Blink (spell) - Please remove the randomness.

Utsusemi: Ichi - Uses the ninja tool, "Shihei". Creates shadow images that each absorb a single attack directed at you.


Blink (spell effect) - Creates shadow images that each absorb a single attack directed at you.


(these are the official descriptions, on wiki i would like to point out it goes on to state in the 'notes' -- Creates 2 Shadow Images. Unlike Utsusemi, however, it is not guaranteed to block the first two attacks, but will take effect randomly, wearing off after the second shadow vanishes. )

ok, i would like to bring everyone's attention to the writing i have highlighted in RED. Utsusemi and blink (from the spell most mages get called "Blink") have IDENTICAL descriptions, but do vastly different things. For in fact anyone who has casted both blink and utsu knows... blink is completely unreliable. At the VERY least the description on blink needs to be changed to "Creates shadow images that each occasionally absorb a single attack directed at you."

For example
Scenario 1) Player casts Blink, Blizzard 4 - mob casts Blizzard 5 - Player takes 1200 points of damage - player casts sleep, cure 3, cure 3, cure 3. (assuming the player doesn't have access to a higher tier spell and the mob can be slept AND that you have 1200 hp to survive etc etc).
Scenario 2) Player casts Blink, Blizzard 4 - mob casts Blizzard 5 - One of Players shadow images absorbs the damage and dissapears! - mob casts blizzard 4 - player takes 950 points of damage!
Scenario 3) Player casts Utsu, Blizzard 4 - mob casts Blizzard 5 - One of Players shadow images absorbs the damage and dissapears! - mob casts Blizzard 4 - One of Players shadow images absorbs the damage and dissapears!

Why oh WHY is Blink so random if it has the EXACT same properties are utsu to a weaker degree? 2 instead of 3 shadows that are subject to the same aoe strips and other things that utsu are? Is it that the dev team wants it to be random if a mage survives a giant nuke but a Nin or /nin will survive 100%? I am probably just overly sensitive to this because it has killed me about 5x today. But why was this implemented in the first place? Even if blink were 100% reliable it would not overpower mages that cannot cast it on anyone other then themselves and it already doesn't 'stack' with utsu which most would agree is better due to the nature of having 3 shadows at minimum. And before people tell me to suck it up and /nin it, i do, but why should i have to, when a simple tweak could give a mage what they get standard for their job a much better role? "This is a buff that may or may not save you"... who wants that?

All i ask for is 2 little shadows that do what their description says.Creates shadow images that each absorb a single attack directed at you. Please for the love of all mages take out the randomness. :o:o:o

Or make the ninjutsu be random as well. Though I assume nobody likes fairness when it is bad for you, they prefer it when it is good.

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Originally Posted by Kavik

Why oh WHY is Blink so random if it has the EXACT same properties are utsu to a weaker degree? 2 instead of 3 shadows that are subject to the same aoe strips and other things that utsu are? Is it that the dev team wants it to be random if a mage survives a giant nuke but a Nin or /nin will survive 100%? I am probably just overly sensitive to this because it has killed me about 5x today. But why was this implemented in the first place? Even if blink were 100% reliable it would not overpower mages that cannot cast it on anyone other then themselves and it already doesn't 'stack' with utsu which most would agree is better due to the nature of having 3 shadows at minimum. And before people tell me to suck it up and /nin it, i do, but why should i have to, when a simple tweak could give a mage what they get standard for their job a much better role? "This is a buff that may or may not save you"... who wants that?

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Ultimately:

Blink is not a source of damage mitigation, but rather an ability to stall, a safety net, if you will. Stoneskin, Protect, Shell, Barspells, etc. are all sources of damage mitigation, especially Stoneskin. Mages can also sleep mobs, bind/gravity them and run away, use Break, etc.

All NIN really has is Utsusemi and their own evasion skill. There's also the added setback of it costing a ninja tool (which affects all jobs). Note I'm not counting Slow/Para/Blind because the mage jobs have that as well.

Blink's randomness comes from the fact you pretty much cast it for free and you have oh so many other things that come with it. So there's really no need to rely on this.

TL;DR - Cast Stoneskin, don't get hate, etc.

No need to change the effect of Blink imo, because of the reasons stated by Carth
But they should change Blink description to mention that it's random

I think they do need to make it more reliable...blink that did just what it says and absorb the next two attacks just like utsusemi wouldn't be overpowered because it takes forever to cast, so it's not like we could spam it, it would just make our stoneskin effectively last longer.

"don't get hate, etc. "

If you're solo'ing this is a moot point. As for stoneskin, even with capped enhancing magic skill it only absorbs 350 damage, it is not going to save you from a 1200 damage nuke, it may reduce damage but it will not mitigate it. This has happened to me a lot, i throw blink and stoneskin up as sch/rdm, i nuke the mob then sleep it, nuke it again and before i can sleep it again, it runs over, and double attacks me, taking out my stoneskin in 2 hits (no my enhancing magic isn't capped so i get about 300 points of dmg mitigation outta stoneskin), then it proceeds to interrupt me no matter what i try to do and i die... with blink still active. Even with phalanx/protect/bind/paralyze/slow etc etc etc, if you can't CAST them because your getting HIT because your retarded 'random' shadows aren't being used up (assuming the mob is susceptible to them at ALL, i have fought a lot of stuff that is just flat immune to everything) none of it matters, whereas in a /nin scenario Nuke > sleep > nuke > Shadows take damage > sleep while you've got shadows up. It is not too much to ask that they do what their description says "Absorb an enemy attack directed at you" not "Sometimes absorbs an enemy attack directed at you".

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Originally Posted by Kavik

This has happened to me a lot, i throw blink and stoneskin up as sch/rdm, i nuke the mob then sleep it, nuke it again and before i can sleep it again, it runs over, and double attacks me, taking out my stoneskin in 2 hits (no my enhancing magic isn't capped so i get about 300 points of dmg mitigation outta stoneskin), then it proceeds to interrupt me no matter what i try to do and i die... with blink still active.

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Are you not using Aquaveil?

I'm often very bad about using protection on a mage job because RDM spoiled me and I hate recasting so often, but I've lost count of the times that I've learned my lesson in regards to not using aquaveil. Doesn't stop me from not using it but still, I know the value of it. It's probably the most important spell to use on a mage job I would think. Monsters love to strike at you when it's a life or death situation in the next several seconds.

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Originally Posted by Kavik

All i ask for is 2 little shadows that do what their description says.Creates shadow images that each absorb a single attack directed at you.

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this would be all fine and good if blink was the only spell tht gav blink shadows and only gave 2.

but consider this: BLU/WHM + SMN/SCH
occulation(7-8 blink shadows) zephyr mantle(4 blink shadows) blink (2 blink shadows) aerial armor (3 blink shadows) accession + blink (2 blink shadows). that is 19 blink shadows in a row, that's a bit more than 2 little shadows. + thers the fact blu can also spam head butt and blitzstrahl for stun and the smn culd chaotic strike for a possible 15 seconds of stun.

blu wuld kind of eat nin's if they made blink shadows 100%. but i do agree that the description is misleading and should be changed to occasionally absorbs an attack directed at you.

Occultation
Blue Mage Level 88
* Creates Blink shadows. Number of shadows depends on blue magic skill (8 shadows at 400 skill).
* Does not produce 100%-successful Shadow Images like Utsusemi.

Zephyr Mantle
Blue Mage Level 65
Notes
* Self-target only. Can be used with Diffusion.
* Provides the user with 4 Blink-like Shadow Images.
* Overwritten by, and does not overwrite: Utsusemi, Blink, Aerial Armor.

My point being that you could not in fact have 19 shadows on at once.

I'm not sure at what point "Stun" came into this thread about Blink. Also I have been interrupted many times with aquaveil up. Probably because of the last part of this statement. each time you are struck while casting a spell, the spell will not be interrupted, and - Aquaveil may or may not wear off -. that being said, it has nothing to do with the randomness of blink.

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Originally Posted by Kavik

"don't get hate, etc. "

If you're solo'ing this is a moot point. As for stoneskin, even with capped enhancing magic skill it only absorbs 350 damage, it is not going to save you from a 1200 damage nuke, it may reduce damage but it will not mitigate it. This has happened to me a lot, i throw blink and stoneskin up as sch/rdm, i nuke the mob then sleep it, nuke it again and before i can sleep it again, it runs over, and double attacks me, taking out my stoneskin in 2 hits (no my enhancing magic isn't capped so i get about 300 points of dmg mitigation outta stoneskin), then it proceeds to interrupt me no matter what i try to do and i die... with blink still active. Even with phalanx/protect/bind/paralyze/slow etc etc etc, if you can't CAST them because your getting HIT because your retarded 'random' shadows aren't being used up (assuming the mob is susceptible to them at ALL, i have fought a lot of stuff that is just flat immune to everything) none of it matters, whereas in a /nin scenario Nuke > sleep > nuke > Shadows take damage > sleep while you've got shadows up. It is not too much to ask that they do what their description says "Absorb an enemy attack directed at you" not "Sometimes absorbs an enemy attack directed at you".

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A: Stoneskin is higher than 350 damage mitigated if you have EASILY OBTAINABLE gear
B: get an mdt set. that 1200 nuke should be for 600 pre stoneskin
C: get your merit abyssites already because 1200 damage wont kill most mages inside abyssea and if you did take 1200 damage you just lost enough hate for the other guys to get it back
D:You don't see at all why being able to spam "utsu" every 3~6 seconds would be overpowered at all?
E: Learn how to kite/pin on a mage if solo without nin sj
F: Dont get hate
G: Aquaveil
H: if all else fails there is more than enough spell interruption gear to cap for mages atm I believe.

Aquaveil cannot fail. It used to add a significant amount of -spell interruption, but now it makes it impossible for spells to be interrupted (except by stun, sleep, petrify, knock back, paralyze, terror, or death -- seems like a lot of exceptions written out :p) X number of times (I forget but I think it's 5). That actually works a lot like utsusemi in that if you weren't going to be interrupted anyway it doesn't affect your aquaveil effect. I too forget to toss this up a lot of the time, but it really does make a huge difference and will usually last the entire fight unless you're fighting something that attacks very very fast.

As to Khajit's points, mages usually take very heavy damage so stoneskin's 350 cap (+whatever you may have from gear, most of which really is easy to obtain) is rather low. If you're fighting anything serious stoneskin basically just makes the first hit you take do less damage. Everyone should have -DT / -PDT / -MDT sets or a combined set or something, but I'm rarely hit while wearing it because I'm usually casting sleep or something and if I want sleep to stick (I do) I can't be wearing all my -DT gear. Spamming blink wouldn't be possible because 50% fast cast would be needed to make it cast for 1 second longer than utsusemi: ichi already takes. You probably could spam it to some degree, but it would require sitting in your fast cast / -DT set and cycling through aquaveil, stoneskin, and blink. If you're soloing this simply wouldn't end or perhaps you'd have time to get a single nuke off every now and then if you got lucky and evaded/ parried an attack. Lastly, the fact that RDM could cap -spell interruption was the reason for the change to aquaveil. Now that aquaveil doesn't contribute to -spell interruption it cannot be capped and to even get close requires wearing mostly awful gear.

In any case, I think they should just change the wording. Blink would be more useful if it were 100%, but I and many others use it in conjunction with other buffs and expect nothing more than damage / spell interruption mitigation over time.

If you can't handle the randomness of blink, change to /nin.

Lets make an analogy.

Melee attacks 50% accuracy, ranged attacks 100% accuracy. This is fair and balanced because ranged attacks cost gil. It is also fair because all melee can go do ranged attacks with boomerangs etc. if they want 100% accuracy. Besides melee can eat accuracy food and wear accuracy gear to get closer to 80% or something, so it is still incredibly fair and balanced.

See my point?

We don't need a huge gap between jobs. 2 shadows vs 7+ shadows seems fine. BLU could possibly become good at tanking, but is that an issue? What tanking rights does NIN have over BLU? Except for "first come".

make sub /nin like blink and NIN as main to uses the old utsusemi where it would block -agas. :D

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Originally Posted by Monkeynutz

Aquaveil cannot fail. It used to add a significant amount of -spell interruption, but now it makes it impossible for spells to be interrupted (except by stun, sleep, petrify, knock back, paralyze, terror, or death -- seems like a lot of exceptions written out :p) X number of times (I forget but I think it's 5). That actually works a lot like utsusemi in that if you weren't going to be interrupted anyway it doesn't affect your aquaveil effect. I too forget to toss this up a lot of the time, but it really does make a huge difference and will usually last the entire fight unless you're fighting something that attacks very very fast.

As to Khajit's points, mages usually take very heavy damage so stoneskin's 350 cap (+whatever you may have from gear, most of which really is easy to obtain) is rather low.

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This would be a valid point if mages actually took heavy damage but considering the fact that they have 20% more pdt gear than DD and GOOD DD either have zerk and/or counterstance up it's the melee who are actually the ones taking heavy damage. Tarutaru mages also have over 2k hp now in abyssea. That 350 "tiny" bit of damage being mitigated is closer to 700 pre SS gear. People with an effective hp of 3k that can almost constantly wear pdt/mdt gear to no detriment should be the last people to complain about squishyness.

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If you're fighting anything serious stoneskin basically just makes the first hit you take do less damage. Everyone should have -DT / -PDT / -MDT sets or a combined set or something, but I'm rarely hit while wearing it because I'm usually casting sleep or something and if I want sleep to stick (I do) I can't be wearing all my -DT gear. Spamming blink wouldn't be possible because 50% fast cast would be needed to make it cast for 1 second longer than utsusemi: ichi already takes.

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I'd suggest you get better gear considering that most mobs dont attack fast enough to get a second or third hit off. In addition your statement implies that mobs regularly hit for 700+ when I don't even take that when zerked up vs zone bosses critical hits.
You're speaking as if 50% fast cast is difficult to obtain. RDM+ af hat is already at 40%. Sch Sj gives 10% fast cast. There are multiple fast cast atma available in addition to a quick cast atma. Not only that but that statement makes no sense unless you're implying that utsusemi is impossible to utilize on ninja to the point where having it on a 3 second recast wouldnt work which is CLEARLY not the case. You also sound like you need to learn about macro swapping.

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You probably could spam it to some degree, but it would require sitting in your fast cast / -DT set and cycling through aquaveil, stoneskin, and blink. If you're soloing this simply wouldn't end or perhaps you'd have time to get a single nuke off every now and then if you got lucky and evaded/ parried an attack. Lastly, the fact that RDM could cap -spell interruption was the reason for the change to aquaveil. Now that aquaveil doesn't contribute to -spell interruption it cannot be capped and to even get close requires wearing mostly awful gear.

In any case, I think they should just change the wording. Blink would be more useful if it were 100%, but I and many others use it in conjunction with other buffs and expect nothing more than damage / spell interruption mitigation over time.

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Yes aqua veil was changed however even more spell interuption gear came out since then and the merit caps are being increased this update.

On another note. It a ranged attack would miss you, it should miss a shadow instead of taking a shadow 100% of the time.

Ninja always block with shadows because they have the martial arts skill to always keep their shadow in the line of fire, and predict what their opponent is going to aim for. White Mages don't have that skill, so it's chance on if the enemy aims for the actual player or the shadow.

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Originally Posted by bungiefan

Ninja always block with shadows because they have the martial arts skill to always keep their shadow in the line of fire, and predict what their opponent is going to aim for. White Mages don't have that skill, so it's chance on if the enemy aims for the actual player or the shadow.

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This sounds correct, be nice if the devs responded to this but, it's valid reasoning imho. Also, technically the wording is correct, it does absorb an attack directed at you, it just doesn't say when. And to op, I agree the wording should be changed.

Still doesn't explain the ranged attacks.

Definitely shouldn't change how blink works, though they could make more use our of Enhancing Magic Skill for it, by say doing it if you're a capped RDM or SCH with B+ sill it creates four blink images.

few things, stoneskin cap has been around for a long time and is the cap at 75, why should it be still 350 at 90/99?

blink takes hits differently then usu, i forget if this applays to mob > you with multi hit moves like MMJSP they use vorpel blade. each hit is one shaddow on ustu, if blink triggers it is one shaddow for the whole thing. I also forget if blink can trigger proc on each hit if it dont trigger on the first one ( meaning blink is gone but you take less damage)

when i try to note such things for research no one cared and i honestly do not remember anymore.

*pvp muli blue spell and ws blink can take 1 shaddow for the whole move, unless SE ninja change it, was long ago

point is this, blink and ustu have different rules and blink can be better.

I guess SE should change blink to read "has a chance of blocking attack with a shaddow"

Are you entirely sure? I thought it was just third eye that could take an entire multihit attack with one "shadow".

I don't think that SE should change the spell Blink. Mages are already extremely powerful with all the defensive spells they have. There is no reason to change it. It's fine the way it is.

spells i never use as whm sch blm and rdm aquaveil and blink not that i dont like them but i use alot of - emnity on whm always have ss and phalnxs up never get hate and bearly cast on blm lol

Yea I'm not looking to be a jerk about the situation but I personally am not the largest fan about random shadows from blink but...it's so so so easy to avoid getting face *** even though it's random. As mentioned before, Aquaveil is a mage's best friend. I would say it's one of the most powerful and rear saving spells and also one of the least used and thought of spells by players in this game. Again, Timing is key...period. Timing your spellcast at the time you know that mob will hit you (if you're paying attention and have played the game long enough) you can still cast without interuption and if you were to get interupted for me (granted this is also based on your Enhancing skill) I get any spell I want/desire off 9/10 times having aquaveil up. And the beauty part is, as soon as it wears off, bam, put it back on and you're set for your next interuption. But Blink/SS/Aquaveil/Phalanx (if you have the right main job/sub set up for Phalanx) and you're sitting pretty! That's my personal opinion.

And sorry for the slight ramble, I'm tired lol.

There is a problem. The question is, "How do we look at it?"

Slow is Slow, Paralyze is Paralyze, Blind is Blind. If a Red Mage casts it on your or a Ninja casts it on you, you know it. Potency varies, but the result is the same. These are, of course, debuffs.

With Utsusemi Ni and Ichi, potency varies in terms of number of shadows, but the result is the same. These are buffs.

The question is, should we see the logic of buffs in terms of debuffs?

I think there's a few options for this.

1) The probability of Blink absorbing an attack should be based upon Enhancing skill.
2) Blink provides fewer shadows, but chance of absorbtion is 100%.

I think the broader question "when the game should be random, and when it should not?"

"Raise" always works. Phalanx always works. Cure and Protect always work. If a Paladin--a warrior/mage-- casts it, the result is always the same. If a Red Mage--a mage/warrior-- casts it, the result is always the same.

Perhaps "Blink," "Utsusemi," and "Third Eye" are FFXI's version of Analogous evolution. They are similar, but not identical survival mechanisms.