Blue Mage: Best thread ever

[aurik]

Actually, I much prefer whms and rdms alike to use banish2. Banish3 costs a lot, the damage sucks compared to 3 monks smashing at it, it takes a long time to cast, and I just LOVE chasing a lemure to the mages so that when it aoe drain it sucks hp from the mages.

The chance to remove weapon penalty seems similar, and that's all I care about really.

Banish 3 + af2 gloves = 15 second ghost ftw

3 good monks + banish 2 = 15 second ghost anyway, what's your point?

[Nagamaki]

A WHM managing MP properly can spare the Banish III cost, its a whole 39 mp over BII. That being said, in the rare occasions I KRT on WHM and not on MNK, I Banish II ghosts at start and Banish III MB, sometimes it dies first, but sometimes not. In cases where the def down doesn't go off, the 1200 MB helps and it keeps things interesting.

This thread is supposed to be about Blue mage I think.

[Koyangi]

Actually, I much prefer whms and rdms alike to use banish2. Banish3 costs a lot, the damage sucks compared to 3 monks smashing at it, it takes a long time to cast, and I just LOVE chasing a lemure to the mages so that when it aoe drain it sucks hp from the mages.

The chance to remove weapon penalty seems similar, and that's all I care about really.

Banish 3 + af2 gloves = 15 second ghost ftw

3 good monks + banish 2 = 15 second ghost anyway, what's your point?

I'm sorry, all of your parties are always with the best mnk's whm's rdm's and brd's ever, you've never seen anything less. Everyone /bow to the almighty.

[Not Kuno]

Heres a few good Blu questions about setting job traits for the higher levels:

Is setting auto refresh worth it? It looks like it takes a shit-ton of points. How about attack or magic attack bonus? Do blu try to go for any of the traits or are they all just completely shitty?

[NynJa]

/war for zerk is completely useless, as BLU spells are completely independant of attack (Y HELO THAR SUSHI). I tested this out on some TW crab in qufim on my way to xp:
3 Head Butts with a weapon equipped (166ish attack), 3 Head Butts with no weapon equipped (44 attack)...dmg was very similar. I think 61 61 84 without a weapon, and 64 81 76 with weapon.

That shoud summarize attack bonus.
If I'm xping on one specific mob, I aim for the intimidation trait of that mob type. What's better than paralyze ?? A paralyze effect thats always on, yayyyy. I also try to throw on clear mind when I'm not subbed mage.


As far as MAB goes, I havent tried /blm using only magical spells, but if you're going that route, /blm will allready give you MAB, and they shouldn't stack.

[Priran]

Actually, I much prefer whms and rdms alike to use banish2. Banish3 costs a lot, the damage sucks compared to 3 monks smashing at it, it takes a long time to cast, and I just LOVE chasing a lemure to the mages so that when it aoe drain it sucks hp from the mages.

The chance to remove weapon penalty seems similar, and that's all I care about really.

Banish 3 + af2 gloves = 15 second ghost ftw

3 good monks + banish 2 = 15 second ghost anyway, what's your point?

those 3 monks are probably EXPing in a ToAU area, KRT is for tools

[stormos]

Heres a few good Blu questions about setting job traits for the higher levels:

Is setting auto refresh worth it? It looks like it takes a shit-ton of points. How about attack or magic attack bonus? Do blu try to go for any of the traits or are they all just completely shitty?

I only go for 3 traits;
Auto Refresh (actinic burst, frightful roar, self-destruct) 10 pts and all of them are useful.
conserve MP (frost breath, chaotic eye) 5?
accuracy bonus (frenetic rip, disseverment) 8pts

so that's 23/45. The remaining goes to refueling, head butt, temperal shift, cannonball and hysteric barrage. Rest of the points depends on what I'm fighting.

Attack bonus only gives 10 attack and the only reason I would go for that would be if I sub thf. Death scissor and temperal shift. Magic attack bonus isnt worth it since you'll never use magical spells anyway.

[Celeras]

Heres a few good Blu questions about setting job traits for the higher levels:

Is setting auto refresh worth it? It looks like it takes a shit-ton of points. How about attack or magic attack bonus? Do blu try to go for any of the traits or are they all just completely shitty?

I only go for 3 traits;
Auto Refresh (actinic burst, frightful roar, self-destruct) 10 pts and all of them are useful.
conserve MP (frost breath, chaotic eye) 5?
accuracy bonus (frenetic rip, disseverment) 8pts

so that's 23/45. The remaining goes to refueling, head butt, temperal shift, cannonball and hysteric barrage. Rest of the points depends on what I'm fighting.

Attack bonus only gives 10 attack and the only reason I would go for that would be if I sub thf. Death scissor and temperal shift. Magic attack bonus isnt worth it since you'll never use magical spells anyway.

Last i checked, you can only have one trait active at a time? Or are you just mentioning the three you use most often.

[stormos]

Heres a few good Blu questions about setting job traits for the higher levels:

Is setting auto refresh worth it? It looks like it takes a shit-ton of points. How about attack or magic attack bonus? Do blu try to go for any of the traits or are they all just completely shitty?

I only go for 3 traits;
Auto Refresh (actinic burst, frightful roar, self-destruct) 10 pts and all of them are useful.
conserve MP (frost breath, chaotic eye) 5?
accuracy bonus (frenetic rip, disseverment) 8pts

so that's 23/45. The remaining goes to refueling, head butt, temperal shift, cannonball and hysteric barrage. Rest of the points depends on what I'm fighting.

Attack bonus only gives 10 attack and the only reason I would go for that would be if I sub thf. Death scissor and temperal shift. Magic attack bonus isnt worth it since you'll never use magical spells anyway.

Last i checked, you can only have one trait active at a time? Or are you just mentioning the three you use most often.

Where did you get that info? You can have multiple traits active as long as you have the spells set that give the trait. Or maybe I'm misunderstanding what you wrote. Since you are 50+ blu, go set 2 or more traits and see if comes out on your job traits menu and it willl.

[Celeras]

Heres a few good Blu questions about setting job traits for the higher levels:

Is setting auto refresh worth it? It looks like it takes a shit-ton of points. How about attack or magic attack bonus? Do blu try to go for any of the traits or are they all just completely shitty?

I only go for 3 traits;
Auto Refresh (actinic burst, frightful roar, self-destruct) 10 pts and all of them are useful.
conserve MP (frost breath, chaotic eye) 5?
accuracy bonus (frenetic rip, disseverment) 8pts

so that's 23/45. The remaining goes to refueling, head butt, temperal shift, cannonball and hysteric barrage. Rest of the points depends on what I'm fighting.

Attack bonus only gives 10 attack and the only reason I would go for that would be if I sub thf. Death scissor and temperal shift. Magic attack bonus isnt worth it since you'll never use magical spells anyway.

Last i checked, you can only have one trait active at a time? Or are you just mentioning the three you use most often.

Where did you get that info? You can have multiple traits active as long as you have the spells set that give the trait. Or maybe I'm misunderstanding what you wrote. Since you are 50+ blu, go set 2 or more traits and see if comes out on your job traits menu and it willl.

I just recalled in the lower levels, trying to set Attack bonus while I already had autoregen there, and I didnt get both at the same time. I asked someone, forget who, and they said that and since it fitting the situation i just accepted it. Was probably just an allocation mistake on my part.

Just checked now, worked fine. My mistake.

[Gulkeeva]

Has anyone tried this stuff Sj drk to see how big a boost it is?
Does it drain Hp like a 5 hit WS when doing dissevernment? (like 600-800HP) or like a 1 hit? (150-250?hp)

[Celeras]

Just want to share an interesting party experience im having.

Its a pickup party, much less than ideal setup. Nin tank, very melee heavy, leader had me sub mage for extra support when needed. Doing my normal damage routine, I was running out of mp and having to rest an awful lot. There was no rdm, no cor, and the brd was singing double minu for melee. Even when I ran back for ballad, it would just get overwritten again by minuet in a few seconds.

Now, we were killing just fine without me doing much, so I decided to drop back to the mageline full time and just support since i was doing it alot anyway (Frontline NinMnkMnkPup,BrdBlu^^). This is a level 55-57 PT on lesser colibri. Anyways I get bored. We dont need my damage, but just debuffing/curing isnt why i was playing blu. Im more then happy to do it for the benefit of the party, but still.

During a break, I switch all my spells around. I throw in Feather Storm, Wild Oats, and a breath or two without losing any crucial spells for this party. Spells i havent used since level 15, but whatever I give it a shot.

Wild Oats-> Featherstorm + occasional poison breath is what I ended up doing. All low mp, low cast time, low recast spells. I was able to pretty much spam these nonstop, without losing any mp since the spells are 9 and 12mp respectively. Now this is no way replaces my normal damage routine, but for this particular party it was an effective way for me to contribute damage without hurting my necessary support abilities.

The damage is by no means impressive, but im thinking of it as a way for me to melee without having to hurt hinder my actual role in this party. Feather/Oats average around 50-70, higher damage being Feather. Poison breath would do around 140 pretty regularly.

Just thought i'd share this as a story of Blu versatility. I didnt make a party with this setup, and I wouldnt do it again voluntaril. I wouldnt recommend doing it at all if you dont have to, since normal damage methods are more effective, but its nice to know options are out there.

[liefe]

Heres a few good Blu questions about setting job traits for the higher levels:

Is setting auto refresh worth it? It looks like it takes a shit-ton of points. How about attack or magic attack bonus? Do blu try to go for any of the traits or are they all just completely shitty?

I only go for 3 traits;
Auto Refresh (actinic burst, frightful roar, self-destruct) 10 pts and all of them are useful.
conserve MP (frost breath, chaotic eye) 5?
accuracy bonus (frenetic rip, disseverment) 8pts

so that's 23/45. The remaining goes to refueling, head butt, temperal shift, cannonball and hysteric barrage. Rest of the points depends on what I'm fighting.

Attack bonus only gives 10 attack and the only reason I would go for that would be if I sub thf. Death scissor and temperal shift. Magic attack bonus isnt worth it since you'll never use magical spells anyway.

I recommend Firespit+Chaotic Eye for Conserve MP. Costs 2 points more, but you get +3STR instead of -2INT.

[Genosync]

Heres a few good Blu questions about setting job traits for the higher levels:

Is setting auto refresh worth it? It looks like it takes a shit-ton of points. How about attack or magic attack bonus? Do blu try to go for any of the traits or are they all just completely shitty?

I only go for 3 traits;
Auto Refresh (actinic burst, frightful roar, self-destruct) 10 pts and all of them are useful.
conserve MP (frost breath, chaotic eye) 5?
accuracy bonus (frenetic rip, disseverment) 8pts

so that's 23/45. The remaining goes to refueling, head butt, temperal shift, cannonball and hysteric barrage. Rest of the points depends on what I'm fighting.

Attack bonus only gives 10 attack and the only reason I would go for that would be if I sub thf. Death scissor and temperal shift. Magic attack bonus isnt worth it since you'll never use magical spells anyway.

I recommend Firespit+Chaotic Eye for Conserve MP. Costs 2 points more, but you get +3STR instead of -2INT.

and INT matters because?

good switch, but only if you have the points to spare.

[NynJa]

Oh, if it hasnt been figured out yet:
Stinking Gas's "damage over time" effect...its 0hp/tick. Very nicely worded SE. I'm willing to bet Awful Eye is worded shittily as well.


oh, and Mandibular Bite is hawt. SA Mandi Bite was doing 250-300 dmg no chain affinity. Even without SA, it was doing anywhere between 100 and 180.

[Battosi]

I try to keep up with this thread but you guys went through like 10 pages in two days hehe. Anyways, I only subed thf in xp once for fun before I hit 75 (I read like on page 50 someone talking about me and bulk subbing thf in xp). I don't really use my blu for exp or merits. I use my ninja and other DD jobs for that. It really just depends what I'm doing but I mainly use my blu in the tank party for major fights such as CoP Wyrms(Tiamat, Ouryu, Jormugand). I have yet to try on Vrtra but don't see myself trying since we kite him. My LS uses WAR/WHM, WAR/WHM, PLD/WAR, BRD/WHM, WHM/SMN, RDM/SMN for our tank pt setup. I have been going as blu/war lately and taking the spot of a WAR/WHM. Blu is much more efficient then war/whm. I can have a 600-650ish MP pool, 1500-1700ish hp, +40ish VIT, and around 900 defense. I obtain these stats while missing some of the end game peices I would like to get eventually.

Diamondhide is one example of blu's efficientcy. My Diamondhide recast is 1minute. At 75 Diamondhide absorbs 184 dmg without having any +blu skill. Depending on the LS Wyrms such as these can take 1hour++++ easily. If the blu is casting Diamondhide every chance he gets(every 1minute or sooner depending on haste gear) thats 552 dmg the tanks don't take(184 x 3 considering we have 3 tanks atm). Thats 33,120 damage the tanks don't take. This of course is combinded. If you divide that number by 3 thats how much less damage one tank would take alone(11,040). These numbers can be increased greatly with haste gear to lower Diamondhide recast and +blu skill to increase the damage Diamondhide absorbs(1 skill increases Diamondhide dmg absorbed by like .6 something, Moochi posted this like 10 pages back or so).

Another amazing aspect of Blu in the main tank party for these events is their magic resistance. I took LESS damage then our Paladin with aegis and defender ring on my Blu against Ouryu/Tiamat's Air attacks (pure magic attacks to those that do not know) while lacking full coral set. I used the ability Saline Coat which adds Magic Defensive Bonus(I'm not sure how much exactly but its a very sufficient amount). I also equiped spells to give me the job trait Magic Def. Bonus. Mystery tour say this trait is +10 but I am not sure how to really tell. A PLD in my LS braught up an interesting point that it seems that Magic Def Bonus is > then -magical dmg %. Hence why me taking less damage then our PLD in maxed out -% gear. Blu is the most magical resistant tank in the game. We have yet to try corsair in this tank pt setup, but when the time comes I will post results. Corsair has Magus's Roll which adds Magic Def Bonus (With Blu in the party this roll is enhanced). Unless theres a cap on Magic Def Bonus the results should be amazing.

Now I'm sure you are all wondering how blu takes physical damage on these high level HNMS. From my experience with the Tiamats/Ouryu's, I take the same/less physical damage as every other tank job (pld,nin,war). The ONLY exception is Aegis. Aegis wins in physical attacks with the amazing block ratio.

Some people may wonder if hate is solid so I'll answer that as well. Hate is amazing as Blu/war. Many of our spells give an essential amount of hate even if they are resisted(or have no affect on the mob). I'm sure some of you noticed when you did Jettera when the mob moved and you still pulled hate. Healing breeze, magic fruit, provoke, and warcry are more then enough for obtaining efficient hate. I even spam Chain affinity/Burst affinity JAs for hate(Yes they give hate just by using the JA). Along side those obvious hate tools I use Jettera and Actinic Burst. Even if these spells are resisted or have no affect on the mob they still give sufficient hate.

Thats all I can think of for the minute. Some spells I might of miss spelled because its late and I don't feel like looking up the spelling lol.

[liefe]

Heres a few good Blu questions about setting job traits for the higher levels:

Is setting auto refresh worth it? It looks like it takes a shit-ton of points. How about attack or magic attack bonus? Do blu try to go for any of the traits or are they all just completely shitty?

I only go for 3 traits;
Auto Refresh (actinic burst, frightful roar, self-destruct) 10 pts and all of them are useful.
conserve MP (frost breath, chaotic eye) 5?
accuracy bonus (frenetic rip, disseverment) 8pts

so that's 23/45. The remaining goes to refueling, head butt, temperal shift, cannonball and hysteric barrage. Rest of the points depends on what I'm fighting.

Attack bonus only gives 10 attack and the only reason I would go for that would be if I sub thf. Death scissor and temperal shift. Magic attack bonus isnt worth it since you'll never use magical spells anyway.

I recommend Firespit+Chaotic Eye for Conserve MP. Costs 2 points more, but you get +3STR instead of -2INT.

and INT matters because?

good switch, but only if you have the points to spare.

I never said it did. The point was to not have a spell with useless stats and replace it with a significant boost to a prime stat.

[Celeras]

Forgive me for being skeptical, but Blu as an endgame tank? The magic resistance part I can believe, but the other stuff seems a bit foolhearted. I see blu being much more effective as a replacement for the smn in the tank party(on tiamat etc), opening up that smn to BP and maximizing damage. But a tank? x.x

[Lazureus]

Question time!!!

Where in MtZhayolm are Waomoras? How do I get to them... andddd...

what does it take to kill them? I need to know how impossible it will be for me to find help to kill them for Cannonball skill. I'm missing loads of skills now cuz I have no LS and thus no one to help me learn things x.x

can a WAR/NIN + WHM + BLU/WHM combo kill them? or a NIN/WAR+ BLU/WHM?

[Battosi]

Forgive me for being skeptical, but Blu as an endgame tank? The magic resistance part I can believe, but the other stuff seems a bit foolhearted. I see blu being much more effective as a replacement for the smn in the tank party(on tiamat etc), opening up that smn to BP and maximizing damage. But a tank? x.x

Blu can fill in both roles. I never once said Blu had to tank. I guess it depends on the person playing Blue mage itself. I have been tanking things for a very long time and enjoy it so I perfer to tank on Blue during these fights. I don't think I mentioned using Blue mage to tank everything I encountered, only in such fights as the CoP Wyrms.