Stowaway on the Empire's ship.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

OK, so the merit update got me to thinkin' about 8/8 merits for my sword and I had already planned full MP merits for mage subs on COR anyway. This got me to thinking that, since I have most of the requisite subs ready and wanted a soloable job on Kitten, that BLU might be the most appropriate choice for my next to 75 with that character.

This is great also in that I can write off my plans to do so on my original character and just level his BST, DRG and revive his BRD. I'm pretty happy with my LS situation and I levelled BRD for my friends there, so I don't mind dusting that of so much. Foobar has it good on solo jobs anyway.

Anyway, BLU's a long time coming I need it as a sub for both characters. Its undeniably awesome for DRG and there are benefit for it to COR. I guess I'm curious how to scare up the most AGI from Set spells for COR, though, as that assists QD accuracy.

Having some degree of mage background I'm also curious how much MND, INT and other stats play into BLU. I see the majority of people play BLU as a DD, but I'm inclined to explore its other talents a little further. I'm not shrugging off any subjob work, mind you, Its just a side interest I have for the job. I've seen it main heal and play backline support rather well.

But things like Elemental staves and such do make things trickier for this job, so I'm curious how BLUs balance out MBing thier spells and what gear to use there. Should I apply standard RDM thinking here or am I off track?

[Mouser]

I have no idea if I play BLU "right" but I usually go with an INT heavy setup and /NIN. This seems to help ensure that my Headbutts actually stun, my Chaotic Eyes actually silence, MP Drainkiss drains more, etc. My gear at 75 is:

Weapons: Senior Gold Musketeer's Scimitar + Ifrit's Blade. Occasionally offhand Mythic Club+1 and main-hand Ifrit's.
Head: Walahbra Turban
Neck: Chivalrous Chain
Body: Magus (BLU AF)
Hands: Errant
Legs: Jet Seraweels
Feet: River Gaiters
Waist: Potent Belt
Earrings: Suppa + either Brutal or Loquacious
Rings: Woodsman + Rajas
Back: Ammet+1

With that gear, depending on food and exact spell load, my STR and INT are usually in the 85-90 range. When I'm main healing I stand back, use a Light Staff, and swap in MND or MP gear in place of the STR/ATK stuff (and sub WHM).

[Mhurron]

I only partied with a few BLU, and that was 10-20 and then 70-75. They always were either BLU/WAR with a sword or BLU/NIN with two swords. No wepon swaps (elemental staves) and just smacked things and threw out a few spells.

Too many BLU spells are AOE so it seems the reason to get them all is to get the right combos instead of using them as spells.

Now a healing or support BLU might work more the way everyone expects a RDM to party and with similar gear, but it seems most do and expect BLU to be just another DD.

[Malevolent]

Now a healing or support BLU might work more the way everyone expects a RDM to party and with similar gear, but it seems most do and expect BLU to be just another DD.

in refference to my thread i just made, i see a lot requests for Blu main/back up heallers...

[Kyrial Arthian]

You could get +5 AGI from spells with BLU sub. +1 from Foot Kick (level 1), +1 from Chaotic Eye (level 32), and +3 from Smite of Rage (level 34). You could set MP and/or STR spells for the rest of the slots though probably. Sadly, Rapid Shot from setting spells comes at 38, so you can't get that from subbing BLU. :(

Anyway, my advice in regards to magical damage spells on BLU: forget about them. Without loads of INT/MND (or CHR in the case of Mysterious Light or Eyes on Me) and Magic Atk. Bonus gear, they're really crappy, and often cost a lot of MP. Breath attacks (Poison Breath, Magnetite Cloud, Radiant Breath, Hecatomb Wave, Flying Hip Press, Bad Breath, Frost Breath, Heat Breath) are useful in certain situations, but those are based on HP anyway.

If you wanna play a main healer role, you'll wanna sub WHM (obviously). Just keep in mind that outside of Healing Breeze, you'll have to rely on cures from your sub until 30, and even then, Wild Carrot is only like Cure 2.5, not Cure 3. Once you get Cure III from sub, you'll probably wanna stop using Wild Carrot entirely. Magic Fruit, of course, is better than Cure IV with enough MND/VIT gear, Light Staff, and WHM sub. You get that at 58, though.

Anyway, with 8/8 sword merits, you'll do awesome as a DD BLU. You'll get Vorpal Blade at 57 instead of 60, which is pretty awesome. You'll also have Savage Blade (assuming you did the quest already) at 63 instead of having to wait until 70/71, which is very awesome.

[LilithAngel]

As man people have said, playing up BLU's strengths in the magical department requires a lot of equipment boosts, severe MP pool management, and a party willing to see you outside of a typical DD role. Add to that the fact that many BLU nukes are nowhere near as mp efficient as a BLM's or even RDM's until 75, when you can use Convergence (http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/Convergence) to boost your base damage (before then, Magic Attack Bonus gained from spell combos (http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/Blue_Mage/Job_Traits) and/or SJ support will be the mainstay of your BLU nuke damage).

Consequently, /BLU tends to offer quite a few jobs, both melee and magical, quite a bit of tools to use as a subjob. If not so much useful spells, then the combos that can be obtained can potentially help round out a main job.

On an unrelated note: you seem to be stalking me through the level progressions. :worry:

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

If DRG being 60 for nearly two years and BST being 60 for four months, along with being 75 COR way before you is stalking. Then yes, I'mz stalkins joo!

Finally looked over some of the spells as I've been learning them. /BLU would snag me +5 AGI, for COR/BLU which isn't too shabby. I knew about MAB from sub, but I've been looking for other angles.

Levelling /BLU as a sub on my taru is going to suck given how much time these spells take to learn x.x I want that whole DRG/BLU thing, tho. It'll be like a mini-Khimari, kinda.

[Lmnop]

You get Cookie+1 for the awesome thread name.

[Celeal]

For INT gear, I am just wondering, how effective is Sound Blast? (Level 32 spell, Lowers Intelligence of enemies within range)

[Kyrial Arthian]

For INT gear, I am just wondering, how effective is Sound Blast? (Level 32 spell, Lowers Intelligence of enemies within range)
About INT-9 when unresisted, but it wears over time (i.e. INT-9 at first, and going back towards no -INT over time). It's not good at all, honestly. I've tried it out, and it's not even a noticeable difference on your nukes. Better to just stick with Enervation's Magic Def. Down effect.