The Beast Within -- A Guide To Blue Mage

Already? Almace has been out for a VERY long time now.

I've always done EF > CA > CDC > A.Spikes, haven't missed it unless AOE silence/para/stun/terror (hate you.. damn butterflies)

i took a 6 year break from the game, i came back last June, started leveling blue around then, then was away from the game for 3 months for RL stuff. sorry for not being elite.

It actually only took us about 3 weeks to do almace and kannagi.

About CDC to AS, can you put it in one macro? I had to do put Req in one and Quad cont in another. oh and CA is before my weapon skill in both WS macros, so that isn't throwing the timing off.

Like I said, I used to hit the macro for Quad when the animation for Req was finished, with CDC I just can't get it.

Thanks in advance.

Just count to 3. So hit chant, count 1, 2, 3 then hit your AS macro. IIRC, the timing is between 2.5 and 5 seconds. If you are blinking, it can make you not see your SC or the damage from it so you might try it without swapping gear just so you can see the timing or use blinkmenot.

I really don't recommend combining them since you can't always use them together or you may not want to. I have Chant, CA, Efflux, and AS macros all near by each other so I can pick what I want when I want and mix and match according to the situation at hand. Automation is possible of course, but it's inflexible and hard to stop it when you need to or if you get interrupted, knocked back or any number of issues.

You can also hit UL and darkness off your darkness with Bloodrake but the damage isn't impressive even with a 2 step darkness but it gives you a nice full cure.

Also the timing is tricky, you'll want to use UL before you start the sc cause if you wait for after you may not always get it. For some reason the window on double dark or light is much smaller than a normal sc so even the time it takes to hit and use a JA can cause issues. Usually, if you hit your bloodrake macro prior to the darkness sc animation finishing you're good.

He said outclassed, not just "out."

Do we even know how to get that new sword yet? I'm assuming it'll be a drop from one of the new HNMs, right?

Well... Almace isn't outclassed, just the 85,90 and possibly the 95 ^^; 99 is still good to go!

The nakuuls all have an element, all these weapons do too, and I think a group has confirmed a drop from one of them so it's almost sure to come from the Fire** nakuul. But how easy it is to get? Probably could make a 90 almace faster.

T-rex, fire naakual, not water. You can tell just from the look, other than the fire resist on it.

Realized that I said that shortly after posting it ^^; corrected. I was just looking at the dagger which is the water one... derp.

Had nothing to do with you being elite or not. It's just the simple fact that you said it's "already outclassed", and it's been in the game (and relatively easy to obtain) for a while now. I realize big breaks tend to usher in a lot of new things, when you get back, but yeah... Also SE kind of went nuts with the new weapons

you're assuming they are reasonably obtainable, think mura drop rates on a nidhogg window whenever you see a weapon like this in the .dats.

I'm a really not-special Blue Mage apprentice without even half of my spells so I'm propably missing something important. According to this guide, the ideal merits are Chain Affinity 5/5 and Magic Accuracy 5/5, with Physical Potency as a distant second option. Could someone explain to me the rationale behind this? :x Wouldn't it be Chain Affinity and Physical Potency, because with Chain Affinity, you would be using physical spells rather than magical ones? Everyone I've asked in-game has been pretty clear that I should not merit Magic Accuracy at all, which has left me kind of confused. I'm sure there _is_ a good reason for this guide's suggestion though - it's really a great piece, thanks much for posting!

There really is no wrong choice for Group 1 merits, its more based around what you use blu for.

I do Chain Affinity <wait1> > Efflux <wait1> > CDC then hit my A.spikes after ws animation. If you want to put it all into 1 macro putting a <wait4> after CDC should work.

You can do the whole thing in a single macro if you like. Are you using a seperate line for /wait X?
/ja "Chain Affinity" <me> <wait 1>
/ja "Efflux" <me> <wait 1>
/ws "Chant du Cygne" <t> <wait 4>
/ma "Amorphic Spikes" <t>

That should work leaving you with 2 extra lines for a /echo or whatever. Even a Burst Affinity at the start + nuke of choice at the end if that floats your boat. I personally don't like MBing any blu spells, they cost too much MP IMO.
I find it best not to depend on animations etc. as gearswaps/lag can cause your WS animation to trigger waaaay after you actually perform the WS. Animations lie.



I'm pretty sure the magic acc merits are for land rate on your debuff spells. That's why I went with 5/5 mag acc anyway. I tried 5/5 phys potency, but they seemed to do very little, if anything.

In situations you would want to be casting phys spells (fodder, 75 content etc.) the damage is already potent enough. If fighting higher level targets, it's a waste of time casting phys spells for the most part, and 5/5 phys potency does nothing to change that :(.

Merits are easy to come by, give 5/5 phys potency a shot and decide for yourself. You may prefer it to the other options, but either way, it certainly wont make or break your BLU.

"Physical Potency" is just accuracy as well I believe. Setting aside Heavy Strike, if your spells are ACC deficient, chances are so is your regular melee, prompting alternate gear sets, food, and so on.

Arguably, BLU shines most on low-ish level content, where you typically won't have many ACC issues in the first place. If it's that much of an issue, you'll either adjust playstyle, or change to another job.


Magic accuracy, on the other hand, isn't as readily available, especially if you don't want to go full backline and swap in a staff.
I think it's also relevant to landing secondary effects on physical spells, where you'd be primarily gearing for physical ACC/mods.

Either way, harder to add, making the ability to get an innate bonus via merits more valuable.

thanks everyone, i got the timing now, i just had to wait for the entire CDC animation to go off.

A quick question, since I don't have a group for meebles, assault, salvage, and I am just beginning to run NNI after the nerf, which gloves are better for TP?

Thurandaut or dusk +1? right now with dusk +1 i am at 27% haste so losing 1% won't hurt.

I am pretty sure those are the best CDC gloves I can get right now, just trying to +1 inventory and get rid of the slow run gloves.

Newer information seems to point towards it being blue attack after all.

Where is this info?

If this is true, people will probably remerit.

Thurandaut beat Dusk as long as you still cap haste.

Possibly even if they drop you 1% below cap, that DEX is massive.

Although I would bet Nomkahpa beat Thurandaut

I'll have to look around if someone else doesn't find it first.

EDIT: Okay, found it: Testing

A statement by SE on their forums caused the merits to be relooked at, since they had previously said that they were accuracy at a fanfest.

Interesting. Last I'd heard they were accuracy - even the guide here still says that, suggesting MAcc instead.

I guess the question would then be whether a, what, 1% damage boost is worth trading off 10 MAcc for.

concerning macc I could only suggest macc if you're serious about blu nuking stuff that resists well... such as B.Rex

anything else that you could apply the macc to you shouldn't have resist issues with a macc set.

Moozie: Probably Thur gloves grab a parser and find out what the difference is in DoT


Also you should split CA and Efflux on spells for more DoT, using them together doesn't outweigh the benefit of using them separately.

The probability of 10 physical accuracy and +5 blue magic attack being more beneficial than landing a crucial stun is pretty small. I do not have +attack listed as I never finished proving that the bonus existed, nor is it a large enough increase in attack to fuss over; in a majority of situations it isn't even a 1% increase in damage. When you're meriting physical potency, you're effectively meriting only physical accuracy.


Link to the actual testing rather than the aftershow

no, there are no new spells yet. adoulin armor is added along with a handful of weapons until sword augments come in.

I would love to have Paralyzing Triad and that grasshopper attack, something buffet :o

Wishlist:

-Paralyzing Triad (Cheap piercing multihit + paralyze plz)
-Tegmine Buffet (Light with CDC plz) or Nature's Meditation for a good stoneskin
-Slice and Dice (For the name)
-Velkkan Pygmachi (4 hit spell with a chance to dispel on each hit would be fun to play with if cheap)


Not sure what I want from Matamata, Craklaw, or Acuex. Still need spells from Mantids and Maroliths too which are normal enemies in Adoulin.

I went 5/5 on physical and Magical. I've always been bigger on BLU Melee than Spellcasting, and I don't religiously ride my CA timer, so it was an easier choice for me.

Missing Sudden Lunge is a pain in the ***, hitting Sudden Lunge and it not sticking is a slap in the face, and both happen a bit more commonly than I'd personally like in Adoulin. Both accuracy merits help a little bit, and that little bit is worth more to me than shorter CA recast.

Did anyone see their physical spell damage go up after the 1h update? Spike damage from efflux'd heavystrike and amorphic seems way higher now.

The usual aby/salvage/dyna trash is getting rocked so hard now with my white damage+Expiacion->Amorphic i'm never getting to see the darkness chain or magic burst (with everyones grudge lol) and dont need to ride my CA timer so those merits feel worthless.

I think that's more so to do with the Defense adjustments more than anything~