The Beast Within -- A Guide To Blue Mage

lol BLU has a reason to have each set you just posted, enfeebling can be called MACC set. You really sound like you have no idea what you're talking about in this thread man.

You don't have the slightest idea of what you're talking about if you think that's true.

I'm well aware DNC can do all of the above, but when fight ends in 1 min with proper support, the advantage of DNC utility JA is less relevant.

Fan dance lowers dps, unlike BLU can keep cocoon/MG on and still hitting max dps.

You pretty much have to do Maju level of content to see the full benefit of step from a DNC main IMO. Otherwise by the time you reach lv 10 fight's already over.

IMO the utility of DNC is not as game changing as the utility of BLU, game changing being the key word here.

Okay and what exactly is game changing in these trash content fights you do that end in 1 minute? Are you seriously suggesting a single haste buff, that can be covered by a GEO, is "game changing"? Cmon now.

We just went over it, everything that BLU brings to the table that makes pug love it so much, and bandwagoners love it equally. You know, High defense from MG/cocoon, easy mode lv 3 SC, don't need positioning like many other DD, easier to reach the required acc for casual players without great gears, defense down, able to roll with just 1 GEO and still cap haste with no downtime. pug don't always play perfect and they're looking for jobs that makes a team of avg player work well.

Which is BLU.

IMO that's pretty game changing by itself.

My only stance on this whole matter is the relative definition of the phrase "Over Powered"

I believe that the OP cannot be thrown on a job unless said job can reach near-maximum potential with minimal effort/work.

Given how much time it takes to farm necessary spells that can only be learned, not scrolled

Given how much time it takes to farm gear and weapons especially if you don't have a strong network of helpful people

Given how much insight and knowledge goes into setting up your spell combinations for optimum performance

You simply cannot put the OP on BLU. If it were so easy to do EVERYONE would be doing it and God knows how many try to do it but the only ones doing the fantastic things with this job are the ones that perform very well at basically all of their jobs. It takes a lot of setup and knowhow to make this job break things. This game's very easy but BLU is a little trickier than other jobs to get rolling

Yet PUG had no problem using BST or SAM or DRK or whatever flavor of the month job there was. People like you are just over exaggerating things and furthering the bandwagon by excluding jobs from shouts. BLU is harder than most jobs to bring up from scratch and perform optimally. High defense doesn't mean ***when you aren't going to be one shotted on this 1m clear content. I don't even USE those all the time for ambuscade or avatar fights. They aren't required and just offer a small amount of wiggle room for your healer. I feel like you're specifically talking about avatar fights or ambuscade and act like BLU is so OP because it can do those better than other DD who we already said need a buff. When BLU is killing the highest tier content in the game and no other DD can do that, then that is when there is a problem. Kinda like how GEO and BLM/SCH are doing right now?

I agree and disagree a bit. Other jobs having that many sets is just someone trying to be useful in every situation. Whereas BLU having a majority of those sets is actual functions of the job. Like, having a cure set for your MNK is not practical, but I'm sure if you made it you would find some use for it.

FYI, I specifically addressed your concern about "people aren't inviting other DD" and explained why. The way pug works is very different from those who play with small group of friends/ls. You keep saying "But other jobs can DD too" "But other jobs can cap haste from support". That's from friend group/ls party point of view, not pug.

And yes haste is big deal because pug WHM can't haste. DD that can't self haste = someone has to spam /p chat ask for haste.

I don't think sitting here listing the reason why pug loves BLU so much is "exaggerating" the advantage of BLU. If I'm here to exaggerate, I'd claim BLU can do 100% more dps than other DD. Saying BLU makes pug life easy is not exaggerating.

Monks typically DID have that set, we just called it a Chakra set....

You do realize that in situations where it is not viable to maintain mythic AM3, AG Almace mainhand is superior don't you? Delve nms and ambuscade under certain conditions are applicable here. Try to maintain AM3 in a quick fight against other well geared DDs you would loose the parse most likely. Yes blu is strong but you actually have to know things to use it correctly. No it wasn't due to mighty strikes that dps was close. This is a bit taken from Trulusia's post: http://www.ffxiah.com/forum/topic/48624/ambuscade-findings/7#3077405


Even without perfect buffs and support a non-AG war did this.

Dunna geo casting indi haste gives 35.4% + Haste 15% > 43.75% haste cap. No MG needed and indi haste was used in these fights. So my argument that AG mythic sam outparsed AG Tizona/Almace stands.

Blu has had its own buffs since April 2006. Blu spells are what make blue mage what it is so trying to compare that buff independent aspect to other dds is an infinite loop; apples and oranges. There is no blu without blu spells, there is no bst with out its pets.

It takes a lot of time and dedication lvling, farming 196 blu spells, gearing for almost every situation blu can accommodate (buff/heal/nuke/debuff/tp/dw/ws/mdt/pdt/fastcast), learning what your spells do, learning to set job traits, maxing your job points/skills/merits, making yourself an AG legendary weapon OR TWO, optimizing your gear with your spells and traits per situation, balancing your dual wield/store tp/acc (melee dps) with support, and learning to adapt. You can't compare this to other DDs and even after doing all this other DDs can still compare compete if they know and gear their job correctly with party set up. ^ not a cookie-cutter brainless job.
Edit: ^

Let's be real- most PUGs like BLU because they herd it was gud. The game shouldn't be designed around the views of the uninformed.

The real outrage here should be, why does my Claustrum still suck

I'm still annoyed that blu doesn't get a relic weapon.

Okay I see your point but that is just frustrating that the bandwagon excludes others. I realize it makes people able to be slightly lazier, like for the WHM, but hopefully after a 2h/mnk update the other jobs will be used for trash content too lol.

And being honest here, having pretty much everything for BLU...


I still go WHM

The real laugh is Thorny leveling and playing BLU, how the times have changed? lol

ftfy.

So you and Nightfire play in a world where BLU is expected to do all that at the same time?

I think you guys are the ones who have no idea what you're talking about.

The only job that plays like RDM is RDM. Perhaps you don't know enough about RDM.

So I just got samnuha tights with 1 ta away from being perfect, twice.. Is it still worth using them or should I stick with 4 ta herc/taeon

Parses are insightful but at the same time play style has always had a more significant impact on the outcome of a parse than gear or job selection. Not pointing figures or trying to say anyone sucks, just stating that relying on a single parse for any solid conclusion is kind of meh.

Also all this about RDM having some insane gear requirements is nonsense. All of those sets can be 'required' by every other mage job and half of them are of marginal use anyways. MP recovered while healing gear hasn't been useful for years.

AG Tizona/Almace blu/dnc=Me, AG sam = Kiza, AG thf = Mosh, AG pld = Cleen, geo= Elmirina, whm=Ophya

^Whm died in an aoe so lots of back up healing.

AG Tizona/Almace blu/war=Me, AG sam = Kiza, AG thf = Mosh, AG pld = Cleen, geo= Elmirina, whm=Ophya

^relatively smooth fast fight

Second parse has an error. I check it with Kiza's and his had one more fudo ws bringing his wsavg to 7200ish putting him at 31% dmg with me second and then Mosh for the parse line-up.

Here are some numbers for you. I set the filter on Februus to filter out aoe dmg on adds. I did do some AOE nuke/healing support for these fights which probably lowered my dps a bit but that's the responsibility of being blu. Aside from that I didn't hold back. Maybe Almace/Sequence would have performed better to not have to wait for the initial 3k tp.

Where is the overpoweredness that people are swearing up and down about? AG sam outdid AG Tizona/Almace. You can see the ws averages and the acc % that these jobs are competitive in ws damage. These are my normal findings when playing with other well geared non-blu DDs just like the war parse in my last post. People are just exaggerating that blu is miles ahead of other dds.

This is true, but when you look at things like acc and wsavg to name a few you can see as to the reasons why one is lower or higher on the parse. Low acc > less ws > less dmg. For a blu if you need to forgo wsing to aid in party support you will see that in ur wsavg where it shows in parentheses how many times you wsed.

When you look at the ws dmgs for the AG sam and myself they are comparable. This isn't like looking at thf before the rudra's nerf where one average is like 20k less than the other. Thus my point.

Wow

I just find it funny that so many BLUs are pleading the case that "BLU isn't really that good, guys!"... that NEVER happens unless people are just trying to downplay obvious strengths and avoid being perceived as taking advantage of an "OP" job. Just enjoy yourself and the good spot BLU is in now, instead of living in fear of... what, a nerf? Some weird perception of a lack of respect from others for taking the "easy way out"? A desire to not be seen as a bandwagon rider (the "I've known that band since before they were mainstream" approach)?

Really, I think it must be plainly obvious to anyone who plays both BLU and other melee DD jobs, that BLU is consistently top performance with similar grade gear/JPs/etc., less dependent on the support jobs than other DDs, blessed with accuracy to make 2h envious but WS damage (and ease of SC) that's second to none... It's downright easy to put out top tier damage for a competent BLU. I'm not gonna claim "there's no way [not BLU DD] can beat these overpowered BLUs!!!", but let's be real here...

And we aren't talking about people who don't know how to properly play the job, like the unfortunately large number of people who don't set proper DD spells. We're talking about a smart player who gets BLU and plays it to its potential, versus that player with equal knowledge/skill on a different job playing that job to its potential.

And hey, it's not as if melee setups are always great anyway. SC+MB and pet burn are still very useful, if not practically required for many fights. So BLU occupying a top spot as a melee isn't especially overpowered in the grand scheme of things, since that's a style that isn't even necessarily viable for many fights. But let's not freaking kid ourselves about BLU's current position for melee applications.

Ugh, some really bad use of parsing above...

- Showing parses where somebody beat you is conclusive of absolutely nothing, because we really don't know what each player was doing (is everyone using the best gear for the situation, WSing immediately, using JAs at the right time), whether we're just seeing cherry picked lucky/unlucky fights (good/bad luck on debuffs, crit/multiattack procs, mages slow to erase somebody), etc.

- What place you are in a parse is far less useful information than things like Acc, or comparing your own DPS across fights/with changed gear, or comparing to a DD you play with frequently, etc. It's valuable to know that "when I'm on BLU and this other guy is also on BLU, we're usually within a couple percentage points"... and "when I change to [other DD], how do I compare to the same partner?"

- BLU/DNC? OK, take a subjob that's going to gimp your DD output and show a parse where somebody beat you to prove BLU isn't the best DD! Yup, totally scientific!


Yeah, you can't really have it both ways and downplay the "utility" of BLU and then still claim BLU is so much more complex and gear intensive than any other DD. Filling the DD role that is BLU's primary purpose really does just require the DD focused stuff (and I'd say the AG weapon is far from required - even a Tanmo+1/Colada BLU is quite a force to be reckoned with)

Do I have a 50% cure pot + 30% pot received set on my BLU for self-cures? Do I have an excellent MAB set? Have I farmed every potentially useful situational spell? Yup! Are those things meaningful when I'm looking to occupy a party slot for a melee DD role, not stopping to cast cures on myself, and not setting nuke spells? You know the answer.


Now, you know what... this I do agree with. It's not necessarily that BLU is uniquely equipped to be a superior DD... the main factor is that CdC is stupid good right now (not that MG or crazy good gifts are anything to scoff at either). I think that the memory of what happened when Rudra was the flavor of the month may be the cause of some of the defensiveness we're seeing from BLUs here...

I sure as heck know that I'm a little jealous of CdC when I'm on my NIN who is also getting capped delay reduction, lots of fast attacks with high crit rate, strong accuracy, some extra "utlity", etc... The difference is my NIN (which is better geared than my BLU, with a top tier AG Kikoku setup) doesn't have the crushing power of CdC spam.

Leaving aside the sam has 10% more acc than you total, the moment you swapped to /war the things got tied up and blu can cover a ton of stuff (for this fight i set white wind and S. floe for quick aoe heal topping and add handling) but having a WHM lets you go much more offensive imo.

And yes this proves my point of other posts, its all about the person behind the job and not the entlitement of XX job wins every time, blu has been like this its whole life (it had many debuffs, buffs and heals among others) but a small boost in our primary WS (which is shared by other 2 jobs btw) and bang, the BST stigma again this time on BLU.

Sorry but blu is ok as it is at this moment, i dont want another PLZNERFNOW war for blu like bst had in the official forums and here, it was really pitiful watching people bash BST because "my -insert job here- cant tank and do dmg at the same time, nerf bst now!", its like asking the cops to put rich people in jail because they can make more money than you.

I wouldn't value any parse results for a fight of such short length and with such low damage total. Imagine if the thf got a gorget/belt proc then with an 18k ws avg he would win the parse on that fight. If you want to truly test your damage vs eachother just go head to head vs a WKR with support its like one of the only mobs in the game still with enough HP to get good results. Just have to deal with their status effects but depending on the mob you pick isn't so bad.

If you want to add in an accuracy test and still go head to head then use Escha T2 but they will have drastically less HP than a WKR and lead to skewed results.

And this is what bandwagon blu's do. You will never know the troubles of building physical casting sets tailored to the spell.

I have quite a few sets and I'm pretty sure I'm missing some.

Physical casting max potency
Physical casting acc
physical casting Macc
Magical casting macc
magical casting MAB macc
MAB max casting
magical casting earth MAB
magical casting light MAB
magical casting dark MAB
blue skill max
fast cast
TP melee max haste
TP melee acc
tp melee DW
PDT/DT
MDT/DT
healing self
healing others
Conserve MP
CDC
Requiscat
Expansion
Savage
CA
BA
enhancing magic skill for that /rdm
idle
idle w/ movement speed
PDT w movement speed
TH
about 5 lockstyles LOL.

Now if this was before ilvls you would also have.

Physical casting STR
Physical casting DEX
Physical casting AGI
Physical casting STR/DEX
Physical casting STR/INT
Physical Casting STR/VIT
Physical casting STR/VIT/Defense

So before you go around calling other people bad/no idea how to play blu look at your own blu and ask yourself do I have sets other than CDC/TP/MAB and if you dont STFU. We are playing blu to the maximum of its abilities and have sets to aid in that, are they needed for a lolbandwagonblu? no, do they make soloing/low manning things you cant easier? yes they do.

This is the my dad can beat up your dad argument. It brings nothing to the blue mage guide that this thread is supposed to be.

Does blu require gear? Yes. Does blu require more gear? Yes. Does blu require some more additional gear after you get more gear? Yes.

Can you play the job with out all the additional gear? Yes. Can you play it effectively in 95% of the content you would use blu on? Yes.

Does it matter how many sets you have? No

The guide is here to tell people what options there are, go over the math, figure out what is best/baseline but by no means is anything in here required to be able to play blu. Bandwagon blu or career blu, both will/should get value out of this thread. Arguing over it is pissing in the wind.