Myupih wrote:
The only spell at 75 that I've bumped into that might be a little weaker than what I remember is vertical cleave, if you think there are other weaker spells, then bring some numbers. What gear/food/buffs for each spell, what target? What're you comparing it to?
BLU was never a top tier job, so don't expect to beat out dedicated DDs. Play the job for fun, its versatility (and hope events that cater to that stop being jokes, like omega), lowman/solo content, and whatever niche you can figure out(like closing SC from a distance with SACA CB). You will spend a lot of money/time to push it closer to other jobs.
Blame SE, Learn your spell mods, pray for af, and have fun. Also look for me in game, I want to set up some BLU burns
Its just bad in exp parties. If its not going to at least be comparable to another job that fills a similar role in an exp party, why would you invite the Blue Mage?
I have pretty good melee gear at ~62, SH+1, Sallet, PCC, 62 RSE boots, Tiphia Sting, V.Belt/Life Belt, etc., using sushi, and SA CA spells like Death Scissors will be doing maybe 450 to IT exp mobs at the corresponding camps while other DDs are hitting anywhere from 600-1200 multi-hit WS two or three times as often as I can use Chain Affinity and are much better DPS in general. And on top of that, BLU needs constant refresh or it has to sit out, sometimes for multiple fights, to rest, and clear mind reportedly doesn't work correctly. I understand its not supposed to keep up with heavy DDs entirely, I played it on retail to 75 and later to 99/119, but its just so laughably far behind other DDs here that the job simply isn't worth inviting to your party when those other jobs are seeking. A SAM or DRK with middling gear is still going to crap all over my numbers and be better for the party, and I don't think the debuffs and versatility necessarily make up for it because, ideally, the mob isn't going to be there long enough for the BLU spending 30 seconds to cast debuffs to be worth the loss of damage while casting or MP spent.
The spells just don't do any damage either. Something like Mandibular Bite or Sickle Slash will do maybe 100 damage to an IT mob for 40-50 MP, that's just crap. If you pump the modifiers over accuracy, the spells miss too often. I'm honestly not seeing a significant difference relative to how the job performed before these recent changes at higher levels, I just see the proper log message in place of 0 damage when spells miss now. Physical spells generally do negligible damage instead of missing most of the time, not a huge improvement in my opinion. Yes, you can open skillchains for other DDs for much higher SC damage at the end, but again the overall damage you're doing is far below what pretty much any other job would be doing, and, let's be honest, the best parties aren't bothering with skillchains in the first place, they're melting mobs before you'd even have time to make one. Sure, I could open with a 150 damage spell for a RNG who closes with a 900 Sidewinder into an 1100 SC, but that's only once every two minutes and may get the RNG killed whereas any other DD could potentially be hitting their own 900+ WS twice as often and deal more damage overall.
BLU also just doesn't fit into the "ideal" party setup, you usually want something like RDM/BRD/COR/DD/DD/DD, that's usually what hits 20k+/hr and BLU just doesn't fit there. And I understand you're not getting an ideal setup most of the time, but I don't know how many more 6k/hr parties killing crabs I can slog through. It stopped being fun a while ago.