Blue Mage: Best thread ever

[Suiram]

I'm pretty sure with the 1H pDIF re-un-nerf, you no longer get 50% of your crit. hits at the pdif cap, so it's possible I guess that you just rolled something low for body and high for robe? Unless those were average over repeated casts?

Also, on the subject of North Gustaberg bees, they changed their INT from 5 to 6 in a recent patch (the ones right by Port zone). I don't know why they'd do that lol

[Delekii]

testing on low level mobs is now the most fucking random shit ever... testing on about 15 casts of vertical cleave i never saw the same result twice, and got pdif ranging from 2.9 to 3.2. It basically fucked us for testing on low level mobs..

depending on the spell, morrigan and af should be very close anyway.. since morrigan gives 2fstr+more wsc (on str spells) and af gives probably 1fstr and 2 base damage (if you have 5+ blue skill merits), maybe some wsc and some attack. They aren't too far apart depending on the situation..

[Tonko]

BLU/THF, Sneak attack + Chain Affinity each spell to force consistent results.

Go out and try again to see if the #s are repeatable, but yeah, each cast was just once.

Test #2:
South Gustaberg Huge Hornets
3 casts of CASA Vertical Cleave with Robe= 1609, 1603, 1443.

Kinda stopped there when I wasn't getting reliable #s anymore. Didn't realize that they fucked SA tests on low level mobs like that. Any suggestions?

[DragonCloud64]

so, I got my Morrigan's Robe, and decided to test for damage.
BLU/THF, went out to North Gustaberg, and picked on some Bees.

Tried a low level spell first: Power Attack
AFBody: 198
Robe: 208

Just as I expected.

Then I tried a high level spell: Vertical Cleave
AFBody: 1617
Robe: 1658

I expected the BLU skill to be of more benefit over the robe's 8 STR.

Tried some other spells
Ram Charge
AFBody: 633
Robe: 658

Why is the AF Body not giving a better damage result? I thought Blue skill boosted the base damage of spells up to a certain point?

You tried it once per spell?

We're gonna need something higher lvl like, Cerberus D:

[Suiram]

BLU/THF, Sneak attack + Chain Affinity each spell to force consistent results.

Go out and try again to see if the #s are repeatable, but yeah, each cast was just once.

Test #2:
South Gustaberg Huge Hornets
3 casts of CASA Vertical Cleave with Robe= 1609, 1603, 1443.

Kinda stopped there when I wasn't getting reliable #s anymore. Didn't realize that they fucked SA tests on low level mobs like that. Any suggestions?

I would say it doesn't really need to be 'tested' to be honest, since you weren't actually testing anything specific to begin with, but rather intending to eyeball which does higher damage on low lvl mobs. The problem is that even if they hadn't changed 1H pDIF, such a test wouldn't have told you what you wanted to know anyway since you're comparing a tradeoff of 5 STR and 5 acc for 15 skill. The STR and skill differences are going to effect a difference in base damage which is already calculable without even needing to do a single cast, and in "Blue Attack" from the skill which isn't going to make a difference on Lv0 mobs anyway. It's like if someone wanted to know if a maneater or juggernaut was better for them (actually very similar, since man > jugg is -2~3 base D, -5 acc, +12 att), you wouldn't test that on low mobs but rather parse one or the other on something where the acc and attack are going to make a difference. For what it's worth, I use morrigans for TP/WS and AF for physical spells, unless I'm doing something where I'm casting more often than one would in a typical situation, in which case I just leave morrigan on fulltime, mostly so I don't lose out on the occasional tick of MP. I've never parsed though, that's just what I've decided works best just from eyeballing, so if you do parse it or something share it here please.

Edit: By the way, I think this thread deserves an award or something for surviving through the entire ToAU expansion lifetime. :D

[Kaslo]

When you run the #s through the formula I have always said that Morrigan's > AF for our /thf spells (Cannonball/VC)

and AF > Morrigan's for /nin spells (The Big 3)

If you want to see the #s they are like 6 months back in this thread ;p

[Delekii]

When you run the #s through the formula I have always said that Morrigan's > AF for our /thf spells (Cannonball/VC)

and AF > Morrigan's for /nin spells (The Big 3)

If you want to see the #s they are like 6 months back in this thread ;p

While that is true, its not the cast on lvl -1 mobs where fstr is already capped.

[fantasticdan]

Wouldn't testing morrigans on low level mobs be entirely irrelevant, since your attack function is capped?

[JoOeetheplatypuS]

When you run the #s through the formula I have always said that Morrigan's > AF for our /thf spells (Cannonball/VC)

and AF > Morrigan's for /nin spells (The Big 3)

If you want to see the #s they are like 6 months back in this thread ;p

Except Morrigan's has a ton more acc than AF so I would say its better for multihit spells.

[Suiram]

When you run the #s through the formula I have always said that Morrigan's > AF for our /thf spells (Cannonball/VC)

and AF > Morrigan's for /nin spells (The Big 3)

If you want to see the #s they are like 6 months back in this thread ;p

Except Morrigan's has a ton more acc than AF so I would say its better for multihit spells.

3.5 more acc is a ton?

[JoOeetheplatypuS]

When you run the #s through the formula I have always said that Morrigan's > AF for our /thf spells (Cannonball/VC)

and AF > Morrigan's for /nin spells (The Big 3)

If you want to see the #s they are like 6 months back in this thread ;p

Except Morrigan's has a ton more acc than AF so I would say its better for multihit spells.

3.5 more acc is a ton?

If people are willing to pay an extra 4.7 million on a sniper ring +1 over NQ (+2 acc), then yes, 3.5 acc is a ton

In any case I think that 3.5 acc is worth it.

[Suiram]

When you run the #s through the formula I have always said that Morrigan's > AF for our /thf spells (Cannonball/VC)

and AF > Morrigan's for /nin spells (The Big 3)

If you want to see the #s they are like 6 months back in this thread ;p

Except Morrigan's has a ton more acc than AF so I would say its better for multihit spells.

3.5 more acc is a ton?

If people are willing to pay an extra 4.7 million on a sniper ring +1 over NQ (+2 acc), then yes, 3.5 acc is a ton

In any case I think that 3.5 acc is worth it.

Probably dumb of me to start an argument over the semantics of "a ton" but since it's too late I guess I'll just say that some stuff Delekii posted here a while back seemed to indicate that physical spells got a 30 accuracy bonus (15% hit rate) over whatever your current melee acc is, at least for the spells he was using so unless you're sitting on 78% accuracy I don't think the bonus from Morrigan's is going to make a noticeable difference over AF. On the other hand there's no known way to boost "Blue Attack" other than through Blue Skill which means that AF body should not be discounted so easily.

[Delekii]

Probably dumb of me to start an argument over the semantics of "a ton" but since it's too late I guess I'll just say that some stuff Delekii posted here a while back seemed to indicate that physical spells got a 30 accuracy bonus (15% hit rate) over whatever your current melee acc is, at least for the spells he was using so unless you're sitting on 78% accuracy I don't think the bonus from Morrigan's is going to make a noticeable difference over AF. On the other hand there's no known way to boost "Blue Attack" other than through Blue Skill which means that AF body should not be discounted so easily.

Later tests kinda debunked that test.. in the end there was very little consistency. That said, I'd still wear af over morrigan for the multihits, acc isn't that big of an issue for me (since either I can afford to eat meat (caedarva, gcolibri with madrigal), or I cant and I have sushi on).

[Sho]

Probably dumb of me to start an argument over the semantics of "a ton" but since it's too late I guess I'll just say that some stuff Delekii posted here a while back seemed to indicate that physical spells got a 30 accuracy bonus (15% hit rate) over whatever your current melee acc is, at least for the spells he was using so unless you're sitting on 78% accuracy I don't think the bonus from Morrigan's is going to make a noticeable difference over AF. On the other hand there's no known way to boost "Blue Attack" other than through Blue Skill which means that AF body should not be discounted so easily.

Later tests kinda debunked that test.. in the end there was very little consistency. That said, I'd still wear af over morrigan for the multihits, acc isn't that big of an issue for me (since either I can afford to eat meat (caedarva, gcolibri with madrigal), or I cant and I have sushi on).

Basically agree with this gentleman. Though this is still > AF for Magical Blue Magic spells.

[VZX]

Probably dumb of me to start an argument over the semantics of "a ton" but since it's too late I guess I'll just say that some stuff Delekii posted here a while back seemed to indicate that physical spells got a 30 accuracy bonus (15% hit rate) over whatever your current melee acc is, at least for the spells he was using so unless you're sitting on 78% accuracy I don't think the bonus from Morrigan's is going to make a noticeable difference over AF.

We should try this again over the weekend some times, Suiram.
Last test was pretty unsatisfactory to me. The conclusion was either Vrytreya JT in my character or Delekii's accuracy is broken

[Tonko]

Merited on imps today a bit, and AF1 is better for Disseverment than Morrigan's. I didn't parse it, but I paid close attention to #s. Wish there was some concrete way to test it.

[Sylvrdragon]

If BLU AFv2 follows the general rule of most AFv2s, then we should see at least one non-body piece with +15 Blue skill on it. I wonder which piece they'll put it on. Which would we WANT it on? Head is probably the most likely. I really wouldn't mind seeing +15 Blue Magic and Auto-refresh ala-RDM. Considering the general theme of BLUs being somewhat parallel to RDM, that wouldn't really surprise me all that much.

I predict a +15 Skill head (possibly with Auto-refresh), a craptastic Monster Correlation Body, feet with either MAB or M.ACC, hands with whichever the feet don't have, and legs with something we've never seen before, perhaps something that boosts Blue Magic job traits (Since BLU doesn't have much else native to boost like other jobs). I think that last would be awesome. Something that turns a tier1 trait into a tier2 trait (or next higher in the instance of stackable stuff like Clear Mind). If that could give us Auto-RefreshII, then we wouldn't really NEED it on the hat... I hope I'm right about this one.

I also predict that with the release of WotG, we will get spells that allow us to set Fast Cast trait, and maybe Double Attack.

Anyone else have any speculation on the future of BLU?

[Delekii]

There is no way we will get +15 blue skill on the head, let alone 15 skill and auto refresh. That would a extra 4 base damage on top of what is available on physical spells. Blue Magic Skill has much more notable impact than enfeebling skill.

[fantasticdan]

That would a extra 4 base damage on top of what is available on physical spells.

So what? It would also be minus whatever defense/vit/str/dex/acc for whatever the equipment your using it in replacement of. And it's not like physical spells are very strong at 75 compared to what other DDs can do, barring like cannonball on cereberus.

[Valrath]

Could also cap spell D so that the +15 extra blue magic skill will only affect macc for nukes/enfeebles and blue att rating.

I'm hoping for it to be in feet/legs. Hands have pallas/alky, head has O. hat/morrigan, while feet and legs don't have much, a few points of str and acc. Big deal.