The Beast Within -- A Guide To Blue Mage

just some random testing with o.sash


OBI is with weather effect from another character going /sch
Bottom 2 rows are the average dmg output and the percentage increase over an empty belt slot.
Please note due to sample numbers these are not super exact but was good enough to show a patter of progress

I'll probably add in more data later around the 7.50 to 8.50 marks to narrow down the exact distance for when OBI wins over sash


Since the preview and end results did not look the same here it is in an image instead

For tenebral crush using arcon ring i assume it replaces shiva ring and you keep the UNM +1 ring in the nuke set?

Archon ring is a pretty save bet. Regarding Metamorph ring +1 vs shiva ring +1 I found this:


Reads like it were single casts, no large data set but since metamorph wins for every spell tested and it only beeing rank 13 I think metamorph +1 is da way.

Assuming this is a test of TWO Shiva+1s vs 1 + metamorph right? (as it's not realistic for anyone to pick MAB TVR ring)

What is the best test subject for these #'s?

I plan to try Friomisi vs +20 Hashishin+2
I've instinctively cut Frio for maxHashishin thinking that even if its a slight decrease in damage, the Acc would be worth it, but i'm genuinely curious if the INT+Skill beats the MAB considering the sum of all parts in our endgame sets.

Kind of a noobish BLU soloing question, but how would I go about doing a fight alone against a boss. I'll use the ambu V1 dullahan as an example on VE atm.

I'll use RDM to compare as well with Naegling + Thibron, and maybe malignance (just to compare both jobs with same gear); I buff myself with composure: haste 2 / enfire / temper 2 / protect 5 / shell 5 / regen 2 / refresh 3 / aquaveil / stoneskin / phalanx 2, etc.
Engage boss and debuff it beginning with dia 3 and frazzle 2 and then distract 2 / paralyze 2 / slow 2 / blind, etc.
Then I just spam SB on it while topping up buffs / debuffs as they drop, and cure 4 myself when I get too low.

Now how would I go about fighting as a BLU?

What I've tried is:
Erratic > Nature's Med > cocoon > tourbilion, tried paralyzing triad and entomb for similar debuffs as rdm (though I'm using debuffed addon and not sure if it shows if those applied, but felt like they didn't). I felt like not having protect/shell made me slightly weaker (even with cocoon) but not sure, I had magic fruit which is a lot nicer to use than cure 4, although I was also getting much more damage and had to use it more often and sometimes I couldn't due to interruption. Most of my traits are in STP / DW / DA otherwise, but I did also try to use shadows but at some point stopped since it felt like I was casting too much and attacking too less.

Anyway, I'm sure the way I went about it was very bad, and would like some advice on how I would go about using BLU in general encounters like this that aren't very short. I used the ambu dullahan here as an example since it doesn't have any particular gimmicks, obviously other NMs will be vary so I'll bring different spells to cater to those fights, but yeah the focus is on how to generally fight, (thanks).

Oh, forgot to also add, I didn't get the aquaveil blu spell yet so that's probably a big reason why it felt harder to fight, a few of my spells got interrupted.

Most BLU stuff is basically what you described, buff and stick a defense down spell, then go to town with swordchucks. How's your fast cast set? Carcharian Verve is nice for cleaving multiple mobs, but you can usually (with practice) get the timing down to heal/buff in between enemy swings without too much trouble.

On anything susceptible to it, abuse Sudden Lunge as much as possible. Some things build resistance quickly, but others you can effectively shut down entirely keeping them stunned.

when i did test on o sash and the earth magic MAB neck piece for blu i just went to Survival guide in cape terrigan and used rabbits nad lizards

since the nuke spells are single hit you get to see the full dmg.
and there are pretty plentifull in that area

I set a pretty physsical DD based spellset. Added with a few enfeebles. sudden lunge is a spell I really like as it part of StoreTP trait and has a really use full stun effect.
Tenebral crush is a big Def down enfeeble.

i cant give to much help sadly. since blu is my wife's character so whenever im on blu im multiboxing and not soloing.

Thanks, I think I'll need to keep testing out battle to get grips with it!

Oh and I'm starting to see why Tizona is quite important for BLU; MP does drain slowly but surely. I'm sure there are ways to combat this e.g. magic hammer on susceptible enemies and battery charge (to an extent).

Napkin math here
since metamorgh +1 wins out to shiave we know that 16-9 = 7 INT beats 3MAB with the help of 10 magic accuracy but its pretty close so we can approximate that with current gearsets 1 MAB ~ 2 INT

friomisi has 10 MAB so you would need around 20 INT to be in the same area. so i dont think the +2 earring is going to make it unless the magic acc can help you against high level mobs

However on physsical enfeebling spells like Sudden lunch it would be a clear winner as it has massive amount of both physsical and magical Acc

Tizona is a huge boost for BLU DPS

1: The MP you get back (+ refresh in idle gear) is sometimes enough that you dont need to set magic hammer or battery charge.

2: The AM3 is a huge boost for TP gain and works very well the malignance set for TP'ing


-- edit --
SHamelss self plug
but for the above you can always tinker around with my little calcualtor https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xnC7ETVxBDQ5jIgE7umoyryc6cL0VZyoUUe99QJrOIU/edit?usp=sharing

This is an example of much much Tizona turns the tide away from MA toward STP build for TP'ing
this is a basic malignances TP set (With no DW because i forgot)


MA set has DA on cape and uses petrove + Eponas rings
STP set uses STP on Cape and 2 chiric + 1
the rest are idetical

Before without AM3 multi attack has a higher TP gain. but once AM3 gets put into the mix, the STP based build pulls ahead.

I dont have blu on my main character but even for my Wife;s blu. I love Tizona

blue magic doesn't benefit from PDL, moved to working as intended.

Not shocked, but nice to know.

lame

I'm looking at Delta Thrust for landing Plague with Efflux. Is there any significant difference between Dignitary's Earring and Njordr Earring?

Is 10 m.acc basically the same as 10 blue magic skill for landing additional effects? Everything else about the dignitary earring is better other than defense.


--
Follow up question for the same scenario is a maxed Aurist or Cornflower better for landing additional affects on physical blue magic?

Afaik it's not known exactly how BLU skill behaves but all skills where it's known skill translates 1:1 to macc in the best case scenario with some dropping off with higher skill. If you have to compare equal amounts of skill with macc I think macc is the safer choice.
Dignitary also comes with acc so it's naturaly the better choice if your trying to land a additonal effect of a physical BLU spell.

regarding aurist vs cornflower (I think you ment Rosmerta?) afaik it's not proven nor disproven wether stats like INT or MND translate to macc for BLU magic (I think for both physical nor magical). I think the same is true for WSC modifier aligned stats.

What we do know however is DEX translates to acc and physical spells have to pass the acc check. The 30 DEX on rosmerta should roughly translate to 15 acc so ~35 acc total and 0 macc.
Maxed Aurist's will add 33 raw acc and macc (ignoring the stats).

In case it's unclear: additional effects of physical BLU spells need to pass both, the acc and the macc check, so I'd say in most cases aurist's cape is the clear winner for physical blue spells if you want to land the additional effect.

Yeah that was my first take but I wanted to make sure Blue skill or DEX wasn't magically weighted weird.

I did mean Cornflower because it has 15 blue skill 15 macc plus dex acc and int. If blue skill was much better than m.acc then you'd have more chance to land and at least some physical accuracy. But I'm not going to try to roll a perfect one unless it actually had possible applications.

Aurist's has 33 acc that is often overlooked because it has so much macc + mage stats so it really should be ideal for this kind of thing. Any scenario where INT factors then Aurists win over an INT Rosmerta. Even if you went 20 DEX and 30 macc on Rosmerta if INT doesn't work then you'd be better off with aurists unless DEX is heavily weighted more than regular acc.

Thanks for response

In terms of macc BLU skill is quite likely, in the best case scenario, 1:1 with Macc. But it could be slightly worse.

Now it's unclear if Blu skill affects damage of some spells, but in your case you don't care about damage just the additional effect.
Last but not least, Delta Thrust is a physical spell, so before you even get to the magical check to land the Plague effect (for which both macc and blu skill help) you need to pass the physical acc check.

For these reasons I'd say Dignitary is a safer choice for the earring slot.
For your cape question, Aurist+1 R15 is better than Cornflower imho.
Rosmerta too would be an inferior choice for the purpose of landing the additional effect, but it would offer the additional boons of PDT/DT and, I dunno, Fast Cast maybe?

Out of your mentioned options, personally I'd go with Dignitary/Aurist.

BLUs debuffs are weaker and have a lot less duration than RDMs. On BLU you shouldn't focus as much on debuffing unless it's a debuff that is essential for the encounter.

Mighty guard, erratic flutter, natures meditation and a def down like tenebral crush or sweeping gouge are BLUs bread and butter, in the dullahans case probably sweeping gouge since he's most likely dark resistant. Save unbridled learning for mighty guard over tourbillion, tourbillion only lasts 1-2 minutes, MG lasts ~5 minutes. MG is what you use 95% of the time for unbridled learning.

Sudden lunge is usually worth casting 2-3 times per fight, afterwards the mob will have built resistance and it lasts less than a second. Other than that you can throw a backup cure with magic fruit or white wind if necessary but primarily focus on sustaining the bread and butter buffs/debuffs.
If you have defense trouble then cocoon, barrier tusk, magic shield and saline coat (depending on wether the DMG you take is physical or magical) should also become part of your bread and butter rotation.
Other than that you focus on damage dealing.

You clearly didnt read the question.

They are asking about SOLO on blu compared to RDM so yes they will want to put on all the debuffs as there isnt a RDM doing it.

Edit: While Tourbillion is only 1-2min duration its a whooping -33% defense down which is 13% more than T Crush and 17% higher than Sweeping. Its one of the better spells to use if you are missing other forms of defense down and don't need Mighty Guard. You can always use Unbridled Wisdom to use both MG and Tourbillion.

He's right though, blu debuffs are generally a waste unless absolutely necessary due to their point/slot requirements and crap durations, buff up, drop a def down and focus on dmg, you could throw in a slow/para spell(provided you have the slots/points for it) if you need to but beyond that stun + DPS.

Honestly if you can't stun lock it, its more a hassle than anything to solo on blu compared to RDM, everything either costs a lot and/or has 1~2 min durations, so majority of your time is spent just reapplying stuff, along with your buffs that also have short durations.

Did you read it?
He also mentioned dullahan on VE difficulty, naegling/thibron and malignance armor, at that equipment level he shouldn't have trouble staying alive in VE ambu so any time spent on unnecessary buffs/debuffs reduces kill time without adding much.

Sure, if you pop unbridled wisdom go ahead and cast all spells that benefit you. However, I think he isn't going to reset 1hour after every VE ambu run, that'd be inefficient.
He'll be stuck with unbridled learning for the majority of his runs and in that case I think it's better to pop mighty guard, in particular when soloing, as it will haste cap him for the majority of the time. Caping haste on your own opens up a trust slot that you'd otherwise use for cornelia. MG also adds extra layers of survivability in a single cast which you emphasized to be important in your post.

Of course only he knows if tourbillion duration lasts his entire VE run, if it does go for tourbillion. Once he raises difficutly to find the sweet spot for time invested/points earned MG will quickly rise in favor.

I didn't emphasised anything about survivability in my post it was more that the defense down from Tourbillion is well worth using.

spicychai described debuffs outside of the standard def down like paralyzing triad (paralyze) and entomb (he probably ment embalming earth for slow) and you said
What else would you need debuffs like paralyze if not for safety?

If you're solo, you're relying on trusts for additional haste beyond your own haste 2(not so bad with cornelia atm), in that situation id always run MG over Tourb, caps out haste, gives a very nice def/mdb boost, and a strong regen, all this goes to your trusts too so they are just a bit less squishy, which means less likely to die or fall into ballad/evoker range cause they wasted a bunch of MP keeping themselves topped off

I figured this was without trusts. I know trusts won't always debuff but Paralyzing Triad for example was brought up and the duration on that is awful. Even without trusts I don't necessarily use it, but I'll definitely leave para to trusts if I can. Focus on important buffs and debuffs they won't provide and then do as much damage as I safely can. Embalming Earth at least lasts 3 minutes when you need your own slow.

You will have Paralyzing Triad on more than likely anyway so what is wrong with throwing that on? Yes they would need to specifically set Embarming Earth to put slow on but if they have space they might as well do. For VE though I would 100% rather use Tourbillion than MG for it to die faster since Flutter and Cornelia cap haste. No trust is going to make up for a -33% damage down and you arent that squishy that MG is going to make or break a fight, not that I'm saying Tourbillion will either.

Though after reading their post again it looks like they might be actually doing it solo and not using trusts. They had problems getting spells off and curing themselves.

The discussion about blu debuffs reminded me that I remember seeing a blu spreadsheet with all the spells, their additional effects, wsc modifiers sc properties etc all on one sheet. There may be different ones out there but I can't seem to find any of them that have decent details. My searches just found spell learning checklists. Any of you happen to have one like that?

https://www.bg-wiki.com/ffxi/Calculating_Blue_Magic_Damage#Melee_Physical_Attack_Category

That?

Not what I was looking for, though it does have a few columns of the concept. It's sadly a bit out of date and is lacking most of the post 75 spells but for what it displays, it's not bad.

The one I was looking for is a spreadsheet, might be a google sheet? But it has so much info on each spell you have to scroll sideways to view it all. I'd describe it as putting most of the wiki page for each spell in columns lol. It was pretty handy for filtering and sorting by specific things such as additional effects, traits or point cost etc.

Yeah that was my thoughts. I'm always going to want to set dual wield, what can I get out of my set spells? It looks like duration is 40-60 seconds depending on tp so use efflux or CA if you aren't using them otherwise. I'm not pretending this is a DPS increase, it's to try to save you some pain against bad things.