A Blu equipment/how to question

[lovehatehero]

Well I've taken a liking very much so to BLU and i want to make sure that i play it the best i can and have a few questions. I've mostly been soloing seeing as how PT's are rare these days and i just spam spells, now that i am 55 ive gotten a few pt's and i take it i dotn spam spells anymore. Is there a "right" way as to how many i cast? Or is it just whenever here or there? I was thinking mostly if im subed thf i use them with SA and such but im just not sure. And also, gear. I know most the spells have a str factor to them so i take it just have a good haste/acc TP build for equipment then a macro set for str gear? any help would be greatly appericated :D!!

[Suiram]

Mid-late 50s kinda sucked to level, just because other jobs are taking off, but you're stagnating until the early 60s. For physical spell gear in exp PT, you want to gear the same as you would for a WS where Attack didn't matter, so namely load up on Acc and STR, and between the two try to find the right balance. As for how often to cast, the easiest answer is to always PT with a RDM, set Auto Refresh when you get it, and use Sanction Refresh, so you're getting 5mp/tick, and then just try to pace yourself--a good metric I used was to try to keep my MP at about 35~50% of max for the entire party. If it gets up too high, pop off a few spells in quick succession (particularly nice on a mob when all the other melee just blew their TP on a previous one), if it gets too low, then hold off for a couple mobs, it's the sort of thing you just get the hang of. Levelling without some form of refresh is pretty painful though, since you shouldn't have to rest MP, I wouldn't exp without it.

I never really exped /thf, but a lot of people swear by it for those levels (especially 60-63), so maybe someone can offer more advice if you choose to try that out.

[lovehatehero]

Awsome some good advise. Yea i just threw /thf out there cause thats what i have seen a lot of BLU's use. I have most other usefull subs lvld as well such as nin whm etc. LOL that brings up another question haha wait subs to use but ima look more into that im sure theres a lot of info floating aroudn on it as well

[astura]

your also at birds so mp drain kiss will be your best friend seance its a spam able aspir and has a nice monster correlation to help it (pop in haste and af body/head for bird partys). As for mp issues tossing a headbutt, spare cure out, self hasting (only if whm or rdm wont haste you) and frightful roar (stacks with dia but acid bolts override it) helps move a party along smother. as for acc it depends. When i did those levels tped in all acc gear and depending on my food and acc depended on how much acc gear i would use. Think of spells like ws a single hit ws will hit a lot with proper acc gear so yo can stack atk/str but anything more then 3 hits youll want to lean more towards acc gear (unless your poping sushi's but if you got a nice dot set up for melee a dew spells on birds could change that easy enough) only spells id say you need to acc stack are hysteric barrage/disservement/asuran fist with frenetic rip and bludegon iffy. main reason for this is the overall ws dmg. with caped 95% acc a 4 hit ws has only a .95^4 (81%)chance to have all hits connect. (5 hitters are 77% chance to connect all hits with caped 95% acc so keep this in mind)

Basically you get into a rhythm in partys (based on ca recast etc) on when to cast what spell so your not wasting mp but your not going to bottom out. Get a proper tp set (sh/5acc ring*2/lifebelt or potents/battle gloves/chiv chain acc or acc neck) and it will do you very well for long time. Setting the acc bonus trait at 63+ helps to. Also sushi will be your best friend unless you are trying for a build to use meats in exp. as for spell casting some recomendations to aim for:
chiv chain
af body/str hands/acc ring/str ring
ammet or smiloden/potent belt

give a nice mix of acc and str for spells so your not lack luster on acc or str. and if your /thf and do sa every minute all out str everytime where you can get it. but your not /thf youll be /nin for DDing in a party or /whm if your a healer. Only time to /rdm or /blm is if your playing with magic build but you can set mab 1 and requires gear and merit investments to be worthwhile outside breath builds.

[Sylvrdragon]

I would like to reiterate what was said above about laying on good damage on the mobs that the DDs don't have TP on. I usually did 1 DD spell and HB spam normally, then 2-3 DD spells and only HB on/after mob TP moves when the DDs have already blown their load. It REALLY helps the chains flow.

Also note: If you /THF and SA your main DD spells, then you don't need any ACC gear for that one spell. Load up as much STR as you possibly can as SA makes it 100% from behind (and facing the mob, says several recent sources).

[Kongolo]

not a blu but i like blu

anyways just a thought /blm or /drk, so u get Drain kiss and Aspir.

[arshesney]

not a blu but i like blu

anyways just a thought /blm or /drk, so u get Drain kiss and Aspir.

With halved Dark Magic skill your Aspirs gonna suck (4-8 mp), kinda like whm/blm. Maybe /sch, since it boosts skill levelsunder Dark Arts, but you're giving away too much physical stats and overall damage and general usefulness (in a party) to not sub nin or thf.
I personally always went /thf till Imps: SACA Mandibular Bite/Sickle Slash/Death Scissors is great. With the latter chopping away 30-40% mob's HP alone (about 1,6-2k damage).

[eva00r]

Don't /blm or /drk .. low dark skill won't work ever.

However, do /THF since 48 to 70 or until you get Disseverment.

[Force-Attuned Krogoth]

blu/thf ftw.

But don't forget Dimensional Death. It's way better than Sickle or Scissors at low TP. I never cast Death Scissors without CA and 150+ TP. And if you're overhunting, or the crawler just used cocoon as you hit CA, dimdeath's atk mod can sometimes be invaluable.

[astura]

yeah best to dimensional death if your over 150 tp every 2 minutes somethings wrong with how your party or your play style. btw at 60+ its best to stop self scing and just casa/sa spells for dmg then.

[LinktheDeme]

Wow I was just gonna pass over this topic in hopes that someone would hit the nail on the head on a response but a lot of these are just kind of bad. NEVER EVER SJ BLM OR DRK for drain or aspir. You're damage will be shot a lot if you SJ anything other than NIN or THF.

For SJ purpose: you wanna SJ NIN up until level 60 then you can do SATA Death Scissors then SJ THF. You should never try to store tp (unless you have 70 tp anything less is a huge waste of DOT) or bother trying to SC at this point with spells because the vast majority of the time while you'll have a few extra damage from the SC and more Epeen you'll have more overall DOT from using CA everytime its up (you'll wanna stack it with SATA when you have /thf though). Do not bother MBing all magical spells are a waste of time in every exp situation.(Though this is subject to change i suppose if they introduce a patch). Post 67 Or whenever you go to imps change SJ to NIN you'll end up having more DPS from the extra hand because you wont be able to use SATA the vast majority of the time.

Also it is possible for you to sj WHM or SCH and main heal for a PT you'll be on par with a SMN.

Job ability purpose: Like stated above use Chain Affinity and SATA when its up always otherwise its a big waste of time. If you have over 100% tp use WS and then use your strongest attack to CA and SATA with. Don't bother with SCing you'll most likely have higher damage output scenarios without the SC damage for the vast majority of the time (there are certain situations though)

MP usage: A lot of blus simply just melee and do NOT use their MP the general principle is you wanna spam DD spells and use head butt inbetween (smartly though) until you have about 150ish mp from there being really just only use head butt and bludgeon when needed. Scenario can vary based on the amount of refresher as well.

For gear set up you wanna have a TP set a WS set and a Spell set.

for TP you wanna aim for as much haste and accuracy mine is

BLU TP:

Perdu sword
Ifrit's blade
Tiphia sting
Walahra Turban
Swift Belt
Homam Gambieras
Homam Legs
Peacock Charm
Scorpion harness
Amemet mantle +1
Brutal Earring
suppanomimi
Dusk Gloves
Balrahn's Ring (If assault or salvage if not then Snipers +1)
Rajas Ring

For general spells you want something with blue skill > str > acc

Perdu sword
Ifrit's blade
Tiphia sting
Voyager Sallet
Warwolf Belt
Marine M Boots
Homam Legs
Chiv chain
BLU AF Body
Smilodon mantle +1
Minuet Earring
suppanomimi
Alky Brac
Omicron Ring
Rajas Ring

For WS just standard WS gear you can probably mix something between the two I use

Perdu sword
Ifrit's blade
Tiphia sting
Voyager Sallet
Warwolf Belt
Homam Gambieras
Homam Legs
Chiv chain
BLU AF Body
Amemet mantle +1
Minuet Earring
suppanomimi
Alky Brac
Omicron Ring
Rajas Ring

For individual spells in endgame your set ups will change drastically I have a different setup for frenetic rip and disservement, different one for vertical cleave, and a different one for cannonball. That's just melee spells for nuke spells and breath spells its a different game entirely.

Just don't be dumb and store tp past 100 it kills DOT a lot for slight Epeen. A lot of melee pick that up in burn pts some people just get lazy but it kills it alot. Also MP Drainkiss with AF head is godsend on birds i had a seperate macro for it but I can't find it atm cause I don't merit blu anymore on birds since i leveled rdm cor and war. ;o

main ideas: Make sure your not sitting on a lot of MP ws at right times, have auto refresh and conserve mp set always. You'll get acc bonus later too as well as conserve mp. And have different gear sets for spells and you'll be 10 times ahead of a lot of endgame blus (Majority of random BLU population are tards and it makes me cry inside :/)

[Force-Attuned Krogoth]

Meh, there's no one correct way to do it. Just use your MP, use your JAs, and get the best you can out of each. I subbed /thf until 74, you can TA a multi-hit on tank then run around and blast the SA. Alternately you can go /nin at 63 and launch frenetic rip whenever the recast is up. The wrong thing to do is not use the tools at your disposal.

[LinktheDeme]

If people have the attitude that there is no one correct way to do it then you'll see people meleeing in full BLU AF when all of it is actually pretty terrible for meleeing and not having spell set up equips to get the optimization from every action you take.

Unless your referring to the people that deviate slightly for money costs or inventory costs while still following the basic principle. Those I support because they are trying to optimize themselves from whats within their reach and they are pretty much still 10 steps ahead of the game. If you're refering to this then excuse this post as this is a valid argument.

Also I forgot to mention the only food you should be using is Sushi as the majority of your damage should be coming from your spells (If not then there is most likely a problem with the amount your casting or just lower levels deviate too much can't remember how it was too much at that level) and attack doesnt carry over from the food only acc does. Ideally is Sole sushi for STR and Acc but if you cannot afford that then go with squid or bream.

[Battlecat]

le sigh... this post actually forced me to finally register on this site.

Situational things are situational...

First off... the MBing is never worth the mp cost is a load of crap... It's rather awesome if you're leveling on an aspirable mob in the late 40's early 50's. Red Lotus Blade >> CASA Sickle Slash = Gravitation + MP Drainkiss MB = you just gained MP for busting out some great damage, sounds pretty worth it to me.

/nin should really only be used for soloing, colibri, imps, and merits. Anything that is actually tanked should be /thfed. Far more MP efficient damage with /thf.

As for the gearing question. Yes, have a TP build. For the spells, it differs a bit. If you're /thf, stack on all the STR you can as all physical spells have it as a modifier(some have others as well, can look it up on any of the spell pages on the wiki), but once you get to multi hit spells you're gonna want to keep a good amount of accuracy in there as well to make sure you're landing all the hits consistently.

I can't for the life of me figure out why Link posted all his gear in this thread... but I will agree with him/her on one thing... DON'T TP IN YOUR AF!!!! Remember that old commercial with the landfill and the native american guy with the single tear running down his cheek... that's me every time I see a BLU TPing in their AF or even worse... TPing/Dissevermenting in +mp, int and mnd gear (okay that last one only happened once... but he was 75 and in Limbus for christs sake... should know better)

[Delekii]

MP efficient for the BLU perhaps, not for the healer.

[Battlecat]

How is it less MP efficient for the healer if you use it in situations where you have a proper tank? More damage, kills monster faster and therefore tank is getting hit less, feeds monster less TP so tank isn't getting TP moved as often. You still have metallic body for damage mitigation at that level and by being more MP efficient you would then have more MP with which to cure yourself and save the healer his or her MP... where's the drawback exactly?

Well... I guess this does depend on having a good paladin... but I did say situational things are situational.

[VZX]

My question for exp /THF user is : do you seriously think you kill faster than /NIN?

Getting 1k-2k damage on exp mob is nice, but I think steady damage output is a better alternative.

[Septimus]

Man, where did people find all of these competent tanks while leveling up? I am solidly in the /NIN camp because even with good PLDs you are going to pull hate sometimes on BLU. With bad tanks, the chances of your SA/TA landing are really low since the mob is going to be spinning in circles, and chances are people will run out of the way when they year the TA sound. (I always manage to find the worst parties when I leveled THF or tried /THF.)

And MP Drainkiss is awesome on Colibri, magic bursting it and swapping in a Pluto's Staff will help make it all the more consistant and useful.

[Battlecat]

I /thf'd in every party I had as blu up until the caedarva mire levels (granted, I solo'd the vast majority of levels) and kept up or surpassed every other DD in my parties and made /nin blu's look silly, so... yes, I did kill faster. Never had a single complaint, had a lot of "wow, i was really worried about inviting a blu, but i'm impressed" type messages. Maybe when level sync comes out I'll actually parse it, i've got a couple of people in those middle levels in my LS I can drag out with me I think. I'm honestly amazed this is even argued... maybe I just got really lucky or something.

edit: Also amazed at the love for Dimensional Death here as I found that one to be a complete waste of MP...
edit#2: VZX... i effin love that sig lol

[Nevex]

Dimensional Death is a situational spell (like most of BLU spells, anyway).
It completely ruins Magic Pots, and works well even without /THF against Khimaira in Nyzul.
Don't forget it's part of the Accuracy Bonus trait combo and it might be preferable to set over Disseverment in certain situations (namely when you want to avoid excessive TP feeding).

Edit: For leveling purposes it's an ok spell I guess, not the best but doesn't suck either.
Accuracy Bonus alone is a good reason to have it set though, at least till level 71.