The Beast Within -- A Guide To Blue Mage

The main fail wasn't that you brought more than 6, the mail fail is that your subductions weren't going above 2k, and were usually around 500. My party went 6/6 last night and was PLD BLM BLU BLU GEO SMN(subbed whm). My subduction did around 4.5k (resists around 2k), and we cleared in around 7 mins.

The amount of people doesn't make his meva higher, just his hp. Listen to Oraen - you guys needed to buff macc or lower pak's meva. Assuming your Hagondes gear is augmented for +MAB (which it almost always is), it has absolutely no +macc on it. Hagondes is not very good for level 130+ content, and you're using it in 3 slots. I know it's a catch-22 that you want the v.body to get higher macc, but need higher macc to get the v.body.

I'd suggest getting amalric legs and amalric head (or herculean helm with +macc augments). Also consider this: a max-stat Samnuha coat has the exact same stats as NQ amalric for nuking (along path A), so that's a good upgrade as well.

Good luck!

There's a pretty sizable INT difference. There seems to be a pattern in me pointing this out.

The only issue with Samnuha Coat is the large loss of INT. Max augments will help, but the INT loss is pretty steep.

Speaking of INT, Searing Tempest is perhaps underrated in magic damage setups. The potent burn effect will simultaneously boost your damage and hitrate.

Having said that, I've a niggling suspicion that the mechanics behind Gates of Hades, Searing Tempest, and Foul Waters may be poorly understood at this time. The inconsistent and unusual -stat and DoT values in the OP lead me to believe that there may be a dINT calculation involved that hasn't been properly evaluated yet, something akin to how BLM's elemental debuffs function. I'll investigate further in the near future.

I'd be kinda surprised if they didn't operate that way, honestly, I always found GoH was a much more potent DoT with Burst Affinity. I just assumed the DoT was related to the initial damage, though.

Were you doing sc's for magic burst for the Blm on Blu or just straight nuking? Also how "good" was your geo? I mean I guess my macc sucks that bad but honestly I don't remember any of the mages hitting it for big numbers.

No skillchains, and our GEO definitely didn't have an Idris. Just need higher macc and you'll be good.

What is a good spell list for killing the caturae in Escha to cover the different damage types and still maintain DD output?

I know heavy strike, sweeping gouge, glutinous dart right off the top can hit through different shields. I use those with arciela to solo. I don't know if it's been purely luck so far though. Normal dps spells usually work fine. I do know there has to be more to the shield than what I know. Someone was doing light damage through it the other night. I really couldn't find info on it. Just based off what I've seen or done.

Kyte mentioned to me in another thread frenetic rip counts as H2H, which means you can cover all except ranged damage. Shields specifically are :
Blunt (club,Heavy Strike)
H2H (Frenetic Rip)
Piercing (Vampirism, Glut. Dart, Sinker Drill)
Slashing (shouldn't matter)
Light Magic (Retinal, Subduction, hybrid elemental if you want to set it)
Dark Magic (whatever you can afford to set for water/ice/dark/earth damage, you may have tenebral set already)

You could use RNG trusts but I've had mixed success with their damage actually being enough to break a shield. But most spells should be set already with rip and maybe your light nuke being the only adjustments. Depending on job points this could just be a matter of using your spare points outside your normal dd traits.

Don't forget about Requiescat, especially since this is basically the only situation in which it's decent. With all the TP generation temporary items we get in Escha zones, you should be able to break any shield with a strong Req set.

I've never actually used it, I only have it for the trait. BG lists it as H2H, so perhaps you were only dealing with H2H shields? Or did it work on non-H2H as well?

You know what would have made Atramentous Libations not suck? If it increased max HP, I would have liked that.

Did another 7 pakecet runs last night using spicyryan's BLU nuke method. We had 8 people this time which made the runs take a smidge longer, but we usually finished with around 7 mins to spare. I finished my amalric set and finally got j.body. Party setup this time was:

pt #1: BLU (me), COR, GEO, BLM, BRD, SMN
pt #2: RDM, PLD

I'm pretty confident we could trio pak on PLD/BLU/GEO. This method really is that easy...

I think we'll Vir'ava soon so I can get my Kaftan :)

Later tonight, I think Imma try the Spicy Method to low man pakecet, so I'll let you guys know if it works. I'll have a BLU, GEO, PLD, WHM, and maybe another BLU.

Holy ***, 2 WHM, 2 BLU, PLD, GEO. It worked. It was easy.

SPICY METHOD WORKS. GOT MY VENERIAN BODY. IN SPICY WE TRUST.

well, we didn't know much much damage would be put out, not sure what to expect, and one only had WHM, THF, or BST, could've had her go THF for TH alone. That's what we're doing. Also the other BLU was multiboxing the tank AND the GEO. He was doing a pretty good job at tanking and keeping the enfeebles up. His BLU wasn't doing a ton of damage though.

Teach me how to Spicy, Ryan.

Also killed duke vepar with the same group. ALL PRAISE THE SPICE.

7 more pak runs tonight using the spice girls method. We used a PLD in sparks gear and a WHM stupidruru trust, and it was still laughably easy.

In Spice We Trust.

Is it just me or did it get a little bit tizzy up in here?

WOOHOO~

Grats mang, an LS member finished their 75 version last night too.

Yeah I figured that 2 Geo's, 2 Blu's a Pld and Whm would own Pakecet. I've been able to kill him several times and the only problem we would run into was if the adds killed me (i had to pop and use a whm trust so the pld would die and game over). Not one abj has dropped in the 5 kills so far. Hoping that I can get my band of misfits together today and get these abjs.