Job Rebalancing: Who Goes Where

Above, BLM AMII Damage,
Restoring Original RDM < BLU < BLM Damage Distribution

BLU was a pretty weird job. A lot of its high MP cost/Area of Effect spells were supposed to parse it somewhere between RDM and BLM as magical nuker. Of course, the mistake (or perhaps success) the developers made was to make the damage differential between physical and magical spells too low, the MP cost spread too large, and the cast and recast times of the physical spells too attractive. BLU became a DD, not a nuker.

Se Me Fue La Mano

I think SE might have overdone it a little in this update. From what I hear from other players, Vanity Dive does 700-900 damage for ~55MP and 2 Set points (and Accuracy Bonus). Benthic Typhoon, for about the same MP cost, can do upwards of 3000 damage with Sneak Attack and adds DEF Down and closes Darkness. Quad. Continuum, perhaps the craziest of all, appears to consistently hit between 2500 and 4000 damage even on EM+, assuming you're using Chain Affinity/Efflux.

Your New Endgame Build Just In

Cannonball is a beloved favorite of Blue Mages because it can be cast at such a great distance from the target. However, as I have mentioned in previous posts, Cannonball will eventually die because its damage will eventually cap. It appears, however, that Cannonball is already dead, and in its place, we have Benthic Typhoon.

Taking Back Skillchain Artistry

Unbeknownst to me and doubtless a lot of other players, in addition to Savage Blade>Goblin Rush = Light, we also have Expiacion>Benthic Typhoon = Darkness. There's some important things to note here.

Spellset: Level 85

I can't speak from experience, but from what I hear, the Blue Magic arsenal continues to get better. In light of that fact, I've already started to consider what might be a good "full time" spell set. Here's what I came up with:

Magus, Mirage, Mavi

Oh, damn you, SE. You've finally learned that people want to look more like the job they play, not less. This was the sole reason I started playing XI, and this may be the reason why I come back. It will really depend on how time-consuming and tedious it will be to upgrade these pieces of equipment. PS I called "enhances Job Ability" JSE.

I'd also like to see what these new spells are like. It seems SE is pandering to current playing styles, as we see a huge influx of DD spells and self-support spells since the level cap increases. Debuffs and nukes appear to still be fairly uncommon.

Be expecting some new layout changes.