blu/rdm any good?

[jigzaw]

First of all, i just unlocked blu because is seems very flexible and looks very fun. the problem is that i can't decide on a sub.Ive heard many people say that /thf or /nin is the only way to go. If i do a /sea all blu, 90% of them are /thf or /nin and i really don't want to be the same as everyone else. On the other hand, i still want to be useful to a party. What do you guys think? is there any way rdm could work or am i just gimping myself?

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

If you want to be a useful BLU, have as many subs as possible at your disposal, many can be used and there isn't one subjob that is always useful.

/THF's Sneak Attack and Trick Attack stack with physical spells, so in that regard, SA will boost the damage.

/WAR is another DD sub and also nice for the lower level tanking functions BLU can perform.

/NIN is honestly mainly used for soloing spells you'll learn and solo in general, its not so great in PTs and arguably the substandard DD sub. As with many other jobs, people sub /NIN for BLU in PT because its its the braindead subjob of choice.

/WHM is useful for functions you'll be called upon as a healer - if you really want to be different from other BLUs, be a willing healer and don't shun the duty as most generally do.

/RDM is nice, but its not a party sub and lacks status cures you could get from WHM or SCH.

[Malacite]

/SCH will actually benefit you quite a bit at 30+ since spells like Wild Carrot and Magic Fruit get huge boosts from having healing magic skill. Now that SCH has Addendum: White, the only spells you'll be missing from /WHM are Erase, Barspells, Reraise and Curaga I & II. You won't get Divine Seal either, but I'd say Penury and Celerity are much better trade offs.

BLU has a limited MP pool as it is, and the conserve MP effects of Light Arts will go a long way. I haven't had a chance to test it myself yet since my BLU is still 24, but I do know that the healing skill pumps up all the healing spells except Pollen (not sure why it's excluded...) and since Light Arts gives you a B rated skill rating according to your main job's level (as opposed to the gimped skill you'd get from /WHM) the difference should be quite noticeable.


EDIT: RDM sub is really for soloing mostly. You'll get Enspells for a little extra damage on your melee swings, as well as Phalanx (which is nice when stacked with Cocoon and Stoneskin) and blink etc. I don't recommend it for parties.

[Dranzia]

/NIN is honestly mainly used for soloing spells you'll learn and solo in general, its not so great in PTs and arguably the substandard DD sub. As with many other jobs, people sub /NIN for BLU in PT because its its the braindead subjob of choice.

Although it is well described as a "braindead subjob of choice," it also can have its uses. I've used it many times in party being a SATA partner (obviously not for first voke). The THF would SATA me toward the end of the fight, and in general I could keep shadows up with no problem for the (minimal) remainder of its life.

The key to figuring out which subs to use for BLU is to keep in mind that you're not JUST a melee, and you're not JUST a mage. You are both, and have the capabilities of both. Gear yourself and sub yourself according to what will help your party the most and you'll do well.

[LyonheartLakshmi]

If i do a /sea all blu, 90% of them are /thf or /nin and i really don't want to be the same as everyone else.

Sticking out from the rest of the population isn't always a good thing.

There's a notorious poster on Alla who plays only as WHM/THF or THF/WHM, regardless of the situation. That player is definitely not the same as everyone else.

[Shamanking]

Pretty much in my nutshell of experiences....

/thf = Spike damage that gets overlooked as the best sub. It'll neglect your dps with swords (yes, we have that...and changes to sub and gear effects it more than we like to think), it's good at the lower levels, 60-70 perhaps in exp, when taking off half of a mobs HP with a move is uncommon, but in merit, I wouldn't dream of subbing thf due to the sluggish feeling you get from having to SA to keep up with other WS.

/nin = Overlooked as that generic sub everyone uses wah wah wah. It's commonly used, but why isn't that hard to figure out. Dual wield, for one, over the levels increases damage per second with sword, also lets you use a weapon for str, or acc, for offhand which may not have amazing damage, allowing the mainhanding of a good ol' damage based sword like a Scimitar. The additional hit to Vorpal Blade is also welcome. Utsusemi? Yeah, that too...if you put effort into gear and food, like everyone else you'll get hate, utsusemi is a givin' with headbutt.

/rdm = I suppose that though in exp, it's not the most useful sub in the world. I like to look at it as /thf without any real 60 second boost in 'on screen damage' for your epeen, but with the odd fast cast quirk which I can only really see working for headbutt, in EXP, anyway.

This, however, does not make it useless. I take /rdm to ballista on BLU, but mostly for combatting the effects of silence. You get some nice damage resistance with def food, phalanx, some -dmg% gear...and more importantly, wind resist gear + baraero + barsilence will make silence bounce most of the time, sticking for short periods of time if at all. Also can't forget the pretty much 100% stick rate of dispel, for those annoying pld/rdms!

I'd like to conclude that nobody is going to hound you for trying out new things, but doing so as an attempt to deviate from the crowd is probably not the best motive.

It's very situational. I myself only /thf in sky, where it's clearly the best way to do noteable damage to gods. /nin when I solo and merit, 'cause I just like the DPS that you combine with your spells, which I believe BLU was intended to do.

[Andrinor]

I have to disagree here and say that I went BLU/RDM from 30 - 43 (until I finally got Mandibular Bite) and found it to be a nice option. Let's be honest, /NIN is for DMG mitigation only at low levels, you aren't gaining any real speed advantage. There really isn't a nice single hit spell to SA on /THF early on either. /RDM gave me more MP, enspells, and something I've not seen mentioned: the level 30 belt (Warlocks? idr) that gives +5 sword skill. The latent on that is active with RDM sub, and imho is worth subbing RDM for in that range.

At 44 I was having decent success with Mandibular Bite and SA, so I switched at that point to /THF.

I did it this way:

Level 1-29: BLU/DRK, /WAR or /WHM depending on my PT role.
Level 30-43: BLU/RDM
Level 44-73: /THF. Especially when you hit 60, /THF really shines for spike DD.
Level 74-Endgame: /NIN. Most of your spells that you use a lot (Fren Rip, Diss) are multi-hitters and don't benefit much from SA. I still use /THF for cannonball setup, but that's it.

Just an alternative suggestion to try

[Shamanking]

Not at all, that's a very valid point. My apologies for not being more specific, I think my point was more based around the 60-75 blu. Until blu really gets the spells that makes it the most well known, I'm sure /rdm is a more than viable sub.

And that's what I love about sj specific armor, like race specific tends to balance out the game in a way that choices can be adapted to.

[Pteryx]

The belt is Rapier Belt; I use and enjoy it on my PLD/RDM. Through the 30s and 40s it's excellent, and it's still competitive for a while after that. (Heck, I'm still waiting for a new belt that's worth actually spending money on at 54!)

BLU/RDM isn't bad, but the difficulty is that it doesn't help your physical spells, which are considered BLU's calling card. Fast Cast doesn't even help the physical spells (and would be of negligible use even if it did, giving the near-instant casting times); your magical ones, however, will benefit. Enspells will make up for the loss of damage on your normal sword swings only. OTOH, you get a wider variety of cures targettable to other party members, and your native cures will be stronger, and later on you'll get MAB I without having to set a combo for it.

As far as being different from most BLUs (or, at least, most English-speaking ones), instead of a unique sub I recommend a simple playstyle difference: remember that you can do more than damage. Debuff; you get lots of debuffs that stack with the common ones. Heal (/RDM isn't a bad backup healing option if no status removal is needed). Dispel. Sleep links and aggros -- you're limited by positioning and AoE being your only option instead of by element like most jobs so capable (Fast Cast can come into play here).

All that said, if you still want different subs for the sake of being different I recommend looking into different melee subs. /WAR in particular is an underutilized option. -- Pteryx

[Celeal]

I tried blu/rdm for a few parties between Kazham ~ level 40. My opinion is compare blu/whm to blu/rdm, /whm gets more tool (Job Trait, Job Ability, usable spells) and sooner (earlier level) that /rdm.