Weighing in on BLU (split from RDM forum)

[Apple Pie]

Re: Anyone else here miffed Blu has A- sword skill?

Als LadyPeorth pointed out, the accuracy and strength of their physical Blue magic spells are dependent on their main weapon skills and TP respectively. Also, primary tasks in leveling PT seem to be different between BLU and RDM. Therefore, I am fine with the fact that BLU has higher sword skill.

BTW, I just noticed Joyeuse didn't like BLU. I am rather happy with this.

I may change my mind if I as well as other RDMs am beaten by single BLU in ballista but I guess we won't.

[Jei]

Re: Anyone else here miffed Blu has A- sword skill?

Apple Pieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
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[Taskmage]

Re: Anyone else here miffed Blu has A- sword skill?

Apple Pieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
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Good to see you, Grendal-san.

[WishMaster3K]

Re: Anyone else here miffed Blu has A- sword skill?

*cries softly*


I have a reason to play the game again. Grendal-dono has returned to us. Let all the angels sing from Paradise, for it has opened it's doorways to us!

[Armando]

Re: Anyone else here miffed Blu has A- sword skill?

zomg. It really is him! This is definetely worth going off-topic.
/kneel Grendal

[WishMaster3K]

Re: Anyone else here miffed Blu has A- sword skill?

Lol, Grendal left us 8 posts before becoming a Brain of Knowledge

[Karinya]

Re: Anyone else here miffed Blu has A- sword skill?

Grendal is back! /cheer

To return to the topic: I think after a certain level, BLU is going to have to choose between a melee-oriented and magic-oriented style. Partly through the stat bonuses provided by blue magic selection directly, partly through choice of subjob, partly through gear and food, they will benefit from specializing in one or the other direction.

So you'll see some BLU staff-swapping, using lots of magical blue magic and sitting, and others meleeing and using physical blue magic, participating in skillchains and generally acting like a physical DD, but still with some enfeebling and possibly a little healing power as well as the ability to do some WS with TP and some "WS" with MP. (This style may be dependent on ballad/refresh if fighting mobs that can't be MP Drainkissed.) Gearing for both is theoretically possible, but you still only get one food and subjob at a time and changing your blue magic set silences you for a minute, so it'll be tough to go back and forth effectively in a short time.

Both styles would probably fall on a continuum between RDM and DRK, with the magical style closer to RDM (mostly use magic, staff swap after 51, rarely/never melee) and the physical style closer to DRK (mostly melee, but use a little magic).

Hopefully, both will be effective in the right situations and with the right gear, subjobs, blue magic selection, food and tactics (which will be very different between the two styles!). It'll be interesting to see what kind of stats their AF gets - there may be a couple of physical-oriented pieces and a couple of magic-oriented pieces so that it's rare to see the whole set equipped at once.


And as a RDM, this doesn't bother me: BLU have crappy shield selection, possibly no shield skill at all (at a time when shields were just buffed *again*), no phalanx, no protect except through SJ, weak heals, who knows if their stoneskin is any good, no stealth spells without WHM or RDM sub... their offense may pack more punch than a RDM, but their survivability is going to be significantly less, I bet. Possibly to the point that they will need /WHM or /NIN (or maybe /PLD with the recent changes?) to survive, while a RDM is free to sub a damage-promoting job like BLM or DRK. Which is not to say they may not be quite a good soloer, but they won't be some kind of uber-job.

Now, if they get Swift Blade, I might be annoyed. But I expect native Vorpal at most.

[Tirrock]

Re: Anyone else here miffed Blu has A- sword skill?

I'm still withholding my judgment on BLU until I see all the new weapons they should be getting, and what original ideas people come up with to make it work in the game. (Like ninja.) I am worried about the reliance on elemental staves though...

I don't really think BLU's existance validates a RDM buff at this point, though. If they're near as effective while soloing, perhaps.

[Taskmage]

Re: Anyone else here miffed Blu has A- sword skill?

These are all the weapons currently available to blu: http://ffxi.somepage.com/itemdb/adva...ob=blu&limit=4

[Tirrock]

Re: Anyone else here miffed Blu has A- sword skill?

Thanks. I didn't know they had already figured them all out. *reads* I was expecting a few more BLU specific weapons... And I'm disappointed with their endgame selection of swords. Well, the FFXI community better pull a 'ninja' again, because BLU's melee is starting to look like PLD melee to me.

[Taskmage]

Re: Anyone else here miffed Blu has A- sword skill?

Yeah, at present there is only one blu only weapon. There are sure to be more introduced in the future as the job evolves. Remember the AF weapon is missing, too.

[Kittyneko]

Re: Anyone else here miffed Blu has A- sword skill?

Well.. with all the new info gather about the new jobs till now, and with the people already playing at the moment, would Ninja be a possible subjob for Blue Mage? Or Corsair(as alternative to dagger's)? I really hope so, because there's no job using Dual Weilded Swords as main weapon set yet. Some Warrior's use it from time to time.. but usually Axe's or GreatAxe.

[WishMaster3K]

Re: Anyone else here miffed Blu has A- sword skill?

BLU seem to be very versatile. However, like almost all melee, I suspect that they won't see the benefit of /NIN until 50. Technically, a rich player could buy a Sarashi and pump out decent damage, but with the TP update, it might be better for BLU to sub WAR and focus on DDing. Joyeuse is not BLU friendly, it seems, and I'm not sure about Ridill, Kraken or other multi-hit weapons.

BLU appears to be one melee that won't be able to sub THF to compensate for poor damage. Additionally, they also appear to be a job that can't just sub NIN and get all god-like.

Of course, at higher levels with Utsu-NI and multi-hit weaps, if a BLU get's access to, say, Vorpal Blade and/or Swift blade, I could see BLU/NIN being a very potent enfeebler/dd

Edit: Read above post

Changing my opinion on COR DD.

They get slug Shot, and a lot of RAcc gear, so it's completely feasable to see them subbing NIN for Archer's Knives or similar.

[arkaine23]

Re: Anyone else here miffed Blu has A- sword skill?

I suppose I'll sub war more for berserk and eat some sushi. I'm at a point where I stretch my mp to convert easily in xp and losing 97 mp from a different sub and even aspir/conserve mp is no big deal. There is time to take some swings when you're at endgame as long as you're not like KRT'ing or main healing in a burn party. Fights are short for the most part, and ninjas often are landing their own enfeebles anyway, and mobs die from SC or the blm's MB such that our own MB is usually a waste of mp if we get it off before the blm. Might as well swap out to full attack build and whack away with enspell and stoneskin up. But during the grind up to 75, I agree we are more efficient in the back with occaisional nukes or dot's to assist the party with some small damage output in addition to all those things we do. Luckily, a lot of endgame mobs are only VT or low IT.

Also someone mentioned meleeing at around 60... at that point your B rated sword is only maybe 7 levels behind the A rank skilled ppl. By 75 is it 26 levels behind an A+ such as pld and 19 levels behind an A- such as Blu. Or as I mentioned even 6 levels behind a Whm's B+ club. That skill level difference is 0.9 x skill level dif in negative acc and attack for the red mage according to popular belief, which is pretty significant.

Now we can throw max merits to get to 266 skill with a sword, and grab a suppanomimi for an extra +5. There's always the sword belt to nudge it up a little more, although personally I'd take a Warwolf for the raw melee stats, which btw even with /war and a lot of str+ and atk+ gear are still sub-standard.

Our strength is our versatility of course, our survivability, and our unique abilites Convert/Refresh. We don't need to be as good as a specialist. And luckily with enough effort and gear, we can come close to passable at whatever we're striving for. Still, is +6 skill in sword so much to ask? It doesn't even have to come through raw stats, gear would be ok so long as its's in an off slot where we're currently sort of weak... like legs maybe.


I am glad to see blu having a bit limited selection on endgame weaponry (if they could use my joytoy, I'd be flipping out completely). It seems to me that by that point many of them would be focused more on the nuke/enfeeble/use staves/rest mp, than the melee up and use some Tp-modified blu magic part of their job anyway. After all Sword DMG and WS are sort of weak to start with.

[Patchinko]

Re: Anyone else here miffed Blu has A- sword skill?

Als LadyPeorth pointed out, the accuracy and strength of their physical Blue magic spells are dependent on their main weapon skills and TP respectively. Also, primary tasks in leveling PT seem to be different between BLU and RDM. Therefore, I am fine with the fact that BLU has higher sword skill.

BTW, I just noticed Joyeuse didn't like BLU. I am rather happy with this.

I may change my mind if I as well as other RDMs am beaten by single BLU in ballista but I guess we won't.

It seems to only make sense to have BLU with A skill since so many of their physical Blue Magic attacks depend on TP. A lower skill would just make their physical attacks less useful. Plus, RDM uses his sword mostly when soloing, and gets boosts from our En- spells that these other classes can't get. Seems like a fair tradeoff to me, too.