Blue Mage: Best thread ever

[Shassira]

Well, i boosted to around 700 atk and tried the spell twice, since i saw no real bump (some of the numbers were even or less than normal casts i made, around 10 of them), i figured i was wasting my time with that. Just to make it a bit clear, i was doing this naked with Asuran as only spell (later Enervation too to see if maybe the combo had anything to do) and /mnk, obviously, except for the non h2h skill tests. All same numbers.

Another thing i tried was positioning, using the spell in front side and back of the mob. Nothing that i could deem worth mentioning apart from the normal fluctuation.

As comparition factor, Hysteric and Frenetic where doing up to 300, mostly going from 200 to 250ish. Dissverement was ofcourse pulling over 300, i'd guess because of the piercing bonus since the target was bees.

So basicly, if with 700 atk i can't even reach the damage from Frenetic, it doesn't look like it does much =/

[fantasticdan]

Has anyone tried it with berserk specifically?

[Chupunpupun]

Have anyone tried using it during low HP? I'll try it after einherjar and nyzul is done.

[Shassira]

Have anyone tried using it during low HP? I'll try it after einherjar and nyzul is done.

Ah yes, i forgot this too... damn my memory. I tried it with low HP under the light of the MM thing from PUP. It was two different things:

A. 1 hp, weakened (this was achieved using Self Destruct). No difference
B. 1hp, normal status (same thing, waited for timer to wear off). No difference either.

Sorry i didn't post it before, i was testing all this while trying to stay awake, so i ended up forgetting about this one until now. x.x;

[Chupunpupun]

Have anyone tried using it during low HP? I'll try it after einherjar and nyzul is done.

Ah yes, i forgot this too... damn my memory. I tried it with low HP under the light of the MM thing from PUP. It was two different things:

A. 1 hp, weakened (this was achieved using Self Destruct). No difference
B. 1hp, normal status (same thing, waited for timer to wear off). No difference either.

Sorry i didn't post it before, i was testing all this while trying to stay awake, so i ended up forgetting about this one until now. x.x;

;;

[rath]

Has anyone tried it with berserk specifically?

I have not tried it with berserk, but have used last resort and souleater. Souleater takes like half your HP for marginal damage increase. Last resort on top of brd attack songs got a single hit on bastok bees up to 163 peak (was 545 attack). My brd had to leave before I got around to trying berserk, so I have not tested at higher attack yet.

My average damage on north gustaberg[s] spiders without attack songs was 650 and 700 with, altogether not high enough to be outside of my margin of error for a sample size of 100. Even if attack does effect it, which I still have my doubts, it isn't worth the MP cost imo.

[fantasticdan]

Yeah I know many people have tried stacking attack, I was thinking more like having berserk up itself could add/change modifiers. I know that's a longshot but I can't think of many things left to test.

[FinalJustice]

question for the blu with capped tier 2 merits.
A friend of mine is sitting on 3/6 tier 2 merits. He has Enchain, Coverg, and Diffus.
And doesnt know if you should spend the last 3 on Assim, or if he should just put them into capping Converg, and throwing another into Enchain.

I have no answer for him as i think either way they are unremarkable. But he asked me to ask on this thread.

[Araius]

Depends what he uses most, honestly. It's different for each person, personally I would max Assimilation but I could see an argument for Convergence or Diffusion as well. Just dear god please not Enchainment.

In other words, shit is situational.

[Rena]

Personally I'm happy with 3/3 assimilation and 1 point into the rest. I can always find more spells I'd want to set, so the extra 3 points help out there. Enchainment is pretty useless, in my opinion - 10 bonus TP makes such a small difference in damage. The only reason I even have a point in that is because I find further upgrades to convergence and diffusion pretty useless. They're nice abilities to have unlocked, but upgrading either is a waste of merits. Diffusion has such a long recast, making it only situationally useful (and meriting it further won't change that), and considering how often I (and most people, I'd imagine)use BLU for nuking, upgrading convergence isn't worth it either.

[FinalJustice]

Yea thats kinda how i felt.

And convergence should never have been a JA in the first place. It should have been a Job Trait.

[Meian]

3/3 Enchainment (have seen the difference myself)
3/3 Assimilation (my play style demands it)

The rest have too long recast... But I can see Diffusion being useful for one shot deals I suppose...

[fantasticdan]

I would recommend maxing assimilation, and unlocking convergence and diffusion, what you do with the last point doesn't really matter. Even if you don't care about the damage increase on convergence, the macc increase is crazy, it's like having a slightly weaker elemental seal with bonus damage. Yes the timer on diffusion sucks, but for short fights and whatnot where the recast doesn't really matter, it is nice, and there are some fun things you can do with it.

Enchainment only seems worthwhile for cannonball, and the effect of 10tp bonus per merit is so small even on that, that I see it as pretty worthless. You might as well throw the last point into it thou, unless you care about extra damage on magic spells from convergence.

[Akucaen]

While diffusion has it's purposes, the buffs you can stack with it just don't really pan out in terms of usefulness. I mean, yes, a hastega is useful, but there's a 10 minute gap to reapply after it wears, saline coat is great for ultima, cocoon in a punch, etc. It's just not an effective, useful tool to me. If the timer were, say, 7 minutes (avoid perma-haste) or even base 10 minutes, I'd merit it and use it.

Problem is, 1 merit isn't really 'good enough', and I'll already spend 3 on assimilation. After this update, I'm really liking Savage > Disseverment > Distortion > Regurgitation. It's worth it for 3/3 Convergence, on paper. And I can hear it now, "Oh Aku, you're so sexy, but you're going to have the same problem with Convergence that you will with your arguement to not merit diffusion. Have my children anyway!"

Still, increasing damage in setting where I'm always asked to DD more often than buffing the party (which I'm not asked to do aside from the occasional diamondhide, which diffusion doesn't affect) with buffs they don't really need in said situations I come on blue mage. Granted, I'm only going to limbus for Omega-side only (A LS that farms omega only... YESSSSSSSS <3 <3 <3 I love you Tachys.) and other than that I just merit/campaign. I'm eyeing salvage shells, but glancing (KEYWORD! glancing!) over it, nothing popped out that diffusion-buffs would work well with/for. (Again, from the perspective that it's a one-shot wonder for buffs that don't last long.)

Maybe someone can prove me wrong, I don't know. My say on the whole matter is 3/3 assimilation, 2/3 Convergence, 1/3 Enchainment.

Edit - After you responsibly merit 5/5 Phys Potency and 8/8 blue magic skill, then it's a tossup between the rest of the Group 1 and group 2 merits as you please.

[Delekii]

Go back to around page 115-116 and you can find a massive long argument about the merits of diffusion in its current state. It certainly is not worthless.

[Akucaen]

Yes, I remember that. I wanted to post my opinions back there, but that raw clusterfuck of back and forth scared me off considering how deep-rooted the opinions are.

Let me clarify, from what I remember, you were a huge fan of Exuvation+Diffusion BLU tanking. I have no desire or will to tank on BLU. I have -enmity merits just SO I can output more damage without becoming a MP sink. Regardless of what others think of the spell and what diffusion does to it, I think it's a situational combo if you LS wants you to tank. I'm not asked to tank, ever; so I fail to see any reason to use that combo. (Although knowing SE, I'm sure that was never a real intention, just blue mages haven't abused it enough for them to notice or care.)

Regardless, yes, there are a few other uses for it, which I covered NOT in verbatim in my post. I'm aware of the combinations, but the end result is that they just don't seem worth it. 30 seconds of MAB or MDB, 5 minutes of semi-haste, 2 minutes of defense when I'm not with the tanks usually, it's just not worth the 1.5-3 hours for a pony-trick to me, especially when I'm nowhere near done with all the merits I want anyway.

Now, if I were to tank/backup tank/raep hate lists, then yes, I'd 3/3 Diffusion and die like the best of them.

[Suiram]

Please let's not do this again.

[Sho]

Oh lawd.

It's semi worthless tho. For most BLUs.

[LD]

Laff.

[Araius]

I think that little episode was like, the last time I posted in this thread. I'll leave now