The Beast Within -- A Guide To Blue Mage

Sortie A objectives can be done with AoE spells, only the first target gets credit for the magic kill.

WS them down to 30% and Tenebral Crush them, if TC is down you can Subduction them a few times. (It does about 4% of their health)

as long as you pick a new target for the aoe to be cast on each kill it counts

make sure you are targeting a different mob for the killing blow. i usually did smaller groups and melee'd on one finishing it off with a spell - in which the other mobs were low enough to pick off one by one with a spell

probably only ones with red names + main target at time of death count.
If you have other party members fighting stuff in other sections of the zone at the same time, you can probably only keep 3~ red at a time. A x6 pull probably would only work if the rest of the party either sat on their hands or helped you keep claim on the group.

I just bring them low <20% and single target them down from there... on blm.
On BLU I almost always /RDM anyway just for the utility of aquaveil w/o unbridled and phalanx. Just about all content /DRG wouldn't make or break a run, but I've had many times where me being able to raise other members when the whm dies w/o reraise saved the run.

I'm pretty sure what Xax is suggesting doesn't work anymore. When Sortie was first released, as long as you targeted a mob at some point during the AOEs, their death would count towards the objective. Some time back (I believe when the basement was released and the kill timer for the Bhoot in C was increased), they changed the behavior for the A objective. Now the only kills that count are the ones who were targeted *at the time of death*. So regardless of your targeting behavior during the AOE spam, if your last AOE kills 6 mobs, you only get credit for the 1 you targeted with that spell.

When I do my solo runs on BLU, I stay /DRG. Almost everything I do in there is melee so the small boost adds up during the course of an hour for time savings, and I always go for the C boss and don't want to run any risk of timing out. So what I do for A objectives (and this will seem more complicated typed out than it really is in practice, I assure you it's fast and easy), is I use "heavy" AOEs to whittle the group down close to death, and I make sure my final "heavy" AOE is Entomb for petrification. Then I take a few steps away, and target the outer-most mob with Subduction, hit him ~once-twice, take a step or two forward, and repeat. I do this several times so that by the time petrification wears off, all surviving mobs are at staggered HP levels, so all of the Subductions are always only killing one mob each, ensuring that each kill counts. It's a little more work than just going /RDM, but it works well for me and my solo flow. For me, a few extra seconds on A objectives is worth the DPS boost for everything I melee.

Curious - what's your overall route/objectives when you do BLU solo?

Recently I've been running with a group that does a MB strategy in the basement a few times per week, but back when I was doing daily BLU solo runs, this is what I did (might have to go back to this if the new prime weapons are time-gated behind a lot of Sortie):

• I head north into A, UL > Carcharian Verve, and do what I suggested above to farm KIs for the A boss. I keep an eye out for the Obdella the whole time, killing him when I see him. I then go to the A boss, UW > Mighty Guard > Tourbillion, and Expiacion him down until he's dead. I compete every objective in A.

• I head towards B by way of the northern part of D.
  

  • While in D, I keep an eye out for Deleterious. If I see him, I kill him and then the six fomors in order (I don't bother with the skillchains to save time). I then head to the bitzer, drop my exit KI, warp to A, and head towards B.

• While in B, I look for the Porxie and kill it if it's in the fire elemental room. Either after killing it or not finding it in there, I warp down into F. I do the 5/5 Empy bitzer objective in F and leave. I then continue hunting for the Porxie if needed.
  

• I head into C, and immediately hunt down the Bhoot.
  

  • If the Bhoot is near the skeletons and the C boss, after killing the Bhoot, I will farm up the boss KIs from the skeletons. For KI farming, I usually just do a SC and let a trust burst. I always run with KoH because he prioritizes Dia III on every enemy (which I love, Koru takes *way* too long), and he will consistently throw out a Firaga to burst if I do a light SC. If I ever have any trouble here, I can always just use BA or AL to burst myself. After getting the KIs, I kill the boss. After the boss is dead, I will head towards the C bitzer, warp into G, and stare at the exit bitzer before leaving.
  • If the Bhoot is closer to the C bitzer, after killing the Bhoot, I will warp into G, do the objective, leave, and then go back towards the skeletons and C boss.

• After completing C objectives if I haven't already completed D, I will head there, kill Deleterious and six fomors in order. If I still have time, I'll warp into H and do the exit bitzer objective

I keep Mighty Guard / AM3 up at all times when meleeing, I typically Savage Blade > Expiacion (Distortion) everything except for the A boss, and I use Tenebral Crush on everything that I don't use Tourbillion on. If I save the C boss for the end, UW (for MG/Tourbillion) is available for a second use on him. Depending on luck (mostly how quickly I find the mini NMs), I typically get somewhere between ~11-11.5k galli and 2-3 starstone attempts.

Not a bad route at all. I worked out a strat where I can do A + E on DRG (with my 3song brd alt assisting) which, when you factor in all the other small objectives, nets something close to 15k galli and a similar amount of starstone chances. Wondering if doing it on BLU would be more effective.

Mind sharing your BLU spell list and your subjob? Thanks!

Yeah, that's a good idea. With the 10k that the basement bosses drop, I'm sure doing one of those zones would net more galli. I've never tried to solo the E boss before, but I might think about it going forward.



I go /DRG, and good question on the spellset, I kept meaning to put one together specifically for Sortie, but never got around to it.

So, I start out in my typical 'cleaving' set:
and then I switch to my 'odyssey' set (basically, it's a melee set with Entomb, which I use for fomor control in D) after I'm done with the A objectives:
I perform the A objectives on the acuexes in the first four rooms, so I have plenty of time between doing the heal objective and running past the leaches for my BLU spells to get set and ready well before buffing for the A boss.

Now, I don't recommend doing what I do here, it's dumb... I really should put together a single set.

Hey, whatever works right!

You can entomb the fomor?

Yes you can. Breakga works too.
They're immune to sleep and lullaby.

Not sure about gravity and bind

Yes subduction and bind works as well.

Bahamut.Navius, can you give a bit more information on how you solo C boss? I didn't have diffusion + mg so my trusts got wiped pretty quick, setting the stage (30k distributed amongst targets) destroyed me quickly thereafter. I was also getting knocked back a lot. Also didn't see KOH burst at all, had to pull out Shantotto II. I was very inefficient with this strat to start out, need more practice to make it better. Took me 15 minutes futzing around figuring out how to do the magic kills as a /drg.

Whats your strat for A boss on BLU? He loves to wreck me I must be doing something wrong? I actually stopped using BLU due to A boss when I go solo.

Thank you in advance!

mighty guard, tourbillion, savage blade only, if worried about defense can use cocoon, phalanx. Tourbillion wore off at about 30% and I had to cast ten crush. I did OK as blu/drg w/ just MG & protect. Boss can wreck trusts though and you have to be prepared for that (i.e. toss a few magic fruits in). I certainly have been 1-hit in the past, so any tips about reducing chance of 1-hit would be helpful.

Never been 1 shot on A boss its a simple case of put Malignance on and spam Expiacion. You might as well use White Wind instead of magic fruit to keep the trusts topped up. You can also get hate and then move yourself back wards so that trusts are at max distance.

I'll try again this week. Been going MNK since he melts A boss but BLU can do A and C.

Edit: I haven’t been getting the Metal for A. Totally forgot about it since other jobs don’t require it and neither does my static.

Edit2: He melts with Metal and is super easy. Thank you for fixing my error.

My boss strategies aren't really anything special, just zergs mostly.

For the A boss:

I buff with standard buffs (Erratic Flutter, Occultation, Cocoon, Nature's Meditation), and then I pop Unbridled Wisdom > Diffusion > Mighty Guard. I run in, engage the boss and then use Tourbillion. I build up 3k TP (I use Tizona/Thibron for weapons), and use Expiacion for AM3. Then the rest of the fight is just spamming Expiacion until he's dead. If Nature's Meditation wears off, reapply.

If you're getting wrecked by the A boss, I assume one of two things are happening- either you (or a trust) are feeding the boss water/darkness damage, or your trusts aren't removing the poison (which I believe stacks, but unsure on this). I typically use Sylvie, Ygnas, Monberaux, King of Hearts, and Joachim for this fight and have no issue. For most of Sortie, I use Arciela, but I specifically replace her with Joachim for this fight because her attacks count as darkness damage, beefing up the boss. It's possible to beat him with Arciela out, but it's a bit tougher. Also, Monberaux can hit him with darkness damage too, but I find the ailment recovery more than makes up for the small damage boost given to the boss. Also, don't use Qultada (or anyone else who uses Savage Blade) if you plan to spam Expiacion, as they SC into Distortion.

For the C boss:

I build up 3k TP on one of the skeletons outside and then enter. While inside, I do the same buffs as before, engage the C boss and hit him with Tourbillion and then Expiacion for AM3. If I don't have UW available, I use Tenebral Crush instead of Toubillion. After AM3 is up, I spam Savage Blade > Expiacion (Distortion) until the boss is dead. Again, reapply Nature's Meditation when it wears off.

Basically, this fight is a DPS check. If you're getting killed by Setting the Stage, that means you ran out of time (should have 3 minutes to kill). Sometimes he can get nasty with the stuns, knockbacks, and TP drains. To prevent the knockbacks, you can try to position him such that your back is to a wall, but don't waste too much time doing this. Back when I was doing these runs, I had Tizona R15 / Thibron for weapons, Malignance for my TP set, and R20 Nyame for my WS set. If you have this level of gear or better, you should be fine killing him in time by spamming these WS/SCs. My trusts for this fight were Sylvie, Ygnas, Monberaux, King of Hearts, and Arciela.

Poison on Boss A (or E as well, for what it's worth) can't be removed unless you enter the boss area with the related Metal.

Unless we're talking about MNK. I think MNK can remove it with Chakra but that's once every 5 mins eh...

Sure, I'm aware, I always enter with the metal.

Just want to add that, A/E are extremely susceptible to sudden lunge and can get stunned for like 12-15 seconds on unresisted. Its very helpful to control the fight to throw them out once or twice between your expiacions and prevent unecessary damage/poison tics.
Also your explanation of darkness damage is wrong. A/E boss only absorbs Water damage. You may be associating water with darkness because the Darkness skillchain has all 4 elements built into it, and thus also counts as water damage... but straight dark damage has no water in it. You can leaden salute him to your hearts content, it's just that he's 95% resistant to dark.

Thanks for sharing. Do you find any particular pattern arrangement works best when gathering mobs? (In a circle perhaps? And then you inch-forward with Subduction targetting one mob at a time, right?). Do you mind sharing your spell list?

I'm already familiar with how skillchain elements work, but thank you for the clarification. I mentioned the dark thing because several people (myself included) have noticed huge damage spikes from the boss with trusts such as Arciela and Monberaux, who do not cast pure 'water' spells, nor are they skillchaining with me (though according to bg, Arciela's attacks are supposedly light-based regardless of her stance... so I don't have a good explanation here, maybe someone else can explain?).

My comment was specifically intended to assist someone who was having trouble with the boss and didn't understand why, and I was offering advice based on my own observations that I felt could be helpful. Trust attacks and SCs, which are darkness-based can cause problems and might explain why someone is having difficulty clearing the boss. Your explanation for *why* darkness SCs are problematic is spot on. Despite this being a conversation focused on BLU soloing, if you would like to bring along a COR to Leaden Salute, that is possible to do without setting him off (though I wouldn't do that with a BLU present if the BLU is using Expiacion).


I don't really do anything special for gathering. When I first enter Sortie, I run north to the four small rooms in A and gather up all the Acuexes in the rooms. I begin casting my 'heavy' AOEs (Tenebral Crush, Spectral Floe, Entomb, etc.) once all of them are in AOE range. And yep, I inch forward casting Subduction 1-2 times between steps. The goal is to just create staggered HP levels between the mobs such that the difference in HP is greater than 1 Subduction's worth of damage so that each Subduction only kills one mob at a time. It goes by fast because of the nearly immediate cast/recast time of Subduction and the relatively low damage, so I can just button-mash the macro button and tap the movement button in between. My spellsets for Sortie are posted above, I use the cleaving one for the A objectives.

https://www.ffxiah.com/forum/topic/56855/sortie-release-info/64#3640375

One of Arciela's regular attacks inflict water damage. I had a few failures with her in party. After I switch her out, I never encounter the damage spike again.

Was using Cornelia, Yoran-Oran (UC), Monberaux, Ulmia and Koru-Moru. Probably can replace Cornelia with another bard.

Ah, there we go then, that makes sense. I was under the impression that her attacks were doing darkness damage when under Bellatrix of Shadow, but bg says that's not the case. Not sure what's doing water damage, though (if autos are light)... maybe Dynastic Gravitas?

As for Monberaux, I personally have no problem with him, but others have reported similar issues. I can confirm the issues with Arciela.