Blue Mage: Best thread ever

[Ninjiz]

Also BLU itself is a great job for meriting endgame use . . . i wouldnt see anything either than /whm for event use to help healing and stoneskinaga i guess. a blue mage in my sky ls goes blu/thf for sata vertical cleave its ok damage i guess nothing that could beat ab lm thats for sure.

ninja edit: blu/nin is great for jailer of temperance but hes an easy nm himself < <

LOL Regardless... blu/thf is way more useful then a blu/whm. And If the blu/thf you saw couldnt break 500+ on kirin and CLOSE to 1k or above depending on equip, somethings wrong. And depending on the God you can break 1k+ especially on Seiryu. But /thf in hnm only work on things you are able to SA on.

[Ahnuld]

[quote=FFXIflux Ver2.0]

Is Radiant Breath as dangerous in Ballista as it is in Bhaflau Thickets?

If you stay alive longer than 5 seconds while you attempt to cast it.

I take it BLU beastmen are quicker at casting blue magic, and have farther range, than players?

Mob BLU magic is instant cast, even shit like 1000 Needles

LMAO

Next time, in all your wit, you decide to quote that, feel free to include the date it was written. It's undoubtably older than time and predates the patch that fixed this problem.[/quote:ed77d]
I don't give a damn when you wrote that shit. I am laughing at the fact that those m'fers insta casted blue magic and owned you people. That was some funny shit lol

[Delekii]

Regarding Blue magic and critical hits, including dissector:

http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/db/jobs.html ... =33;page=1

The results are far from well presented (observations rather than actual numbers), but assuming he accurately worked out and reported the outcomes, not only does Dissector not affect crits on regular spells, regular spells seemingly cannot crit AT ALL without the help of SA, or in the instance of spells whose TP effect is "Chance to crit varies with TP" during CA. He didnt do tests on whether the Crit+ on Dissector affects CA'ed spells unfourtunately.

First Phase of Trials
Test: Whacking crap with headbutt and helldive for about 20 minutes non-stop.
Observations: no critical strikes! (about 100-150 trials)
Conclusions: "wtf!?" right? On any other lvl75 job in the game I'd be sitting on a huge frequency of critical hits (like around 30% probably). Well needless to say I switched sub jobs to /THF so I could establish that the critical hit calculations were correct (which they were).

Second Trial:
Test: Using screwdriver and power attack(chance to critical w/ TP), this was basically just a ceremonial test to confirm that blue magic spells would not ever critical unless sneak attack or some other special ability like chain affinity was being used.
Observations: I've done about 150 of these, and have not observed a critical hit.
Concusions: It appears that a physical blue magic spell will never critical without assistance from an ability.

Third Trial
Test: using screwdriver and power attack with a few points of tp (like 50-150) to see if a WS would critical during chain affinity.
Observations: on the fourth or fifth trial (screwdriver) I scored a critical hit (for maximum damage to boot). Finally a positive result! (I've since done this a few more times to verify with both power attack and screwdriver)
Conclusions: A WS with the "tp increases chance of critical" description will have a chance to critical during chain affinity's duration.

Fourth Trial
Test: Now that I know a WS with a chance to critical with TP I went back to testing a normal WS (helldive, damage increases w/ tp) with the same TP ranges (50-150) to see if that would critical during chain affinity.
Observations: so far I'm 0/20... I'm going to keep doing this for another 25-30 trials if I can avoid getting bored... but it's not looking good so far.
Conclusions: It appears that a WS without any mention of critical hits in its description will not critical without the use of sneak attack/mighty strikes or some other ability which guarantees critical hits.

(I might do some tests with a single-hit club WS to see what my critical rate for a traditional WS is.)

Fifth Trial
Test: Using power attack and screwdriver w/ a dissector
Observations: No change in "highest" damage dealt (not expected either), and no criticals observed. I did at least 100 trials.
Conclusions: Dissector doesn't "add" the ability to critical to an WS which won't otherwise have a chance to critical. This is not to say that a dissector will not increase the chance to critical during chain affinity.

[Tonko]

Regarding Blue magic and critical hits, including dissector:

http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/db/jobs.html ... =33;page=1

The results are far from well presented (observations rather than actual numbers), but assuming he accurately worked out and reported the outcomes, not only does Dissector not affect crits on regular spells, regular spells seemingly cannot crit AT ALL without the help of SA, or in the instance of spells whose TP effect is "Chance to crit varies with TP" during CA. He didnt do tests on whether the Crit+ on Dissector affects CA'ed spells unfourtunately.

THANK you. I've been saying this for ages, people just weren't listening.

[Celeras]

Regarding Blue magic and critical hits, including dissector:

http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/db/jobs.html ... =33;page=1

The results are far from well presented (observations rather than actual numbers), but assuming he accurately worked out and reported the outcomes, not only does Dissector not affect crits on regular spells, regular spells seemingly cannot crit AT ALL without the help of SA, or in the instance of spells whose TP effect is "Chance to crit varies with TP" during CA. He didnt do tests on whether the Crit+ on Dissector affects CA'ed spells unfourtunately.

THANK you. I've been saying this for ages, people just weren't listening.

Theres too many situations only things like Tiamat/Kimmy, where i'll pull out a cannonball almost double what ive been consistently doing the rest of the fight. I cant speak for any other claims, but that to me suggests spells can crit.

[Delekii]

Arent you /thf when you cannonball? If you SA it, it is already a crit?

[Lordender]

cannonball is very very odd like on khim sometimes it does high 800's with CASA then the next one will hit for like 650'ish with the same gear and buff's everything else remaining a constant.

[Koyangi]

cannonball is very very odd like on khim sometimes it does high 800's with CASA then the next one will hit for like 650'ish with the same gear and buff's everything else remaining a constant.

lol and weaponskills can do the same, not exactly a mystery, I see 100-250 dmg variable alot with SA Cannonball/Vertical Cleave.

[Celeras]

cannonball is very very odd like on khim sometimes it does high 800's with CASA then the next one will hit for like 650'ish with the same gear and buff's everything else remaining a constant.

lol and weaponskills can do the same, not exactly a mystery, I see 100-250 dmg variable alot with SA Cannonball/Vertical Cleave.

Agreed, its even noticeable on wild rabbits. I personally think its just the way Blue Magic is calculated. Weapon skills tend to variate because of tp/accuracy/double attack, etc. Otherwise, they can be incredibly reliable, especially single hit WS's stacked with SA. You're not going to magically double your damage if all the conditions are equal, unless the above stats are a factor. With Blue Magic though, it doesnt seem to matter. Youll get huge bursts when those stats arent even applicable.

Until someone gets some numbers/calculations going as to why this is (its easy to say its not X, but thats not the same thing as finding out what it is), its just easier to say "crit."

[Codernaut]

That thread referenced from Alla is my thread... another poster on the thread showed some screen shots which seemed to suggest that ranged blue mage spells might be able to critical... I haven't had a chance to try to reproduce his tests and check the other ranged spells yet.

Also, I would like to test dissector during chain affinity for spells which can critical curing chain affinity (tp modifies critical chance), but it'd be a very very tedious process.... at least 4-5 hours of testing.

I apologize for what may seem like information that isn't thoroughly presented, but all you'd be doing if I listed every single spell was the same stuff I was doing which is "hmm nope, that amount of damage isn't higher than the amount a critical would have". Like you said, assuming I had the equations correct (which I did post) then the observations should be correct as well.

[Tythera]

This might be a silly question but I just spent about 20 minutes going through this thread looking for the quest imp that spams frenetic rip (remember reading about it a long time ago). Is it Bukki from Die is Cast? Don't want to take my static BLU and maybe others out there if it's the wrong one. Thanks in advance.

[Alathar]

Yeah, it's Bukki

[Umbra]

correct

[NynJa]

This might be a silly question but I just spent about 20 minutes going through this thread looking for the quest imp that spams frenetic rip (remember reading about it a long time ago). Is it Bukki from Die is Cast? Don't want to take my static BLU and maybe others out there if it's the wrong one. Thanks in advance.

well, lets see
http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/Category:Imps

Notorious Monsters in Family
Bukki <-possible
Zikko <-not a quest
Imp Bandsman <-I dont even know
Swiftwinged Gekko <-Ashu Talif
Dark Bugler <-Dark Rider
Jakko <-Salvage
Gakke <-unknown
Dekka <-Salvage
Deadpan Devilet <-Salvage


Take teh guessessssssss

[Sagacious Sundi]

Imp Bandsmen are ISNMs and Gakke is the Silver Sea socket NM. Just thought I'd add.

[LinktheDeme]

Probably a newb question for asking this and it probably was answered (I just dont wanna go through all 120 pages. . . .) If you reach the minimum level, aside from blu af hands, if your lower than level you can use, exactly at level you can use, above level you can use, below the monsters level, at the monsters level, above the monsters level. Does any of that stuff factor into the chance of learning the spell assuming the monster used it.

[Judai]

Probably a newb question for asking this and it probably was answered (I just dont wanna go through all 120 pages. . . .) If you reach the minimum level, aside from blu af hands, if your lower than level you can use, exactly at level you can use, above level you can use, below the monsters level, at the monsters level, above the monsters level. Does any of that stuff factor into the chance of learning the spell assuming the monster used it.

I'm not exactly sure what you said but in my experience it's just totally random whether you learn or not, as long as you are the right level to learn. Even with AF Hands. I've taken like 20 Bad Breaths right now and haven't learned it. Only took me 5 Hydro Shots to learn and that's higher.

I have noticed it "seems" easier to learn the closer you are to being able to use the spell. ie trying to learn Death Scissors at 59 will prolly be easier then trying at 55.

It really seems random tho. Only thing for certain is you have to have the proper level of BLU Magic to learn a spell.

[LinktheDeme]

Probably a newb question for asking this and it probably was answered (I just dont wanna go through all 120 pages. . . .) If you reach the minimum level, aside from blu af hands, if your lower than level you can use, exactly at level you can use, above level you can use, below the monsters level, at the monsters level, above the monsters level. Does any of that stuff factor into the chance of learning the spell assuming the monster used it.

I'm not exactly sure what you said but in my experience it's just totally random whether you learn or not, as long as you are the right level to learn. Even with AF Hands. I've taken like 20 Bad Breaths right now and haven't learned it. Only took me 5 Hydro Shots to learn and that's higher.

I have noticed it "seems" easier to learn the closer you are to being able to use the spell. ie trying to learn Death Scissors at 59 will prolly be easier then trying at 55.

It really seems random tho. Only thing for certain is you have to have the proper level of BLU Magic to learn a spell.

Maybe if i format it better it will be easier and give examples

Just answer increased chance of learning decreased chance of learning or unaffected for all that apply.

-If your lower than the level of the spell that can be used. I.E. Spell is usable at 59 but your 57

-If your exactly the level the spell can be used at. I.E. Spell is usable at 59 and you are also 59

-If your higher than the level of the spell that can be used. I.E. spell is usable at 59 but your 62.

(The following assume your in the level range of learning the spell)

-If your lower than the mob . I.E. your level 8 and the Quadav is level 15

-If your the same level than the mob. I.E. your level 15 and the Quadav is level 15

-If your higher than the mob. I.E. your level 18 and the Quadav is 15.

Also do certain spells have a set learning rate percent?

Because a friend and I learned Body Slam(or whatever its called) off a Dahak on our first try, two different fights as well.

[Alathar]

I'm pretty sure that the chance to learn is related to the level of your blue magic skill. I remember when ToAU was just released, I didn't learn any spells until lvl 7 or so. Then I decided to go get pollen, spammed that to skillup and the learn rate on all of my spells went way up. Similarly, I think the wiki says that the AF body reduces the level needed to learn a spell.

If you're lower level than the mob, then the chance to learn is greatly reduced. My personal belief is that each spell has a certain skill level required in order to learn it. Has anyone ever had super gimped BLU skill and learned a spell right at their level? Kinda hard to test once you're 75 with capped skill ... and would suck to test since you would have to essentially not use any magic while xping to get those levels.

[Celeras]

http://www.razorbites.com/celeras/MBfaf.jpg

I set the bar at 500 for it to be acceptable, so i'm satisfied with that. I kind've just threw a macro together for it quick, Mind Blast <t> and equip thunder staff/af body/moldavite and it ended up screwing me over. I forgot I had all haste gear macroed in for diamondhide, and didnt switch back into full /whm mnd set before casting. So that was done with Mnd+14 and Memento Mori.

I think I could break 600-650 if I was in my mnd setup. Para seemed to proc a decent amount, and even though we had a rdm casting ParaII at times I still got the wear off message.

[edit] Shit, this also means I did it with Homam head instead of AF for the correlation bonus >.< Maybe I could break 700-750 then.