The Beast Within -- A Guide To Blue Mage

http://ffxidats.caarrie.com/index.php?action=downloads;sa=view;down=148
(You need to make an account to see the download link iirc)

Hey, been meaning to reply to this for a few days but not had chance to do it. (Total lie, I have, I've just forgotten or been too busy choosing and then eating food! mmmmm food! I want food now... Eep, I digress)

Just wanna say thank you Floppy, the guide you made is not crappy at all and I can tell that you've put a lot of work and effort into creating it!!

I have been playing FFXI since release in Europe with several breaks here and there when life got in the way. I consider myself an above average player with above average knowledge, but nowhere near what I would call elite blu badassness!

Your guide helped clarify a few things to me that I wasn't sure about, and too lazy to sift through numerous forum pages to find (again, food > reading)

So anyway, good job man and thanks for taking the time to compile it!

Also wanna join everyone else in saying thank you to Prothescar for starting this incredibly useful guide (been following it, though never posting for years now) and to Oraen for taking up the mantle of updating it for present time Bluemageyness!

You guys rock, as does everyone else that contributes to discussions on this thread to help make us all better BLU's!

And on that note, I shall now scurry back to where I came from and continue to think about, purchase and consume food!

Aside from a min of Cure potenty and received on Telchine, would you go for MND or enhancing skill duration? What about sno augments? And for Helios, at what point do the pieces beat Hagondes+1? Fast Cast or Spell interrupt? And the dusk augment?

I haven't tested, but I'm betting that for Burst Affinity the bonus damage from AF3 will be worth it. Otherwise, go for Amalric. Just depends on how much you see yourself using BA.

Are the NQ Adhemar feet worth getting? I have some NQ hexed gamashes from nest of nightmares, but it will cost about 4M to synth into vexed and then about another mil to upgrade. The DEX and crit rate look sexy for cdc, but is it really worth it over taeon? I feel like my money could possibly be better spent elsewhere.

Should be using BA every time its up if you are nuking (outside of timing it with MB's.)

Just some quick testing for Taeon v NQ Adhemar for CDC:

At capped attack ratio, Adhemar is 150-200 average damage ahead.
Without capped attack, Adhemar is 250-300 average damage ahead.

Take into consideration that this is looking at perfect Taeon boots (7STR/7DEX, 20acc/20atk, 2 TA). Personally, I spent more than 5m on my Taeon and am still less than perfect. The final decision is up to you, but NQ Adhemar are a bit stronger.

As for the entire set for the top-tier TP, NQ is still superior to other options, although the gap is less pronounced. As you get closer to attack cap, the set pulls ahead even further.

The allure of HQ Adhemar lies in the set bonus for CDC. At capped attack, HQ + Samnuha is approximately 1600 average damage ahead of NQ. Without capped attack, HQ + Samnuha is approximately 2000 average damage ahead. If you don't see yourself chasing the HQ, know that NQ are still very good options.

thanks for maintaining the guide
it would be cool if you could add the NQ Adhemar pieces to your sets since HQ should be out of reach for most of us

what about:
Adhemar head (NQ) vs. Dampening tam
Adhemar feet (NQ) vs. Taeon
for CDC?

Can someone spell out for me what spells i need to be effective on BLU. Burnt to 99 and learnt 4 low level spells so need to unlock pretty much everything >.>

Can someone write down exactly what's needed for Adhemar or Almaric NQ pieces if you start from scratch? It's not really well written in patch notes...Confusing at the very least...

I'd start with the spells from the lists in the OP for the various spell sets. I find myself setting lots of weird things when I have spare points(like counter), but that is a good list to get you started.

The recipes for the vexed (119) pieces are on BG forums under crafting central, in the aug 5 update thread, first post of first page. The recipes for the hexed pieces are in ffxiclopedia.org

Most of the vexed adhemar stuff needs a macuil horn, eschite ore, and a UNM crafting drop like Warblade Beak Hide.

oh sorry, i meant hands, not feet...
not sure if acc is an issue since adhemar can get acc/DEX augments

But there are only 2 adhemar pieces in your top-tier set. Do you mean, if the body and hands are changed to NQ in the top-tier set, the set will still beat the high-tier set or whole NQ set will beat the high-tier set?

Yes. The HQ Adhemar in the top-tier can be replaced by NQ and the set will remain a better option than others. Don't forget that anything outside of the top-tier sets are not definitive sets, merely particularly solid pieces that work well. They aren't necessarily all meant to be used together.

Alright, back to being disappointed in SR then XD I recently got a capped hat but have been very unlucky with the tights :(

Max dampening still works amazingly well for TP and is your second best choice for CDC. Nothing to be disappointed with.

As far as accuracy concerns go with Adhemar, don't forget that the bonus DEX is fairly substantial for additional accuracy. Also, path A is not entirely too far behind path B. You still get the DEX, which is our most important stat, and you'll get some hefty accuracy on top of that. You'll lose STR and attack, but BLU is in a particularly good place when it comes to STR with spell stats and our attack is very high for 1handers with Meditation. Overall, B is your absolute best offensive option, but if you can't hit things it sure won't help all that much. If you're particularly insane, you can make path A NQ Adhemar and path B HQ. You know, if you have a couple billion lying around.

https://www.bg-wiki.com/index.php?title=Category:Sinister_Reign&%2Fbg%2FSinister_Reign=

https://www.bg-wiki.com/bg/Nolan

I want to fix some stuff with the spreadsheet before I release the updated one. Take into consideration that I'm not sure how to add set bonuses or gifts/JPs. What I've been doing is just adjusting the trait tiers manually or changing the set bonus stats after the fact for each set. The information is still accurate, but I want to clean it up before I put it out there so people don't get confused over some of the issues.

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/48512

So the version update is next week, and shown in under battle adjustments, Blue Mages will gain new blu magic spells, but they haven't released a Job Adjustments page for us to know what new spells will be learn-able :/

hopefully fleshes out the missing monster families and gives us a few from some of the ones with lots of abilities (like Aern)

The 5 o'clock departure of the Hypetrain is now boarding. Please show your Mark of Zahak at the gate, and enjoy your ride as the best job in the game.

Must... get... Mighty Guard before the end...

Subtle Blow trait and TP Drainkiss would be nice too! (^.^)