CNJ Ability Setup Post 1.20

Hi there, fellow Conjurers!
There is a thread like this on the Thaumaturge sub-forum, and we had one on here on the Conjurer forum a while back -- but of course everything has changed since 1.20.

The question:
If you had every job at level 50 and could choose to put any ability on your bar, how would you fill your 10 available slots?
And even if you don't have everything at level 50, how do you fill your bar now? ^^

I only have Conjurer and Thaumaturge at level 50.
Everything else ranges from level 15 through 42... but here's how I have my bar set up.

Thunder (THM)
Fire (THM)
Fira (THM)
Necrogenesis (THM)
Dark Seal (THM)
Resonance (THM)
Sanguine Rite (THM)

Second Wind (PUG)
Featherfoot (PUG)
Sentinel (GLA)


Possible changes to my bar:
Invigorate (LNC) -- I may replace Necrogenesis with Invigorate since during boss fights I rarely have enough TP to use Second Wind.

Chameleon (ARC) -- I used to have this pre-1.20, but now the Archer level at which you get it is much higher... so I need to work to get it back eventually. ><
Once I have it, I might replace Dark Seal with Chameleon.

Quelling Strike (ARC) -- May be useful instead of Fira.

Always:

Chameleon
Second Wind
Featherfoot
Decoy
Dark Seal
Sanguine Rite
Necrogenesis
Resonance

Usually:

Sentinel
Invigorate

I may sometimes drop the last 2 for Fire and Fira or Thunder depending on what I'm doing. I actually didn't realize we could cross-class Quelling Strike or that it worked with Magic so I will have to put that on sometimes.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Estellios

I may sometimes drop the last 2 for Fire and Fira or Thunder depending on what I'm doing. I actually didn't realize we could cross-class Quelling Strike or that it worked with Magic so I will have to put that on sometimes.

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I'm not sure about Quelling Strike. I've never used it, but from the description it sounds like it might be useful?

Quote:

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Reduces enmity and increases TP generated by next attack. Does not affect auto-attacks.
Recast Time: 60sec. / Duration: 30sec.

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Do you know how much MP Decoy consumes?

Quote:

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Consumes MP to evade a single ranged or magic attack.
Recast Time: 90sec. / Duration: 60sec.

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I see you have both Featherfoot and Decoy on your bar. Do you use them alternately?
That might be quite useful as long as the MP cost for Decoy is minimal. ^^

Quelling strike doesn't specify that Magic attacks don't work, like blindside does, so I'm assuming it works with magic.

At L50 Decoy takes 280 MP. I mostly use it when I see an enemy readying a DoT spell because they last a long time and it kills my MP. That's pretty much the only time I use it, I rarely have a use for the THM spells so I never take Decoy off. Eventually if we see enemies with big-hitting AOE spells or if it is able to block some enemy skills it will become more useful.

Hmm... After talking with some other Conjurer friends in game, it seems that for the most part, many Conjurers may have their ability bar set up almost the same with only a few very minor variations?

Here is a list of all the abilities available to us from all classes. (the list doesn't include cross-classable abilities that do not affect spells)

RED are abilities that are pretty much worthless to mages.
VIOLET are of questionable value to mages (IMO)

There are 22 abilities on the list.
Eliminating the red and purple abilities, we are left with 14 that are generally useful to mages. And we have 10 slots at R50... so I guess there isn't really much need for discussion around this?



Pugilist
Featherfoot - Greatly increases evasion and restores MP when an attack is evaded. Effect fades upon evasion or after a certain period of time elapses. Recast Time: 60sec. / Duration: 30sec.

Second Wind - Restores HP. TP: 250 / Recast Time: 45sec.

Gladiator
Rampart - Increases physical defense and generates massive enmity. Recast Time: 120sec. / Duration: 60sec.
(in general we probably don't want to be increasing our enmity -- but nice when someone else in the party uses it on us)

Flash - Increases target's enmity. Recast Time: 30sec.
(in general we probably don't want to be increasing our enmity)

Shield Bash - Delivers a melee attack with your shield. Chance to inflict Stun. TP: 250 / Recast Time: 30sec. / Duration: 5sec.
(may be useful, but we usually aren't that close to our targets if possible?)

Sentinel - Temporarily reduces damage taken. Increases enmity generated by actions while effect is active. Recast Time: 90sec. / Duration: 15sec.

Outmaneuver - Increases block rate and grants TP for each block made while effect is active. Recast Time: 90sec. / Duration: 30sec.
(possibly okay if soloing?)

Marauder
Foresight - Increases parry rate. Effect fades upon parrying an attack. Recast Time: 60sec. / Duration: 30sec.
(do mages ever parry?)

Provoke - Increases target's enmity. Recast Time: 30sec.
(in general we probably don't want to be increasing our enmity)

Archer
Decoy - Consumes MP to evade a single ranged or magic attack. Recast Time: 90sec. / Duration: 60sec.

Hawk's Eye - Increases physical accuracy. Recast Time: 90sec. / Duration: 15sec.
(we don't really benefit from physical accuracy)

Quelling Strike - Reduces enmity and increases TP generated by next attack. Does not affect auto-attacks. Recast Time: 60sec. / Duration: 30sec.

Chameleon - Reduces enmity.
Recast Time: 180sec.

Lancer
Invigorate - Grants TP. TP does not diminish out of combat while effect is active. Recast Time: 90sec. / Duration: 30sec.

Keen Flurry - Consumes HP to reduce recast time of next weaponskill. Recast Time: 90sec.
(we don't have any weaponskills do we?)

Thaumaturge
Thunder - Deals lightning damage. Cast Time: 2sec. / Recast Time: 6sec.

Necrogenesis - Restores HP when next attack spell is cast. Recast Time: 90sec. / Duration: 30sec.

Fire - Deals fire damage to target and enemies near it. Cast Time: 3sec. / Recast Time: 8sec.

Dark Seal - Increases magic accuracy of next cast. Recast Time: 90sec. / Duration: 30sec.

Resonance - Increases range of next cast. Recast Time: 90sec. / Duration: 30sec.

Sanguine Rite - Restores MP in proportion to damage taken. Casts cannot be interrupted while effect is active. Recast Time: 60sec. / Duration: 20sec.

Fira - Deals fire damage to target and enemies near it. Combo Action: Fire Combo Bonus: Reduced cast time. Cast Time: 5sec. / Recast Time: 16sec.

Rampart, Shield Bash, and Outmaneuver are very useful while soloing, since you don't have to worry about enmity, Stun in a pinch is very helpful, and increasing your block rate reduces your damage taken. If you're soloing you should have your weapon out so you can shield block or staff parry, as you don't recover MP while passive and something is actively attacking you, so you might as well get some use out of your shield.

I almost always use staff except when main healing in some fights, when I wouldn't be in active mode to have my shield out, so I don't use ability space for those shield abilities. For those CNJs that prefer a wand and shield for soloing, more power to them to use them, I know I would probably use Outmaneuver over Sentinel and Shield Bash over one of the Thm spells or Invigorate.

Thinking about it now, Foresight would probably be worth looking into for soloing with a staff.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Estellios

Rampart, Shield Bash, and Outmaneuver are very useful while soloing, since you don't have to worry about enmity, Stun in a pinch is very helpful, and increasing your block rate reduces your damage taken. If you're soloing you should have your weapon out so you can shield block or staff parry, as you don't recover MP while passive and something is actively attacking you, so you might as well get some use out of your shield.

I almost always use staff except when main healing in some fights, when I wouldn't be in active mode to have my shield out, so I don't use ability space for those shield abilities. For those CNJs that prefer a wand and shield for soloing, more power to them to use them, I know I would probably use Outmaneuver over Sentinel and Shield Bash over one of the Thm spells or Invigorate.

Thinking about it now, Foresight would probably be worth looking into for soloing with a staff.

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Thanks. Good advice for soloing! ^^

I guess the people I spoke with last night and myself tend to be focused more on doing the Moogle and Ifrit battles, so the viewpoint was slanted towards the party-play point of view and not generating enmity.

Using Sentinel is kinda shooting yourself in the foot because of the increased enmity on all of your actions while it's active. Your teammates won't be able to take the mob off you if you'll have to heal yourself while the mob is hitting you, so I'm only using it to survive hellfire/memento or maybe solo...

That is, quite honestly, the only reason I use it but at the moment I'm either doing Ifrit or soloing on CNJ when I play it lately so it's a mainstay on my bar for now.

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Originally Posted by Soukyuu

Using Sentinel is kinda shooting yourself in the foot because of the increased enmity on all of your actions while it's active. Your teammates won't be able to take the mob off you if you'll have to heal yourself while the mob is hitting you, so I'm only using it to survive hellfire/memento or maybe solo...

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True. I mainly kept it on my bar for Hellfire and Memento.

But now with the WS combos sometimes requiring the DPS players to attack from the side, I've sometimes found myself caught in Ifrit eruptions with absolutely nowhere to run because they appear both under and behind me (DPS players no longer stay right behind Ifrit). Sentinel can literally be a lifesaver in those situations too.

The effective duration is so short that it's really only good for those sorts of "imminent danger" situations anyway.

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Originally Posted by Mikita

(DPS players no longer stay right behind Ifrit)

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What an extremely dangerous thing to do D:
When I played DD on Ifrit, I only used the combo that required me to be behind Ifrit after the first phase.

It's really not as bad as it sounds, as long as the DD you are with are good with their timing. LNC and MRD have to go to the side for 1 WS for their damage combos. As long as they do the WS right after Ifrit does a WS or he's in the middle of plumes and get out ASAP before doing anything else, there should be little issue. Also Ifrit's "Side" area seems to be pretty large and you can be somewhere between his middle and rear areas, around where his legs are, and have it still count as a "side" hit.