Blue Mage Compilation(Setups, Gear, Etc.)

[Caerloc]

Im not a strong believer of mirage keff. It doesnt add "accuracy". Blue magic only increases dmg, similar to attack. Thats why i use morrigan coronel. Idk what the dmg ratio is for 5 blue magic vs 4 str, but the 5 acc puts morrigans over the top imo. I have both, so maybe i'll try it, but i doubt i'll like it.

 

[K. Ishitar]

Yarr that's a good point . Forgot about sea gorgets <.>;.

actually have a question about sea gorgets, since during CA the physical ws becomes an "actual" ws then would the appropriate sea gorget work for CA ws?

also thanks for adding the info while i've been gone nice read(everyone)

 

[Myrrh]

I read this thread in hopes of understanding how to equip blu but I ended up getting depressed at all the gear I need to work. <_>

 

[Ewok]

actually have a question about sea gorgets, since during CA the physical ws becomes an "actual" ws then would the appropriate sea gorget work for CA ws?

also thanks for adding the info while i've been gone nice read(everyone)

For purposes of things that effects ws's, they aren't actually WS's. As far as I know, the gorget's do not effect physical spell dmg or acc while CA is active.

 

[Ewok]

I read this thread in hopes of understanding how to equip blu but I ended up getting depressed at all the gear I need to work. <_>

Well, depending on what you want to use it for, BLU can need to gear up as a melee, healer, and nuker. So yeah, there is potentially a lot, lol.

 

[K. Ishitar]

something random i'd like to share about mp drainkiss; its fairly common for blus to macro it in in their early 50s after closing gravitation to get help get mp back from colibri (of course monster correlation as well helps)

Doing campaign I'd finish my usual CA ws(read: not gravitation) and tried just using burst affinity(slight macc) and swap to dark staff > mp drainkiss

the returns I get are pretty high to the point where dark staff for mp drainkiss cant be ignored recast for it is long itself anyways

I tried this on colibri as well syncing in the 60s and got returns close to or identical to that of mbing drainkiss with gravitation without using a gravitation sc



In short: It's worth your time to macro this in after completing your self sc solo since you have no tp after so macro in the dark staff and suck that mp dry

 

[Icewolf]

something random i'd like to share about mp drainkiss; its fairly common for blus to macro it in in their early 50s after closing gravitation to get help get mp back from colibri (of course monster correlation as well helps)

Doing campaign I'd finish my usual CA ws(read: not gravitation) and tried just using burst affinity(slight macc) and swap to dark staff > mp drainkiss

the returns I get are pretty high to the point where dark staff for mp drainkiss cant be ignored recast for it is long itself anyways

I tried this on colibri as well syncing in the 60s and got returns close to or identical to that of mbing drainkiss with gravitation without using a gravitation sc



In short: It's worth your time to macro this in after completing your self sc solo since you have no tp after so macro in the dark staff and suck that mp dry

Yeah I used to do this in a greater colibri merit pt, works out nicely. But generally I get to lazy to swap my weapons.

 

[K. Ishitar]

need some help yet again, trouble with vorpal blade; just doesnt seem to out do Savage Blade I average 250 on vorpal according to parse with sushi high ends doing 450-500 and low doing 200ish. I never considered using savage blade since its only 3 hit compared to the six hits on vorpal but i start using this ws and the damage seems identical. I havent parse this in a merit party but I just have a strong suspicion that savage is better for starting out with few merits than vorpal or just takes a lot of accuracy to make hits land.

+2 sword merits 3 crit, btw

Did anyone else notice the odd fluctuations taking blu up and any suggestions? Could just be me and setup but I'm assuming it just requires more merits to fully take advantage of and its better to use Savage Blade for wsing atm.

And does anyone know how Expaciacion factors in comparison?

thanks

 

[Hexx]

need some help yet again, trouble with vorpal blade; just doesnt seem to out do Savage Blade I average 250 on vorpal according to parse with sushi high ends doing 450-500 and low doing 200ish. I never considered using savage blade since its only 3 hit compared to the six hits on vorpal but i start using this ws and the damage seems identical. I havent parse this in a merit party but I just have a strong suspicion that savage is better for starting out with few merits than vorpal or just takes a lot of accuracy to make hits land.

+2 sword merits 3 crit, btw

Did anyone else notice the odd fluctuations taking blu up and any suggestions? Could just be me and setup but I'm assuming it just requires more merits to fully take advantage of and its better to use Savage Blade for wsing atm.

And does anyone know how Expaciacion factors in comparison?

thanks

What are you macroing in for Vorpal Blade? I tend to dish out 600ish Vorpals when using it in conjunction with most of my spell casting gear. I tend to leave a few acc pieces in since it is a multi hit weaponskill after all. This may just be me, but it seems that Expiacion enhances the damage that mobs take from blue magic spells. Wiki doesnt say anything in regards to it, but my Disseverment's and Frenetic Rips have hit harder when cast after Expiacion (without CA up).

 

[K. Ishitar]

top of my head

Swords: Beast Slayer/ Demon Slayer

head:Ohat
body:Assault Jerking
hands:relic hands(no enkidu yet >,> more or less best acc i can get)
neck: Chiv chain
back: amemet
waist: potent belt
legs: relic legs
feet: denali feet
ear1: coral
ear2: suppa
ring1:rajas
ring2: woodsman
ammo: tiphia sting

 

[Nicholette]

Im not a strong believer of mirage keff. It doesnt add "accuracy". Blue magic only increases dmg, similar to attack. Thats why i use morrigan coronel. Idk what the dmg ratio is for 5 blue magic vs 4 str, but the 5 acc puts morrigans over the top imo. I have both, so maybe i'll try it, but i doubt i'll like it.

Mirage Keff allows you to hit the highest dmg tier if you have +7 merits in Blue Skill 14 total increase. If you merited different magic categories, don't bother and stick with accuracy + modifier piece like you already use.

 

[K. Ishitar]

some help for big 3 back piece commander's cape or smilodon mantle +1? Yes cuch is ultimate but 3.2mil isnt in my hands yet


using mirage mantle with a str ring to replace my woodsman in spells

and also sounded kinda funny but i'm not a career dd but I'll ask anyways...

people tp in cuchu then use forager's/cerb for ws?

 

[Nyosan~]

It's really going to depend on your food and your target mob.

There's a program called FFXI Calculator that can help quite a bit with determining one's total melee accuracy and hit-rate (compared to a user-inputted mob level and AGI, which can often be found on the wiki). This can be adjusted for spell accuracy (i.e., adding +2 ACC for each Physical Potency merit), which you can then use as a baseline for developing spell/WS builds.

Since the majority of BLUs use multi-hit spells/WS the most, it's important to get as close as possible to the 95% hit-rate cap, and add spell/WS mods from there. Keep in mind that the single biggest factor in hit-rate is food choice; a sushi build will be considerably different than a meat build.

For simplification's sake, I often gear toward Greater Colibri meriting, and adjust my food from there to compensate. For BLU, I have a set each for meat and sushi. If you're interested, I can post the sushi and meat builds for spells/WS, to give you an idea.

 

[K. Ishitar]

i'd greatly appreciate it, thanks man

 

[Nyosan~]

I'll try to remember to put them up on ffxiah.com when I get home; I'm at work right now and it's blocked.

Edit:

Sushi:
Spell - http://www.ffxiah.com/item_sets.php?id=25757
WS - http://www.ffxiah.com/item_sets.php?id=25760

Meat:
Spell - http://www.ffxiah.com/item_sets.php?id=156784
WS - http://www.ffxiah.com/item_sets.php?id=156786

I have full Sword merits, Physical Potency merits, and always keep Accuracy Bonus set. My Anwig Salade has STR/DEX+4, WS ACC+15, Crit Damage +2%
Another thing to consider is the stat bonuses from spells set. A few points of accuracy will typically be gained there as well.

It's late, I'll post something more comprehensive when I have a day off.

 

[Nyosan~]

Like I said before, I typically gear to Greater Colibri with my sets, and then switch food around as necessary to compensate for particularly evasive mobs (e.g., eat sushi while using the meat build with its higher base accuracy, maximizing accuracy).

My spell sets typically vary from DEX+6~10; I assume DEX+6 for the information below.

My Anwig Salade has STR+4, WS ACC+15, DEX+4, Crit Damage +2%

I have 8 Sword merits (ACC+~14) and 5 Physical Potency merits (ACC+10 on spells), and I keep Accuracy Bonus set (ACC+10)

For the lv82 Greater Colibri, one needs 407 Accuracy to cap hit-rate.


Sushi:
Spell - http://www.ffxiah.com/item_sets.php?id=25757
This set faces a glut of ACC, but it packs on the STR and DEX for spell mods. I'd like to get some Enkidu legs to add additional STR, since the ACC on the trousers is over-kill.

WS - http://www.ffxiah.com/item_sets.php?id=25760
ACC: 401 with Marinara Pizza, 412 with Crab Sushi, 423 with Sole Sushi.
I wouldn't mind getting an Assault Jerkin for this set, and trading out the Warwolf for Virtuoso Belt.


Meat:
Spell - http://www.ffxiah.com/item_sets.php?id=156784
ACC: 397; This set falls a little short of the 407 ACC needed to cap on Greater Colibri. This could be helped somewhat by setting a few more DEX spells, but I don't typically bother.

WS - http://www.ffxiah.com/item_sets.php?id=156786
ACC: 407; Pretty much right on the money for Greater Colibri.

If you have any questions, please let me know.

 

[K. Ishitar]

ws for savage or vorpal or expacian btw? thanks for posting

 

[Nyosan~]

Savage Blade has secondary mods of 30% STR and 50% MND, so take the WS set and toss in an Aqua Ring or two if you don't have either Rajas or Strigoi, and replace the hands/feet with Denali (Denali feet are already in the 'meat' set). If you have some gear with large MND bonuses and not much in the way of STR/ATT/ACC for that slot, use it.

Expiacion has 30% STR and INT mods; same thing goes for it with INT instead of MND. Don't bother with the Snow Ring; INT+5 isn't worth the STR-2...

I rarely use either Savage Blade or Expiacion, since Vorpal Blade can do quite a bit more damage when properly geared, and completing a skillchain is often difficult to manage in non-solo situations. If you expect others to hold their WS so you can get your skillchain in, you're setting yourself up for a lot of frustration.

 

[K. Ishitar]

thought i'd add some blu foot notes while shadowwing is kicking my ass

cocoon and vs def down effects normally if you got a def down effect it overwrite cocoon and in reverse you could overwrite some effects by casting cocoon this is no longer the case defense down effect stays... tested vs frightful roar on me and aegis schism pre update i could get rid of them

seems we cant kill charmed people with blue magic anymore, much less touch them...

Plenilune Embrace Vs. Magic fruit: Like wiki says 100more points cured than MF but has a longer recast time(having refueling or animating wall fixes this) so its harder to span in oshit moments also costs 34 more mp to pull off which can be kinda tough but mat boost and attack bonus that lasts 1.5 mins that that i'd use 106mp before a ws ^^;...

Curing Efficiency

Magic Fruit: 415 (with my mind gear 62+55) 4 points divide healed amount by mp cost 415/72 is 5.76hp for each 1mp used

Plenilune Embrace: 515 same gear 5 points to set so divide that by mp cost its 515/106 4.86hp for each 1mp

Plus note for the latter, its very low hate I want to say its Cure 3 hate maybe less but mp used versus cure ratio still makes magic fruit better. Stat wise you get 10mp and +2 str from setting P. Embrace which is nice but if you have other spells that are needed I'd set them instead for flexibility. So just for healing MF is better PE is good if you want the space and dont think you will need the cures much although for 5 points you could set more str/dex if thats what you need....

only 77 atm so I can't say anything about the other spells

thought I had more to add but I guess thats it

Oh something that has me worried 15levels from learning blue spells hit that damage cap

Frenetic rip: learned 63 cap 78

Hysteric Barrage: learned 69 cap 84...

Disseverment: learned 72 cap 87...

Those are some pretty big shoes to fill unless SE has them not follow the same precursor as the other physical spells, still there are a lot of monster abilities for us to learn that arent horribly hard to reach or get to but losing that Disseverment I will miss my 18hptic poison!!!

 

[Nyosan~]

Disseverment should hold out nicely for at least another update (assuming a ten level jump next time). Frenetic Rip is fine for now, but won't last much longer I'm afraid. I rarely use Hysteric Barrage, since F.Rip and Diss give Accuracy Bonus together, and I rarely need a 3rd damage spell.

I hit 80 a little while ago, and I'm loving it. Animating Wail and Battery Charge are awesome, as is the option for setting the Double Attack trait. I've recently finished my "Occ. Attacks 2-3 times" Khanda, and I'm close to finishing my Store TP+9 Machaera. Once finished, dual-wielding those with the Store TP trait set and Rajas/Brutal/W.Tathlum equipped brings me down to 14 hits to 100% TP, with 15% Double Attack and an average of around 3ish swings per round, and while maintaining 18% haste in gear. I'll probably replace the Machaera at some point with something that will boost spells, but I've got a full Magian plate at the moment. Until then, the Machaera is a nice stop-gap.

Also, I've been pretty impressed with Sanguine Blade. I haven't done a lot of testing so far, but I've put together a half-decent MAB/MND/INT build, and I'm getting ~530 damage or so. This includes setting Magic Atk. Bonus, but at 3 points, it's pretty cheap. I expect to get more damage out of it once I can refine my build. At 100% TP, it drains half of the damage dealt as HP, which is a nice bonus considering the damage. It has no skillchain element, though, which is unfortunate for self-chaining. At least one can use it without worry of interrupting another's chain.