Update 9/10/12: I added the spells that can proc a stagger !! in Voidwatch.
If you know me, for a long time I’ve had a love/hate relationship with Blue Mage. I love the job’s diversity for any situation that can come up, but I also hate the limitations that create that diversity. To be more accurate I hate the limitations set by a large array of Stagger spells (109 points worth) combined with the fact that Blue Mage has a finite number spells it can set at a given time, and lets not forget the 60 second cool down to using spells should you change your set mid battle.
In Voidwatch to cover all potential Blue Magic stagger spells you need 2 Blue Mages setting only stagger spells meaning that their only consistent damage would be coming from melee. At that point a BLU/WAR is well as heavy a DD (Damage Dealer) as PLD/WAR (if they’re doing more than just holding additional monsters) and likely worse than a PLD/WAR who’s tanking because having set spells for potential staggering means 0 job traits that are relevant to melee.
A Linkshell member brought up the idea that instead of bring a Blue Mage specifically for staggering that they be brought for damage and swap over to stagger attempts if it were a level 3 or higher stagger and just ignore levels 1 and 2 staggers that might be Blue Magic. So I’ll attempt to look into that potential, that is having spells set for melee damage benefits and leaving some room for a few stagger spell options.
I’ll only be looking into the spell side of this concept, later on I may go into the gear sets but really those can be found in various FFXI forums (for example: A Post about gearing Blue Mage for Chant du Cygne Weapon Skill in Voidwatch) if you can’t figure them out. So a few things to assume;
- Job combination will be BLU/WAR as the benefits from native Double Attack, Attack Bonus, Aggressor, Warcry, and Berserk far out weigh other sub job benefits at this point for Blue Mage due to the traits it can gain via spells.
- A another job will be casting Haste on you.
Okay with the assumptions out of the way lets start stacking up spells to help with melee damage, first up Dual Wield 3:
Spell Set Point Cost Animating Wail 5 Blazing Bound 3 Quadratic Continuum 4 Delta Thrust 2 Mortal Ray 4 Barbed Crescent 2
So now we’re up to 20/60 total points a Blue Mage can set at any given time. Now lets look into setting Triple Attack.
Spell Set Point Cost Acrid Stream 3 Demoralizing Roar 4 Empty Thrash 3 Heavy Strike 2
So now we’re up to 32/60, so far pretty good on set points and we’re at 10/20 on the maximum amount of spells we can have set. Now there’s really only 1 more I think that is a must have (granted more so for higher tier Voidwatch) and that is Accuracy Bonus.
Spell Set Point Cost Frenetic Rip 3 Vanity Dive 2
I opted for these 2 over mixing in Disseverment or Dimensional Death simply because of the set point cost. So we’re sitting at 37/60 and 12/20 leaving 23 points and 8 slots to fill with potential stagger spells. That’s pretty good in my book, I mean it allows you to set 1 full element and part of another or 2 elemental sets in some cases (Earth + Dark, Wind + Dark, Ice + Dark, Fire + Dark, and Light + Dark).
Now something you’ll notice Auto Refresh nor Battery Charge are in these spell sets. The reason for that is that you won’t be casting spells outside of attempting to stagger so MP consumption is lowered greatly. If you’re just starting out and don’t have access to temp items (ethers/elixirs) or some form of Refresh then you can set Battery Charge which will limit you to 1 full elemental set or Ice + Dark.
Fire Spells (14 Points): Firespit (5), Heat Breath (4), Thermal Pulse (3), Blastbomb (2), Awful Eye (2)
Earth Spells (13 Points): Sandspin (2), Magnetite Cloud (3), Cimicine Discharge (3), Bad Breath (5)
Water Spells (16 Points): Acrid Stream (3), Maelstrom (5), Corrosive Ooze (4), Cursed Sphere (2)
Wind Spells (15 Points): Hecatomb Wave (3), Mysterious Light (4), Leafstorm (4), Reaving Wind (4)
Ice Spells (11 Points): Infrasonics (4), Ice Break (3), Cold Wave (1), Frost Breath (3)
Lightning Spells (17 Points): Temporal Shift (5), Mind Blast (4), Charged Whisker (4), Blitzstrahl (4)
Light Spells (15 Points): Actinic Burst (4), Radiant Breath (4), Blank Gaze (2), Light of Penance (5)
Dark Spells (8 Points): Death Ray (2), Eyes on Me (4), Sandspray (2)
