The Beast Within -- A Guide To Blue Mage

I used it to stun a few things in Ceizak, but the duration is fairly short, it's unreliable while zone evasion boost is up, and things seem to quickly build resistance. I have a pretty hardcore ACC/MACC set for SL.

I wonder why it is that they build so quickly to lunge and yet you can stun every 6 seconds for an entire fight and it'll work just fine?

Granted I know some are more resistant than others but I'd really like to go do this farming on blu rather than rdm or loose my multi song brd to having to go sch.

Very much agree, but the only zone it really is an issue in would be Morimar, and other than Lahar, there isn't much there that's more than an annoyance as well. Gradual petrification can be dealt with very quickly WHM/SCH (we used yagrush WHM) and really just slows DPS for a short time since you're not countering or guarding on any meaningful level. If you use MNK's, even Lahar isn't that big of a deal, we had one get through and just alternated Mantra and saved inner strength for an ohshi*. I haven't tried stunning much besides a few spells and hell scissors on scorp, and it worked well enough for that for as fast as most NM's die with decent DD's.

As for resistance, I'd imagine it's simply a function of macc on added effects. An actual stun spell isn't considered a physical attack, and SCH has so much Macc that it still sticks well even as it's resistance builds. BLU's added effect Macc is likely lower and just shows it's head sooner.

Has an additional chance to miss, doesn't last as long, and costs more MP. Roar's hard to beat when you're looking specifically for DEF down.

This is kinda what I wanted to think but if that is the case, why can you /drk with no dark magic skill and still land stun on most mobs while you will literally drain and aspir for 0. Granted, I know and have seen that the resist rate is higher, but some function or another muddles the water in this particular area and it makes it harder for me to figure out what I can do to counter it.

Obviously lunge will have a disadvantage over stun simply by it being a physical spell that has to land so even in perfect acc situations, still have a 5% chance to whiff it. Then it has seemingly the same full land, half resist and so on.

But after that, things just don't align with how I think macc should work. If you take a pre-ilvl sch and me with a sword with 188 macc, I'd technically have more macc than they would. And they could land stuns and I can't/build resists quickly? I dunno just would like to know the mechanics better I guess.

Quoted from BG WIKI.

Perhaps, Additional Effect stun only 1 resist sub state.

Hmm, curious though... If the issue is resist states, then why do I sometimes have a stun land for ~20 seconds and other times it can be 10 5 or next to nothing? That seems to indicate to me that there are multiple resist states with lunge right?

Now, there may be some other factor that I'm unaware of at work here, as there are some spells that have a random range of duration such as gravity and para as opposed to slow or sleep which has a static but resistible duration. Perhaps the stun on sudden lunge is a randomized duration based on some factor.(it has to be mob level or stat based though because I can consistently stun lower mobs for 20~ seconds). I guess now that I'm really thinking about it, I don't ever stun for a massive duration on anything that is hard content. And to add to this theory's likeliness, Most spells have a full, 1/2 and 1/4th resist state. I think sleep has full and half. I specifically remember that one since I had 2 messages on my sleep info for my xml. One for when it wears and one for a half resist wear.

The building resistance thing confuses me as well. It is clear that even normal stun is affected but it seems like it builds a whole lot slower for most mobs. While 1-3 casts for me on anything hard but stunable tends to end with full resists from there on out.

I'm not sure. But it's crystal clear that normal stun has a significant advantage. I just would really like to optimize mine as well as I can. Know a bit more about the limits so perhaps I can go in to things knowing what I can and can't do and what may make it functional.

I just wouldn't count on stunning more than 2-3 times on anything high end with SL/HB. The physical accuracy aside, if you NEED a stun, SL isn't going to be something you want to rely on.

Sudden Lunge may have a different stun than standard stun. Its resistance definitely builds significantly faster than normal stun (possibly also due to dark magic stun having a hefty magic accuracy bonus while ours do not), and the duration is noticeably affected. Each time you cast Sudden Lunge on an NM, you'll see it last less and less time with each cast until eventually it lasts for less time than it takes the animation to finish.

Possibility also exists that the stun effect has a random duration on top of normal resist states, similar to hecatomb wave. For example, max duration is between 10 and 15 seconds, can be resisted to between 5 and 8 seconds, 3 and 5 seconds, etc.

Is it allways going to be best to use 119 relic head/feet aswell as 119 AF body and mavi tathlum now for physical spells since we'll be breaking more blue magic tiers?
Also if windbuffet belt build was on par with Thuradaut chapeau build tp'ing in 4/5 Iuitl (with DA augments) and windbuffet is the best for tp now since head/hands/feet each have 1 more haste?

as a followup, Luhlaza charuqs +1 don't enhance the Diffusion augment at all, still 7:45 Animating Wail. Disappointing, but expected.

Since we had gotten Sudden Lunge, I toyed around with various theories on how they would have programmed stun in the game.

Monster Variables
The way I would have coded it - to mimic FFXI's stun - would be to have a variable for monsters that has the maximum stun duration left on them. This would be the maximum amount of time a monster can be stunned. Also, you'd need the resistance variable, that we all know and love - the brick wall.

Spell Variables
For each spell, you'd need a maximum and minimum duration stun duration variable. Rather than having a set number as the maximum duration for Sudden Lunge, it would seem to be a composite of the "max stun duration" variable from the Monster field along with an actual number to make sure it doesn't get too crazy. Like say 1/4th of the monster's maximum stun duration, but capped at 20 seconds. This would mean that as a monster's maximum stun duration starts reducing and gets to a number like say 10 seconds, the maximum stun a Sudden Lunge would do would be ~2.5 seconds. After which, the monster's maximum stun duration would be reduced to 7.5 seconds total.

Other
Of course you'd want to introduce a whole lot of fuzzy numbers and have an algorithm that makes the maximum duration of Black Magic Stun "stronger/more typical" than that of Sudden Lunge. Possibly throw in factors of monster-character level difference to determine the caps and maximum stun duration reduce rate.

The monster's maximum stun duration could "re-accumulate" over time. Especially if a certain brick wall threshold hadn't been met. This would give advantage to not spamming stun, but using occasionally throughout the fight.

If they programmed it this way, it would give obvious benefit to using Headbutt instead of Sudden Lunge in certain scenarios where you need to stun a lot of moves throughout a long fight.

Obviously, I don't have their source code, but this would be my guess based on programming games and witnessing how it worked.

Since Sudden Lunge and Shocksquall seem to be ~the same potency, (let's call this state StunII), does Shocksquall have the same diminishing stun duration as Lunge? I feel like there are two different statuses with the same name since they have different properties. Stun I(stun, bash, violent flourish) last for 0.5-2 seconds or so. Longer duration stuns(i.e Leg Sweep, Spartan Bullet, Sudden Lunge, Shock Squall) might be a 'Stun II' so to speak? Similar to how Curse and Zombie both have the same icon and are called 'Curse' but have different properties? Like with Sudden Lunge, I wonder if other long duration stuns are subject to similar diminishing durations (Shocksquall, Leg Sweep

I have data that says it's definitely a random duration between 5 and 25 seconds. The reason it builds resistance faster can be explained by 1) having less macc than normal Stun, and 2) having less resist states.

Just need to keep in mind, some spells (Stun being one of the most noticeable ones, Flash and Dispel being others) get a massive magic accuracy bonus and likely have more resist states. That's why you can actually potentially land Stun/Flash/Dispel with uncapped, subjob, or completely unleveled magic skills. Increased Stun resistance on mobs can be observed to cut duration as well as chance to land, and some NMs have innate resistance to Stun that causes duration to be neutered from the beginning of the fight.

Getting exact information on resist states for things with random and/or low durations, however... not something I plan to do any time soon.

Is the reforged relic head a viable casting piece or should I just stick with the duck hat?

It's the best for damage output while tossing in some magic accuracy from skill for additional effects. As was argued earlier, if you need accuracy then use Whirlpool mask instead. Same for feet

I've wondered that for a long time, actually. It does seem like the stun effect has at least 2 different forms.

Thanks for the quick response. Yeah id normally back read but a combo for being ill just finishing work means I couldn't be bothered lol. Was going to reforge it anyway seeing as it had it +2'd from when they were first released.

Yes sudden lunge works well in Delve, as said earlier though, it gets resisted after a few times. Lesser NMs I can stun about 8 times before I see no effect on them. Some are just unable to be stunned like Kurma and certain mob types (not in Delve but Mantis types in Legion I can't stun at all.) As far as the MB's go, I can stun them about 4~5 times before it just doesn't work anymore. I use a full macc set for them as well.

So, is relic head+1 new best in slot for physical spells?

Generally yes, although you might want to stick with Whirlpool for Heavy Strike depending on what you're doing. You could probably get away with using reforged relic for every other physical on 99% of the content that actually warrants their use.

augmented skirmish sword looks to be a decent alternative for people whodon't have access to other 119 options.

So just to clarify, is relic head+1 the new best-in-slot for physical spells? I'm just really not sure!

It's the best for MOST situations where you should be casting unless you need accuracy (a la Heavy Strike). There are probably better options depending on spell and target/buffs for individual spells, but those are typically situations where casting lowers your DPS.

With seeing +dmg and double attack and WS damage +10% on H2H weapons curious what peeps seeing on the sword.

Lol, sorry I was just being silly as I found reading the same question 3 times on 2 pages to be kinda ridiculous. Thought I'd make it even more ridiculous.

Basically the same thing, there is a SS of one with WSdmg+10%. I doubt that overturns many of the 119 options based on their other stats alone, but as an alternative to a 117/115 offhand or situational offhand for one of the other heavy hitters it's a solid option.


Some people understand things phrased different ways, but ya, that's been stated a dozen times. >.<

Got this with a +2 stone the other day. I'm wondering if the WS damage works offhand, I'm not sure how to check, maybe try testing with a weak WS like red lotus blade? Or does anyone actually know offhand if it would work. The augments I have on this sword has 10 less damage than my bura. I've been main handing bura with skirmish +2 offhand.

Atonement and Spirit's within would be good ways to test it.

Should work in offhand, good to test anyway. Any elemental weaponskill works for that. I'm more interested to see if it works on every hit of a weaponskill similar to magian weapons, would make it better than Anahera/Buramenk'ah for offhand.

To test that, hit something weak enough to cap attack + STR with a two hit WS, make sure no double/triple/quadruple attacks, and that both hits land, look at damage. Shouldn't take more than 5~10 WSs to determine if it works, post the numbers here, your target, and your stats. Lesser Colibris would work, you need 135~140 STR to cap fSTR on those. Don't use a crit WS (Savage Blade or Expiacion would work). Otherwise just stack as much attack as you can to ensure you cap ratio.