December 2014 New Blood Pacts

[Rakshaka]

Thanks for the new Blood Pacts.

Hastega II, Soothing Current, and Crystalline Blessing should make for good additions to our set of skills. I can't say whether or not the others will be useful until we see what they can do via testing. I hope that the damaging pacts have skillchain properties.

There's one thing that bugs me, and I knew it was going to happen with these pacts after seeing what happened with the ward/rage pacts that were introduced between 75 and 99. No new avatar animations are ever created. Sure, the effects look different, but the physical avatar model has never been updated for any pacts after 75. Are the devs just being lazy? Is it really that big of a deal to update the models? Did they guy that knew how to animate the models quit? It's frustrating and stupid because if they're never going to update the avatar models, then we're never going to have a 4 strike attack with ifrit, or a 3 strike attack with shiva, or a non-roar buff with ifrit. It really kills a lot of potential variety.

Like I said, I don't know why the devs have never updated the models, but at this point, it looks really really lazy, and it makes it seem like there will never be any truly new blood pacts.

Btw, kudos to whoever did Diabolos's Nether Blast animation, I love all the variety in that one: the gathering energy, the tension before the toss, and the flip afterwards.

[Zarchery]

I'm kinda surprised that the developers added something new and people thanked them for it.

[Zeargi]

I hope that Cait Sith, Fenrir, and Diabolos also get new ones too. And I'm wondering if Ramuh's New BP will have a different weapon type? The TP Bonus could also be useful, but it just depends I guess on the amount.

[Glamdring]

seriously, I look at Titan doing a BP and all I can think is somebody get the big guy some Exlax...

[Zeargi]

Blood Pact: Ward: Pacifying Ruby (Lv.99)
Reduces Enmity of target party member.
-This one is new, and can be useful. Not sure it's going to get up invited to any parties, but could help if we can use it on alliance members too

Blood Pact: Rage: Conflagration Strike (Lv.99)
Deals fire elemental damage. Additional effect: Burn.
-This one is Burning Strike, only it adds burn. Not too great unless the burn effect is pretty potent. But a single hit Physical BP can be awesome if it's strong like the 70 BP

Blood Pact: Rage: Crag Throw (Lv.99)
Delivers a ranged attack that slows target.
-This one is Megalith Throw. So here is to hoping that this gives Slow II

Blood Pact: Ward: Soothing Current (Lv.99)
Increases potency of cure effects received for party members within area of effect.
-This one is also new, and I feel can have an awesome effect if it's a high %. More than likely it'll be based on SMN Skill, so hopefully the people with lots of work into it will see better results

Blood Pact: Ward: Hastega II (Lv.99)
Gives party members within area of effect the effect of “Haste.”
-While this is just Hastega, I'm so excited to finally get a higher tier, this one may help us some.

Blood Pact: Ward: Crystalline Blessing (Lv.99)
Confers a TP bonus on party members within area of effect.
-This one is also a new one, and I see it being a little useful depending on the effect

Blood Pact: Rage: Volt Strike (Lv.99)
Delivers a threefold attack that stuns target.
-This one is Chaotic Strike, but looks to be a bit more beefy, maybe? I don't want to rock the boat too much, but a Piercing high level BP would be REAL nice. but I'd be fine if it was still Blunt.

Like I said before, I hope the Fenrir, Diabolos, and Cait Sith also get new ones too, then maybe people would think of taking a SMN to places. And speaking of Blood Pacts, did they ever expand the reach of our BP like they said they were going to do a few month back?

I have a bit more news to share for all of you summoners. :)

Did your party initiate a straddle formation for a large boss and your Blood Pacts just don’t reach everyone in the party? Well, the development team understands your woes, and they would like to make a slight increase to the range of support-type Blood Pacts to compensate for this.

Stay tuned for more details regarding the implementation timing and the specifics!

[Clou777]

I usually use heavenly strike for my main attack in CP partys and the crystal blessing is amazing for giving shiva the extra damage in her nukes.

[Zeargi]

So I'm a little underwhelmed by Conflag Strike, Crag Throw, and Volt Strike. Pacifying Ruby also seems to be a bit weird, but I haven't had a chance to really use it too much with an actual party, only Trusts. Anyone have any info to share about these? Let's get this stuff flowing.

[Pawlie]

The new Rage BPs are meh. Like I feel like theyre weaker than the other ones. Maybe Im just not using them enough. Whats good is now we dont need to merit Ifrits Meteor strike because Conflag replaces it. Titans is exactly like Megalith throw except the added effect (unless it was the same as previous), and instead of him tossing a boulder its like a crystalized boulder. Volt Strike looks cool, but its just like chaotic strike.

As for the Wards.. I love them! I havent had the oppurtunity to use carbuncles on anyone, but everyone elses is pretty dope :D

[Zeargi]

The new Rage BPs are meh. Like I feel like theyre weaker than the other ones. Maybe Im just not using them enough. Whats good is now we dont need to merit Ifrits Meteor strike because Conflag replaces it. Titans is exactly like Megalith throw except the added effect (unless it was the same as previous), and instead of him tossing a boulder its like a crystalized boulder. Volt Strike looks cool, but its just like chaotic strike.

As for the Wards.. I love them! I havent had the oppurtunity to use carbuncles on anyone, but everyone elses is pretty dope :D

Volt Strike does look cool, but it hits for less on a regular basis than Chaotic Strike. I want to see if someone can test to see if Crag Throw gives Slow II, because that would make it a little better. On the plus side Conflag Strike does cost less than Meteor Strike, so it's not so bad that it might hit for a little less.

[Chimerawizard]

check BG & AH forums, the testing has already been done on slow, and some testing has been done for the other BPs. Though last I checked the dmg formulae still isn't known.

[dasva]

I got the slow to be about 25%ish. The burn on conflag was pretty sic. 30/tic and -63 int. The buffs are all awesome. Pacifying was said to be -25% enmity from a person... so basically it's like what a thf could do except you can do it twice a minute instead of once and the hate completely disappears. Would be awesome if enmity wasn't so broken. Not sure if anyone has tested for skillchain elements

[Papesse]

Crag Throw gives 30%~ Slow (like Slowga, Rock Throw and Megalith Throw), Reprisal recast goes to 3:53.

[Rakshaka]

Here's the skillchain elements:

Volt Strike:
T1 - Scission
T2 - Fragmentation

Crag Throw:
T1 - Scission
T2 - Gravitation

[dasva]

Well that's lame. iirc those are the same T2 elements as the lvl 70 bloodpacts for those avatars got

[Zeargi]

So, touching in on these after trying them out. Overall, I like them. Volt Strike might have been patch or something, because I've noticed a higher hit DMG recently. Conflag. Strike it a really useful DoT as long as they aren't resistant to fire. Hastega II has all my love. So, I had to main heal on my SMN in a JP party, and with my curing set + Soothing Current, I was keeping everyone alive for the most part. I haven't had to much of a chance to use Pacifying Ruby or Crystal Blessing in a party, but when I do... I'm sure it'll be awesome. The only one I've rarely used so far, is Crag Throw (Kind of wish it had Slow II rather than the slow the other two have.)

If they add any more BPs, I hope they add an ACC+ that's constant, that's the only area that we're majorly lacking in for End-game stuff.