Blue Mage: Best thread ever

[Hiruke]

Yeah, I think what's being overlooked in the past 2 pages here is Vorpal Blade. In VT Burn XP PT and Merit PT's, just using Vorpal Blade and using CA whenever it's convenient without wasting too much of potential TP towards WS (usually after I WS) with a Frenetic Rip or Disseverment or Hysteric Barrage works the best for overall DoT.

With a few sword merits and full haste gear (Walahra, Homam, Dusk), just spamming Vorpal Blade seems to me better overall DoT than waiting for CA and blowing through too much of your MP.

Honestly, as soon as I got Vorpal Blade (which was at 58... I only had 4 sword merits then, 5 now :/), I pretty much stopped casting very many damage spells in most situations. I tend to equip Attack Bonus, ever STR spell I have, my favorite damage spells, and whatever support spells seem relavent to the PT. These last tend to cycle through Refueling, Magic Fruit, Sheep Song, Geist Wall, etc. I definitely prefer to just have haste and cure and equip the other stuff when I'm worried the support job cats won't take care of that stuff.

At 64 with /NIN, my STR gear puts me at 50+41 STR and 336 ATT with spells, pre-food. If I use this set-up, I typically use sole sushi. My ACC set is 50+30 STR and 326 ATT. When using this, I'll either use ACC or ATT food, depending on how well I'm hitting in the PT. Of note is that I don't use a cotehardie of any sort, because I don't feel like trading 10 ACC for 3/4 STR. Missing hits on WS just... sucks.

So I really only use spells when the mob is already low hp and I want to finish it off quickly for whatever reason (or to grab hate when the tank loses it, or lol, d/cs, and the mob is about to smoke the mages). I feel I do a good amount of DoT just meleeing and WSing with my swords to not rely so much on damage spells. They are nice for finishing off the fight if it drags on too long or to shore up lost potential damage when you miss a few hits off of Vorpal.

Long story short, I think focusing on Vorpal Blade is also viable in normal xp PTs and not just "burn" style PTs. Typically the only other DDs in my PT are BST/NIN and COR/NIN, and we pull in a good xp/hr rate if we manage to find a tank who knows how to play their job effectively. My style of play may or may not change once I actually get the other good multi-hit spells besides just Frenetic Rip.

[Airshort7]

So who has found a good use of blue 2hr?

[Correction]

So who has found a good use of blue 2hr?

Whenever someone asks me 'so what does the BLU 2hr do?' I use it and say 'that.'

[Moochi]

I usually use it with 1000 needles. On HNMs it has landed once on Amaltheia (landed) and twice on Tiamat (didn't land).

[Judah]

don't feel like making a new thread for this. ---

after BLM i'm doing BLU on my tarutaru-- few questions -- not gonna read all 79 pages so bare with me.

Im planning on using warrior sub untill 24, and then switching to Ninja. I've seen a lot of BLU on our server using NIN sub at 75... and I really havent seen many BLU with THF in EXP etc.

Question 1: Obviously the dmg output with SA on HNMs or things like SA-Headbutt on KB meteor would be sexy.. but --- is thf sub needed at all to EXP to 75?

As far as subs go, I'll have NIN, RDM, BLM, WHM --- Thinking WHM will be OK when I have to main heal and shit like that.. (Divine Seal -- stack mind gear and spam fruit and shit~) ---

Question 2: Does Elemental Seal do anything for BLU spells? examples? what about 1000 needles?

Question 3: What job abilitys affect BLU spells --- IE Berserk, Last Resort, Soul Eater, Etc - -- if any at all~ and only with chain affinity or not??

Not to take the thread off its current topic......
school me, niggas.

[Cephius]

don't feel like making a new thread for this. ---

after BLM i'm doing BLU on my tarutaru-- few questions -- not gonna read all 79 pages so bare with me.

Im planning on using warrior sub untill 24, and then switching to Ninja. I've seen a lot of BLU on our server using NIN sub at 75... and I really havent seen many BLU with THF in EXP etc.

Question 1: Obviously the dmg output with SA on HNMs or things like SA-Headbutt on KB meteor would be sexy.. but --- is thf sub needed at all to EXP to 75?

As far as subs go, I'll have NIN, RDM, BLM, WHM --- Thinking WHM will be OK when I have to main heal and shit like that.. (Divine Seal -- stack mind gear and spam fruit and shit~) ---

Question 2: Does Elemental Seal do anything for BLU spells? examples? what about 1000 needles?

Question 3: What job abilitys affect BLU spells --- IE Berserk, Last Resort, Soul Eater, Etc - -- if any at all~ and only with chain affinity or not??

Not to take the thread off its current topic......
school me, niggas.

Disclaimer: I'm not a BLU, I'm just gonna post what I've observed while leveling with them.

To me, the best sub once you hit 50 is THF. Damage is just too low otherwise. I'll put it this way, I've had a few BLUs who sub SAM and NIN, and I hardly even notice they're there when I'm tanking. But the BLUs who have subbed THF and done SATA death scissors for 900, or dimensional death for 600, are freaking beasts.

NIN sub was ok, because BLU dot with swords are pretty decent. But even at the low levels, doing 200 damage with SA bludgeon speeds up kills a great deal.

About elemental seal, I think it does, but no BLU i've seen subs BLM to anything D:

[Delekii]

I partied with many, many blu's getting from 60-75 on my cor, and almost always BLU/NIN outparsed BLU/THF. Burst damage is great and all, but with enough refresh BLU/NIN can spam spells while BLU/THF cannot. I guess it depends on the refresh you have available, in ideal situations you have (well, I had) tank blu/nin blu/nin cor rdm brd - sanction, auto, evokers, ballad2, refresh, and verm for downtime means 8-12 refresh which is more than enough to spam. 2 headbutts = hate control {huh?}. BLU/THF never impressed me, saying SA blu spells are good for xp is like saying SATA spin slash is good for xp - it is but dot is more important. Most good players are pretty much past the "long kills for large xp" stage by this point, VT-IT is what most people do in the better parties, and that is where SA and TA fall behind.

Both work perfectly well, and you can easily get by with one or the other. If you had to choose THF or NIN sub, I think most would go with NIN. Swords play an important part of BLU damage, and the ability to cross the hate line with reckless abandon does too.

[Cephius]

I partied with many, many blu's getting from 60-75 on my cor, and almost always BLU/NIN outparsed BLU/THF. Burst damage is great and all, but with enough refresh BLU/NIN can spam spells while BLU/THF cannot. I guess it depends on the refresh you have available, in ideal situations you have (well, I had) tank blu/nin blu/nin cor rdm brd - sanction, auto, evokers, ballad2, refresh, and verm for downtime means 8-12 refresh which is more than enough to spam. 2 headbutts = hate control {huh?}. BLU/THF never impressed me, saying SA blu spells are good for xp is like saying SATA spin slash is good for xp - it is but dot is more important. Most good players are pretty much past the "long kills for large xp" stage by this point, VT-IT is what most people do in the better parties, and that is where SA and TA fall behind.

Both work perfectly well, and you can easily get by with one or the other. If you had to choose THF or NIN sub, I think most would go with NIN. Swords play an important part of BLU damage, and the ability to cross the hate line with reckless abandon does too.

Clearly its not just all about SA, BLUs can SA a spell and then self skillchain, and then spam a few more spells, whereas the only thing a DRK can do is keep swinging with his 450 delay weapon. Assuming most BLU mages spam spells regardless of subjob, I think THF is better because you get a large damage spike every 45 seconds, instead of relying on sword dot to get that added damage. Like you said, no one does the long kill/long xp method anymore, so a quick spike in damage to me is better than casting a few (relatively weak) spells, and meleeing til the mob death.

[Celeras]

On Puks at level 70-72, I was Blu/Nin in a party with a Blu/Thf. I parsed out of curiousity. I ended up doing 15xx.xx per fight, he did 17xx.xx per fight. I was pretty surprised, since I was doing Rip/Disseverment as much as my MP would allow me too. I believe we only had a bard for that party, though.

[Gulkeeva]

I partied with many, many blu's getting from 60-75 on my cor, and almost always BLU/NIN outparsed BLU/THF. Burst damage is great and all, but with enough refresh BLU/NIN can spam spells while BLU/THF cannot. I guess it depends on the refresh you have available, in ideal situations you have (well, I had) tank blu/nin blu/nin cor rdm brd - sanction, auto, evokers, ballad2, refresh, and verm for downtime means 8-12 refresh which is more than enough to spam. 2 headbutts = hate control {huh?}. BLU/THF never impressed me, saying SA blu spells are good for xp is like saying SATA spin slash is good for xp - it is but dot is more important. Most good players are pretty much past the "long kills for large xp" stage by this point, VT-IT is what most people do in the better parties, and that is where SA and TA fall behind.

Both work perfectly well, and you can easily get by with one or the other. If you had to choose THF or NIN sub, I think most would go with NIN. Swords play an important part of BLU damage, and the ability to cross the hate line with reckless abandon does too.

Either your fighting near tough VT mobs only ot its a galka or elvaan blu/thf vs a hume,mithra,taru blu/nin and the blu/thf don't know how to use sneak attack, or just really fail.

I mean I was fighting those crawlers at mount zhaolym(whatever) area which had nin,thf,2xblu,whm,rdm

He'd throw in a random frenetic rip and i'd do anywhere from 60~310 on These IT crawlers using chain affinity, without it he was averaging below 300. SA frenetic rip was average over 400 to near 700, his death scissors either missed or did under 400 with ca.

I was the "tank" soorta speak to turn mobs for the thf to sata the nin because blu/nin couldn't pull hate without spamming, I'd jsut sa/ca a death scissors at 50~100% TP and it does anywhere from 700~1200.
I highly doubt a blu/nin can outparse a decent blu/thf that knows what they are doing, maybe close if it had like cor+brd+rdm, sancrion refresh wearing verm and spamming cronically on VT mobs, but no chance vs IT mobs.

[Not Kuno]

I highly doubt a blu/nin can outparse a decent blu/thf that knows what they are doing, maybe close if it had like cor+brd+rdm, sancrion refresh wearing verm and spamming cronically on VT mobs, but no chance vs IT mobs.

I have to agree 100% with this. I found myself doing too little damage and mobs dying way too fast. I had 3/4+ mp all the time due to massive MP regen yet I could only do so much dmg. When I switched to /thf I was doing much more spike dmg. Sata Death scissors at the start followed by a CA rip midway + random spam afterwards did so much more dmg. /nin is for survivability, but you wont be stealing hate vs IT so it doesnt matter.

[stormos]

I partied with many, many blu's getting from 60-75 on my cor, and almost always BLU/NIN outparsed BLU/THF. Burst damage is great and all, but with enough refresh BLU/NIN can spam spells while BLU/THF cannot. I guess it depends on the refresh you have available, in ideal situations you have (well, I had) tank blu/nin blu/nin cor rdm brd - sanction, auto, evokers, ballad2, refresh, and verm for downtime means 8-12 refresh which is more than enough to spam. 2 headbutts = hate control {huh?}. BLU/THF never impressed me, saying SA blu spells are good for xp is like saying SATA spin slash is good for xp - it is but dot is more important. Most good players are pretty much past the "long kills for large xp" stage by this point, VT-IT is what most people do in the better parties, and that is where SA and TA fall behind.

Both work perfectly well, and you can easily get by with one or the other. If you had to choose THF or NIN sub, I think most would go with NIN. Swords play an important part of BLU damage, and the ability to cross the hate line with reckless abandon does too.

Either your fighting near tough VT mobs only ot its a galka or elvaan blu/thf vs a hume,mithra,taru blu/nin and the blu/thf don't know how to use sneak attack, or just really fail.

I mean I was fighting those crawlers at mount zhaolym(whatever) area which had nin,thf,2xblu,whm,rdm

He'd throw in a random frenetic rip and i'd do anywhere from 60~310 on These IT crawlers using chain affinity, without it he was averaging below 300. SA frenetic rip was average over 400 to near 700, his death scissors either missed or did under 400 with ca.

I was the "tank" soorta speak to turn mobs for the thf to sata the nin because blu/nin couldn't pull hate without spamming, I'd jsut sa/ca a death scissors at 50~100% TP and it does anywhere from 700~1200.
I highly doubt a blu/nin can outparse a decent blu/thf that knows what they are doing, maybe close if it had like cor+brd+rdm, sancrion refresh wearing verm and spamming cronically on VT mobs, but no chance vs IT mobs.

Must've been a gimp blu/nin that you partied with. You really can't judge which SJ is better because one SJ can be better than the other depending on PT setups. Like you said, in a PT of pld thf blux2 rdm whm, the blu is getting refresh only from the rdm. with only 3mp/tick from refresh(not counting sanction/verm) blu/nin cant really spam to do enough damage to keep up with /thf. In a different setup like blu/ninx3 cor brd rdm, the blu/nin can tank while doing more damage than blu/thf w/o getting killed or draining the rdm's mp. So basically, it really depends on party setup to know which SJ is "better".

Leveling with a set of 4 blu/nin, cor, brd we made at least 8k/hr up to 10k+/hr from Lv55~75. It wouldn't have been possible if we subbed thf

[JoOeetheplatypuS]

So in most realistic situations BLU/THF is better, but in rare situations BLU/NIN is good.

[Not Kuno]

If you're doing 4 blu, you need to go /nin so you don't get hate and die horribly. Thats the only bonus i see to having /nin, is when you dont have a real tank or meriting or something. But I don't see how going /nin means more dmg. My sword hits for shit and we're not bound by needing 100 TP to do high dmg. I still spam my spells except sata adds a huge spike of dmg otherwise not possible.

[stormos]

If you're doing 4 blu, you need to go /nin so you don't get hate and die horribly. Thats the only bonus i see to having /nin, is when you dont have a real tank or meriting or something. But I don't see how going /nin means more dmg. My sword hits for shit and we're not bound by needing 100 TP to do high dmg. I still spam my spells except sata adds a huge spike of dmg otherwise not possible.

When you say you spam your spells, what Lv are you? When you get Lv63 and get frenetic rip, spamming spells basically means you take hate and will get hit, and will get hit often. When I first got frenetic rip, I was fighting Colibri and the crawlers at halvung zone in bhaf thickets and was doing consistent 400~500dmg(700 being highest). If you spam those spells, there's no way you wont get hate unless your pt setup consists of another /thf that puts hate back on the tank. But if you dont have frenetic rip yet, i can understand how you think going /nin does crap damage.

[Kaziel]

Has anyone tried /DRK? While it's probably a given that it won't stand up to /THF, I figure it might be a decent alternative not normally suggested, with a good boost to STR, some MP(lol), and the Attack Up traits for extra DoT.

[Celeras]

If you're doing 4 blu, you need to go /nin so you don't get hate and die horribly. Thats the only bonus i see to having /nin, is when you dont have a real tank or meriting or something. But I don't see how going /nin means more dmg. My sword hits for shit and we're not bound by needing 100 TP to do high dmg. I still spam my spells except sata adds a huge spike of dmg otherwise not possible.

When you say you spam your spells, what Lv are you? When you get Lv63 and get frenetic rip, spamming spells basically means you take hate and will get hit, and will get hit often. When I first got frenetic rip, I was fighting Colibri and the crawlers at halvung zone in bhaf thickets and was doing consistent 400~500dmg(700 being highest). If you spam those spells, there's no way you wont get hate unless your pt setup consists of another /thf that puts hate back on the tank. But if you dont have frenetic rip yet, i can understand how you think going /nin does crap damage.

You can 'spam' frenetic rip just as well in the same setup /thf. The only difference is, you can now throw it TA on the tank, and then SA death scissors for 1000+ without taking hate.

[JoOeetheplatypuS]

Has anyone tried /DRK? While it's probably a given that it won't stand up to /THF, I figure it might be a decent alternative not normally suggested, with a good boost to STR, some MP(lol), and the Attack Up traits for extra DoT.

Maybe for souleater for occasional boosts on HNM. For exp no way.

[NynJa]

Burst damage is great and all, but with enough refresh BLU/NIN can spam spells while BLU/THF cannot.

Is there any reason why a /nin can spam spells whereas a /thf cant ?

[stormos]

If you're doing 4 blu, you need to go /nin so you don't get hate and die horribly. Thats the only bonus i see to having /nin, is when you dont have a real tank or meriting or something. But I don't see how going /nin means more dmg. My sword hits for shit and we're not bound by needing 100 TP to do high dmg. I still spam my spells except sata adds a huge spike of dmg otherwise not possible.

When you say you spam your spells, what Lv are you? When you get Lv63 and get frenetic rip, spamming spells basically means you take hate and will get hit, and will get hit often. When I first got frenetic rip, I was fighting Colibri and the crawlers at halvung zone in bhaf thickets and was doing consistent 400~500dmg(700 being highest). If you spam those spells, there's no way you wont get hate unless your pt setup consists of another /thf that puts hate back on the tank. But if you dont have frenetic rip yet, i can understand how you think going /nin does crap damage.

You can 'spam' frenetic rip just as well in the same setup /thf. The only difference is, you can now throw it TA on the tank, and then SA death scissors for 1000+ without taking hate.

in order for you to do 1000+ death scissors, you need at least 100tp. I'd rather do vorpal > death and make reverb and outdo 1000dmg.