Blue Mage and Voidwatch Procing

[Rubicant82]

So I have finally started doing Voidwatch and I am troubled by the proc system, more specifically the Blue Magic procs. I did a little statistical analysis of the spells needed to proc and found some very disturbing results. First off Blue Mage is the only Mage Job that is limited to the spells they can use are any-given time. We are given 55 spell points to distribute (60 with full merits and a few more with the new relic +2s) But for arguments sake lets take 60 points as an average that any blu has. to slot every spells needed to proc we would have to have 99 spell points available to us. Now you can slot several different combinations of all 8 elements with your 60 points given the break down of each element is:

Fire: 16 points
Ice: 11 Points
Wind: 15 points
Earth: 13 points
Lightning: 17 points
Water: 14 points
Light: 15 points
Dark: 8 points

So one would ask what then is the issue here? it is very simple BLUE MAGIC USE TIMER ON RESET if we change one spell we get penalized by not being able to use out magic at all for a time after the change. This THIS is the problem because during the course of a Voidwatch battle you may have to change your spells constantly and this delays the ability to proc which CAN (not always does) cause unnecessary deaths including the to the blue if he is unlucky enough.

So what can be done about this? Well here are a few ideas:
1. Increase Assimilation to allow for 2-3 extra points instead of 1.
2. Reduce the points on some Blue Magic spells from 4 and 5 to 2 and 3.
3. Give Blue Mage more spell points natively.
4. Have Blue Magic points be based of of Blue Magic Skill.
6. Remove Blue Magic spells from the proc list to evenly distribute the number of procs between elements. i.e. 3 spells of each element vs the currant 3, 4 or 5 per element or set a limit of points per element that can be used as procs; spell points add up to 7 total per element.
7. Reduce the time that Blue Magic is unavailable after "spell setting."

Those are just a few ideas that could help the Blue Mage community out with Voidwatch.

[saevel]

Ok here are a few hints. First level /WAR and make sure you have ~ALL~ your spells not just the proc ones.

Set DWIII, I tend to also set Auto-refresh due to me liking having the aoe erase WoP and a guaranteed 1mp/tick no matter what. After that you have plenty of set points for various things, you can set TA or include magic fruit. Should still leave you room at least 16 points for spells.

Now for actually procing, as a BLU due to your 60s timer it's virtually useless to bother with V procs. Focus on hitting HV and EV. The only time it's worth hitting a V proc is if there are two or more BLU V procs, then your only hitting them to force them to cycle out. You don't want them clogging up the proc list, although honestly it's not that big a deal.

And no matter what ppl tell you, you ~ARE~ a melee DD in VWNM. You should be riding Berserk / Aggressor with Stalwarts and Bravers while spamming Fanatics and CDC (or Vorpal / Req). Should be using Discipline and Coercion for atmacites.

[Prothscar]

Quad. Continuum
Delta Thrust
Barbed Crescent
Blazing Bound
Animating Wail
Mortal Ray
Empty Thrash
Heavy Strike
Acrid Stream
Demoralizing Roar
Sudden Lunge
Fantod


This is your core spell set. Sub WAR, eat DD food. Utilize your JAs and the Job Traits that you've just set (Triple Attack, Store TP, and Dual Wield III). This will still leave you with enough room to set 1-2 elements at a time. Getting more than 2 is rare in my experience, and it's usually got some NV procs mixed in if it is 3 or more. Focus on HV and EV as a priority as they are the important procs.

[Tashan]

I have followed Prothscar method for Voidwatch and found it to work very well. However, I have slightly adapted it a bit more to suit my liking:

Quad. Continuum
Delta Thrust
Barbed Crescent
Blazing Bound
Animating Wail
Mortal Ray
Empty Thrash
Heavy Strike
Acrid Stream
Demoralizing Roar
Sudden Lunge
Fantod


This is your core spell set. Sub WAR, eat DD food. Utilize your JAs and the Job Traits that you've just set (Triple Attack, Store TP, and Dual Wield III). This will still leave you with enough room to set 1-2 elements at a time. Getting more than 2 is rare in my experience, and it's usually got some NV procs mixed in if it is 3 or more. Focus on HV and EV as a priority as they are the important procs.

I follow this same method precisely except rather than setting two full spell sets, I set 2 spells of each element so I always have potential procs of each element set.

For example:

(Fire, Earth, Wind, Dark)

01 - Quad. Continuum
02 - Delta Thrust
03 - Barbed Crescent
04 - Blazing Bound
05 - Mortal Ray
06 - Animating Wail
07 - Fantod
08 - Sudden Lunge
09 - Empty Thrash
10 - Heavy Strike
11 - Demoralizing Roar
12 - Acrid Stream
13 - Thermal Pulse
14 - Blastbomb
15 - Hecatomb Wave
16 - Mysterious Light
17 - Sandspray
18 - Death Ray
19 - Sandspin
20 - Cimicine Discharge

58/60 Points

(Thunder, Full Dark, Earth, Water)


12 - Acrid Stream
13 - Mind Blast
14 - Charged Whisker
15 - Cursed Sphere
16 - Eyes On Me
17 - Sandspray
18 - Death Ray
19 - Sandspin
20 - Cimicine Discharge

57/60 Points
(Light, Thunder, Ice, Fire/Dark/Water)

12 - Acrid Stream
13 - Thermal Pulse / Death Ray / Cursed Sphere
14 - Blastbomb / Sandspray / Corrosive Ooze
15 - Blank Gaze
16 - Actnic Burst
17 - Charged Whisker
18 - Mind Blast
19 - Cold Wave
20 - Ice Break

---

As a rule of thumb I do try to play fair with the other Blue Mage and never have either of us set an element which only has 3-5 Set points spells. So I'll never allow one person to do both Wind and Thunder.

After all, whilst most BLUs don't, I excpet others to be contributing to the fight as much as I am.

[saevel]

Groups rarely bring more then one BLU, usually it's only you for procing BLU procs. That and they like to shove you in the BLM party without any healers and forget you exist.

No joke, had a Gaunab run where I died a bunch due to no cures after I ran out of temps. When I mentioned that a healer needs to pay attention to the BLM pt, one of the BLM's told me I wasn't a DD, that I should sub RDM and to stand next to them and proc. I sent tell to the run leader and he had no idea wth people were thinking. Was a messy run, after two fights leader disbanded due to retarded players. Thankfully I got my Chapeau on the last fight.

So yeah, the vast majority of the players in the game are stupid, always plan for this.

[Tashan]

Oh god, healers in VW can be so awful, I actually hate this event for it. Having a half decent healer is incredibly welcome, not just for cures, but for status' like Sleep and Petrify too.

I always feel like I'm getting the last end of the stick with support, and always am shoved into the BLM party. Only rarely does a WHM give me haste after seeing my gear.

Usually there are 2 BLUs on Odin Server though, so I can split procs. Doing it solo is nigh on impossible.

[Trisscar]

Since having more than one BLU is practically unheard of in logwatch groups I don't bother with the proscribed method of clearing all but procs even on a case-by-case basis especially sense you essentially have to look out for your own well-being, and don't bother procing at all unless a BLU spell is for white.

Although I am guilty of having still using /nin despite it's near uselessness in logwatch, thanks for showing the alternatives. It was very helpful.

[Tashan]

I've actually used /NIN in voidwatch, I don't think it's completely useless.

I've done some runs where we haven't had a full alliance, or the players are unexperienced, or the boss is just being one bad mama jamma. When we're not procing and getting Drink's to spam I've found myself praying for my shadows and would change sub.

To All: Remember that your first priority in VW is to not die.

[Kieron]

While I do favor DD Blu in VW, the spell set wait time is incredibly annoying. 30 seconds would be a very welcome adjustment on the spell set wait time. Maybe even make text enabled spell changes. e.g:

/equip s20 "Charged Whisker"
/equip s19 "Mind Blast"

"s" would represent "slot" obviously. It could make dealing with being a lone Blu in vw much more pleasant.

[Gorby]

What's all this "logwatch" stuff? For me, the culprit is rocks/ores.

If I'm the only BLU in the alliance, I set 4 elements and cast one spell at a time until I trigger a grellow. Then I dump that element and any that I exhausted before I found it, and replace it with the next set. I manually sorted all my magical spells by element, and put the VW triggers on top. This way I can reconfigure very quickly. Hints for BLU triggers don't tend to pop up all at once, so usually no one notices that I stopped casting for a minute--they just see me hit it almost every time.

Speaking of spells that trigger weaknesses... The wiki shows Fire has 5 spells. The other elements all have 4 spells except Darkness, which only has 3. Is this right? For what it's worth, Lowing has never come up for me, so I stopped setting it. Can anyone recall triggering grellow with it?