The Beast Within -- A Guide To Blue Mage

Tested as in what? Until they turn the formula into a multiplier of HP rather than a flat % of your current they've aged pretty badly damage wise compared to the increase in regular nukes

Hey fellow Blu's I've began to eyeball Odyssey cruel joke farming with my duo box bard. I have Malignance and most evasion pieces minus the ambuscade cape. I would be using evasion 50 food. What do you suggest is a good seg zone to start with?

Also do you ever use lullaby or does it mess with dream flower duration?

Curious as to what map addon you use also since I would prefer not to look at my second monitor every 20 seconds.

Thanks for any tips.

p.s- I am 3 song bard for now.... 2 mambo and ballad ? (missing +1 mambo from crafted gear)

Choice A or B not planning on C

for dualbox do B. most everything in there is doomable (including a lot of things that arent in C) and the monsters are lower lvl. hides are also worth gil unlike wings

I am in the exact same position as Slowforever (alt 3song BRD) and have been wanting to try to CJ farm Sheol C. Can you give a little more detail on what an ideal run would be like? Just go in, buff up, and train/CJ an entire floor?

As much as you can handle, it'll be a personal thing as to how many packs you can take at once (additionally, some sections of some floors are easier to pull than others, mob type matters, etc.). Biggest thing you'll have to keep in mind is how long it takes to run from the bottom of the last floor to the exit. I'd start small, 2 or 3 packs at once, and go from there. Helps a lot if your BRD is good enough to sleep for you

Oops I meant Sheol B but yea, your points still stand I guess :) thanks!

Trying 4/5 and 2/5(with cohort, also tried with relic legs). Don't have the feet yet.

It's a pretty significant drop in damage just testing the two spells I did the other day.

4/5 head/body/hands/legs =

Subduction: 9649
Retinal Glare : 12,266

Front page set, using amalric +1 feet instead

Subduction: 10,009
Retinal Glare: 13,070

and just because empy legs instead of relic +3

Subduction:9872
Retinal Glare 12,926

tldr losing the Amalric set bonus seems to be a nope. Unless you're just going to use the Empy as a defensive nuking option

1. You used 2 spells with very low WSC and Retinal having mostly INT too, which is the only stat that is higher on Amalric hands.
2. Empy+2 feet is the slot where Empy picks up a lot
3. You are not counting empy set bonus here.

AD 1. Empy hands+feet are:
28 STR
63 DEX
51 VIT
48 AGI
62 INT
72 MND
62 CHR

Amalric hands+feet are:
9 STR
29 DEX
26 VIT
28 AGI
57 INT
54 MND
52 CHR

So the difference on spells where WSC matters more like
Entomb 80% VIT
Searing Tempest 80% STR
Tenebral Crush 30%INT 30%MND 30%VIT
Blinding Fulgor 30%STR 30%DEX 30%AGI
Scouring Spate 80% MND
Anvil Lightning 80% DEX
On those spells you will notice much lower drop in damage and possibly increase in damage when used with Burst Affinity

AD 2.
Amalric hands has 36INT and Empy hands 28INT. It's a slot where Empy loses in terms of INT and you were testing mostly INT based spells. Empy feet have 34INT and Amalric 21INT, so it's where Empy not only catch up, but also takes a lead. Basically you were using the worst spells for Empy hands aginst Amalric hands and without Empy feet that helps the most for them.

AD 3.
Set bonus is 3 times stronger than Burst affinity, which means it will usually more than double the damage of the spell. This will happen 5% of the time with 5/5 set, so on avg it will add ~6%+ damage at least, which you wont notice compering just non proc sample against other. Ofc proc can happen when it doesn't matter (ie. when mob has like 10k left and you proc 40k+ Tenebral Crush), but your ~8% difference on Subduction might be irrelevant too for the same reason (mob dying to same amount of casts anyway).

I definitely favor using full empy+2 especially for spell like entomb to land petrify more consistently, and of course the added bonus of normally macc set spells like silent storm also doing somewhat decent damage.

Numbers on other PC but from what I recall:

It's hard to beat Amalric+1 4/5 and Jhakri Coronal +2 with its whopping 309~MAB with set bonus, but for the other spells Simon mentioned with a variety of mods, using Empyrean+2 5/5 is a safe nuke set with all the DT and MEVA on it, in addition to the 60~ stat boost for STR/MND/DEX/VIT/CHR/AGI.

I think I'll end up using Empy+2 4/5 and Relic Legs +3 for 255~ MAB and around 125ish for secondary stats and INT being around 160ish iirc.

Debated about Cohort Cloak +1 but never made one and hard to justify 12M~ for a few more stats (5ish) that will likely be beaten once Empy +3 comes out, in addition to losing the defensive bonuses you're likely going to want when cleaving anyways.

Have 5/5 now, will do a comparison between all three sets with all the major nukes. The three sets will be the empy 5/5 +2, the front page, and 4/5 Amalric +1 with Empy head. Like the previous test, all casts will be under 1 distance for Orpheus's Sash.

Starting with Empy +2:

Subduction: 9,806
Retinal Glare: 12,933
Entomb: 16,130
Spectral Floe: 18,864
Tenebral Crush: 18,834
With Pixie +1 instead: 20,642(Did get a set proc here and was 37,986)
Anvil Lightning: 15,737
Blinding Fulgor: 16,071
Searing Tempest: 15,470
Silent Storm: 15,412
Scouring Spate: 17,975



Front page set. Not swapping in Pixie +1 obviously because that's a whole different set with Cohort involved:

Subduction: 10,154
Retinal Glare: 13,328
Entomb: 16,970
Spectral Floe: 19,519
Tenebral Crush: 19,523
Anvil Lightning: 15,938
Blinding Fulgor: 16,604
Searing Tempest: 16,061
Silent Storm: 16,185
Scouring Spate: 18,408



And finally, 4/5 Amalric +1 with Empy +2 head:

Subduction: 10,882
Retinal Glare: 14,358
Entomb: 15,365
Spectral Floe: 20,955
Tenebral Crush: 20,311
With Pixie +1: 22,477
Anvil Lightning: 16,312
Blinding Fulgor: 16,688
Searing Tempest: 16,230
Silent Storm: 16,418
Scouring Spate: 19,230



I say just go with the 5/5 Empy set. Obviously except on Tenebral Crush. The gap will close even further on a per cast basis when the +3 comes out, and will add even more defensive stats. It's a safe bet. If all you use BLU for is to kill trash mobs for merits, and you already have Amalric +1 would say there isn't a rush to upgrade your BLU set.



Personally, I don't like the front page set. It's like a weird middle ground where you only get 2% on the Empy bonus, not as defensive, and lose damage on a per cast basis compared to using the Amalric set bonus.

Since SE is apparently making this our nuking set, if it follows other conventions (checked RDM/BLM Relic +2/+3) going from +2 to +3 should add all stats +5, 10 MACC, and 7 MAB...per piece. Still losing to Amalric+1/Empy Head +2 now, but looks like it'll be the winner for +3. Hype.

I just got the Blu +1 earring its L Ear Augments ACC +11 Mag Acc +11 DBL Atk +3%. IS it any good?

At worst its your best additional effect blue magic due to all the acc/macc loaded in, stats on +2 will determine how good it is beyond that imo

The blu earring is exactly what you would get if you asked someone who knew absolutely nothing about blu (or XI in general)

It's got everything a blu could want! sword skill blue skill accuracy and a lot of magic accuracy, Christ it's PERFECT. Other jobs should be so lucky to have such a well spec'd piece.

(It's even got DA to better mimic swordwarrior, damn!)

If it gets the higher end of relevant stats i.e str/dex then its still overall great, DA to me just makes as much sense as RDMs, despite both having high TA whether it be skill or gear, its still a "melee mage" so no higher than DA

Isn't the earring simply BIS macc for all Blue Magic?

Yeah, though id say every job is its bis acc/macc, just pointing out its really effective for additional effect phys magic since its 32~ phys and magical acc in 1 piece

I was just thinking more of the base NQ earring; better than other options for Blue Magic accuracy, which is nothing amazing, but has an immediate use. Don't really need +1/+2, but they just keep getting better.

Also, does this in any way help towards reaching a new tier for Occultation? with DI earring and MLs.

So far doodoo besides a great acc/macc swap.

not meaningfully. at certain ML it would potentially let you hit one extra shadow if you are wearing the absolute max skill (please don't). it should give a little more flexibility when shooting for ~600 skill, but it doesn't really take us to a new tier, provided my 'up at 3am math' to be accurate.

Too be fair, if they wont make some special immunity to Sudden Lunge and will only require high macc to land it, then I can appreciate all acc/macc pieces. I will say it again, Sudden Lunge is the most broken spell when it works.

Works on A just fine as well. B seems immune.

B being resistant to stun isn't surprising considering its alignment

Has it ever been tested whether blue magic enfeebles ever have their MACC affected by dINT or dMND?

Can someone tell me what magic setup do you equip to do Sortie?

I use the ones in the ExpertDD guide but I'm not worried about getting enough damage from nuker and other targets.

Thank you very much for your help :D

I use 2 setups. I use an AOE setup with lots of evasion (almost the same as the omen solo set up) and I use a single target setup similar to the generic DD setup in the guide but I drop a little store TP for Counter trait and O. Counterstance. I swap to the aoe setup when farming #A and the DD setup for #B, and for minor and major NMs.

So with the omen aoe set (and with equipment) is it enough to reach the requirements of nuke and magic burst de sortie?

The current omen AOE set is fine. I dropped a few spells to switch in Fulgor. The evasion boosts help big time when pulling for AOE kills.