So, next update......

Since I haven't play COR for ages, I decided to bring it to Nyzul run while I grind some tokens, and I made up some excuses like "I'm already on COR, too lazy to job change and regear." ect.

Then I realized something....rather horrifying while I play this job in Nyzul.


That is, atm, I have no fun at all while playing the job, really.

No fun at all.

And I don't see how this gonna change after next update.

I have to admit, that I used be quite proud that I main this job, and nearly full time it, which was pretty rare. You can find one million Arma COR on the street, but probably not a lot of them dedicate themselves to main it, and full time it. I was quite proud with my AGI 8/8 merit which is pretty rare(Not a lot of players do AGI merit even if they have a very well geared COR, this includes certain Death Penalty owner). And the fact that I played this job for every situations helped me learned many ways to try my best to improve my performance even if it's not optimal job in that situation.

I used to use this job for nearly every lv 75 content events even if it's not optimal, Salvage, Einherjar, Dyna, NM zerging etc.....even after the advent of Abyssea era, which makes this job pretty useless, I still some how lived through it even before I got WF. I "invented"(?) a way to farm azure light on this job by subbing SCH and use QD to add dmg before nuke. I offered to Aeolian edge AoE burn gold chest when Memchii worked on his empy dagger by farming gold chests. I brewed Rani with Aeolian edge before WF complete, and still able to deal more dmg than other ppl's magical WS. I /DNC with an Evi set/atma to help with stun/haste samba for NMs that needs stun. Of course most of the time it's not optimal....why farm azure with FireII when I have BLU? Why cleave gold chests with Aeolian edge when I can BLU CW burn it? Why bother to /DNC for stun when BLU is a even better stunner?

I also use this job for NM zerging, which obviously isn't optimal. But I tried my best, by either do roll rotation for every pt then disband, or just spam WS for multiple times in very short time by repeatedly using QD and other JAs then reset it.

I used to had fun with it's versatile play style, have nearly every SJ leveled for it(besides BLM)just to play with different play style, and had more fun to research which style is the most optimal in given situations. /SAM WS spam times with vulcan's staff, /WAR with melee set for epeen slug shot dmg, /WHM or /SCH for support, /RDM for both support and WF epeen dmg, /DNC with daggers to play as a fake DNC with stun, cures and haste samba. I enjoyed the way that I can play however I want on this job, and there are one million different ways to gear it, which is unlike other jobs "You must use this Haste gear when you TP and that STR gear when you WS or else you're gearing it wrong!" The nature of COR allows me to change the ratio of DD and support however I want, and there are really no right/wrong way to do it. For example you can shoot stuff in more rattk gear, shoot 4 times for 100 TP and aim for more /ra DPS or shoot stuff in more STP gear, shoot only once or twice and make up the rest of the TP with regain, while doing other supportive moves like casting white magic from SJ or keep doing rolls for No.11. Most of the jobs in this game already has a default SJ and play style that you must follow, COR is one of the few jobs that allows me to make decisions based on situation and experiment with the result.

I enjoy to play this job as a fake DNC, fake BRD, fake BLM(with QD/WF, this job is pretty BLM like with lots of ranged magical dmg), fake RNG, and fake melee DD, and still keep the main aspect of the job(rolls and QD) nicely. The only aspect I don't enjoy on this job is QD solo and thats it.

I loved this process of trying something new and doing experiment, it gave me a fake illusion that I can create new value of this job, if I continuously trying.

However, good things eventually come to an end.

I started to realized that no matter how I play it, if it's not optimal, then it can be frustrating. Especially nowadays every player all has 10 jobs levelled and all geared with +2 5/5 and an empy, and job change easily.

Especially nowadays this job is pretty much categorized into WF only job, with every other aspect no longer makes a difference. And eventually they got old and boring.

I can reach 3k~3.8k slug WS in Nyzul on birds/imps if I have berserk/warcry up, and one shot them. By the time I engage next mob, TP full again with regain+QD. But doing epeen WS dmg isn't the main reason why I leveled COR....I'd go lv WAR if I want epeen WS dmg with a melee weapon. And COR buffs are rather irrelevant in Nyzul....except once I pt with a BLU that doesn't know how to conserve MP, I ended up giving him Evokers. But under any normal circumstances buffs rarely makes a difference in Nyzul, it's just a downtime regain whore.

I don't lv this job to WS. I really hate the fact that this job is categorized into a WF only job, that every COR I run into all using a vulcan's staff and an Arma(or Arma trial weapon), and only use one SJ everytime they play it. And every player that suddenly want to lv COR because "Wildfire is so cool","Wildfire is so awesome". No joke, I ran into countless players wanted to lv COR just for WF.

I thought this job is more useful in VWNM, but IMO it's overrated in VWNM. Magic def roll barely makes a difference and it can't save anyone's butt. If you need defensive buffs, CarolI/II and Scherzo is way better than anything COR can offer. Mages doesn't need evokers at all if your pt is big enough(which you should for VWNM, the nature of VWNM is "more the merrier", unlike Abyssea "less the better"). RefreshII, double ballad, refresh gears, /SCH...., with an Ochain PLD tanking WHM hardly need evokers. The only roll that's useful in VWNM is just regain, so DDs can proc faster without eating AOE.

I don't lv this job to be a regain whore either.

Most of the time if I do VWNM, all I do was just watch ppl proc, while everyone avoid killing it too fast. Keep doing rolls that doesn't make a damn difference, spam cure/help raise/spam -na or erase, and occasionally do WF when someone proced for blitz, if I'm rdy. And really, this can be done on other jobs.

I used to be quite proud of having 15 sets of gears on it and bunch of SJ for this job ready for every situation. Only to find that most of them are not really needed, and I'm somewhat tired after trying to find new value of the job over and over again , but only ended up as failure.


Perhaps I'm taking this job way too seriously, that I no longer find it fun to play with. The only reason for me to play it is only because I have better gears on COR and that's it, and for some reason, ppl tend to play jobs that's more well geared in this game, I'm no exception.

Perhaps time to take a break on this job.








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By next update BLU will receive a bunch of new spells that looks pretty fun to play with, including a spell with incredible dmg output, rumor says it works very well on high def high lv mobs, this may change the way BLU is played entirely. (Inc acc sword more useful again?)

And new defensive/buff spells too.

This is really exciting. I can't wait to try it out, it is indeed something new. It may offer new value of the job blue mage, like every update in the past.

COR gets 2 new rolls next update.....two shit rolls that doesn't have much use atm. And I'm not going out to drag my sheep taru BST friends to some weird places for a BST pt just to find a new value of the new pet roll. I would do that a couple of months ago, but not now, not when I having no fun to play COR anymore. Not when I no longer play FFXI as much as I used to be either.

The fact that I don't take BLU that seriously allows me to play it causally and try my best with pure skill, and having more fun to play with the job. My BLU doesn't really outperform other BLUs with average gear, and I don't really have much talent in playing BLU....I do believe "talent" is important to master a job in FFXI, not just gears(that's why you see shit players in top gears all the time, they have no talent in playing that particular job). Most of the time I can get the job done on BLU, even though it's just an average BLU. I never try to create any sorts of new value either....if I can't get it done, I just let it go.

By next update, I probably will take a break on COR for a bit, leaving it at lv 90 for a while. And play with BLU and it's new spells. I still plan to do one more test on COR, and maybe will occasionally play it before next update, but I probably won't be running on COR 95 for a while.

I'd still work on Mythic, since it's gonna take another 3~5 years to finish anyways, long enough for a break ;)

If anyone helped through the process of building Empy/Mythic, your effort is not wasted, I will still use it if the situation really really needs it and if it actually helps, although I doubt that situation even exist.....really, BLU has no problem for VWNM at all, I've tried it, it's not better nor worse than COR, both jobs are highly replaceable for this event anyways.

I already have almost every SJ leveled for next update, besides BLM and MNK. So I plan to get BLU to 95 first, then play with new spells, grind old/new gears while playing with new spells, until I'm tired of it. Then maybe I will feel like playing with COR and revive it again.

I used to took many breaks on COR in the past as well, I still remember I used to told everyone in Moghat that I retired COR because I don't feel I'm good enough with it long time ago. I also took a short break after Arma was done due to frustration of making an empy and did't really want to equip it at that time(And Connavarr ended up not knowing I have an empy COR at all because I didn't play it at that time). So this isn't the first time, nor the last time that I'm taking a break from it.


I guess in the battle of dark side v.s light side, my dark side wins....for now.