BLU DD analyze

Recently, someone on my server posted a "BLU should get invite to incursion cuz I can support and outparse MNK and SAM" then started lots of drama. In fact someone sent a /tell to me in game saying BLU is useless in incursion cuz of stun and so on, only bad mages need a BLU.

Also there are several thread on OF complaining how MNK is much stronger than BLU and such.

So I decided to post some opinion regarding this matter. IMO whenever this DD issue is brought up, it always became a 1 sided POV with everyone and their mother exaggerating to defend for their favorite setup.

IMO, BLU is indeed a DD job that you sacrifice some output for extra support, which is fact. However, BLU's output is also fairly close to a MNK, while MNK provides extra HP and formless, BLU provides hardenshell(which can be AoEed), cocoon and aoe erase.

I haven't play the job for a while, however, after sitting down and play with spreadsheet, I was fairly shocked at how much dmg increase BLU got recently, mainly because recent set point increase which allows extra DD job trait.

At 70 set points, besides basic TA/DW3/acc bonus/cocoon/def down/haste2/WoP/store TP1, BLU can also set:

1) Extra 2 tiers of acc bonus, anytime you need acc buff, this job trait allows more multi attack in gear.
or
2) Crit attack bonus
or
3) Skillchain bonus
or
4) Mix them....such as 1 tier of acc bonus+ crit attack bonus, remove wind/cocoon/haste2 for extra DD job trait.

Note that I think I'm missing some other DD trait, since I'm not familiar with new traits/spell after 2014.

Since my spreadsheet does not have crit attack bonus job trait, I'll set acc bonus3 job trait for now.

I think one of the major advantage of BLU is the high acc without the need to rely on  JA such as focus. The downside is that BLU doesn't have good offensive JA like Impetus.

Spreadsheet target: tojil, no acc buff from food, no COR and GEO, just BRD march and min. Both MNK and BLU uses R15 path B delve2 weapon, using gear sets on the last page of AH forum. I also switch sets for MNK when focus down to make sure acc is exactly capped.

MNK's avg DPS while factoring impetus/focus/berserk up and down: 711
BLU's avg DPS, while factoring berserk up and down: 647

I may be gearing wrong on both jobs, but it shouldn't make more than a few DPS difference. Around 90% of MNK it seems. If you don't have a mage that can haste 2 or need to turtle, BLU can get a lot closer to a MNK.

While it's not SAM(which is an untouchable DD anyways), IMO BLU can compete with other DD under certain circumstances. The question is, will you sacrifice 10% dmg to invite a DD that can do 10% def down, AoE def+, aoe erase and self haste?

Note that the argument of "just stun the move in incursion" is invalid IMO, anytime the move goes off it's dmg decrease for everyone. I've been clearing delve before ilv added to the weapon when stuns were really important and the groups that can clear them always had competitive stunner, I've never seen a group with 100% stun rate unless they're using robot. Sometimes ppl just miss stuns, it's called human error.

IMO, if you factor the human error in event, BLU isn't that bad as a DD. It's certainly not half of MNK like how ppl on OF claimed.

BTW, I used to defend for the usefulness of other job's job point category, now I'm starting to see how broken BLU's job point category is - -. You can gain 1~2 extra job trait with 10/10 job point, when job point category increase to 30 it'd be utter OP, while other DD job may not gain extra job trait since max lv stick at 99.

Oh and btw, some fact:

Almace 119 isn't bad at all, don't listen to what forum person says, especially someone on the forum who often downplay the performance of legendary because he doesn't have one. According to spreadsheet, when ODD is up it certainly beats delve2 R15, and ODD is fairly easy to activate, unlike AM3 from mythic.

If you look at the fact that almace has extra acc, and the ability to activate odd at 1000 TP, it can probably compete with mythic under certain situation as well.