Blue Mage: Best thread ever

[Atoreis]

No I meant that your ability to tank will depend almost only on support. It's like abyssea when you can say BLM can tank because WHM can keep him alive. Which is true but it is very far from optimal and bigger support means less room for staggers or less ppl to go on stagger jobs.

Mute affects PLD but PLD has 2 sources of hate - spells and melee. BLU has only spells because in turtle mode your accuracy will be just to low.

Once again your only defense is high defense based on Cocoon. When it get canceled with debuff/dispel and cant be erased/rebuffed in time you are pretty much a paper that can be destroyed with just a wind's blow. PLD in that case has still sentinel and shield.

BLU tanking requires to much effort and even then it has still too high chance to fail with unlucky TPmoves/spells combination.

EDIT: I admit BLU could be very good tank for things you can blink tank. I done it a lot at 75-80 and now it's much better and easier.

[Prothescar]

ITT: BLU tanking is hard and is this not viable.

Saying that BLU can't utilize its melee while tanking is kinda funny. :\

[Atoreis]

ITT: BLU tanking is hard and is this not viable.

Saying that BLU can't utilize its melee while tanking is kinda funny. :\

Because it cant lol.

A- skill, almost no accuracy in gear while trying to maintain def/pdt. Probably also Taco as food.

Only real option for blu tanking is blinktanking and it's very limited with VW.

[Prothescar]

Why in god's name would I use a taco? Blink Tanking wasn't even necessary at 75, it was just more efficient on most things. Something being more efficient does not exclude alternatives.

Edit: What I'm saying is, saying BLU cannot tank, as compared to it is not preferable for tanking is a very large difference. I find tanking on BLU to be enjoyable, and it makes my group no worse for wear. Ochain/Aegis PLDs are not a necessity for Voidwatch.

[Atoreis]

Why in god's name would I use a taco? Blink Tanking wasn't even necessary at 75, it was just more efficient on most things. Something being more efficient does not exclude alternatives.

Edit: What I'm saying is, saying BLU cannot tank, as compared to it is not preferable for tanking is a very large difference. I find tanking on BLU to be enjoyable, and it makes my group no worse for wear. Ochain/Aegis PLDs are not a necessity for Voidwatch.

What exactly you tanked on BLU from VW? How many co tanks you had there and what support you had. In case it would be interesting ( again no sarcasm ) I will ask more detailed questions

[Prothescar]

Have tanked up to T3 in San d'Oria and Bastok branches, have participated in all. I have 1 other tank normally, he's an almace/ochain PLD. We're both capable of tanking, however if there's no other BLUs I'm forced to forgo anything besides proccing so it usually falls to him.

Edit: Worth noting that my linkshell itself is incredibly inactive with voidwatch.

[Darkmagi]

Anything up to T3 you wouldn't need something like a PLD tank anyways, T4 is where you would probably get fucked pretty hard if you tried to do anything other than full PDT tanking.

[Atoreis]

Have tanked up to T3 in San d'Oria and Bastok branches, have participated in all. I have 1 other tank normally, he's an almace/ochain PLD. We're both capable of tanking, however if there's no other BLUs I'm forced to forgo anything besides proccing so it usually falls to him.

Edit: Worth noting that my linkshell itself is incredibly inactive with voidwatch.

Having co tank like that can eliminate a lot disadvantages that I wrote. I still think one or even 2 BLUs wont be able to tank tier iv on their own. At least not while normal stagger run.

[Prothescar]

I'm not trying to argue that BLU is the ultimate tank in VW, I'm simply trying to say that it's a possibility and not completely incompetent at the role.

[VZX01]

Well... they changed the heavy strike accuracy, mp cost for Dark orb(?) and recently THF's bully, it might be possible if we post in official forum about the problem of barrier tusk's practicality, they will change the MP cost, cast, and effect duration of it.

[dasva]

Personally I'd rather it actually just count as pdt/mdt. Fuck yeah being able to cap pdt while having a decent evasion set on and full refresh!!! Breaking the cap is nice and all that but it's not by that much so it's not particularly game changing even if it's mp cost casting time and duration were much better

[kenshyn]

Looks like they fin killed heavy strike acc guess if you want it to land all accuracy gear or back to /thf can't miss lol. I knew that dream couldn't last ><;;...

Finally got around to testing Heavy Strike on Hahava, and it's kind of bittersweet. Was able to squeeze in 4-5 casts per pop between Fanatic's and landed Sudden Lunges (more below).

In STR gear with Sole Sushi, I was having an astoundingly hard time landing the spell at all, when it did hit it hit for 300~500. On the 4th or 5th run I decided to try TP gear for the extra ACC, and it made a large difference (obviously); landed far more casts, but the damage obviously suffered. CA+Efflux damage was pretty nice considering the mob, but I didn't get a large sample size on that since I didn't feel like running back 50+ times.

A sample of the damage:
No CA:
383
464
465
333
479

CA:
980
1206



Overall the shitawful accuracy had given me the overwhelming urge to strangle badgers. Would seem that my previous premonitions were wrong and the ACC is pretty damn bad. :\

For comparison, Sudden Lunge and Vanity Dive had more casts and landed almost constantly in STR gear.

Speaking of Sudden Lunge, it's a bit of good news that I do have. Every time I landed it on Hahava, it stunned him for 10 or more seconds with only expected signs of resistance.

[Yugl]

I haven't had much experience meleeing that NM, but if it turns out that his evasion is "normal" . . .

What we know
- ACC is capped on rabbits (?)
- ACC is terribad on high tier NMs


Doubt
- Fixed ACC penalty applied after the ACC formulation

Plausible
- Level penalty on ACC (Hit rate) increases at a greater rate than normal
- ACC penalty prior to formulation

[Prothescar]

His EVA is nowhere near standard when it comes to even high level NMs, can say the same for any VWNM. I was, however, propositioned to go and do the test on a T4 VWNM, so that's what I did. Accuracy should be about the same as for any other melee with the added benefit of not needing TP to use Heavy Strike.

I'll try to do something with higher level NMs in Abyssea, and whatever else would be pertinent, when I have time.

[kenshyn]

His EVA is nowhere near standard when it comes to even high level NMs, can say the same for any VWNM. I was, however, propositioned to go and do the test on a T4 VWNM, so that's what I did. Accuracy should be about the same as for any other melee with the added benefit of not needing TP to use Heavy Strike.

I'll try to do something with higher level NMs in Abyssea, and whatever else would be pertinent, when I have time.

I wouldn't think abyssea would see an issue the buffs we get are pretty insane now t3/t4 and newer mobs is where the problems will show up. Heck just fight any outside high level 90+ thf mobs and parse your melee and magic acc to know for sure.

[Draylo]

Hahava isn't really that evasive, especially considering you were using sushi.

[Nightfyre]

Level 95 with capped skills and sushi should not be having those kinds of problems vs Hahava, as evidenced by his results with other spells. Devs can fuck themselves with a rake, if it's going to be an issue vs a 90 cap NM you can be sure it'll be a problem against the NMs where the spell would be most relevant.

[VZX01]

OK, I think these haven't been asked earlier:
1. Is the blind effect from Auroral Drape really -60 accuracy like it's written on otherwiki?
2. Do the silence and blind effect wear off at the same time, assuming both effects land?
3. How good is the Auroral Drape accuracy? Can it be a good staple spell when soloing?
4. Directed by someone from the other thread: What is your spell set when wielding Almace? Any plan changing it when lv95 cap comes?

[Sylvrdragon]

OK, I think these haven't been asked earlier:
1. Is the blind effect from Auroral Drape really -60 accuracy like it's written on otherwiki?
2. Do the silence and blind effect wear off at the same time, assuming both effects land?
3. How good is the Auroral Drape accuracy? Can it be a good staple spell when soloing?
4. Directed by someone from the other thread: What is your spell set when wielding Almace? Any plan changing it when lv95 cap comes?

I don't quite have Almace yet, but I really don't intend to change my set very much once I do. Here's what I use currently:



This is 55/55 Set Points.

When I get Almace, I might ditch Whirl of Rage for Fantod and Final Sting just for for AGI for BT. Still undecided on that one.

At 95 when we get 5 more set points, I intend to replace Head Butt with Sudden Lunge (+1 point), add Heavy Strike as a DD spell and Demoralizing Roar to give me 4 Double Attack trait spells (hence Triple Attack)(+6 Points), and ditch Whirl of Rage (or Fantod/Final Sting if I'm using them) for sure (-2 Points).

Or maybe I'll give up my precious ACC Bonus Trait and ditch Disseverment. Then I could keep Whirl of Rage AND Fantod/Final Sting. That gives me an extra point to play with. At that point, I would probably ditch Final Sting again and pick some 2-point spell with stats or Water Bomb or something.

Of course, I'm open to suggestions for both my present set and my future planned sets.

[VZX01]

Here's my current spell set after getting Almace:
Traits combo:
act. burst 4
wind of promy 5
+9 : Auto-Refresh

empty thrash 3
acrid stream 3
+6 : DA

chaotic eye 2
zephyr mantle 2
+4 : Conserve MP

sound blast 1
dream flower 3
+4 : MAB (for Sanguine Blade)

Strictly utility :
head butt 3
ani wail 5
battery charge 3
mp drainkiss 4
triumphant roar 3
cocoon 1
magic fruit 3
+22

Strictly DD:
quadratic continumm 4
benthic typhoon 4
delta thrust 2
+10

I'm also thinking squeezing Triple Attack in after 95, but not sure about sudden lunge to replace head butt, especially when I need to stun a very-short-charging TP attack. 0.5s longer could probably make a difference.
So probably 1 or 2 points to kill from my list, but I'm in dilemma which would it be. Delta Thrust is not that damaging, but can be useful. Probably MP Drainkiss since not every mob I'm fighting has MP.

Depending what the other people will say about Auroral Drape, I will probably add that to my staple spell, since BLU isn't that evasive to begin with. Exchanging it with MP Drainkiss is probably more viable, but I'm still 2 points short if I'm about to change Head Butt to Sudden Lunge and squeeze Triple Attack in.

By the way... Don't you think we need a bit more spell slots? I'm pretty sure we'll be sitting at 20/20 after next update and may have problem on getting more spell slot rather than spell set points.