And.....more change of role.

Blue mage, in many ppl's mind it's consider a useless/non-important job back in lv 75 era, now get a role change.

Back in lv 75 era, BLU is usually used as a DD. However in most situations it's weaker than 2h DDs such as WAR or SAM. It's the natural weakness of BLU. BLU has limited MP, and blue magic gets limited benefit from BRD and COR buffs. Against higher lv NM with higher def and eva, unbuffed blue magic dmg and 1h weapon gets slight disadvantage compare with 2h DDs. Of course you can /THF to add spell dmg, but CA and SA has lonnnnng recast time. Of course BLU can nuke, can heal/buff/support, but there are other jobs that's better at it. Therefore most ppl see BLU as a versatile job that doesn't excel in anything. And in FFXI, jobs without specialty is useless and not important for most players, including myself in fact. That's why I often emphasis the importance of headbutt spam stun, because BLU is the only job capable to do so. I often believe that "dealing dmg" is job of WAR or SAM, but not BLU. If a job with such versatile ability is also top DD, there's gonna be job balance problem. Apparently, other players don't buy that. Headbutt spam alone doesn't make BLU any more important. I guess that's the reason why SE changed that by giving BLU higher DD power.

New spells and new JA makes BLU much stronger than it used to be. MP problem is solved in abyssea with refresh atma, and lv correction problem is solved with STR atma/curor buffs. Outside of abby, with new DW job trait, I'm able to /RDM in old events such as Einherjar, with the power of convert, and refresh, I'm still able to spam spell none-stop for at least 85%+ of time. Also, mobs no longer IT+ in old events, so the spell dmg is no longer lame. I'm able to land 1k+ QC on DL the other day on my averge/mediocre geared BLU, which is just impossible back @75.

And most important of all, BLU is one of the most efficient job for abby time farm. BLU is able to solo Ephemeral mob easy in abby, capping azure light easy. Of course BLM is also good for Ephemeral azure light farm, but BLU can also get pearl light from them, which is an advantage BLM doesn't have. Now pretty much all JP /shout for abby EXP/AF3/NM/TE farm are looking for BLU now.

Now I'm asked to come BLU for most events I do. When I asked what job for Einherjar in 75 era, I got the reply "You'll never come BLU for Einherjar". And now I was asked to come BLU for Ein everytime. And of course I should, since my AF3-less gimp BLU now parsed higher than at least 85%+ of other AF3 DDs in Ein, even get on top3 list for a couple of times.

So I guess all the dmg output increase and azure light really changed how ppl look at this job, makes it more important than it used to be. Although BLU gets dmg output increase, but not to a point to make SAM and WAR and BLM obsolete. Now I can safely say that this is a good change.

Ok incoming QQ


---------< QQ Warning >------------

< QQ >

COR, however, is now much less useful than it used to be. I rarely use COR now, ppl rarely told me to, and I rarely feel I need to. :<

COR is already not a very useful job back @75.
There are only a few situations I find this job really useful back @75, and other jobs are hard to replace, such as:

1.EXP/merit pt lv 10~75, to increase EXP gained per hr
2.Ultima fight for Magus roll
3.ACP last boss for Magus roll and ranged dmg
4.Salvage boss fight for MNK roll

And that's it.

Generally, BRD is a more useful support job than COR. COR only shines in few situations.

And after the update, things get worse, this job is now totally irrelevant.

Now that's look at No.1.(We don't look at No.2~4 because those old events are so easy now, no longer need a COR) Now ppl EXP in abby. EXP roll doesn't work in abby. And Chaos roll, COR's most powerful DD roll( and the only DD roll that's competitive against BRD) now totally irrelevant with 4820349852 atma/curor buffs. You no longer need a COR to have a good Abyssea pt, this job is so irrelevant for EXPing now. Wait, ppl still care about EXP/hr now? I thought now ppl have trouble to spend merit, not getting good EXP/hr.

In events when DDs need more firepower, Einherjar for example(Yes, my Ein LS still do BRD 2hr rotation and DRK zerging in Einherjar now) BRD is a better choice. They have powerful 2hr, they have (real)haste, they can do rotation effectively. DD with BRD buff> DD with COR buff. DD with COR buff pt only wins if COR's dmg output is high enough to compensate.

Of course, COR has some buffs BRD doesn't have. But none of them are important enough to make this job as important as BRD. COR has magic attack roll, but 3 BLM deals more magic dmg than 1COR 2BLM. Why not just replace COR with another BLM? COR has snapshot roll BRD doesn't. But RNG doesn't need more dmg, they need to avoid getting hate. They shoot faster, they get hate faster, mob goes to RNG, and that actually lowers RNG's dmg output because of close distance. There are only a few, really a few situations that snapshot roll is useful. COR has fast cast roll, I guess it's useful for tanks in an alliance with BRD(not again). I used it once in lowman situations to help tanks keep shadows up, but I think BRD with march and elegy could archive same result+ more dmg.

And speak of elegy, COR can't land para/slow alone, so it totally wasted a spot in lowman situations.

Once I had a BRD v.s COR arguement with Kasrkin, who insists that COR>BRD because COR can do dmg. So let's talk about dmg, one reason why ppl play COR instead of BRD and hate COR/WHM.

When SE announced that they're going to boost COR's dmg output in the future, entire COR community is happy, that COR no longer have to /WHM and play like a BRD. So COR gets True shot JT and QDTP this update. I haven't seen much huge dmg output difference with True shot, but getting TP after using QD certainly increase WS frequency a lot, and made a significant difference. So is COR a good DD now? No. My gimp BLU still deals 2~3 times more dmg than my COR, and DRG still deals more dmg on birds. Even gun Empyrean WS turned out to be weaker than other Empyrean WSs. COR's dmg output is higher than it used to be, but not to a point to be a competitive DD since other DD jobs are also stronger. So when we need more dmg, we'll most likely still find other DD jobs.

My point for all the COR v.s BRD is that do dmg is not always important when we use a COR. We use a COR when we need the buffs/support JAs. If we need dmg we can find one million better DDs out there. What SE needs to do is to give COR a GOOD buff or support JA, that's useful. And give COR some JAs to enhance the buffs. BRD keep getting higher tier of buffs, ballad III, tier II Carols. So why bother with magus roll when tier II Carols can nullify magic dmg, and why bother with averge 2~3MP/tic evokers for MP regeneration when ballad can recover more MP consistently.

There are just way too many situations that when I use COR, I wish I'm a BRD instead. Lowman Carabosse for example, some ppl trio this NM with MNK BRD/WHM RDM setup, since I don't have a BRD, I ended up having to do Carabosse with MNK COR/WHM RDM and find extra healer to reduce the chance of death. COR/WHM can't cure as effectively as BRD/WHM without cure potency gear and other mage gears. Some ppl use it as an excuse that COR shouldn't /WHM, I found it actually a weakness when lowmanning stuff. Also, not able to land slow alone means I need to find extra RDM or BRD to land slow.

Ok, I know some ppl gonna say "if you want to make COR and BRD all the same, why don't you lv BRD". I wish the job I'm stuck on using is the job I like, not the job that's more useful.

Unless SE boost COR's dmg ability to a point like they did to BLU, MNK and DRG, it's not going to be more useful than it is now. This job can only be more useful if SE gives more potent and useful buffs/useful JAs. Not keep adding lol buffs like fake haste(blitzers).

So when is the last time I use COR and find it useful and unreplaceable?? Hmmm Assault for movement speed+ roll/gear I guess! What? BRD also has movement speed+ gear now? Ohhh nvm. I'm seriously considering lving DNC and make it my main anyways. DNC is damn useful to have and fun to play with!

< /QQ >