The Beast Within -- A Guide To Blue Mage

How does R15 Tizona using Expiation compare to Savage Blade Naegling? Is it an upgrade in terms of damage?

If you are considering nothing else besides pure WS Damage, Naegling Savage Blade likely does higher numbers than Expiacion due to the fact that Naegling is busted and Savage Blade simply has better stats and modifiers/ftp vs Expiacion. You can probably stop reading here if that's all you care about. But that's only a small part of the decision to use Naegling over Expiacion IMO. Personally, unless I'm ONLY doing WS damage (in which case, I would question why I'm being asked to play BLU for this particular event), I almost always use Tizona+Expiacion.

If you're doing anything where MP-management is necessary or important, Tizona is better. If you're doing anything with a WS wall (like Kalunga or Sortie bosses), Tizona is better. If Magic Accuracy is a factor somewhere in the battle (perhaps to land defense down or something), Tizona is more beneficial. Also, AM3 makes Tizona an incredible tool and helps pump out faster WSs vs Naegling, so there's that to consider as well. Even in something like Segments where I'm probably only there to Savage Blade DPS, I still use Expiacion (but maybe this is a case where Naegling is better).

I suppose someone who is good with calculating the two could provide simulation on overall dps between the two weapons and the answer would be clear, but even then, I doubt the difference in WS damage would be large enough to make a meaningful difference in choosing Naegling over Tizona.Now if you don't have Tizona and are wondering if making one will skyrocket your damage, the answer is no. You can continue using your Naegling and get phenomenal performance out of it.

Buukki gave the best answer possible here, agree with everything he said. I only want to add that WS frequency can be a larger factor than WSD in situations where you don't need the extra WSD, like apex mobs or seg farm mobs. If they're going to die in 1 WS, 2 WS, or 3 WS no matter what, then doing 60k instead of 54k doesn't make a difference, and the WS frequency is actually going to produce better results overall.

I think Tizona > Naegling for the vast majority of cases, though it's not so fundamentally better that you MUST have one. If you play BLU a lot though, you'll find yourself wearing it a lot.

I believe this was already discussed at great length back when Naegling first hit the scene but this is simply not true; and the actual gap is considerable.

Expiacion:
30% STR, 20% DEX, 30% INT
1000 - 3.796875, 2000 - 9.390625, 3000 - 12.1875

vs Savage Blade:
50% STR, 50% MND
1000 - 4.0, 2000 - 10.25, 3000 - 13.75

If you are comparing a bare-naked Expiacion to Savage Blade, yes Savage is only slightly stronger but a R15 Tizona gets a confirmed +49.5% Boost to Expiacion, pushing it very considerably ahead of Naegling's Savage Blade. Yes, 50% STR/MND is nice but no WS has ever gained that much from stats to beat out Raw WSD/fTP increases, even if the mod was 100%.

An argument could Possibly be made for Naegling's Attack Boost? But I feel like the same scenario that would be favorable for Naegling would be equally favorable for Tizona so unless there's a Niche situation I'm not aware of, that boost should be a wash?

And as you already said, once you factor in the TP Gain, Over-TP Potential, MP Regeneration, and MAcc, Tizona is the sure and clear winner on all fronts.

As you and Maletaru said, if you use BLU alot you will want Tizona. Otherwise, Naegling will work just fine.

All solid points. Virtually never running out of MP sounds great as well, and probably lets you rotate in some more MP-demanding spells.

IDK what you mean by this. I assume you mean the 1% attack boost per buff that Naegling gets, but then don't understand how it would be equally favorable for Tizona? If a SMN gives you all stats+7 that gives Naegling ATK+7%, it gives Tizona nothing but stats. If you get Adloquium, Naegling gets ATK+1%, Tizona gets nothing but regain. Can continue down this road for stoneskin, aquaveil, barspells, weather, and any other buff you want. Could be ~20% more attack from Naegling vs Tizona, or more.

I'm not saying it necessarily makes the difference between one weapon being better than the other, but high-buff situations definitely strongly favor Naegling (high quantity of buffs, not necessarily high quality buffs). This is why Naegling is so powerful, because it has a huge native ATK bonus.

Ahhh Fair point, I wasn't considering that angle. I was looking at standard Melee buffs. March, Madrigal, Minuet, Chaos Roll and the usual other buffs that spike our attacks to all hell.

I still can't see Naegling Savage beating out Tizona R15 Expiacion BUT you're still right either way. Naegling is a fine weapon (actually entirely overtuned and too much job availability). Tizona is probably the only sword that beats the thing in most cases.

Savage Blade is for COR or BRD when it matters. When it doesn't matter...it doesn't matter. If macc, AM3, and easy mp management didn't sell you, then it's a good thing ambu weapons are cheap.

I think Tizona's general QoL makes the job more fun to play and it's a game

I'd be curious to see how "considerable" this gap is.


Well, when I said "Naegling is busted", Maletaru's example of stationary buffs activating +% Attack bonus from Naegling is exactly what I was talking about. It's easy to say "Naegling does higher WS Damage" or "Tizona is the better weapon", but all things should be taken into context. That's why I broke down my response the way I did to state there's several things to consider and it's not black and white. Regardless, I still don't care much about whatever damage difference there is between the two (if Tizona is "considerably" ahead as you say, more the better, please link the sims if you have them), because I still think Tizona is the better BLU weapon anyways, but IMO it should still be explained out in detail the contributing factors for where a weapon is better than another. Maletaru's example was a perfect one; not every single scenario will you have capped buffs like what you mentioned in your quote above. And a person who is on the fence about making Tizona might personally decide the extra dps isn't all that hot over just Naegling, though that's a separate issue because you don't make a Tizona to be top DD BLU, but everything else that makes BLU good.

I'm combing through my sets looking for places to replace pieces with the new Null equipment from Cloud of Darkness and I have a weird question... would the Null Loop be a good swap in for Mirage Stole+2? Wondering if raw macc> blu skill.

It's a question that pops up from time to time and afaik it hasn't been tested yet but if we look at pretty much any other skill macc comparison that has been tested it turns out that its usually a 1:1 ratio at low levels and at a certain number the ratio tends to fall off to like 1 skill = ~0.8 macc or something along those lines.

I don't know of a case where skill equals more than 1 macc, so yes, for raw macc and acc null loop most likely pulls ahead.

Better question is does Null Shawl replace Aurist's cape +1 for macc, afaik if int or mnd have a effect on BLU macc isn't known either.

That just for physsical combat skills. and it return back up
Magical skill tends to be 1:1 all the way

Just looking into feedback on any gear I might have missed to boost up my AOE nukage

Typical i use the combo of Dreamflower -> Entombe -> Burst affinity -> Spectral Floe -> subduction (if needed), to keep mobs nicely in control. but im looking for more umph in the nukes.
Besides offcause upgrading empy Gear to +3



sets.nuke={
ammo="Ghastly Tathlum +1",
head="Hashishin Kavuk +2",
body="Hashishin Mintan +3",
hands="Hashi. Bazu. +2",
legs="Hashishin Tayt +2",
feet="Hashi. Basmak +2",
neck="Sibyl Scarf",
waist="Orpheus's Sash",
left_ear="Regal Earring",
right_ear="Friomisi Earring",
left_ring="Metamorph ring +1",
right_ring="Medada's Ring",
back={ name="Rosmerta's Cape", augments={'INT+20','Mag. Acc+20 /Mag. Dmg.+20','INT+10','"Mag.Atk.Bns."+10','Spell interruption rate down-10%',}},

}


sets.nuke["Tenebral Crush"]=set_combine(sets.nuke,{
head="Pixie Hairpin +1",
right_ring="Archon Ring",
})

sets.nuke["Entomb"]=set_combine(sets.nuke,{
neck="Quanpur Necklace",
})

sets.nuke.full={
main="Maxentius",
sub="Bunzi's Rod",
}

sets.nuke.obi={
waist="Hachirin-no-obi",
}

Your gear looks fine

If you want more damage you shouldn't be trading 10 MAB for for 5 INT and 15 STR on the +2 earring assuming max augs. The first upgrades would be empy to +3 and then r30 Rod. Only other thing... which i doubt there is much testing would be going VIT for entomb instead of INT.

The only potentially relevant trade I can think of where you'd swap out similar quantities of INT for VIT on Entomb without losing other damage stats is Metamorph +1 R15 to Gelatinous +1 R15. Should be good for another 60~80 damage in that set depending on weapons/traits.

Yeah that was a very unlucky combination of typos. I meant empy gear +3

There seems to be a bug with fantod. All stacks disappear if you cast a self buff independant of it beeing BLU magic or enhancing. Buffs from abilities don't cancel fantod stacks.

The way I understand it should work is like the old version of the MNK ability boost where you'd stack tiers till you're satisfied or hit the cap and stacks stay till timer runs out or MNK does a offense action like hitting or WSing something.


While they are at it they could also finally look into diffusion, unbridled learning, chain affinity and burst affinity. IIRC at least one of them also disappears when it shouldn't. For instance if you hit chain affinity or burst affinity but throw in a self buff befor casting the physical or magical damage dealing spell.

Have we made our minds up to agree on BiS sets for mdt and meva yet? Some Null pieces are strong contenders but there is the issue with individual element resist.
Old BiS probably looked like this for MDT:
ItemSet 398157
Could argue to replace Carrier's Sash with Platinum Moogle belt but then we run in a similar quandary as we do with the Null pieces.
MDTmeva:
ItemSet 398160
Can put Defending Ring in to get closer to DT cap to mostly also cover PDT and SDT but there are other meva options one could consider like Gurebu-Ogurebu's Ring, Vengeful Ring or Shukuyu Ring

The way I see it we have the following options for the oshi button toggles:
ItemSet 398159 ItemSet 398161
- Exchange Carrier's sash with Null Belt and leave Warder's charm +1 in neck slot.
Draw back is now we don't have any light and dark resistance. The only options I see to remedy this is either Replace neck with Caract Choker and give up on the sweet absorb of Warders charm +1 or sacrifice a Ring slot for Wuji Ring


Unfortunately BLU isn't on Antitail +1 either. In engaged MDT and Meva sets we now have to deal with capping dual wield which usually takes either back and one earring slot or both earring slots out of the equation and I can't find a earring that would cover both light and dark resistance in one piece anyway. Capping Haste also becomes challanging when Adamantite Armor comes with 0 and the belt slot is occupied with a 0 haste.

ItemSet 382236
i don't have the mask yet, so defending ring & nyame head.

ItemSet 379734
if only i wasn't a crafter, i could get the shneddick and swap in empy+3 pants.

you can use item] [/item with missing brackets returned for ffxiah links like so. dualism collar +1

item]Carrier's sash[/item
I don't get it.

What do we need a Kite set for on BLU? Sortie Megaboss?
If you're worried you get stunned while kiting you could also consider Septoptic / +1

kiting set would be more for merits/omen/dynaD/delve etc
don't want something casting gravity or bind while you're gathering a bunch of mobs in dynamis divergence for example.

Ahosi Leggins are also an option for all elemental resist but that is a rather steep loss.
Over Nyame Sollerets you lose:
38 def
50 hp
15 mp
13 vit
8 agi
25 int
10 mnd
32 eva
43 meva
0 mdef
-1 haste
7 dt

But it's good to have options regardless just in case your neck or waist are needed for something else. That elemental resist is REALLY valuable.

Can't imagine a scenario where you would actually need or want this, but if you're desperate for specifically all resistance and specifically can't use waist or neck, I'd go for lava's ring and kusha's ring over those nyame swaps, most likely. Though It could depend what your rings are, I guess shadow ring might be too important to drop.

Side note though, what in the world are you guys gearing for?

Null Loop doesn't provide meva so neck should be fair game.

Chimewizards sets gear for -dt + meva and meva + kite (resist gravity, stun...) I guess.

My sets aim for mdt and meva considering the new null pieces, in particular back and belt since they come with a lot of meva. Thing is, if you want to retain that >0 resist for each element it becomes problematic to implement the Null belt cause we lose carrier's sash.

Current suggestions sofar to remedy this are:
- caract chocker instead of warder's charm +1 - freedom for both ring slots but losing the occasional absorb.
- Lava's ring and Kusha's ring - freedom in neck slot but losing both ring slots.
- Warder's charm +1 + Wuji Ring - freedom for 1 ring slot, retains occasional absorb.

I think the warders + wuji combo comes out on top by 5 meva to the next best option and leaves you the freedom to preserve second ring slot either for defending ring or purity ring for more meva.

I also don't have access to odyssey pieces, some Nyame pieces that chime suggested have equal or a little less meva than what I posted above but come with more -DT and other defense stats.

Stil haven't figured how to post links with image loading on hover.

Why not just use Pluto's Earring and Arete del Luna +1 only in situations where you need light and dark?

That's also a option, but it would occupy neck with warders and both ear slots. However once you mix these versions of MDT or MEVA with your engaged sets you'll run into the dual wield and haste problem.

On a side note, metamorph ring +1 either has a hidden effect or either of INT, MND or CHR adds damage to all the magical BLU spells, probably INT.
Not sure if I was never aware of it or if I just forgot about it.

Was that common knowledge?
Whether or not INT adds MACC to BLU spells like it does for elemental magic is the part that's still unknown, right?

You are not aware that almost all BLU spells has stats modifiers and almost all magical ones has dINT on top of that?

I was aware of individual stat modifiers, which is what I was so focused on to improve that I at some point must have lost track of INT also adding damage.

Got surprised when I tested apate ring for anvil lightning and switched back to see metamorph +1 still do more damage.


From my admittedly limited testing on trash mobs in adoulin I found alamce (50 DEX version) already pulling a head by bit compared to kaja rod in sub slot for anvil lightning.
Yay, finally a reason to dust off Z blade...