Quote Originally Posted by Valence View Post
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So far:
S1 - Crystal rank Aether
S2 - Crystal rank Primal
S3 - Crystal rank Crystal
S4 - Crystal rank Mana + Top 100 Crystal + Top 30 Dynamis
S5-7 - vacation, mostly casuals on Mana
S8 - currently Diamond 5 Mana & Gaia + Plat 4 Primal + Bronze 3 on Chaos because it won't queue T_T Mostly going off Brian Ricardo's streams for Crystal/Diamond matches on EU because that happens to be when I can catch him most times so I can somewhat compare it to NA. Seems more skirmishy/messy than NA in general. JP is skirmishy as well but they won't chase as hard as what I saw on stream or even in Bronze since when I queue'd there were like 2-3 top 30's in the matches, either decayed to Gold or world transfer so I see a Endless Conflict with unranked. EU almost reminded me of OCE level griefing I heard of where they chase to no end. Most of what I remember is Brian having issues with synergy/chasing/grouping which shows since he mained healer in stream back then.

As for "making MP important as a resource", mmmmm, I'd say it depends on the comps to start. One thing about JP I learned was how to maximize my uptime on BRD in terms of knowing when I can still put out damage and not have mana or guard or purify because the damage threat of the enemy team is low. I know I'll have time to escape or get healed up. I think MP would be important if you wanted to go back in and you had potential to die, but even then you can get into nitpicky territory. If you had a 2-3 tank comp with 2-3 range dps, I can see MP being important on the tanks to frontline, but not on the range dps assuming they're spread out. If you're in Overtime and forced to stay on the crystal, MP can be important then as well. However, and this can change depending on map and comps as well, I'm looking at things from a 1 target at a time perspective. If one person comes in and soaks a bunk of damage and they escape, they're normally going to be replaced by someone else who ends up holding it for a given time period. Even if you lived and had MP, you wouldn't necessarily head straight back in to frontline and you had no Guard or Purify with the MP you had left. You still play on the sidelines a bit. And because I'm thinking of things in that rotating sense, MP is only as important as the circumstances surrounding it that force its importance or allow for its use. Generic MP use I would say is only important if you/your team fucked up and grouped unnecessarily to give the enemy team free splash damage. But I'd say it's situational where having MP could be useful compared to if you were allowed to just regen up and don't plan on using it regardless of if you have it.