The Beast Within -- A Guide To Blue Mage

Considering we JUST got new spells... And all of those spells are expensive as hell to set... And all new ones as well given their trend....
How can you say we haven't been getting new spells?
Don't really think we need 6~10 new spells EVERY month.

Still wish they woulx remove / lower JA / Spell delay

You misunderstood/misread, I'm totally fine with the older stuff getting buffed and happy with the new spells. My point was SE likes to back peddle with what they say and it's really hard to take anything concrete when they keep changing their minds. They were asked to fix the duration and older spells and they replied saying they had no plans and moving foward they'd add new spells to fix this (something on these lines, I believe it was a Camate post).

I just found it funny was all. Totally psyched for the adjustments, even more so if the durations are beyond my expectations.

Edit: Found the post.

Quote Originally Posted by Bayohne View Post
One of the core design concepts for blue magic is based around the fact that as you level up, more powerful spells will become available. Due to this, the development team would prefer to focus on adding new blue magic at the higher-level tiers rather than to adjust low-level spells. However, they are aware that there is a limited variety of single-target physical blue magic and support-type blue magic in the high-level tier so they are planning to add more, but it will take some time until they become available.

Very true. However, I think the main flaw is the ilvl system in the capacity of spell slots and spell points.

I'm not sure how they would do the conditional for 101+ and 111+ ratings, but it feels like design-wise, we're getting access to ilvl spell cost but aren't getting our set points adjusted to the ilvl scale.

Having JP catagory for adding BLU points to set spells with isn't helping either. Not every BLU out there can farm for months for the JPs needed for BLU points....

If it's taking you months to farm JP as BLU, you are seriously playing the job/game wrong. Maybe a couple weeks tops and a few hours a day, but nowhere near months for 10/10 BLU points.

My time to play is limited, and BLU isn't exactly the job I use often except to farm in Salvage.

Plus, I have other jobs that I still need to cap JPs on.

I'm one of the first to bash SE, they often deserve it, however that post does not support your statement that SE is backpedaling. In the qoute you provided it states they prefer adding new spells. Also they are doing both, new spells and buffing older ones.

You won't hear this often but SE is using their heads moving forward with blue in a systematic and intelligent manner.

Of course new omfgwtfbrokenezbutton spells would be great but we have steadily creeped up to be among if not the top 2nd teir DD. SAM and Monk being 1st teir.

All things being equal only Tin mnks and Tsu/REM Sams are consistently parsing better than (Uson,Brmnk) Blus. But we also have other tools to bring to the table.

But I think the point is the points are kinda frustrating since you are still limited to the amount of slots available at 91-99.

Nazrious, it says: Due to this, the development team would prefer to focus on adding new blue magic at the higher-level tiers rather than to adjust low-level spells.

Which means "we have no plans to adjust older spells, and moving forward will add new spells that make these obsolete to end game BLU".

To which they change their minds and fix the older ones. Again, awesome. Another example that I stated was the Excalibur Enlight where you couldn't have the add effect proc if Enlight was up, and they stated something along the lines of "we can't fix this, sorry" and then suddenly they do it. What I'm getting at is it'd be nice if they just talked to us on a more plain level instead of robotic.

Thats a problem on your end not with JP



Thats the point of Blu. Also with single spell traits Nat.Med Emb. Erth etc SE has to a degree adressed this.

It was their preferred plan, plans change.
Companies which speak open and plain with customers and the public ofte get the shaft. Double talk is a part of adult life such as taxes and death.

Point, you are using vague statements as a definitive statement, when they are clearly double talk and open ended leaving room to change if plans change.

Once JP categories are fully unlock there will be an extra 20 points on top of the 70 we already have. Id rather see SE change the traits that are on the spells seriously making us set two haste spells.. i want to slap the person who thought it was a good idea.

This I have to agree with. Need a trimmed down DW spell set.

Also anyone know if Gearswap will be able to differentiate between

Qaax path A vs Qaax path B?

Looking really hard at a full tank Set for Blu (looking at your Barrier Tusk). Even if just for getting D AA fight clears. For people.

You could always put path a in inventory and path b in mog wardrobe and use /equip body "qaaxo harness" 0 or 1 macros.

hands={ name="Qaaxo Mitaines", augments={'Accuracy+15','STR+7','Phys. dmg. taken -3',}}

hands={ name="Qaaxo Mitaines", augments={'Attack+15','Evasion+15','"Dbl.Atk."+2',}}

An easy way to do this is to equip the augmented gear and //gs export lua.

Thanx tons.

I think Subduction is going to be gimped and the other spells will be buffed to "compensate" for our loss.

Notice the verbs used in the announcement. Everything is flatly a boost or improvement except for the last one, "attribute adjustment". I would not be surprised if Retinal Glare and Subduction were gimped. Maybe Retinal Glare will get a boost, but I highly doubt we'll see an improvement for Subduction.

Tempestuous Upheaval would need an insane boost to make it worth using with the massive amount of MP it uses.

If I'm not mistaken, those spells don't have WSC values. Maybe they're adding them? Would be consistent with the language.

attribute adjustment being added = adding WSC like they were talking about

Really curious about the increased buff duration. This might make Orcish Counterstance a very good spell for solo play or diffusion.

I doubt they'll be gimped (because there's no reason to do that and the language doesn't imply it), but I could see them tweaking them to where they do about the same damage as they do currently, with extra damage with BA.

They'll probably just give +WSCs with no fTP adjustment though, with Subduction and Glare just getting low (~10%) values.

I disagree. JP was supposed to be a minor to medium increase given to people as a bonus for playing the job. It was not intended to be a requirement to play the job. For some jobs, this is how it works, but for blu? Blu gets some serious gains from this and I can say without hesitation that blu gets one of the nicest JP's out of all of them. When they upgrade it to give you 30 total points? It's going to get crazy. I'm guessing this is why they are making all the new spells cost huge amounts of points because it's the only way they can balance what it'd give blu if they didn't.

I'm glad they gave more set points to blu but I do not think that JP was the best way to do this. I guess it was better than connecting it to ilvl. That'd have been a nightmare. Oh you got gear stripped? Well there goes your spell set too!

Polar Roar - 2.0dINT, 5.0 Multiplier, 20% STR/INT

That said, this is probably my last report on spell parameters. Based on recent events I've decided that it would be best if I moved on from playing FFXI. I'll continue to maintain gearsets, but spell parameters and other things that require me to actually play the game will not be possible anymore.

If people want to get me data, I can do the math. But aside from that, i'm done. I'm sorry guys.

Nooooo don't leeeeave!

Can't thank you enough for your help over the years and the huge amount of effort you've put in to this guide and community. You've been a instrumental part in making my blu not suck.

Safe travels mate.



Play Blu more then. It is not hard to get 55 jp on blu hell I did it on mata near mori wkr spawn when i first got back and didn't know any better. There are way ez ways now.

I play on blu plenty. I'm just saying he's got a point, especially for people who can't always be on blu like I can or simply people who have a lot of jobs.

Thanks for everything Prothescar. This thread, and therefore you singlehandedly inspired me to make BLU my main when I returned in February of 2013.