UL Spell Breakdown

Would like to compile knowledge and uses for all of Blue Mage's Unbridled Learning Spells and situations to use them. If I don't mention the spell it's because I don't have it or I cannot find a particular application to use it in vs using another spell. Also I do a lot of voidwatch and because of this what I'm about to post leans heavily on voidwatch use but I'm looking for any scenario that's old/new endgame and not just smashing random things for fun.

I'm a bit biased on what to use UL for on different situations because it's on a 5 minute timer and I'm doing a lot of other things in those 5 minutes if I can't find a use for activating it for a no point cost spell I'll probably forget to use it or find no need.


1. Harden Shell: Dynamis farming? I was reading about using an eva setup for farming so having added defense seems very moot even if the duration is 90 seconds but due to how defense works in this game and it's scaling towards higher level monsters I've only used it in Diffusion for paladins a few times or just screwing around to notice a difference on dyna mobs hits. Possible use if you don't have an hybrid eva set for dyna.

2. Thunderbolt: Has anyone landed the stun effect on nms? I haven't used it yet but was thinking it'd be a possible try to gear hq staff and a macc set to see if i can. I'm tempted to lump this with the same boat as Absolute Terror. If it can land reasonably with sufficient gear I'd like to use it to start off a zerg or a clutch stun as it's powerful when it does hit but I still have to remember to try this (prov watcher, cat nms, t3 jueno and outland paths)


3. Absolute Terror: Bit more experience with this, one of the spells you wish was AOE but isn't when it hits an NQ mob you feel like you've outdone yourself. Useful for things that can't be stunned on any sort of respectable NM it seems to flop very easily but I have to update my macc set and try and see what I can get, would like to use this spell for the same applications as Thunderbolt.

4. Gates Of Hades: Nuking power? I dont mess with magical nukes much I just know the burn effect is there on it.


5. Tourbillion: A spell I dont have yet and a spell I hear is still messed up with accuracy which keeps from landing the base damage and the additional effect. I've heard to get around it one can SA it to get it to stick.


6. Pyric Bulwark: Clutch Spell. Has to be a situation to you can make it count for being hit by a physical tp move for it to be a big benefit over not using another UL bullet. In VW I can see one using this (with Diffusion) in a fana down situation with finicky procs or simply bad proccers or in recovery to re-zerg Prov watcher if your team wipes (seems to occur occasionally at about 25% if you aren't getting procs). Another that sounds somewhat lolzy and niche is you need to avoid damage when occult or utsu shadows are down.

7. Bilgestorm: My preferred optimal use for UL as the "angon" will help your damage and your party's damage for a rough span of 45 seconds to a minute. I'll be honest to say that I haven't calculated every Efflux > UL > Bilge duration to give the correct average but I'm confident on saying that(loleyeballing) in relations to myself popping temps and doing CDC > wing > CDC > monarchs > tp phase repeat and adjust for drinks wearing and procs filling my wings/fanatics/fools.

The only funky part about this spell is that the 3 effect downs are separate and wear off independently of one another I'm curious to whether some additonal effects can fail to activate at all or if i need to adjust for having macc for additonal effects when I use this. Because of being able to kill faster in VW and some other events this tends to be my normal use and an effect that's beneficial to other DD to assume that it's not being overwritten with a stronger or weaker defense down effect which of course can vary. In areas such as dynamis where you're probrably holding back by a far margin because of trying to proc with jas you dont need this spell as nothing in dyna farming is strong enough to warrant Efflux > bilge > CA > CDC > SC spell(or heavy strike if conserving).


8. Bloodrake: 99 mp for a 700~1k cure? Eh. I've lazily used it as a clutch cure sometimes with CA and without not a lot of a boost to notice otherwise and not something I'd seriously consider for self cure.



I do know that some of the scenarios I've suggested are not optimal or niche' I put them there for a broad range of uses that are somewhat effective, because the aim of this thread is to find remotely useful possibilities for each spell each use doesn't have to be optimal just "what-if" scenarios and what spell to use to react to that properly; because of that it's going to rely on pragmatic competence to get the question across I'm asking which I'm hoping my words convey.

Thanks for your time.

They're all worthless aside from Bilgestorm and Bloodrake.


That's it really.


Edit: Actually, Gates of Hades to lower nuke damage for mobs where that's a big deal... which uh... isn't a thing. So not really.

It also technically increases your BLM's nuke damage!

*** BLM!

Blue magic is the best magic!

Bulwark can be useful if you are protected somehow from melee hits. 1k needle type moves come to mind when soloing.

Only when Draylo uses it~

Well he is the only BLU capable of turning into a soulflayer

A sexy soulflayer.

Anyone know the going rates of landing thunderbolt/ Absolute terror effects on nms? if there isn't any I would like to try and see what I get.

It didn't land on Fafnir or Nidhogg =(

I wanted revenge.

Thunderbolt lands fine with appropriate gear. Absolute Terror is all but guaranteed to resist even on moderately strong level 75 cap NMs. I've never heard of it landing consistently or even inconsistently on a 75+ NM.

Tourbillion lands for damage without any issues, only the additional effect is busted. SA won't help with that.