Blue Mage: Best thread ever

[Kegsay]

According to JP Wiki, Nahn drops the +4 Blue Skill/Sword Skill neck. Nahn is in La Theine-Abyssea, fished up in the big pond.

[eva00r]

I really want 5 more set points from lv 81 right now lol.

[Sho]

I really want 5 more set points from lv 81 right now lol.

Not even enough for me~ Thinking about dropping 2~3 merits in Convergence for 2~3 in Assimilation now.

[Kyte]

I'm glad I'm already 5/5 Assimilation lol


EDIT: Side note- I noticed the wiki for Eyes on Me had its modifier changed to 20%, rather than the previous 40%. Is this change correct?

[Rena]

Still 40%.

[Ddboner]

Sanguine Blade mods are listed on Other Wiki?(ffxiclopedia) as MND first then MAB.

Isn't it INT > MAB?

Going to back up the people saying this is a nice WS. I was getting 410 dmg Sanguine Blades on VT black mandies in abyssea with a shitty INT/Fast Cast hybrid set(reusing another macro) with no MAB traits etc.

[Rena]

As a general rule, point by point, MAB > INT > MND > STR.

[Aben]

I was playing with some too weak mobs waiting for a NM to spawn and cheap gearing options also got me in the 400's. The more int, mab, and mnd I added, the closer I got to 500. Then I added the MAB trait and used Memento Mori and hit 696. Assuming this stays consistent (disregarding MDB on NM), this could be very useful on certain mobs.

Also, full Morrigan's could make a killer Sanguine Blade set.

[Kyte]

Some of the teal parts are quite good as well for that.

[Sho]

I'm interested in what swords you guys are using (or plan to use) for melee now, after the update.

I was using Concorida/Perdu for a good while, but have since ditched it for Shamshir (+15% DEF Down)/Perdu, whilst working on Tizona (to be finished Oct/Nov) and Nobilis to transform it into Almace (on second to last trial, 5 more ram kills). Also pining over 9 more nails for OAT Antea.

Anyways, what do you guys use now, and why?

[Yugl]

It depends on the mob you're fighting. If sushi caps our your ACC, Shamir (STR+6)/Khanda (2-3x) looks like the best combo.

[chazzyphizzle]

Just wanted to say how much I hate Odin and all of the magic acc +10 blu swords running around.

[Nightfyre]

Just wanted to say how much I hate Odin and all of the magic acc +10 blu swords running around.

I'm teamed up with a guy working on one of those right now Well, he's working on a STR one atm but plans on making a macc one as well.

If I can get my LS back into doing VNM I'm definitely going to work on OAT Khanda. Otherwise, it depends on how various options stack up as offhand weapons... working on STR Shamshir for mainhand right now, may do a DEX one too. Also planning to make a PDT one in anticipation of PDT/Genbu's outclassing Terra's with the next update (in addition to allowing high PDT while meleeing).

[Yugl]

I'm teamed up with a guy working on one of those right now Well, he's working on a STR one atm but plans on making a macc one as well.

If I can get my LS back into doing VNM I'm definitely going to work on OAT Khanda. Otherwise, it depends on how various options stack up as offhand weapons... working on STR Shamshir for mainhand right now, may do a DEX one too. Also planning to make a PDT one in anticipation of PDT/Genbu's outclassing Terra's with the next update (in addition to allowing high PDT while meleeing).

Did they find the distribution of 2-3x Swords? Why not make that one?

[Kyte]

I'm curious about the 2-3x as well, as I've had an Antea sitting at the Ruthven stage for a while now and I could go ahead and cancel that trial and do 2-3x if that's better.

[Nightfyre]

Did they find the distribution of 2-3x Swords? Why not make that one?

If that one ends up being better I definitely plan on going for it instead, but I'm holding off on making a decision til I know. Entirely possible that it's better than other offhand options regardless though.

Hmm...

D: 42 OAT, D: 25 OAThrice

OAT is known to be 1.4 hits/round. If we assume a similar decrease in #hits/round as compared to preexisting OAThrice weapons and say 1.8 hits/round (say, 40:40:20)...

STR mainhand is D:48 230 delay, Khanda is 264 delay. Assume 15% DA (Brutal + trait), so we have 1.15 hits/round mainhand and 1.49 or 1.83 offhand, for a total 2.64 and 2.98 hits/round. That makes OAThrice a ~12.88% increase to WS frequency before accounting for TP overflow.

(48*1.15+42*1.49)/(48*1.15+25*1.83)=16.67% increase to TP phase damage. TP phase damage is typically favored in our TP:WS splits, so it feels pretty safe to say that OAT is the better option if OAThrice were to follow this hit distribution. I did assume neutral fSTR but that's not such an outlandish assumption given that we TP in very little STR. At 5 fSTR it's a 13.06% increase for TP phase damage, so you'd still need a setup that favors WS damage for OAThrice to be superior, albeit at a much less skewed distribution. Also ignores self-SC damage potential, but that comes down to playstyle and support - adjust for your own conditions.

EDIT: If you're feeling a little crazy, high damage Antea + OAThrice Khanda could be fun with Sanguine Blade spam! Still looks like a slight downgrade from Shamshir/Khanda though.

[Samonez]

maybe I'm crazy, but I actually wanna make the Store TP Sword from the Magians.

[Yugl]

Damn, I'm going to despise getting the rest of those Ruthaven nails now that the people I used to trio with won't log on (And because of RDM tanking shaft). I also realized I mistook the Delay+12 for DMG+12. Would be awesome if the DMG were in the 30s rather than 20s. That said, I'll probably work on STR sword and keep my Khanda sword at bay until the distribution is found (Oh look, passive voice).

[Nightfyre]

Yeah, not looking forward to grinding that out. There's a third option though...

Khanda: D:50 "Double Attack+7" delay 252

DAKhanda/Shamshir is about 2.5% faster than Shamshir/OATKhanda. Assuming it procs on both hands:

2.44 hits/round vs 2.64, 8.2% loss of WS frequency. However, for non-Sanguine Blade WS you're doing more damage via DA and 2 higher base damage. Worst-case scenario here (Vorpal) still yields a ~5% increase in per-WS damage for a total loss of 3.0-3.1% in WS phase. For Expiacion/Savage Blade-heavy playstyles the value loss could go a bit lower. Best case (Savage Blade) gets me a ~2.4% net loss. So we range from a 5.7% loss to dead even depending on WS of choice after factoring in lower delay.

TP phase difference in a scenario favoring OAT (positive fSTR) is (55*1.22+53*1.22)/(53*1.15+47*1.49)=0.6%, increasing to 1.5% at neutral fSTR. Adding in delay advantage gives 3.1-4%.

So DA Khanda is anywhere from ~0.5% behind to up to 2.4% ahead depending on your WS's of choice and fSTR by my napkin math. lolxhit implications due to delay change favor OAT ever so slightly but still, I'm liking this option if the DA affects both weapons...

I'll try and do a better workup over the weekend if nobody beats me to it but I'll be out of town so it won't get posted until Monday at the earliest.

[Yugl]

I was looking at the DA option myself for both BLU and DRG, but that will all depend on where the items come from. If it's the same mobs that people have been bitching about for Empyrean Weapons (Hey I spelled that right first try!), I might have to pass.