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The Beast Within -- A Guide to Blue Mage
By Nariont 2023-12-02 05:11:33
Breath spells are forever bad since SE never changed the formula, same spot as wyvern breaths but those are free additional dmg so not a big deal
Bahamut.Orlanda
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By Bahamut.Orlanda 2023-12-02 10:27:02
BLU can't wear moonlight ring.
Considering you probably want to burst since you added Assim. Shalwar +3 I think Hashishin basmak +3 outperform nyame sollerets and nyame flanchard or maybe even Hashishin Tayt +3(?) outperform Assim. Shalwar +3, however take it with a grain of salt cause I'm just eyeballing.
My math is most likely completely off so better wait for someone smart but with your set and assuming roughly 3000HP for convenience sake at lvl 149 I'm getting roughly 9k-10k damage. Thats MBing with burst affinity, convergince and assuming monster affinity in our favor, no day/weather bonuses included although I'm not sure if they'd even count. D'oh you're right about the moonlight! I'll fix that!
Thanks for the helpful post - I am curious if they way the formula calcs means that anything that otherwise resists damage might take more from breaths, but that may just be hope that this weird quirk of the job is valuable somewhere somehow.
By Nariont 2023-12-02 17:46:43
anything that otherwise resists damage might take more from breaths
That was their niche previously, as while a lot of enemies can have high magic or physical DT, breaths were more rare, problem with them before and specially now is the dmg scaling mixed with all the sacrifices you have to make to optimize the spell, it's just generally not worth the effort of getting and keeping HP as high as possible for something thatll land you maybe 10k dmg which in this stage of the game is pitiful
They'd have to do at least double that to even be a consideration, and thats only for the 2 "good" ones, which are poison/wind breath. Cheap, quickish cast(think wind especially is pretty fast) and low recast, though with all the FC we have now they're all pretty quick now
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By Asura.Dexprozius 2023-12-03 04:37:21
Back in the day it was fun to Heat Breath things like Ouryu and Tiamat, came close to overall DPS to BLMs back then if you could keep your MP up but the Convergence timer hurt it alot... (Albeit SATA Cannonball was probably much better and more consistent on those types of bosses)
Nowadays on anything that matters the damage would be too low or certainly resisted honestly... it's just not worth the effort when you can get higher dividends from other spells
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By Asura.Dexprozius 2023-12-03 04:37:29
Double posted...
But i'll add that you can likely take the Recommended White Wind set and just slap all the breath damage boosting pieces (Neck Belt Head) in place of what's already there.
By Nariont 2023-12-03 08:13:43
surprised heat landed on tiamat, i was always more partial to poison since it costed next to nothing point/mp wise, while every other breath was something like 1/4~1/5th your mp pool. Eyes on me was another great one if you could land it, basically the only good nuke blu had until regurgitation took over.
Good ole days where you had a small handful of phys spells, and maybe 1-2 good nukes, and everything else was trash outside of a few good utility spells
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Siren.Kyte
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By Siren.Kyte 2023-12-03 08:29:31
Personally I don't remember any breaths working very well on any dragons lol- but yeah, I remember Eyes on me, Regurgitation, and Corrosive Ooze being the real way to go
By Nariont 2023-12-03 08:48:31
didnt know ooze was that good, neat, always defaulted to the other two, namely regurg since it was just so cheap for how effective it was. limbus EoM was fun though
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By Asura.Dexprozius 2023-12-03 20:11:49
I'll try to look through my OLDDDDD screenshots folder to find some of the #'s I was able to land. It was super gimmicky and just something I had the privilege of experimenting with since most LSs who claimed HNMs wouldn't really allow a BLU to take one of their mage slots. I got to do quite alot of endgame content at 75 on BLU, from Tanking Jormungand via abusing diffusion Exuviation for enmity, Cannonballing Omega/Wyrms etc, and testing nukes and breaths on HNMs.
I recall breath-ing Ultima as well, though the fact that I dont remember being impressed with the numbers like I was with the other mobs I mentioned likely means it wasnt that successful.
Personally I don't remember any breaths working very well on any dragons lol- but yeah, I remember Eyes on me, Regurgitation, and Corrosive Ooze being the real way to go
For sure Eyes On Me was a super cool nuke, and I remember really delving into it after WotG came out. There was alot of nice CHR / MAB items like those legs and the tiara? Nimue's tights I think it was? Back then BLU also had the "Benefit" of not needing Diffusion, so most players only put 1 point into it and spec'd alot of points into Convergence for the damage steroid (especially on breath's since it made them single target)
Frankly... The thing I recall most being abused by 75 BLU was Disseverment. There was plenty of NM's I was able to solo by Disseverment + Kiting until it fell over. That poison was extremely potent.
To stay on topic, I think the TL;DR is still, breaths were Cute back in the day, and heavily outclassed / unecessary in current content. Sad but true... probably 50%-75% of BLU spells have no real home nowadays
Asura.Yrys
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By Asura.Yrys 2023-12-03 20:25:28
I'm trying to figure out how to more effectively play BLU, and I feel like I might be doing something wrong.
I was wondering... When do/would we use Fantod instead of Nat. Meditation? I'm not too familiar with boost-type skills like that. I did some googling a while ago and I think the only thing I turned up was that Fantod should only be used for enmity generation?
I'm using the Zahak Reborn spell list, minus anvil lightning and with Battery Charge + Winds of Promy. I understand what some of these spells would be used for and when to use them, but others I'm confused about it.
I know to pre-buff/keep-up Erratic Flutter and Nat. Meditation. Using Cocoon when 'tanking.'
Tail Slap/Sudden Lunge for Stuns... But should I be looking at any of these other spells to be used or are they mostly just there for our traits?
Like, is there a specific spell to use with Efflux?
I don't have any spells to be used with Unbridled just yet, but is there an order to use those? Like Unbridled Learning into Wisdom, or vice-versa? Or do the two exist simply to give you more time to use those special spells?
And in what scenarios do you use Azure Lore? I'm such an old-timey player that I keep thinking it's gonna be on a 2HR CD and to only use it under very certain circumstances.
I realize these are very baby BLU questions, I've only been going at it for about a 3-4 weeks now? Any tips/pointers would be greatly appreciated! ;w;
Carbuncle.Maletaru
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By Carbuncle.Maletaru 2023-12-03 20:35:19
Tail Slap is never used for a stun, Fantod is (in my experience) never used for its boost effect. Most of the spells are not cast, and most of the time (my opinion) in group settings it's not at all worth it to use Efflux, CA, or BA.
Unbridled Learning is a cooldown you can use to get up a nice buff (most of the time) or debuff (33% def down most commonly), use of these depends highly on the fight in question, but commonly used spells are Mighty Guard, Tourbillion, and Harden Shell. Most of the rest of them are very meh. Unbridled Wisdom is good if you need (want) to use multiple of these spells, since Learning only gives 1 cast where Wisdom gives infinite casts. Both can be used for Cruel Joke if appropriate.
I haven't used AL in years.
If you're soloing skillchains or doing some specific SC/MB strat, YMMV but most of the time in a party with buffs, just TPing and WSing will do more damage than spending valuable seconds casting nonsense and using JA.
You might use other buffs like Occultation or sleeps too. Every situation is unique so you have to put some thought into whether or not it's worth your time to cast these things.
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By Nariont 2023-12-03 20:42:49
I was wondering... When do/would we use Fantod instead of Nat. Meditation? I'm not too familiar with boost-type skills like that. I did some googling a while ago and I think the only thing I turned up was that Fantod should only be used for enmity generation?
Fantod's only use is as a quick hate tool and more than likely for the STP trait, it's not used as an actual buff.
I know to pre-buff/keep-up Erratic Flutter and Nat. Meditation. Using Cocoon when 'tanking.'
Tail Slap/Sudden Lunge for Stuns... But should I be looking at any of these other spells to be used or are they mostly just there for our traits?
Sudden lunge is all you ever need as far as stuns go, you are correct that most of the spells nowadays are just for traits if its not a utility spell or buff like battery charge, promy, sweeping gouge/teneberal for def downs etc. phys spells can be handy to take off the final chunk of an enemy quickly but otherwise dont serve much purpose in dmg vs what you can do just swinging and WSing normally.
Efflux you either use to bump up a dmg move like sinker drill, or to up the chance/duration of a phys add. effect, if those dont apply dont feel you need to use it, same for chain affinity
I don't have any spells to be used with Unbridled just yet, but is there an order to use those? Like Unbridled Learning into Wisdom, or vice-versa? Or do the two exist simply to give you more time to use those special spells?
And in what scenarios do you use Azure Lore? I'm such an old-timey player that I keep thinking it's gonna be on a 2HR CD and to only use it under very certain circumstances.
Learning allows 1 spell to be used, wisdom is a 1 minute window to use them, there's very few unbridled spells that you regularly use, usually being mighty guard but theres still a fair few worth having beyond that.
As for AL, it's not very useful these days, at least I seldom use it
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By Asura.Dexprozius 2023-12-03 20:49:44
I was wondering... When do/would we use Fantod instead of Nat. Meditation? I'm not too familiar with boost-type skills like that. I did some googling a while ago and I think the only thing I turned up was that Fantod should only be used for enmity generation?
I Only use Fantod w/ a full enmity set as a hate tool. In my experience it's never worth the boost, and Nat. meditation should always be kept up at all times when DDing. The atk steroid is too important.
I'm using the Zahak Reborn spell list, minus anvil lightning and with Battery Charge + Winds of Promy. I understand what some of these spells would be used for and when to use them, but others I'm confused about it.
Don't know the spell list your referring to, but I change my spell sets quite often depending on the content I'm doing. In general I always always keep Erratic Flutter, Dual Wield on, and a heal (either Fruit or White Wind), but otherwise everything else varies.
Battery Charge is okay if you're soloing, but in most group content you'll be able to get a refresh, or you can sub RDM and get a slightly lower duration refresh for no blu points cost. Magic Hammer however is almost always in my kit. Once geared, the potency of it is basically a full MP recovery every time if you know what targets you can drain. Wind's of Promy is situational but strong, just keep it in mind but it's not really a staple spell.
I know to pre-buff/keep-up Erratic Flutter and Nat. Meditation. Using Cocoon when 'tanking.'
Tail Slap/Sudden Lunge for Stuns... But should I be looking at any of these other spells to be used or are they mostly just there for our traits?
Sudden Lunge is the only stun you need to set, don't bother with Tail Slap. If they have Tail Slap in their spell set, its strictly for an additional tier of STP. Cocoon + Phalanx/Barrier tusk can go up pre/mid fight if you know you're going to be taking hits.
As far as Buffs go that you should keep an eye out for (Again, depending on content your doing and if its group or solo):
Occultation, Reactor Cool, O. Counterstance, Magic Barrier, Memento Mori, Saline Coat, and Diamondhide all have a time/place for case use.
Other spells you will probably cast time and again are Subduction/Spectral Floe/Tenebral Crush/Entomb, whether you're cleaving or just for strong bursts/CC.
Sinker Drill, Thrashing Assault, Glutinous Dart, Blank Gaze, Dream Flower, Quad. Continuum, Feather Tickle/Reaving Wind, Sweeping Gouge.
Unbridled spells that come up are: Mighty guard/Carch Verve/Harden Shell, Absolute Terror, Cruel Joke, Tourbillion, Tearing Gust, Cesspool, Thunderbolt.
Like, is there a specific spell to use with Efflux?
I only use Efflux WITH Chain Affinity, and only when self skillchaining. If you're going to do something like Expiacion > Sinker drill = Darkness OR Savage -> expiacion(Distortion)-> Sinker drill = Darkness, then you should almost always Efflux on top of the Chain Affinity just for the damage boost. Otherwise, it's just a button you don't really press, because outside of creating skillchains or debuffing the target, physical blue magic is RARELY used for straight up damage. The fact of the matter is that in modern game play, you'll get TP and WS much faster and for higher numbers than casting physical nukes.
I don't have any spells to be used with Unbridled just yet, but is there an order to use those? Like Unbridled Learning into Wisdom, or vice-versa? Or do the two exist simply to give you more time to use those special spells?
Learning is 5mins, Wisdom is your 1hr that lets you use as many spells from the locked list as you want during its 30s duration.
In most content, you'll either be using Learning to mighty guard (with diffusion) to buff yourself + party, or debuffing the target with Tourbillion. Wisdom isnt very strong, but in some cases it's nice to hit the button, give yourself Guard + Harden shell, or spam nukes like Thunderbolt to stunlock a group you're cleaving. 90% of the time i'd say you only use Wisdom because you want/need a Learning spell, but Learning is on cooldown in that moment.
See aforementioned 'useful' Unbridled spells.
And in what scenarios do you use Azure Lore? I'm such an old-timey player that I keep thinking it's gonna be on a 2HR CD and to only use it under very certain circumstances.
Almost never. In the past I've popped it in order to be able to magic burst multiple times in a short window, since its like permanently having Burst Affinity up during its duration. This came up in fights like Kei for example. But in reality its a useless button, which will add a tiny bit of damage to your nukes if you choose to use it.
EDIT: Some people clearly type much faster than me...
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By Yrys 2023-12-03 21:07:03
I'm using the Zahak Reborn spell list, minus anvil lightning and with Battery Charge + Winds of Promy. I understand what some of these spells would be used for and when to use them, but others I'm confused about it.
Don't know the spell list your referring to, but I change my spell sets quite often depending on the content I'm doing. In general I always always keep Erratic Flutter, Dual Wield on, and a heal (either Fruit or White Wind), but otherwise everything else varies.
The spell list I was referring to is the one on the guide in this thread!
Zahak Reborn (Expert DD Spec)
Point Requirement: 80 and 1200 JP gift
Delta Thrust
Barbed Crescent
Empty Thrash
Heavy Strike
Thrashing Assault
Sudden Lunge
Sickle Slash
Tail Slap
Sinker Drill
Paralyzing Triad
Fantod
Diffusion Ray
Nature’s Meditation
Anvil Lightning
Erratic Flutter
Magic Fruit
Tenebral Crush
I realize that there is no one-stop for BLU spells, currently, I've only been using this because I'm on a temp laptop so I didn't wanna set everything up and then redo it when I got my desktop back.
Thank you, everyone, for your really fast and super informative replies!! ♥ It sounds like I have a lot of experimentation to do and spells to hunt down. (( Even more-so now!! ))
I went from being a DNC main to a BLU for a change of pace, and because every time I saw a BLU looking awesome, I've wanted to be that BLU too, after strictly playing DNC for yeeeeeeaaaaarrrrsss, so it's been a huge whiplash learning all the different options and whatnot. ^^
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By Asura.Dexprozius 2023-12-03 21:41:43
The spell list I was referring to is the one on the guide in this thread!
Spoiler Alert! Click to view.
Zahak Reborn (Expert DD Spec)
Point Requirement: 80 and 1200 JP gift
Delta Thrust
Barbed Crescent
Empty Thrash
Heavy Strike
Thrashing Assault
Sudden Lunge
Sickle Slash
Tail Slap
Sinker Drill
Paralyzing Triad
Fantod
Diffusion Ray
Nature’s Meditation
Anvil Lightning
Erratic Flutter
Magic Fruit
Tenebral Crush
I'd say this set looks pretty 'glass cannon'-y, with a focus on Store TP boosting. The person who set it up likely has a Tizona and wants to ride the AM3, while also being in a party with plenty of support.
As you mentioned, there's no end all be all given how many spells us BLU's have access to, and the set you use at any given time can be tailored to the given content.
I recommend getting the Addon AzureSets, which lets you pre-set a spell set and label it for an occasion, then when you prompt AzureSets to equip that set, it will inject packets to swap your spells around hands free. Just be warned that it can be quite laggy in instanced content, so I dont recommend swapping around alot. PLUS when you swap spells you're put on a 1 minute cooldown which can be a death sentence, so choose the time you swap wisely.
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Carbuncle.Maletaru
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By Carbuncle.Maletaru 2023-12-03 22:28:05
This is my spell set for Hard DD but with shadows, cure, sleep, cocoon, etc. for utility (listed in the order they appear in the blue magic list):
Sickle Slash
Tail Slap
Empty Thrash
Delta Thrust
Heavy Strike
Sudden Lunge
Barbed Crescent
Glutinous Dart
Thrashing Assault
Sinker Drill
Fantod
Nat. Meditation
Searing Tempest
Occultation
Cocoon
Embalming Earth
Sheep Song
Magic Fruit
Diffusion Ray
Tenebral Crush
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By Valefor.Prothescar 2023-12-03 22:59:55
Quote: Below are a few templates for spell sets that you'll use in most situations. These are not do or die configurations in the slightest, in fact I strongly encourage you to adjust them to fit your individual needs based on the situation.
Should always change your spells depending on what you need and what you're doing. This is something you'll learn to do with experience
Asura.Sechs
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By Asura.Sechs 2023-12-04 03:19:24
Carbuncle.Maletaru said: »Most of the spells are not cast, and most of the time (my opinion) in group settings it's not at all worth it to use Efflux, CA, or BA. I slightly dissent on the use of BA, not for the magic burst effect but because it doubles the WSC of the spell, making some of them even more powerful.
Aside from this small thing I 101% agree with EVERYTHING Maletaru said, not just the part quoted.
I put emphasis on that because I was really surprised when I started playing BLU but it's absolutely true.
Out of that super strange niche situation, most of the spells are not used to cast them, but just to "equip" them for the job traits they can grant. That can create some powerful synergyes especially with capped JPs.
It's true though that if one of the expert BLUs in this thread could create a list of those spells which are quite commonly used as "being cast" it would be highly beneficial to a new BLU.
What Prothescar said is real, about the unbelievable versatility BLU grats its players through the swapping of spell sets, but a new BLU gotta start from somewhere, right? And knowing which of the >100 spells are actually useful to be cast, would help a lot imho.
I can try but I'm no BLU expert so I'm gonna miss a lot of stuff
Erratic Flutter - Haste2!
Cocoon - powers up a lot your physical defense
Occultation - a powerful blink effect that gives shadow according to your BLU skill when casting
Nature's Meditation - a buff to your physical attack
Reaving Wind - resets target's TP
Dream Flower - dark based AoE sleep
Sheep Song - light based AoE sleep
Winds of Promy - AoE erase
Barrier tusk - Allows you to slightly break the 50% DT cap, doesn't stack with Phalanx
White wind - powerful AoE heal
Sudden Lunge - very useful single target stun
Glutinous Dart - single target long distance spell, can be useful to pull
Subduction - AoE magic spell that costs very little mp and puts a powerful gravity on enemy. Tipically useful to AoE magic cleave stuff
Entomb - Very powerful AoE earth based spell. Used to cleave stuff but also because it applies a "break" effect to all the targets hit
Tenebral Crush - Very powerful AoE dark based spell. Used to cleave but also to apply a def- effect on targets.
Anvil Lightning - Similar to the ones above but Thunder based. Applies a short stun to everything hit.
Spectral Floe - Like above but applies a small duration terror.
Searing Tempest - Like above but it applies silence.
Demoralizing Roar - Applies an AoE def- to targets without doing damage. Can be useful as an alternative to Tenebral Crush when you want to avoid damage? I guess
Magic Hammer - converts damage done into MP for you
Diamondhide - weak AoE Stoneskin, can have its uses I guess? Forgot last time I used it but a long time ago I used it a lot.
Feather Tickle - Reduces target's TP
Refueling - Powerful refresh, affected by +refresh gear, nomnom
Geist Wall - AoE dispel, can be useful to "tag" targets if not to dispel them
Magic Fruit - powerful single target heal
Saline Coat - powerful MDB buff
Can't think of other spells that get commonly cast, but I'm sure there's many more!
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By SimonSes 2023-12-04 06:49:02
Erratic Flutter - Haste2! (+30% magic haste)
Cocoon - powers up a lot your physical defense (+50% defense)
Occultation - a powerful (in the sense it's more blinks, than from regular Blink spell) blink effect that gives shadow according to your BLU skill when casting
Nature's Meditation - a buff to your physical attack (+20% additive)
Reaving Wind - resets target's TP (1000TP reset)
Dream Flower - dark based AoE sleep
Sheep Song - light based AoE sleep
Winds of Promy - AoE erase
Barrier tusk - Allows you to slightly break the 50% DT cap, doesn't stack with Phalanx (15% multiplicative damage reduction)
White wind - powerful AoE heal
Sudden Lunge - very useful (and potent, up to 10+ seconds) single target stun
Glutinous Dart - single target long distance spell, can be useful to pull
Subduction - AoE magic spell that costs very little mp and puts a powerful gravity on enemy. Tipically useful to AoE magic cleave stuff
Entomb - Very powerful AoE earth based spell. Used to cleave stuff but also because it applies a "break" effect to all the targets hit (especially useful for crowd control in Sortie)
Tenebral Crush - Very powerful AoE dark based spell. Used to cleave but also to apply a def- effect (-20% def) on targets.
Anvil Lightning - Similar to the ones above but Thunder based. Applies a short stun to everything hit.
Spectral Floe - Like above but ice based and applies a small duration terror.
Searing Tempest Silent Storm - Like above but wind based it applies silence.
Demoralizing Roar - Applies an AoE def- to targets without doing damage. Can be useful as an alternative to Tenebral Crush when you want to avoid damage? I guess
Magic Hammer - converts Light based damage done by this spell into MP for you
Diamondhide - weak AoE Stoneskin, can have its uses I guess? Forgot last time I used it but a long time ago I used it a lot. (I wouldnt say it's weak. It has a cap of 333(?), while normal Stoneskin caps at 350. It's true normal Stoneskin can be pushed to 475 with equip though and this cant.)
Feather Tickle - Reduces target's TP (random amount between 0 and 1500)
Refueling Battery Charge - Powerful refresh, affected by +refresh gear, nomnom
Geist Wall - AoE dispel, can be useful to "tag" targets if not to dispel them
Magic Fruit - powerful single target heal
Saline Coat - powerful MDB buff
Embalming Earth - Similar use case as Subduction (but this one is earth based and apply 25% slow). It's useful to cleave low HP targets that resist Wind. It has also quite low MP cost and relatively low cooldown. It's also set for Attack bonus trait anyway
Delta Thrust - Can be a huge part of Subtle Blow no TP gain approach if target doesn't resist Plague. Cast in full Subtle blow/acc/macc gear for that scenario
Osmosis - It can be extremely useful for its absorb/dispel effect which can't be resisted (unless target is immune I guess) afaik. Good example is absorbing Shock Spikes from Ramuh Ambuscade
Magic Barrier - Very potent stoneskin effect against magic damage only. Potency is 1:1 Blue Magic Skill and has no known cap. Extremely useful for TP denial method of tanking like Bumba v25
Regeneration - Not used, but in theory it's quite useful for any harder solos. Only 2 points to set and can be pushed to 35/tic regen with Telchine augments, which would sum up to 65/tic with Might Guard
Acrid Stream - Good spell to improve magic damage of other spells in a scenario, where Tearing Gust can't be used or it's effect wore off. It's usually set for DA/TA trait anyway.
Exuviation - small AoE heal and Erase. This spell is mostly use for one purpose. It has 640 CE/VE enmity generation per target. Which mean with Diffusion and hitting whole party you have 3840 CE/VE base enmity generation, which is really huge for niche scenario where you would like keep hate on BLU
Regurgitation - long distance spell that apply bind. It makes damage before applying bind, which means you can overwrite bind by breaking it with damage and applying again. It was extremely useful in the past for it's unique effect of doing ok damage over time without generating almost any enmity
Memento Mori - +20MAB. Used as buff to magic damage when single instance/burst of damage is very important, like Kaustra (used with Diffusion to buff SCH) for example.
Sound Blast - Good cheap AoE spells to lower INT of targets before cleave
Fantod - Good spell to spam (only 10 sec base cooldown) for hate (320CE/VE enmity). Self target, so works on all tagged mobs (similar benefits of enmity generation to Foil, but with lower VE enmity, but you can spam it more and it's harder to interrupt with only 0.5sec casting time and higher Blue Magic skill).
Sinker Drill - Probably best physical single target spell to actually do damage. It's piercing damage type, so especially useful for targets where slashing is reduced/piercing is boosted (like Naakul bird in Sortie for example). With Chain Affinity it can also close Darkness after Expiacion (or open for it).
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By Asura.Dexprozius 2023-12-04 07:08:22
He has Refueling listed as the refresh spell, not Battery Charge.
Refueling is the lower level haste spell that is mostly used /BLU on RUNs.
I slightly dissent on the use of BA, not for the magic burst effect but because it doubles the WSC of the spell, making some of them even more powerful.
Aside from this small thing I 101% agree with EVERYTHING Maletaru said, not just the part quoted.
I put emphasis on that because I was really surprised when I started playing BLU but it's absolutely true.
Out of that super strange niche situation, most of the spells are not used to cast them, but just to "equip" them for the job traits they can grant. That can create some powerful synergyes especially with capped JPs.
Seconded. Frankly if you're Nuking on BLU and not using BA in the very least as a steroid button, you're doing it wrong. So often I see damage spikes of 10-20% on my Floe's and Tenebrals under BA.
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By SimonSes 2023-12-04 07:14:00
He has Refueling listed as the refresh spell, not Battery Charge.
Refueling is the lower level haste spell that is mostly used /BLU on RUNs.
Yeah I personally haven't noticed, because I haven't used Battery Charge since I got Tizona :) (it's still useful for Tizona users when you don't melee, but I usually had many other forms of MP recovery for those scenarios, including refresh from /rdm, so it's a waste of set points for me)
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By Asura.Dexprozius 2023-12-04 07:45:30
I'll add the few things I mentioned earlier and clean it up:
Erratic Flutter - Haste2! (+30% magic haste)
Cocoon - powers up a lot your physical defense (+50% defense)
Occultation - a powerful (Blink + 10.. literally) blink effect that gives shadow according to your BLU skill /50 when cast. IE 600 skill = 12 shadows
Nature's Meditation - a buff to your physical attack (+20% additive)
Reaving Wind - resets target's TP (1000TP reset)
Feather Tickle - Reduces target's TP (random amount between 0 and 1500)
Dream Flower - dark based AoE sleep - your go to sleep, very large radius
Sheep Song - light based AoE sleep - very small 6? yalm radius
Yawn - Light based AoE sleep, slightly worse than sheep song... Lasts longer + wider radius BUT the targets must be facing you (Gaze attack)
Winds of Promy - AoE erase
Barrier tusk - Allows you to slightly break the 50% DT cap, doesn't stack with Phalanx (15% multiplicative damage reduction). If exceeding the 50% DT cap, it'll only provide half benefit (7ish %)
Orcish Counterstance - Counter steroid (+10%), useful when 'tanking' if you stack counter gear into your defensive set.
Sudden Lunge - very useful (and potent, up to 10+ seconds) single target stun
Glutinous Dart - single target long distance spell, can be useful to pull. *Definitely slap TH4 gear on this one
Subduction - AoE wind based magic spell that costs very little mp and puts a powerful gravity on enemy. Tipically useful to AoE magic cleave stuff
Entomb - Very powerful AoE earth based spell. Used to cleave stuff but also because it applies a "break" effect to all the targets hit (especially useful for crowd control in Sortie)
Tenebral Crush - Very powerful AoE dark based spell. Used to cleave but also to apply a def- effect (-20% def) on targets.
Anvil Lightning - Similar to the ones above but Thunder based. Applies a short stun to everything hit.
Spectral Floe - Like above but ice based and applies a small duration terror.
Silent Storm - Like above but wind based it applies silence.
Demoralizing Roar Frightful Roar - Applies an AoE def- (-10%) to targets without doing damage. Can be useful as an alternative to Tenebral Crush when you want to avoid damage? I guess
Sweeping Gouge - Potent single target Defense Down (-16%), very useful when you're fighting things on the go and/or cant afford to deal dark/AoE damage with Tenebral, only 4% weaker.
Magic Hammer - converts Light based damage done by this spell into MP for you IF the target has an MP pool
Diamondhide - weak AoE Stoneskin, can have its uses I guess? Forgot last time I used it but a long time ago I used it a lot. (I wouldnt say it's weak. It has a cap of 333(?), while normal Stoneskin caps at 350. It's true normal Stoneskin can be pushed to 475 with equip though and this cant.)
Refueling Battery Charge - Powerful refresh, affected by +refresh gear, nomnom
Geist Wall - AoE dispel, can be useful to "tag" targets if not to dispel them
Magic Fruit - powerful single target heal. Cure IV equivalent but cheaper
White wind - powerful AoE heal based on MAX hp on cast. Stack HP. Heals for max/7 x2 and affected by cure pot.
Saline Coat - powerful *Decaying* MDB buff. On time of cast MDB + 50 -> decaying down to +8 before it wears off (3 min duration)
Magic Barrier - Very potent stoneskin effect against magic damage only. Potency is 1:1 Blue Magic Skill and has no known cap. Extremely useful for TP denial method of tanking like Bumba v25
Embalming Earth - Similar use case as Subduction (but this one is earth based and apply 25% slow). It's useful to cleave low HP targets that resist Wind. It has also quite low MP cost and relatively low cooldown. It's also set for Attack bonus trait anyway
Palling Salvo - Extremely niche, but our strongest Bio effect. -10% atk down
Delta Thrust - Can be a huge part of Subtle Blow no TP gain approach if target doesn't resist Plague. Cast in full Subtle blow/acc/macc gear for that scenario
Quadratic Continuum - An alternate spell to close Darkness skillchains, used against Bumba v25 due to its high # of hits, making it less likely to miss. Stack Acc and Subtle blow.
Osmosis - It can be extremely useful for its absorb/dispel effect which can't be resisted (unless target is immune I guess) afaik. Good example is absorbing Shock Spikes from Ramuh Ambuscade
Regeneration - Not used, +25/tic hp for 30 tics base. In theory it's quite useful for any harder solos. Only 2 points to set and can be pushed to 35/tic regen with Telchine augments, which would sum up to 65/tic with Might Guard
Acrid Stream - Good spell to improve magic damage of other spells in a scenario, where Tearing Gust can't be used or it's effect wore off. It's usually set for DA/TA trait anyway.
Exuviation - small AoE heal and Erase. This spell is mostly use for one purpose. It has 640 CE/VE enmity generation per target. Which mean with Diffusion and hitting whole party you have 3840 CE/VE base enmity generation, which is really huge for niche scenario where you would like keep hate on BLU
Regurgitation - long distance spell that apply bind. It makes damage before applying bind, which means you can overwrite bind by breaking it with damage and applying again. It was extremely useful in the past for it's unique effect of doing ok damage over time without generating almost any enmity
Memento Mori - +20MAB. Used as buff to magic damage when single instance/burst of damage is very important, like Kaustra (used with Diffusion to buff SCH) for example.
Searing Tempest - High damage fire based nuke, but often not cast due to the other big nukes being better, however... Useful for Bumba as an additional Debuff, Potent Burn effect (INT down -63)
Sound Blast - Good cheap AoE spells to lower INT of targets before cleave. One of my favorite spells to slap Treasure Hunter +4 gear on, as it's often set anyway for MAB trait.
Fantod - Good spell to spam (only 10 sec base cooldown) for hate (320CE/VE enmity). Self target, so works on all tagged mobs (similar benefits of enmity generation to Foil, but with lower VE enmity, but you can spam it more and it's harder to interrupt with only 0.5sec casting time and higher Blue Magic skill).
Sinker Drill - Probably best physical single target spell to actually do damage. It's piercing damage type, so especially useful for targets where slashing is reduced/piercing is boosted (like Naakul bird in Sortie for example). With Chain Affinity it can also close Darkness after Expiacion (or open for it).
Thrashing Assault - Arguably the 2nd best physical spell, usually set in your kit regardless to achieve Triple Attack trait. Like Sinker Drill, pair this with CA + Efflux but to close Light Skillchains.
UNBRIDLED LEARNING good casts:
Mighty Guard - Your bread and better, insane buff often extended / made AoE with diffusion. +15% haste, +25% Def, +15 MDEF, +30 Regen
Harden Shell - Cocoon +1 (Def +100%)
Carcharian Verve - Short duration 20 MAB / 20% Atk boost (~1minute)... but LONG duration +10 'shadow' Aquaveil (~15 minutes)
Tourbillion - One of the Best def down effects in the game (-33%), often the most common spell to cast under Unbridled. I use it all the time due to not needing the haste from MG. Doesn't last long, usually only about a minute or so, great for zergs
Cruel Joke - AoE Doom effect. Quite effective against a wide array of mob family types, very useful for cleaving things that take reduced to 0 AoE damage like Sheol C. NOTE: You cannot move more than 5ish' yalms away from the targets or it loses effect.
Absolute Terror - Potent Terror effect that can last upwards of 20 seconds if unresisted. Seldom used, but can cheese certain fights such as Ramuh Ambuscade by freezing the summoner. (usually best with Elemental Seal)
Tearing Gust - Similar to Tourbillion, but for magic def. down. (-30 MBD). Used in specific mage boosting fights like Bumba to land massive Kaustras.
Cesspool - Similar to Delta Thrust, applies an even more potent Plague. -5/tic TP, but much easier to land. Fringe use, but used it some on Mboze in testing.
Thunderbolt - Similar in damage to Anvil Lightning, but a more potent stun. Sometimes used under unbridled wisdom when cleaving, since it has no cooldown to stunlock + damage a pack.
サーバ: Valefor
Game: FFXI
Posts: 19647
By Valefor.Prothescar 2023-12-04 13:11:02
Fwiw there's already a list of spells that you want to have and what they do in the guide for like 3yrs. It's missing a couple of the more niche ones that I wanted to add and never did but I'll get to it eventually.
Anyway I'm not sure I'd ever spend set points on auto refresh in the year of our lord 2023. It's a lot of points and slots for practicalno no actual return.
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By Yrys 2023-12-04 13:13:09
I just woke up and read through these posts, y'all are amazing! Thanks for the information! Currently, I'm stuck with a temp laptop so I haven't dug too deep into other BLU spell sets, gearswaps, luas(??), azuresets, etcetc, all that fancy-schmancy add-on talk that flies over my head 9 times out of 10. LOL
I've been having a blast with BLU and I'm excited to put some of this information to good use and get better at the job!
It is kind of sad that as Blue Mages we don't do all that much with the Mage part, but oh well. Still tons of fun.
My only other question now is relating to equipment. The main guide mentions to try and max out the triple attack on Herculean items. Does that mean it would be more beneficial to get 4% Triple Attack with shitty stats? Right now I have Herculean Pants and Boots with 4% TA, but the other stats on them are low/sorta useless? My legs are STR+7, ACC+13, and TA 4%... Would that be better than something that is like, say.. +15 STR, +20ATK, +2% TA? Just spit-balling random numbers tbh.
I realize that could probably go into it's own thread... This is my first foray into actual end-game gearing on XI and it's kind of confusing to my dumbass. LOL
By syllreve 2023-12-04 13:16:57
Aside from the other spells already listed, I've taken to keeping Rending Deluge in my standard set.
Trait wise it gives MDB III (w/ job gifts), and is also useful as a dispel when you need it.
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サーバ: Valefor
Game: FFXI
Posts: 19647
By Valefor.Prothescar 2023-12-04 13:22:22
For herculean you can go for 3-4% TA w/ a little bit of acc. Soon as you get malignance gear you basically won't ever be wearing it though, and malignance gear is "free" compared to the Gil you're gonna be pumping into fern stones
You'll still want a piece of herculean augmented with treasure hunter and maybe a couple with refresh from dark matter arcane glyphtic campaigns. 1TH lets you cap without trait as long as you have white bunny cap +1, 2TH lets you ignore that. Refresh is almost never actually useful but if you're running a long distance without being hit you could swap into it.
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By Yrys 2023-12-04 13:23:36
Understood! Thanks! ♥
By Nariont 2023-12-04 15:55:22
It is kind of sad that as Blue Mages we don't do all that much with the Mage part, but oh well. Still tons of fun.
Life of action delays, there were a couple periods where it was worth the delay in popping CA and casting a spell, usually as a sc closer but sinker/heavy strike could pull some weight, but like a lot of other things (ready moves, steps/flourishes, etc) the time lost in using the ja/spell ends up being a waste if its not for a utility purpose/very strong dmg boost
サーバ: Valefor
Game: FFXI
Posts: 19647
By Valefor.Prothescar 2023-12-04 16:17:01
Blue Magic was pretty good for a period of time after they buffed the dmg formula and let attack buffs boost physical spells...
Then they raised the fTP of weaponskills by 1.5-3x+ and didn't do the same for physical magic.
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