Why do blue spells suck so much?

[Zalius]

I ask this because on my lv 43 blue mage, my melee does far better damage than any spell I have Bludgenon or Jetstream rarely ever does as much as just hitting with my swords. What is going on here?

[Malacite]

You haven't gotten to the really good spells yet, and besides that BLU's main damage should come from your weapon.

The magic is there to supplement your damage, not to be the bulk of it. BLU simply doesn't have the resources like RDM does to sustain continuous casting, so it's more about using your sword and making each spell count.

That said, just wait until you get Death Scissors and Disseverment. The latter will really put the hurt on anything with wings.

[VZX]

I ask this because on my lv 43 blue mage, my melee does far better damage than any spell I have Bludgenon or Jetstream rarely ever does as much as just hitting with my swords. What is going on here?

Start gearing yourself with accuracy gear

[Armando]

Agreed. If your Bludgeons are doing less damage than your sword swings, you're definitely doing something wrong.

[IfritnoItazura]

Hmm. Between Lv.33-35 or so:

Itazura: (me)
Bludgeon
> Avg. Dmg: 96.53
> Dmg/MP: 6.03
Feather Storm
> Avg. Dmg: 62.51
> Dmg/MP: 5.21
Bomb Toss
> Avg. Dmg: 67.08
> Dmg/MP: 1.60

Yevna: (my sister)
Bludgeon
> Avg. Dmg: 101.32
> Dmg/MP: 6.33
Feather Storm
> Avg. Dmg: 59.24
> Dmg/MP: 4.94
Bomb Toss
> Avg. Dmg: 72.65
> Dmg/MP: 1.73

Both of us were BLU/NIN, I think. Those numbers could have only gone up, now that we're Lv.40.

If you're not doing much damage from Blue Magic:
1. Geared wrong; need accuracy for physical spells, INT for magical spells.
2. Wrong food; BLU is one of the few jobs which benefits substantially from switching to sushi early.
3. Wrong spells; pay attention to Beast Correlation, and mind the Dmg/MP ratio.

[Electricity Gone Human]

3. Wrong spells; pay attention to Beast Correlation, and mind the Dmg/MP ratio.

I'd also like to add to this that some spells have physical damage type as well. For Instance, Jet Stream is Blunt Damage, Sickle Slash is Slashing, and Screwdriver is Piercing. Taking advantage of that should also boost spell damage by a good margin.

[Malacite]

Have you tried using +CHR for Bludgeon? It has a 30% CHR mod and adding to the CHR stat really cranks the damage.

[IfritnoItazura]

STR will probably do more good than CHR. Oh, Is Screwdriver really piercing? Ranged attacks (Feather Storm, Pinecone Bomb, etc.) are piecing, though, and maybe Wild Oats.

[Malacite]

STR will probably do more good than CHR. Oh, Is Screwdriver really piercing? Ranged attacks (Feather Storm, Pinecone Bomb, etc.) are piecing, though, and maybe Wild Oats.

Wrong. Yes, STR does help in general, but I tested it with a full CHR set (rings, noble's ribbon etc) and found the damage jumped up quite a bit.

[Armando]

The difference between STR and CHR is stupidly small. STR works for every spell so why bother with CHR? And yes, Wild Oats is piercing, and I think Screwdriver is too, not that it makes it worth casting.

EDIT: To put it in perspective, every 4 STR increases fSTR by 1, so it's like a 25% modifier. CHR is a 30% modifier for Bludgeon, though it gets scaled down slightly as you level up. Unless there's a slot where you can get more CHR than STR, it's just not worth the -equipment space.

[Yoko-Shiva]

Jet Stream for me hits triple what my sword does lol i normally get between 150-250 Damage with JS an if i add sneak attack it goes up over 300-400 im curently lvl 46