The Beast Within -- A Guide To Blue Mage

Since we're on the topic of Shetal Stone - do you have a viable strat for Head Wind?

Tried it once on normal, managed to kill X super quickly, but once X died, so did my Trusts, quickly as Y and Z started going apeshit on them. Rabbit and Wyvern were a joke to kill.

Took on Z next, no trusts left, but managed to kill it by heavily relying on Sanguine Blade. Was pretty close a few times.

With just Y left, I thought I had the fight won, was at ~50% HP/MP, but full TP. Engaged to get off a Sanguine Blade, and one the first attack round, she countered the ***out of me for 3 hits @ ~400 each. ***.

Noticed that drops happened as I killed each NM. Wondering also if it's worth going in on D or VD instead, and just trying to quickly kill the NM that drops the belt (although I don't know which that one would be)... or if it's possible.

They all can drop the stone.
Damnit too slow lol

I don't see why it wouldn't, but I can't say I've tried.

For Head Wind II, I was thinking of trying to AoE them down quickly with Spectral Floe/Subduction etc - but I dunno how that'll work.

Seemed they got bitchier and hit a lot harder as one of the died.

MG has it's own icon so I suspect that's why they can stack rather than just an embrava-like effect lol

Managed to get Head Wind (N) done solo (w/Trusts obv.) today. Fight is a bit dangerous.

- Used Apururu, Qultada, Koru-Moru, Joachim, Cherukki.

- Opened with Dream Flower (wait for the wyvern to appear after engaging).

- Killed X first, followed by rabbit and wyvern. The pets die very quickly, but I've seen the rabbit cast Breakga, which is probably an auto-loss if solo.

- Once X and the pets are dead, I pulled back in case I died and wanted to Reraise.

- The most dangerous part of this fight with trusts is simply this: the time after you kill a mob and before you engage the next. Hate on Y and Z is going to be sloppy at first, and they're likely going to be wailing on your trusts a bit. If you haven't engaged a mob yet, the Trusts will just stand around and die. Y and Z both hit very hard, so your trusts aren't going to last long if no one is curing them (Y and Z managed to kill both WHM trusts and Qultada in a very short time).

- Used a Vile Elixir, because I was casting a lot of Occultations.

- Loot drops mid-fight as you kill the mobs, so make sure you have inventory space so you're not hurriedly tossing friggin' Carbites and Bat Wings when you should be casting Occultation or using CDC!

Not terribly hard, but it can still get ugly if you start losing trusts. Would still suggest bringing RR and trying to fight in a safe location after killing X.

I apologize if this has been asked and answered already, but in looking at the posted ideal sets for TP & CDC in the guide, I only see Adhemar HQ sets listed - is Adhemar NQ the next best, or without the set bonus is the next listed set the best?

Yeah, NQ Adhemar pretty much beats out other alternatives when HQ Adhemar is the best choice. Worth noting though that the posted optimal sets assume you're capping delay reduction.

For TP, NQ head/body/hands are still the best.
For CDC, NQ head and hands are still the best, but Abnoba Kaftan and Thereoid Greaves will replace body/feet. Thereoid and Abnoba are actually superior until you get 3+ pieces of the set.

Where's it located?

Mine's all screwy for nuking so I think a better one could help me...I'm not liking getting laughed at when my nukes leave crap numbers.

My full augment Dampening Tam is crying a little everytime you say that :(

Is the link to your pastebin on the BG guide?

Sorry for the noobtastic questions, it's late.

This is very true; everyone I've seen only hopes to improve, rather than disparage those who come asking.

Thank you. :)

I'm thanking you for your contributions, as well as for your willingness to help someone who is not nearly as advanced as yourself to improve...and for not being a condescending *** like some I've encountered before.

In short, your work deserves a thank you.

So the capped aug Tam I just got shouldn't be used in place of my nq Adhemar?

SAD FACE

I should state that the damage difference between NQ Adhemar head and a max Dampening isn't all that much. Adhemar is a decent bit better, but nothing enormous. It also lacks any native accuracy whatsoever, so Dampening absolutely blows it away as soon as the accuracy comes into play. Also, it's a phenomenal defensive piece.

Absolutely. I don't really bother over-optimizing for trash when one of the options is clearly far superior on stuff hard enough to matter, so in my eyes TP Dampening is easily the superior piece over NQ Adhemar.

CdC is a harder call probably leaning more toward Adhemar mainly thanks to the crit dmg+, outside of situations where you want all the Acc you can get. But they're both really good.

Dampening (max): DEX+34 STR+18 Acc+35 QA+3%
Adhemar A R15: DEX+31 STR+19 Acc+15 Atk+19 TA+3% Crit dmg+5%

It is quite a lot difference actually, max dampening blown adhemar by at least 20dps.

Question: Did Carcharian Verve get Ninja Nerfed? I notice it wearing off on-hit now like Aquaveil, as opposed to before it lasted the entire duration regardless of how many times I was struck.

I suppose it could be possible that I'm simply fighting higher level mobs now and it wasn't losing "charges" before when the mobs were easier?

But it's really throwing my cleaving off when it drops suddenly for no reason that I can discern.