Need some help, how to play Blu

[Vyuru]

I'm having a little bit of trouble playing Blu as a DD. I feel pretty comfortable playing Blu in the healer role, Blu/Sch in Light Arts using Wild Carrot is just sexy as hell. However I don't feel like I'm doing it right when I play as a DD.

It should probably be said that I've played Blu as a DD up through the Jungles, and did healing in the Weapon camp in Sauromuge-whatever (first time fighting them there, awesome experience).

Typically, I try to use a spell that the mob is either weak, or at least neutral against. So for instance Feather Storm/Head Butt vs Mandys and Bludgeon/Head Butt vs Gobs. I normally eat Sushi if I'm meleeing, cookies if I'm healing.

Part of the problem, I don't feel like I'm pulling my weight and dealing enough DD unless I'm casting alot of spells, and while I'm not pulling hate, I'm riding the hate line and quite possibly dealing most of the damage for the party. This makes me run out of mp rather quickly however, but it does make for much shorter fights. If I do more intermittent spell casting, mp lasts longer, but fights also last longer. It's also somewhat easier to get higher chains this way.

Now one thing that'd help is if I used juices to give myself Refresh. Once we're done with CoP and I have inventory space again I plan on doing this, but until then, I can't really do that.

I also figure that my fighting style will change once I hit lvl 40 and get Chain Affinity. It sounds like once I hit that it's best to save the heavy hitting spells like Jet Stream and the like for use with CA.

I do have a question about that though. Is it better to save TP for something like Jet Stream/Death Scissors/Other for use with CA, or is it better to WS > CA+spell for a SC and maybe a self MB?

Next line of questions, support spells. Sand Spin, Sprout Smack, Wild Oats, Chaotic Eye, and any others I haven't mentioned, should these be set and used? I'm slightly concerned with using Sand Spin since it's AoE, although it seems to be a very nice enfeeble. Sprout Smack and Wild Oats are nice to use as well, but can be a little mp intensive to keep up on every mob if you don't have some form of Refresh. I haven't been able to use Chaotic Eye yet, but it seems like it'd be a good spell to set if the party is fighting a spell casting mob, and I'm with the melees.

Also, those spells might be set anyway, I don't have my printoff with the Blu Job Traits with me right now, so I don't know if they are part of a Job Trait that I'd want.

For general subjob usage, what are your opinions on /Dnc? I've been asked a few times to come to parties as /Dnc. I'm not adverse to it, but I'm not sure if it's that usefull just yet, and if it'd be better to sub that on a higher TP gain job like say Mnk or something.

I think there was something else I wanted to ask... But I can't think of it right now.

~Vyuru

Dunno why I feel like signing this post

[VZX]

Re: Need some help, how to play Blu

I'm not a /THF fan, but as far as I know they like to store TP, not WSing at all. and release them altogether during CA > Death Scissor. CA > WS > Spell is rather a BLU/NIN playstyle

Sprout Smack is decent if you don't have any mage that can constantly cast slow on mob.

/DNC is a good SJ for campaign. I usually tank the mob using Reactor cool -> Cocoon while keeping my MP up using Aspir Samba, MP Drainkiss, and Magic Hammer. For exp, I don't think you want to use it. The HP return from Drain Samba is not worth it for damage you lose from 2nd sword.

[Losrase]

Re: Need some help, how to play Blu

I'm having a little bit of trouble playing Blu as a DD. I feel pretty comfortable playing Blu in the healer role, Blu/Sch in Light Arts using Wild Carrot is just sexy as hell. However I don't feel like I'm doing it right when I play as a DD.

It should probably be said that I've played Blu as a DD up through the Jungles, and did healing in the Weapon camp in Sauromuge-whatever (first time fighting them there, awesome experience).

Typically, I try to use a spell that the mob is either weak, or at least neutral against. So for instance Feather Storm/Head Butt vs Mandys and Bludgeon/Head Butt vs Gobs. I normally eat Sushi if I'm meleeing, cookies if I'm healing.

Part of the problem, I don't feel like I'm pulling my weight and dealing enough DD unless I'm casting alot of spells, and while I'm not pulling hate, I'm riding the hate line and quite possibly dealing most of the damage for the party. This makes me run out of mp rather quickly however, but it does make for much shorter fights. If I do more intermittent spell casting, mp lasts longer, but fights also last longer. It's also somewhat easier to get higher chains this way.

Now one thing that'd help is if I used juices to give myself Refresh. Once we're done with CoP and I have inventory space again I plan on doing this, but until then, I can't really do that.

I also figure that my fighting style will change once I hit lvl 40 and get Chain Affinity. It sounds like once I hit that it's best to save the heavy hitting spells like Jet Stream and the like for use with CA.

I do have a question about that though. Is it better to save TP for something like Jet Stream/Death Scissors/Other for use with CA, or is it better to WS > CA+spell for a SC and maybe a self MB?

Next line of questions, support spells. Sand Spin, Sprout Smack, Wild Oats, Chaotic Eye, and any others I haven't mentioned, should these be set and used? I'm slightly concerned with using Sand Spin since it's AoE, although it seems to be a very nice enfeeble. Sprout Smack and Wild Oats are nice to use as well, but can be a little mp intensive to keep up on every mob if you don't have some form of Refresh. I haven't been able to use Chaotic Eye yet, but it seems like it'd be a good spell to set if the party is fighting a spell casting mob, and I'm with the melees.

Also, those spells might be set anyway, I don't have my printoff with the Blu Job Traits with me right now, so I don't know if they are part of a Job Trait that I'd want.

For general subjob usage, what are your opinions on /Dnc? I've been asked a few times to come to parties as /Dnc. I'm not adverse to it, but I'm not sure if it's that usefull just yet, and if it'd be better to sub that on a higher TP gain job like say Mnk or something.

I think there was something else I wanted to ask... But I can't think of it right now.

~Vyuru

Dunno why I feel like signing this post

If you play as /THF you will want to make a macro for sneak attacking during Chain Affinity.
CA
(may need a /wait 1 here)
SA
(Blue physical spell)

Before SA + CA + (Blue physical spell) I would recommend buffing because the mobs 95% of the time the mob will turn to you. If you have a SATA partner then you damage will increase by about 200 and you dont have to worry about the tank trying to get the mob off of you.


As /NIN make a macro to self skill chain:
CA
(May need a /wait 1 here)
WS
/wait 4
(Blue phyical spell)

I cant give you any info on /DNC because only started leveling that job.

As for support spells, it depends on the area you are xping at and what the enfeeblers in the party will cast. I always had head butt slotted because stun will always come in handy.

[Pavlyn]

Re: Need some help, how to play Blu

If you have a SATA partner then you damage will increase by about 200

i am not sure of the validity of this statement. as far as i know TA while using THF as a subjob only redirects hate. It does not add extra damage. Once i gained the ability to use TA i found the most effective use of it was to TA + Frenetic Rip onto the tank as one of my first moves of the battle to help the tank cement hate early. This had the added bonus of allowing me to get a nice big damage spell off early and often times allowed me to use a WS + SACA earlier in the fight than if i had not TA'd. It is especially nice if it is a mob with MP so i can MB MP Drainkiss.

As far as enfeebling is concerned I also say it is situational. If you mages are using Slow there is no need for Sprout Smack. If you are ripping through mobs the -Vit from Wild Oats probably won't make as much a difference. However, if you are killing at a "normal" pace the extra damage from the -Vit of Wild Oats can help make things go faster. I also think Sandspin is incredibly powerful at lower levels for ninja tanks who may be lacking in the +evasion department. However, you do have to be careful about the AoE, but it's range is probably smaller than you think. It is a good idea to experiment with your AoE debuffs to get a good feel of thier range. My favorite debuff to use is probably Frightful Roar. It lands a suprising amount of the time and who doesn't love -10% defense.

I'll make one last comment on something the OP stated about juicing. I can't imagine leveling blu without the ability to make juices in the field. Before refresh it is an invaluable tool for doing your job as a damager/debuffer/emergency healer with little time to rest and it is just as valuable later when you get into a party without a rdm or brd. i almost always keep materials for a 10-12 Melon juices and 1-3 already juices on me cause you never know when you are gonna need some refresh. I prefer melon juice to yagudo drink for one reason: Space. The ingredients to make 12 melon juices is a bit less than yagudo drinks and the only difference is duration. both refresh a rate of 2/tick, but yagudo drinks last a bit longer. So, my strongest suggestion is to level cooking to at least 40 to be able to make Melon Juice. You can level cooking for little to no money depending on what you make and how long you want to take to get to LV40.

[Losrase]

Re: Need some help, how to play Blu

i am not sure of the validity of this statement. as far as i know TA while using THF as a subjob only redirects hate. It does not add extra damage. Once i gained the ability to use TA i found the most effective use of it was to TA + Frenetic Rip onto the tank as one of my first moves of the battle to help the tank cement hate early. This had the added bonus of allowing me to get a nice big damage spell off early and often times allowed me to use a WS + SACA earlier in the fight than if i had not TA'd. It is especially nice if it is a mob with MP so i can MB MP Drainkiss.

You might be right. The 4 levels i played /THF on Colbri, only was able to use TA a few times because not having a sata partner. I do play with certain filters on so someone in the PT might have used a debuff which gave me the extra damage.

Someone correct me if i am wrong but I thought SA or TA only work on the first hit of multi-hit attacks.

[Pavlyn]

Re: Need some help, how to play Blu

SA will only guarantee a critical hit of the first hit of multi-hit spells, but TA will transfer the hate of all the hits. Usually when i use a WS >> CASA set up i would use a single hit spell like death scissor, sickle slash, mandibular bite, and so on.

[Losrase]

Re: Need some help, how to play Blu

I check the TA description and it reads, " Allows your next attack deal extera damage when striking an enemy from behind a party member."

So TA does do extra damage.

[Tickmeoff]

Re: Need some help, how to play Blu

I check the TA description and it reads, " Allows your next attack deal extera damage when striking an enemy from behind a party member."

So TA does do extra damage.

This is only true for main job THF. Using Trick Attack with THF sub only redirects the hate and does no extra damage.

[Firewind]

Re: Need some help, how to play Blu

For DDing as BLu there are a number of options. (please note that I don't have BLU levelled but I have been levelling with one Blue Mage since I started the game so I have learned a lot about the job from him):

/THF: For the reasons stated about, stacking SA with a self skillchin can produce enormous amounts of damage in a very short time. When I duo with one of the 3 BLU friends I duo with for skill ups on WHM they usually try for fusion so I can burst Banishga 2 (capped Divine Magic+Light Staff) for some nice damage. This also gives access to shields so BLU gets something useful to put into that natively empty sub slot.

/NIN: BLU is one of the few DD jobs that benefits from subbing NIN before Lv50 (RNG and BLM and maybe WAR are the only others off the top of my head). /NIN lets you stack multiple swords for the purposes of stat boosts. BLU, like BLM can also take advantage off all jutsus (unlike other jobs that only want shadows). If i remember correctly BLU spells are effected bu the resistance down effects of elemental wheel spells. Shadows, cocoon and metallic skin (with an Earth staff, Zephyr Mantle and Diamondhide available later) do let BLU tank. While it's not recommended due to the tiny MP pool this is highly useful for emergencies.

/WAR: Double attack, access to shields for the empty sub slot, berserk, attack bonus, warcry and provoke. BLU/WAR is awesome for first voke situations since cocoon and metallic body can by used with Zephyr Mantle and Diamondhide being available later, to negate damage. While WAR/BLU makes a better tank BLU/WAR is still in one of those great "Oh crap the tank's gonna die better voke the mob off him" moments especially if you can get Temporal Shift, Bludgeon or Headbutt onn the mob when you voke it. Cannonball is also defense based so that will do more damage if you stack Defender and Cocoon beforehand.

/MNK: Breath attacks are HP-based so MNK gives the most HP of any subjob to help maximise the damage causes by these attacks. Add in the new BLU relic gear and Breaths become even more powerful. MNK's high VIT also helps out with VIT-bases spells too.

/DRK: DRK gives a ton of extra attack power though stats, traits and JA's. Stacking soemthing like Hysteric Barrage with Souleater does a ton of damage that you can quite easily heal pretty much instantly with Magical Fruit. An extra stun spell is always useful and the drain/aspir spells while less effective from a subjob are great in a pinch.

/SAM: this is purely done for TP. Third Eye is always usedful as is Hasso but chances are Chain Affinity is still cooloing by the time you can Hasso again. I wouldn't really recommend this especially since DRG and DNC are more useful.

/DRG: You get the Wyvern Earrings and Mantle to eqip so more haste and attack is always welcome. Jump gives some insane TP gains and also you get accuracy bonus traits

/DNC: Chain affinity is probably still cooling down by the time you're ready to WS again so DNC gives you something to do with that TP sitting around doing nothing, you can also be an emergency tank and a First Voke if the party needs it.

/SMN: Purely for MP and extra refresh. Nothing else useful and to be honest not really as useful in a party as it would be on say a WHM. Blood Pacts aren't going to be anywhere near as useful due to your low MP pool and your spells are generally better than BPs from a SMN subjob anyway.

[Durahansolo]

Re: Need some help, how to play Blu

/SAM: this is purely done for TP. Third Eye is always usedful as is Hasso but chances are Chain Affinity is still cooloing by the time you can Hasso again. I wouldn't really recommend this especially since DRG and DNC are more useful.

Aren't Hasso & Seigan 2-Hand weapon only? If so then only Meditate and Third Eye would be beneficial but Third Eye without Seigan can only Anticipate like 1 hit.

[Celeal]

Re: Need some help, how to play Blu

IMHO, managing MP comes first as DD BLU before deciding which subjob(s) or spells to set for the activity. (in general)

[Firewind]

Re: Need some help, how to play Blu

Aren't Hasso & Seigan 2-Hand weapon only? If so then only Meditate and Third Eye would be beneficial but Third Eye without Seigan can only Anticipate like 1 hit.

I don't even have SAM unlocked so I honestly don't know.