heard about it before.
So why waste time on writing something that has been brought up before and that you could probably find at atleast three different free sites?
Well, I think I can do a better job and make it easier to understand for new people and it seems logical to have the most important information stored at our favourite place, MultiPlayerStrategies.com!

This guide is divided into several sections which covers everything from what a magic burst is and how to time all of your spells.
I've tried to make it easier to find your way this time by using the system beneath.
Example: If you want to skip to the section about 'How do I time my magic burst?' then just simply bring up the search window (by pressing ctrl+f) and type "2a" and then hit enter. This will take you to the section you want to read.

Table of content

1a) What is a magic burst?
1b) Renkei and elements
2a) How do I time my magic burst?
2b) Teamwork
3a) Questions & Answers
4a) End Discussion

1a) What is a magic burst?
A magic burst is more or less an addon-damage to the renkei.
There are two types of magic bursting; mid-bursting and end-bursting.
A mid-burst is executed inbetween a lv2 renkei and an end-burst is executed either at a lv1 renkei or a lv2 renkei in the end.
So what is a lvl1 renkei and a lv2 renkei, you might ask.
It's pretty simple, a lvl1 renkei is when your party are executing two different weapon skills after eachother and a lv2 renkei is when your party are executing three different weapon skills after eachother.
Example:

Lv1 Renkei
Fast Blade -> Burning Blade

Lv2 Renkei
Fast Blade -> Burning Blade -> Thunder Thrust

Every renkei have a name and are connected to a certain element, which brings us mages into the picture.
For more information regarding renkei(skillchain) I suggest you either search these forums or google for it.

1b) Renkei and elements
As mentioned before there are two different types of magic bursting, mid-bursting and end-bursting.
To use these bursts it's essential that you know what type of renkei your party is going to do and what element that is connected to it.
Below is a list for each renkei and what element they are connected to, aswell as a link for probably the most used renkeichart around.

Lv1
Liquifaction -> Fire
Induration -> Ice
Detonation -> Wind
Scission -> Earth
Impaction - Thunder
Reverberation -> Water
Transfixion -> Light
Compression -> Dark

Lv2
Fusion -> Fire/Light
Distortion -> Water/Ice
Fragmentation -> Wind/Thunder
Gravitation -> Gravity/Earth

StarvingArtist's Renkeichart
http://www.ffxionline.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=26106
Yes, you have to become a member to download it!

The renkeichart above is probably the most used one right now and is very good.
As you can see the chart also mentions which enemies are weak to each element, which is very helpful.
Your task as a mage is to be able to magic burst at all times, even two times at lv2 renkei's. It's not neccessary to remember this whole chart in your head though, as some people out there tend to claim, just print out the chart above and have it by your side at all times.
You should however try to memorize which elements are connected to all of the renkei's.

2a) How do I time my magic burst?
Timing can be very difficult as it varies for each type of spell you cast and it requires alot of teamwork.
Basicly a mid-burst has to be executed within only one second after the renkei effect ends, while an end-burst has to be executed within five seconds after the renkei effect has ended.
Example:

Lv1 Renkei with end-burst
Fast Blade -> Burning Blade -> Fire

The above renkei causes Liquifaction which is connected to fire and therefor a fire spell with the right timing will cause a magic burst.
Here's a little more in-depth example to show you how it would look like in-game.

00 seconds - PlayerA readies Fast Blade
01 seconds -
02 seconds -
03 seconds - PlayerB readies Burning Blade
04 seconds - Renkei effect begins, You starts casting Fire
05 seconds -
06 seconds - Renkei effect ends, Magic Burst!

The reason for why the above example works is because your Fire spell takes approximatley three seconds to cast.
However, the casting time varies from spell to spell so sticking to the above scheme is not going to work out for you.
But before I explain more about timing each spell I'm going to show you how a mid-burst is done.

Lv2 Renkei with mid-burst and end-burst
Fast Blade -> Burning Blade -> Fire -> Thunder Thrust -> Fire

The above renkei first causes Liquifaction and is magic bursted with a fire spell, then it causes Fusion and is magic bursted with a fire spell again.
Note that Fusion could also be magic bursted with a light spell.

00 seconds - PlayerA readies Fast Blade
01 seconds -
02 seconds -
03 seconds - PlayerB readies Burning Blade
04 seconds - Renkei effect begins, You starts casting Fire
05 seconds -
06 seconds - Renkei effect ends, Magic burst!
07 seconds - PlayerC readies Thunder Thrust
08 seconds - Renkei effect begins
09 seconds -
10 seconds - Renkei effect ends, You starts casting Fire
11 seconds -
12 seconds -
13 seconds - Magic Burst!

You're still not quite sure of everything so far? Okay I'm going to explain it to you.
First PlayerA readies his weaponskill and PlayerB starts counting down to three seconds so that he can execute the first renkei with his weaponskill.
When you see him executing it in your chatlog you should quickly start casting fire to execute a magic burst when the renkei effect ends.
As I mentioned above though this will not work for every spell since it must be activated within one second after the renkei effect has ended and some spells have longer than three seconds cast time and must therefor be timed before PlayerB readies his weaponskill.
The only chance for you to do this is if PlayerB makes a macro for his weaponskill telling you that he's going to be using his weaponskill a couple of seconds before he does.
About when your first magic burst (mid-burst) is executed PlayerC readies Thunder Thrust to cause the second and the last renkei, which in this case is Fusion.
Now it's time for you to make your end-burst which is very easy since it leaves you with five seconds to do so after the renkei effect ends.

2b) Teamwork
To be able and pull off a Lv2 renkei with two bursts you and your party must set up a plan that you're going to use.
I find myself more than often to be explaining all of this to my party before we start our journey, which is very difficult since it's alot to be explaining and since someone always has to leave sooner or later and you have to find another member and if he/she doesn't know this information either you have to start all over again.
That's why I can't stress it enough that each player should know his or her place in a party and that it's essential to know this stuff.
You're probably going to meet a couple of people that doesn't give a damn about magic bursting or renkei's and that just wants to start pulling hard mobs. What you can do is either use your newfound information and teach them how it works and how important it is or you can just ignore them and find another party/kick them.
What these people don't realize is that when they reach their mid-levels they're going to be one of the few people at their level who doesn't know how to magic burst or renkei and are probably going to be denied invitation from a couple of parties because of it.
Read, understand and learn;

Know your place in the party
There aren't much worse situations than when a BLM says that he can tank or when a party is expecting an RDM to be both the main healer and a damage dealer.
You need to know that as a Warrior you'll be expected to tank and use your provoke wisely to keep the mages alive, as a Black Mage you'll be expected to deal the most damage but doing it wisely to not grab all the hate etc etc.
We also have the common discussion about what each player should know about magic bursting and renkei's.
In my opinion it's entirely the mages job to know how to magic burst, the warriors or any of the other members of your party for that matter shouldn't feel obligated to know this stuff.
However, when it comes to renkei's I'd say that it's the melee job classes task to remember and NOT the mages.
Many times I've encountered that the people who's going to renkei just tells me what weaponskills they'll be using and then they expect me to look that up at a renkeichart or even remember it in my head, well wake up you pieces of meat, because that's what you'll be if this isn't supposed to be in your jobdescription.
If it's the mages job to know how to magic burst, how to renkei, what elements all the renkei's are connected to and what weaponskills causes which renkei, then what good are you melee's more than to just stand there as a piece of meat and take the damage aswell as dealing some?
I definitely feel that it's your job to tell me what renkei you'll be doing and not just what weaponskills.

Gather up and plan your actions
If you're going to be successfull at magic bursting and renkeing then you need to gather up before you start hunting and decide what renkei you will be doing and what element the mage will be magic bursting with.
Also what spells the mage will be using and then make the people who are in charge of the renkeing set their macros after the mages needs.
As a mage you need to calculate how much time you will be needing to execute your spells and how much time you need before the second player readies his weaponskill.
Here are a few points to help you out;

- A mid-burst must be executed within 1 seconds after the first renkei effect ends
- A end-burst must be executed within 5 seconds after the last renkei effect ends
- A renkei effect lasts for 1-3 seconds
- Each player must wait 3-4 seconds before executing their weaponskills after eachother in a renkei

Now all you have to do is to calculate the casting time of your spells and you should be ready to go.
To help you a bit further with this I'm posting a link to allakahzam's site where they have a huge list with all spells and their casttime, however, the list appearantly isn't complete yet, but still worth checking out.
Allakahzam's BLM Spell List (http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/db/spelllist.html?job=blkmage)

3a) Questions & Answers

Can I renkei with magic?
No you can't. That would indeed be too good to be true, so right now you can only renkei using weaponskills.

Is it possible to magic burst with WHM spells?
Yes it is, check the renkeichart that I recommended it has all the spells you're able to use on it.

How does renkei work?
Search the forums or google for it, I mentioned a few things about it but I did not go in-depth since this guide is for magic bursting and magic bursting only.

Is it important for a BLM to know how renkei's work?
I wouldn't say it's vital to go beyond this guide regarding renkei's but it's definitely good to do so.

Why is your guide similiar to the one at GameFAQs? Have you stolen their material?
Actually I didn't find out about this until I sent the guide to a couple of my friends, which I always do to get the first opinions and so on, and it has not been my intention to make my guide similiar to anyone else's.
I have NOT copied any material whatsoever, it is all written by me in my own words and I take full credit for this guide and I will not take it down whatsoever, it's not even that similiar to their guide actually.

If I cast the wrong spell to magic burst with, will the renkei be aborted?
No, even if you mess up with your magic burst the renkei still gets activated and your spell will just do its regular damage.

So what's the point of magic bursting anyway?
Well it is said that a magic burst can go from doing two times more damage to ten mores damage than your spells would normally do.
However if this is true or not I am not certain of, but it does make your spell do more damage.

4a) End Discussion
If you have any other questions please feel free to post them here as a reply and I or somebody else will help you out as soon as we can.
I enjoyed writing this guide and I hope that you enjoyed reading it and most of all I hope that I have been able to help some of you out there. Right now I have a couple of stuff going on that I will notify you all with here later when I'm done, altough I'm taking a break from my writing and working until Friday now since I haven't been able to play for three days now because I've been too busy.
Keep your eyes and ears open for further news if you liked my work so far and please feel free to post any opinions aswell as making a vote.