So another Blu question, food based

[Vyuru]

What foods to use?

Sorry, I started to write my thoughts on this but I'm sick and can't write overly coherently at the moment, so I'm gonna try again tomorrow, but here is my question.

I'm in a bit of a dilema.

Meat dishes increase my damage overall. I'm not 100% sure but I *think* they increase my spell damage as well.

Sushi helps my accuracy, and again, not 100% sure but I think they also affect spell accuracy.

Or cookies for +hmp, for faster mp regeneration?

And does food choice become effected by merits? My Drg at 75 can earn sword and mp merits pretty easily for my lvl 25 Blu.

[Armando]

Attack won't help physical Blue Magic; for physical blue magic, it's your Blue Magic Skill that's compared to the mob's Defense. Physical spell accuracy, however, IS directly tied to your melee accuracy.

Because of this, Sushi is the food of choice in most situations from the mid levels to 75. I'd say you could start using sushi around 30.

Off-topic, but it needs to be said, use Feather Storm. That spell gets ignored too often. It has a very good damage/MP ratio, comparable to Bludgeon early on (because Bludgeon will whiff some of its hits with very high frequency) and does piercing damage which is easier to exploit than blunt or H2H. Also, because it counts as a ranged attack, it has VERY consistent damage, which means you can use it to gauge the mob's toughness in relation to the previous ones.

[Celeal]

At level 25, Rice Dumpling offers ACC +5, a few +hmp, a few STR+, some ATK +%, etc. If you want a bit of "everything" at your BLU level (assuming DD role with physical offensive spells), Rice Dumpling is nice.

[skot23]

An amazing food for times when you're still using bludgeon would be Tavnazian Tacos. Their stats are:
HP +20
MP +20
Dexterity +4
Vitality +6
Agility +4
Charisma +4
HP Recovered While Healing +1
MP Recovered While Healing +1
Defense +25% (Cap: 150@600 Base Defense)

The hmp and hhp is really helpful. Likewise, when you're still using bludgeon the extra chr is incredible. The defense is also pretty noticeable. The only problem with this food is that it's hella expensive.

[nanatsu]

I really can't recommend Tavnazian Tacos over sushi for Bludgeon. Bludgeon is a multihit spell. This helps ensure you land all hits consistently on IT mobs. STR is a major modifier for all BLU physical spells. CHR is only a secondary modifier. I won't deny that CHR obviously has an effect on Bludgeon's damage. But that effect is still similar to adding STR and the STR /ACC from Sole Sushi will undoubtedly help you out more in the long run at ANY level as a BLU. It's more important to boost your acc and overcome your target's defense than to mess around with secondary modifiers. Unless you somehow had a piece of gear with 15 CHR so you could still stack on str/acc in other slots, I wouldn't bother. STR and ACC become more amd more important the higher you get.

[Armando]

skot23, I'm sorry to have to put it so bluntly, but if you think 4 CHR does wonders for Bludgeon, you don't understand how damage for blue magic spells or WS works at all. The difference will be so small that it's impossible to tell without a lot of parsing, so you're suffering from a placebo.

Also, the first rule of multi-hit attacks is Accuracy. Always Accuracy, until you cap out your hit rate. Then you worry about anything else.

[Tomato_Kai]

skot23, I'm sorry to have to put it so bluntly, but if you think 4 CHR does wonders for Bludgeon, you don't understand how damage for blue magic spells or WS works at all. The difference will be so small that it's impossible to tell without a lot of parsing, so you're suffering from a placebo.

Also, the first rule of multi-hit attacks is Accuracy. Always Accuracy, until you cap out your hit rate. Then you worry about anything else.

Since my early days, I've began to think that I've rather come to understand and respect you Armando. It is for posts like these that this is the case. I do have a question though. Capping Multi-hit WS with ACC... How can you reliably tell when your hit-rate is capped and it's time to move on to other stats? Should you focus on hit-rate even in lower levels?

[Armando]

That's a good question. Look at it this way: the odds of you landing all 3 hits on a Bludgeon, having X hit rate (where X is your hit rate in decimal form) would be X^3. (Likewise, the odds of hitting all 4 hits on a Vorpal Blade would be X^4, where X is whatever your hit rate would be.)

That means that with max hit rate (0.95), you'd expect to land all 3 hits 85.74% of the time. With 90% hit rate, you'd expect to land all 3 hits 72.9% of the time. And with 85% hit rate, 61.41% of the time.

The problem here is that you can't use TP returns to tell how many hits landed, like you would with WS. Fortunately, Bludgeon can't crit, so that gives you some leeway for estimating the number of hits - particularly low bludgeons were probably 1-hitters and the higher bludgeons were probably 3-hitters.

Basically boils down to keeping track of your Bludgeon damage and seeing roughly how often you land all 3 hits. I recommend a parser for this, or at the very least write down the numbers yourself; eyeballing tends to be off-the-mark from what really goes on, more often than not.

[Vyuru]

Sorry to take so long to reply.

First off I gave Feather Storm a try, and I must say it has worked wonders on the mandies in the jungles. It deals a little less damage than my best Bludgeons, uses less mp, and seems to be more consistent. Thanks for recommending that spell because I would not have thought of it. Most people are recommending I use Screwdriver/Claw Cyclone right now(lvls 25-29), which frankly, at the moment, Feather Storm/Bludgeon are dealing better damage/mp.

Also, I didn't know that Rice Dumplings had +hmp, I'll take a look at those =^.^=

Attack won't help physical Blue Magic; for physical blue magic, it's your Blue Magic Skill that's compared to the mob's Defense.

I thought it the damage rating on your mainhand weapon also determined the damage for the physical blue magic spells, is that not the case? Which was also why I was thinking attack had some role to play in it.

[Armando]

Yeah, don't listen to 'em, Screw Driver/Claw Cyclone suck. Ok, they don't really suck, but they won't come near the MP-efficiency of Bludgeon and Feather Storm. Head Butt is also pretty good damage/MP and stuns. Not as good as Bludgeon or Feather Storm, but the Stun can really help in certain situations.

To answer your question, no, main hand weapon DMG rating has nothing to do with spell damage. Physical Blue Magic damage is calculated almost exactly like a WS. The DMG rating comes from your Blue Magic Skill - [Blue Magic Skill×0.11]×2+3 to be precise. You still have fSTR, though it doesn't depend on weapon rank (disregard this if you don't know what weapon ranks are.) You have stat mods calculated exactly the same as in WS, and an fTP multiplier as well (except that for Blue Magic, you always use the multiplier for 0TP unless you're using Chain Affinity.) Instead of Attack, your Blue Magic Skill gets compared to the foe's Defense in some way.

While we're on the subject, you should know that the spells do have a DMG cap, to prevent lower level spells from becoming too powerful. You can continue to increase the stat mods, as well as fSTR, though, so it's not like they don't scale in power as you level.

[nanatsu]

Damage rating on your main hand weapon has no effect on the damage of Blue Magic. The way I understand it, Blue Magic damage is determined by your base level, your Blue magic Skill level, your stats, and your STR vs your target's VIT.

EDIT: beaten to the punch D:

[Animate Blade]

So, to get a little back onto topic,
meat before 30,
sushi after?

[Nandito]

Dude... stop bumping month old threads. Read the dates.

Also, Rice Dumpling wins.

[VZX]

An amazing food for times when you're still using bludgeon would be Tavnazian Tacos. Their stats are:
HP +20
MP +20
Dexterity +4
Vitality +6
Agility +4
Charisma +4
HP Recovered While Healing +1
MP Recovered While Healing +1
Defense +25% (Cap: 150@600 Base Defense)

The hmp and hhp is really helpful. Likewise, when you're still using bludgeon the extra chr is incredible. The defense is also pretty noticeable. The only problem with this food is that it's hella expensive.

Tav Taco is Cannonball only

Besides, it's too expensive for the level you're still using Bludgeon

[Animate Blade]

Well i gave the thread new life
anyway, why rice dumplings?