Blue Mage 101: Your Sword and You

Good evening, class.

Today, I overheard a conversation about a particular sword. Maybe you've heard of it:

Let me start by saying this is quite an impressive sword, and kudos to all of you who happen to own one. However, I'd like to take a moment to consider the facts:

• DMG: 42 Delay: 236: I've seen DPS like this elsewhere.
  
  
• HP +3%: +36 or so HP to a Hume. Not bad if you're using breaths without a staff, though to be honest, enjoy your Magic Accuracy.
  
  
• MND +5: Very nice for Magic Fruit. I won't knock this.
  
  
• CHR +5: Let me dispel this nasty rumor now: CHR has no documented effect on Monster Correlation or Blue Magic Learning. This is a myth, of the same family as Azure Lore affects learning rates, developed by low-level BLUs subbing WHM to stack Paralyze with Beast Killer. The only known way to enhance Monster Correlation is the AF hat and the merit job trait by the same name.
  
  At best, CHR is rumored to enhance Killer Effects, but this too is unproven. +5 CHR for Eyes on Me? Once again, enjoy your non-Elemental-Staff Magic Accuracy and -15% increase to dark spells. Oh and before you cite Bludgeon's CHR modifier: 1. Beef up STR 2. Bludgeon will have hit cap long before this sword is available to you.
  
  
• Additional Effect: HP or MP Drain: This is what saves this otherwise mediocre sword. The proc rate appears to be 13-15% (~7% HP and MP each) with hard caps on HP and MP drained. 5-10 MP every 14 or so swings isn't a bad deal, though I'm not sure it's much to write home about...

What are your alternatives?

As far as I'm concerned, this is only permissible until you get a better alternative. +3 STR is nothing to sneeze at, but once again, you can furnish that elsewhere without hurting your DPS. This sword has one of the lowest DPS available to endgame BLUs (with good reason--it's a level 65 sword).

The existence of this sword baffles me. People continue to cling to swords like Adaman Kilij, Senior Musketeer's Falchion, or even Demon Slayer. This is a free, high-quality Kilij, obtained with very little effort and decently high DPS. The MP and DEX are always welcome as well.

If I need to explain why this sword is amazing, please, stop reading this, log on to FFXI, and job change to a different job. If you're scared of Lizard Affinity, put on your Beast Slayer. It's really not a potent enough effect to stop using this sword.

At a glance, this new sword seems pretty mediocre, but the potential augments for it make it a very good choice. A +5 DMG augment bumps this up to the same damage as Perdu mainhand, and you can get ~5 Accuracy and ~5 Magic Accuracy to boot. This sword is highly convenient for those of us who didn't bother ranking up Mercenary Rank or stocked Imperial Standing, but Perdu still performs ever so slightly better while under 100% TP due to the slightly higher delay on this weapon. It completely trounces Fragarach, though, which is really kind of sad for the people who shelled out 2.5-4million for theirs...

The only drawback to this sword is the <= 100% TP latent. However, the +15 Attack and +5 Accuracy will still proc on weapon skills, and if you're good with your TP, you won't be finding yourself above 100% very often. I suppose if you had a particular fetish for 200%+ TP sword weapon skills, the fay weapon would be superior, but then again, why not get a Martial Anelace?

As for the Magic Accuracy augment on the fay weapon, I'll go ahead and argue that its utility is a matter of preference. You can get a weapon with slightly lower DPS and a very nice boost to magic accuracy, or you can gear swap magic accuracy in other slots (more on that later, class). If you were to dual-wield Erlkings you'd find you have quite a bit of magic accuracy (not quite a NQ staff however), but you'd miss out on Koggelmander, and all the goodness that provides.

It is my hope that you can understand why, with the alternatives available now, that this sword should be mostly a conversation piece and that endgame Blue Mages such as yourself should not lose sleep over it. While you can get some nice MP over time, you're sacrificing your DPS and DD stats for it, you need to venture into the bowels of Einherjar to retrieve it, and it enhances spells that would be better handled by a staff in the first place. This is a mistake too many BLUs make. While it is true that you are dependent on your magic skill, you cannot completely forsake your damage dealing capacities either. Your own sword weapon skills can actually rival the damage of your spells, though most people don't seem to understand or believe that.

I would say this sword is a good alternative for Blue Mages--Hell, I want one myself--but I cannot abide by statements like "Best BLU sword."

And that concludes today's lesson.