Blue Mage: Best thread ever

[Sylvrdragon]

Anything on a 10 minute timer merits down in 20s intervals. From 10, you could merit it down to 8:20, (speaking from yummy Convert Merits experience) which would be good enough IMO.

[Judai]

Except Diffusion is a Cat2 Merit and they don't work like Cat1 merits. Kinda like Feint;

Feint
Your next attack will greatly reduce an enemy's evasion.
Obtained: Thief Level 75
Recast Time: 10 minutes
Duration: 1 minute or until a melee hit connects

Notes/Description
Each merit decreases recast time by 2 minutes

If Diffusion merits worked like this, I would actually Merit it. As is, it's shit.

[Fiofio]

Quick question... does INT and Magic Attack affect MP Drainkiss? I've been using Magic Hammer too much.

[VZX]

No one knows what stat(s) affect MP Drainkiss other than magic accuracy and blue magic skill itself. For sure it's not INT or MAB. But the guess is dark magic skill.

[Tonko]

It's not Dark Magic Skill, otherwise the spell wouldn't do jack shit as BLU/NIN in Dynamis against NMs & mobs. I think it's Blue Skill related, influenced by Magic Accuracy & normal correlation bonuses such as Pluto's Staff & Day/weather bonuses.

[fantasticdan]

I've tried subbing drk, and it seems to have no effect. Same thing with int/mnd/chr (they are on the same gears so it's easy to see lol) and MAB.

The only stats/gears that seem to have affect are blue magic skill, dark/pluto's staff, af hat (against birds), and magic accuracy.

It's not Dark Magic Skill, otherwise the spell wouldn't do jack shit as BLU/NIN in Dynamis against NMs & mobs. I think it's Blue Skill related, influenced by Magic Accuracy & normal correlation bonuses such as Pluto's Staff & Day/weather bonuses.

I don't think he was expecting mp drainkiss to be based primarily on dark magic skill, but guessing it could give a little boost isn't that crazy when you consider the affect of healing magic skill on magic fruit, wild carrot, and healing breeze. Regardless, dark skill doesn't seem to do anything from my testing.

[Alistaire]

It's not Dark Magic Skill, otherwise the spell wouldn't do jack shit as BLU/NIN in Dynamis against NMs & mobs. I think it's Blue Skill related, influenced by Magic Accuracy & normal correlation bonuses such as Pluto's Staff & Day/weather bonuses.

It has been shown that standard magic skills help blue magic of similar use. Easiest to see is healing magic. I've seen it said that dark magic helps blu aspirs, but haven't seen/done any tests myself.

[Tonko]

May be enhanced by it, I've got Crimson gauntlets, Dark Earring & Torque, I'll go try it out with /DRK sometime to see what happens.

Edit: K, went out to Yhotoar Jungle on BLU/NIN first with 0 Dark Magic skill. Found a Light Elemental owned by a Tonberry and proceeded to MP Drainkiss it 5 times. Gear was:
Main: Pluto's
Sub: Raptor +1
Head: Morrigan's Coronal
Neck: Promise Badge
Ear1: Magnetic
Ear2: Loquacious
Body: Jubbah
Hands: Nashira
Ring1: Aqua
Ring2: Balrahn's
Back: Prism
Waist: Penitent's
Legs: Homam
Feet: Denali

Earth day, no weather.
Light Elemental
Results: 151, 143, 112, 113, 80, then it ran dry. Logged out, back in, and tried again once the elemental got MP back.
Results: 148, 117, 146, 94, 96, then it ran dry. Logged out, back in.
No Burst Affinity or Convergence were used on any of these. Did one more with both JAs active: Result was 124, and it cast Banishga II right after so I know I didn't drain it dry.

Warped home, changed to /DRK, and swapped Dark Torque & Earring on, and crimson Gloves for a total of 134 Dark skill. Surely enough to show a marked difference.

Back out to the jungle.

Results: 139, 132, 119, 79, 96, 114, then ran dry. No improvement at all, deffinentally not effected by Dark Magic skill.

[Fiofio]

Thanks, now I won't have to waste my time or inventory on INT gear just for MP Drainkiss

[HAcoreRD]

What did grand train do?

It did a shitton of damage, that's what the fuck it did. It looked like some sort of spatial rending technique. I don't know how to describe it.

Nonelemantal AOE damage. That and Quasar were hot

[Chupunpupun]

Does the game take into consideration of the DMG on my weapon when casting phsyical BLU spells or it's all base on BLU skill?

I.E. Will I do the same damage disseverment using a LV1 weapon as a LV75 weapon??

[Sho]

Does the game take into consideration of the DMG on my weapon when casting phsyical BLU spells or it's all base on BLU skill?

I.E. Will I do the same damage disseverment using a LV1 weapon as a LV75 weapon??

Blue Magic Skill, Physical Potency Merits, STR, DEX, VIT, AGI, etc. Weapon Skill Level is only for general spell accuracy-- DMG rating does nada. Though something makes it feel like there's a hidden modifer for physical spells, I can't put my finger on what it is.

[VZX]

Does the game take into consideration of the DMG on my weapon when casting phsyical BLU spells or it's all base on BLU skill?

I.E. Will I do the same damage disseverment using a LV1 weapon as a LV75 weapon??

Blue Magic Skill, Physical Potency Merits, STR, DEX, VIT, AGI, etc. Weapon Skill Level is only for general spell accuracy-- DMG rating does nada. Though something makes it feel like there's a hidden modifer for physical spells, I can't put my finger on what it is.

98% sure it's not

[LinktheDeme]

Does the game take into consideration of the DMG on my weapon when casting phsyical BLU spells or it's all base on BLU skill?

I.E. Will I do the same damage disseverment using a LV1 weapon as a LV75 weapon??

Blue Magic Skill, Physical Potency Merits, STR, DEX, VIT, AGI, etc. Weapon Skill Level is only for general spell accuracy-- DMG rating does nada. Though something makes it feel like there's a hidden modifer for physical spells, I can't put my finger on what it is.

98% sure it's not

What's it do then? >.>

[fantasticdan]

Does the game take into consideration of the DMG on my weapon when casting phsyical BLU spells or it's all base on BLU skill?

I.E. Will I do the same damage disseverment using a LV1 weapon as a LV75 weapon??

Blue Magic Skill, Physical Potency Merits, STR, DEX, VIT, AGI, etc. Weapon Skill Level is only for general spell accuracy-- DMG rating does nada. Though something makes it feel like there's a hidden modifer for physical spells, I can't put my finger on what it is.

98% sure it's not

What spells did you test with? If physical potency adds to base damage like (I think?) blue magic skill does, it might not show up with lower level spells, since you would already be hitting the cap. Low-mid level spells might also have an 'attack' cap as well, unless you've already tested that with AF body/blu skill merits?

[Delekii]

It 100% does not affect base damage.

Data is back (quite) a few pages to suggest that it does not affect pdif either.

The most likely scenario at the moment is that it affects accuracy, but there is very little proof of that either, so far.

[fantasticdan]

It 100% does not affect base damage.

Data is back (quite) a few pages to suggest that it does not affect pdif either.

The most likely scenario at the moment is that it affects accuracy, but there is very little proof of that either, so far.

I only see you guys testing with low-mid level spells like head butt, sickle slash, pinecone bomb, etc., which should be irrelevant as far as testing base damage is concerned, since they are already hitting a cap. You have a test of 70+ spells like vertical cleave?

[Delekii]

It 100% does not affect base damage.

Data is back (quite) a few pages to suggest that it does not affect pdif either.

The most likely scenario at the moment is that it affects accuracy, but there is very little proof of that either, so far.

I only see you guys testing with low-mid level spells like head butt, sickle slash, pinecone bomb, etc., which should be irrelevant as far as testing base damage is concerned, since they are already hitting a cap. You have a test of 70+ spells like vertical cleave?

Yes.

max base damage on every spell is still 69, which is expected with current merits+af. In fact, every spell from level 60 onwards has a base damage of 69 with full merits and af at 75.

[Sho]

It 100% does not affect base damage.

Data is back (quite) a few pages to suggest that it does not affect pdif either.

The most likely scenario at the moment is that it affects accuracy, but there is very little proof of that either, so far.

So you just basically said PP does [nothing] at all. I'm very doubtful that it affects spell accuracy, it would somewhat defeat the purpose of weapon skill level -> accuracy ratio. Mind if you link me to the pages? (I'm still not convinced it affects accuracy, I've had this conversation come up before). Also, has these tests been done using Disseverment and Cannonball? For those two spells, one could debate that the base dmg cap is not 69, based on how they work.

If you say it [PP] doesn't affect damage, then it either affects Accuracy, or Critical Hit. It's still uncertain (and highly accepted as impossible without a job ability granting critical hits) that spells can even *crit*, so you are mainly looking at Acc; a scenario I still look down on. If you do say it affects Critical Hit, we can all nip this "Blue Magic Spells don't crit" dealy in the bud. Maybe we should ask SE sometime, see what it really does.

(As for the base dmg, you can get D71, if you came across a Ksi Sash.)

P.S. To fix what I said up top, I meant to add Monster Correlation.

[LD]

it would somewhat defeat the purpose of weapon skill level -> accuracy ratio.

Not really. Lets assume it's accuracy. Your acc for spells will be higher than your sword accuracy. People who spam multi-hit spells would like this for merit and you could land more spells on the more evasive HNM. Switch out acc gear for more stat mods? You'll feel safer doing it now...assuming it's acc, of course. I bet it'd take a while to test.