The Beast Within -- A Guide To Blue Mage

no. though attack buffs working to boost blue magic attack would be a nice alternative to an outright boost to the formula.

It'd also be nice if blu had a 100% reliable def down enfeeble(like Angon or Dia). It'd not only benefit other party members but would also boost physical spells. Also what is the capped pDif for blu spells? 2.0 I assume?

2.0 is capped ratio for BLU spells. Capped pDIF is 2.375 for a non crit, 3.0 for crit.

Bilgestorm I pop just after buffs


you can use BA macc set to use Frightful Roar after Bilgestorm wears


I honestly forget to try Fright's resistance rate because I'm so used to my normal blue routine but it's easy to forget old spells and if they become useful again and considering that frightful roar's duration doesn't suck and it was never hard to land on anything could help you.

You mentioning Burst Affinity on a debuff reminds me that I have to test whether or not it actually adds magic accuracy.

I don't think it does from eyeballing standards, otherwise convergence would be almost useless :x

edit: Forgot they changed it.

Convergence serves an entirely different purpose really. Thing is I always see people citing Burst Affinity as having a magic accuracy boost (including BGWiki) but there's never been testing done to prove it, nor have I ever noticed such a thing.

I always figured the boost in M.acc would have been perceived as the damage boost from BA D:

They're two separate things lol

I can't physically substantiate this but it has always added a small amount of macc but nothing comparable to elemental seal I remember using this for bomb toss cursed sphere when my blu was a woobie in its 30s soloing in rolanberry.

Yeah I just realised that rereading what I said now x.x

Any idea if there's a TP cap on BLU spells?

Efflux with Mavi Tayt+2: +166
Enchainment 5/5 with Mirage Jubbah+2: +75
CA with 300%TP: 300
Azure Lore: 350

Do these stack or is there a cap? Thinking that 300% is the cap but Azure Lore exceeds the cap and puts you at the cap of 350% but not sure.

Actually doubt 350% is the cap, just did a bunch of 300% CAflux Heavy Strikes on random mobs and they did about 4200, with Azure Lore did 6.3k

Also Proth do you think they goofed the help text for Vapor Spray/Torubillion?

Vapor Spray's poison never lands but in the actual spell menu it doesn't even say anything about Poison. The only reference to vaporspray and posion is in the help box at the top of the screen. Makes me feel like it's an error or mistranslation cuz the spell description doesnt say posion. Also about Tourbillion's defense down, people report low accuracy, could be that Chance of Effect varies with TP not duration varies with TP similar to how quadrastrike can't crit without TP.

1) Efflux with Mavi Tayt +2 is +150 TP

2) Azure Lore doesn't "increase the TP cap", it causes spell's fTP to act as if you have 350 TP.

3) Vapor Spray's poison has never existed, despite the fact that it's necessary for the spell to be anything aside from a slightly less expensive, water-based Heat Breath.

4) I've already thoroughly documented the problem with Tourbillion and other spells such as Sandspin and Hecatomb Wave: their accuracy is based entirely on base stats, skill, +macc, etc. are not taken into consideration. I like to assume that it's a bug, but at this point I've come to the realization that the spells are very likely working as intended.

Any modifications to any of blu's gear sets with the advent of 12/12 dex merits? :o

nope

Do all these stack? So if you use CA+Efflux with Mavi Tayt+2 with 300% TP while under the effect of Azure Lore with 5/5 Chain Affinity and Mirage Jubbah+2 your next spell's fTP will act as if you had 875% TP?

Chain Affinity and Efflux will provide their non-TP based bonuses only. 875% TP would be pretty easy to notice. ;x

BLU spell TP values are:

0

150

300

Azure Lore


that's it.

Ok that makes sense, so there's no need to save up TP before I do an Azure Lore+Efflux+CA Quadra Strike in Abyssea for a nice 6-7k, cool.

0/150/300/AL those are just examples right? Thought fTP for Damage varies with TP spells is linear like with WS, or does fTP only increase at those intervals for BLU spells? Pretty sure I saw a marked increase with just 60-70% TP on a CA+Heavy Strike vs a 0% CA Heavy Strike

Raising Blue Attack on physical blue spells is a bit iffy. I mean yeah it would help our damage but if our blue attack was calculated to be that high(1200-1600 as you put it) Heavy Strike would be doing 1.2-1.6k and QC would be doing 1600-2k+ and 3k+ with CAflux to harder mobs. Since blue spells are more or less "weapon skills on demand" that cost pretty low amounts of MP, it might make us pretty strong. I mean spamming QC/Amorphic/Delta/Heavy Strike all within 10 seconds on a hard mob would cost us like 220MP but we'd probably do like 5-6k damage from that. Compared to a BLM which spends 300-400 MP for 2-2.5k damage. That high of an attack rating would basically mean that blue spells for all intents and purpose would be like Resolutions or Stardivers that are instant cast for 30-90MP with 10-30 second recasts that can be used while Amnesia'd. If that was the case, instead of bringing heavy DDs, and needing embrava and stuff, you could have an armada of BLUs come to spam spells since they would be doing such high damage without needing TP to execute them. Would also mean we could just eat sushi and get consistantly high damage on our spells while melee need meat and attack buffs/songs/rolls to do high damage. Since those buffs don't affect our spells really, we'd just stock up on Acc mostly. I want BLU to have more BLU attack but a formula recalculation would be too strong, if anything, I'd be down for a 5 minute JA that lasts 2min or so that gives a 15-20% Blue Attack bonus ontop of what we already have, or even adding a Blue Attack bonus to CA or Efflux, or making things like Fantod/Triumphant Roar affect Blue Attack.

It's linear but the set points are 0, 150, 300, and AL.

For all intents and purposes, your Heavy Strike vs. Quad. Continuum comparison is derp. QC is triple the MP cost of Heavy Strike... it should be superior.

Overall, it wouldn't be that abusive given recast times and the fact that we'd still be subject to monsters with higher DEF and wouldn't be bypassing level correction... spells wouldn't be close to Stardiver or Resolution except for maybe in the ballpark once every 2~3 minutes, or if we're comparing to supergimps.

It'd be the difference between spells currently being absolutely worthless (200~600 damage thereabouts) to being worthwhile when paired with sword damage. You're way, way, way overcalculating the damage you'd get over time from spells alone.

I haven't read anything past the second page, so forgive me if this was mentioned.
I like the guide a lot, except for the suggested gear sets. It seems that the targeted audience is newer BLU players, yet the gear sets listed include items from high tier VW and Neo-Nyzul.
I was going to show this guide to my friend who's fairly new and been working on his AF3+2 gear. But then I took one look at the TP set... Thaumas Coat, Kecks, and Nails??? These are not appropriate suggested sets for BLUs that need to read guides.

Perhaps it would be good to make some sets that newer BLU's could easily build first before trying to get Thaumas or Athos sets. IE - Abyssea and pre-Abyssea gear that they will actually need before trying to get the current listed gear.

This is a suggestion btw. I do not mean it as a critique and I hope it doesn't sound that way.

There are suggested lower tier pieces of gear underneath the gearsets. Those gearsets are near to optimal models, gear under them is meant to be used in the place of optimal pieces.

I ran some attack bonuses through my spreadsheet because I was curious... keep in mind that some spells may have slightly inflated natural attack bonuses attached, which would increase the value of such an attack increase, but would lower the overall averages shown here.



Format: Attack Bonus Result/No Attack Bonus Result




+75% Blue Magic Attack
P: Lv99, 475 Skill, 171STR, 132DEX, 91VIT, 112AGI, 84INT, 80MND, 80CHR
M: Lv110, 100VIT, 500DEF







M: Lv115, 100VIT, 550DEF









+50% Blue Magic Attack
P: Lv99, 475 Skill, 171STR, 132DEX, 91VIT, 112AGI, 84INT, 80MND, 80CHR
M: Lv110, 100VIT, 500DEF









M: Lv115, 100VIT, 550DEF










100% of STR = Blue Magic Attack, Ignore 50% of Level Correction
P: Lv99, 475 Skill, 171STR, 132DEX, 91VIT, 112AGI, 84INT, 80MND, 80CHR
M: Lv110, 100VIT, 500DEF









M: Lv115, 100VIT, 550DEF


[spoiler]No Chain Affinity or Efflux

Heavy Strike: 903/607

Delta Thrust: 556/192

Vanity Dive: 855/531

Quad. Continuum: 1090/581

Amorphic Spikes: 710/245

Benthic Typhoon: 639/220




Chain Affinity (0 and 300)

Heavy Strike: 1325/891

Delta Thrust: 808/279

Vanity Dive: 1214/754

Quad. Continuum: 1593/849

Amorphic Spikes: 957/331

Benthic Typhoon: 907/313




Efflux

Heavy Strike: 1605/1080

Delta Thrust: 709/245

Vanity Dive: 1474/916

Quad. Continuum: 1664/887

Amorphic Spikes: 1298/448

Benthic Typhoon: 929/321




Chain Affinity and Efflux

Heavy Strike: 2195/1477

Delta Thrust: 961/332

Vanity Dive: 1952/1213

Quad. Continuum: 2268/1209

Amorphic Spikes: 1638/566

Benthic Typhoon: 1231/425
[/spoiler]



Maximum average increase is +72.44% damage for +75% Blue Magic Attack on the lower level target. I stand by my previous assessment, not really abusive, especially when taking into account recast times, MP costs, and the fact that to make these hit for the same as to half of the damage of a high powered weaponskill on average requires one or both JAs.

Thank you so much for this topic :D Just got CdC yesterday and looked up gearsets and such for BLU now that I'm not using a Sanus Ensis (I know, only made one Fire sword.)

Very well written, informative, and above all, HELPFUL guide. Cheers to anyone who's contributed to it, and Proth for creating such a great topic for just about ANY BLU who's looking to up their game :D

Atm im closing in on my almace & i already own a lot of the gear for ws/tp including thaumas. My prob is once i obtained thaumas feet i stupidly rushed off to sell my kacura feet +1 thinking thaumas would replace them for all situations usually use them for. I completely forgot that i used them for my BLU phys magic set. Are there any other options i could aim for or am i pretty much stuck looking dumb on ah history buying them back for a higher price? :x

NQs are passable, STR/skill augmented blood greaves (likely will end up costing you more money in the long run..), skill/str mederi brogues (if you want to spend your whole life with trophies)

Thanks a lot for the response, I'll probably go with nq and try to have a friend craft the +1 for me since the crafting items drop from vw. I also have a few questions about the optimal sets on the OP.

1. Is it worth losing capped haste from Ocelo headpiece +1 in your TP set for the Khepri bonnet's +13str & +13acc?

2. I sadly cant see myself having a chance at Portus collar so i assume id be best of using Rancor collar for TP, but when im in a situation where i cant afford the +DT I should use?

3. For CDC, Ive been trying, like so many others, to obtain Myrmex but no luck so far & i cant see myself having a chance at Khepri legs either. Would i be better of going with Athos hands/legs or is there a better combo until i can obtain myrmex? Im also missing moonshade, should i use a dex earring until i can finish my missions or Ghillie +1? Thanks in advance.

1. It's still 26%, Khepri Bonnet can be augmented with 6% Haste.

2. I'd probably go with nefarious.

3. Athos/Athos is fine. DEX Earring in high attack buff situations, Ghille in low, the DEX pulls ahead once you get over about 950~ attack or so; but my best advice would be finish WotG and get a Moonshade, it isn't too tough.

I posted some item sets to my profile for what I'm working with at the moment. Would appreciate any advice on immediate upgrades (have less than 2m to work with currently so expensive AH gear is out...I've already spent 5m+ on this job and expect to spend more) or anything else. Thanks!