Comments from the Devs

[Alkar]

Except Thundaga sucks and unless you can guarantee it a crit by being lucky/timing Excruciate perfectly with combo it's not worth casting.

BLM can guarantee a crit on Thundaga with Excruciate. There's no luck involved.

[Elcura]

BLM can guarantee a crit on Thundaga with Excruciate. There's no luck involved.

Do elaborate. I can crit consistently with Excruciate, but to say there's no luck involved seems like you know something we all don't.

[Niiro]

Considering Excrutiate lasts 30 seconds and the combo timer is 12 I fail to see how you can guarantee it.

[Enygma55]

Excrutiate keeps upping your crit rate the longer the buff last. Bout 15 sec in, its pretty much guaranteed to crit whatever spell you are casting.

You can use it before u even begin the thunder combo. Thunder > Thundara takes roughly 4-5 sec to cast and hoping the Excruticate doesnt trigger on those spells, wait another 5-7 sec, then cast thundaga = instant guaranteed crit. You're waiting for thundara cooldown anyways so unless you're trying to conserve mp, you might as well crit a thundaga combo.

For a frame of reference, fighting Chimera. Thunder 225dmg > Thundara 700dmg > Thundaga crit 850 dmg (with my gear setup)

Very useful for Flare too. Use Excruciate about 15 sec before u plan to cast it and when it goes off 22 sec in, guaranteed Flare Crit on every target it hits.

[Alkar]

Considering Excrutiate lasts 30 seconds and the combo timer is 12 I fail to see how you can guarantee it.

Using the appropriate AF piece <_<

[Elcura]

You can use it before u even begin the thunder combo. Thunder > Thundara takes roughly 4-5 sec to cast and hoping the Excruticate doesnt trigger on those spells, wait another 5-7 sec, then cast thundaga = instant guaranteed crit. You're waiting for thundara cooldown anyways so unless you're trying to conserve mp, you might as well crit a thundaga combo.

Uh huh...

Using the appropriate AF piece <_<

Care for more detail?

[Alkar]

There's one piece of AF that Enhances Excruciate.. why do you need more details? I always crit with the spell I cast right after using Excruciate with AF.
If it's not a guaranteed crit it's damn close because I've yet to see it fail.

[Enygma55]

If you are worried about Excruciate triggering on Thunder, dont use it til after Thunder is cast. Since Thundara is instant cast, can wait 3 sec then cast it, then another 7-10 sec for Thundaga.

If it triggers on Thundara, good enough, if it doesnt, then you get a Thundaga Crit

[Elcura]

If it's not a guaranteed crit

It's not, so stop saying it is.

[Alkar]

Guess I'm lucky because I always crit with Thundaga while using AF.

[Niiro]

If the effect was that apparent I'd think Kaeko and co. would have noticed it when they did their various AF "enhance x" effect testing.

I don't use AF body so I can't say either way.

[Elcura]

Guess I'm lucky because I always crit with Thundaga while using AF.

Then explain what you're doing, and how other people can replicate it or stop talking shit. Because (and I'm being serious) if there's something we're all missing, then do feel free to educate us on your 100% guaranteed Thundaga crit.

[Fievel]

Bitching just to bitch, arguing just to argue. It is not necessary for you bunch to shit up every thread in the XIV section just so you can whine and argue about nothing.

[Alkar]

Then explain what you're doing, and how other people can replicate it or stop talking shit. Because (and I'm being serious) if there's something we're all missing, then do feel free to educate us on your 100% guaranteed Thundaga crit.

I simply use the ability before casting Thundaga and it crits. Like I said it's either a guaranteed crit or it greatly increases crit rate despite the timer.
And I use full AF for what it matters. You're telling me there's no difference between THM and BLM with AF using this ability?
I'll check again later anyway.

[Grey Jorildyn]

I've heard a theory that the enhancement might extend a crit proc on any target of an aoe spell to all targets. For example if you cast Fira normally on 3 targets, you might only crit 1/3, but if Excruciate is active, and a crit happens, the spell will proc critical to all targets it hits. Wonder if there's any merit to that.

[Enygma55]

I run in AF body all the time (mainly cus it looks badass) and my aoe spells crit multiple mobs with excruciate with spells like Flare and Firaga. I dont know if thats cus of the AF body or not but it should be very easy to test once servers come back up.

[Elcura]

I simply use the ability before casting Thundaga and it crits. Like I said it's either a guaranteed crit or it greatly increases crit rate despite the timer.
And I use full AF for what it matters. You're telling me there's no difference between THM and BLM with AF using this ability?
I'll check again later anyway.

I've had crits go off on Thundara before reaching Thundaga and I've even had a few cases of a crit not going off on Thundaga despite timer being at 15+ seconds. I get mostly consistent results, but I've found no way or timing to be 100%. A few times you just get unlucky and a crit goes off too early (far, far more often than going off too late which is rare at best).

I was serious when asking for what you were doing, I usually treat Excruciate combos like it's a sure thing (unless the damage on a Thundaga crit isn't worth it), but sometimes it isn't.

Edit: and I run BLM AF body, but mostly for looks lol

[Niiro]

From an MP efficiency perspective Thundaga is only worth casting with Parsimony and a "guaranteed" crit.

If you've got MP to burn yea you might as well cast it while waiting for Thundara but it's 168 more MP for slightly more damage on a crit and less damage on a non-crit.

[Alkar]

The only thing I do is use Excruciate between Thundara and Thundaga, never before. I haven't done serious testing for sure but I've never noticed the ability sticking after Thundaga and I usually don't cast right after on big stuff.
If you want specific details it goes Thunder> Thundara> Parsimony, Excruciate, Quelling Strike> Thundaga.

[Elcura]

So basically you give Excruciate 6-8 seconds before casting? Thundaga takes 6 to cast so it's always going to be at least that, and generously giving a second to each buff... I've definitely had Excruciate stick after 10 seconds with AF, and I'd rather it go off early on Thundara than late.

I always assumed Thundaga crit was just something you had to feel out, anything to make it less random would be welcome.