Blue Mage: Best thread ever

[Rena]

Charged Whisker + Everyone's Grudge = Gilfinder
Dream Flower = Magic Attack Bonus
Winds of Promyvion = Auto Refresh (4 points)
Reaving Wind = Magic Burst Bonus
Occultation = Evasion Bonus
Thermal Pulse = Attack Bonus
Empty Thrash = Double Attack
Delta Thrust = Dual Wield

Edit: and all four DW spells = DW2.

[Greatguardian]

Am I missing something, or is BLU really gaining enough from another sub that losing DW3/Utsusemi and using Blink as their primary defensive spell would be worth it? Bergressor/10% DA? Meditate/Sekka/STP? I've honestly yet to actually see a (well geared) BLU survive more than a couple hits to the face without shadows. You'd think the advent of DW3 with the 90 cap would be enough of an offensive incentive to keep BLU using /NIN, especially since they're not stacked to the cap on Delay Reduction like NIN, THF, and DNC.

[Tsuko_Asura]

I'd say that depends entirely on your environment. A fair portion of the more active melee posters on these boards have suitable WHM at their disposal, making defensive play a thing of the past. On the flip-side, the things that people use the DD/healer combo don't generally involve BLU(for good reason, to be fair).

I think its safe to assume that NIN is and will continue to be the staple SJ for the foreseeable future. Like you said, its got plenty of offensive incentive to go along with its defense bonuses.

[macross]

How the hell do you make the stupid roachs uncurl up so they will do the pulse move;;

[Rena]

Everyone's Grudge is 40% MND, 5 fTP, Thermal Pulse 40% VIT and 4 fTP, Charged Whisker 50% DEX, 4.5 fTP. All have INT as primary mod with a multiplier of 2.

[Nightfyre]

Grudge will be really, really hot with those numbers. Would be happy with Occultation save for the MP cost... cheaper auto-refresh (and with two really good spells) is nice, new DA spell is nice. Delta Thrust is only 28 MP, is it "sucking hard" for the MP cost or just compared to spells with 2-3x its MP cost?

[Jeryhn]

You assume that the mob in question can be stunned.

I just wanted to ask... why would you use/bring BLU on a mob that cannot be stunned?

Serious question.

[Kyte]

A minimum, a BLU can be justified for procing !! After the BLU has cycled through those 6 spells (plus perhaps sword and club WS), they might as well contribute.

[Myriads]

How the hell do you make the stupid roachs uncurl up so they will do the pulse move;;

Took me a while to work this one out. The trick is to have only one person on the roach meleing only. Don't cast anything other then Dia or a debuff. Have your party support cure you or Dia the roach to add TP.

They don't seem to curl when this strat is used. Did it myself solo, and watched two others do it also while i support cured.

[Kaslo]

I just wanted to ask... why would you use/bring BLU on a mob that cannot be stunned?

Serious question.

Find BLUs who don't suck and that doesn't need to be asked.

[Sho]

Took me a while to work this one out. The trick is to have only one person on the roach meleing only. Don't cast anything other then Dia or a debuff. Have your party support cure you or Dia the roach to add TP.

They don't seem to curl when this strat is used. Did it myself solo, and watched two others do it also while i support cured.

Or you could fight the roach NM in Abyssea Attohwa. It spams that shit. Also might start giving BLU/DNC and BLU/WAR a spin when I'm in events without massive AoEs.

[kenshyn]

Any decent tests results on the new spells hoping we have some new decisions to make and not just more crap that I have to search through for my good shit lol.

[Yugl]

Oh that note, I'll question the WAR and DNC sub choices. It seems we, as a community, have yet to determine the general distribution of spells and melee. This and the scenario will determine the most prominent sub.

Solo: NIN easily since our cures cannot keep up with our HP. If we had cure VI, I would be attentive to alternative options.

PT DD: If we contribute most with our spell damage, then sub RDM is the wisest choice given the ability to spam spells to no end (Convert). If we contribute most through sword damage, then alternative subs (WAR and DNC) are better.
- Exceptional cases here:

PT Utility (!!): Sub RDM will help us land spells faster for yellow !!, but sub NIN will generate TP faster for blue and red !!. Given this line of argument, we can divide cases between seal farming and gear farming; the choice should be obvious in each. What happens when these interests merge?:
1. We can compare the utility gained from each (How will fast cast + MP help us more than gaining TP will)
2. We can compare the scenarios that call for each (Cases where landing the spell be difficult v Cases where TP gain is difficult)
Answer both and derive an answer.

[Alistaire]

The argument that BLU should not have utsusemi is simple: it would be like giving NIN utsusemi: san, which they chose not to do a long time ago because it would upset game balance. Sure I wanted it to be utsusemi too but to find out it's not, and argue either that we "should have gotten it" or that "you can't say we should or shouldn't have gotten it" is seriously ignoring how good (read: broken) it would have been.

[kenshyn]

I find more and more /sch as viable sub love the fact that with light or dark arts up I actually have skill enough to make my /sch spells effective now that they have improved sublimation and added stoneskin and blink more so and the ability to effectively aoe certain spells certainly doesn't suck either.

[Nightfyre]

NIN can roll Ni every 25 seconds to our 30 with max haste. Cycles converge at 150 seconds, ignoring the slightly slower cast of Occultation... 7 blink shadows 5 times in that timeframe for us, or 1 blink shadow every 4.2857 seconds. NIN rolls Ni > Ichi and back to Ni every 25 seconds, so 9 shadows 7 times (63 shadows)... one guaranteed shadow every 2.3801 seconds. Honestly, I think they could have made it Utsu shadows without being broken even factoring in /NIN, just maybe with less shadows per cast. ~5 would have been about right in my opinion. Would justify the MP cost somewhat as well.

[Ophannus]

YUGL. I'm coming back to FFXI as soon as I get my password recovered. Still on Diabolos?

[ArwynOfOdin]

What about BLU/MNK? Could counterstance be effective when used with Occulation in negating more damage overall than Utsu? My MNK is 2, so I'm not even sure how, or even if, counterstance would work as sub now that its available. If it does, maybe for BLU tanking with a -pdt build? I figure the HP boost and subtle blow is nice, though it doesn't offer much else.

Forgive me if I'm missing something obvious. I'm just throwing some brainstorming ideas out there.

[Yugl]

YUGL. I'm coming back to FFXI as soon as I get my password recovered. Still on Diabolos?

Yep! Server dynamics have changed though, so it will be a weird selection of people to play with.

[Yvonne]

I'm just curious what people normally equip when they explore new zones. This is what I had in mind so far, but really interested what people normally equip.

5 - Winds of Promyvion (refry)
4 - Actinic Burst (refry)

4 - Quadratic Continuum (dw)
5 - Animating Wail (dw)

2 - Vanity Dive (acc)
5 - Disseverment (acc)

4 - Auroral Drape (fastcast)
4 - Sub-zero Smash (fastcast)

3 - Acrid Stream (dbl.atk)
3 - Empty Thrash (dbl.atk)

3 - Filamented Hold
3 - Magic Fruit
3 - Head Butt

That should make 48 Points, 7 points freed up for Benthic Typhoon/Goblin Rush or something else (yawn, etc).


Another thing I just noticed, wouldn't the new WotG earring be the best CA/Efflux piece? Assuming you get these Augments?

Acc+4/TP Bonus+25

Here's a c/p version from the WotG thread for reference:

First Augment Choice:

Attack +4
Accuracy+4
R.Accuracy+4
R.Attack+4
M.Accuracy+4
M.Atk.Bonus+4
HP+25
HP+25


Second Augment Choice:

Latent Effect Regain
Latent Effect Refresh
Occ. grants dmg bonus based on TP +5%
TP Bonus+25
Occ. Maximizes Mag Acc+3%
Occ. Quickens Spellcasting+3%
Counter+3
Occ. inc. resistance to all status ailments +5.