BLU At 99, Outside Abyssea: Misconceptions?

Alright, so I had a couple questions, but I'm currently halfway through Bri Helms, so I ask them both in the context of non-Almace users and Almace users. I know, I know, just finish it. I plan to. But in the meantime...

1.) I was spreadsheeting stuff and I've noticed that, outside of Abyssea, CDC isn't that impressive. It seems like it takes a pretty decent CDC build to outdo even a stardard Requiescat. This is including the Aftermath, even. So, should I even use Lv.85 Almace outside of Abyssea?? It just seems like it's basically a trophy piece people assume is better, and expect you to use it or not bother with BLU, but it isn't really any better. Even in Abyssea, I've seen my 3k Reqs outdo CDC pretty often. Granted, I've also seen 5k CDCs, which my Reqs can't touch. I'm not suggesting it's not worth it in Abyssea though. I'm just assuming they were terribad. I'm just saying... it's happened.

2.) BLU melee has become more and more efficient with the recent-ish-sort-of level cap increases as compared to back at Lv.75. Back then, I noticed I was parsing a good bit better in my relic body simply for the Refresh (Not to recover MP, but rather to allow me to cast more often). These days, I see a lot of recommended gear builds excluding Mavi body +2. Is this in Abyssea only? Should I still be full-timing Mavi +2 to allow myself to cast bigger, stronger spells more often? Or has BLU melee really made spells outside of Chain Affinity and Efflux obsolete (I doubt that)? Or, again, is this only if you have Almace, are in Abyssea, and have a Refresh atma?

It really depends on what you're doing. Almace is by no means simply a trophy piece outside aby. Especially with the amount of double/triple attack we can obtain the AM really shines.

As far as full timing mavi body, that's not always a bad idea, but once you get Almace you'll find yourself using it less and less. Chain affinity / efflux won't ever be obsolete especially with spells like heavy strike equipped.

Sorry for the lack of detail, but constantly fixing auto correct on my phone makes me lose my train of thought and ends up pissing me off...

You will need it higher than 85, if you want to be a good DD at 99.

The more I geared my BLU, the more I noticed a change in my own playstyle: I was casting my "big spells" less and less often. It changed from "spells for damage and melee as filler and to Chain Affinity" to "melee for damage with spells to support, spike, and Chain Affinity."

Because of that, I stopped using nearly as much MP. Between 4/tic (Auto Refresh and Battery Charge), my idle set, and Heavy Strike and Sudden Lunge being super cheap I just don't generally use nearly as much MP as I can get back. Even inside Abyssea I don't set any Refresh atma, I have no reason to most of the time.

That and Thauma's is just too good not to use.

I would suggest you PM Prothescar. I'm sure he would be able to shed the most light on that situation. Here's a quote from his BLU guide though:

"Almace is the most attainable ultimate sword for BLU. It allows you access to the strongest sword weaponskill that there is, as well as access to a very powerful weapon in terms of DoT. Every BLU should strive to make one of these, requiring 50 Briareus Helms and 50 Sobek Skins, it may seem like a daunting task to some, but it isn't really. It's quite an easy task to accomplish, and for the reward, you can't go wrong. Get this sword, love it, become one with Nirvana."

I would venture to say if your Requiescats are beating your CDCs that often, you need to focus on upgrading your CDC set big time. Otherwise, what other sword are you going to use? A Tizona?

Sorry for the wall

I've never done numbers with an 85 almace since I took mine to 90 pretty quickly and now it's 95. I've no doubt in my mind that my almace will beat any other option at this point in any situation where melee is viable, even if I need to use req. I dunno about an 85. The more mathy people may be able to help there.

If you have Thaumas, I'd use that over mavi +2 unless you're casting quite a bit/having mp troubles regardless of abyssea or not. I don't use a refresh atma in abyssea very often either, I just don't cast that much when DD'ing unless it's going after multiple mobs with various AOE's. When I do cast, it depends on what I'm doing. if I'm trying to kill something weak really fast, I spam all my heavy hitting spells as quick as I can with no regards to mp loss but normally I'll just heavy strike or Delta thrust and I try to do it at the same time or after another action so I don't reset my delay by doing it in the middle of my melee cycle.

Overall, I'd guess that while even an 85 is probably better if you have good tp/ws sets, it may not be enough of a margin to be worth it for you. Though I still recommend it, there is no feeling quite the same as carving Z's in to mob's faces.

Well said!

Yeah, no Thaumus yet either. Working on getting together a group of people that are serious about it, but everyone seems to flake out when it comes down to it. Basically, I'm looking at Toci's and Ocelomeh or Mavi +2.


Thanks for all the helpful comments, guys! Much appreciated.

Also, to clarify, (I feel like a couple people somehow misread.) I don't have an Almace yet. I was just using DPS spreadsheets to plug in gear I already have or that is reasonably attainable right now. I wasn't talking about my Req outdoing my CDC. I was talking about when playing with other BLUs or just noticing CDC damage in my chatlog from people in passing. IE: Comparing my Reqs to their CDCs on the same mobs or mob types.

I don't recommend using other people's CDC numbers and comparing them to your ws numbers because there can be a number of variables that change the results. For instance if he missed a hit on CDC, the damage drops a lot and if his macro didn't change his gear because of lag (or God forbid he didn't use any macros) then that further drops the numbers.

FTFY ^^

Not sure I understand the purpose of that edit. Draylo is an excellent BLU, but Prothescar is undoubtedly better with game mechanics

Yeah Prothescar does the math and Draylo is the one who shows you what a good blu is capable of doing.

Using this set, I get a very consistent ~2.6k outside of abyssea as /NIN riding Triumphant Roar when soloing(I like the extra spell space for multiple debuffs/auto refresh/fast cast/conserve MP etc. when solo). Occassional 4k spikes on fodder. More like 1.8k on Ocythoe tonight (again, no /WAR, I was too lazy to switch subs ^^).
ItemSet 291505

It's far from an ideal set, but it's producing consistent numbers, and that's a good thing to aim for with a crit WS in my opinion.
Main improvements I'm looking at currently are athos's tights, eponas and moonshade earring.

Requiescat is great on lower level targets, it's damage drops off alot on targets with higher def due to the attack penalty.
I'd say CDC is alot easier to gear for too and has a much more favourable WSC. ODD aftermath is a huge damage boost coupled with naturally high multi attack rate.
I almost never use req these days unless killing an elemental or something similar.
Occassionally to open darkness with rudras but if i'm planning on that, i prefer to CDC > CA+Efflux amorphic spikes first and have rudras make double darkness.

Edit: Scratch the req > rudra since my lady got her Mandau. CDC just meshes well with lots of other strong WS, both light and dark based.

Right, I'm taking it with a huge grain of salt. But, to be fair, right now it's all I really have to go on.

I don't understand using Duma Ring over Eponas...is that a thing now?

For those curious, this is what I currently have for CDC when I get 85 Almace finished.
ItemSet 293204

That's also what I have plugged into the spreadsheet. Working on Athos/Myrmex and again, Thaumus.

I don't have eponas, and I don't use brews so it's a bit harder to gather a group who want to do it without. It shall be duo'd eventually, my gf could also use one.

My alt is often on brd or thf so I have her exenterator so I can chant for distortion and then close with amorphic for a nice 2 step darkeness. If I'm fast and feel like it, you can also UL and bloodrake for a double darkenss but bloodrake's damage is so piddly it's usually not worth it unless I'm needing a nice cure or have nothing else to do with UL at the time. I do this quite a bit with nms and if I benthic first, most of them don't live through it.

On the Duma ring, He did mention he likes consistency? I prefer the highest average damage myself but it's not a terrible ring if you don't have epona's but I think that in most situations a +7 ring would still win with a crit hit ws with 100% dex mod.

The only observation I would say is from gear that you can get off AH, neck Nefarious Collar, and back Rancorous Mantle, 3% Crit more.

Not sure what are your targets to say ~2.6k average, I would say more ~2k consistent damage on anything DC-T w/ 3-4k spikes depending on DA or TA proc, on VT+ ~1.8k(burrows mobs)

CDC is 60% Dex i believe. I used to carry a thundersoul around with me but I'm really struggling for space. Dumu is just a placeholder for eponas, in both my CDC set and TP set. I prefer the inv +1 and just WS in Dumu for the time being.

It has been mathed to have Rancor and Atheling coming ahead of Nefarious and Rancorous by far.

"coming ahead" != concistency, its a Crit WS unless you are a mnk and have impetus will "always suck" outside abyssea where you cant cap crit.

Derped on the mod, was just messing with some of the merit ws and got my wires crossed. It'd probably still be better, though I haven't actually done any calcs and since it's just a placeholder, it's probably not much to worry about anyhow. Best of luck on your Rani's she can be a ***.

Also that other combo is +2 inventory so even if it was close or a tiny bit better I couldn't do it.

Higher average damage > consistency

Something something average is what matters. Atheling+rancor has higher average.

I couldn't give up the attack/DA on Atheling. I'm not too keen on the +DT for TPing in on rancor collar, but I'm hesitant to spend money on something that will lower my damage during the tp phase.

I don't understand what "I don't use brews" means. Do you have some sort of ethical opposition to them? Do you not know how to brew? Rani is one of like 4 NMs I consider too much hassle to try to lowman without a brew...

The only comparable alternative is portus collar and well... that's hard to get. I TP in it as long as I'm fairly safe or not fighting anything that uses throat stab mechanics cause... that gets you killed a lot.

I have a variable that will change my TP neck to a variety of things depending on what I'm doing.

I wouldn't say an "ethical" reason. I know "how" to use them (messed around with them on the test server abit), I (and my gf) just don't get any enjoyment out of curb stomping something. We enjoy the challenge and learning process. Building our own strategy and learning to anticipate what the mob will do. We don't get that with brews so would rather not use them.

Pops can always be farmed again pretty quickly. First try we got her to ~80% before all hell broke loose. Second time ~25% but I got a bit stun happy and she started resisting. Next time I'll hold off all stuns till 40%ish maybe and stay in light arts for cures until then.

Snap!


Portus is still a good way off, Still need quif win IIRC.

lol this thread