The Beast Within -- A Guide To Blue Mage

Dont tempt me..I will do that and never drop it hahaha

mine is muled....

ok so this may sound very dumb, but i'm new to gearswap, and i want to know what do i put for precast mid cast and casting gear on magical spells, do i start with maac followed by FC finishing with maab? or how's it work?

Generally speaking: Precast = fast cast gear
Mid cast = gear you want on when the spell hits (macc/mab, etc)

spell casttime is determined precast, so occasionally quickens spellcasting, fast cast, and *qualifier* cast time - % are beneficial

recast, damage, resist, and everything else are determined when the spell ends, so they need to be midcast

the only exception is that quick magic guarantees a minimal recast, so if it procs on precast your midcast will still have the recast benefit without the gear

ok so for occultation/barrier/saline do i need to have the blu magic + at the end of the cast or at start?

End.

Potency and recast time of a spell is determined at the end of casting, while casting time is modified based on how much +/- casting time you have before you start casting.

Barrier Tusk and Saline Coat don't have potency modifiers.

I think they meant Magic Barrier.

from the OP. Is this still the best req set? I would have though that the ambuscade gear would have won in a lot of the slotts? What req sets are you all using? My numbers with sequence just arent where I had hoped.

ItemSet 337120

I'm not honestly sure on the absolute best Req set right now, as it's just a god-awful WS. I just use full Jhakri +1 and call it a day. Last I checked, the set was at the top for it, so I haven't gone back to test anymore. I'll update in a sec.

Could use some input for black halo. Would carmine +1 be best?

Hello

what is the best 4th Augment to my Nuke cape for blue?


what i did...

Int +20
magic acc/magic dmg +20
MAB +10

but im not sure what is the best for 4th

int +10
magic dmg +10

INT.

To Sequence or not to Sequence? After a long and arduous process I was able to finish my AG Tizona and now I'm looking at offhand options. I don't think that I have the stamina to AG an almace, so I am debating a Sequence or just keeping my offhand Colada with the augments shown.

For reference the gear shown is my TP set and has augments as follows:

Herc Helm: 8 Agi 30 Acc 3TA
Adhemar Body is B
Herc Gloves: 6Str 20Acc 7Att 3TA
Cape: 20att/30acc 20Dex 10STP
Max Samnuha Tights
Herc Feet:23Acc 13Att a4TA

Is it, in your infinite wisdom, blu forum members, worthwhile to make a sequence or stick with the Colada (and continue to throw stones at it to hope for similar augs with a better base damage)?

Thanks all.

~ Jaqen

The lack of DEX is what makes it mediocre. I would make Sequence unless there's another Aeonic that you truly feel is a higher priority (like maybe the dagger if you play THF or DNC). Sequence is also a good mainhand for instances where AM3 is inviable, so consider more than just the offhand functionality.

a 269 offhand is going to be moderately better than a Colada but to be honest, you've got enough gil on you to outright buy half of the mats to make an Almace and take it to 119. it's certainly tedious to build, but at this point HMP/Cinders are relatively obtainable thanks to people selling from Ambuscade (depending on server).

I am personally coming at this from the other end, I have my AG Almace, and am now focusing on Tizona. I would say to keep throwing stones at your gear and chase down TA +4 augments, and go for Sequence if you have an Aeonic group. I don't personally see it as worth chasing down in and of itself, but if you are already getting clears anyways, it's far from a poor choice.

Is black Halo no bueno?

If you need blunt damage for whatever reason, it's okay. Judgment's better, though, unless you're using Black Halo in a SC.

Ah ty! Would carmine be best in slot for judgement?

The best way to look at Judgment is basically the Savage Blade of clubs with worse http://fTP. You'll want to gear very similarly to Savage for it. Optimal choices would be STR/WSD Herculean, but Jhakri also serves quite well.

Gratzy!

What would I need to get 50%+ recast reduction? Based on BG I can only get 40% from Fastcast. So, from Erratic Flutter (spell portion from haste II not the job trait) could I pass 50%? What % of recast is reduced per 1% Haste?

BG had some equations for Haste's affect on recast but it mentioned binary which is foreign to me. I would like to reduce my recast as much as possible without sacrificing damage for haste in my mid/final cast build on spells.

Empy 109/119 Gloves have recast reduction on them. I am not sure how the percentages work to get you there, but worth a try?

Yes, I have the gloves. However, I did not want to sacrifice damage in my mid/final cast (since the Empy gloves need to be worn at the end of the cast) and was seeing if anyone knew of haste's role in recast to more detail than I was able to find.

I saw a video of a BLU casting Skirmish elemental spells which have a recast of 60 seconds but was getting a 26 second recast which would be 57% recast reduction. But to your point maybe he was sacrificing damage in his hand slot for those gloves so I'll test it out when I get home and see if that gives me 26~ seconds with my max FC precast gear!

Haste lowers recast, too. It reduces it in a fairly straight-forward manner, with the only weirdness occurring due to the way it's stored and the order of operations with other things that reduce recast. However, if you ignore all that if the difference of a second due to rounding errors isn't something that actively bothers you.

Some people also set additional Fast Cast tiers.

A couple questions for those who solo VD Leviathan:

My current setup of trusts is Qultada, Kupipi, Nashmeira II, Lilisette II, and Shantotto II. My runs are all under 3:30, from when I enter to when I exit the BCNM. Damage output isn't a problem. However, I'm occasionally wiping due to Grand Fall. I put up Saline Coat, Barrier Tusk, and have decent -DT set, and the only times I die is when I get locked in WS Set. For example, I hit macro for CDC, and a split second later Levi readies Grand Fall, and I cant swap into my DT set before Grand Fall goes off since I'm locked into WS animation. I even went as far to switch Defending Ring into my CDC set, but I'm still occasionally dying.

Any recommendations or ways I can improve? I also do Tenzen VD in 4-5 minutes (depending on when he eats that stupid rice ball), so I'm considering going back to doing those since I can clear it every time, and its only slightly longer to clear than Levi.

You can change gear right after you lose TP during the WS. Animation won't prevent you from hitting your PDT/MDT/DT macro or spamming said macro.

EDIT: Added a word or few.

Are you using Gearswap? Mote's has a nice panic button for -DT that'll swap even during WS animation.

Grand Fall is a breath attack, so you want as much pure -DT in your set as you can get. I'm able to eat it w/ around 31% -DT w/o setting any defensive buffs at all outside of Cocoon. I'm using Ulmia for Scherzo and Yoran-Oran for cure skin, tho.

Aegis works on Grand Fall, so it's not a breath attack.