Calling All Blue Mages

i just got Diffusion just now and wanted some ideas, suggestions on what to merit for my blue

Blue Magic Skill, Physical Potency, Encahinment, Assimilation, Sword, MP, Crit rate, STR, and Convergence.

Blue Mage merits are somewhat flexible. Blue Magic Skill, Sword Skill, and STR are pretty universal. Crit+ and either spell interruption down or enemy crit down depending on your other jobs.

JSE merits are where it spreads out a bit. Group 1, Physical Potency is pretty much always 5/5. Merit CA recast or Magical Potency depending on what you do as a BLU. I'm meriting Magical Accuracy, 10 more MACC on magical spells is pretty awesome.

Group 2, I'd definitely max out Assimilation. I put one merit into Diffusion, so 4 merits left. Convergence or Enchainment? Once again, depends on what you do as a BLU. If you find yourself nuking a lot, consider Convergence. If you merited CA recast, Enchainment is probably the way to go. If you mix it up, it's a toss-up between the two.

These two are pretty much spot on, even though I'd advise against listening too closely to Bleedingwulf after claiming 2300 damage Mind Blast. (Still waiting on those screenies BW)

blue magic skill, sword, crit hit rate and MP for sure. Most probably STR, since you seem to be levelling DRG as well, but if you suddenly decided you also wanted BLM then INT merits wouldn't hurt, they just wouldn't do as much for BLU as STR. Although worry about stats dead last imo.

For job specific merits I've gone with 5/5 physical potency and magic accuracy, but if you're planning on being more of just a melee blu rather than utilising everything the job has to offer then CA recast is a good option instead of magic accuracy.

Group 2 I've gone with 5/5 Convergence, 4/5 Assimilation and 1/5 Diffusion, but this is a really tough call. If you're going more for straight melee, then enchainment and assimilation are for you. But again, if you're planning on diversifying yourself a little more then Convergence is a very nice spell. The best use for convergence is with Magic Hammer for a tidy MP return (with a good build), but will boost the damage of any and all magical spells by 5% per merit.

I often think that if I had 5/5 Diffusion that I would actually use the damn ja occasionally, but it's uses are way too limited compared to the other 3 options. 1 merit is probably sufficient for 99% of blus, and you could probably even get away with none. I sure as hell can't say I've ever had a situation where Diffusion saved the day, it's just handy every so often for a quick hastega, triumphant roarga or warm-upga. The occasional well timed Memento Mori will make a blm cream themselves too :p

I honestly have no idea how much of an effect enchainment has since I've never merited it, but it's pretty much this or convergence imo, so if you won't use convergence, then enchainment go.

Assimilation I think is a must, as it helps you squeeze in that one extra spell for that little bit of extra STR or that one extra job trait.

So if you're aiming for just melee, then I'd go 5/5 physical potency, 5/5 CA recast, 5/5 enchainment, 5/5 assimilation, or swap out 1 merit for 1/5 diffusion.

If you're looking to really play every side of blu, I'd go 5/5 physical potency, 5/5 magic accuracy, 5/5 convergence, 5/5 assimilation. And again, could swap out 1 merit for diffusion.

In case you don't read the forums a ton, I'll put it this way:

Listen to Blazza. That man knows his ***.

Anyways, my two cents; if you're /THF most of the time to help for emnity control, then I'd merit full emnity. If you're /NIN, full emnity down. In addition to either, crit hit rate.

Strength should go to 5/5 because if you're leveling any melee job it should be. Also, a huge modifier--either directly or by extension--to BLU spells is STR. Not sure about the actual BLU category since I'm in the same boat as you.

Don't touch enmity if u play other jobs...

I wouldn't touch enmity on blu either to be honest, trick attack Disseverement will be sufficient regardless of your enmity, and you're going to pull hate if you're going all out on /nin regardless of your enmity too.

Having said that, I'm at a complete loss as to what to merit after crit hit rate, probably go with spell interruption I guess.

Also, I know this is taboo, but meriting DEX for blu probably isn't the worst idea I've ever heard. The three main spells all have high DEX modifiers, and 5/5 DEX is also an additional 2.5 acc, which is extremely important for blu considering the two best spells are 5 hit and the 3rd best is 3 hit.

Blu is ridiculously versatile, and you can merit to match that if you want to specialise. HP merits over MP for breath builds, DEX over STR for acc, MND for lolcure, magic hammer, mind blast, INT for a few. Enmity + for tanking, enmity - if you have no intention of ever levelling pld or nin.

Not saying I suggest any of that, but it's totally up to each individual to do it however you want, and to play the job however you want in turn. I'm sure there are a lot of people that are considered to be really good blus that play it completely differently than I do.

need more merit PT's now :P

STR will benefit you more than DEX overall. Hysteric Barrage is our only DEX-only spell used at higher levels and it's a 30% DEX mod. fSTR gives it an effective 25% STR mod, so even that's close. You'll see better returns everywhere else from STR merits; 2.5 acc just doesn't seem like enough reason to give up a chance to bump up my fSTR by one full time. Stick to STR or INT merits.

Everything else Blazza said is correct, I went 5/5 Assimilation instead but I've been meaning to look at my spell sets and see if I wouldn't benefit more from 4/5 and another merit elsewhere. Probably wait to remerit until I get Sea access though, if at all. Each Enchainment merit would be roughly 10 damage if I remember right... it's equivalent to adding a sea gorget to a WS, basically.

Yeah, I'm going 5/5 STR myself, but if your only other job was thf or something then meriting DEX certainly wouldn't be a BAD thing, just not as good as STR.

As for group 2, I've actually been considering swapping my one Diffusion merit for a 5th assimilation. Not sure I will, but I've been considering it!

You should merit based on what role you play in your everyday events and stuff.

BLU/NIN is used for everyday kind of things like Nyzul Isle or Dynamis. I also play BLU/THF pretty frequently in limbus.

For me, the blu spefic merits are as follows:

Chain Affinity recast 5/5, Physical Potency 5/5
^ Makes my CASA Vertical Cleave happen more.

Assimilation 5/5, Diffusion 1/5, Convergence 1/5, Enchainment 3/5

Assimilation for me was a no brainer, as /nin this allows you to stack your big 3, auto refresh and fast cast along with a couple support spells. Diff/Conv are both situational, so 1 each just to have them and leftovers go to enchainment.


Blue Magic Skill and Sword merits are very important to your spell damage and accuracy calculations. These both should be 8/8 if you play blu main.

Critical Hit Rate - I havent seen anything that says this affects blue magic physical spells. As far as I know this only affects your sword damage and weapon skill proc. If you are mostly DD jobs this is a nice to have, but I would prioritize sword skill and blue magic skill first.

Necro bump, activate!

While we're on topic, can anyone help me make a pre-homam blue build?

Hands/legs/feet?

Hands: Dusk Gloves
Legs: Mirage Shalwar, Vendor's/Prince's Slops, Cobra Subligar. Nashira pants work great if you've got em.
Feet: Setanta's Ledelsens, Enkidu's Leggings, Dusk Ledelsens

If you have a tank job (PLD or NIN) than depending on what you play BLU for it may be hard to merit. You should find that you take hate a lot, but if you merit Enmity Decrease you'll have a hard time playing other jobs, if you don't or if you merit increase than you'll have a hard time playing BLU in low-man situations, and may find yourself eating dirt a lot;

Personally, I'd reccomend:

4HP
4MP
Blue Skill 8/8
Sword 8/8
Cirt Hit Rate
Spell Interrupt Rate
Physical Potency
Magical Accuracy
Assimilation 5/5
Physical Potency 5/5
Assimilation 5/5
Enchainment 3/5
Convergence 1/5
Diffusion 1/5

But honestly Blue Mage is one of the few jobs you can get away with playing how you want; For example, if you find yourself nuking a lot Convergence effect might serve you nicely- at the same time Physical Potency may not work as well for you and Burst Affinity recast might be more suited for you;

Yeah, Group 1 is fantastic for fully HQing what you do most. BLU/THF is absolutely phenomenal for Damage, I tend to prefer Cannonball to VC but I've been known to CASA it.

Ultimately, it should be easy to decide what to merit; write a list of your most-used spells and merit what benefits those more :P

Unless you tank and/or abuse Heat/Frost Breath on a regular basis, full MP merits will probably do more for you as a BLU than a bit more HP.

Blazz? Rem when you said you said if yo uhad BLM then put into int, but if y o udidn't say and had WHM, would it hurt to use MND? does a blu use a lil bit of MND?

Regurgitation; but honestly, it's still worth meriting INT (Regurgitation is also INT modified). While MND will show a noticeable boost to Cures it's possible to stack it easier than almost any other stat, and you really don't need the extra hit points (though they don't hurt.)

STR is easily the best bet, most BLU will be asked to cast physical spells, try as we may we just can't compare to Black Mages for magic damage. Resist rate way too high and even with full merits and skill there just isn't enough gear to avoid that. INT if you do play a mage job more.

MND doesn't do nearly enough for a BLU to be worth meriting. Career WHM only, if that.

Ya ill prolly go with INT considering I can use Gear to modify my HP or get regen gear...=/

I mean I do have a 75 Blm, so i suppsoe meritng a a bit of INT wudn't hurt.

I do use Regurg too btw from time to time.

I'm actually quite a fan of diffusion, but thats because I mainly play my blue mage as a support role on low man NM hunting. It's like the others have said, it all depends on your play style. I personally like diffusion for giving out Refeuling-ga since I'm often duo/truoing with thf or nin eva tanks on NMs like Jaded Jody or Serket.

However if you're playing full out DD, or soloist, the merits agreeably could be spent better elsewhere.

Thanks for the post, useful information :)