The Beast Within -- A Guide To Blue Mage

Why does this conversation even have to be a thing? SE has been doing a great job adding something unique to every job that lets them do something that contributes to the group in their own way. This is also a game where you're playing a CHARACTER not a JOB like most other MMOs. If the job you're currently on isn't suited to the situation, you could use the very powerful "JOB CHANGE" function that exists in your mog house to change to something that could benefit your group.

BLU, NIN, THF, and DNC all have excellent attack speed that lets them quickly help them contribute to SCs. In addition, their defensive capabilities are rediculous to help them stay self-sustainable.

DRK, SAM, DRG, PLD, and even BST have Circle effects that help protect against the Monster Family greatly boosting damage and protecting against skills that normally bring your HP to 1 and instead bring you down to something that won't get you 1-shot immediately along with their Crest attacks letting your mages more effectively enfeeble them.

DRK gets powerful absorbs that not only help them with accuracy detriments, but cripple their target's VIT increasing the group's fSTR (too bad AGI doesn't affect Evasion anymore). In addition, Dark Seal + Nether Void Drain III brings them to high HP levels to let them tank heavy hits.

SAM has the ability to SC with almost everyone making them synergize with pretty much any DD job in the game. They also have incredible and reliable attack speed to pick up slack with anyone having issues getting TP in time.

There is obviously so much more with every other job, but it's absolutely stupid to deny a job or think they are terrible if they meet the accuracy requirements and have put enough time in the job to do everything the event demands of them.

It's still ok to bully PUP though.

This isn't really unique to those jobs, and in fact two-handers are the ones with generally higher WS frequency. Of course these jobs have things other than what was mentioned going for them, but this in particular is not their strong point.

I suppose I did word that incorrectly. The point of the post is that this whole debate about who's the strongest is rediculous. Each job brings something unique and since SE is creating super gimmicky fights, it's good be either be varied in what you could do either in the job you're bringing or in the amount of jobs you CAN bring.

It's just me being lazy and wanting to only have to play blm when we're doing MB only for death spam or blu for everything else and my 'static' group is lowman and our DDs are top tier. Now my blu is 2nd at best behind stupidly geared Sam and probably Rag War. I just want to whine that blu isn't broken and can be beaten on strict DD purposes when no one needs the extra party buffs that we can give.

I'm not being elitest or whatever saying all DDs can fill X role, but when you're doing top tier content with only 6 slots BLU isn't ALWAYS the best option. There I said it. Now I'll threaten to start gearing Sam for the few times it's a better option out of spite.

This was only started because of a snide remark saying "lolsam" and no one batted an eye, as if it was the community's general consensus was that SAM wasn't anywhere near the top of the DD hierarchy. It's been perpetuated by people who refuse to believe BLU could ever be dethroned in any situation. Well, now the community knows the general numbers under some general situations and can take what they want from that. If anything, FFXI's inclusiveness has expanded due to this to allow people who like SAM back into the current meta if their circumstances allow it.

still far from ready to believe sam is the end-all DD

blu was never considered the highest dps job, it's just close enough while bringing an obscene amount of other benefits to the table

Uh... nobody said anything remotely close to lolsam on the previous page?

Sorry, I'm not trying to say SAM is the end-all DD. I'm saying under high buff conditions it has the potential to be the best. There are a lot of factors that can hurt SAM and propel BLU back to the top, I fully understand that... lowman/ninja sub required/lowbuff/very evasive monster ect.

I hate that this got dragged into the BLU thread and apologize for that. BLU just seemed to be the most popular job and best to compare with SAM to show its potential under certain situations.

Yeah, it's on me for bringing it here, sorry for the derail from the thread. I didn't mean to imply that we should only ever consider one DD.

Anyways, apologies for the derail and for not having all our TP/WS sets updated just yet. Holidays are a busy time, but I'm hoping to have things finished off by the weekend.

It really is, this update showed me that SE knows which jobs could use some help based on who was placed on what items. Even the recent Ambuscade sets have been tailored to help jobs accomplish things they may have had issues in the past due to gear restrictions like WSs with debuffs or just inability to get the accuracy augments on their gear so they could just participate. It makes me feel optimistic.

Back to Blu gear questions...

For general magic dmg (subduction, ten crush, duel else spells etc,) what's your thoughts on legs, feet, waist?p slots? Looks like alamaric on legs / feet and not escha stone on waist. Is that better than the ambu gear? I have all but for some reason thought at least the ambu legs were better than the alamaric for pure dmg.

I can't speak for Oraen's half of it but personally I don't really care about off-topic job comparison/discussion related to BLU as long as it isn't trolling ***, so you're fine. You can't really have a thread like this and expect it to remain inside only that job's bubble, the game requires coordination and cooperation between multiple people on multiple jobs so understanding the similarities and differences of one job compared to the others is just as important as knowing what gear to wear.

Haven't had time to respond to any of this thread. Been a hectic day. I don't think anybody who actually plays BLU seriously thinks that it's TOP DPS #1 NA or anything such thing. I am not suggesting that it is or that BLU > SAM or anything else in particular regarding to DPS A vs DPS B. I am taking arms to weakly supported conjecture being passed off as a factual assertion. You're stating that SAM has the highest DPS potential, citing a few hours messing around with a spreadsheet and your anecdotal experience playing SAM. That is very myopic perspective. I've spreadsheet'd WAR DPS to break 14k without any DM augments or even HQ abjuration gear (literally only spent a few minutes doing this too.) If I spent a more time ruminating over gear, using DM augments and the like, I'm sure it could go much higher.

I'm not asserting WAR > SAM or anything like that. I don't think we have the tools to accurately evaluate DPS to do thorough job vs job DPS comparisons. Even if we did, the context of a specific situation affects the results.

I created my original post because I highly dislike how others tend to parrot claims like this and the outcome of that process. Usually it's just irritating misinformation, but sometimes it grows into negativity and oppression. The initial reaction you got from your SAM post is a great example of this. People who don't play SAM came out of the woodwork to mock and deride you (lolSAM and the like.)

I'd like to finish this thought more thoroughly, but my plane is about to take off. So I'll leave it at that.

My initial claim may have been a bit hyperbolic and probably should have been more PC, but I still haven't seen anyone actually able to dispute my claim, however myopic it might be. Just "a few minutes" of tinkering with a WAR spreadsheet, which was undoubtedly with MS/BR/Warcry turned on. But honestly, even if WAR can edge out SAM in a zerg, my goal was still accomplished: lolSAM is no longer on the community's ***-list.

BLU is up there, just not same tier as Rag/Ukon WAR, Koga/Masa SAM. , Lib/Rag DRK. I'd take a Ryunohige DRG over a good BLU too. But after those BLU is next best.

Quick question. Current best club for Blu to dd with? Been out a bit this month and am told I need to deal blunt dmg in ambu. Just using my nib cudgels atm. Anything better? Many thanks and much appreciation.

~ Jaq

If the damage is close enough, I'll take a BLU 10/10 times over those jobs. Since a BLU is bringing a lot more to the table than just DPS.

Derp!

Blurred looked the best, hadn't thought about an OaT Tama for offhand. Thanks for the quick response^

Np. Would figure the Acc would be far less of an issue than it is for WHM. Tama is best offhand for WHM until acc is an issue.


However, will forever suggest when the Intense is doable(like it is this month) to do that and just do 13~ runs to finish your 20k instead of 60-70 regular VDs

Double augmented Nehushtan.

Totally forgot about those. You can get some good augments on those. Think I have like +25 dmg, +15 acc/attack, and +3 DA on the main hand one, and +19 acc, +3 DA, and +2 QA. The delay is pretty awful though

Haven't even looked at the intense this month, which is, of course preferable. More reading ahead! I forgot about my Nehushtan as well but I think I had augmented them with magic before I got my nib cudgels. Good call though.

You need a specific setup for it. But if you have the required jobs for it, it is really easy.

Tank, WHM, GEO, RNG/COR, Rng/COR, and SMN. The RNG and Cor are interchangeable as long as they have decent enough gear to hit. SMN is the main damage, as it bypasses the shield.

Mainhand Nehushtan is probably ideal. Offhand you've got a few options. Nehushtan gets the best melee stat bonuses with augs but has awful delay, mafic cudgel is decent if you've got one lying around, or you could use Nibiru Cudgel or Gabaxorea for their low delay but they have little or no melee-relevant stats. There's also Tamaxchi and Blurred +1 with OAT, but Tamaxchi has very low skill and Blurred +1 is rare and expensive.

Regarding Tizona Trials, is there any way to shortcut the Chariot kills than doing a single Arrapago Remnants each day?

Nope :(

laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaame. I was hoping to be done sooner than 4 days from now. does it reset at JP midnight, or is it 24 hour lockout?

jp midnight

OK, so I can at least do the old morning run/reset/2nd run on one day. thanks.

Yeah, that chariot lockout is pretty lame. I was all excited to be about finished (minus the 10k beitetsu at the time), then realized I had to wait. My friends were probably more upset than me though; they wanted to see it in action lol.