The Beast Within -- A Guide To Blue Mage

As long as you don't look at it from the front it's A-O.K!


most of the faces suck because they look like tranvestites!

Thanks for the confirmation Proth. I didn't think I'd actually really have any need for an evasion or hybrid evasion set but it can come in really handy in Dynamis when you're fighting DC mobs and you get staggered links. I ran Dynamis for my first time tonight as BLU. I used your recommended spells and noticed it came to 56/60. I 2-box a brd/whm so I decided to make a couple changes.
I ran with this spell set:Basically I dropped Magic Fruit and Sound Blast (putting me at 52/60) and then added Empty Thrash, and Demoralizing Roar (58/60) to pick up Tripple Attack instead of Double Attack, and adding Whirl of Rage (60/60) to make it easier on my bard to recast Horde Lullaby.
I was thinking about dropping Dream Flower because I can use my bard to sleep adds. I was also thinking I could grab Attack Bonus instead of Tripple Attack. Dropping Dream Flower would put me at 57/60 and swapping to ATK Bonus instead of TA would put me at 55/60 but I'm not really sure what I would do with the extra points. I could also drop Cocoon (54/60) but it's only one point and the bonus to defense is pretty handy.
If I go to Valkurm I think I'd like to pick up Resist Sleep for farming Sheep.
Would you guys suggest anything different or just stick with what I got?

You've got it down pretty good. There's no real right answer to spell sets, it can be varied depending on preference or what have you. As long as you have the basic spells in then you're set from there.

Personally, I don't bother setting Magic Fruit at all anymore, so removing that isn't a bad thing if you're replacing it with something decent like you are.

Would the sword from Ig-Alima be worth using in Dynamis farming?

Doubt it. Proc rate on it is pretty low, you'd likely take less damage by using a defensive (AGI? one of these days I need to parse my eva) Shikargar and you'd certainly deal more damage that way.

Yeah, it's pretty ***. Pretty sizable DPS decrease for very little reward due to the small proc rate and uncontrollable procs; odds are you won't need the heal when it happens tbh. Stick to STR Shikargar, AGI if you really need the extra defensive ability.

Crossposting:

Abatteur Subligar
DEF:50 STR+10 DEX+10 Accuracy+7
Attack+14 "Subtle Blow"+5
Haste+5%
MNK, THF, BST, RNG, NIN, BLU, COR, PUP, DNC

Datmines didn't pick up a few items due to new encryption on a few files, this is the only one BLU can use. It's basically a sidegrade to Khepri legs, but relatively obtainable in that it drops from the Meeble Burrows mega boss.

Do we care? Maybe a little. 2 less DEX than Khepri makes it a slight downgrade to Athos for CDC at capped hitrate/fSTR/pDIF, but a sidegrade/upgrade if any of them are not capped. If you TP in Ocelomeh Headpiece +1 then you can switch these in for Thaumas legs in TP for inv+1 and DEX+7 at the cost of 2 STR, 1 attack, and 2.5 accuracy. If you have a haste+6 Khepri Bonnet you'd be losing around 0.3% haste by TPing in these, so you should probably keep Thaumas legs on.

None of this addresses the most important question, however: what kind of subligar is it?

Does dAGI affect Blue Magic TP Feed? I was thinking that if I wanted to tick MP while meleeing, Mirage Jubbah + Ephemeron might be more useful than Mavi + Shikargar (Basically trading STR and Attack for DEX and AGI). I only ever really use BLU for mid-level stuff where the extra DEX and AGI could actually help, anyway. That extra evasion's kinda nice too I guess.

dAGI and Subtle Blow affect all spells that give the enemy TP.

Dang. Another inventory space lost. Guess I could just put instant retrace scroll in my sack.

Without seeing your post, I was looking at this exact thing myself last night with the same consideration- what model is it!?!

Looking at the icon, it seems to use the Unicorn Subligar model, which I think looks pretty decent (the brown details match Thaumas body and feet nicely). I personally don't have Thaumas Kecks at this time and likely will never get Khepri and I do currently TP Ocelomeh+1 so seeing this as a Meeble drop really piqued my interest.

Yeah, I'm glad it's something reasonably appealing.

Couple of things I forgot to mention in that post:

-Nemetona Cap is a relatively accessible replacement to Oce +1 for TP, but also has haste+6 so you'll probably come up slightly short of cap with it. That said you're looking at a <1% difference in damage vs Thaumas if the DEX isn't contributing to critrate... I honestly wouldn't object to picking up inv+1 here if possible.

-Meeble Burrows is still glitched despite two attempts to eliminate whatever the problem is, and a full runthrough takes just over three weeks if you don't waste any tags. I don't know what the drop rate is like, but these will still take some time to obtain unless there's a way to purchase the boss key items that we're currently unaware of.

Actually, looking at my own inventory I don't think I'm able to object whether I want to or not. Guess I need to offload a couple items to the AH or my satchel.

I'm still stuck using Dusk Gloves+1 (wish Miodio gloves would go on the AH more often), so I wouldn't even have to worry about going slightly below the gear haste cap by switching to Nemotona, provided that I got Abatteur Subligar (or Thaumas) too. Hopefully the droprate for the subligar is Common or Uncommon (and not Rare or Very Rare).

Prothescar you may want to update your ideal CDC set to include the ammo item from Meeble Burrows. A 3 STR upgrade to Thunder Sachet for only 20,000 marks (Cheruski Needle).

Kyte why are you TPing in Thunder Sachet? =(

*edit*
Was just looking at my own BLU TP set.


I'm guessing the next Thaumas item I should get would be boots, right? I only just started doing Nyzul after the lamp dats were changed, so we don't win very often. Can't decide if I should get gloves or boots next. They would both be upgrades for more than just TP.

Honestly for ammo you have Mantis Eye, Smart Grenade, a sachet/the new needle, and *sometimes* White Tathlum. What you use in that slot makes almost no difference TP-wise unless you need Mantis' accuracy or you have the right traits/gear setup to make White Tathlum impact your average rounds/ws. Cheruski at least gives us something semi-viable for both TP and WS in hitrate-capped situations, but our DD ammos are really pretty shitty.

You could switch to enif manopolas if their attainable for you. They're what i'm using now while working towards thaumas gears.

One question.

I recently acquired Ocelomeh headpiece +1 and am wonder if it has a place in my CURRENT tp set.



Would it beat Cuauhtli head +1? I drop to 25% haste if I use ocelomeh hat +1.

I'm late to the NNI party at the moment, people on Asura don't want BLUs for NNI. :|

I have a Mantis Eye, but I'm typically capped on accuracy for most of what I do. Given the large amount of DEX in my TP set (well, used to be more before I got Thaumas body/boots), it has a chance of giving me some more +crit. Soon it'll be replaced by the needle once I get another 6k notes.

Enif would be an option if I could actually motivate people to do Neo-Limbus.

For that set, Cuauhtli is a bit better UNLESS dDEX is a factor (and when it is, it makes a pretty big difference). If you can get your hands on some Dusk Ledelsens +1, then grab them and swap to those and Oce +1. If inventory is a consideration, stick to Oce +1 since it has multiple uses.

I could use a few tips on Heavy Strike options. I'm going to go as BLU to my next Nyzul Isle run instead of MNK. Do you guys aim for a certain amount of str/accuracy when it comes to Heavy Strike?

Here's what I currently use for Heavy Strike



As a mithra, the current set has me at 179 str.

Possible Swaps:
Head - Mavi Kavuk +2 (+10 accuracy, -8 str)

Neck - Rancor Collar (+9 accuracy, -7 str)

Right Ear - Flame Pearl (+3 str, -5 accuracy)

Body - Mextli Harness (+21 accuracy, -5 str, -15 skill)

Hands - I have no other option really. Don't have Myrmex. Don't have Athos's. I hate the -10 accuracy on Heafoc for this spell.

Waist - Anguinus Belt (+11 accuracy, -8 str)

Legs - Mavi Tayt +2 (+15 skill, -1 str, -10 accuracy)

Ammo - Mavi Tathlum (+5 skill, -10 accuracy)


Main issue I'm concerned with is this: Is my accuracy good as is for Nyzul? If so, I'll probably swap in the extra Flame Pearl. If it's not, I think my first item to swap would be the body. Does anyone have a suggestion(s)?

You don't really need an "accuracy" set for Heavy Strike in Nyzul. I go full STR and all I tend to miss are THF Qiqirns. Definitely put Mavi Tayt +2 back on. Toci's is better than Magus +1. Safe to throw on your other STR gear as well.

My Heavy Strike's must have been whack then, lol. On anything DC-ish (NNI) and above, I whiff a decent amount of them, and that's switching to Toci's Body, Athos's Gloves and Chivalrous chain instead of my normal STR gear.

Well, I do have Myrmex Mittens which is +10 acc that some of you aren't getting, but it shouldn't be making a huge difference.

Edit: Forgot I also use Khepri Bonnet for Heavy Strike as well, which is +20 more acc. <_< That may be making a noticable difference.

Plus you should have Aggressor up a good amount of the time in Nyzul which should definitely be capping your accuracy.

I planned to save Aggressor for Boss/Leader floors, mostly to make sure I'm capped accuracy for Sudden Lunge.

Considering your set, with Khepri Bonnet and Myrmex Mittens. That's like a 30 accuracy difference between yours and mine in just those 2 slots. So yeah I think I'll stick with this for now:



If I get whiff more than 20% with this set I just won't use Heavy Strike.

I never had issues with Heavy Strike on the fodder mobs (had Athos, no Khepri or acc back, used AF3 legs and Toci's), don't recall for the lesser NMs but the only time I remember popping Aggressor is against the Qiqirn NMs. High-floor NMs would potentially pose some issues but we rarely had to deal with those and I doubt my hitrate would have been satisfactory regardless. Sudden Lunge doesn't stick on the bosses.

might be a dumb question but here goes:

Does Critical hit damage + gear affect heavy strike damage since it's an auto-crit?