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.

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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 ;)