Blue Mage: Best thread ever

[LD]

Well, they wouldn't have to put BLU points on equipment if they simply improved Assimilation. ¬¬
Seriously, another 2 upgrades isn't gunna do jack. 2 points each upgrade is the least they could do to really add something. I mean, I pretty much just loaded on the crappy 1 point spells. I've tried some other combos, but I don't think I'm getting anything substantial either way after 12 merits invested (though it's more than what the other G2s would give.)

[Sesshoumaru]

thing is with 5 more points your not gonna be seeing any huge combos as apposed to 3 more.. maybe a trait or maybe a high point spell?
either way I don't think it will be a huge difference and I don't see SE giving us 7 more points either. I will for sure as hell be pissed if SE did some stupid shit like oh heres some new spells and 2 more points please look to an upcoming patch for further blu enhancements. unless of course those spells are kick ass. However I foresee SE doing something horribly stupid like insanely high mp cost/ severely reduced strength then mobs/ really dumb modifiers, I really don't want to carry anymore gear/ I really can't carry anymore gear. Or just something like asuran claw being on par with frenetic rip hysteric barrage or even disseverment. While this will be slightly useful in the long run it will be a "meh" update if all we got was some mediocre spells and 2 more points.

I'd much rather cheer for a solid spell af2 item and spells then spells and 2 more points. but some people liek vanilla and others like chocolate so who cares really.

W/E SE is really pissing me off in general F V-day, How bout they rip out a devs heart in front of the other devs and put a fire under their asses. They have a shit ton of stuff they need to do.

You know what as I think about let SE add in what ever dumb shit they want as long as they don't fuck with the way blu works.

I'd still like to know where exactly would SE add in AF2 to be honest. I don't see how they will make WoTG and ToAU jive with each other so probably wont be in a past event and I really don't see them making an all new area just for Blu Cor and Pup AF2. If they just tossed it into nyzul, dyna, or eihnherjar(sp?) that would just be kinda cheap. meh my head hurts I'm goign to bed.

[LD]

Eeehhh....Yea. As it is, there isn't a huge difference, which is what I was saying. I never said I wanted huge combos, I just find it ridiculous that we can't even take advantage of a few more slots even if the upgrades did go up to 5. 2-3 points per upgrade would at least help bridge the gap. Also, the amount of exp we're investing for them is equally asinine. 1 point for one upgrade doesn't really seem that great when you're dropping 12 (with a new max, 22-25) merits.

I really have no expectations for AF2, it can be as good or as bad as normal AF. I'd just like some 'free' BLU skill so we can catch up to the max skill levels of the other mage jobs.

[Kaslo]

(Refresh on the body is just a given).

Actually I would disagree. I would say refresh on the head is a given. If you compare our AF to RDM AF, statwise, it's almost a complete copy. No reason our AFv2 would be any different.

[Shassira]

Funky stuff i'd like to see in AF2 that could possibly go in there (as in, SE won't have a hard time making it. If you notice their trend, most of what they add are system tweaks as opossed to radical new ways of handling things):

1. More blue magic skill in places different from a body piece. Here's hoping for feet or legs.
2. Another tier of monster correlation enhancement. When exploited correctly, the head piece gives you a decent boost with that enhacement (Ex: MP Drainkiss vs Birds), so one more tier + blu skill would be quite interesting.
3. Monster correlation removal. Although absolutely circumstancial, there's a couple times i can't land a single debuff because of this D= Wouldn't mind seeing this.
4. Chain/Burst Affinity enhancement. Be it either timer reduction or a TP bonus.
5. Refresh on a non body piece. Let me dream, RDM got it D=

As for what we'll probably get:
1. Evasion skill +15 head piece
2. Sword skill +5 hands
3. Acc +10 body piece
4. Conserve MP+2 legs
5. STR+3, DEX+3 feet.


-A refresh body piece is something i wouldn't mind, but Morrigan's *is* there for blu as well as Vermy cloak. Chances are that on SE's eyes these two tiers are enough refresh body options and as such they won't add more.

-Extra points on gear won't work well because they'll have to face the problem of what to do when the piece is removed and you have equiped spells over the original point limit. I know the answer is "just deactivate last spell", but you have to understand SE seems to like to keep it simple lately. They'd have to deactivate last spell or last spells that go over the top as well as remove the traits that might be composed by the spells. On top of this, they'll have to make this so that it won't lock up the rest of your spell list for 1 minute. As much as this is possible, it's very unlikely that they'll go so far.

-Assimilation is a good idea with bad execution (talk about the recurring themes in this game >.>). 1 single point for 3 merits is pretty weak. Although it is true that sometimes i find myself wanting at least one more point, it doesn't seem a fair deal to pay 3 merits on this, specialy when it excludes other merit options.
2 points per upgrade or even 3 points would be interesting.
As things stand, BLU spell list is severely limited despite the huge and imposing list of spells. Like... what, 30 or 40 spells are worthless because they are outdated at 75 or simply have no use (stupid timers and MP costs... hi plasma charge, hi enervation >_>) then from the rest you are mostly forced to "waste" points in spells you might not bother using but you need the traits. In the end, you are left with half your points to build a spell list of useful stuff, but some spells already cost absurd amounts of points (Refueling 4 points, Death Scissors 5, Temporal Shift 5... ouch). So in the end, you cast the same spells and juggle around with the last 1 or 2 spells.
10 more points or a general point reduction of the spell points price would make this job much more fun without even making it a threat to balance.

-As for touching Head Butt, tbh, i think this spell is almost borderline broken already =P The impossed limitations (physical attack tha can miss + added effect that can not proc) are a fair downside to the absurdly low timer. Head Butt, Fry Pan and Temporal Shift are my three prefered spells and even then i'd say that making head butt better would simply dumb things waaaay too much.

[LD]

(Refresh on the body is just a given).

Actually I would disagree. I would say refresh on the head is a given. If you compare our AF to RDM AF, statwise, it's almost a complete copy. No reason our AFv2 would be any different.

As much as I'd love to wear BLU AF hat over...pretty much everything else, I have two words for you:

Morrigan's Robe.

Yea, RDM gets Robe and their hat, but they have to sub SMN or PLD for the trait (and they have refresh & convert, so it's a different ball game, i.e. they get fucking everything. ¬¬) Giving us 3 forms of auto-refresh doesn't seem very likely.

Of course, I hope I'm wrong (BLU +15 & Refresh on a headpiece? Throw up them horns, mutha fucka), but I'm not going to raise my expectations for an item that doesn't even seem to be on the horizon. All I expect from SE are the 5 spells we’ve been waiting for since November.

[Kaslo]

(Refresh on the body is just a given).

Actually I would disagree. I would say refresh on the head is a given. If you compare our AF to RDM AF, statwise, it's almost a complete copy. No reason our AFv2 would be any different.

As much as I'd love to wear BLU AF hat over...pretty much everything else, I have two words for you:

Morrigan's Robe.

Yea, RDM gets Robe and their hat, but they have to sub SMN or PLD for the trait (and they have refresh & convert, so it's a different ball game, i.e. they get fucking everything. ¬¬) Giving us 3 forms of auto-refresh doesn't seem very likely.

Of course, I hope I'm wrong (BLU +15 & Refresh on a headpiece? Throw up them horns, mutha fucka), but I'm not going to raise my expectations for an item that doesn't even seem to be on the horizon. All I expect from SE are the 5 spells we’ve been waiting for since November.

Well it wouldn't be rediculous on the head for one major reason, we wouldn't wear it full time. Being so Melee focused many people would pass up refresh for W.turban or Homam for TP gain gear, and the skill would only be a useful spell macro. But none the less I can see it happening just based on the sheer consistency with RDM AF and the aforesaid reason.

[Jeebz]

Headbutt is a solid spell, we already have more reliable stun spells that we just don’t use, because HB just covers practically everything. Making the duration longer would be a bit broken in my opinion. Giving it a 100% stun rate seems a tad excessive, but that’s more reasonable.

if af2 gave "enhance additional effects"...pretty much covers all addiotional effects of our physical spells...would be nice i think
not sure how balanced..but would depend on what it did exactly be it increase chance of proc or duration of effect etc

[Sesshoumaru]

Headbutt is a solid spell, we already have more reliable stun spells that we just don’t use, because HB just covers practically everything. Making the duration longer would be a bit broken in my opinion. Giving it a 100% stun rate seems a tad excessive, but that’s more reasonable.

if af2 gave "enhance additional effects"...pretty much covers all addiotional effects of our physical spells...would be nice i think
not sure how balanced..but would depend on what it did exactly be it increase chance of proc or duration of effect etc

it would have to increase the duration of headbutt by like a second to be worth it otherwise I'd prolly just stick with accuracy. How ever a 100% chance to proc stun is something of another story.

[rath]

As for af+1 or af2 linking in with TaO and WoTG, they opened that up with time travel. Who is to say that apprentice that was at the shop we got our af at, doesn't come trotting out of the future with some new skills looking for some now "extinct" mobs to use as parts. We get them for him , and he offers to make us a new set of af2 or af+1.

Edit: My personal hope for af2 AND new spells, is that some of the gear, adds the spell to your equipped spells. No points needed, and we don't have to worry about what to drop to fit them in.

[Sesshoumaru]

I think if they gave us 5%haste legs with 4str and 4dex I couldn't have one complaint. or even 5% haste and 5 Blu skill would rock. I doubt they would tie wotg into AF for us tho it wouldn't make sense, unless they put in some corny twist or some such. What ever it is I hope they make it low man content or very very appealing to other jobs other then just the ToAU jobs.

[Charismatic]

I don't think we'll ever get better haste legs than homam, just don't see it.

[ronin sparthos]

Cross-expansion AF/Relic is unheard of, so whatever it is that makes or drops the relic armor would either be synth mats a player could buy or a retaconned dynamis/einherjar.

[LD]

We'd wear a refresh hat as often as we wear Morrigan's robe, especially if the hat also gave a good amount of BLU skill or melee stats. How melee focused a BLU is depends a lot on the BLU and what he's doing. No matter what a BLU is doing, he's using MP, so I could easily see someone keeping it on full time. Really, the only reason people might not keep Morrigan on full time is because other pieces give larger bonuses to one thing or another (e.g. AF body), instead of one pretty well balanced piece. As far as a refresh hat goes, the only competition it would really have is Turban or Homam, and refresh could ultimately be more practical than 3-5% haste (acc is a non-issue, imo, for a myriad of reasons).

Gotta remember that physical spells aren't the only ones with additional effects. A trait that increases the likelihood of all additional effects would be quite welcome, it might get some of the lesser spells used a bit more.

Adding a spell directly to equipment comes with a lot of problems, not the least of which is getting a really good (or really shitty) spell without having to learn it. Adding BLU points to AF is just as direct while still making you work for your spells and allowing for flexibility.

Not even gunna bother speculating on AFv2, SE could drag their feet forever.

[Sesshoumaru]

I dunno they gave other jobs some pretty decent af2 I say a refresh head or haste even if it is not more then homam might be right in line with something SE could do, plus it is easy for them to do compared to add spells to an item or trying to figure out how exactly points on an item would work.

[Jeebz]

127 pages to go through to look for the exact damage formula(whatever you guys call it) for cannonball..i want to calculate what i need to tweak to increase my pdif etc etc..anyone have the formula on hand (or a website/calculator that does it?) something i can punch in my stats and see what i get

much appreciated if someone does(im looking through the pages anyways but yeah)

[Tonko]

Nobody knows the exact damage formula, because it relies on the opponents defense as well as your defense, blu skill, strength, and vitality.

Plenty of posts in pages past of people posting their feelings on cannonball setups, but no one really has any empirical evidence one way or another.

Shit is situational yo.

[VZX]

Sorry, can't help you there about cannonball pDIF.

Probably I'm the slowpoke here, but I noticed last night helping my friend's Kirin fight my SA Cannonball with normal buff (Pro4 + Taco) could get really low from very far distance (82 damage) up to 550 ish on closer distance. Does anyone else got this ranged-attack-ish behaviour? (distance penalty)

[Judai]

Sorry, can't help you there about cannonball pDIF.

Probably I'm the slowpoke here, but I noticed last night helping my friend's Kirin fight my SA Cannonball with normal buff (Pro4 + Taco) could get really low from very far distance (82 damage) up to 550 ish on closer distance. Does anyone else got this ranged-attack-ish behaviour? (distance penalty)

No, never seen any difference due to distance. If it was a kited Kirin, he prolly just missed the back as it turned or something. Otherwise, idk.

[Delekii]

Sorry, can't help you there about cannonball pDIF.

Probably I'm the slowpoke here, but I noticed last night helping my friend's Kirin fight my SA Cannonball with normal buff (Pro4 + Taco) could get really low from very far distance (82 damage) up to 550 ish on closer distance. Does anyone else got this ranged-attack-ish behaviour? (distance penalty)

My highest cannonball ever on Kirin was from max distance, with flee on and running the other way