The Beast Within -- A Guide To Blue Mage

Thinking about it more, we're going to be using UL mostly for Tourbillion now anyways.

So, worth considering taking out Sweeping Gouge now that Tourbillion is more reliable? Seems like those 6 points could make a lot of room for cheap job abilities.

In any situation where you were using Gouge before, I would keep using it since Tourbillion can't be fulltimed and can still miss. However, if you are with another BLU then you could perhaps coordinate something that would keep -DEF downtime to a minimum.

With our recently acquired DW5, I'm curious as to the best earrings now. Would steelflash/bladeborn take the cake, or would Brutal/Tripudio win out? Assuming capped haste, capped acc.

Ummm da+5 stp+6 att+6 vs da+7 stp+2 att+8 acc+8. i guess i'do with the second option. Can anyone spreadsheet this?

I might need to update a few things, but I used to get trux ahead of tripido by a small margin with my max sets assuming capped delay reduction. With higher STP values and so much multi attack, etc. This opens a lot of possibilities.

I do not play BLU often, but i've been getting back into it lately, I understand how the new gift works, and I've already gotten it, but can someone explain to me how that gives dwV instead of dwIV? I could be wrong, so please correct me, but Animating wail, blazing bound, quad contin, delta thrust, mortal ray, barbed cresent = DWIII correct? and the new gift adds 1. So, dw IV. I'm not saying anyone is wrong, but i'm feeling rather stupid at the moment and i don't like the feeling. Thanks in advance.

Molting Plumage gives 8 DW points, so another tier by itself, which is where the DWIV > DWV comes from.

New spell for DW that you didn't list that gives a tier all on its own: Molting Plumage

not doing math right now, but 5% DA 6 STP 6ATK should be the best choice with 8DA 1STP coming in second and 7DA 2STP 8ACC 8ATK if you need accuracy. Need 0 DW from gear to cap delay at this point.

Shouldn't really lose any traits to achieve either with 1 spell giving t1 trait now, but will have to sacrifice other t2/3/4 traits in the process. At the end of the day, losing other traits in order to get those extra stats on the ears could end up not being worth it depending on which traits are being downgraded to achieve it.

w/ Triupido Earring + Brutal Earring(slightly worse than:) Trux Earring + Brutal Earring; Steelflash Earring + Bladeborn Earring if you need ACC


Can also drop Erratic Flutter, Cocoon, and GLutinous Dart depending on the situation for higher tiers of Accuracy Bonus, adding Attack Bonus, or adding utility spells.

Wouldn't be Fast Cast II?

No cause blu's fastcast starts at FC .5 cause se sucks.

Whats the ideal TP sets looking like now with DW5? For just flutter and max buffs

No, BLU doesn't get Fast Cast I from having one tier. The Gift brings it to normal FC1.




Bonus maths, here's some numbers for various DW stuff with DW5:

Capped Gear Haste + Haste II + DW5
256/1024 + 300/1024 + 35% DW

1 - .35 = .65
1024 - 256 - 300 = 468
468 * .65 = 304
304/1024 = 29.7% Delay Remaining, 70.3% Delay Reduction


Capped Gear Haste + Haste II + DW5 + Suppa
256/1024 + 300/1024 + 40% DW

1 - .4 = .6
1024 - 256 - 300 = 468
468 * .6 = 280
280/1024 = 27.3% Delay Remaining, 72.7% Delay Reduction


Capped Gear Haste + Haste II + DW5 + Suppa + Taeon Boots
256/1024 + 300/1024 + 44% DW

1 - .44 = .56
1024 - 256 - 300 = 468
468 * .56 = 262
262/1024 = 25.6% Delay Remaining, 74.4% Delay Reduction


Capped Gear Haste + Haste II + DW5 + DWEarSet + Taeon Boots
256/1024 + 300/1024 + 46% DW

1 - .46 = .54
1024 - 256 - 300 = 468
468 * .54 = 252
252/1024 = 24.6% Delay Remaining, 75.4% Delay Reduction


Capped Gear Haste + Haste II + DW5 + DWEarSet + Taeon Boots + Shetal Stone
256/1024 + 300/1024 + 52% DW

1 - .52 = .48
1024 - 256 - 300 = 468
468 * .48 = 224
224/1024 = 21.9% Delay Remaining, 78.1% Delay Reduction


Capped Gear Haste + Haste II + DW5 + DWEarSet + Taeon Boots + Shetal Stone + Thurandaut Head or Haverton Ring
256/1024 + 300/1024 + 57% DW

1 - .57 = .43
1024 - 256 - 300 = 468
468 * .43 = 201
201/1024 = 19.6% Delay Remaining, 80.4% Delay Reduction






Capped Gear Haste + Haste II + March + DW5
256/1024 + 448/1024 + 35% DW

1 - .35 = .65
1024 - 256 - 448 = 320
320 * .65 = 208
208/1024 = 20.3% Delay Remaining, 79.7% Delay Reduction

tl;dr, BLU can now cap delay reduction without any outside influence whatsoever on things where losing the stats from affected slots wouldn't be a hindrance. practicality aside, that's pretty cool. BLU has the same number of DW as NIN now almost

How much dps is that 0.3 delay reduction worth? Is there any reason to toss a random piece of DW gear for it or is the TP loss for adding too much cause it to be offset?

.3 overcap/undercap could not even affect tp gain at all. unless it increases # of hits/time it takes to 1000 by a measurable amount it doesnt matter in the slightest

Does DW above the cap negatively affect your tp gain? Like if you wore 10 more DW above the 80 delay cap would it have it's negative effect on TP or does the cap prevent that?

Yeah, it does. That's why NINs and DNCs were pissed off when they didn't adjust that.

Kk, so if we did put on say a 5% piece to cover the last .3(which wouldn't make much at all of an impact) there would be 4.7 that would be doing nothing for us and even possibly causing issues?

It depends how far you go over the cap and what else you could gain in that slot, obviously, but don't underestimate the DPS increase from .3% delay reduction that close to the cap, either.

4.7% DW over the cap is far more (99.99999999999999999999999999%) likely to negatively impact rounds/time to 1000TP than .3% delay under the cap

I can't say I've looked at the calculations enough to know what pieces would work there yet. But I guess I should start looking in to it.

Alright thanks.

Think there are going to be many changes to our optimal sets with this update?

79.7% Delay Reduction on Uson/Bura = 96 delay, 1.6 seconds per round

80% Delay Reduction on Uson/Bura = 95 delay, 1.58 seconds per round, a grand total of 1 extra delay or .02 seconds per round

For TP gain per hit being affected by the additional DW:
35% Dual Wield tp/hit = 45TP per swing, 23 rounds to 1000 before DA/TA/QA
40% Dual Wield tp/hit = 43TP per swing, 24 rounds to 1000 before DA/TA/QA


The extra .3% delay (-1 delay) isn't going to make up for an entire extra round to 1000 DPS wise in perfect conditions or even imperfect ones, especially after considering (as if considering any further were necessary!) that you're dropping other stats to achieve it





Not really. Haven't looked at all the gear but earrings prolly the only change here. Maybe those TA pants since it's likely that they can get DA augment too. Taeon Cap with DA and Accuracy augment would beat whirlpool in every highacc situation too

Is Uson/Uson still be non mythic setup for real content? You mentioned Uson/Bura but a few months ago said Usonx2 ftw though i havent been keeping up with blu forums.

used uson/bura since most people still use that for some reason, it doesnt change the results to use 2 uson. overcapping DW for .3% delay isn't something you should be doing

How is skirmish weapon now if you do say get +15 dmg

Would dual Neshutan builds making a comeback with 3x augemnts and 100-gifts BLU spellset upgrade?