General

Thanks for your input everyone!

In my semi biased opinion, I feel as if Lumis have a lot of utility which helps them hold their own at bosses. Shadow Shell can save you from pot locks, seduce and other annoying gimmicks like Magnus' and Eckhart's webs or Empress' tornado. Armageddon is a freebie for you and everyone else in your party (to non-Root Abyss bosses). Our teleport also covers more ground than any other mage (I'm aware Kanna's teleport covers more distance, but the delay between casts kills it). Probably just me, but I prefer utility over damage.

I also agree with FrostEien above. With damage cap still being 999999, a max damage BaM will definitely have better overall damage output than a Lumi (given ideal situations), but the road to cap damage on a BaM is a lot tougher compared to Lumi. If you can fund a BaM to hit max, go that route. Otherwise, since Lumis can hit cap much easier, I feel as if they're horribly hindered from their "true" damage output because of the damage cap. *waits for Unlimited*

I understand that DPS/DPM is important, and since Lumis can't stay in equilibrium forever they're inferior to BaMs in that aspect but..

What about survivability? My Lumi was surviving RA bosses at level 100, if you use a Luminous while bossing it's almost like a magician paladin, not to mention bind, elemental resistance and pdr. It makes it so much easier to survive and dish out damage because you don't have to worry about being k/o'd.
This is coming from a guy who's never gotten past lvl 141, but still, I think you guys should look deeper into this and stop saying BaMs are superior just because they hit faster. After unlimited it won't really matter as much who hits the fastest because the damage cap will be raised

probably lumi with that hyper skill thingy that makes bosse stand still for a while.. also the resistance buff

Just gonna state that you probably will not be able to solo hard hilla as a bam whereas lumis do it pretty easily

Okay, so I'm probably going BaM. My other questions for you BaMs out there is that I know battlemages need a fast staff (preferably one of the elemental staffs). How bad is it for me to use an Empress staff instead?

BaMs <3 from my experience. I may be a bit biased though, as my BaM is my favorite bossing character for many of the reasons the others posted about above

I would make the class that is more suitable to your play style and or you would enjoy more

Not being biased , But it's battle mages hands down. Bams are the only mage that are able to pull off a full empress solo. My guildie was able to get 33 heals before dying and had quite a bit of time left over. Also, the gms version of luminous has a long cd on ender and such which ruins their dpm.

as a lumi bossing (i got one myself), you either spam ender during the equilibrium, which is around 30 sec (?) with hyper skills, or apocalypse (very slow)
now as a BaM, you spamm finishing blow + hyper skill with no cooldown, in the end, BaM will dish more dmg
BaM got more hp, i got around 29k with 2k hp pots (i am really unfunded currently around 30% int, remaking the BaM with higher int gear for more hp), capping on mdef and wdef with blue aura
as a BaM you got lower range than a luminous, since the luminous got many skills buffing its dmg (+40matt, increase in dmg with dark crescendo)

tell you what, i never died during empress except hitting her on dmg reflect on accident, with drain + twister = instant heal with 12sec cooldown, lots of invisibility with body boost and partyshild (with lol 7min cooldown)

the only downpoint on a BaM is, you need massive funding for it being good (let say 5b+, which i am currently gathering for new BaM)

Both classes are good bossers.

Luminous are somewhat versatile in what they can contribute even if they to attack slower.
Do not underestimate the power of Armageddon and its bind effect at bosses.
They also have higher status resistance than a Battle Mage.

Battle Mages are more of a support class but they capable of dishing out high amounts of damage once they get Sweeping Staff.
They are very balanced and hit very fast.
Both classes are evened out in mobbing

@pinkwad - oh good, you remembered me! I wasn't sure if you remembered my name, so I didn't want to use yours. That'd be kinda creepy .

Oh no, I mean are you bossing solo or with people? I read threads all the time where people complain about bosses, but they are trying to solo them. I'm by no means godly in Maple, but there is only a short list of bosses I haven't beaten. Bossing parties for the win! (Yes I actively participate in fighting them)

In terms of bossing, from what I read and seen, it seems like both have advantages and disadvantages. Knowing what the rest of your bossing group looks like would greatly determine which is 'the best'.

As far as what both have to offer on a bossing run:
Lumi:
20 second bind that stacks with Paladin, and Kanna's Bind (and Xenon's)
A decent mage party buff
Alright survivability (not amazing, but it's better than most)
**Reasonably good damage output

Bams:
A 40 second iFrame for all party members through the use of party shield
3 separate buffs that help out every class (the auras) (%damage, +attack speed, +status resistance)
A second iFrame in the form of body boost + blue aura
Debatably good survivability (I'm iffy on how good they actually are on higher end bosses)
**Reasonably good damage output

It's been a while since I've played my BaM and I just failed hard trying to read the DPM charts (must be tired), but I'm thinking that BaM might serve better in bosses.

From what I've read their hyper skills really helped out with their DPM, but I have a feeling that you'd have a much better range with your equips on a Lumi. However, that's not to say that using a Lumi will result in a better bossing character.

I don't know. You can fund damage, you can't fund survivability. I'd say base it more on what you'd view as more helpful on bossing runs. If offering support to party members at bossing as well as supplying iFrames for yourself and others strikes your fancy than go BaM. If being able to Bind a boss and completely beat the snot out of them for 20 seconds gets you going then go Lumi.

This shouldn't definitively answer your question, but it might help you come to an answer.

Edit: had to do away with a few mistakes. Definitely tired haha.

[quote=lKingAura]@redherring Elemental reset means nothing to a BaM

Edit: Luminous are not as good as BaM, BaMs are good bossers because they are good overall: Cap def, Cap magic def, Their atks dont need to deal with the boss and its element problems, they a skill called pt shield wich gives invincibility for you and your party, they have dmg absorption with blue aura, avoid rate with yellow aura, they have a big hit box with their spammable hyper skills and last but not least they can get an average of 30k hp/mp at lv 200. That opinion might sound biased but if anything Luminous are only OP for few seconds in equilibrium mode (very op) then they just lack more atks for bossing.[/quote]

You said everything

@lKingAura: Can I ask what your range (+ funding) is and how much you do per line?
@Frostilyte: Thanks Steve Mainly bossing, I'm tired of playing mages that aren't on par with other jobs in terms of that.
@bubtheman: Oh wow, thanks for those videos I mean I understand the potential of BaMs but my main concern is that I wouldn't be able to fund it to get as much damage/dps as I would be able to on Lumi.

<3 the mage community

Late grats on your Maple wedding, Rosaie. I think I saw the announcement for that this past weekend...Plus Allenger was saying something about it too.

Anyway, before contributing, are you talking in terms of soloing bosses, or in a party?

[quote=netanel]its look like you have already chosen the class before you even asked.if you feel like Lumis so go with them[/quote]

Well I did choose lumi until I heard that BaMs are better at bossing which is the sole reason why I wanted to make a lumi. Was just trying to get some info before I decided on my next job

@lKingAura: But doesn't higher damage outdo survivability? Sure, you can live through Empress's hits but you might not be able to kill her in time. But yea I get your point c: Thanks for helping me!
Ah, decisions, decisions

Well, consider that that was an old vid, We've had a revamps from that point, (a skill that greatly helps our 1v1, dark aura doing 3 lines of DoT, one hyper that gives us perm 50k additional cap as well as our 200 hyper giving us another 50k, a hyper that does 2x the damage and an extra line to boot compared to that attack shown in the vid.)

[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhW1A7kwMhg]here[/url] is a vid of a BaM (pre-hypers) that has 515k range (according to the uploader) doing empress v2s (he hits empress a few times at the end for close to cap w/o our +40% 1v1 skill)

and [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTXRwhUnAt0]here[/url] is the same person post hyper skills, seems his range increased by 100k or so between the vids tho o.o

@lKingAura: Lumis have passive magic guard, plus, at the level where bossing is ideal (200) I'd most likely have enough HP to survive a hit or two.
Besides, anyone can just spam pots or get auto HP.
I swear I'm not trying to argue. It's just I've been so dead set on lumis for bossing for the longest time and now that I learn that BaMs are in the competition too I don't know which to choose

@lKingAura

So what do you define "a better job" on?

@redherring

I just feel like with the same amount of funding lumis could do higher damage then BaMs and I don't want to waste my PSoKs transferring all my gear to a job that won't get as much out of it. I have yet to find a BaM that does a decent amount of damage with the funding that I have

[quote=pinkwad]Thanks for your comments guys. I looked on Youtube for a BaM bossing video and found [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sW0fbSCKGeA]this[/url], a BaM who had roughly ~400k range and wasn't even hitting max on every line.
How is that better than a lumi?[/quote]

Look for a more recent video with hyperskills; Sweeping Staff makes BaMs better at dishing out damage with major funding.

Thanks for your comments guys. I looked on Youtube for a BaM bossing video and found [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sW0fbSCKGeA]this[/url], a BaM who had roughly ~400k range and wasn't even hitting max on every line.
How is that better than a lumi?

[quote=lKingAura]@redherring Elemental reset means nothing to a BaM

Edit: Luminous are not as good as BaM, BaMs are good bossers because they are good overall: Cap def, Cap magic def, Their atks dont need to deal with the boss and its element problems, they a skill called pt shield wich gives invincibility for you and your party, they have dmg absorption with blue aura, avoid rate with yellow aura, they have a big hit box with their spammable hyper skills and last but not least they can get an average of 30k hp/mp at lv 200. That opinion might sound biased but if anything Luminous are only OP for few seconds in equilibrium mode (very op) then they just lack more atks for bossing.[/quote]
Bams do have to deal with element problems. Physical is an element and many bosses have physical resist.

[quote=ClassOf12]BaMs get status resist as well. Elemental resist means nothing to a BaM[/quote]

I'm fairly sure lumis have 20% more resist, and I was referring to Elemental Reset, not resist.

[quote=redherring]status resist, and ele reset.[/quote]

BaMs get status resist as well. Elemental resist means nothing to a BaM

General consensus is that BaMs are far better. My own view is that lumis are just as good up to a certain point in funding, mainly due to bind, status resist, and ele reset.

for bossing go BaM
if you are unfunded (<2b meso), go lumi