The Beast Within -- A Guide To Blue Mage

should *HAVE* been more obvious

I know it doesn't work for one-handers but I do Dynamis with a staff all day, every day.

Silly dual-wielding Blu's.

Not entirely. Works fine for single wielding 1h weapons, just doesn't work when dual wielding.

I just made 99blu and love the job so far, still running around learning all the spells and capping my skill.

I was curious why the guide never mentions stacking more of the 'occ. quickens spellcasting gear' , as a possible macropiece.
I've been swapping out rajas+twlight belt for Veneficium Ring+Witful Belt when casting and fulltiming the Impatiens in my ranged slot instead of using eva chakram/Mantis Eye/Thundersatchet.

Am I a bad blu for using 6% occ. quickens spellcasting for this setup? I like spell spamming/nuking so seeing a proc and getting to double cast something (1 in 17) or triplecast (1 in 279 chance) has been quite fun.
I don't have a moonshade earring and i'm actually kinda now wanting one for 3% more occ. quickens spellcast to get me up to 9%.

Do i need an intervention or is this not a too terrible setup to macro for precast?

It's only good for spells that don't have potency gains, like self buffs that aren't skill dependent. And get TP Bonus.

ive mainly been using it for damage spells that have long recast timers but cast fairly quickly like benthic typhoon/frenetic rip/magic hammer

Also you don't need to fulltime the ammo slot if you don't change it with the chakram.

I'm starting my skins tonight and, if Guk isn't camped like he normally is, I should be finished in a few days. I'm not particularly well-geared, as I'm still breaking into end-game content, and I wanted to get some opinions on possible choices for a CDC setup. I've tried for Athos boots a ton, but that beetle is a terrible creature. I was figuring on HQ kacura for feet until I get them. For legs, would the additional few dex and added str on AF3+2 outweigh the bonus attack from tumbler's? On hands, I was curious about whether or not the bonus crit rate from HQ Kacura would outweigh the additional dex from AF2+2. Also, are there any acceptable replacements for belts?

Sorry for all the questions, I'm just damn excited to finally be Zorro.

Cuchulain's Belt if no Wanion I think, can't really say anything about the rest there(Though all those things are listed under options in the CDC section).

Gonna be going with the poor man's version of Khepri Wristbands and sticking with Fea's Cuffs. At least for the time being. I'd assume they're usable for STR and STR/DEX spells over Myrmex Mittens, but how about STR/VIT spells? Would they be used over Athos for those?

Better to be safe than sorry, but can anyone give some insight into which sub should be used for a Neo Salvage 3 man group, I want to go with war, but I'm not entirely sure.

I wanted to ask what numbers people around here are consistently getting with CDC outside of Aby, particularly in Dynamis. I just want to know if I'm being greedy and overestimating my damage (lolaby) or legitimately need to change something.

Also, I wanted to come here and find out what events blue mage really shines in. I've never been at end-game in FFXI before, so I'm fairly uneducated about some events. Unfortunately the majority of people I've spoken to greatly underestimate blus, so I wanted to ask people who actually understand the job better. I understand I really won't be too desired in Legion or the like, which I'm currently working on sch for, but I've been wondering about NNI or Neo-salvage as well, or any events that blue mage excels at for that matter. Apologies for the ignorance, I just want to understand where my favorite job excels and how to properly utilize it =[.

What is the exact ratio of effectiveness for blu skill > str (or stat mods in general)? Is 1 blu skill worth way more than 1 STR, or does it work in tiers like h2h skill or something? I see the kephri head in the physical set on OP, and the AF1+1 body, but there are heavy STR bodies out there like toci's. How does blu skill match up to these so well on some slots, but not on others? (like ll's question about the fae's cuffs)

Depends on if you're breaking a tier. If yes, then you're gaining more D from the tier increase than the 7VIT on top of the additional 6 attack on most spells (outside of CA).





If your healers are of sufficient quality sub WAR. BLU has plenty of defensive mechanisms on its own.





2k~2.5k average when you aren't getting massive amounts of buffs would be about right. For events, a BLU is fine for anything that isn't Legion and is especially proficient in lower level events like sky, sea, salvage, and Neo Nyzul.





There is no exact difference, it's case by case. 2 STR = 1 blue attack, 1 blue skill = 1 blue attack, and base damage gains from stats vs STR or blue magic skill will depend on too many factors to give a general blanket answer, including WSC of each individual spell (and whether or not you're using CA, which doubles WSC), whether you're attaining a new tier from skill, and what sort of gains you're seeing from fSTR.

Fair enough. Thanks P.

I've been recently working on gearing/leveling blu, guides much appreciated! Small catch (or perhaps some reason I don't know about) is that Novio isn't in the magic sets.

Alright, that seems close enough to my norm to alleviate my worry, thank you. I still need some improvements on it, I just wanted to make sure I wasn't completely lagging behind.

As someone who has never done NNI before, and is particularly nervous about starting new events, is there any advice I could get regarding any specifics concerning perhaps spell sets or particular roles I should look to be filling in a party?

Sorry for the continued questions. I don't mean to have information spoon-fed to me, I just want to make sure that I am as knowledgeable as I can be beforehand so I can perform properly.

Thanks again.

I've always assumed novio was left out of sets because its 75 gear and people just plain forget it exists, but the AV rings are starting to show up again.

I mostly haven't cared enough to put it in there, will edit

Blank gaze and sheep song are handy to have on top of a normal DD set (barebones guideline spell sets are in the guide); MP Drainkiss can also be handy but isn't necessary. Ideally you'll be gathering up nearby mobs and AoEing them down as often as possible to shave off some time while just murdering the rest of your targets and supporting your group and yourself with sleeps, heals, and dispels as necessary. Using Bilgestorm on Floor 80/100 bosses is useful too.

I had decent luck with ageha in nyzul, does the ae from bilge land more frequently or stack?

I never did Nyzul with SAMs so it wasn't a choice for me. Probably serve to gain more just by wasting a few secs to use Bilgestorm rather than making the SAM use TP on Ageha though

I find sleeps, heals and dispels to be a waste of set points. You should have a scholar following you around to paralyna if its a flayer and you don't need to sleep things with adequate regen/embrava HP ticks. Use a -pdt build if you're swarmed by multiple mobs as whatever your target is should die very fast. Biggest boon to bringing a BLU is sudden lunge over all that other stuff.

Did they fix the added effects yet of the blu spells that were busted? I could have sworn there was a whole list of ones that's added effects are borked atm. Is that list on this thread?

Sch always followed the other group cause my blu would do just fine supporting my group. And the second sch would try to help but really needed to stay at the rune most of the time.

Aye, cleared SSR2 yesterday with mnk/war rdm/whm and me as blu/war went pretty smooth besides the dvergr nms, Magic barrier was pretty good in there~

1 more plan to go for Fea's cuffs!

with the upcoming changes to last resort and drk becoming a viable sub for alot of jobs it got me thinking about if blu/drk would become viable in some situations. 15% job ability haste and att sounds like a pretty nice boon, and what if they would alter souleater to work with blu's physical based spells? anyone else think this would be a pretty nifty subjob choice in the right circumstance?

edit: didn't think this warranted it's own topic, and wasn't sure where else to put it.

Last Resort haste will only work for 2handers unless they change their mind.

/sadface

aww... i was hoping that blu/drk would be viable, seemed like it could bring something new to a job i love ; ;