BLU/MNK?

Ok I been wanting to post something about /mnk for a while now since the drk/mnk thread but been lazy.
As I mentioned to Tiger in game, I been using PUP/MNK when soloing since the lv cap increase. To all who keep thinking counterstance is a bad idea, I disagree. It actually has done wonders and I dont use any of the atma that increases counter rates. I started with just VV/RR now that I have the 3rd atma I still dont use the counter atma, personally cuz I prefer refresh atmas to spam cure.

Anyways, its not as blu its on pup, but the proc rate on counter kicks up pretty decently and the HP boost + abyssite (I dont have them all) set me at about 2500HP+ and rarely have I had to go "OH $#!T" on a NM I'm soloing. Of course, its not as great as an actual MNK, but it still helps a lot. For soloing I prefer /MNK over /NIN now.

Best thing to do is try it out. Seriously, it might not work for you, but it might for others. Depends on your play style.

Curious as to how you spam cure as PUP/MNK.

Edit: Tanking force pops is one thing, tanking things that pose a legitimate threat to you is another. MNK has ~20% higher counter rate than anyone /MNK (before any +counter gear you have in your PDT set), and it's higher if you don't give up a better atma for GH.

At this point the issue isn't even in survival; anyone can survive just about anything. You'll get more offense out of /WAR (or /SAM or whatever if you're a two-hander) and you'll get more reliable defense out of /NIN (or /SAM) than /MNK.

Everyone who thinks the HP trait is worth anything is sadly mistaken FYI. That's worth like +30 HP.

Second Edit: Forgot people actually use the white mage frame.

Cure 6 having light maneuvers up all the time using items if I have a status ailment. By the time the puppet can cast another cure 6 I get rid of the ailments.

Sorry that was me, just had it as old char

I dont know how much the HP increase is in case for blu, but inside abyssea as pup its about 200HP+ for me compared to /war if I remember correctly.
Remember tho, this is as a PUP.

My only concern for BLU/MNK would be, can you counter while casting?
Im not sure on that.

Yes, you can.

I have a hard time believing you get ~120 HP from /MNK before Cruor buffs. The HP trait is worth around 30 and I doubt you get another 90 over top of WAR. Either way, pretending whatever HP you get from /MNK matters is silly.

Just wanted to post on the matter of HP Boost rq
current TP gear 90PUP/45WAR = 1465 HP 90PUP/45MNK = 1548 HP outside Abyssea. Just so you dont think Im trying to talk out of my *** you can check me in game. But yes, it's silly.

What is this talk of better atma for GH!?! Gh is a rocking atma

I finished leveling MNK sub and now that I've had a chance to mess around, I must say I'm liking BLU/MNK so far.

I duo'd (BLU/MNK and WHM/BLM) the Tier2 Khim and one of the chariots in Ul. Range, and also Sippoy (WAR jumped in at the end, but I would have been fine). I wear about 40% in -pdt gear and I counter at least 50% of the attacks. My -pdt set really makes the drop in defense negligible. Atmas I use are VV/RR/GH and I have just under 3k HP.

In all honesty, the fights were kind of a joke. WHM was almost always 100% on MP. When I would go /nin to fights like this, shadows would drop fast, and then I'd become an MP sponge. Even if I was able to pull this off as /nin, it wasn't nearly as easy as with BLU/MNK. I think I found my new tank combo :)

You use occulation whenever possible?

I guess what I mean to ask is, what benefit did you have over MNK+WHM duo? Using the same WHM/BLM as support, you'd still have an available stun meaning headbutt wasn't adding anything new to the table that wasn't already there.

I could see it being a lot of fun though. And maybe Actinic Burst and Occultation make up for the ~15% counter rate that you lose as MNK main. Grats on the kills.

Well, I wasn't looking to necessarily replace MNK, but if anything, to be as efficient. Personally, I really just want to dualbox solo stuff.

I really didn't need to do anything except melee with Almace and WS. I'm sure with the same atmas, Vorpal Blade would work just fine. On Khim, I did cast Occultation to absorb single tier spells, but I would wait until it was actually casting a spell before casting it on myself.

In terms of what a BLU could offer that a MNK doesn't, the first things that come to mind are the MDB trait, multiple stuns, Cure 4.5, flash, blink (used the way I mentioned above was very effective), AOE erase. On the down side, we counter less, have less HP, and do less natural damage. But I believe we have the ability to negate more damage using our spells, so maybe it balances out.

I'll have to try it on harder mobs and see how effective it is. Any suggestions on mobs to try?

Empousa and if you can take video please do. I would be very interested in this.

When you did get hit and counter didn't go through, how badly would it damage you? I expect a crit from Khim or Sippoy with less than 100 defense to take off a pretty sizeable chunk of life.

But yeah, thinking more on it, I suppose we get some nicer magic defense than a MNK would. Saline Coat for oshit or can keep Amplification up nearly the entire fight. Temporal Shift for a rest-assured stun when you know the WHM/BLM's is down. Double Attack and various other job traits including some Killer Traits.

As for mobs to try, I'm sure all the things I'm thinking of would be an easy duo considering you had an easy time with those two NMs.

EDIT: Warbler and Adze; I hate gnats.

When I say Tier2 Khim, I mean tier as in zone NM tier. This was the 'baby' Khim, not the nasty Khim that drops trinkets and the Utsusemi neckpiece.

Damage was not bad at all because of my -pdt gear. I would say the worst crit I suffered from any of the mobs above was around 400-450. Most hits were around 200-250, some in the 100s even.

I could also add another 8% or so to my -pdt build, so I'm sure that will make a difference as well when I finish it.

I don't know too much about Empousa, but do MNKs even str8 tank this all the way through? I hear he's pretty nasty in certain forms. I'd certainly be up for the challange, but I'm thinking I might have to Cannonball kite him during certain phases or something. I'll need to do some research.

You TP'd in PDT gear?

You mean when I'm tanking with 80 defense? Yes.

That said, I've actually been thinking about making a hybrid of some sort since those fights were relatively easy, if for any other reason than to speed the fights up.

Obviously this is me playing solo, dualboxing a WHM. In LS situations where I'm not dual boxing and I'm again tanking, I'd survey the situation and decide which set is best between TP and -pdt, depending on whats being proc'd and how much support I have.

The whole point of going /MNK is for counters to mitigate damage and allow you to deal more damage in the process. TPing in PDT gear is totally counterproductive to that end. MNKs don't TP in PDT gear (yes I carry a set for times when I go on an unlucky counter streak, but it comes off once I get a cure). Defense is largely worthless in this game anyway; I doubt you'd take more than an extra hundred damage from any given swing in regular TP gear, and if you were sitting on 100% MP for most of the fight I don't really see why it's even necessary.

I suspect if you try anything harder you'll have to drop an atma for Minikin. This strikes me as very inefficient if you have to fulltime PDT gear to live, but kudos for making it work either way.

If you wanna TP in PDT gear you basicly probably wont tank anymore.
Unless you spam spells, which again would make the PDT set pretty useless, as you'd be in casting-gear all the time.

Edit: Saw the posts above >_>
But yeah, meleeing in PDT set is kinda counter-productive..
Melee in TP gear and kill it faster if mp for the healer was no issue >_>

If they're dualboxing a WHM I doubt they'd ever need to add Minikin. Harder stuff will just make the WHM have to use more MP.

If survivability is a concern, I don't see a problem with wearing PDT while TP'ing. I think it comes down to: Will this 1 second difference between attack rounds finish the fight faster and ultimately make it safer than TP'ing in PDT to make sure things hit for 50% of what they would normally hit for?


For a duo of BLU+WHM I don't think it matters about tanking.

If they're fighting harder things they'll need to use their MP more often on stuns, Occultation, healing, whatever. Occultation's MP cost alone leads me to believe they can't live off Devotion.

This is really only applicable to duoing (or any situation where you're the only melee) anyway. If there's more than one person on whatever you're fighting it'll bounce between people too often to make /MNK useful at all, as well as other melees doing more damage to begin with, especially compared to BLUs without Almace.

Well, like I said, the fights were pretty easy. This was more or less a precaution for my first few fights as BLU/MNK, but it really was a snoozefest.

I'm all about trying without -pdt gear, though I predict I'll end up using a hybrid of some sort. For me, at least solo, it takes the edge off. I'll probably drop Rajas Ring and PCA and fulltime my magian -pdt sword and end up with -21% pdt, while still maintaining 26% haste as well as 8%DA/3%TA.

Check my TP build and let me know if you have any other suggestions for possible hybrids. I'd use Fort torque if I had it and will buy White Tathlum when it goes on AH. Magian sword is fully upgraded OAT sword, but I'll use -pdt sword for this.

I would say get Tiercel Necklace to drop hands or feet for something with double attack, but I don't think BLU gets double attack hands or feet. So I guess you're pretty well pimped out as far as TP goes lol. (Other than the ammo, but I stopped caring about Tiphia Sting myself due to space limitations)

I dunno. I really don't think that's necessary on easier things, and for harder stuff you're probably better off on other jobs.

If you're only concerned about keeping capped haste you could swap Atheling for Cheviot/Umbra Cape, and if you're dropping PCA for something you could replace it with a Twilight Torque. I'm not a BLU, and I never mix sets so I don't really know what's worth giving up and what isn't.

I'm interested to hear what you would pick for your WotG earring if you're picking it for BLU, Rayna.

Three options at the moment:

1 - whatever / Refresh (for my idle build when roaming)
2 - Accuracy / TP+25 (WS earring)
3 - HP+25 / Counter+3 (if I decide I like BLU/MNK enough)

Honestly, with how much fun I had on BLU/MNK, I'm thinking option 3 and I'd trade out Ethereal.

Yeah, I'm bewildered. I think I may just wait until level 99 when there's something more concrete to base it on. For all we know 90-99 could be outside abyssea and refresh becomes more of a concern again. Cause from the way it sounds, you'll never get a chance to make a different one.