The Beast Within -- A Guide To Blue Mage

Well ~250 MP per cast is not too bad eh!

Dexprozius did you notice how often those two spells were landing, if you noticed it at all?
And from what you and Simon said I guess it's not even worth trying to cast them if Frazzle 3 falls of, right?

250-40, so only 210MP gained. I would assume you will maybe have 70% cooldown reduction, so every 54 sec. For sure useful, but it's not infinity MP like in most other scenarios :)

Can someone explain to me a world in which I would ever use a full MAB or STR/atk set for BLU spells? The additional effects from spells is almost always the only reason why you'd ever cast a spell, whether that's Sweeping Gouge or Entomb. I've always geared my physical spells, (primarily sudden lunge) with whatever gives me the most combined accuracy & magic accuracy (DEX and INT accounted for) and my nuke spells spells with whatever provides the most macc > MAB.

Even in the case of using Thrashing assault for a skillchain, I care far more about the physical accuracy than the damage and ignore STR and Atk entirely when gearing.

Am I missing something?

cleaving with spells like Entomb, Tenebral or Specral etc.

Sorry I don't mean that there is no time that I'd ever prefer damage over the added effect but it would be incredibly rare. Other than that one floor on Vagary that you nuke everything I can't even think of a time I'd prefer squeezing out more damage per spell than making sure freeze, def down, or petrify lands.

Sorry I don't mean that there is no time that I'd ever prefer damage over the added effect but it would be incredibly rare. Other than that one floor on Vagary that you nuke everything I can't even think of a time I'd prefer squeezing out more damage per spell than making sure freeze, def down, or petrify lands.

If I have set total 24 DW points on blu with various spells. Does that put me at tier V DW as a master blue?

If I have set total 24 DW points on blu with various spells. Does that put me at tier V DW as a master blue?

When it comes to Dual Wield, a lot of people believe that the more the merrier and you should shove it in everywhere it can fit. In some situations, that's actually quite true, but in many, it's completely wrong. Keep in mind that Dual Wield lowers your TP/hit in addition to the beneficial effect of lowering your attack delay; this is because base TP/hit is derived from your weapon's delay, and dual wield imposes a modifier onto that delay, lowering it and thus also lowering your base TP/hit.

Delay reduction caps at -80% of base delay, taking into account weapon delay, dual wield, and Haste. As soon as you hit that delay reduction cap, you can't attack any faster, however dual wield will continue lowering your base delay and, in turn, your base TP/hit. That's why it is absolutely imperative to understand the breakpoints for delay reduction and how to determine when you have enough dual wield.

So, let's actually calculate our delay.

In order to properly calculate delay, you'll need to know the values of your sources of haste and dual wield. Keep in mind that the percentage values are approximate since XI works on a fractional system, but the percentages are all that the average person will need.

Magic Haste - Caps at 43.75%
Types of Magic Haste - Victory March (~9-17%), Advancing March (~7-14%), Refueling (10%), Erratic Flutter (30%), Haste (15%), Haste II (30%), Embrava (up to 25%), Indi/Geo Haste(29.9%~40.9%), Mighty Guard (15%)

Job Ability Haste - Caps at 25%
Types of Job Ability Haste - Haste Samba (5% from sub, 10% from merited Haste Samba from a main DNC), Hasso (10%, two handed only), Desperate Blows (25% with 5/5 merits, two handed only)

Gear Haste - Caps at 25% (256/1024 to be precise, meaning you need 26% from gear to fully cap)

Delay Calculation Formula
So, now that we know the types and values of haste in the game, let's figure out our delay.

Let's look at a situation in which we have zero magical haste, capped gear haste, and Dual Wield 5 trait without any DW on gear.

256/1024 + 35% Dual Wield. Those are our values right now.

With our Dual Wield value, we subtract the % of dual wield from 1. This looks like (1-.35), which leaves us with .65.

For our gear haste, we take the value we have and subtract it from 1024. This looks like 1024-256, which gives us 768.

We then take those two values and multiply them together. This looks like 768 x .65, which gives us 499.2. However, because of SE's flooring during calculations, this is floored to 499, essentially just dropping the decimal.

Divide this new value by 1024. So, 499/1024 = 0.487, or 48.7% delay remaining, with a delay reduction of 51.3%. This means that, in order to cap delay reduction, we need to reduce an additional 28.7%.



Let’s try a new example. This time, we have Erratic Flutter (30% magical haste), capped gear haste, Dual Wield 5 and 10% additional DW from gear.

Now we have 256/1024 + 300/1024 + 45% DW

(1-.45) = .55
1024 – 256 – 300 = 468
468 x .55 = 257.4 (Floors to 257)
257/1024 = .251, or 25.1% delay remaining, with 74.9% delay reduction.

When it comes to delay reduction, you want to get as close to capping as you can without going over and without sacrificing large amounts of beneficial stats.

With Erratic Flutter, Mighty Guard, capped gear haste, and Dual Wield III (i.e., a standard 1200JP BLU), you need 11% extra dual wield from gear. Typically this means using Suppanomimi and either Adhemar Jacket +1 or Shetal Stone, or Eabani Earring and Reiki Yotai in a more defensive set. You can also take an extra tier of dual wield via Molting Plumage in place of the jacket/stone for little to no appreciable difference in delay.

but I got confused with you saying you need 8 points each Tier job trait, then you mentioned that 4 points in DW would get DW Trait 3

Also what's wrong with DW5 trait and not needed any DW gear equipped?

somewhat related, i'm questioning setting triple attack with tizona and malignance. 5% TA is still probably the most dps increase, but i wouldn't mind freeing up those 12 points for some more utility spells. i think it made more sense when we were tping in adhemar and herc than it does now when survivability is more easily attainable. thoughts?