The Beast Within -- A Guide To Blue Mage

6 store tp is not measly at all.

You're effectively comparing the TP gain rate of 1% TA to the TP gain rate of 6 store TP as the white damage contribution of 1STR and 37ATK is miniscule. 6STP should easily be worth more TP per attack round, on average, than 1 Triple Attack.

For a DW job like BLU, before any multiattack is brought in, you're gaining an extra 12TP per attack round from that 6STP.

Thanks to both you and Snaps for replying. I honestly, did not think they were that close to comparable.

The problem I am still having is that if I add an extra TA to the Herc hands(extra 2TA over Adhemar) the Adhemar is still winning by 2-3 DPS but lets say that's equal. However, if I replace Rajas ring(5DEX 5STP) in my spreadsheet with a Hetaroi Ring (2TA) it boosts my DPS by nearly the same amount(30DPS) as the Adhemar boosts DPS compared to the original Herc(1 extra TA). That is where I am getting confused.

It's saying:

Hetaroi: 2TA > Rajas: 5DEX 5STP (> by 30 dPS which makes sense to me)

but you and the spreadsheet are saying:

Herc Hands: 2TA(37ATK,1STR) <= Adhemar Hands: 4DEX 6STP (equal or less DPS which doesn't make sense to me)

It's like it's contradicting itself. Unless that 1STP would make up that extra 30DPS! Man, and if that is the case I really have to dig deep in detail into every TP set I own.

Please, tell me where/what my logical error is.

Hetarioi ring also adds 1% crit rate (not huge but still there) and 5% triple attack damage

Right, again I thought those too minuscule to make a difference if 40ATK didn't make a difference. But I was wrong above so no doubt I could be again. HA

I mean, 5% damage on a 120DMG hit is 6dmg. I know I must be doing something wrong I just don't know what it is.

Maybe I am overthinking or caring too much. 30 DPS is like less than 2% increase in damage so it's an unnoticeable amount. It's just that if I carry this logic throughout all gear pieces it could add up to more which would be noticeable on longer fights.

Well think of it this way, in a full fledged BLU TP set you're increasing around 25% of your melee attack damage by +/-5% just from the TA dmg+

That's a good point. I'll just trust the sheet and worry about more important things. Haha. Thanks for the insight and your time.

Hi! First thanks to the OP for the great guide!
I've just started equipping BLU and I was wondering if I could use Iztaasu +2 as a starting offhand sword (I would use Claidheamh Soluis as mainhand), since I have the coupon W-SCC from the RoE Intermediate objective and I was thinking to use it, but I haven't seen the weapon from the suggested ones on the main page, so I'm not sure if it is considered viable or not, and I would not waste a coupon for a useless weapon.

Sounds like a good start however aim towards getting Colada x2 and then better :D

List of good swords that are easy to get are:

• Nibiru Sword (Escha - Zi'Tha) T2 mob and extremely easy to do it with a BLM + BLU
  

• Iris (Escha - Ru'Aun) T2 mob and you will need :
  Tank + BLM SCH WHM skillchain Gravitation > MB Stone !
  

• Colada (Reisenjeima) T2 mob and setup for that we used was:
  PLD + WHM + GEO + SCH + BLM + BLM
  also done it with:
  PLD + WHM + GEO + SCH + BLM
  

• Medeina Kilij (119 Merit BCNM Fenrir) This is the setup I used:
  PLD/RUN THF/RUN GEO/WHM + Trusts

  this is about Luck >< sorry
  

as for the other Swords are a bit more challenging to get:

• Almace (Emperyan) Easy to make it 90 but then you need 1,500 Heavy Metal Plates + 60 Riftcinder + 300 Rift Bolders + 10,000 Rift Bolders to make it FINAL

• Tizona (Mythic) Farming 30,000 Alex + getting ZNM items + Pandemonium Warden Drop x3 + 300 Beitetsu and to make it FINAL need 10,000 Beitetsu

• Sequence (Aeonic) Need to do ALL NM clears from Escha - Zi'Tha + Escha - Ru'Aun + Reisenjeima without using a BREW and get a bunch of pre-requisites like the items for the Mythic

• Acclimator (Vagary Drop) Drops in Vagary which is not hard to do but if you don't have right setup or armor it can be challenging.

Eventually you're aiming to get : Tizona + Almace + Sequence done !

:)

Hope this helps a bit ^^/

All of the Skirmish +2 weapons are rather dated at this point, so it's not meaningfully more or less of a waste than anything else you could trade it in for. By all means make use of the kupon if you don't have anything better for that slot, though you'll want to upgrade sooner rather than later.

Exactly!!

As I stated on my post ^^/

If you have the kupon, it's fine to use it. I'd just suggest not investing any actual money into the older weapons like Claidheamh and Iztaasu.

Your final swords, not including RMEA weapons, will be a tanmogayi +1 in the mainhand and a Colada with good DEX/DMG/acc/atk augments in the offhand.

If you have a good amount of help, you can chase those two right away. If not, I'd suggest getting two nibiru blades Path A from Nosoi in Escha Zitah. They will hold you over very nicely until you can get your endgame swords.

Do not use Iris or Medeina Kilij. Both require more effort for significantly lower performance in comparison to Nibiru Blades.




Also, I updated some sets in the OP after the recent update, but have to run the numbers on the TP and CDC sets. We really didn't get all that much this time around, but we did manage a few goodies. I'll be adding an Almace/Sequence section, similar to the Tizona/Almace sets. Will hopefully have everything ironed out by the weekend.

I'd also like to put in a nice White Wind set, and I'd like feedback about some pieces I might have missed or optimization I hadn't considered. So far, I'm looking at this set as optimal:

ItemSet 348471

Path A Despair, 80 HP and 10 cure potency on Rosmerta's, 50 HP and 8 cure potency on Telchine hands, 5 cure potency on Medium's Sabots. If anybody has some suggestions, I'd very much appreciate them, as this is definitely a set we should put priority on these days.

Cure potency received does still work on WW. Haven't updated my set in a bit, but was doing like 1,300 to myself and 1k to others.

Ilbrat ring is probably the best non armor we got from this update

Yeah, trying to weigh costs and benefits of some received pieces. If we had Despair Helm path A, that's 40 less HP for 5% received, Kunaji is 25 less HP for 5% received, and then Gishdubar Sash loses 55 but has 10% received. 120 lost HP for 25% cure potency received would very likely be worth it for when you're in need of higher heals than your group is. I'll make another set with those changes.

My Expiacion SET :

ItemSet 338930

*Will get Rosmerta's Cape with (STR+30 ACC+20 ATK+20 WS dmg+10%) Soon.
-----------------------------------------
Expiacion Set # 2 (Maybe better option?)

ItemSet 348495

*Note sure why ppl said to use neck / belt non Fotia but here it is
**Also Always gear'd for INT STR DEX instead of just STR why is it gear'd for STR+ only on most SETs I seen ?
----------------------------------------
Ok , so on Expiacion been doing 8-17 K and CDC doing 8~17 K as well on Avarage with spikes of 30 K

Wondering if there is any better option for Expiacion.

I know I need Rosmerta's Cape (STR+30 ACC+20 ATK+20 WS DMG+10%) however, for now Farming Alexandrites and using Ambuscade points (which I haven't done much 1,400 so far) to get Alex towards my Tizona

Please help me (I seen people do Expiacion of 45 K +)

I WANT THAT !

Thank You.

Those people you see doing 45k probably are us Tizona users going at 3k with a ton of debuffs/buffs and even that is pretty rare on stuff that matters.

The reason people gear for STR is because its 30% STR, 30% INT & 20% DEX. STR = fSTR and raw attack while int is doing nothing for you and dex would only add some extra acc and its not even worth as much %.

For none mythic wielders its always better to go with Savage Blade unless your trying to do some kind of sc.

SB fTP:
2 Hit
50% MND / 50% STR
1k: 4.0
2k: 10.25
3: 13.75

Exp:
2 Hit
30% STR / 30% INT / 20% DEX
fTP:
1k: 3.796875
2k: 9.390625
3k: 12.1875

Plus side is they are almost always geared identically so if you feeling frisky you can use either or.

I didn't go into gear because the front page of the guide has a very up-to-date set under "BLU Savage/Expiacion". I will say that the fotia gear is not good for either.

I was a bit busy in these days but I want to thank you all for your replies!

In my last post I had not specified my first goal as BLU is trying to have an equip which gives me the best chances to learn blue magic and the opportunity to complete old quests content, since I'm mainly interested in Vana'diel exploration and getting all blue spells for now. In this sense I was asking if a simple 119 sword like Itzaasu +2 taken with the coupon, paired with Claimheadh in mainhand also taken with the coupon, could be quite viable for BLU magic learning and old content.

As for the rest of the main equip I was thinking to work on: Luhlaza Keffiyeh+1, Assimilator's Jubbah+1, Assimilator's Bazubands+1, Hashishin Tayt and Luhlaza Charuqs+1. They should increase blue magic skill and, therefore, blue magic learning. Is that so?

Some people say yes to Blue Magic Skill helping others say no. There no real evidence either way. What we do know helps is AF hands (Assimilator's bazubands +1)! If you have extra blue skill pieces it can't hurt to equip it while trying to learn I would say though.

Skill has no bearing on learning blue magic so long as you meet the minimum skill requirement for that spell.

Is there any validation of this? Not supporting one way or the other.

can't hurt, rather have the placebo than not.

I kept a log of learn rates for myself + various BLUs I partied up with while learning spells from 76-99, noting use/lack of AF hands and roughly how much blue magic skill they had at the time. The sample size was modest so I suppose I shouldn't make a definitive statement, but I didn't observe a notable difference in learn rate based on skill. As such, my perspective is that it's preferable (if possible) to either increase frequency of TP use or increase one's ability to focus on other things while farming spells.

SB is not as powerful as CDC tho

SB doing 13 K to my CDC 19 K

and Soon be using Tizona 119 too :D

Just been farming it little by little on BLU (AoE Set) in 1 day went from needing 14,790 ~> 13,271

All Day long spaming it tho back to back X.x

Ty for the info tho on Math Part however would you please post a WS SET ?

Cuz that is what I was referring to, I need / Want to see an UPDATED Set for Expiacion + some Helpful Feedback on how to improve my own with Armor that I have right now / Can Get in the Short Future.

Thank you to Everyone and Merry Christmas !!!!!!!!!!

Both Expiacion and SB are both more powerful than CDC if you gear them correctly.

ok, would you please show me a "Correct" gear Set ? ^^

I would very much appreciate it, so I may correct my sets.

ItemSet 338446

ItemSet 338447

Both of these sets are on the front page of this thread. I updated them both yesterday.

You want to focus on STR/acc/atk/WSD for both. Expiacion is STR/DEX/INT and Savage is STR/MND. Savage is generally superior unless you have Tizona, in which case the 30% damage bonus pushes Expiacion ahead.

Awesome, thanks alot for helping me out Mr. Oraen and Merry Christmas !!!


Fotia Belt / Neck not good for those WS ? :O

Also isn't Jhakri Cuffs +1 (WS DMG+5% and STR+15 DEX+38 INT+33 ACC+37) more helpful than Adhemar STR+15 DEX+53 INT+12 ACC+37 Triple+3%) ?

Confused thought Triple / Double / Quad wouldn't proc during Expiacion / Savage Blade

and am I to assume that Herc Gear is augmented with (STR+ ACC+ ATK+ WS DMG+) ? or is there a Special augment to look out for ?

Fotia belt and neck do not give 10% WSD. They give a 0.1 fTP increase, which is not particularly great for non multi-hit WSs.

Yes, HQ Jhakri Cuffs are the best realistic option for these WSs. An exceptional STR/WSD/ACC/ATK pair of Herculean Gloves edges them out, but requires absurd luck.

Multi-hits can proc during Savage and Expiacion, but they don't contribute much damage in comparison to what multi-hits can do for CDC.

Yes, Herculean gear is augmented with STR/ACC/ATK/WSD. The OP on the first page of this thread has specific augments listed after basically every set.

DA/TA proc on all non-ranged, physical or hybrid WS- they just have reduced effectiveness on non-fTP carrying WS with a large fTP on the initial hit. That said, Jhakri+1 beat out Adhemar and are rather difficult to beat with Herculean.

Do you ever use anything other than CDC for pure Dmg output? Having Almace I normally use that 100% of the time I'm not trying to purposefully skillchain via 3 step or something I can't get out of using CDC.

Wondering if geared properly, Savage would be a better option for pure damage in some situations? Or another ws I'm not thinking of? Have access to most of the top tear equip with hq abj coming sometime in the near future but not yet. Still haven't gotten herc body because fail too. Using AG ALmace/Colada currently.