[Vyuru]

I pretty much know that I want to stick merits into Diffusion, the question is how much? My thoughts:

Fully merited Assimilation would be nice, especially for my solo stuff. It'd also be nice for exp parties, but I'd be more willing to let it slide in them since ideally someone else should be sleeping/enfeebling, so I shouldn't need to set Sprout Smack, Sand Spin, and Sheep Song. Still let's just figure on full Assimilation merits 'cause it would be really nice.

The other two group two merits that interest me are Diffusion and Enchainment. Diffusion would be great for missions and events and stuff. However most of the events that I am interested in doing, Limbus, Assaults, Nyzul, more or less have a time limit of 30:00. So I see very little point in doing partial merits with Diffusion, either it's going to have one merit and a recast time of 20:00, or fully merited with a recast time of 10:00.

Enchainment also looks good. I've been rather impressed by the added damage that even a modest TP boost to CA+one hit DD spell gives, as well as the multihit spells. So say, 5 Assimilation, 1 Diffusion, and 4 Enchainment merits sounds intrigueing to me, but on the other hand 5 Assimiation, 5 Diffusion merits also sounds quite useful. But +40 TP to spells when CA is used roughly every two minutes also sounds quite useful.

I suspect in part it depends on what I want to do, do I want to be more of a buffer with Diffusion or do I want to boost my DD? Right now it's a little hard to decide, but I am probably leaning more towards 1 Diffusion, 4 Enchainment merits at the moment.

Thoughts?

[Malacite]

I'm not a 75 BLU so I'm by no means an authority here, but I really fail to see how you can go wrong with 5 extra points to use on setting spells. Even if you don't use it all the time, BLU is all about versatility.

IMO, it looks like You'll get far more out of Enchainment than Diffusion, but that's only if you sacrifice your TP to help fuel the spell and don't WS + Chain Affinity. Even maxed out, Diffusion is still a 15 minute timer and there's only a few really good spells (to the best of my knowledge) like cocoon or zephyr mantle that are worth using it on. Diamond Hide is already AoE and is a damn good buff so... idk.

[Pavlyn]

Originally Posted by Vyuru

I suspect in part it depends on what I want to do, do I want to be more of a buffer with Diffusion or do I want to boost my DD? Right now it's a little hard to decide, but I am probably leaning more towards 1 Diffusion, 4 Enchainment merits at the moment.

Thoughts?

This is the same route i took with BLU Group 2 merits: 5 Assimilation, 4 Enchainment, 1 Diffusion and I can't complain too much.

Being able to set extra spells is always good. Even if iàm not using those extra spells slots for enfeebling i am getting and other 3 - 4 STR.

Fully meriting Diffusion puts it on a 10 minute timer, which isn't too bad, but there really aren't that many spells that are worth diffusing and most of them have ridiculously short duration (in the 30s to 90s range). The spell that i end up diffusing most often is Refueling and even that is only when i am in a group without a RDM or WHM and that is rare. Being able to have a diffused Refuleing up 50% of the time would be nice, but the instances where i would do that are few and far between.

I like the 4 points i have in Enchainment, but i sometimes think Covergence would be an equally good choice. To me Enchainment really only helps two of the spells i commonly use with Chain Affinity, Cannonball and Hysteric Barrage, since they gain additional damage from higher TP. Disserverment has a TP modifier of additional accuracy. In the vast majority of cases accuracy is not an issue. I have yet to unlock my Wightslayer so i don't use Vertical Cleave that often and do not know the TP Bonus off the top of my head. If it is another additonal damage with TP spell it makes Enchainment even more useful.

When i think about Convergence i mostly think about MP Drainkiss and Magic Hammer. Anything to increase thier accuracy and return more MP has to be good. I suppose it depends on how often you are fighting mobs that are aspirable though.

So, in short, i think what you are leaning towards is certainly viable, but like all things related to BLU there isn't a single approach that is required.

[AutonomousMarkings]

Diffusion is neat in concept, but would be nicer if you could get the recast down on it to 5 minutes. 20 minute recast just makes it kinda of meh imo. We don't have any buffs that last very long, I think our longest lasting is refueling for 5 minutes which then makes a party wait a 15 minutes before getting a recast (this is with 1 point in it after all) or even longer if its any other buff like cocoon.. In the end, I feel like convergence is a better "waste" of 3 points. At least you can use that one every 10 minutes for mp aspir spells, breath builds, regurgitation, and other magical spells more often.

I guess you could tag along w/ a blm manaburn and diffuse memento mori every 20 minutes for a big party boom, but really, that whole idea would be best capitalized on if you went 5/5 diffusion for the 10 minute recast. I think its better to just go 5/5 assimilation and 5/5 enchainment, 5/5 assimilation and 5/5 convergence, or 5/5 assimilation and any combination of convergence and enchainment.

But like everyone else has said, this job is versatile and affirms that there is in fact more than one way to skin a cat, even if your using a spoon to do it, it'll get done one way or another.

[Vyuru]

Originally Posted by Malacite

but that's only if you sacrifice your TP to help fuel the spell and don't WS + Chain Affinity.

FYI each merit into Enchainment gives the spell a +10% TP boost when CA is used. So if I have 0 TP and use CA + Spell with only one merit into Enchainment then the spell will be given a boost of +10% TP.

And yeah, most likely the two main spells that I would be looking at using Diffusion with would be Refueling and Saline Coat. I could also see using Warm-Up and a few other spells sensationally as well perhaps. Since most of the tanks that I play with are Plds, I can especially see Saline Coat being useful in some situations when you know the mob is going to whip out some nasty magical attack at a certain % of health.

Originally Posted by Pavlyn

If it is another additonal damage with TP spell it makes Enchainment even more useful.

It is, and while I don't have Expacion yet either, I am quite interested in using Vertical Cleave in another level. Well too, I have the Sea DD spells, and with the exception of Frenetic Rip, none of the ToAU DD spells, so VC is gonna get used at least until I can learn Hysteric Barrage and or Cannonball and find out which of the three works best under what circumstances and go from there.

Originally Posted by AutonomousMarkings

We don't have any buffs that last very long

We don't, but one of my two reasons for wanting to merit Diffusion is that we can AoE some very unique buffs, and AoE Refueling does save the mages time and mp hasting everyone. But still, every 20:00 does kind of bite though, but even at 10:00, with the exception of Limbus perhaps, I can't think of any boss fights that I'm planning to do that last more than 10:00, so even that is still a once a Nyzul boss fight for instance.

Convergence also sounds interesting, but I think it would probably be better to focus on the physical DD spells, and while have a gear set for say the breath spells, not to worry about the magical spells like Eyes On Me and any others that may get used, with the exception of Magic Hammer and MP Drainkiss.

[Tokitung]

Pretty much what's been said above, but modded slightly. 4/5 Assimilation, 1/5 Diffusion, 5 Enchainment.

Enchainment is amazing for solo SC, the TP boost is very noticable. Assimilation is nice, but I haven't really had a need for 5 extra points over 4. Diffusion is situationally used, it's more of a nicety every once in a while.

[Malacite]

Originally Posted by Vyuru

FYI each merit into Enchainment gives the spell a +10% TP boost when CA is used. So if I have 0 TP and use CA + Spell with only one merit into Enchainment then the spell will be given a boost of +10% TP.

I know how it works, but IIRC the levels at which blue magic gain bonuses are 150 TP and 350 TP (Armando had the numbers put up ages ago) so you still need to sacrifice your TP to CA to get any real benefit. This just makes it easier.

[Armando]

I know how it works, but IIRC the levels at which blue magic gain bonuses are 150 TP and 350 TP (Armando had the numbers put up ages ago) so you still need to sacrifice your TP to CA to get any real benefit. This just makes it easier.

what no

It should work like WS, getting increasing linearly between inflection points. The inflection points are probably 150 TP and 300 TP based on the Studio Gobli data VZX translated and put on his site. I also highly doubt Enchainment can break the 300 TP cap since Martial Weapons don't.

[Vyuru]

but IIRC the levels at which blue magic gain bonuses are 150 TP and 350 TP (Armando had the numbers put up ages ago) so you still need to sacrifice your TP to CA to get any real benefit.

Not really.

At least for the DD spells that say that the damage is affected by tp, then you will still get a boost to it's damage if you toss it out with say, 40 tp used.

There is a HUGE difference between a 0tp CA + Death Scissors and say, 60tp CA+DS.

[Malacite]

I remember there was a flow chart with all the spells listed and the TP mods... also claimed that Azure Lore boosted spells to 350 TP (truthfully I always found it weird, if at all true that above 300 TP was even possible)

[VZX]

Diffusion -> Saline coat
and
Diffusion -> Exuviation for hate or for quick recovery after fighting soulflayer

are probably the only diffusion spells worth mentioning. Others can pretty much replicated in any practical situation.

[Yellow Mage]

Originally Posted by Malacite

(truthfully I always found it weird, if at all true that above 300 TP was even possible)

I once heard of someone MBing Absorb-TP on a Besieged mob for almost 1000 points.

They were topped off at 300 anyway, but still.

[Malacite]

Originally Posted by Yellow Mage

I once heard of someone MBing Absorb-TP on a Besieged mob for almost 1000 points.

They were topped off at 300 anyway, but still.

O.o POIDH?

[Yellow Mage]

Yeah, as if I was there. I forgot where I even heard about it, for crying out loud.

[hexx]

See Diffusion is useful in the sense that even though its on a 20min timer, me and my BLU buddy use it in Nyzul mainly once we have reached the boss for Refueling and MAYBE Cocoon. So the fact that its on a 20min timer doesnt really bug us since its used situationally anyways. As for Enchainment, yeah I would put 5/5 on that since the TP boost is a great boon when solo SCing. As for Assimilation, well as Tokitung said, I really didnt see myself needing the full extra 5 Blue points TBH. Whats usually your spell set? What spell do you see yourself missing if you have to sacrifice it for space? Think about how you play your BLU the most, but as it has been said, my personal favorite is 1/5 Diffusion, 5/5 Enchainment, and 4/5 Assimilation.