[Azarall]

What this thread is about, is I would like to hear testimonials and head advice from BLUs who have performed various tasks in high level events.

If you tanked an HNM/high level NM or cotanked an HNM/high level NM...
How did you do it? Was it effective?
What spells did you use and what support job?
What gear did you use? What gear did you Macro?

If you come as a Physical spell caster to HNM/high level NM events...
I'll assume /THF is prefered DD subjob, would you put ACC and DEX as first priority, then STR for Disseverment? Whats your average Disseverments? Examples?
Whats more important in Cannonball builds, VIT, STR, or raw DEF? Whats your average Cannonballs? Examples?
Where you able to keep MP up most of the time?
Did you use MP Drainkiss / Magic Hammer or are those usually ineffective?
Any gear you would recommend? What spells should a DD BLU generally equip?

In what situations is it better to use Breath Spells vs Magical Blue Spells?
If you have attened HNM/high level NM in a breath build, I assume /MNK is the prefered subjob?
Other than the Relic Headpiece and Bomb Ring, any other "must have" pieces? Which reath spells are "generally" most effective?
How about Magic Blue Spells? How much INT/ mATT/ mACC should a BLU focus on?
Any gear suggestions for Magical Blue Spells? Which Magical Spells are "generally" most effective.

Have you ever come primarily as a healer to HNM/high level NM events?
If so, what are some good MND pieces to look at, and how much do your Magic Fruits tend to do?

Any other roles filled by any BLUs out there that you wish to share, post in this thread, please. Any NM / Arena NM / Events you have soloed, feel free to brag about.

[mightyg]

I'm going to generally skip the Tanking questions since I haven't done much experimentation with blu/war. Not that it can't be done, there are definitely challenges though.

As far as physical DD is concerned on hnms, generally what you'll see with your multi-hit spells is that they will get significantly weaker as the strength of the HNM increases. Often times it won't be logical to use them at all if you're feeding all that TP to them. Generally speaking your best weapons will be cannonball and vertical cleave with blu/thf. Disseverment poison can also be a fairly good source of DoT. Naturally if you're using a cannonball build, you'll want to gear appropriately with Defense, Vit and Str gear (and Tav Taco's). Refer to the many many cannonball threads for more info on that. Vertical Cleave is Str based, so you'll want Str and Blue magic skill for that. Another thing to keep in mind is accuracy for when you're tping. Blu accuracy isn't great so depending on what kind of equipment you have you may want to add accuracy on HNMs. If you're not planning on using cannonball, then sole sushi or marinara pizzas would probably be good to have with you. You'll need to gear for HNM's on a case by case basis for the most part, as some spells simply aren't effective on some. Even if you've fully merited, expect some to fully resist some of your enfeebs such as frightful roar. You'll have to experiment with spells to see what's effective, especially on Einherjar bosses. Also if you're having trouble dealing damage, don't forget about Poison Breath, as it can be quite effective to fall back on in terms of damage/mp cost. Lastly just to repeat, make sure you're very careful about your multi hit spells, and the amount of TP you're giving the HNM. Also as far as equipment goes, you can get some good stuff from Limbus (Homam, AF+1, Fort Torque), Nyzul Isle Assault (Expiation, Denali feet), and ZNM (Enkidu's Set).

Breath Spells tend to get you better results with standard gear than magical spells. Eyes on Me, Mind Blast, Firespit can be fairly good with appropriate Chr, Mnd, Int/Mnd builds respectively. You'll want to use magical spells in situations where you can't melee effectively, (Kiting, HNM with dangerous AoE). You're best bet is usually Physical spells as far as damage/mp cost, however there are some instances where you might find yourself using them. Make sure you have all the appropriate HQ elemental staves for whatever you're using if you want the best results. There are some disadvantages though to breath spells in that they are limited element-wise, and their range is also restrictive in some kiting fights. As far as subs are concerned, mnk may generally be best as far as damage is concerned, but often if you find yourself using your breath spells, you might already be out on something else, and using /nin is by no means a bad idea. /sch is also something to consider as you can half the mp cost with strategems.

Back when i was still leveling Blu I found myself in a few parties as the healer, and it really isn't too bad in most cases. Naturally you'll want to use light staff, and sub whm or sch. Mnd has a very nice bonus on Magic Fruit and Wild Carrot, as well as Healing Breeze. Keep in mind Wild Carrot can be more mp efficient depending on your level and gear. You'll also probably want to equip spells to get the Clear Mind Trait for hmp. You can also run in to use MP Drainkiss or Magic Hammer if the monster allows.

Make sure you keep experimenting and learning from forums. Lots of people play Blu, but to get the most out of it you really need to put in the full effort to learn every aspect. and take advantage of every nuance.

[rambus]

I do blu/war with phy damage down and magical damage down depending what im fighting.

The only hard stuff i really did this is on campin nms, only mobs i really have trobble on is the AOE stun spam things.

I stay up a long time with sch help.

I also tried this doing great axe wsnm ( i think? it was the tree one) it still did too much damage and i happened to had to start kiting it and stand up tank hybird on it.

i died twice when it was like 10% hp or less, i had a ls mate come help and his few nukes got it down to 0, i died because it started to resist grav along with running out of mp.

[Kyte]

Keep in mind that /NIN is more often than not the tanking sub of choice. BLU has more than enough innate hate tools to hold a monster's aggression.

[Azarall]

Kyte, on 23 September 2009 - 01:07 PM, said:

Keep in mind that /NIN is more often than not the tanking sub of choice. BLU has more than enough innate hate tools to hold a monster's aggression.

yes, /nin would make alot of sense with all the hate building tools...
in instances where blood tanking is generally more effective, wouldn't /pld be more effective than /war?

/PLD
Flash
Def Bonus II
Shield Mastery
Auto-refresh
Healing magic to enhance magic fruit
Sentinal
Shield Bash
Cover
More MP, generally the same HP

Equip evasion bonus, a killer trait (which now gives enhanced def and magic resist), counter, magic def bonus, fast cast and your haste/healing/erase/flash/cocoon/magicdef spells of choice... sounds like a pretty solid blood tank

pros of war is what... defender and voke?

[Kyte]

Azarall, on 23 September 2009 - 09:45 PM, said:

yes, /nin would make alot of sense with all the hate building tools...
in instances where blood tanking is generally more effective, wouldn't /pld be more effective than /war?

/PLD
Flash
Def Bonus II
Shield Mastery
Auto-refresh
Healing magic to enhance magic fruit
Sentinal
Shield Bash
Cover
More MP, generally the same HP

Equip evasion bonus, a killer trait (which now gives enhanced def and magic resist), counter, magic def bonus, fast cast and your haste/healing/erase/flash/cocoon/magicdef spells of choice... sounds like a pretty solid blood tank

pros of war is what... defender and voke?

Pretty much, the only thing /WAR has going for it is the large defense boost, although in situations where you want to tag hate fast (Dynamis, some missions), provoke can be useful.

For something where shadows are fairly useless, like Jailer of Love, /RDM and /DRK are also both good tanking subjobs.

[Azarall]

Kyte, on 24 September 2009 - 07:11 AM, said:

Pretty much, the only thing /WAR has going for it is the large defense boost, although in situations where you want to tag hate fast (Dynamis, some missions), provoke can be useful.

For something where shadows are fairly useless, like Jailer of Love, /RDM and /DRK are also both good tanking subjobs.

I see with /rdm and some merits in enhancing magic (which I have) I can get -12% DMG per hit from phalanx and with a good solid MND build (easily obtained) I can get over 350DMG stoneskins. Not to mention Fast Cast II. Sounds pretty solid

[Kyte]

In that particular instance, it's mainly used for the enmity spells (barspells, dispel, sleep). It's tanked from farther away, so our close range enmity spells cannot be used. The same is true for /DRK (Stun, Sleep, JAs).

[Arcsol]

@Azarall Phalanx is a set damage reduction, not a % damage reduction.

[FarlisChere]

i have tanked very successfully byakko, genbu, seiryu, suzaku, proto omega,proto Ultima, einherjar, and all four city dyna+ dyna bea.

and for reference this is what i dropped byakko down to
http://i70.photobuck...rlis/byakko.png

thats with my own stoneskin and phalanx 2

/nin for gods and p/o
/war for the others

for /nin i use a combination of haste and +enmity gear, when shadows go down i switch to a heavy defense and -physical dmg taken.
for /war i just stick with alot of def and -physical dmg taken.

as for spells, use jettatura,ac burst, temp shift for high amounts of VE. use blank gaze and sheep song for CE. use exuvation when its up. if you need to, abuse diffusion+exuvation.

personally i like back up tank for dyna and einherjar for the simple reason i can just aoe spells and keep all slept mobs from killing the sleepers.ontop of this though i also like to use filamented hold and watch to silence blms etc so the mobs come to the main tank predebuffed

if youd like a more indepth list of everything i use i would be happy to give it to you.