The Beast Within -- A Guide To Blue Mage

I don't know if I'd ever get rid of Nature's Meditation. It's a huge attack boost, and I'd only see it being even more beneficial with a mythic. Then again, I'm the guy who couldn't figure out CDC damage calculations, so I'd wait for an expert opinion.

Just Atheling/Letalis, iirc the difference between Mantle+Gorget and Collar+Multiattack was marginal at best, and so I just kept what I had, will definitely make the change now.

honestly DW4 isn't all that amazing and likely isn't even worth the set points. i'd much sooner put on sweeping gouge since it looks like a 15.625% DEF down.

Do you have any spaces for spells leftover? Was thinking back to when SE said they were upping the limit for job point categories (10-30)

If you have it set, can drop Erratic Flutter if you're doing group content where you're getting Gjallarhorn Marches.

Quad. Continuum 4
Delta Thrust 2
Barbed Crescent 2
Empty Thrash 3
Heavy Strike 2
Thrashing Assault 7
Sinker Drill 6
Sweeping Gouge 6
Sudden Lunge 4

Nat. Meditation 6
Erratic Flutter 6
Cocoon 1
Magic Fruit or Barrier Tusk 3

Mortal Ray 4
Animating Wail 4
Molting Plumage 6
Blazing Bound 3
Fantod 1




DW4 requires some gear adjustments however. You'd be overcapping attack speed in most cases with it equipped. Honestly feels more valuable to stick on more utility spells or something than waste 2 slots and 8 points on DW4.

Err I'm kind of slow with this but..

Can we just remove animating wail/delta thrust and replace it with molting plummage to maintain dw3? to free up other slots for utility, I mean.

Yep, you can swap any 2 of the DW spells with a (4) next to it for Plumage and maintain DWIII, but i'd recommend replacing animating and mortal ray for plumage, delta is still a good spell to use.

ahhh, good point. Thanks!

Yeah Mortal/Animating have no utility but Delta is a potent spell for finishing off fodder, and it does extra damage to Vermin(which makes it the best spell in the world to spam back-to-back on Delve/Skirmish Chapuli where you're not allowed to WS them. Does 2-3k for like 27MP and can spam.

Not sure why Sweeping Gouge has to exist. Benthic Typhoon does the same thing, costs fewer set points but also inflicts magic defense down to help with rays/cannons/flashnovas.

didn't realize 10% (25/256) and almost 16% (40/256) were the same number now.

Ah didn't know Benthic was 10%. So it's stronger than Benthic and Frightful so it probably does have some use if it's more accurate than Tourbillion. Could be worth setting if it has a longer duration than it's recast.

Animating Wail is 5 points. So that set is 71 set points. What would you change on it?

Could take cocoon off, think it would hurt you the least.
When they raise cap of job points to 30, our situation will change a bit, though still capped by slots.

Pro think expiacion has earned a gear set on main page yet? I'm still trying to figure an optimal set

I think a set for Both Expiacion and Savage Blade would try to pump as much Str as possible, with Soil gorg and belt.

Since both mod by Str. Expi=30% where Savage=50% (probably why seeing such good numbers from it now)

Are we sure we want to sacrifice winds of promy?

I just realized that in the middle of the excitement over CDC changes and new spells, we haven't discussed realmrazer at all. Has anybody seen noticeable improvements?

Obviously you're not hip to common core math

As a DD, yes, Which is clearly what Blu aught to be doing when setting DW4.

Oh well.
Btw def- from sweeping is reliable so that we can cast in str equip or shall we just use mac?

Yeah, I love winds but blu should only be using it in specific situations where the whm/other healers can't handle it. Now if mobs are slowging or something and you're low on the priority list for an erase and your whm doesn't have a yagrush, then it would be a dps increase for you to get it off. But you'd likely need to go in to that situation knowing that and set the appropriate set but with DWIV it's hard to have space for much else other than your most basic traits and a couple spells. Even if you are capped out on points.

We have to land the hit first like sudden lunge, so acc/macc set should be used.

Ok so my idea would be setting DW4
solo content as /dnc
thaumas body shetal dw earrings
pt content as /war
qaaxo body windbuff+1 brutal+suppa

These would let u be capped on att speed considering in solo content erratic+samba
and in pt content magical haste capped whatsoever (usually hq march and erratic).

Any suggestions?
I even thought about trux earring instead of suppa in pt content keeping shetal on waist...but no chance da+3 wins on ta+2 qa+2.

(1-dual wield)(1024-gear haste-magic haste-ja haste)
(1-0,43)x(1024-256-307-50)= ~%22.8 so ~%77.2 reduction

If you had 50 total DW, it would be;
1-[(1-0,50)x(1024-256-307-50)] = %80 reduction

So you need 7 more DW on top of shetal and DW earring set.

edit: I was told that haste2 is 307/1024, not 300 and double checked on bgwiki, so fixed the math.

suppa, shetal, haverton ring and the new Su1 dw+4 legs would take it from 30 to 50 but then 10 stp from rajas+iuitl legs would be lost >.<

Ya right sorry, somehow i calculated using merited samba lol

I don't foresee myself setting DW4 often unless we get more set points. We basically have three different attack speed situations:

1) Solo buffs only. This doesn't encompass much relevant content these days, Salvage/Dynamis aside. This is where the extra dual wield would be unquestionably helpful, but it's also where you tend to value having those points for utility spells.

2) Capped gear+magic haste. Basically most parties and any time you can call Trusts. With native DW3, you need 11% in Dual Wield gear to cap attack speed (DW earrings + new pants or Shetal Stone + Suppa). Setting DW4 spares you 5% in gear, so the easiest choice to drop seems to be the Suppa. Are my alternatives (2-3 DA, or acc) in that slot worth the opportunity cost? I guess that's the question you have to ask yourself. I haven't mathed it out. Perhaps dropping Shetal Stone (and coming short by 1% DW) for Windbuffet +1 comes out ahead?

3) Basically the same buffs as above + Haste Samba. Here, you're slightly overcapped with DW3 alone, without additional gear. DW4 offers no additional benefit.

This is all assuming I haven't fudged the math somehow (using the DW formula on BGWiki).