The Beast Within -- A Guide To Blue Mage

Really stupid question, but

for physical blu spells that can crit (foot kick, power attack, screwdriver, sickle slash) does critrate/dmg on gear work (only with ca or efflux)

Also the spells classified (ranged attack): quesyshroom, pinecomb bomb do these go off racc/ratt?

Yes it affects them, CA gives the SC property and doubles the stat mod on the spell, also gives a bit of dmg depending on the tp you have when casting.

About the second option, i cant tell since i only used pinebomb in ballista like 10 years ago and we didnt have this gear lol.

yea I was just curious. ty.


about new legs:
If you guys have upgraded your blu legs to just +2 I wouldn't immediately jump on them for savage/expi until +3

Using Jhakri+2 just as a baseline
jhakri+2 legs: str47 int52 mnd26 acc45 att45 matt42 stp9
Jhakri +2 legs vs base herc: str+14 int+23 mnd+11 acc+45 att+30 stp+5
Jhakri+2 legs vs max Samnuha: str-1 dex-16 int+24 mnd+10 acc+35 att+45 stp+2 da-3 ta-3


relic+2 vs j+1: str36(-9) int35(-17) mnd22(-4) acc35(-10) att0(-45) wsd+5% stp-9, matt50(+8) macc35(-10)
relic+3 vs j+2: str41(-6) int40(-12) mnd27(+1) acc45(same) att0(-45) wsd+10% stp-9, matt57(+15) macc45(same)

Should use herculean legs before jhakri anyway.

I'd venture to say the augments the majority of ppl use for savage/expi on their herc are worse than jhakri.

Charged whisker uses dINTx2, not dDEX. Blue magic has secondary modifiers similar to weaponskills, in the case of charged whisker it's basically a 4.5 ftp, dINTx2, 50% DEX thunder ws.

All damage dealing magical blue magic (discounting drains and HP based spells) afaik use dINT (x1/1.5/2), except the following four, which could be used to figure out dMND or dCHR;

mysterious light- 2.0 ftp, dCHR, 30% CHR wsc
eyes on me- 2.625 ftp, dCHR x1.5, 40% CHR
magic hammer- 1.0 ftp, dMND, 30% MND
mind blast- 2.08 ftp, dMND x1.5, 30% MND

Keep in mind thou the d differences on old spells like these often had caps, where as the WSC does not.


Yes they do, and their base accuracy/attack is based off your equipped ranged weapon, which is why their accuracy is horrid. You can use an ilvl chakram and a sub with throwing skill to boost them somewhat if you really wanted, but there will still be a big deficit due to no native skill.

tyvm Traxus

Question(s) for anyone with Gearswap knowledge.

Im setting up a BLU gear set based on Selinedrile's template. If say I don't have a Begrudging Ring yet can I just leave that in the cdc ws set until I acquire the ring, or do I need to remove that from the setlist until I get it so it doesn't break the commands.

Well, what you should be doing is replacing everything with what you do have/use. But no, not having something isn't going to break anything.

Ok ya, Ive been replacing the stuff I dont with what I do. But for the sake of saving time later on I was hoping to just leave that ring there and acquire it asap. The ring2 I tp in and WS in are sadly still the Rajas so I didnt think having the begrudging ring there for now would break anything, but didnt know for sure.

Thank you.

Has regular attack and STR always effected physical blue magic damage? I can't seem to recall this during 75 cap days. I do remember stacking Defense for Cannonball since it was modified by that. Those days were so long ago my memory is a bit hazy.

str yes, not attack. i don't remember the update but pretty sure that was post SoA

Thanks! I had a feeling it was changed while I was gone.

Has anyone been able to make a dedicated spell set for Savage Blade/Expiacion? Best I can think of to make SB/Ex damage higher would be to ditch crit chance and skillchain bonus traits and target attack bonus III or higher while getting STR/MND or STR/INT/DEX out of set spells. Even then, by the gear calculator, it's only slightly better.
Trading higher tiers of the accuracy bonus trait for more STR and attack tiers helps. But at the point where you don't need as much accuracy, it's already super easy to cap attack, so it feels wasted.
Just not sure if it's worthwhile or if I'm wasting my time.

I'm pretty sure STR affected physical blue magic from day one.

The reason the best spellset is the best spell set isn't strictly because of CDC.

Everything you'd get rid of for more savage damage, you'd be giving up in white damage.

Oseem and Colada's can suck a ***. That is all. Oh and those fern and taupe stones too.


On a serious note...I have finally gotten a "decent" aug of DEX8, Acc13, Atk13, Dbl Atk 4. And that took I don't even know how many stones. Couldn't manage to get a DMG/DEX/ACC/ATK/Special roll at all, and if I did it was always like 2 dmg and 3 dex with < 10 acc/atk.


This is for offhand Colada by the way. The DMG+ doesn't really matter in this case right?

It will decrease DPS but by such a small percentage it will go unnoticed. You really just want DEX15 and a special roll (crit/multiatk) for CDC.

For example, my DMG9 DEX15 (ignoring other augments) is .29% less DPS but 1% increase in Weapon Skill Damage average than a DMG15 DEX3. DMG0 DEX15 is less DPS than both the above augments and sits in between the two on Weapon Skill Damage average (.5%~ decrease from DMG9 DEX15).

Thanks, that makes sense. Should I prioritize the special stats over DEX or vice versa? It sounds like DEX should be priority and then worry about the rest.

For example, I think I have gotten a DEX13 Crit Rate 3 roll but I opted to keep the DEX8 Dbl Atk 4 (with the +13 acc/atk) because I thought that would be better.

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I have also been messing with the rest of my CDC set the last few days. I was previously stacking as much Triple Atk with Acc/Atk on my Herculean pieces as possible (not even worrying about DEX honestly) but after some research in this thread it seems like Crit Rate/Dmg is the way to go. Could be placebo but I feel like after making that switch my damage hasn't been as good (tested on some fodder, Quetz, apex bats) or you just don't get the occasional huge spike you would with stacking the triple attack.

Here is my recently adjusted set:

ItemSet 350394

Herc Vest: DEX 15, Attack 30, Crit Dmg +4%

Herc Legs: DEX 14 Acc 23, Attack 14, Crit Dmg+2%

Herc Feet: DEX 15, Acc 23, Attack 23, Crit Rate + 3%

Rosmerta's is DEX30, Acc/Atk20, Crit Rate 10.

Both Bonnet/Wristbands are on the DEX/AGI/Accuracy path.


Maybe I am missing something else or just haven't tested properly. Comparing mine to the Dream/High tier sets in the OP it seems like this should be a pretty good set.

With my equipment the DA augment beats the CR augment. They are within a percent just like the other options.

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I have two sets I switch between when testing. Full TA and Full Crit Rate (CR). I do not have good enough options on Herc gear to use them in my sets, yet.

However, yes, if you have DEX10, CDMG3-4 that should beat out TA options. It is hard to tell without using a spreadsheet because, as I found out, it sometimes takes a mix of TA, CR, and CDMG to beat out just TA or just CDMG. Sometimes just looking at the stats you can get a feel for if it will outperform. Without TA the spikes should drop, yes, but the WSs should be more consistent with CDMG.

I think you are on the right path and technically DEX/CDMG will average higher WSs. So, since you already have decent Herc augments continue that route.

Illabrat over Epona, Mache x2 over brutal, Theroid Greaves.

When you +1 Adhembar hands will be nice cause they'll give critrate4 from activating set bonus off head, but vs nq you can make good herc easily

I was under the impression you needed multiple +1s to activate set bonus. You can pair HQ hands with NQ head and get the +4bonus?

No, they both have to be hq.

This is why I avoid stating specific gear because it seems situational on what their gear is. My WS average, for example, decreases if I replace Brutal for mache unless it's +1, if I use Theroid Greaves over Herc TA or Herc DEX/CDMG, and especially if I switch Epona for Illabrat.

There is no way herc ta should be giving you better numbers than theroid.

It will give a fairly large difference if your acc isnt capped.

Capped accuracy Herc TA is giving me .04% increase. It is trivial but is higher and I would rather have the accuracy anyway.

Ayanmo

Over what slot specifically? Its a lot less acc/att than a normal herc aug and looks like only 5-10 extra dex at most and whatever your fern aug is probably ta+4 - no matter what target/eva im testing in sheet herc is destroying ayanmo

*edit: I will say ayanmo feet+2 are only slight behind a well augmented herc (not max aug) on really high acc required targets, so if you didnt have a pair already and didnt want to aug the feet are probably an acceptable trade.

Did people stop using Abnoba Kaftan for CDC?