Blue Mage: Best thread ever

[Meian]

I use this currently for Expiacion:

Main: Perdu
Offhand (if /nin): Ifrit's
Head: Voyager Sallet
Body: Assault Jerkin
Back: Amenant Mantle +1
Neck: Chiv. Chain
Hands: Alkyenous Bracelet
Waist: Warwolf Belt
Ear1: Brutal
Ear2: Ethereal
Ring1: Flame Ring
Ring2: Flame Ring
Legs: Homam (no AFv2 yet)
Feet: Marine M Boots

[Durden]

Oh well, the setup I use works perfectly fine for me and I'll continue to use it. I play on 360 so I'm limited to the amount of macro lines per macro, and at the moment my BLU macros are completely filled. So i revolve around gear that will completely work for a WS and a CA spell. I TP in Brutal but I don't WS in it which is the 1 thing I wish I had enough room in macros for. Thats the reason for my Suppa/Minuet Earring WS/CA choice due to the 5 acc (8 with minuet) STR and DEX which will help with Vorpal/Savage/Expiacion/Disseverment/Frenetic Rip

It's just what I prefer

[Belgaer]

Well, there really is use for solo Darkness, in my oppinion. It's a nice alternative to Distortion if you need to be able to sleep the mob just in case.

If you're going to SC purely for MB purposes, Distortion is better (unless you want an Earth/Darkness MB), unless it's a mob you can't really afford to give much TP to.

Unfortunately, Vertical Cleave doesn't take a whole lot to miss. So, again, it's purely situational. But it gives you more options, which makes BLU all the more versatile. In the end, it does help.

Oh, I would like to add that a solo darkness would be wonderful for Einherjar so the DRKs can Drain II MB before they K Club zerg the boss. Same can be said for any K Club Zerging. ;D

[WraithLakshmi]

Hey, has anyone ever shown that magical accuracy effects the additional effects on our physical spells? I know that there's a corrolation with Blue Magic Skill, but I was wondering about all the relic pieces they gave us with magical accuracy, and that thought came into my mind, perhaps it increases proc rates on additional effects. Any thoughts on this?

[Belgaer]

I asked that same question a few pages back. No one has a definite answer, as it's never been tested (at least that any of us know about), but I've since then started macroing Acc, skill, and magic acc into my Head Butt build, rather than just acc and skill, and it seems to make a very clear difference to me (I've also merited magic acc 2/5 for now).

[Yugl]

I think that's mostly because no one really knows what magic accuracy does. It's speculated that it makes stuff resisted less, but there's not much beyond that.

[Sho]

Yeah, I just write off Magical Accuracy as a "Less Resists on Magical Nukes" kinda thing. Like Elemental/Enfeebling/Dark/Divine Magic spells.

[Teorem]

I asked that same question a few pages back. No one has a definite answer, as it's never been tested (at least that any of us know about), but I've since then started macroing Acc, skill, and magic acc into my Head Butt build, rather than just acc and skill, and it seems to make a very clear difference to me (I've also merited magic acc 2/5 for now).

I'm not sure if you thought this, but your last aside makes it sound like you did: the magic accuracy merits are not going to have any effect on Head Butt's Stun effect.

The description of the merit category makes it very clear that the "Magic Accuracy" set of merits is for "magical" spells only, and not the "physical" spells that Head Butt falls under.

[Belgaer]

Yeah, because descriptions in FFXI tell us exactly what everything really does. >_>

[Teorem]

The description for Head Butt says: "Damage varies with TP. Additional effect: 'Stun'" By extension, do you also believe that Head Butt can also cause Terror, because many descriptions in the game for many other things don't exhaustively indicate what they do?

Given:

1) The help box for Head Butt says "Beastmen - Physical,"
2) There are examples like Bomb Toss that say "Beastmen - Magical,"
3) There aren't any other types of blue magic spells in the game, and no spells that are a hybrid type,
4) The merits explicitly differentiate between "physical blue magic spells" for Physical Potency and "magical blue magic spells" for Magical Accuracy, and
5) No other merit category means something else than it actually says

It's fairly easy to come to the conclusion that Magical Accuracy merits are not going to affect "physical" spells. If it did, you would see more general wording instead (ie., no specific usage of the terms "physical" and "magical").

Sarcasm is not a replacement for critical thinking.

Edit: Not at all to detract from meriting it in the general, as Magical Accuracy is definitely a worthwhile category to invest in.

[shukuffxi]

Mirage Mantle and Mirage Shalwar? Both carry Accuracy and M.Acc. To me, this meant "Hi, wear these for Head Butt, and Sprout Smack, etc". Of course, they might be crappier than we thought and meant "Wear these when you want Acc on Physical, M.Acc on Magical, but they don't apply together."

In my case, I simply macro in Homam Zuchetto, Mirage Mantle, Morrigan's Cuffs and Mirage Shalwar +1 to my Head Butt macro. I don't really suffer too much of a recast issue, and i'm in the camp who believes that M.Acc does affect the "Additional Effect" of the physical spells.

[Delekii]

The description for Head Butt says: "Damage varies with TP. Additional effect: 'Stun'" By extension, do you also believe that Head Butt can also cause Terror, because many descriptions in the game for many other things don't exhaustively indicate what they do?

Given:

1) The help box for Head Butt says "Beastmen - Physical,"
2) There are examples like Bomb Toss that say "Beastmen - Magical,"
3) There aren't any other types of blue magic spells in the game, and no spells that are a hybrid type,
4) The merits explicitly differentiate between "physical blue magic spells" for Physical Potency and "magical blue magic spells" for Magical Accuracy, and
5) No other merit category means something else than it actually says

It's fairly easy to come to the conclusion that Magical Accuracy merits are not going to affect "physical" spells. If it did, you would see more general wording instead (ie., no specific usage of the terms "physical" and "magical").

Sarcasm is not a replacement for critical thinking.

Edit: Not at all to detract from meriting it in the general, as Magical Accuracy is definitely a worthwhile category to invest in.

While you might be right in that the merits probably don't affect the accuracy of the stun effect, there is nothing to say that magical accuracy in general won't affect the accuracy of the stun portion of headbutt. INT _definately_ affects the resist/duration of Headbutt stun, as anyone fighting IT imps will tell you.

By extension, it is certainly not beyond the realm of possibility that since the stun portion of headbutt is affected by INT, that the stun aspect MIGHT be considered a magical effect, and furthermore, a blue magic effect. Critical thinking is all well and good, but don't rule things out without sufficient reason or evidence. It is unlikely, but not impossible. It is more likely that the add effect is the same as any other add effect on weapons/weaponskills and in a different category of its own, but it isn't guaranteed.

[Nevex]

How do you reach the conclusion that INT has an impact on stun from Head Butt? And do you mean caster or target's INT?

Something that seems more reasonable to me instead is target's magic evasion, since most likely it's one of the many hidden stats that SE doesn't like to show us for laziness or for for whatever reason.

[Sho]

How do you reach the conclusion that INT has an impact on stun from Head Butt? And do you mean caster or target's INT?

Something that seems more reasonable to me instead is target's magic evasion, since most likely it's one of the many hidden stats that SE doesn't like to show us for laziness or for for whatever reason.

Target's INT.

And I'll give any person that's going to Fan Fest a 1$ if they ask the devs what the shit Physical Potency, Magical Accuracy, and Monster Correlation in detail... mainly Physical Potency.

[Kaslo]

How do you reach the conclusion that INT has an impact on stun from Head Butt? And do you mean caster or target's INT?

Something that seems more reasonable to me instead is target's magic evasion, since most likely it's one of the many hidden stats that SE doesn't like to show us for laziness or for for whatever reason.

I know more INT has helped my stun proc's from headbutt. 'specially on PM3-5 when I had been getting horrible resists. It may be placebo but the results were such a swing I gotta believe it >.> but for the record I don't use INT on any build unless I am going somewhere like 3-5.

[Yugl]

Well if magic ACC and INT to have an effect on the potency of stun, then couldn't we test this by comparing the duration of stun by a melee/BLU and BLM/BLU?

[Teorem]

While you might be right in that the merits probably don't affect the accuracy of the stun effect, there is nothing to say that magical accuracy in general won't affect the accuracy of the stun portion of headbutt. INT _definately_ affects the resist/duration of Headbutt stun, as anyone fighting IT imps will tell you.

I'm not at all ruling out the potential effects of "magic accuracy" on additional effects. The only thing I was addressing was Magic Accuracy merits because it very explicitly says "magical blue magic spells." It seems like sufficient reason to exclude the merits' effects on everything that's not a "magical blue magic spell," but if through extensive testing it turns out I'm wrong, I'll be the first to apologize.

The note about INT is tangential, but having fought more than my fair share of Imps, I would be inclined to agree though I admittedly have never sat down with a stopwatch while soloing.

[rath]

While you might be right in that the merits probably don't affect the accuracy of the stun effect, there is nothing to say that magical accuracy in general won't affect the accuracy of the stun portion of headbutt. INT _definately_ affects the resist/duration of Headbutt stun, as anyone fighting IT imps will tell you.

By extension, it is certainly not beyond the realm of possibility that since the stun portion of headbutt is affected by INT, that the stun aspect MIGHT be considered a magical effect, and furthermore, a blue magic effect. Critical thinking is all well and good, but don't rule things out without sufficient reason or evidence. It is unlikely, but not impossible. It is more likely that the add effect is the same as any other add effect on weapons/weaponskills and in a different category of its own, but it isn't guaranteed.

How does int help your stun on imps? I am a galka and have been duoing them for well over a year. My stun procs are better then the taru I duo with. He has blu macc merits, I have potency. He has 4 skill, I have 8. We both have full sword merits. While I used af (now af+1) for headbutt, he has always used his homam body. Overall, I have more acc then he does, but we both usually always hit with headbutt. There are times when my stun just blows, but he diffinately does not get longer or more frequent stun procs from his headbutt.

[Kaslo]

How does int help your stun on imps? I am a galka and have been duoing them for well over a year. My stun procs are better then the taru I duo with. He has blu macc merits, I have potency. He has 4 skill, I have 8. We both have full sword merits. While I used af (now af+1) for headbutt, he has always used his homam body. Overall, I have more acc then he does, but we both usually always hit with headbutt. There are times when my stun just blows, but he diffinately does not get longer or more frequent stun procs from his headbutt.

That's probably your answer.

[rath]

That's probably your answer.

Yes but he is saying int affects it, which a taru has much higher, and it may be affected by macc. Which this taru has full merits in, and I do not. 10 int and all that macc should make up for mssing that skill, which people say is a waste to merit above a certain point anyways.