The Beast Within -- A Guide To Blue Mage

From BG:


This MIGHT mean that we can max out all three paths, OR that we have an eventual limit and each augment, regardless of path, adds to this limit.

You can max out all three paths. But you can only do TWO capes max per month

Going to do BLU after full retard. Probably +20 dex +20 attack/acc and +10 crit

Well hallelujah, then. This cape went from one of the most insulting items SE has ever forced upon us into quite possibly our best cape for...everything.

20 DEX, 20 acc/atk, 10 DA for TP.
20 DEX, 20 acc/atk, 10 crit for CDC.
20 STR, 20 acc/atk, 10 WSD for Savage/Expiacion.

I'm not going to spam with all of the combinations that will be useful to us, but needless to say, this changes A LOT of gearing.

or could go with 20 dex, attack/acc/10 DW and switch to Herc vest and cessance earring lol

Yeah, the possibilities are crazy. Nuking, FC (not that we need more FC), hybrid spells.

Now I need to decide between BLU and COR for the month or BLU and BLM.

Doing PUP first because of the level +1, and really changes how you gear it. But, it isn't hard at all to cap these

so if you were only going to make 1 cape for BLU (for now) what augment would benefit both TP and WS the most? DA or crit I'm guessing

I'd probably have enough points for a capped cape by now if only I could enter the instance!

Good for me I guess, I can still consider how to augment it. I'm guessing DA+10 is good enough if I'm just getting 1 cape for BLU.

You would make the Crit cape over DA10 if you were only making one for BLU?

I am about done with Tizona myself so I guess I have to readjust some of my priorities.

I suppose there is merit to your reasoning, I will just spam it for now so I have points, then decide.

How's Asura now?!?

Eh, my thinking is along similar lines. DA seems like it would be somewhat marginalized if you're riding Tizona AM3.

Crit damage isn't terrible for TP either, and 20 ACC + 20 DEX would make it at least an ACC set item regardless of the third augment.

Might even be a good augment for physical spells.

That said, it would not surprise me if math pointed at STP being more valuable over time.

math can only back our reasonings or prove us wrong, it's not bad to have theories, as long as we are ready to acknowledge our possible mistakes :P

I'll wait too, then! In the meanwhile, I hope I can enter once in a blue moon, Asura's packed full of people trying to spam it ):

If they do want us to spam this event and its monthly iteration, they have to actually let us in. I hope this emergency maintenance addresses the problem, heh.

Just from what I tossed into the sheet last night, using my own gear (basically top/high tier sets), a DEX/acc/atk/crit cape provides the strongest all around boost to our damage (approximately 100 DPS total).

This was just really quick testing done at 2 in the morning after 38 hours without sleep, so don't go too crazy over it. Luckily, it's been reported you can change augments at any time, so we can swap around all we like.

is that with crit rate or crit damage? update notes said its crit damage but its actually crit rate

Crit rate. Basically just a hyper-charged Rancor cape.

Aaaaand I just realized that swapping from rancor cape to this new JSE also allows us to use Begrudging Ring. Overall, quite a boost to damage.

Also a massive boost to accuracy. I'll second prioritizing DEX/acc/att/crit.

Indirectly, +crit back + Begrudging Ring further boosts the value of critdmg augments on Reisen gear. We're looking at 70%+ critrate on CDC with that back; HQ sets are pushing ~75%.

There are soooooo many paths of potential interest. Just off the top of my head, no particular order:

-DEX/acc/att/crit (CDC)
-DEX/acc/att/DW or DA or STP (TP)
-STR/acc/att/WSD (Savage/Expi, can also use for physical spells)
-MND/acc/att/DA (Requiescat)
-INT/macc/mdmg/MAB (nukes)
-Could also do STR/DEX/VIT/AGI/MND nuke backs... but even in a list that's not really considering inventory constraints, that strikes me as a questionable use of space. Plus there's the whole 2 capes per month thing.
-INT/macc/mdmg/WSD (Sanguine Blade)
-INT/eva/meva (meva/MDT)
-MND/curepot/(+/-enmity, or could put FC here) (cures)
-HP/curepot/(+/-enmity) (White Wind)
-FC+10 (precast/recast reduction)

DW+10 back also means we don't need DW augments/Taeon feet to cap delay reduction with DW3 sans MG anymore. Suppa/Eabani/Adhemar +1/Rosmerta/Reiki is 32; NQ body is 31. Need ~30.5 to cap with DW3 so NQ body works out pretty well; HQ's still worth it because TA/other stats.

***, I just listed 4-6 months worth of capes. RIP

Yeah, just plugged a few in. Swapping to a Dex/DW/Att/Acc cape is also a huge boost. By swapping Herc vest with TA/Str or dex/Attack/acc and Cessance.

Honestly, 10% DW is one of our better TP options. Swap Adhemar body for a 4TA Herc Vest and you're all set. If I could get two capes for BLU this month I would make that my second, but the crit cape is just way too much of a boost.

I already started the Crit path early morning just after the update hit, as I knew before hand it was going to be awesome.

I'm actually not seeing much difference between DW+Herc+Cessance and STP (mythic AM3)/DA (everything else)+NQ Adhemar+Suppa. Main advantage seems to be that it works relatively well for both setups, plus uncapped haste situations.

What about dropping STP V (Sickle slash + Tail slap) for DW4 (Molting Plumage) and equip Cessance earring? How much would the loss of 2 STP effect tp? This also saves 2 more blue magic points.