Spoilers*Test Server

[Defiledsickness]

Can we put all info found in the test server here? this will prevent those who want to discuss blu mage stuff from reading spoilers and allow the devs to see specific blu problems/testing etc. also its a lot easier to find out new stuff when i cant get on the game ^^

[Korpg]

I feel that Unbridled Knowledge needs to be lower recast timer, since the effects of Harden Shell only lasts 1:30 and Thunderbolt, although expensive, doesn't really do that much damage at all.

[Kwate]

See below, good info.

BLU Mage Test Findings (http://www.ffxiah.com/forum/topic/24929/test-server-findings)

[Kwate]

Lots of pros and lots of cons with this update. But overall not too bad....especially after reading some other job forums.

[Karbuncle]

I can say certainly i feel BLU got the best update this time around.

Even if just for the new spells and JT/Combos with cheaper points. Heard Thunder-Bolt Stun lasts a really long time btw.

[Prothscar]

Few things, after I've spent the entire day analyzing these spells. First, I am incredibly happy with most of this batch. Many of them are very useful and fix a lot of the problems that BLU has had. I do, however, find it rather disheartening that our two HNM spells are sorely lacking in that... oomph that you would expect from something special like them. Now, Harden Shell is fine really, 100% DEF is nothing to be scoffed at. My only grievance is the duration... for something that you may only use every 5 minutes, 90 seconds is a tiny bit low. 2-3 minutes would seem more robust, while not overpowering it. Thunderbolt is just a disaster. It's weaker than Charged Whisker in terms of pure stopping power, costs a fortune to cast, and the range is kinda disappointing. I dunno, I may be alone in feeling that the HNM spells should feel more special, but whatever.

Everything else is fine, although, Mortal Ray is a little perplexing. I completely understand the limitations put on it, after all Doom is a rather powerful status ailment. ... but did you really have to make it 60 seconds? It doesn't land terribly often as it is, would 30 be too much to ask? @.@

Anyways, didn't mean to make it sound like I was complaining. Overall this update is incredible for BLU and I'm grateful to be getting what we're getting.

[Kwate]

Nah much props to you Proth for your hard work, I read your posts on BG as well as FFXIAH, appreciate your input....now if I can get this damn test client to stop crashing so I can get on the test server.....

[Atoreis]

OMG thx you SE!!!!!!!!!!!

Sudden Lunge is amazing I was able to stun gukumkaz for enough time to run over 50' away from it (lost sight of it) and wait several sec before it showed up lol

White wind is abyssea with HP atmas and HP set was healing everyone for 2005HP :D

Heavy strike is best offensive spell we ever got. 100%crit is amazing. Finally an answer for our lol damage on high def mob caused by our low blue magic attack.

Hardened shell looks like very cool situational buff.

Those 4 spells really made my day.

EDIT: I forgot Barrier Tusk it's very cool also. 57% PDT and MDT total possible is nice.

[Defiledsickness]

i cant get my stupid gamepad to work or fix the resolution :P

so i just tried blu out on VW. the praying mantis NM. the spells did ok against it. they were pretty bad against the crabs/gobs in that area tho. i was expecting the HNM spells to do a lot more game-breaking but not bad. ima have to store away more jobs so i can fully use all my armor now tho.

[Sharnak]

I still not have chance to log test server yet, but form i read, it's have many incredible spell that very thrump me up, even all sound say same about how HNM's skill is <too weak> (form i heard, Imo If not enhance this list spell, may can just reduce it's recast time of JA to 3 min max. SE must understand that we can't just cast it all in 5 min , can cast only one is every 5 min, so if it's not really powerful it's must have shorter time to use them). BTW i start to fear that this will good to be true and end up when released SE will decide to gimp many spell down. That should be sad ; ;

[Tashan]

Wow the one weekend I decide not to spend with FFXI and everything blows up.

A lot of good stuff come from the Test Server and the upcoming version update. Thanks to SE, Prothescar and those whom credit is due to for their hard work.

I think I must be a fundamentalist, because the news which excited me the most is that we are now getting 7 Skills per level rather than the current 6. Between level's 91-95 we will be getting an additional 35 Blue Magic Skill Points.

Let's see what the D (Base Damage) for that increase looks like:

Pre-Update

D = floor((Blue Magic Skill*0.11)*2)+3
Efflux D = floor((Blue Magic Skill*0.11)*3)+3

Level 90 Cap
D = 82 | ED = 122
Cap + 8/8 Merits
D= 85 | ED = 127
Cap + Merits + Magus Jubbah(+1)
D = 89 | ED = 132
Cap + Merits + Jubbah + Mavi Tayt +2
D = 92 | ED = 137
Cap + Merits + Jubbah + Mavi Tayt +2 + Tathlum
D = 93 | ED = 138

Post-Update
Level 95 Cap (396 Skill)
D = 90 | ED = 133
Cap + 8/8 Merits
D= 93 | ED = 138
Cap + Merits + Magus Jubbah(+1)
D = 96 | ED = 143
Cap + Merits + Jubbah + Mavi Tayt +2
D = 100 | ED = 148
Cap + Merits + Jubbah + Mavi Tayt +2 + Tathlum (447 Skill)
D = 101 | ED = 150

Although it's expected, we have still earned a noteworthy increase in Base Damage to a lot of our most recent physical spells. Gaining 7 Skill Points per level rather than the current 6 means we've gotten away with one extra D tier and 2 extra Efflux D (Level 95 w/ 6 points per level and aforementioned equipment - D = 100, ED = 148). Pretty much we gained a free Mavi Tathlum.

This is incredibly helpful as we have not yet reached Cap D for our current bread and butter physical spells, and possibly never will.

---

Other than this I'm very excited for Heavy Strike. Not because of the spell itself but because Square Enix it shows that Square Enix has definently been taking notice of the way Blue Mage plays and is responding to it. Favourable Cost : Damage ratio's, Low Costs and with our current Refresh options and expanding MP pool this job has recieved a very good boost. It also makes Double Attack with one fewer spell point cost than Acrid Stream.

---

Regarding Sudden Lunge I'm somewhat mixed between positive and negative.

The Good: It's a New Head Butt

Something I've definently wanted. We have many Stun spells but none of them have stood out more than HB. It's a prime example of Simple being Better.

The Bad: Casting Time: 1 second. Recast Time: 12 seconds

sigh.

It's 0.5 seconds longer to cast and takes 2 seconds longer to use again. While this may be argued as something small, it does concern me.

In my recent ventures of tanking NMs from Apadamak to Glavoid I've been finding it hard to always be 100% on time to stun TP moves, even with Fast Cast. In my opinion, Violent Flourish and Flat Blade is a lot more reliable. On one hand they're instant. On the other, Head Butt has to go through the animaton of "charging" "casting" and then it's on on the monster. VF and FB just have the latter one.

The Good: 18 MP

Win.

The Good: Store TP

I think I'm one of the only people that equip Store TP 1 consistently. At the very least this will replace Tail Slap (a spell which I think is underrated btw) and if this spell can really also replace Head Butt it will save an extra 3 Set Points (for me at least).

Other than that, it's a very promising spell. I'm hoping it has a better range than Head Butt and takes longer to be "completely resisted" by appropiate mobs.

---

RE: Barrier Tusk.

I'm spamming the shit out of this. Pure tanking win. Cocoon + Magic Barrier + Barrier Tusk = Fuck Yeah SE.

[Etrigan]

So two things I wanted to throw out there that I noticed about the new spells.

> Harden Shell works with Diffusion
> Mortal Ray lands on monsters inflicting them with doom, but it can just "wear off" before the mob dies. No Cursna involved (reporting as a potential bug)

[Sharnak]

Just tested today,
What i found is Sudden Lunge very very impressive. but too impressive til i start scary that SE will nerf it later =w=
Barrier Tusk is same issuse to MOST of blue buff magic it's too short time. Same to many many blu buff magic it's alway just 30 sec - 1 min
You will not fun if need keep buffing even during fight 1 mob =w=

[SpankWustler]

Other than this I'm very excited for Heavy Strike. Not because of the spell itself but because Square Enix it shows that Square Enix has definently been taking notice of the way Blue Mage plays and is responding to it. Favourable Cost : Damage ratio's, Low Costs and with our current Refresh options and expanding MP pool this job has recieved a very good boost. It also makes Double Attack with one fewer spell point cost than Acrid Stream.

In addition to all of this, Heavy Strike is apparently treated as a critical hit. So it should perform almost as well on high level/high defense monsters as it does on everything else.

Heavy Strike is the spell that all single-hit Blue Magic should aspire to be.

[Atoreis]

In addition to all of this, Heavy Strike is apparently treated as a critical hit. So it should perform almost as well on high level/high defense monsters as it does on everything else.

Heavy Strike is the spell that all single-hit Blue Magic should aspire to be.

After all it's a 90-95 spell so we are closing to the end and spell like that is not a surprise. Gimping it would be even worse then never adding it.

[Kitkat]

There have been reports that Heavy Strike may chain with CdC to make light also, though I'm having a hard time testing this. The spell is just beastly for a one hitter doing anywhere between 4700~6.3k depending on mob making it hard to test if there is actually any bugged SC going on unless fighting an NM. If this is true that it is actually skill chaining with cdc to make light then that is just insane, but currently I can't find anything that lives through WS+Spell to see if there is any additional unaccounted damage happening. Even without CA/Efflux it is doing around 1900~2400 in abyssea using SS/RR/Apoc making it one of the most MP efficient spells and very minimal TP Feed. Though I do wonder if possibly the spell is bugged and is only supposed to occasionally crit hit.

[Demonofhunger]

After all it's a 90-95 spell so we are closing to the end and spell like that is not a surprise. Gimping it would be even worse then never adding it.

Yeh, I've been praying for a spell I could use on HNMs and high Def mobs for the last two years. If this spell gets nerfed, I'm going to cry real man tears.

[Lordscyon]

Well my Question is will the test server stuff be garunteed too be transfer too the actual game? if not spoilers might confuse people?

[Kitkat]

There is a possibility that what we see on the test server will not transfer over into the game. The point of the test server is to see how the general populace uses the new spells/abilities and that it is not unbalanced in regards to how the devs want the game to be, or that there aren't bugs with how the spell/ability/new content is intended to work. So there is a chance that between the time that we use the spells/abilities/new content on test server and the time it is released there could be changes to the way it all behaves if it isn't following the model the dev team initially wanted it to.

[Prothscar]

I fully expect, though do not want, a Sudden Lunge nerf before it hits live. What I do want, (please Devs!) is for some of the spells to be slightly adjusted. I outlined them earlier in the thread.

Barrier Tusk having a duration more in line with Phalanx would also be very welcome.

[Ezekieal]

Yeah from what i have seen we got a good update, was a tad disappointed with getting 10 spells including the hnm ones.

Was expecting 10 spells + 3 HNM (ground king) spells when i first saw the dat mines, but still its all good.

What about the ice looking spell? having trouble getting onto the test server so cant found out about it :/

Another think i wanna know is are there extra merits and if so what in?

Thanks, unless i can get on and find out myself later, in which case i will post what i find

[Kitkat]

At this time there are no additional merits available on the test server. I have seen that on the ToM moogles there are additional trial paths in the works, but currently no details on what they are. I forgot to check if they had the new limit break quest available, but I'll check in a little bit when I log on. Currently the way they have it you just talk to a moogle and set your level to 95 with all capped skills. Same for getting merit points if you decide to amend what you normally have.

[Ezekieal]

ah cool, saves everyone having to grind i guess.

so that spell i saw appears to be Frozen Mist from Ruszor's

Frozen Mist: - AoE Ice damage and Dispel. Additional Effect: Frozen. Envelopes its user in an icy mist which repells all melee attacks, granting them a physical shield effect until the mist dissipates.

Anyone learnt this yet?

Wonder what the blu version is like.

[Prothscar]

It isn't in the game. The only spells that have been added are the ones that I've posted about on various other websites, and now this one:

[Ezekieal]

Thats wierd then cos it was put in the dats with all the others that have been added.

That also means only 9 spells which breaks the conformaty of previous updates.

Maybe they are still working on the effects etc.

You seen the video with the spell listed right? (gonna look for it now and then will edit this post with the link)

Frozen Mist is at 0:26
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYzNOQ_Ly-k

[Prothscar]

Yes I've seen it, but they don't always and in fact rarely ever add every spell that they add to the dats. We still have dozens of spells that haven't been implemented into the game but are in the dats.

[Ezekieal]

yes i know otherwise we'd have about 70 extra spells, however this is different.

- they havent done that since 75 cap days

- every cap increase has given us 10 spells, not 9, not 11, 10.

they said themselves already that not everything that will be in the update is on the test server and i really doubt that they would add any spells now and not incude them after not doing that for years especially seeing as they added 10, just like every other cap increase update.

Well its sad its not on the test server, looks like it will be good, but i am positive it will be in the update.

[Kwate]

No biggie, we'll get it when SE is ready for us to test, if we do indeed get it.

[Ezekieal]

ya well we'll get 10 anyway, maybe they decided to pull it to make room for a faffy spell

[Nightfyre]

Barrier Tusk could use a longer duration. Buff cycles in tanking situations can get rather tedious given casting times + JA delay and it potentially interferes with my ability to stun an ability if I'm fighting something that builds resistance to stun (meaning that I can't just stun the mob beforehand). MP cost could be scaled accordingly.

I'd like to see Heavy Strike's skillchain property adjusted. While Fragmentation is relatively devoid of Blue Magic to skillchain with, it's only of any concern during Azure Lore as BLU does not have access to any sword WS that skillchains with that property. I would rather it be placed in the Gravitation slot with Benthic Typhoon and Vertical Cleave so that we have greater flexibility in executing level 3 skillchains. Given that Vertical Cleave has long since fallen out of favor, this means that Chant du Cygne users must often choose between the ability to maintain Benthic Typhoon's debuffs and a level 3 skillchain. Instead, we choose to close Fusion with Goblin Rush or potentially disregard skillchaining altogether for a CA Quadratic Continuum.

A ~4 second base cast time on Thunderbolt is pretty bad given the need to use a JA to access it. I'd suggest lowering the cast time and if possible revamping the way the spell (and all future spells accessed by Unbridled Knowledge) is accessed so that attempting to cast the spell without Unbridled Knowledge active triggers the JA and casts the spell. tl;dr Thunderbolt has the same issue as Shock Squall.

A longer duration on Harden Shell would be nice given the opportunity cost involved in using it.

[KayRagnarok]

I completely agree that the duration of "Barrier Tusk" should be revised in order to promote agility to the combat style, and then making the main combat mechanics more fun and a little less tedious...

And For "Thunderbolt" and "Harden Shell", I think the main problem is that both of them share a recast of 5 minutes, wich is the recast time of the hability that allows you to use them. So using only one of those spells every 5 minutes makes me think that people is going to discriminate one in favor of the other, most of the time. I cannot imagine, when we'll get 5 or more NM spells, sharing a recast of 5 minutes... there will be lot of those spells (hard to get, i asume) that we'll almost never use.

In the other hand the rest of spells are pretty well balanced, so i think overall it's not a bad update at all. Some things have to be revised, but some others are well thought!

Nice work. Best regards!

[Defiledsickness]

spoiler!!



Dark Orb makes Counter JT. Idk if it upgrades you to Counter2, would have to test to find out. (they said we do get counter2 but idk if you need 4 spells or if 3work).

Heavy Strike does more dmg with Loki's Kaftan then with Magus Jubbah. consistant 19-2300 dmg at 451 blu skill. 436 skill with loki's was always 21-2600 dmg. tested on Mandy's in Altepa with RR, SS, and a atma from bastok or sandy with crit dmg+. using Efflux once i did 4100 dmg. using CA with 100tp i did 4500 dmg ^^ didnt notice any big difference when swapping Str gear for Dex gear. using Symbios Gloves to put me at 455 blu skill gave me less dmg with Heavy strike, Quad Cont, etc. Quad Cont. seems to do higher dmg then Heavy strike on these mobs, just 100-300more. Still low mp cost puts heavy strike up high ^^ couldnt get it or Sudden Lunge to SC with CDC.

last note Sudden Lunge and Heavy Strike are somewhere in between Quad Cont and Benthic Typhoons Accuracy range IMO. Sudden lunge isnt a very consistent duration (first was working amazingly, later duration seemed to suck). Head butt is still what i'll count on to stop aga's.

[Sharnak]

spoiler!!
last note Sudden Lunge and Heavy Strike are somewhere in between Quad Cont and Benthic Typhoons Accuracy range IMO. Sudden lunge isnt a very consistent duration (first was working amazingly, later duration seemed to suck). Head butt is still what i'll count on to stop aga's.

Actually i feel that Sudden Lunge "Seem" like have a bit more acc than Head Butt. if need to stun something bad i feel like to use Sudden Lunge more, also stun effect is less resist but i still do little sample so can't say much.

[Defiledsickness]

idk i fought one mandy and it seemed awesome. but then every other mandy i fought after that the acc seemed horrible. maybe i'll try adding some mod gear into my normal setup to see if that helps a bit. or maybe its time to build a M.Acc sword :P

i think outside abyssea the new spells will be very different as well. havent thought of what to try fighting outside yet tho.

[Bayohne]

Based on feedback and Test Server results, some adjustments have been made to blue mage spells.


Lowered accuracy of Heavy Strike
The amount of MP consumed for Dark Orb has been reduced about 20%

For balance purposes, the intention is for Heavy Strike to be very powerful, but with a higher chance to miss. Dark Orb was adjusted to balance cost performance in comparison to other Blue Magic.

Please try these out on the Test Server and provide feedback.

This is a follow-up to the previous post about Sudden Lunge.

We will work on fixing skillchain not showing up visually and in the logs, when Sudden Lunge produces a skillchain. (This is just a visual bug, and the effects of skill chain are actually triggered.)

[Atoreis]

Based on feedback and Test Server results, some adjustments have been made to blue mage spells.


Lowered accuracy of Heavy Strike
The amount of MP consumed for Dark Orb has been reduced about 20%

For balance purposes, the intention is for Heavy Strike to be very powerful, but with a higher chance to miss. Dark Orb was adjusted to balance cost performance in comparison to other Blue Magic.

Please try these out on the Test Server and provide feedback.

This is a follow-up to the previous post about Sudden Lunge.

We will work on fixing skillchain not showing up visually and in the logs, when Sudden Lunge produces a skillchain. (This is just a visual bug, and the effects of skill chain are actually triggered.)

Seriously one good spell for HNMs and you needed to destroy it.

[Foldypaws]

Well, there's always sushi. On HNM you probably aren't meleeing anyway, so the loss of attack isn't that bad?

[Atoreis]

Well, there's always sushi. On HNM you probably aren't meleeing anyway, so the loss of attack isn't that bad?

How you know they havent reduced accuracy cap for this spall or addect % chance of whiffing? Benthic seems to be like that with it's whiffing even on EP mobs with accuracy probably hundred+ above the cap.

[Foldypaws]

How you know they havent reduced accuracy cap for this spall or addect % chance of whiffing? Benthic seems to be like that with it's whiffing even on EP mobs with accuracy probably hundred+ above the cap.

I don't, but how do you know they did? I mean, maybe it's "destroyed", maybe it's not. It seems a bit premature to automatically assume it is without any testing.

[Defiledsickness]

at the moment it is already barely more accurate then typhoon. expect it to be the same (hopefully not lower) acc as typhoon. and what would improve this type of spell acc? m.acc or phsyical acc? or is it all luck?

its a great spell as is, gimping it is going to be painful :P

[Prothscar]

Seriously? You finally add something that makes BLU a relevant source of damage on mobs above VT and you nerf it? Thanks SE.

[Mightyg]

Yeah boo on that Heavy Strike nerf, I hate it when spells miss. especially since hardly any weaponskills completely miss nowadays.

[Helel]

My sample size is small I realize, but it seemed pretty obvious from my testing that the accuracy cap was NOT changed whatsoever (for heavy strike). I performed 50 casts on TW mobs and the results were exactly as expected with a 95% accuracy cap. I missed 5 times, and hit 45. I'd be happy to add more data later, but I think it's pretty obvious that even if the accuracy cap was lowered, the difference is not noticeable.

Basically, this means you can always just eat sushi (or pizza) and spam heavy strike like before. I wouldn't freak out about the change much. As someone already noted, slug shot suffers from an extreme acc penalty, but it's still possible to achieve a 95% hit rate on NMs and such. I doubt heavy strike suffers from the same acc penalty as slug shot, but even if it does, it's nothing to worry about.

Edit: oops yeah, 10%. Hmm, maybe they did lower it 5%. I heard someone else do the same test and got 6 misses out of 50. Still 90% accuracy is not bad.

[Prothscar]

Yeah premature panic on my part, the ACC doesn't seem horrible (DON'T YOU NERF IT AGAIN PLEASE). ...but as an observation I've made a couple of times already, Dark Orb still costs 153 MP so... could be we haven't seen the changes yet.

[Kwate]

Yeah a nice kick in the nuts, however the fact we have an explanation and understanding vs. a ninja nerf, I can live with and accept it. Compared to other jobs QQ I still think we have it good.

[Kwate]

Now let's unnerf Barrier Tusk....

[Mefuki]

While you're adjusting Dark Orb, could you give it or Everyone's Grudge a different effect or added effect or something? Those two spells are virtually identical as they stand now.

[Helel]

Sudden lunge alone is reason enough to bring BLU to any event imo.

[Tennotsukai]

While you're adjusting Dark Orb, could you give it or Everyone's Grudge a different effect or added effect or something? Those two spells are virtually identical as they stand now.


Perhaps, SE can take it out completely and give us a less redundant spell like Bloody Claws or a different elemental nuke.

[Mayoyama]

Can we put all info found in the test server here? this will prevent those who want to discuss blu mage stuff from reading spoilers and allow the devs to see specific blu problems/testing etc. also its a lot easier to find out new stuff when i cant get on the game ^^

Um you do know there is already a big thread on this.... Was even listed on the hot topics for a while too lol
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/13940-Test-Server-Feedback-on-BLU-spells

[Sekundes]

My sample size is small I realize, but it seemed pretty obvious from my testing that the accuracy cap was NOT changed whatsoever (for heavy strike). I performed 50 casts on TW mobs and the results were exactly as expected with a 95% accuracy cap. I missed 5 times, and hit 45. I'd be happy to add more data later, but I think it's pretty obvious that even if the accuracy cap was lowered, the difference is not noticeable.

Basically, this means you can always just eat sushi (or pizza) and spam heavy strike like before. I wouldn't freak out about the change much. As someone already noted, slug shot suffers from an extreme acc penalty, but it's still possible to achieve a 95% hit rate on NMs and such. I doubt heavy strike suffers from the same acc penalty as slug shot, but even if it does, it's nothing to worry about.

Just as a note, 5/50 is not 95%.
Edit: actually I should say 45/50 is not 95%.

[Urteil]

While you're adjusting Dark Orb, could you give it or Everyone's Grudge a different effect or added effect or something? Those two spells are virtually identical as they stand now.


I'll take a Darkness damage nuke.

Dark Knight, yes please.

[Demonofhunger]

I can live with less Acc on Heavy Strike, since it still should be able to do good damage to HNMs and high Def and high-level mobs. It just means that I have to start buying sushi again.

I'm not happy, but if that's the only nerf it gets then I'll take it.

[Foldypaws]

Just as a note, 5/50 is not 95%.
Edit: actually I should say 45/50 is not 95%.

45/50 doesn't exclude 95% accuracy from the CI though either.

[Sekundes]

45/50 doesn't exclude 95% accuracy from the CI though either.
Doesn't get my hopes up either.

[Helel]

Fixed my post, but either way, missing 5 hits out of 50 with capped accuracy is hardly something to complain about with the spell's mp cost and low recast time. I saw someone do a similar test and they missed 6 out of 50. The way I see it, BLU is already a solid DD, so heavy strike just provides an opportunity to perform even better.

[Nightfyre]

I don't understand the Heavy Strike nerf at all. It's probably largely irrelevant outside of high-level NMs, but that's a situation we have had difficulty finding a niche in for years. Macc issues with debuffs (especially additional effects on physical spells that are further hampered by the chance to miss), low physical spell attack, and magical spells heavily dependent on the target mob's base stats are all ill suited to such monsters. Now we get a spell with 100% critrate, a wonderful property when fighting high-level content, and it's penalized in other areas. Doesn't make any sense at all.

[Mightyg]

I don't understand the Heavy Strike nerf at all. It's probably largely irrelevant outside of high-level NMs, but that's a situation we have had difficulty finding a niche in for years. Macc issues with debuffs (especially additional effects on physical spells that are further hampered by the chance to miss), low physical spell attack, and magical spells heavily dependent on the target mob's base stats are all ill suited to such monsters. Now we get a spell with 100% critrate, a wonderful property when fighting high-level content, and it's penalized in other areas. Doesn't make any sense at all.

Completely agree. I think all those issues should be addressed. Not expecting to be godlike in all areas, but at least if you're going to give us a variety of tools, make them practical and applicable to those situations.

[Kwate]

Based on all of the feedback we have received, we will be making the below changes to SCH:


• Tabula Rasa
Effect duration will be changed from 90 seconds to 180 seconds.

• Embrava
MP cost will be changed from 30% of your max MP to 20%.
Changed to make it possible to be used on players outside of your party.

• Kaustra
MP cost will be changed from 30% of your max MP to 20%.
Increased damage slightly.

As you all have mentioned, since this is an ability/spell that can only be used once every two hours, we revamped it as much as possible.

The idea of the adjustments this time, including the reason for adding Embrava and Kaustra, is to increase the usage of Tabula Rasa. In the future we will be looking at adjustments other than effect duration, but consider this the first phase.


Morning! Sorry to make you all wait at the edges of your seats for what has been posted about Bully. Hope you all had a good labor day weekend.

Last week we added an effect to Bully that would make it easier to increase the effect of Treasure Hunter.

Based on feedback we received about this, we decided to go a different route and add an effect we felt would make you all a bit happier.

The changes to the effects are described below:


•Bully (THF lvl.93 Recast time: 3 minutes Effect Duration: 30 seconds)
Intimidates target
While under its effect: Possible to use Sneak Attack when not behind an enemy.



Since Comet is a brand-new spell as well as a dark elemental spell, we decided to increase the damage and magical accuracy a little bit.


These are some nice adjustments and all done in the last 2 days. At least we know SE is listening to player feedback.

So SE.......about Barrier Tusk.

[saevel]

I don't understand the Heavy Strike nerf at all. It's probably largely irrelevant outside of high-level NMs, but that's a situation we have had difficulty finding a niche in for years. Macc issues with debuffs (especially additional effects on physical spells that are further hampered by the chance to miss), low physical spell attack, and magical spells heavily dependent on the target mob's base stats are all ill suited to such monsters. Now we get a spell with 100% critrate, a wonderful property when fighting high-level content, and it's penalized in other areas. Doesn't make any sense at all.

Because Heavy Strike has stats of


Heavy Strike: 92BLU STR+2 2 set points 32MP "Damage varies with TP" 2 points

2 set points and 32MP, and your wanting it to be your best damage spell? It already does more damage then spells that are twice as expensive and have higher set point costs. There has to be a down side somewhere (high MP cost, longer cast time, high set point cost, or low accuracy).

[SpankWustler]

2 set points and 32MP, and your wanting it to be your best damage spell? It already does more damage then spells that are twice as expensive and have higher set point costs. There has to be a down side somewhere (high MP cost, longer cast time, high set point cost, or low accuracy).

Personally, I would be a lot happier if all aspects of Heavy Strike, including MP cost, were increased to normal levels, with the automatic critical aspect left intact. This would make Heavy Strike a great spell for anything that has more defense than a 95 year old cancer sufferer waiting out his last two days under Hospice care. Reduced accuracy was a lame draw-back to pick for a spell which is best on really hard monsters.

Well, unless this spell just sets a precedent for the unique qualities that single-hit spells will possess for here onward. In that case, awesome work development bros. Keep them coming. Me gusta. Feels good man. Etc.

[saevel]

I could understand them making it a 90+MP spell with 4 set points, then it's just the natural upgrade from VC / BT type spells.

[Nightfyre]

2 set points and 32MP, and your wanting it to be your best damage spell?
No. I want it to be an efficient spell in a specific niche where we are largely lacking in utility. It's not nearly as good as you're making it out to be on lesser mobs.

[saevel]

No. I want it to be an efficient spell in a specific niche where we are largely lacking in utility. It's not nearly as good as you're making it out to be on lesser mobs.

Umm the SS's of 6K aren't "as good" huh?

Its 32MP and 2 set points, and you want it to beat out GR/BT/VC/QC and so forth? Cause that's all that your saying.

[Daniel_Hatcher]

Not everyone has a place in every type of content.

[Prothscar]

Umm the SS's of 6K aren't "as good" huh?

Its 32MP and 2 set points, and you want it to beat out GR/BT/VC/QC and so forth? Cause that's all that your saying.

Those 6ks are with every possible buff/JA that BLU has, numbers that can already be reached with Sneak Attack if you really cared to replicate them. Doing a 6k Heavy Strike on an Easy prey clionid in abyssea is a very far cry from doing consistent and worthwhile damage on a notorious monster that actually matters.

The people on these boards that have absolutely no idea how BLU works and go around spouting how amazing and powerful it is never fail to amaze me. Idiots, the lot.

Do go try any spell that Blue Mage currently has access to on any monster that checks above VT, especially higher level NMs. You'll be lucky to hit over 500.

[Prothscar]

Not everyone has a place in every type of content.


This is the stupidest argument I've ever read, and that's saying a lot after considering gems like Rosina. You're justifying a poor form of game design, by no means should it be that anyone should ever have to sit out or not be included in something because of their poorly implemented job mechanics or poorly implemented battle systems.

[SpankWustler]

Not everyone has a place in every type of content.

I agree that it's totally okay for some jobs to be stronger or weaker in certain content, but Blue Mage and Voidwatch are currently mix like cat poop and a nice Cuban sandwich. Physical spells performing poorly on harder stuff is to be expected (http://www.alpha-and-omega.spruz.com/user/425981/members/519349B2-F01E-4159-9698-87E3C1AA2BF1/big_201172321351966.jpg), but the way the proc system operates currently is awful for anyone playing Blue Mage during the event.

This could change a bit, since apparently the hints for procs on the test server are more detailed, but right now the proc system is awful for Blue Mage (and Summoner to a lesser extent) by design. Not awful by way of exclusion, either. Awful by way of inclusion.

[Nightfyre]

Umm the SS's of 6K aren't "as good" huh?

Ah yes, Abyssea... the one place where this spell is useful, because critical damage is inflated beyond all reason there. The problem is, by that logic it's a new spell for old content. If SE had released a retooled, slightly weaker/more expensive version of this spell in the Scars version update I doubt anyone would have complained, but Abyssea is not the focus of the game anymore.

Outside Abyssea, an older spell called Delta Thrust is far superior to Heavy Strike when fighting lower level/def mobs. It's slightly cheaper, it does about the same damage as Heavy Strike in these relatively low-def situations, and it has half the recast. The only reason you'd use Heavy Strike at all in this situation is because you'll already have it set for DA trait and can thus sneak in an extra Delta Thrust equivalent every ~30 seconds. The acc nerf will not have much impact here, and the heavy duty spells are still superior for per-cast damage if you're working with a strong refresh rate.

For higher level NMs, I've found myself turning to an old mainstay. Regurgitation is as efficient as ever, putting out ~500 damage per cast on Voidwatch NMs. Furthermore, I'm completely safe while doing this because I will never take hate and I will never be in range of any avoidable AoE. Heavy Strike, as you saw, is doing less than that on a 90 cap NM at 95, meaning it will perform worse vs 95 cap NMs whereas I'm likely to see the same results that I currently do with Regurgitation at 90 cap vs anything at 95 cap that doesn't resist water damage or has innate MDT. Regurgitation's recast is also lower.

So what I see here is a new spell with the potential to fill a niche - efficient physical spell vs high-level NMs - and it's been nerfed into the ground for those NMs because of how dire the need for acc is in that situation even without a penalty. What we have now is a new spell for old content instead of a new spell that will lead the way into new content... and really, why shouldn't we get new and effective spells? There will be more spells at 99, and some of them may replace old mainstays. I'm okay with that. But not once in this entire discussion, despite your repeated asking, have I sought for Heavy Strike to replace these old physical spells. I've sought for it to fill a niche they never had a place in to begin with.

[Tashan]

You guys are disagreeing with Daniel_Hatcher, but what he's saying is true.

It's not neccesarily how it SHOULD be, but it is how it is.

A large part of it isn't even SE's fault. It's ours. We're always trying to be better and more efficient at what we're doing and critically analyse every last detail in this game to the point of arguement. Or we read other peoples testimonies, and just take the lazy route and copy it.

LV75 Merit Parties - No Room for Black Mages.
Pre-Easy Mode Sky - SAM SAM SAM SAM
Abyssea - Boy, sure is a long time since I've seen a Dragoon.

The only thing with Voidwatch is in the past I've always managed to find a way into completing most content with just BLU. However, it doesn't sound likely with VW.

Which tbh I'm not even sure I'm too bothered by it. I just hope upgrading Almace doesn't have to lead me towards it.

[saevel]

Those 6ks are with every possible buff/JA that BLU has, numbers that can already be reached with Sneak Attack if you really cared to replicate them. Doing a 6k Heavy Strike on an Easy prey clionid in abyssea is a very far cry from doing consistent and worthwhile damage on a notorious monster that actually matters.

The people on these boards that have absolutely no idea how BLU works and go around spouting how amazing and powerful it is never fail to amaze me. Idiots, the lot.

Do go try any spell that Blue Mage currently has access to on any monster that checks above VT, especially higher level NMs. You'll be lucky to hit over 500.

Your either using hyperbole, or you really REALLY suck. I'm betting the former.

On IT+ I can get 800~1K without using JA's on VC, Q.Cont and GR, although GR varies between 500 and 1200 while QC goes between 700~1500 depending on how many hits land. Diss still dish's out 500~1K damage depending on target.

So yeah your just crying at this point in time that your super awesome spell was given a acc reduction to balance it out, not even a damage reduction just an accuracy reduction. Something you can fix with either sushi or /THF.

[Tashan]

Your either using hyperbole, or you really REALLY suck. I'm betting the former.

On IT+ I can get 800~1K without using JA's on VC, Q.Cont and GR, although GR varies between 500 and 1200 while QC goes between 700~1500 depending on how many hits land. Diss still dish's out 500~1K damage depending on target.

So yeah your just crying at this point in time that your super awesome spell was given a acc reduction to balance it out, not even a damage reduction just an accuracy reduction. Something you can fix with either sushi or /THF.

Is that within Abyssea or outside?

Either way, you're comparing High-Level NMs to Incredibly-Tough monsters.

Or End Game to a Merit Party.

...I don't get it.

[Prothscar]

Also I'd like to add that your Vertical Cleave damage is outrageously wrong.

Assuming the monster is level 97, which it would be higher if talking about a VWNM (which we are) and has 100 VIT (reasonable) and 400 DEF, you have 170ish STR, max vertical cleave is 631 damage, not 800-1000.

Even more reasonable for a VWNM: lv110, 460DEF, 100VIT, you with 170 STR, max V.cleave would be 297. Goblin Rush is 301, QC 470.

[Daniel_Hatcher]

This is the stupidest argument I've ever read, and that's saying a lot after considering gems like Rosina. You're justifying a poor form of game design, by no means should it be that anyone should ever have to sit out or not be included in something because of their poorly implemented job mechanics or poorly implemented battle systems.

What BLU is suffering in Voidwatch has existed in most content for jobs such as PUP, DRK, PLD and so on.

Of course it's poor design, I don't deny that not even a little, but this isn't something exclusive to BLU.

[Nightfyre]

What BLU is suffering in Voidwatch has existed in most content for jobs such as PUP, DRK, PLD and so on.

That does not make it acceptable, merely the newest symptom of an ongoing problem.

[Prothscar]

I'm certainly not saying it's exclusive to BLU, but that does not excuse SE for not fixing the issue. They need to start looking at the problems that we're telling them to fix rather than creating useless JAs and spells that no one wants.

[Tashan]

It's true it does need to be addressed.

[Mefuki]

So what I see here is a new spell with the potential to fill a niche - efficient physical spell vs high-level NMs - and it's been nerfed into the ground for those NMs because of how dire the need for acc is in that situation even without a penalty. What we have now is a new spell for old content instead of a new spell that will lead the way into new content... and really, why shouldn't we get new and effective spells? There will be more spells at 99, and some of them may replace old mainstays. I'm okay with that. But not once in this entire discussion, despite your repeated asking, have I sought for Heavy Strike to replace these old physical spells. I've sought for it to fill a niche they never had a place in to begin with.

Exactly. This is a design phliosophy that I adhere to in regards to Blue Mage and I'd hope the develepers would have the same one. There's no point in wasting time adding redundant (Dark Orb), penelty-heavy (Barrier Tusk, Mortal Ray) and downright useless spells due to lack of a niche to fill (post acc mod Heavy Strike).

The central points when designing these spells should be: Where would this spell be used? Does the mp cost/casting time/recast time etc warrant their use? Keeping in mind that Blue Mage is a hybrid job and can do many things but cannot fufill all the roles at one time, what spells can we add that are still lacking from it's repertoire, things that need to be added to round out their various roles.

It's like Nightfyre said, when going after lower level/defense monsters, most just use Delta Thrust. In fact, we have a nice set of spells to use on these kinds of monsters. That's not the problem. That aspect of our job is fine. But, we still have niches that need filling. What purpose does it serve to add yet another good on lower level/defense spell but bad on high level NM's? Why would I even bother with Heavy Strike, acc penelty and all, on these weaker monsters when I already have spells that fill that role?

Heavy Strike has a chance to fill in a missing space in one of our roles and all of our spells should follow suit. They need reasons to be used and SE can make it happen if they're clever about their effects, gives them reasonable opportunity costs and allows them to fill niches that have been empty for a long time.

[Yugl]

So uh, what am I looking forward to this update?
- Thunderbolt I hear is crap
- Hardenshell is good, but only for 1or3min/5?
- Barrier Tusk stinks
- Heavy Strike gimped
- Dark Orb? Maybe
- Sudden Lunge I get mixed reviews on; the cast+recast time stinks, but the duration rocks
- White Wind I hear is ok, but it's expensive for outside fights
- Ray is crap
- Water bomb looks like the new Enmity generating Regurgitation? Not much on this.

[SpankWustler]

This is a stupid and pointless and probably already answered question in addition to deviating from the current line of discussion, but gear that enhances breath spells has no effect on White Wind, right?

That sounds like a very accurate description of Water Bomb given what I remember of the modifiers while high on painkillers at 5 AM, Yugl.

As for Dark Orb, I am excited about finally having two strong spells of the same element (Everyone's Grudge, Dark Orb) for nuking in Abyssea. Not that I or anyone else does that particularly often anymore, but the animations look neat and I like to justify the horrific amount of inventory space that a nuking set takes up by using mine sometimes.

[Prothscar]

No, breath enhancing gear does not have any effect on White Wind.

[Defiledsickness]

blu is probably still gimped against NM's but at least Heavy Strike is awesome on regular mobs. it beats out QC for Damage/cost especially in abyssea with crit mods for it and CDC. and we are even further from needing a refresh atma (always good).

i mean we always needed /thf to be effective on NM's at 75, did you really expect it to change? at least people bring Blu to everything since it can do anything if needed (i've finished off VW nms etc when they killed the tank and started on mages. or tanked etc).

we just got a -15% dt spell, already had an 8shadow blink spell (almost instant cast), and already had great tanking spells; blu will still be badass this update.

[Yugl]

The duration, cost, and mechanics (Multiplication as opposed to addition) of barrier tusk stinks and unless I'm getting a ton of inventory on spell points (or a good JT), it's probably not worth setting. Yes, I expected change going from 75 to 99, but I guess that was expecting too much of 24 levels. We already rock regular mobs and most won't demand the excess damage produced by Heavy Strike.

[Mightyg]

You guys are disagreeing with Daniel_Hatcher, but what he's saying is true.

It's not neccesarily how it SHOULD be, but it is how it is.

A large part of it isn't even SE's fault. It's ours. We're always trying to be better and more efficient at what we're doing and critically analyse every last detail in this game to the point of arguement. Or we read other peoples testimonies, and just take the lazy route and copy it.

LV75 Merit Parties - No Room for Black Mages.
Pre-Easy Mode Sky - SAM SAM SAM SAM
Abyssea - Boy, sure is a long time since I've seen a Dragoon.

The only thing with Voidwatch is in the past I've always managed to find a way into completing most content with just BLU. However, it doesn't sound likely with VW.

Which tbh I'm not even sure I'm too bothered by it. I just hope upgrading Almace doesn't have to lead me towards it.

Unfortunately when Voidwatch counts as about 50-75% of the new content we're getting, it starts to become an issue. I mean really, of all the things to nerf a spell with, I'd say accuracy loss is probably one of the most rage inducing to me at least. I'm pretty sure any long time player of FFXI has missed enough swings, weaponskills, full resist spells, target out of range lose all your tp to last a few lifetimes.

[Prothscar]

SE wants BLU to be a jack of all trades. What they don't realize is, the playerbase isn't completely fucktarded, so they bring the jobs with actual proficiency in the roles that BLU can fill rather than settling for 60% maximum efficiency. Give BLU a role that it can perform effectively, and leave the rest as it is: filler, support for those that can actually do the role that we're meant to be able to do but perform ineffectively at.

[Demonofhunger]

I think we've gotten spoiled with the last few updates that actually had things we needed and wanted.

Since this update only has one thing we need and want (a spell we can use against HNMs), I think we should just count ourselves lucky.

[Daniel_Hatcher]

I think we've gotten spoiled with the last few updates that actually had things we needed and wanted.

This entirely.

[Trisscar]

This entirely.

Same here. Even without some godly spells for BLU I can still gank the mobs for all I'm worth. And really, what more do we need?

[Prothscar]

I Since this update only has one thing we need and want (a spell we can use against HNMs), I think we should just count ourselves lucky.

Except for one flaw: we can't use it against HNMs because of the piss poor accuracy.

[Mefuki]

blu is probably still gimped against NM's but at least Heavy Strike is awesome on regular mobs. it beats out QC for Damage/cost especially in abyssea with crit mods for it and CDC. and we are even further from needing a refresh atma (always good).

That's one of my points, though. We already do very well against normal monsters. We can spam Delta Thrust, we can use CA-->Savage Blade--->Goblin Rush on every other or every third mob and, if fighting multiple monsters, finish one off with BT while getting the next prepared for combat.

There's a kind of thought process that SE should be going through when releasing new BLU spells and when applied to Heavy Strike would look something like:

Who's the target of the spell? Your opponent.

Physical or magical? Physical.

Does it have additional effects? No.

Is it conal or AoE? No, neither.

Any unqiue mods or properties? Well, it's got a 75% STR mod and it autocrits.

Ok, so by this point we've firmly established that this spell is for our physical DD role. However, this is where the reasoning breaks down a bit. We already do very well against normal monsters, so obviously it shouldn't be made for them.

What would you use it on/when would you use it? With those mods, it'd be perfect on high level NMs. Excellent, that's exactly what I want to see, a spell that fills a niche that's missing from one of our roles. But, wait, now we're doing too much damage to regular monsters, so reduce it's accuracy. A lot.

So, now we have a spell that was designed to be used on high level NM's but with accuracy so bad, it can't land reliably on an NM designed for the 90 cap at level 95 and using sushi. I understand wanting to limit the damage done to regular monsters for the sake of game balance as well as balance between our other physical spells but I feel reducing accuracy was the wrong way to do it.

As a fix, I propose that the accuracy of Heavy Strike should be commensurate with the target's level. The higher the target's level, the greater it's innate accuracy. This way, it can still maintain it's niche function while still keeping things on an even footing with the other jobs as well as our other physical DD spells.

What do you other BLU's think?

[Prothscar]

I don't even see why it's necessary to have the acc gimped on even normal mobs. Any DD worth their salt will have a higher weaponskill frequency than once every 30 seconds, and will certainly be doing the same and often more damage than Heavy Strike (without CA/EFF).

Can't think of any other reason why they would gimp it aside from other jobs b***chin'.

[Defiledsickness]

they looked at it as; "high dmg, low mp cost... ok give it low accuracy". idk what was said on the JP forums that made them lower the acc further, but w/e the case we still dont know how it will perform against NM's yet. we have lower level spells that say "crit varies with TP" so maybe one of those can be useful on NM's.

even tho i dont think we got screwed this update, if they dont pick it up from 95-99 i will be really upset.

[Prothscar]

they looked at it as; "high dmg, low mp cost... ok give it low accuracy". idk what was said on the JP forums that made them lower the acc further, but w/e the case we still dont know how it will perform against NM's yet. we have lower level spells that say "crit varies with TP" so maybe one of those can be useful on NM's.

even tho i dont think we got screwed this update, if they dont pick it up from 95-99 i will be really upset.

No, we do know how it will work on NMs.


Finally got around to testing Heavy Strike on Hahava, and it's kind of bittersweet. Was able to squeeze in 4-5 casts per pop between Fanatic's and landed Sudden Lunges (more below).

In STR gear with Sole Sushi, I was having an astoundingly hard time landing the spell at all, when it did hit it hit for 300~500. On the 4th or 5th run I decided to try TP gear for the extra ACC, and it made a large difference (obviously); landed far more casts, but the damage obviously suffered. CA+Efflux damage was pretty nice considering the mob, but I didn't get a large sample size on that since I didn't feel like running back 50+ times.

A sample of the damage:
No CA:
383
464
465
333
479

CA:
980
1206



Overall the shitawful accuracy had given me the overwhelming urge to strangle badgers. Would seem that my previous premonitions were wrong and the ACC is pretty damn bad. :\

For comparison, Sudden Lunge and Vanity Dive had more casts and landed almost constantly in STR gear.

[Scuro]

As I said in another thread, I think all BLU's at least in the forums, should not use the new spells at all, and tell as many people as possible and hopefully SE notices that nobody is using it. I mean if they are going to give us shit spells, why not let them know just how worthless and useless they are.

[Prothscar]

That hasn't made them rework any of our multitude of other hideously useless spells, so in the end it would only amount to an immature way of saying we didn't get the toys we wanted. :\ Just have to make the best of what we get.

[Tashan]

As a fix, I propose that the accuracy of Heavy Strike should be commensurate with the target's level. The higher the target's level, the greater it's innate accuracy. This way, it can still maintain it's niche function while still keeping things on an even footing with the other jobs as well as our other physical DD spells.

That's an interesting idea, I wish the HNM spells would work that way at least. I think it could be difficult though.

[SpankWustler]

As a fix, I propose that the accuracy of Heavy Strike should be commensurate with the target's level. The higher the target's level, the greater it's innate accuracy. This way, it can still maintain it's niche function while still keeping things on an even footing with the other jobs as well as our other physical DD spells.

This is an interesting idea. I wonder hard it would be to implement, though. Until 75+, almost none of our spells were very unique so I'm skeptical of how much time the team can invest on each individual spell.

Part of me is just glad that we're finally getting unique stuff instead of the same five spells updated for the next ten levels, but a far greater part wishes the unique stuff could help with the "spell attack is rubbish against anything with a funny name" issue that's been present since day one.