Riot blade...

I find I never need to use riot blade combo, am I doing something wrong? I mean I hardly ever lose hate. But lotsa guides mention riot blade as if it is used occasionally. And lotsa discussion about people wanting a third combo to riot blade. Why? why not want a new 3 combo move for aoe damage that uses a lot of mp to give riot blade a use.

Riot blade combo is useful when you mass pull the mobs and flash til your MP ran dry, so you can recover it faster.

Oh ok, I haven't done any mass pulls yet. But wouldn't it be nice if they could make it useful for things other than mass pulls, like with the idea I had. 3 aoe damage combos that uses mp. similar to roh combo only aoe

I only really find myself using it when I need a ton more Flash, or if I'm playing secondary / tertiary healer because roulette healers sometimes slack. The latter, almost exclusive to Trails roulette.

try oath switching to either ot or mt or stoneskinning yourself during downtimes on boss encounters. you'd appreciate riot blade more.

*Looks at Rawker's face icon*
*Looks at Joe's*
Ha.

well... mine's a bit well done(referring to meat). XD

i guess i should glamour in my headgear to completely cover my face. :P

If you run out of mp but still need more aoe threat, you can sustain a fast -> riot -> flash combo at roughly neutral mp usage.

Well even if there wasn't much use for it now, the Benchmark video hints (pretty blatantly) at there being combo skill for after riot blade come xpac. But yeah its largely for flash, though it can also be useful if you are using a lot of mp on say stoneskinng. Or if you just came back from death and feel mp might be a little more needed soon then tp.

Definitely a new finisher to riot based on the video. It also doesn't open with fast blade. My guess is it is due to the TP consumption of riot (80)

Fast > riot is 150 tp and replenished MP
Riot > new move will be 140 TP


Fast > riot > new would be 210 TP




Riot blade can also be used for low enmity damage after a tank swap.

In FCoB I find myself using it only during T11s fodder. Since you'll be AoEing down 3-4 mobs at a time I just spam flash until out of MP and then Riot my MP back up in time for the next pull. Very similar to speed running a dungeon.

While I don't use it often, I use it often enough to always have it handy.

I personally rarely use it. It's most useful in lower level dungeons (below 40) when you don't have access to shield oath. Once shield oath becomes available (and better yet, circle of scorn) I don't even put it on my hotbar. After shield oath, you don't have to spam flash quite so much as long as you combo between multiple targets. IE: After initial 2 flashes, fast blade on target a, soft target b with savage blade, soft target c with roh, soft target b fast blade, soft target c with savage blade, go back to a with roh, rinse and repeat. If trigger happy ranged/caster dps wanna out enmity you, let em.

I use it everyday as my main combo in pvp. Quicker Dmg output for faster kills, and helps keep mp so I can spam flash. It is however a guzzler of TP.

Watch the benchmark the PLD does lob > riot > "new ability" :D
So yea more then just a a big pull timing maybe one day
Flash a lot
Riot mp back
Flash some more

Early on I used to use Flash with Fast Blade/Riot Blade, but as my levels increased I learned that Fast Blade/Savage Blade/Rage of Halone combo just worked better. Hence I've hardly used Riot Blade since.

And yes, I'd really like to see a third weapon skill combo off of it (a return of 1.0's missing skills like Flat Blade and Red Lotus perhaps?), but yeah, the benchmark definitely shows new skills on the way. I guess we'll have to keep watching the skies for this. ;)

m

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Originally Posted by Kaztiel

I personally rarely use it. It's most useful in lower level dungeons (below 40) when you don't have access to shield oath. Once shield oath becomes available (and better yet, circle of scorn) I don't even put it on my hotbar. After shield oath, you don't have to spam flash quite so much as long as you combo between multiple targets. IE: After initial 2 flashes, fast blade on target a, soft target b with savage blade, soft target c with roh, soft target b fast blade, soft target c with savage blade, go back to a with roh, rinse and repeat. If trigger happy ranged/caster dps wanna out enmity you, let em.

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wouldn't that slow down the party's dps? correct me if i'm wrong but for as long as i keep the enemies on me, the better the party's aoe dps be, even it means that i have to continuously rotate fast blade to riot blade while casting flash whenever possible?

Idk, low level dungeons I hardly have to use flash. I don't mark targets either. I hit like 2 flashes and cycle my targets with roh combo. and keep an eye on enmity bar and focus on them more. lets say there are 5 targets and two or three are targeted by dps. ill cycle with roh a couple times on all the enemies using fast blade on the non dps-targeted enemies. after that I just roh combo strictly on the dps-targeted enemies because the non dps-targeted enemies arent even close to gaining aggro on the healer at this point. Therefore, other than the initial 2 flashes, I dont use it much in lower level dungeons cause it doesnt Benifit much (unless I mess up and do a sloppy pull from time to time)

I only use the Riot blade combo when I do speed runs and mass pull. If you have like two BLM and you're pulling 2 to 3 groups, you pretty much flash spam, the riot blade to regain MP to flash some more.

Otherwise the RoH combo is more useful. You won't really use Riot Blade at all during boss battles.

In 50 dungeons I'm usually pulling 2+ packs at a time so it's a flash party, and in sub-50 dungeons I don't have my CoS so I'm not as confident about holding AOE aggro. Generally I flash/riot on 4+ mobs, or if there's 3 and the DPS are doing enough DPS that I'm on the verge of losing aggro on the first by the time I've cycled through them.

Personally, the only time I use riot blade is when im speedrunning content. brayflox longstop hard, for instance, I will gather all the enemies, flash 6-7 times, then start my fast- riot- flash combo for additional enmity while the black mages (preferably) are melting the mobs down.

Also, if you are going into steps of faith as the tank in charge of adds, you want this rotation to be your bread and butter. don't even bother with your halone combo, its all aoe damage there.

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Originally Posted by SirTaint

Definitely a new finisher to riot based on the video.

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Probably not, unless that paladin on the video is a loldin stacking skill speed and under GL3 and huton effect, because that new skill come off too quickly after riot blade. XD

I think that new skill is an oGCD skill. On video, Paladin uses riot before just to show off its an oGCD, since Riot has a fast animation.

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Originally Posted by DSaint

Probably not, unless that paladin on the video is a loldin stacking skill speed and under GL3 and huton effect, because that new skill come off too quickly after riot blade. XD

I think that new skill is an oGCD skill. On video, Paladin uses riot before just to show off its an oGCD, since Riot has a fast animation.

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Yeah good call I just watched it again. The Riot blade comes less then 2 seconds after the lob as well but there is almost no time between Riot and the new skill.

Riot Blade kind of sucks because paladins don't use that much MP. Also most people overuse Flash. Unless you have like one way overgeared black mage and your other DPS is a Ninja or something, you don't need to Flash 6-7 times like some dudes are saying. If a monster has 10,000 HP, for example, the most enmity any DPS is going to generate on it is 10,000 (plus a couple hundred for abilities, but that's negligible) - and that's if one DPS does ALL of the damage on it. If both DPS are doing equal damage, they'll each generate 5,000 enmity on that 10k HP monster. Flash does 600 potency. Go into Shield Oath and hit something with Spirits Within, then multiply it by 4. That's how much enmity your Flash is generating in Shield Oath. To hold enmity you only need to be 1 point over the next highest, so if you don't spam Flash and pace yourself instead, you can save MP, maximize your blind uptime, and deal more damage.

Riot Blade was a lot more useful before enmity was raised on Flash and given to CoS.

I don't have to run my mana dry anymore to keep hate now.

Switching to strength accessories helped a ton too.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DSaint

Probably not, unless that paladin on the video is a loldin stacking skill speed and under GL3 and huton effect, because that new skill come off too quickly after riot blade. XD

I think that new skill is an oGCD skill. On video, Paladin uses riot before just to show off its an oGCD, since Riot has a fast animation.

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I don't know. Skill Speed is supposedly being rebalanced to be more useful, so that may just be how fast a level 60 Paladin is.

When in dungeons and I mass pull, I spam Riot and Flash, barely using any other attack combos other than Scorn.

Flash and Riot keeps mobs on me. My PLD is iLv113, and this combo keeps enemies on me even with two BLMs at iLv120+ in groups spamming/pulling first.

Do you speed run? If the answer is "no", then yeah, you will probably not find a use for it.
Riot Blade is essential for keeping up your Mana so you can spam Flash.
One or two Flashes + Circle of Scorn is NOT enough to hold hate versus things like Flare or Holy spam.

It is not easy to cycle through a mob list of 6 or more enemies and scan the party list just to see how close party members are to pulling aggro off you. If you can do that without 3rd party tools, then kudos to you, you're pro.
Most people can't be bothered to even look at the mob list let alone cross check each one for hate levels on the party list. That is why Riot Blade Flash spam is more common, it's just easier and fool proof against losing aggro. Better safe than sorry.

People can argue that if 1 or 2 monsters get off you for half a second it's not the end of the world, and you can easily get them back. But for me that is the end of the world, and I feel like it is the sign of a bad tank that couldn't hold aggro properly. Just my opinion, but I'm not alone in that regard since a lot of other people do it this way.

Riot blade + Flash are best childhood friends.

Being in a group with two BLM's spamming Flares left and right, I can't thank enough being able to flash spam and recover back my MP with RB.