Blue Mage: Best thread ever

[Belgaer]

The funny thing is I've SATA'd it and used it to deal dmg and pulled hate, defeating the entire purpose D:

Yeah, I was having hate issues in a party that lacked DD once and decided to try it around Lv.65 or so for the heck of it. Ironically, all I did was pull hate with it too... I imagine it lowers Cumulative hate with it's effect, but still gathers both Cumulative and Volatile hate from dealing DMG. Meaning it may actually lower your Cumulative hate by a small amount, but it raises your Volatile hate enough to still pull hate.

...In summary, yeah, pretty much defeats the purpose anyway.

[TummieGaruda]

Yeah, I was having hate issues in a party that lacked DD once and decided to try it around Lv.65 or so for the heck of it. Ironically, all I did was pull hate with it too... I imagine it lowers Cumulative hate with it's effect, but still gathers both Cumulative and Volatile hate from dealing DMG. Meaning it may actually lower your Cumulative hate by a small amount, but it raises your Volatile hate enough to still pull hate.

...In summary, yeah, pretty much defeats the purpose anyway.

Would be kind of funny if you could CATA Hydro Shot and use it as a ghetto Accomplice. But I believe your explanation is correct though. I tried it a few times in a party a long time ago, pulled hate and just said forget about it.

[Yugl]

We did another Odin and once again, Sword/Shield beat Staff/Grip

Staff/Grip: ~800-900 DMG w/o 2hr and Minne 2x
Staff/Grip: ~1k DMG with 2hr + Etude Songs

Sword/Shield: 1-1.1k DMG w/o 2hr and Minne 2x

It seems that on Odin, DEF++ with Sword and Shield is the way to go.

[Durden]

I usually stack on STR and have around 750 Defense for Odin and consistently hit 1.3-1.4k with CASA

[Yugl]

I usually stack on STR and have around 750 Defense for Odin and consistently hit 1.3-1.4k with CASA

Compare set up/Debuffs/Buffs?

[Suiram]

When you used 2H, did you use CA in conjunction with it? Not even worrying about what your DMG should be on Odin, if your normal SACA are 800-900, then your ALSACA should have been 300-500 more than it was, just from the fTP increase. 1k looks like you used AL without CA (ALSA should be the same damage as 0% SACA) with the extra damage coming from the etudes or something.

[Durden]

- FFXIAH.com

STR70+82
VIT63+18lul

Dia3 on Odin at all time

All I get for buffs is Taco/Pro4, I don't bother asking for Minne cause if I do happen to get a BRD in pt they busy enough putting songs back up on other DDs/mages due to dispel.

Use this setup for Enmity Down: - FFXIAH.com
Only around 50-150 damage difference between enmity down setup and the max dmg potential setup

[Yugl]

When you used 2H, did you use CA in conjunction with it? Not even worrying about what your DMG should be on Odin, if your normal SACA are 800-900, then your ALSACA should have been 300-500 more than it was, just from the fTP increase. 1k looks like you used AL without CA (ALSA should be the same damage as 0% SACA) with the extra damage coming from the etudes or something.

It was AL + SATACA (I checked the log). I thought it was kind of strange too considering how on Omega it's completely different.

For the Sword/Shield it's Elvaan base STR/VIT with 5 STR merits. The difference between my set up and Durden's is the Wing Sword+1 (Non+1), Gnad Helm (Dusk), and AF+1 Body (Using Non+1 atm), Triumph Earring (Triumph+1), and Sachet (Bibikishell).

I'm not on the game now, but I think all gear/spell sets included (I don't have time now but I'll post the spell list later), it comes to:

+70 STR
+27 VIT

That's without food

[Durden]

I forgot whatever VIT you get from taco's

Been lurking AH and a +1 earring just popped up and I snagged it :D 1/2

[Belgaer]

What would you guys say is the better subjob for meriting with? /NIN or /WAR? I never get to try /WAR, so I haven't tested it. But I do a bit over 1/3 of my total damage in melee DPS, so I don't know how Double Attack, STR+2 (sub stats), Berserk, Warcry, and not having to set for Attack Bonus, would make up for the Dual Wield DPS. I've heard a few BLUs say they parse better as /WAR though.. Thoughts?

[Sabishii]

What would you guys say is the better subjob for meriting with? /NIN or /WAR? I never get to try /WAR, so I haven't tested it. But I do a bit over 1/3 of my total damage in melee DPS, so I don't know how Double Attack, STR+2 (sub stats), Berserk, Warcry, and not having to set for Attack Bonus, would make up for the Dual Wield DPS. I've heard a few BLUs say they parse better as /WAR though.. Thoughts?

/NIN hands down. It's not always about doing more damage, it's about survivability too. /WAR has nothing to protect them if they pull hate. Zephyr Mantle won't do that much to protect you, (you don't see mages tanking with regular blink), so you have to go /NIN. Blasting a mob with distortion or darkness will get you a lot of hate, and if you're /WAR, you'll be eating dirt, or the healer will be sinking a lot of MP to keep you alive.

[LD]

Don't down-play the power of Zephyr Mantle too much. It's more powerful and reliable than normal Blink, though I do agree it's nowhere near the reliability of Utsu.

The main detriment of /WAR is that most of its pros are statistical, and the only useful JA is only particularly useful for one spell. DW allows you an offhand weapon to maybe get a bit closer to /WAR's STR superiority (or enhance /NIN's DEX & VIT superiority) while giving you greater survivability and improving your overall melee damage.

/THF might work, but for colibri, /NIN works better and as a BLU, that's the most likely merit spot.

[Belgaer]

Yeah, I know utsusemi is great. I'm just looking for better alternatives when it comes to DDing to parse better against heavy DDs that aren't subbing NIN. Not like I don't keep up, just looking for something stronger. But BLU seems kinda screwed in that department... >.>

[Dimmauk]

Yeah, I know utsusemi is great. I'm just looking for better alternatives when it comes to DDing to parse better against heavy DDs that aren't subbing NIN. Not like I don't keep up, just looking for something stronger. But BLU seems kinda screwed in that department... >.>

Just cast a spell everytime someone WS, or when the mob is 1/4 till dead, or when ever CA is up.

[fantasticdan]

There isn't any sub that's going to boost your damage up to what 2h dds are doing in merits. If berserk worked with physical magic, it might be a decent sub, but in reality all it does is boost sword damage, and not really more so than just plain /nin sub.

[Belgaer]

Alright, so I've been experimenting with numbers and wondering which is actually better on greater colibri. I used to use meat, but I noticed that sushi is much better in situations against high parsers where I'm mainly just spamming spells to keep ahead. Not only that, but using meat, I can focus on a STR build for casting, which gets me 6 more STR than when eating meat (and close to capped accuracy). That's the difference between 700 DMG disseverments that dip lower because of missed hits and 800-1k disseverments that are very consistent (breaking higher on CA). Keep in mind I'm not using Sole Sushi on birds. Feel free to mention using Sole Sushi if you want to be ignored. xD

I've been using an accuracy calculator that tells me I only have 71% Acc without sacrificing any of my haste build. On casting, I have about the same accuracy. On Vorpal Blade, slightly higher, but I only WS about 6 times per hour according to my parser, and my melee damage (auto attack and WS) make up about 1/3 of my total parsing damage, casting being the other 2/3. Yeah, I cast a lot, but I'm also maintaining MP fine.

If I used Enkidu mittens over Alky, Iota Ring instead of a STR ring (Rajas in the other slot), Denali feet, etc. etc. and don't use Optical Hat instead of relic (beats any amount of STR I can get in one slot..), I can get 81% acc on casting. That's including potency 5/5 (assuming it's 10 acc). If I sacrificed all my haste, I'm sure I could probably break 80% melee accuracy before food, but frankly, screw that. I could have somewhere in the upper 80%'s on Vorpal Blade (which would be worth it, except I WS so few times per hour..). No Homam yet. With full Homam (minus the head), I would still only come to 75% melee acc.

My TP setup is as follows; http://www.ffxiah.com/item_sets.php?id=68045

Dissev/Fren: http://www.ffxiah.com/item_sets.php?id=68044


People keep telling me to use meat... Either I'm not understanding something, or they're all wrong. >_> Thoughts?


EDIT: Btw, I have Sword 8/8.

[Marcicus]

I have Homam, 6/8 Sword Merits, and I use meat and Warm-Up on Colibri. I have about a 87% hit rate on those mobs. I just glanced over your post and I didn't notice your saying you had any Sword merits. It helps out a lot.

[VZX]

About 85-86% hit rate with this setup
- FFXIAH.com

Accept it, we can't get 95% accuracy with out best DD gear. (I don't meant to say go full acc gear)

[Belgaer]

Yeah, I have 8/8 sword merits. Sorry. XD

Btw, forgot about my item sets on ffxiah. >.> I'll add links to those instead of listing my gear above.

[Sylvrdragon]

A Perdu Hanger would go a long way to improving your build. Brutal too, as 3.5 ACC isn't going to lower your hit% by 5%. I would say Tiphia Sting for TP and Vorpal, and 5-hitters and just use Satchet for low-hit WS/Spell.