Free 14

Recently FFXIV had been free to play, so I decided to log back on and take a look at how the game is like atm.

I quit 14 before the introduction of job and server merge, so jobs and such are pretty new to me. I also pretty much just quit right after Pugilist ding 50, so endgame content/gearing is extremely new to me too.

I've been wanting to get a chocobo for a while, so the first thing is, of course, pick a grand company to join.

Which one? Immortal Flames of course! If I name my LS in XI ImmortalFlames, of course Immortal Flames are my favorite GC!

Kinda weird that I'm such a big fan of guns in XI, but didn't join the Maelstrom.

I named my Chocobo Baku, pretty cute name for me to abuse huh?

The convenient part of chocobo in XIV is, I can call it even during leve quest, thus saved a lot of travelling time while doing it.

However, it's still possible to aggro mobs while on chocobo, thus my dream of obtaining all aetheryte probably still gonna take a bit of effort....getting past those lv 80~90 monsters are still a pain.....

I noticed this game is a LOT more playable than it used to be, AH(not really an AH in XIV, but I'm used to call it AH) can now type item name to search, very easy to find items now. During the battle, if you're legible to use certain move after miss, the icon will glow, so no longer need to stare at the screen spamming buttons after a miss. And battle msg is now separate from other msg, so it's also not a pain to fight and chat anymore ;D

I noticed guardian's favor is gone, and second wind now doesn't cost MP, not sure if there are other changes.

Either way, FFXIV is very enjoyable to play atm, in general.

After my first class ding 50, next is to unlock job and gear for it.

I realized I need to more class to unlock job ;< Then there's AF to work on.

It felt just like 3 years ago, my 1st job in XI ding 75, and I was overwhelmed by the amount of work needed....grind ex/rare gears, buy expensive gears, lv useful SJ, do research about how to gear jobs etc, so I can do more EG events.

Now it's like experience 3 years ago repeated all over again. I don't know jack shit about how to gear, have 0 idea about how EG is like, and extremely gimp that I want to find a hole to hide myself when I walk on the street D;

After I did a bit of searching and reading forums, I dropped 700k on some cheap AH gears. I'm unable to reach enough STR suggested on the forum atm. Now time to make money D;

It seems that pugilist isn't really an EG job in this game, so if I want to get good ex/rare weapons like Ifrit's claw, need to lv a mage job ;(

I'm seriously considering lving Archer/Bard since I like Bard AF. This game in general needs to have even more job leveled than XI to be useful, so maybe lving WHM is not skippable D;

To-do list:

Unlock MNK.

Finish MNK AF.

Lv Archer/Bard.

And start reading more XIV related stuff, maybe!

   

1:57

After a couple weeks of running Provenance run event, I finally broke 2 min Provenance watcher zerg record.

Provenance Watcher dead in 1:57!

In the end I can't really call this pick up group anymore, since majority of the player in ally are ppl I already know and asked to join beforehand, I ended up only /shout for 1 spot for it, and that's mainly because all my CORs couldn't come.

There are also a couple of ppl I relied on heavily, without them I can never make any smooth provenance run, such as Ganukay for providing suggestions to the run all the time(and provide warning lists so I don't ended up invited land mine DDs), Jennn for bringing in mule army for embrava and Wild card, and couple of extra pimp DDs from his/her LS, not to mention main curing entire ally as only WHM AND still kept my firestorm up ;D

And of course, great players like Ager(who parsed on the top most of the time with Rag), Xiaona, Rattitt(My royal SCH/BLM stunner <3) also helped a tone, without them dragon run will probably be pretty bad XD

I tried COR for maybe 1st time in decades, I honestly haven't play it since my 1st Provenance clear. I tried new atmacite, put on new shiny Nyzul F100 gear(have 3 pieces atm, 1 more until Nyzul part done), and got 2.8k avg in BC and 2.5k on dragon on none firesday, with highest breaking 3.4k~3.5k, did over 22k dmg in less than 2 min zerg with 8 WFs. Other melees with embrava did about 5~10 WSs in 2 min, so my WS frequency certainly didn't fall way behind comparing with melee DDs.

I can't say I'm not happy with the result. Certainly room for improvement though, after a bit more metal grinding(finish that 99 gun for 5 more AGI), a bit more gear grinding(Body and feet still not complete), and a bit more atmacite upgrade(need to test that addle atma for possible +5 MAB from atmacite), aiming to do 3k WF avg in Provenance! ;D

I'm also temped to change my G2 merit to snake eye 3 Winning steak 5 for Provenance, considering my snake eye additional effect NEVER get a chance to proc, mainly because I usually don't use it on none-unlucky in a 4 roll rotation.

Time to change, I guess.

Snake eye adjustment

I wasn't really planning to log on to FFXI today, since I'm in need of mental break from XI, but hearing what others say about Snake eye adjustment made me a little curious, so I decided to try it out.

All I have to say is, 3rd epic COR update since QD TP update and No.11 bonus.

Basically, it gave an EVEN higher chance to roll a No.11 nowadays, the chance is so high that it's almost unbelievable.

When the roll is No.5 or below, snake eye will just give a +1 roll, but when the roll is No.6 or higher, there's a chance that it will automatically made it No.11.

That also means, as long as roll number is equal or bigger than 6, you can activate your gambling spirit and just snake eye, and maybe it will be a No.11! But if you failed a gamble it will ended up as an unlucky number if you pop it at unlucky number -1 D;

I found it extremely fun to play with, after all, rolling and gambling has been my favorite part of playing this job.

So there's been some talk about changing COR optimal merit after update again. Some ppl been saying about lowering snake eye and fold since their recast time is reduced, and 5/5 winning streak. So some thoughts about it before I play with new changes more.

Basically, it's just another convenient tool to roll a No.11 faster, much like fold. Technically you can still chain No.11s without it. But it's also a even more powerful tool than fold to roll No.11 faster(since once you get a No.11 up, fold is entirely useless). But having 2x No.11 up often take a lot of time, sometimes the time spent may out weight the PR duration bonus Winning Streak provides, considering many DDs don't lock buffs, and buff may wear mid fight for Provenance zerg if the fight dragged too long and DDs don't lock them. Although I will have to do math for 10% extra chance to activate auto-11 v.s 2 extra winning streak merit.

But if I'm going to lower any merit for Winning Streak, most likely that it will be fold, especially when I'm doing events that's near the zone line.

With even higher No.11 chance nowadays, the usefulness of Fold got even lower. Of course I still benefit from it if I'm doing rotation for myself in very short time(I often roll x2 roll for myself for Provenance run, after we got into BC, so not a lot of time to chain 11).

Maybe it's best to just keep what I have atm.

But either way, no way I'm gonna put more than 1 merit in Loaded deck and Fold, even both are debatable to put even 1 merit in it IMO, but since I already put relic augment for them, may as well keep them.

Need to play COR more to figure out I guess, maybe start next Provenance run I should do a  No using fold in Provenance run Challenge, see how it goes.

2hr zerg

After Ager told me about Rag WAR's performance during 2hr for a zerg fight, I decided to try it out in a Provenance run for 1st time.

Parse result as follows, on dragon:
Buff: Embrava, SV Min x3 acc song x1, No.11/10 or lucky number chaos+fighters
Both Rag WARs has capped(94%~95%) acc on 1st fight, but one of them didn't cap on 2nd.

1st fight:
95 Rag WAR Resolution low/high/avg:  1248/6673/3780.45
99 Rag WAR: 1464/5224  3389.88
95 Rag DRK: 876/3558  2307.92
99 Ukon WAR using Ukko:  1024/2556  1856.00

2nd fight:
95 Rag WAR: 1461/6576  3209.50
99 Rag WAR:  813/7140  3332.23
95 Rag DRK: 1708/3482  2533.77
99 Amano SAM:  1194/3716  2329.71
99 Ukon WAR: 443/4161  2194.78

Note, pt has no DRG, and I kept forgetting to do def down on BLU in both fights, and I wasn't sure if WAR did it. Thus the mob probably wasn't debuffed completely.

However, 2hr mighty strike also allow WAR to pull wayyy ahead of other DDs, at this point of game I'm going to put my money on the table to bet that Rag WAR is hands down strongest zerging job atm.

Note, Mighty strike only has 45 sec duration, so after 2hr wore other jobs like DRK will start to catch up with LR/SE(they last longer). Thus in order to keep highest dmg output possible, Warrior's mufflers +2 will help. Also if CORs able to reset 2hr after WAR 2hr, WARs will have 2 min Mighty Strike, spamming 6~7k resolution on dragon without def down, over and over.

Sounds pretty epic huh? It's almost very possible to push Dragon zerg time to lower than 2 min with 6x Rag WARs. Acc + 35~40 on Rag also helps WAR capping acc.

SO ALL WARS AND DRKS BUILD A RAG NOOOOOW.

Man what's up with my Rag Fetish D; Inc Resolution nerf D;


Anyways, I'm glad that I broke dragon zerg record again, successfully push the zerg time to 2:20 with PUG. Maybe can go lower if pt has a DRG or if I stop forgetting to cast def down spells ><. Atm even Ganu refuse to 2hr in BC just cuz it will be over kill....almost too easy and hard to wipe with good DDs.

Kinda funny to see that my 1st fail run actually made it onto BG fail thread, lol.

0/7 or 8 on T.saio/cure pot sword/CDC hands/belt/abj/anything worth shit in Provenance, fuck VW, fuck it ;<

Behind the drama

If anyone been following news of Ragnarok/BG, recently there is a pretty huge drama going on on BG:
http://www.bluegartr.com/threads/110601-Ragnarok-Inga-Nekonarf-Naveyah-Shenrein-Confirmation-of-something-we-all-knew

Since I don't know Inga/Nekonarf very well, I probably shouldn't make comment about that particular person, who is being accused as pretending to be a female. What I really care about is, drama like this will make gender issue/discrimination in an MMO(which is an issue I addressed a while ago) even greater, IMO.

If you look at the replies, some of them included something like this:

"I thought everyone knew that most female players are really male, or hideous females? Of course there are a few exceptions."

So basically, if you play MMO, you're being suspected to be a dude, or ugly looking female, "most of the time".

"If you want to prove your identity as a female I expect a webcam with timestamp on a sheet of paper written to my specifications, otherwise you're a dude."

He is obviously joking, but this joke also pointed out how ridiculous gender discrimination can get regarding playing as a female character.

"The no mic is a give away, obviously someone could have a broken mic but when they are like £5 at most there is no excuse to never get one, almost every genuine real girl in any ls i've been in has got on vent,skype so fast to prove they are real.

We once had a guy pretending to be a girl in our ls and the excuses he gave were awsome for no mic "broken" "i stutter im scared to speak" "my dad beats me if i talk to guys" he also used the Nekonarf line "ive been raped in the past, i had to get an abortion it's why my dad doesnt trust me around guys" basically any excuse he could make up sad no-life little tosser i bet he's still doing it somewere he seemed the type, this twat was from the Uk however when we finally found him out."


So basically, if you're a dude, play male char, and you told everyone that you're a dude, nobody will question you and you don't need to prove anything.

But if you play female char, and telling everyone that you're a female, then there is a good chance that someone won't believe you, automatically suspected that you're a liar trying to cheat other's gears, unless you meet them irl/chat on skype, or using a webcam etc. And the burden to prove that you're real is on the female player herself.

Pretty huge discrimination against female character/player huh? 

I have to admit, I'm the type of player that doesn't use webcam/skype and such. I do use it for Nyzul, but really only listen. Speaking with strangers I've never met irl isn't something I'm not comfortable with(even listening to others speak is pushing it, my mom often asked who are they that's speaking when she comes in, and that made me felt weird)

And I have to admit, I'm often being "suspected" to be a dude, since I have many haters, and haters will automatically assume that I'm a liar.

However, everyone often only sees that female player gets advantage thus requires a "proof", such as webcam or voice chat. They neglected the fact that female player often got suspected to be a liar in many way, or being forced into uncomfortable situations.

I can name maybe 1000 examples. I think.

One of the example is feeling weird when others addressed me as a "he". Ok, maybe that's not THAT bad. But when someone been hating me calling me/spreading rumor that I'm a guy(thus automatically suspected that I'm a liar), now that's a bit more uncomfortable. Not to mention countless times that there are players that wants to "do something" in game(well, you know what it is - -) Others includes bugging me to go to pub together at night irl(he doesn't know that I'm a female player, so he thought it's ok), or forcing me to speak on skype etc. Sometimes there are also ppl suspect my gear came from taking advantage of being a female, ok, maybe I more or less took advantage without realizing it. Doesn't mean I didn't work as hard as others to get my other gears, and this is yet another discrimination, that your achievement isn't all that genuine.

I have to say, from a female player's POV, a lot of things, while it's common among male players, it isn't comfortable for everyone, and not really respectful. 

However, I also don't think myself, nor any other female player, has the responsibility to to prove our identity. 

If anyone gives special treatment to another female character because they're female char, it is your own problem. 

And I also have to point out that since this game is a MMO, it should give a chance for other players to play as another identity. If there is a male player want to play/act as a female, and being treated as a female, it's really not a very big deal, and certainly not a crime. It's your own problem if you're giving free gears away to female characters. Doesn't mean lying is right thing to do though. If I'm a male player wants to enjoy my virtual life as a female, I'd just keep my real gender secret, instead of outright lied about it.

This drama, at least the "pretending to be a female" part, is bigger than it should be. Bank stealing and drama whoring I don't know the details so no comment. But when I see some ppl's reply regarding this subject, I more or less couldn't help......argh, internet, internet.

BLU in Nyzul

I have to agree, it sometimes got a bit frustrated that my jobs have been made fun of/flamed in Nyzul for ages. When ppl look for a DD in Nyzul, and I asked if I can join on BLU, the first reply was "probably not". Not to mention all the Nyzul LFM thread been generally looking for DRK WAR MNK SAM with 90 empy/relic/mythic only.

So here is some opinion about DDing in Nyzul, maybe some opinion about playing BLU/WAR in Nyzul as well.

Nyzul Uncharted is piercing dmg DD's playing ground, no joke. Most of the mobs are: Birds, imps, puks, colibri, slimes.  Of course there are skeletons, which is strong against piercing but weak against blunt, and magic pot, which is weak against blunt too. In fact ppl been recommending polearm SAM, just for all those piercing weakness mobs. DRG is underrated due to piercing dmg, although pt shouldn't have more than 1(or else you'd be fucked with skeleton), same with MNK, shouldn't have too many MNKs, not to mention embrava doesn't benefit h2h as much as 2h.

That means BLU needs to play extremely smart and make use of those advantages to keep up when majority of player has "big dmg output or gtfo in Nyzul" mentality(not saying big dmg isn't important, but there are other factors affecting the success rate, not just big dmg). QC and A.spike are piercing, thus pretty good dmg on those mobs. HS is blunt, thus good on skeleton. If CA is up, self SC dark can almost always one shot a DC mob. Try to kill birds, imps, puks as much as possible on BLU is the key to do more dmg, since those mobs are just weak against DRG, BLU and polearm SAM.

On higher lv NM I cast QC with both CA and Efflux if it's up, just to reduce the time to cast spells(use Efflux CA separately on different spells will spend more time), not to mention it's impossible to SC with 1000 other WSs if another DD on same mob.

QC, A.spike and maybe HS are probably the only DD spell worth casting.

I also pop Bilgestorm on higher lv NM/Floor bosses for additional -25% def, according to wiki, this is more potent than Angon for def down if it sticks, thus making it stick with macc/skill is No.1 priority on Floor bosses.

And obviously, there's AoE Triumphant Roar if you happened to set it on Floor bosses, for another +15% attack for everyone else. I don't have enough set point for it, so I usually didn't set. But it may be worth considering IMO. One of my DRK had been experiencing issues with not enough attack on F100 boss when  all JAs are down and ended up doing lower dmg than crit-hit WS Ukko(he used JAs on previous floor with WS lock), perhaps popping some attack buff can help maybe.

I hardly cast stun anymore except NMs that charms, or if NMs casting big spell(may cause death sometimes if someone got nuked)  After some adjustments, my spell set for Nyzul at this point of time are as follows:

DW3 job trait
Triple attack job trait
Magic fruit(in cast I need to cure when SCH not around)
Sudden lunge
B.typhoon(for def down, although I found myself never get the chance to cast it with Bilgestorm, kinda want to remove it from the list)
A.spike(for self-SC with CDC and another big dmg spell to spam)
Dream flower
Sheep song
Wind of Promy

I kinda want to to remove Dream flower too, some mobs just resists dark sleep, but emergency AoE sleep is always useful since aggroing 3 mobs may die even with embrava. Seems just sheep song is enough if it can cover all types of mobs. Wind of Promy is there to help erase bind and shit, so ppl can keep moving.

The hardest part of playing BLU in Nyzul is finding the right balance between going offensive and going defensive. Going offensive means plays the job just like another DD, going defensive means doing stun/cure/sleeps etc. Sometimes going defensive isn't necessary when SCH is around, and will just slow down killing speed. However, sometimes doing defensive move will prevent death, since defensive move is really what sets BLU and another 2h DD apart.

I kinda want to try COR in NIv2 sometime, if following piercing DD=good rule, berserk last stand should be able to one shot EP birds/puks/imps. But probably when 17~18 jump become consistent within our static and when I got crystal dragon sword ;<

Delver of the Depths

After 1 month of putting static together, and 2~3 weeks of trying and practicing, finally.......

Nyzul Uncharted F100 clearrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrred!

Annnnnnnnd...............

First steps towards finishing new WF/LS set I suppose....hopefully this head piece lasts for a while(hands/legs/feet I have a feeling it may be replaced again after more revamped old event)

Majority of tips and tricks already posted on last post.....powder boots spam, double sprinters and body boost, call for help on one enemy/NM, and just watch a lot of JP vid in general. I have to say ever since we started spamming powder boots+sprinter, our avg floor cleared increased by about 1~2. It's certainly a must have considering I play a job that's been flaming all over the place. Hopefully we can 15/15 before my boots running dry, price getting insane ;(

I'm also starting to get used to my new macro, and learning how to put up powder boots effectively. Also starting to learn how to deal with mass aggro/link when looking for 1 enemy and avoid death, appropriate time to pop fana/fool etc(boss floor isn't necessary the best time to pop fana/fool, considering there will be 2 healers on boss floors, other floors when SCH not around needs fool/fana way more to reduce death IMO.)

Great work for everyone in my static =D

Nyzul, Nyzul, Nyzul.

After a bit of trying, and more retry, finally got a new static going for New Nyzul after all the drama.

Honestly, I have to say a big Argh!!! on new nyzul. But regardless, post some POV based on the data collected and experience so far.

Optimal setup for new nyzul is DRK x4 SCH x2. DRK is the most optimal DD in new nyzul and just dominates, regardless how others pushing jobs like MNK SAM WAR etc. It is clear-able* with other DDs like RNG THF BLU DRG and so on(ppl been clearing with those jobs too) as long as they have top DD gear, but if you're a more causal player, plays with more causal friends, can't build a 99 empy/relic etc, DRK is the most causal friendly DD in nyzul. When I said DRK, I mean GS DRK with resolution 5/5, apoc helps sometimes on shitty moment maybe, but not needed and not close to GS in terms of dmg IMO. And most optimal GS is obviously Rag, maybe Ig-Alima GS or STR magian etc, OAT isn't ideal in Nyzul. I didn't say that, Returner in my static told me that way, and he is one of the earliest player start building OAT GS for DRK before it got popular at all.

Of course, free to replace DRK with top geared DDs like Mandau THF, KC RNG, Mythic DRG(I heard DRG actually don't need mythic to be decent, just need a high dmg PA, but not OAT), etc. But DRK is most causal friendly choice and makes biggest impact, lowering the amount of DRKs in pt means less fire power to clear, although dmg output isn't the only factor affecting clears. Many groups seems to focus on dmg, although dmg is important, there are other factor too, that makes bigger impact than dmg output.

Anyways, why DRK.

From what I've seen, Nyzul benefits jobs with high WS dmg and high melee dmg the most, generally every mob you start with a WS, swing twice and mob should be dead. Thus Rag DRK is the best for this. Resolution is about 3~5k every WS, follow by 2 swings(which is fast under embrava) and mobs will be dead.

2nd reason is because of twilight scythe on PDT- flans, about 500~700 dmg per swing, under embrava it go down in sec.

DRK also has the advantage of having magic for utility, and movement speed on leg slot(which WAR SAM MNK have on feet if I remember correctly), thus you can full time powder boots and still have movement speed+.

Basically, for average none-elite player that wants clear and want to lv a job fast for Nyzul, DRK is the best bet. Ig-Alima GS is easily obtainable, or high dmg magian GS etc, which takes shorter amount of time than 90~99 empy/relic SAM MNK etc, and have decent result in terms of dmg output.

JPs call DRKx4 SCHx2 setup iron plate setup, that means it's most optimal setup with highest success rate.

Either way, embrava benefits 2h DD the most, so DRK, or WAR SAM is decent(although DRK has more advantage WAR SAM doesn't have). Some ppl been recommending MNK, but I heard MNK is even worse than DRG in Nyzul unless skeleton/pot floors pop a lot. BLU has lower output than MNK on boss, but probably higher on fodder(again, BLU is also 1h DD, not as good as DRK WAR SAM). But it's sleep/cure/stun sometimes can save lives during climb depending on situations. It's not "needed" nor most optimal setup(unlike what Prothescar said), but it's a DD with it's perks.

Body boost, sprinters can get one from the start, use it, and get a new one, so you get flee status on 1st floor .

Unlike NA pts relying on Fillmode/.dat swap, JP pts seems to rely on flee a lot, to a point that powder boots price is starting to rock sky high.

In order to make powder boots to work, you need to full time it even during battle, since it has 30 sec recast time. And equip a new one after 1 is being used. Thus it is necessary to adjust TP set(at least for me) so no haste on feet slot. I will lose DA and TA from Toci/Oce head+1 though, since I will need haste on body and head. But trading DA and TA for full time flee is well worth it considering I run around way more than fighting. WS shouldn't drop more than 50 dmg without feet as well. I can also use regular DD set without powder boots on F100 or floor bosses.

One of the best example of powder boots spam.....the amount of powder boots in his inv is scary.

http://nicoviewer.net/sm17623114

But they also cleared in 21 min....according to time on vid. According to someone in JP group, being persistent to keep flee up full time is the key to 1/2 and 1/3 F100 clears. And he even has a THF in pt.


Another vid I've seen is MNK/THF(/THF for flee too), although /THF is probably not viable for 2h job like DRK. Call for help on NMs and such for groups to gather.

Another SCH POV
http://nicoviewer.net/sm17624098

SCH help melee, equip frisky boots for free flee(ppl been telling me frisky boots has low activation rate, or else I'd get one too)

I also been adjusting my spell set. Light based sleep seems to be needed, but going to drop blank gaze since even NM soulflayer dies before I finish casting(My Sat set has 3 resolution DRKs, so NMs dies retardly fast with resolution) Also going to set B.typhoon for def down on Floor bosses/NMs.

Other wise, I'm going broke with Nyzul again. Now my empy and mythic will never finish ;(

Life after CDC

After I finish CDC I've been playing with it for a bit, inside Abyssea, in VW, and in dyna mostly.

In abyssea it certainly pwn, easily 5k~6k avg in Abby with /WAR and 3 DD atmacite, even on T2 NM still avg 3~4k. But Abyssea is a day of the past that no one care about DD power, so VW is really all that matters.

IMO, it's certainly not overratted in VW, in fact, I'd say the way VW goes gives almost unfair advantage to CDC, or crit-hit WS in general. That even an unbuffed average geared BLU/WAR with 85 empy in causal gears(like me) can put out respectable numbers on T3.

My avg on Qilin is about 2k+ without any COR BRD buffs, and spike for 3.6k. Considering the amount of "empy DDs" from PUG doesn't avg 2k on same NM with COR buff, I was fairly surprised at how good CDC is in VW, since I'm almost never in DD pt and gear way below standard(nothing elite, just avg causal gears and lol 85 empy).

              

One of the main reason why it's so good is because of this, and other buffs such as bravers, pushing the crit-hit rate very high. That even without any attack buffs(not like this job can get super high attack like DRK does, nor it has any sort of attack bonus), it still has fairly high WS numbers especially on lower tier VW.

Sadly BLU doesn't have JAs like Blood Rage or Impetus, or else it can certainly get a legit DD spot. I'd say it's still behind WAR MNK DRK SAM as a DD though, maybe RNG too.

My POV towards optimal setup in VW is leaning towards 1 BLU+1 DD, which is IMO, better than 2 BLU split spells.

1 BLU setting melee job trait plus 1 DD certainly kills faster than 2 BLU split spell(thus you can't set melee job trait when you split). In every VW, killing speed is the key, the faster you kill, the less chance you will get lock out of proc or things go wrong. Ideal killing speed should be >2 min, with 1~2 HQ/EV proc. 

Also needing to proc as soon as proc come up is also a common misconception. Ideal way to proc, especially HQ/EV, should be split. For example, 1st HQ/EV proc at 80%, 2nd proc at 40% etc, that way no temp is wasted. If you proc 3 HQ/EV at once, some of the temps will be wasted. Thus there's really little need to get 2 BLU split spells and proc ASAP, there's usually another none-BLU proc that is up when BLU proc is called, do that other proc 1st while BLU setting proc, then do BLU proc is the way to go. The chance of 3 BLU HQ/EV proc at once is extremely low that you lose more than you gain by slowing the killing speed for 1 min faster proc. Unless your DD pt is pimp to a point to be able to kill the NM in 1 min with 2 BLU, other wise gimping the killing speed isn't ideal IMO.

I also did a couple of Provenance run on BLU(since I'm too broke to play COR nowadays, and totally not in COR mode recently again). It's DD power is a lot lower in Provenace though, but since it's still a proc job, extra DD power more or less helped.

Now inb4 "BLU is just a waste of spot in Provenance run" everyone been saying on forums, which I don't agree really with, unless someone else can come up with a convincing opinion to counter it XD.

My Provenance Watcher setup is usually 

DD DD DD COR BRD WHM

DD DD DD COR BRD WHM

RNG BLM BLM SCH/BLM THF/NIN (extra spot open)

P.S, maybe putting WHM in mage pt to fit in extra DD may work better.

DD is usually WAR MNK DRK SAM, it's best to have all 4 of them to get all proc covered.

One of the player usually have PLD leveled so they come PLD for 3 KI BC, then change job when we pop dragon.

SCH/BLM can solo stun, so it's unnecessary to have 3 or even 4 BLM.

Now there's one spot open, so it's either NIN or BLU or DRG for proc.

WAR can do some Polearm procs, THF can do some ninjutsu procs if it /NIN. By skipping NIN you will get lock out of Katana procs, skipping BLU you will get lock out of BLU spells, skip DRG you will get lock out of DRG JA. According to current weakness google doc page, wyvern breath can't trigger weakness in Provenance, and merit abilities are removed.

Thus skipping BLU has higher chance to get lock out on procs. By lock out on procs I mean all HQ and EV procs are something pt can't do.

According to my experience, it seems to be possible to have same category proc on different tiers, but not same tiers.

For example, I've seen Katana 1 and Katana 3 exist at once, or Fire BLU 1 and 3 at once, but I've never seen both HQ are Katana or BLU fire. I may be wrong on this though, since you will get same reading if 2 HQ exist on same category and never find out.

Thus skipping NIN, even if you get locked out of Katana, you still have 2 others. Skip DRG, even if it's DRG JA+ Polearm, you still have 1 more. Skip BLU, it's entirely possible to have 3 different BLU HQ/EV proc and get locked out, although the chance is low kinda. 

And since there's one last spot open in mage pt, may as well to fit in a proc job to reduce the risk of getting lock out, not like there's anything else to fit in, unless I put WHM in mage pt to fit in one more 2h DD.

So far all the Provenance Watcher I've done, 1st failed when SCH doesn't know how to embrava, 3 runs killed in less than 3 min, 1 run killed in close to 4 min due to a couple of miss stun(miss stun will cause adds to pop and slow down kill speed with DT-) There isn't a lot of need to add more DD unless I'm using weaker DDs(or unless adding one more 2h DD in last mage spot pushes zerg speed to < 2 min). Even fastest PW zerg takes 2 min, once proc is determined, still have enough time to set and proc. 

Thus it isn't entirely bad to have a BLU in pt to reduce the risk of getting proc locked, IMO. 

With setup like this, acc and attack will be an issue on NM such high level. I'm still trying to find a balance for it since I can't get BRD COR buffs in mage pt, unless I made COR BRD rotate 3 pts(probably should try next time XD)

1st run parsed 68% acc with /WAR+ aggressor, RCB, acc bonus job trait, STR magian sword. 2nd run switched to Pizza+acc magian sword, did about 11k total dmg in 2.5 min zerg, with 95% acc. CDC avg about 770ish, spike for 1.2k. Still way below other 2h DD in pt though, and the only way to solve this problem is to made COR BRD rotate 3 pts.

I'd say for any BLU who do Provenance on BLU, acc bonus job trait is a must have, considering my acc was still way below cap in 3x KI BC with RCB+STR sword, but got better after switching to RCB+acc sword. Still trying to figure out a way to cap acc with RCB and STR sword, or at least cap acc with one of them. I don't have Ig-Alima atmacite though, thus there are still room for improvement.

Personally I actually liked this way, the way VW proc system goes allows more room to try different setup. Use proc job instead of heavy DD for lower risk of getting locked, but lower killing speed, or full of heavy DD for faster kill speed.

(Afania you just want a legit reason to play BLU in VW and stay cheap right? Right?)

VW stuff ends here.

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

After I got CDC, I also changed my view about BLU, now it's"weaker DD job with ability to stun" instead of "versatile mage job".

One of the main reason is, quit a lot of BLU spells isn't worth setting nowadays over melee job trait, considering CDC+melee dmg+/WAR is quite some good dmg, casting other spells just a waste of time mostly, sacrificing melee dmg/job trait for other spells isn't worth it either.

Let's be honest, majority of BLU spells are shit, unless they 1) can proc 2) is required to set for job trait.

If anyone telling you "LEARN ALL BLU SPELLS OR GTFO", I will tell them "you gtfo first - -".

Majority of BLU spells are shit, and they're not even situational.

I may turn on elitist mode and tell someone "BUY ALL DICE FOR COR OR GTFO", because some COR rolls are really, well, situational. You never know if you will happen to duo with a BST one day, then suddenly some shitty moment hits and he ended up weakened, so he sent a pet on the NM and you rolled him some pet roll(which believed to be useless) while he resting in the corner.

That's what it means to be situational.

But you can't really just cast any spell on BLU freely, unlike other mage jobs or COR, which has access to all spells anytime. Majority of BLU spells are shit, useless, and takes time to reset it if you happened to want to cast it, and you lose job trait when you set it. Those spells are just god damn not worth casting.

The No.1 worth casting spell on BLU spell list is sudden lunge, sometimes AoE sleep in nyzul/dyna. Maybe some cure or defensive spells and such when solo/lowman. Although with a good healer, majority of defensive spells isn't worth casting as well, especially debuff spells.

I mean, who cares about slow/para/acc down/evasion down and such >.>, get a healer to heal, spend every other set point on DD job trait, then just go all out DDing melee/WS, kills much faster that way. Any extra spell you cast just slow down the killing speed and most of the times doesn't make a huge difference besides sudden lunge, unless it's very lowman.

Kinda sad that a "mage" job like BLU ended up a lot focusing on melee/WS dmg like a DD, and spells mostly set for melee/WS job trait .-.

But I guess, it's a change. 3 years playing this game, really never get a chance to play real melee job, maybe it's nice that BLU getting closer to a melee job now, at least I can enter the world of studying for melee thing. 

And really, CDC is pretty fun to play with, I'm addicted with it. Also kinda fun to see newer player's reaction when I one shot every fodder mob in abby with 5k~6k WS ;)