[SSJGotenx268]

I have some gear with +str and attack, but im not sure if thats good for BLU. I figured those stats would help with my spells damage (if its physical) but im not sure im totally right on that picture. My LS member said that i should stick with +mp because "im like a blm that can use swords"

So i just want to know what stats i should be looking for. Please help clear this up. Thanks

[Vyuru]

You're more like a magical Samurai really.

Check out the Blue Magic Hunting Grounds, it'll tell you what stats affect the spells (str, dex, vit, etc) Physical accuracy affects physical spells, so if you are having trouble hitting the mob with your swords your spells will have roughly the same miss rate. Generally speaking, I'd say eating Marinara Pizza is good, and that you'd want to make some gear macros so that you have a TP set and a Spell/WS set of gear.

[Reverent Knight]

I normally gear for accurracy, A lot of the later spells are multi hit and you dont want them to miss because they cost a nice chunk of mp and you want most of your hits to land. General rule for physical magic gear for enough acc so you dont miss regularly (youll need to test through experience as youll always miss a few) and then gear up with the approciate stat mod. The website listed above is really good for that. But Id recomment if youve got a choice of 2 stat mods and 1 is str go for that as your limited to how much you can carry. I carry a 6 piece MND buld for cures and MND spells, a tp set and a Str set for vorpal blade plus a HMP gear set. Not much room for anything else.

[Malacite]

Generally speaking, Accuracy & STR rule the day for physical blue magic.

[Armando]

EDIT: The best way to see it is that using a physical spells is like using a WS with an imaginary weapon.

* The "weapon's" DMG is based only on your Blue Magic Skill; your real weapon's DMG is irrelevant. Each spell has a cap for its DMG, it generally happens around 13 levels after you can learn the spell.
* Your "Attack" for the spell is based on your Blue Magic Skill. The actual Attack stat does nothing.
* STR adds to DMG. This is separate from the DMG cap.
* Like WS, each spell also receives a DMG bonus from 1 or 2 stats, but boosting these stats is almost always not worth it compared to boosting STR.
* Hit rate is determined by your melee Accuracy. It's unknown what determines the chance to hit with ranged attack spells (Feather Storm and Pinecone Bomb.)

Magical spells follow roughly the same formula as a magic WS. They're usually based on INT, with light-based ones based on MND, and are affected by Magic Attack Bonus.
Breath spells are pretty much only based on your HP%.

The short answer: STR and Accuracy for physical spells.

[Vyuru]

May as well ask since it is relevant.

I hear that Blue Magic damage is tiered, 3 tiers for Blue Magic and I have no idea how many of Str and Dex there are, or what levels they are. Anyone have any info on that?

[Armando]

Don't know. Sounds suspicious.

[Vyuru]

Sounds suspicious.

It does a bit IMO. But I'm always looking for ways to improve my damage and I figured if true, it might help with deciding what piece of gear I need.

[Armando]

I'm pretty sure that there's nothing more to the formulas than what I've already known for eons, so whatever tiers you've heard about is probably something some player made up for god knows what reason. Unless you've got a link or something I could look into, I wouldn't pay it much mind.

[Clever Ninja]

If you want to be a good BLU, you need a

1) TP set
2) WS set
3) Healing set to swap in for spells(sans the weapon if you're dpsing)
4) A STR set which is prolly your WS set for the STR based spells
5) A DEX set for some spells

That's just the basic stuff from when I last played BLU, but working on trying to get these as you level and eventually hit 75 will kind of set you apart from all the shitty BLU's that infest this game. The difference in spell damage from casting it in my TP set and casting it in a STR set was ridiculous.

[Malacite]

What spells would you possibly want a DEX set for? Virtually every physical spell will benefit more from STR than DEX in terms of damage. You may however possibly want an HP set for the Breath Spells since HP is the only modifier for those (I think a couple also use CHR but HP has a stronger impact)

[Armando]

No, Breath spells are purely based on your level (except 2 of them which don't take your level into account) and remaining HP.

The only spell with a DEX mod higher than 30% is Sickle Slash at 50%. Not sure I'd bother just for that one spell.

[Vyuru]

Of the spells I used while leveling, Sickle Slash and Hysteric Barrage come to mind as generally benefiting more from +dex than +str gear. Though really Hysteric Barrage does seem to do pretty well with +str, at least in Campaign toying around with the Bull Necklace mind you. Frenetic Rip and Disseverment have str/dex mods on them. However in my experiments with stats and spells, I do recall that Sickle Slash really seemed to benefit from +dex.

I believe all breath spells are affected only by your health, although I could be wrong on that. I do know that Eyes on Me is affected by Chr though, and I don't know of any others.

One thing that I failed to mention earlier is that above all else, I think what makes a good Blue Mage is knowing what spells to set and what abilities to set. For instance, I will probably never set the Attack Bonus trait. At the cheapest, that chews up 2 spells and 6 SP. While not bad, that's partly why I eat pizza, and also I would rather set say, Magic Fruit and Diamondhide if I am in an exp party. Diamondhide is more optional, but I at least want to have Magic Fruit ready to go, and a sleep spell is typically nice to have. Yet I see many Blue Mages without Magic Fruit or other healing spells set in order to get that extra +10att, and to be honest they typically sucked. I wouldn't say they sucked because they didn't have a healing spell set. I would say that they were bad Blue Mages because their mentality was solely on DD and not what would benefit the party most.

The nice thing about Blu is that while there are many bad ways to play it, there are many good ways to play it as well.

[Malacite]

Hmm yeah both Cold & Heat Breaths are modded by current HP so HP swaps would be pointless unless you get cured or rest 1st. Relic Hat mods them though.

[Armando]

Sickle Slash is the only spell that will benefit more from DEX than STR, purely damage-wise. The rest breaks even or worse.

As for breath spells:

Originally Posted by VZX FFXI Doc

Breath Attack Category
Damage= D Value + HP percentage
D value is related to Level
Magic Attack/Magic defense function doesn't affect the calculation. Resist can happen
Though it can be Magic Bursted, the damage seems not increasing.

Lv　　　　　　　　　　 Attribute　HPRatio　D Value
22　Poison Breath　　　Water　　 1/10　　 Level÷1.25　 （About 0.80 times of your level）
46　Magnetite Cloud　　Earth　　 1/6 　　 Level÷1.875 （About 0.53 times of your level）
54　Hecatomb Wave　　 Wind　　 1/4　　 Level÷1.5　 （About 0.66 times of your level）
54　Radiant Breath　　 Light　　 1/5　　 Level÷0.75 　（About 1.33 times of your level）
58　Flying Hip Press　 Wind　　 1/3　　 None
61　Bad Breath　　　　 Earth　　 1/8　　 Level÷3 （About 0.33 times of your level）No need to say about this
66　Frost Breath　　　 Ice　　 1/3　　 Level÷0.625 （About 1.60 times of your level）
71　Heat Breath　　　　Fire　　 1/2 　　 None

Only Flying Hip Press and Heat Breath ignore level.