50!

I logged on earlier today and see a /shout EXP pt in XIV, and joined the pt. Finally PGL ding 50 in pt! 1st lv 50 in FFXIV!

Although this is very, very slow to ding 50 in such a long time(I started my char since launch, so that's 1.5 years of playing lol). Average player can reach 50 in weeks/months probably, as long as they join EXP pt.

Sadly PGL doesn't seem popular in EG, if I want to get into EG in XIV I probably need to lv mage or archer.

Tbh I don't even know if I will keep playing next month. I don't really feel like keep going, as XIV has nothing interesting atm. I'll probably just cancel account and start playing some single player RPG when I got bored of XI.

I still don't understand why SE insist to keep running XIV. Although I enjoy XIV's battle system very much(which is 100x more fun than XI's), lack of player base/content just killed it.

So what to do in XIV next? Probably another job 50, and start doing research, working on gears and so on............my life changed after my 1st job in XI hit 75, when it became a gear grinding hell and lots of research in world of EG instead of reading story and play for fun, I guess this applies to XIV too, maybe.

THM or ARC next probably!

BLU melee build

I've been wondering recently, that if BLU melee build is really as strong as what others say. I have to admit, I hardly play/research about BLU anymore(Zeig said I've been in COR mode recently), however while I helped some Cara on BLU/WAR and played with job trait and such, I find BLU melee/WS dmg actually improved a lot recently, to an unbelievable point.

Anyways, a BLU/WAR melee build going all out with those job trait:

Triple attack(12)
Counter(5)
Dual wield 3(20)
STP 2(13)
Zanshin(4)
Accuracy bonus if needed(5)


That's just enough set point to set everything, and have most of the offensive JA in this game. Depending on situation, can remove counter or acc bonus for Triumphant Roar.

Sadly not entirely practical except Abyssea......even in Abyssea not all that practical......


In dyna I /DNC and often set sleeps and cures etc.

I imagine in Nyzul spell spam still on the top against fodder mobs, down time also reduce the value of aftermath for Almace BLUs.

In VW there won't be enough room to set proc spell like this........1st time in my life that I started to dislike VW proc system.

Probably works the best in Abyssea on NMs, when you just engage and melee WS. But wait, ppl don't use BLU in abyssea ><

Since there are no room for A.spike for Almace BLUs, was wondering if it's possible to just drop the idea of self SC in such situations. The casting time and popping JA time(thus losing DPS) doesn't seems worth it on NMs.

Not to mention I'm still not sure how effective A.spike is on NM.................I bet not so good since it isn't impressive on fodder either.

New thing to play with/research now! But need to finish Almace q.q.

Push!

Just a few weeks ago I complained(?) that COR can't do Last Stand as good as relic gun RNG, after seeing Bluesky's 4.4k on Pil.

After a few more Pil run, I broke 4.4k on Pil myself with a No.11 chaos >.>

So I guess it's possible, after all XD

This makes me wonder if breaking 5k is possible, assuming I have pimpest WS set possible(atm it's far from pimp), such as AGI+4/TP bonus+rattk+4 WoTG earring, Neo Nyzul head, lv 99 Arma, Neo Nyzul legs, and buffed by a lv 99 empy harp BRD. That'd push the dmg a lot higher, thus making 5k+ possible.

I'm also tempted to find out Athos's gloves v.s Alruna on right day. Probably gonna do more test soon.

As far as body goes, I was testing athos's body v.s loki, it seems athos's body goes higher. Although that's also probably cuz I got enough attack buffs. I doubt relic+2 body is good though, will test all 3 body soonish, but I'm guessing Athos>Loki>relic+2 body.

Gonna test Alruna v.s Athos's gloves soon! And hopefully I can get a few Nyzul pieces sometime. Been slowly working on a lv 99 Arma thanks to none-existent Alexandrite market that made me semi-give up on DP, I have a feeling that I will finish lv 95 Arma before I finish DP - -.

How to get to floor 100

It seems currently known method of getting to F100 in Neo Nyzul is:

1. 3rd pt tool. (So I'm out)

2. PT has SCH x1 with 500+ enhancing and full time embrava pt, then freeze timer (I'm out again)

3. MNK x4 and 1 THF/WAR (out out out)



Now I'm starting to feel this event is retarded, but not because it's hard, but because how SE asks players to use 3rd pt tool or exploit.

I'm willing to accept the challenges, as long as 3rd pt tool/exploit isn't an requirement.

Of course, one can argue that ppl uses 3rd pt tool/exploit all the time for gears. Such as botting on HNM, or freeze brew timer. However, none of those are "required" for those gears. Cheating on HNM is the result of competition, while freeze brew timer just makes things faster but not necessary.


I guess +3 is the very best I can get, or probably +2 even.

New nyzul

So this update added many new gears(possibly from Nyzul), apparently many of my old gears are trashed right away.

Head:
Best WF/Last Stand head atm, unless I need racc for Last Stand. That's why I haven't drop 6M on Oce headpiece +1 XD

Also good for Exenterator since I don't have Toci and WS in Athos's body.

Body:
First TP body with haste + Quadruple attack options for both COR and BLU. Could mess around and to see the optimal set.

Hands:
Don't see much use here atm, although I could be wrong.

Legs:
Last Stand when racc not needed, or Exenterator.
My newly obtained Ambusher is now WF only pants, and that just hurts inv.

Feet:
Exenterator/Req maybe, with attack+14 and DA. With haste on the body now, it is possible to TP in this for DA and still cap haste.

My inv ;(








           

Fiat Lux

Thanks to Ejiin who worked on Northland influence by cleaving campaign mobs, and many others who joined+ /shout, Fiat Lux BC is finally opened on this server this week.

Last time this BC opened is nearly 2 years ago. I didn't had highest medal back then, now I can finally get clear of this fight and obtain the atma.

This BC is very easy trio at this level, which is a bit sad, considering it's supposed to be a challenging fight at 75 with a balanced pt and considered "Final Boss" of Campaign game content.

Perhaps it's another "solo BC" fight that if I need challenges I'd need to attempt it solo................

Graduated from Bubu

After nearly 70 kills of B.rex, finally.

Athos's Tabard gotgotgotgotgotgotgot!.


I have to admit, the process of making B.rex pt every week is somewhat of a weird experience. Some ppl requested to add me on FL so I can grab them when I make B.rex pt, and my FL happened to got a lot longer than it used to be thanks to B.rex.  Some ppl lied(probably, or else you wouldn't avg 200 thundaja on that flan) about having max elemental magic skill just so they can get in. Some ppl harass or insult when they can't get into the pt due to not meeting requirement, some even request me to kick other members to fit in. All sorts of weird things going on, thanks to this shitty and yet challenging NM(until AoE nerf at least)

For anyone interested in making a successful /shout pt for B.rex, here are some tips. Hopefully following those tips which I discovered after winning(and wiping)  may pt, so ppl can start making their own successful pt instead of having to do all sorts of dirty tricks to get in.


1. The strat I used is BLM burn, which is the most popular strat among JPs. I heard Ukko WAR melee zerg works, and I've seen it worked well (killed it in under 2 min), however that requires a couple of VERY well geared Ukko WAR, personally I don't know any. So I'd rather just play safe and use this method, which is safe and easy to do with /shout pt as long as leader is picky enough.

2. My pt setup:
PLD COR WHM RDM BLU RNG   WAR DRK MNK(or BLM) COR WHM NIN
BLM BLM BLM BLM SMN BRD

If your BLMs are very pimp, you can just use 4 BLMs and have a MNK to include h2h+ some club/staff proc. If your BLM are just random avg BLM, it's safer to use 5 BLM instead of 4 for more dmg. Personally I'd rather do it with 5 BLM and just reset if it really locked on proc.

3. There are certain requirement for some jobs when leader making pt. WAR needs /MNK if pt has 5 BLM and no MNK for Chi blast. DRK needs to /DRG, NIN needs to /DNC, RDM needs /BLM. WHM needs to /SCH and must have firestorm + boost AGI spell for WF RNG and CORs. Plus cure potency 50%. BLM needs thundaja/magian staff/capped elemental magic, and fully upgraded atmacite. All melees needs to have every weapon skill capped, like NIN needs GK, WAR needs polearm, DRK needs GA and axe(war can do it, but faster if 2 ppl doing it) MNK needs club staff etc. PLD BLU can also do club. And RNG COR needs WF.

I often made sure everyone that wants to join meets the requirement. Anyone not meeting the requirement will increase the chance of wiping a lot. A lot of VW /shout leaders doesn't setup requirements when they /shout, or just easily make exceptions, that's often why VW /shout pt often fail or kills slow(or they just didn't know how to make right setup in general) Empy isn't requirement for melees in this fight as procs are more important though.

It's a very time consuming process to ask everyone that sent /tell about the detail of their jobs. However it's better than spend 1hr+ to make a pt, and in the end pt wiped 4x.

4. Before I popped, I also disband and buff BLM pt with wizards roll, then go back to my pt. With newly augmented relic+2 head, my buff can stay for almost 7 min, enough to go back to my pt, buff 2x and zerg the NM down in 3 min.

Also have DRK and RDM/BLM assigned for stun role to stun 2hr. Have ppl make fool/fana warning macro with call to remind ppl pop fool/fana during/after 2hr. Also BLMs need to cancel shell, and WHM/SCH need to buff pt with firestorm+boost AGI for WF.

5. After NM popped, I often have PLD hold it while other ppl find HQ hint by spamming dia or having PLD spam WS JA. Many JP pt doesn't went through this process, so sometimes when I pt with JPs they ended up started DDing from the beginning and pull hate+MPK. I'm more comfortable to went through this process though. Save w/e EV HQ hint for 2hr.

6. Everyone in BLM pt(include BRD SMN) full attack with fana, must have scherzo, Manawall and Earthean armor up. BLM nuke with thundaja thunder V etc. WFers spams WF while hate on BLM pt. Off pt BLM(BLM not in SMN BRD pt) work on proc. Melees pop fana and work on melee NQ procs but save HQ.

7. At 70% it will chainspell, RDM and DRK stun it, pop fool and fool warning macro. Do HQ/EV proc. At the end of 2hr pop fana and fana warning macro, so no one gets one shotted by TP move after 2hr ends. At 30% NM will charm melees+BLM pt, so all back line jobs must save fana for it.

8. BLM pt and melees pop fana again after 2hr and finish it. Depending on how pimp your pt is, you can kill the NM with just 1 HQ/EV proc. The gimper the pt, the more HQ/EV proc is needed to finish it, therefore higher chance of wiping. That's why dmg output of entire pt is very important. If fight starts to drag with too many ppl weakened and no proc, may as well run away and reset, probably much faster to just run and reset. This thing should be dead in 3 min if done right, if it lasts more than 3 min, it's either someone lying about their BLM, or BLM didn't pop temp fast enough and died, or just bad proc. But since 2 HQ is needed to cap light, do 2nd HQ at about 30%~40% ish.

9. And just finish it!


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I realized the job COR is actually more suitable as a pt lead. This job is, IMO, MADE to be a pt lead job.

One of the reason is because in order to make use of full potential of variety of buffs, COR needs to have somewhat high influence in the direction where this pt goes. A lot of pt leads tend to ignore such detail. A good pt lead needs to have clear idea of where the pt is going and how to do it right, but a lot of pt lead have no idea how to use buffs properly. And even if they know what to buff the pts, a lot of CORs just follow without thinking. And unless COR itself is pt lead, I don't know how to solve this problem tbh.

This job is, IMO, supposed to be controlling the flow of pt. And jobs like WAR or MNK doesn't need to control the flow of pt, only need to smash things up, or proc w/e comes up.

That's why I rarely join other ppl's pt on COR, because 99% of pt lead will just put me in slight disadvantage, that I'd rather make my own pt.

For example, many VW pt lead still don't put BRD in DD pt, COR without BRD buff dmg will drop shit(not just melee drop shit) Many VW pt lead doesn't do roll rotation for another pt too, and even if they know how to do it, not every COR geared/merited that way to be roll rotation friendly. Once I even got invited into a pt, but put me in mage pt instead of DD pt, and told me to do snapshot roll, on a T6 VWNM. Which was just major /facepalm.

Sometimes which job benefits from which buff requires thinking and lots of research from different parse results, that only pt lead can do it most efficiently, to make decisions about which buff to use. When to use defensive buffs, when to use offensive ones, and when to use both by placing pt memebers on different spot.

And it's sad, that although that there are a LOT more CORs these days and most have WF, that I got them fairly easily in VW /shout, I can probably name only 1~2 of them that really think a lot about other aspect the job, and have deep fundamental understanding about those aspect too. Most of them I run into still stuck with do 2 rolls and spam WF without thinking.....everytime when I see ppl spam WF on Qilin I can't help but /facepalm.




Oh and btw, thanks to firestorm, boost AGI, change of SJ and new gears, my WF now avg 3k on this flan with just one dmg+ atmacite(2nd one being save TP+20), which I'm pretty happy with. When I just revived COR, it only avg less than 2k on NM, now it's a lot stronger than 1.5 months ago.

9 months of VW

So VW has been out for about 9 months if I remember correctly.

Recently it had been a lot harder to get ppl for VW by /shout, especially none B.rex T6s. T3 is still ok, but T6 is a pain.

And since I'm currently 0/61 Athos body, nearly 0/30 Athos pants, and about 0/24 Athos head, plus nearly 0/100 Toci, it can be a bit frustrating with such bad luck and trouble to gather a group.

How do I like this event in general? Compare with Abyssea and lv 75 era?

Although bad luck getting drop and spending 1~2hr making a pt can be frustrated, I'd say VW is still a fairly enjoyable event, that's very different from 75 era and Abyssea era in many aspect. Note that I've ever done HNM at 75(not like I have an HNM gear job to begin with), so I'll skip that part.

Lv 75 era event are mostly "play this game like a job" era for me. Since you need to enter certain area such as Dyna/limbus/Einherjar on specific time. And there are DKP and lotting right to deal with. So it's an era of log on during certain time when event time is up(and quit possibly skip RL or rush home for it), do the event and get paid. Events in 75 era is pretty serious....at least I took it seriously and would rather like ppl took it seriously too. Most of the event are done with same LS, so it's always same ppl I pt with. Although I only know/interact/talk to maybe 5% of ppl in entire LS as many ppl often come and go.

Abyssea is "play with close friend or mule only" event for me. Ppl with 1~2 close friend or mule can spend all day in Abyssea and get everything. The chance of playing with other none close friend/mule player is pretty low. When Ager just made MLIA, it was a big LS like lv 75 era, with 18 ppl doing events and killing NM. As soon as more ppl discovered the most efficient way of getting Abyssea gears, it no longer works as a lv 75 era event and became a pt of 1~2 player event.

I mostly do VW by /shout or join /shout pt, while dragging ppl I know of if they're interested. I'd say VW is very different from lv 75 era big LS event and Abyssea lowman event. Although /shout can be pretty time consuming, but the fact that everyone gets individual gold chests means at least I don't have to deal with attendance and DKP, which is a pain in the ass IMO. Not to mention I don't really need to do the event like a 2nd job.

Since I make or join /shout pt a lot, I get to know and interact vast variety of player from different LS, who I usually have no chance to play with before. I get to see different players with different play style, and how they perform, which is a good learning process. There are many players I didn't have much chance to talk to before VW........for example I was in Atrele and Ganukay's LS for Einherjar, but rarely talked to them both when I did Einherjar with both LSs. I talked to them a lot often now about VW(and in Ganukay's case, about COR since he's lving it) since we pt a lot for VW.

Slowly I learned who is good at X job and Y job by watching them fight carefully and asked for parse result if someone is parsing, and how to arrange them to have max pt efficiency so ppl with right talent plays right jobs. Sometimes this involves more than looking at their gears....a player with elite gear for A job doesn't necessarily have the talent to play A job efficiently, however he may have talent in playing B job, then I'd still make him come B job. Sometimes if this player have talent in B job, but pt already have B job or doesn't need this job, I'd still make him come B job just so that pt will have better performance.

I find it a lot of fun in a way. To deal with different and new ppl every time, and to learn how they play their job by observing carefully, and make decision for pt management. Since many people plays differently even on same job. Sometimes pt with player who is extremely good at one particular job, sometimes I pt with player that is pretty versatile, have almost every job but none of the jobs stand out. And it's a lot of decision making to decide how to make good use of everyone's ability depending on their talent set.

That's why I'm starting to feel the talk of X job v.s Y job for VW on AH thread is dumb. It's eliminating the difference between each player. And calling others "gimp and not playing right if you're not playing offensively" or "Get better X job to compare" is just assuming we're in a perfect world, with every player perfect and no strength/weakness. That's impractical comparison, and will often lower pt efficiency because the thought of "X job is the best and should do this" will lead to having wrong ppl playing the wrong job or in wrong role.

I know Marquiss plays BLU offensively and have the ability to, that's why I don't see it a big problem to have him enter DD mode when other SAM and DRK couldn't do as much. I know if I play BLU I don't have the ability to deal good dmg especially on T6, so I pretty much always enter full support mode on BLU if it's T6 because it's more beneficial to the pt, and tell other BLUs that can't play that offensively to do so too, and there is nothing fucking wrong with that. I know Returner's DRK has better output than majority of other DRK, so I almost always made him come DRK, and I know a couple of WHM that is skilled, and will have them come WHM. I know my COR contributes in the dmg department a lot, so even if someone else wants to come COR and insisted to, I'd still stay COR myself and make pt double COR. If Blueskysapphire wants to join pt, I almost always made him come RNG also. Sometimes I skipped jobs like SAM, or SMN, even though they can proc and there's a risk of getting locked on proc without one, but it's not always the most efficient way to make pt depending on who I got.

IMO, although dealing with shit drop and /shout for 2hr can be frustrating, VW is still so far the only event I get to pt with this many different ppl, from different timezone/country(I hardly get to pt with JPs before VW exist....none-EXP pt I mean) and Linkshells. I get to pt with many ppl that I will never have a chance to at lv 75/abyssea era.

I guess, in a way I like it. I'm more or less getting tired of close minded nature of Abyssea. In Abyssea dealing with different player's talent set doesn't really matter, it's really the job and proc that matters, with zero pt management element. IMO, VW should really be how this game headed as a direction, as long as they can fix the problem of how I'm running out of players to do B.rex with when everyone else all got Athos body and run ;(

Back to Eorzea

I reactivated my char in XIV again.

I somewhat missed XIV, and decided to go back to see how the game is right now, and first thing I did is do world search again, to see how many player left in XIV after they started charging.

Although I did search during midnight, which isn't a lot of player, the number of player is still very low.....about 230~240 on my server. Compare with FFXI which still has at least 1.5k+ on the same time.

A bit sad really, I don't even know if it's possible to make an EXP pt like this(it was very hard before, now only gets harder with less ppl.)

So I just solo leve all day long, and do quests.

When this game just launched, it had 1.8k player per server, more than XI at that time. 3 starting cities are full of players crafting.

I remember the day I tried Behest for first time. It was plenty of fun to bash monsters with such large group of players. Some of the more popular Behest area I can't even join the pt because it's often full.

I'll stay in XIV for a bit, I guess. Since I already paid for 1 month. However just like XI, XIV doesn't have much to do......I mean, I have plenty of things not done in both games, but in reality, nothing to do due to how boths games are kinda dead atm.

Regret

After I dropped HP for MP merit, the low HP(thus higher chance to get one shotted in VW) is starting to annoy me.

Probably gonna give up my dream to play as COR/WHM fake BRD and get my HP back, despite I love BRD so much.

On the other hand just changed PR merit to 5/5, gonna test it out. Hopefully I'll like it.

Gender

Despite I never made it clear, every once a while I often heard ppl spreading rumor(?) about my gender, says I'm a guy and so on. And this especially happens often when ppl butt hurt about me for some stupid reasons.

Tbh, I never understand why ppl care about the player gender behind the computer so much.

So if I'm a guy controlling a female char, will that make things different from how it is? Or if I'm a female playing  a female char, will that makes things different?

Everything about this character Afania, is just an illusion exist on the internet. That doesn't really exist. What makes the player gender relevant? I can tell everyone in XI that I'm a guy(and act like one) and ppl will believe, or I can tell everyone that I'm a girl(and act like a typical female player too) and ppl will still believe, so in the end does it matter?

Note that the rumor of me being a guy often pop when someone's pissed at me for no particular reason(like parse drama this time, or joytoy drama years ago). I have no idea why. I can only guess it's because:

1. Guys often piss off other ppl more.

2. Cuz ppl expect girls to act sweet and nicer, or at least following certain behavior.

3. I really have no idea D;

I believe it's either No.1 or No.2, maybe has something to do with player skill or play style and so on. But I guess that's because ppl expect female player to have certain behavior and follow certain pattern.

I admit, I fell into this trap often. There are certain  players on this server that I never know it's a she until someone told me.

I also found that female player often has certain advantage sometimes because certain male player will act nicer to female player. Thus making male player pretending to be female a crime, and probably another reason why rumor about my gender pops here and there.

Tbh, I found it annoying. I remember once Zeig joked about wanting to make female char in game, and I also often heard ppl talking about playing as female char will have an easy life. This subtly indicated that female chars are big leech and took advantages of being a female char.

I may be wrong but personally I don't think I took advantage of being a female char and leech for achievement....maybe I did, but never really intentionally. I made my own mission statics when I wanted mission clears. Made ToAU content(salvage/nyzul etc) static when I wanted Mythic, made 18 ppl alliance for ToAU HNM when I wanted titles for Mythic, made my own Abyssea static when I wanted +2, and made my own B.rex pt many times when I wanted Athos body. I never obtain any significant EG gear back at 75 era, all relic armor/homam/ZNM obtained are lotted through points instead of cybering with leader. The only EG gear I obtained that's rare is just w.legs......but Kirin+gods are easy to kill anyways, that I don't think it's any worthwhile achievement.

I believe that if you can't get something done for certain reason, try to suck less and work harder and increase more pt efficency with better skill/gear, or do more research and thinking, or just make more mules. (I have to admit, if this is still lv 75 era and I wanted relic/homam I'd make my own lowman static for it instead of waited for months on a long list....but I was a noob with no connection back then), and that just has nothing to do with gender.

Female char or male char? It's irrelevant to me. If someone needs help and deserves help, I'd help regardless of gender. If someone deserves certain gear, I'd let he/she lot regardless of gender. And those who made decision about lotting right based on gender is kinda dumb(and unfair) IMO.

Rethink

With recent conversation about several players, who suggested different roll setup for VW, this made me rethink about applicable rolls in VW for DD pt.

One of the WAR suggested Regain+Chaos, although I do agree that chaos provides bigger boost than few TPs, but regain instead of save TP is big question. Assuming both buffs are both No.11, Misers has 5 times more TP return than one tick regain, that means regain needs 15 sec to catch up to Misers.

Since any WAR with double march can WS way faster than 15 sec/WS in VW, there's no way that Regain can beat misers.

However, what I was wondering is if sacrificing misers for 2nd boost dmg roll like DA or crit is worth it.

It seems with all the wings spam, and how misers can ended up very little TP(thus didn't lower your hit build, like old SAM roll debate) if number is bad, aiming for highest WS dmg may be the way to go.

Then the next question is, DA v.s attack v.s crit-hit roll.

This is obviously very job dependent, very mob dependent too.

SAM and none-Rag DRK barely benefit from crit-hit due to lack of crit-hit WS.

WAR BLU NIN MNK may benefit from crit-hit roll.

According to some parse done by Marquiss, chaos roll increased about 100 CDC avg dmg on Qilin, which isn't a lot. I kinda believe crit-hit roll+DA may have higher WS avg output, at least for CDC. This may apply to Ukko also.

Crit-hit roll may also benefit melee DPS more than chaos, at least for sword(almace).

However for job like SAM and none-rag DRK,  DA Chaos may still be the way to go.

That means for optimal result, I need different DD buffs depending on the job.

That also means old roll rotation is back, roll DD A X and Y roll, DD B Y and Z roll, finally myself completely different set of DD rolls....since I don't need DA and crit-hit roll.

At least I'm glad that roll rotation is back. Rolling only 2 rolls is just boring. With newly finished winning streak augment, each roll can stay for nearly 7 min, enough to roll a bunch of different rolls for everyone.

20 jobs

I do /shout VW pt pretty often, and sometimes I often got /tell asking "what job you need?", if I answered "What job do you have?", I sometimes got "I have almost every job" reply.

I know now with easy +2, easy empy and easy EXP, many ppl have 10 or even 20 jobs 99.

And quite a lot of ppl tend to "look down" on those with 1 job, like it's a huge crime not to have NIN WAR MNK WHM for abyssea, BST DNC THF for dyna, or plays job like PUP etc.

I won't deny that playing only one job is pretty inconvenient most of the time. That a player with variety of job available will have easier life in this game. 

However, most of the time that if I got "I have almost every job" reply, I tend to got BLM that has no thundaja because it's "too expensive"and refuse to buy it, no magian staff too. Or WHM with only 20% cure potency. Or empy/relic DDs doing 2%~5% on parse and so on. 

One simple fact is, if you have 20 jobs, you can't be good at all of them, even if you have enough time to grind gears for all jobs, there won't be enough inv to fit them all. In fact I only have 2 jobs, and my BLU is gimp as fuck, skipped many pieces for optimal result due to inv issue etc. And I know that my BLU will never be good, it never was, and never will. 

I still don't understand why ppl would lv 20 jobs, and asked "what job do you need?" in VW pt, listed them all, when majority of jobs listed are not use-able without proper spell/gear/skill, just to get a pt invite.

Tavera said it's variety, and it's fun to play different jobs. I guess that's probably the main reason. However as this game starting to move out of Abyssea with MORE gear grind, and some design such as 3 limited merit WS, it's clear that having variety of job means you more or less have to sacrifice something. 

And I think it's a fair trade. Bandwagon 20 jobs all you want, I'm still gonna ignore your /tell to a B.rex run if you don't have Thundaja. 

Hybrid

So someone on AH started a thread named Versatility on BLU in VW on BLU forum. Although the title says about versatility, the thread actually ended up as BLU being a viable DD or not.

Then the entire thread turned into Prothescar claiming BLU is top tier DD in VW, right below WAR but better than MNK, and BLU should go all out DD instead of sit back and proc.

Minjo made an interesting comment in the dicussion:

"BLU isn't versatile. In fact, it's become extremely useful because it's drifted so far from versatility. It went from a hybrid melee-spellcaster that was fairly useless for everything to a very respectable melee job that hardly ever touches the spell list outside of proc situations."


IMO, that actually sum up the situation of any job that wants to fit in end game.

Versatility shines in lowman, but real large scale EG event there aren't much use for hybrids.

DNC, PUP, SCH, BLU, RDM, all those are jobs are hybrid, and not really considered main stream EG job. RDM used to dominate, but not anymore, when it's unique aspect is replaced or not irrelevant. NIN was considered hybrid, but it wasn't revived until Abyssea comes and it's dmg output increased, plus proc and how it's lowman/solo friendly. In fact if there isn't proc I'm going to put my money on the table that you won't see NIN in VW at all.

It seems that hybrid job without main focus just doesn't fit all that into large scale event in this game.

If BLU really become "useful" because it's dmg increase and more DD focus, it will somewhat kill the job for me, since most of the fun I get from playing BLU is lowman.......duo, solo, make use of it's versatility. For me BLU is always a lowman job while COR being my EG job, since lv 75.

I guess in a way, I'm not ready to accept the era of BLU playing all out offensively like a MNK DRK etc.

On the other hand that also means certain job is only useful if one aspect shines.

I have to admit, I'm worry about after save TP nerf COR will go back to the era of "nice to have, but not must have" weak job, due to lack of main focus as a hybrid job, that I may as well just retire it again and focus on DD BLU if I need dmg.

At this point of time, I'd say COR in VW is the golden era of COR, that only once exist long time ago in pink bird merit pt(which isn't EG).  Both as a buffer as a DD.

In a DD zerg pt with other melees, I usually parse around 7%~24% in VW alliance. I admit I can't beat good/elite tier melees and RNGs, but average empy WAR/shoha SAM/DRK/relic bow RNG that doesn't know what they're doing, I can win pretty easily.

In B.rex pt, it's anywhere between 20%~39% (highest record), which is slightly higher due to it's weak against magic.

Although still not a top tier DD, I'd still consider it a "DD" job atm, and it's dmg is somewhat relevant.

Compare with 75 era, COR dmg output in an alliance is about 1%~3%. This is based on Einherjar parse with Sinister. Tigerfury, the best COR I know of at 75 and a player I learned a lot about this job from, barely break 5% in entire alliance, and he was doing at least more dmg than a THF.

COR has a bit higher output in pink bird merit pt due to birds weak against piercing, plus they have lower evasion. Therefore it has somewhat relevant output in pink bird pt. But in real 75 EG event like Einherjar it hardly make a difference......weak acc, low combat skill, it's such a killer for anyone who wants to play offensively.

In terms of support, DD buff it's hardly as game breaking as BRD double march. Chaos is good, however fighters won't cut it compare with march.

In fact even chaos is questionable on T3.....Marquiss's parse shows only 100 dmg increase with chaos on Qilin.

That made the job a hybrid, with 2 different aspect, but none of the aspect makes a huge difference.

At this point of time, buff of this job makes bigger difference than 75 era fighter, save TP is so powerful that SE actually wanted to nerf it. It's dmg is also a lot more relevant than 75.....I parsed anywhere from  No.4~No.1 with other melees and RNGs depending on situation, this never happened at 75.

I used to duo/trio dyna on BLU, after I lv COR to 99 and learned Misers I started to duo/trio on COR only. My COR's dmg certainly beats my BLU atm(since my BLU gimp anyways), and it's TP buff actually benefits other pt member greatly, that I had way better result and killing speed on COR than BLU. In fact I ended up using COR for everything including lowman ZNM just because it's dmg, plus dmg added to pt member, easily made it worth while. This never happen in my whole life, after 2.5 years of play this job and main it.

After save TP nerf I expect the dmg of this job will drop a lot being WS spike dmg job and fairly weak and slow during TP phrase, everyone will drop dmg, but COR will drop more than every other DD. Beating up average melees on parse probably not gonna happen anymore. It will go back to the dark era of dmg output not being relevant again.

Long time ago I already stated that unless hybrid has one aspect that's strong enough to make a game changing difference, it will never get a place. DNC is a pretty good DD even outside of abby, but it never get invited as a DD in VW. So does SCH and PUP, they never got invite as a nuker, or DD, or healer. RDM and BLU only got invited to VW as a proc whore that's it.

And that's probably why those BLU mains tried so hard to made BLU into a DD focused job, to make it have a relevant spot in EG.

I have to admit, after I revived COR for VW, I enjoyed the job a lot, for 1.5 months. I never had a job that can WS this much, and kill this fast with a pt. I never had the luxury of  reaching on top of the parse in EG and epeen this much in my whole life. My buffs never made such a noticeable difference. Misers roll, 2 hit WS back to back, self skill chain with double QD and misers in dyna, spam waltz 3 like no tomorrow and never die.........I never seen so many CORs on the street, with everyone and their mother lving it. And I'm happy, I was quite lonely in this game to play a least played job in this game, but VW made it bandwagon, now I have a lot more companions, and more ppl to talk about the job.

Now it's all like a dream in the past.

Except, this dream is so short, sweet and short.

After I tasted sweet dream, I'm unable to go back again.

I remember ppl always jelly if I somehow top the parse, or tried to deal decent dmg.

At lv 75 one RNG told me I'm a gambler, not a DD.

In VW era Returner told me the same, says something like it isn't fair for a buffer to do this much dmg.

For many ppl, COR doing DD tier dmg is just wrong and needs to be fixed.

Now the fix is here, by next update I'm going to put my money on the table that an elite tier BRD/DNC singing march x2 and swinging Mandau spamming Exe duoing with a THF/DNC will kill way faster than elite tier COR/DNC using w/e DD roll it has, swinging Qilin dagger spamming WF/last stand duoing with a THF.

So what's the point to even bring the job to dyna, nyzul, salvage etc? Except doing attack buff whore in Legion and VW, so DRK WAR RNG can epeen more.

I guess time to continue to finish Almace for my BLU, and just screw COR for now, so I will have a job that doesn't gimp on dmg and able to kill fast. Once again, I feel all my effort on gear grind is wasted.....all this years I tried to prove that COR can DD too, and able to excel in every event every aspect, only to have SE take it away and make it impossible again.

Maybe I picked the wrong job to begin with, for many reason I feel I will have a happier life if I picked BRD as my main 2.5 years ago.

Nerf Hammer

SE:WAR MNK nerf
Afania: Mwhahahah now no more bandwagon WAR MNK and epeen with their empy WS mwhahaha. Now go lv jobs you love instead of bandwagon the strongest k? NO ONE LAUGH AT ME FOR NOT BANDWAGONING DD JOB.






SE:BST TH nerf
Afania: Mwhahahah now no more BST only in dyna BS, go lv jobs you love instead of bandwagon BST k? NO ONE LAUGH AT ME FOR NOT HAVING BST IN DYNA.



SE:Save TP nerf:


Afania:

My dream of beating up melees and RNGs in Qilin challenge is over ;(

Need new SJ

In one of the B.rex run I happened to pt with Blueskysapphire, a pimp JP RNG. After some parses and some discussion about gears with him (he has COR too), it seems that /BLM will do more dmg than /RDM.

According to him, he has 103 base AGI with /BLM. I have 100 with /RDM. We're both hume F, with 12/12 AGI merit. I also asked him to change to /RDM and confirmed that /BLM does give 3 extra AGI than /RDM.

This makes /BLM probably the strongest SJ for WF CORs. Can get access to stun too, which is useful in fights like B.rex when you do need stun. Although losing plenty of support ability from /RDM like MDB, SS, Phalanx, cure, raise and refresh.

This makes me wonder if /BLU is better at this lv too.

I've tested /BLU v.s /RDM at lv 90, however at lv 99 /BLU gains 3 extra AGI compare with 90. Now /BLU has 11 extra AGI compare with /RDM, but only losing 4 MAB.

Following the rule of 2 AGI > 1 MAB, 11 AGI should beat 4 MAB.

Compare with /BLM, it's 8 AGI v.s 4 MAB. So it's pretty much equal, or a little bit better/worse. But /BLM has way more useful spell (stun and D2), while /BLU doesn't offer much useful spell besides lol Metallic body and cocoon.

Also /BLU can set a bit more HP boost spell for survive-ability I guess. After I lowered my HP merit I realized the impact of low HP is bigger than I thought......Seriously considering just screw my dream of playing COR like fake BRD and get my HP back ;(

On paper /BLU should beat /RDM, probably gonna test it soonish to make sure it's 100% better than /RDM, then I'll /BLU for WF in VW then.

Until I finish lving /BLM ;(

I really don't like to lv BLM, one of my least favorite job(besides MNK) ;(