What ATMAS to use

[Prothscar]

If you can't see how Fast Cast 2 and convert add to your spell damage I don't know what to say.

Observe, as this is what I was responding to. If you can't keep your MP pool at a level where you can most efficiently use your spells, you're not playing the job correctly.

[Neisan_Quetz]

Or I can use up my mp for dealing damage and still have regain ticking while casting spells because mp conservation doesn't really matter inside? Outside yes it's important but with all the methods for recovering MP inside I fail to see how conservation is as important as you're trying to advocate it as.

Convert's just icing if spell spamming, I didn't even use it last party.

CLARIFICATION: No idea why he said it increases spell damage myself except in the context it lets you cast spells more often, it's still not even that necessary, it just helps.

[Prothscar]

I.E. /RDM offers nothing for offense.

Moving on, spamming spells and not letting your swords do work is inefficient and a decrease in overall DPS.

[Zagen]

CLARIFICATION: No idea why he said it increases spell damage myself except in the context it lets you cast spells more often, it's still not even that necessary, it just helps.

I said adds to your spell damage as in overall spell damage not increases a given spell. So yes allowing you to cast more often.

[Prothscar]

Why do you need Convert to be able to cast?

[Habiki]

I.E. /RDM offers nothing for offense.

Moving on, spamming spells and not letting your swords do work is inefficient and a decrease in overall DPS.

It's only a loss in dps if your spell damage is so poor it can't outweigh your melee dps.

Regardless this is off topic and most other posts in this thread are also off topic people should just put what atmas they use so people have an idea of what is good in differant situations not try to belittle others for the atma choices it's childish even if you have math to back it up.

The nice thing about blue mage is that its a hybrid job and there can be many differant play styles and just because one atma doesn't increase your damage specifically, doesn't mean its the same for everyone.

Players should only use this thread as a starting point as to what atma to use if they have no clue how blue mage works with differant atmas and try each out for themselves not blindly follow others choices because they say its the best. Regardless of w/e math or parses they did every blue is not the same.

[Aeonk]

It's only a loss in dps if your spell damage is so poor it can't outweigh your melee dps.

Regardless this is off topic and most other posts in this thread are also off topic people should just put what atmas they use so people have an idea of what is good in differant situations not try to belittle others for the atma choices it's childish even if you have math to back it up.

The nice thing about blue mage is that its a hybrid job and there can be many differant play styles and just because one atma doesn't increase your damage specifically, doesn't mean its the same for everyone.

Players should only use this thread as a starting point as to what atma to use if they have no clue how blue mage works with differant atmas and try each out for themselves not blindly follow others choices because they say its the best. Regardless of w/e math or parses they did every blue is not the same.

The problem with ignoring Sword DPS in favor of spell spamming, can be summed up in 1 factor:
Haste
Haste does next to nothing for your spell DPS. Maybe shaves a second off your recast timers. But your spike dmg will always be from Chain Affinity/Efflux, and last I checked, Haste doesn't reduce JA timers.

Sword DPS that's supported with Haste buffs and proper Atma's like Razed Ruins will pull ahead of spell DPS, especially since a Sword reliant BLU can still use spells just as effectively.

The difference between the spell spammer and the balanced BLU, is that the spell spammer spends their time waiting on recast timers for their good spells, and spamming less effective spells in between. Time that could be better spent having significant sword damage output.

This notion is true both Pre and Post-Almace. And that's not even including things like Food or BRD buffs.

[Scuro]

Alright, I'm going to have to tilt this in favor of the /RDM, and see, he has it right in the parse, if your just going to use your melee weapon (Aside from maybe an almace), go play WAR or a DD job that only usese their weapon. Something tells me that before BLU you played RDM and were one of the big advocates for DD RDM thinking it was such a great idea, aside from the fact it feeds mad TP for more then the damage its creating... BUT! At least it hits more!.... Right, anyway. Now is spell casting much better? Hell no, your still feeding mad TP (unless using magical based blue magic) on NMs and thats a bad idea, but I can tell you right now, unless your packin an Almace, or solo'n, no BLU is going to be caught dead TP'n on a NM with their swords (unless your solo). Good f*c*ing luck on that one, cuz I can tell you right now, if your not a THF, NIN, MNK, or WAR your not going anywhere near that mob with your swords. So you can try to say that you can hit more blah blah blah w/e, your not going to even use them practically anyway unless you want your party getting pissed at you, or its an exp party. I'm siding with /RDM because it is practically for spell casting in general which, is 80% of what your doing the 20% is trying to get TP for Spike Damage or Solo Skill Chains (WHICH! Is supported by VV, not Apoc, so I don't know why you would be using Apoc, unless you have no one to raise you, solo'n, have an almace, or in magic based blue magic set up. To try and argue that your triple attack VS Regain and double attack is better.... I'm sorry I'm callin BS on you, and you should know better) . VV is going to beat Apoc in DD for BLU any day of the week for DoT, WS, and Physical casting.

The guy has a point, faster casting of magic is faster casting, doesn't matter if its a couple of seconds or not, when you can make dual wield with spells alone, its not great, but it works, and yet your magic will be stronger in over all damage because your casting faster (and I'm assuming your using an isador or various other items that enhance faster casting, if not you should be). If your using magical blue magic, you got a boost from /RDM (And I don't believe in using magical accuracy swords, but I am working for 2 magical attack ones which will be nice for magic casting on my BLU, not for physicals of course thats why I have a +2 Shamshir for STR ;-)). For you to ask for the parse in which BLU over all damage is better, and then deny it saying that you can't prove it in a parse is just silly. What proof do you need? His argument is sound. If BLU was only about sword DoT you might actually have a valid argument, but unless you zergged the job and only have Pollen in your magic abilities, BLU is a job that uses magic, and contrary to popular belief, uses it a lot. And here is the real shocker! Uses it more then Melee DoT.... Hence the Blue Mage *shocker* Pretty sure if SE wanted us to focus on our Sword DoT they would of called the job Blue Warrior or something silly of that nature.

To disregard BLU's magic makes me wonder what on god's earth made you pick BLU and not PLD or something since hell at least its got an A in sword and sounds like a better fit for ya bro. I mean this kinda reminds me of a RDM that was like "Ya with all my accuracy gear i'm out parsing you in sword DoT" and I simply said "ya but at least I'm killing the mob, not acting like a poison effect" And thats what its going to come down to, who cares if you can beat on a mob and slowly widdle it away, BLU is a drag racer job, and was evident when you had to do the 70 Cap fight, its about the fastest casting and the smart casting all in one. If it were a mob that had like 30 million HP, congrats with your sword (if you haven't already died or lost the means to keep yourself alive) might actually beat out the amount of damage you could generate with MP (not counting MM, cuz god you never run out lol), but there is no such mob, nor will there ever be. So lets stop living in some fantasy world in which BLU's only use swords and disregard that weird bar that is below the HP bar, and acknowledge that the job is Blue Mage, for a reason.

Thank you =)

P.S
I would pay to see a BLU with swords only out damage and kill a mob (not using an almace) faster then me using spells, and I doubt anyone will ever deliver this, because its not possible. 4.5 QC > 1.7k Vorp Blade, end of story, debate over. =)

[Neisan_Quetz]

On weaker mobs yes, but as Prothscar pointed out in this and another thread on stronger mobs Physical spell damage is going to drop fairly drastically due to their dependence on Blue Magic attack which is pretty low and Magical nukes typically aren't worth using due to casting and recast times, in which case DoT from swords is going to win out.

[Scuro]

Again I will say this, the day a BLU using only swords beats out my physical magic, and I don't care how big the NM I still haven't seen that happen, I'll pay some fat gil for it lol. Because I can tell ya if your doing 4k on a mob and go down to 500 on an NM or 1k, your swords going to be doing maybe like ~50 damage, and even if it did do damage. I can tell you NO LS is going to let you TP on your BLU on a big NM to begin with unless you got mass subtle blow + AGI, and even then they might still say no because your not a NIN, THF, WAR, or MNK. Pretty much if your BLU ain't packin an almace, doesn't matter how much damage your packing, your not going to be up there anyway. So the argument again, is invalid.