General

@Redadin As far as I can tell, yep.

So let me see if I got this right.

When fighting bosses I should:

- Charge One
- Charge Two
- Charge Three
- Charge Four
- Charge five
Then...
- Blast
- Re-use all charges
- Blast until blast buff is gone

Then repeat?

@ihavefood Yea that's how it should work. Although I'm still seeing videos of Paladins using the Lightning/Holy combo but in actuality it works as long as they have that status effect.

@Frostilyte Yes that was the point I forgot to mention lol. I was losing my mind cause I knew I was forgetting something lol. Although the Blast buff I think you're correct. The video I was looking at to see if the buff was Blast only was a video of a very low leveled Pally who probably had 1 SP into Blast so the damage buff was pretty miniscule and I didn't catch it. Thanks for pointing that out. Kinda disappoints me how it works for both because now the gap between Blast and ACB is much less than what I thought

Sorry I gutted your post, but I only wanted two pieces of it.

[quote=Kazzooey]
-You can still cast Blast if you don't have 5 Stacks, but you won't get the Blast buff until you get all 5 Stacks. (Does not consume Stacks unless you have all 5)
[/quote]
To clarify, Blast will not use up the 5 charges while the blast buff is active. It only consumes them if you don't have the buff up.
[url=http://www.insoya.com/bbs/zboard.php?id=ucc&no=44493]insoya[/url] - Watch when she's fighting hilla towards the end.
Blast doesn't consume the charge stack until after she loses the buff, which happens in the last 3ish seconds of the video.

[quote=Kazzooey]
[*]Blast's Damage buff applies ONLY to Blast and has no effect on ACB Charge attacks
[/quote]
I've read differently, but I've wasn't able to find video proof [b]yet[/b] to challenge you on this one.
Edit:
[url=http://www.insoya.com/bbs/zboard.php?id=ucc&no=44626]insoya[/url] - loving this site over youtube for maple footage
It's not 100% proof, but after the blast buff is active he goes from hitting 3/6 critical lines on charges to 5/6 and 6/6.

[quote=Kazzooey]No they changed it. Blast should be back to freely casting whenever. (sort of) It's a little more complicated now, but it's easy to get the hang of once you realize what's going on.
Here is how the new gameplay should work:

[b]How Charging/ACB works[/b]
-First off, you get the new buff called Elemental Charge. Every time you alternate charges (Not using the same charge twice in a row) you get 1 more Stack to it, totaling up to a maximum of 5 Stacks on Elemental Charge.
[*]Each stack gives you a buff of 2% Damage, 2% Damage Reduction, +2% Status Resistance, 2% Healing, and +8 ATT. (Total: 10% Damage, 10% Damage Reduce, 10% Status Resist, 10% Healing, and +40 ATT)
[*]The buff does not have a duration and is permanently applied until Blast is used or possibly Dispelled.
-Charges gain extra damage when they have a previous Charge's status effect on a monster.
[*]Fire Charge's DoT effect gives Ice Charge +15% Damage increase (Works on bosses)
[*]Ice Charge's Slow effect gives Lightning Charge +15% Damage increase (Works on bosses)
[*]Lightning Charge's stun effect gives Holy Charge +20% Damage increase (Status Effect applies onto a boss so you can get the damage buff, but has no effect and does NOT stun the boss)
[*]Holy Charge's Seal gives no damage buffs to any other charges (Does NOT work on bosses)
[*]Status Effects from Charge's do NOT disappear when another effect is applied and will go through it's duration before disappearing
[*]The %Healing only applies to Hp Recovery(skill) in 3rd Job, boosting it from 50% to 60%.
-For maximum damage on Charge attacks, you can apply the previous Charge's status effect once and then keep using the upgraded Charge for the additional 15-20% Damage buff until the status effect is gone. (Meaning you can hit the boss/monster with Lightning Charge once for the 6 second Stun debuff, and then cast Holy Charge consecutively for 6 seconds for the 20% damage increase WITHOUT having to alternate between Lightning and Holy. After the 6 second Stun debuff is gone you can hit them again with Lightning to cast the debuff once more and continue the same process)
-Advanced Charge's buff upgrades the buffs from Elemental Charge.
[*]When ACB is fully leveled, the ATT and %Damage of each Charge is increased to +12 ATT and +5% (Total: 25% Damage, 10% Damage Reduce, 10% Status Resist, +60 ATT)

[b]How Blast works[/b]
-When you have 5 Stacks on Elemental Charge's buff counter, using Blast will consume all 5 charges to produce Blast's massive damage buff for 45 seconds.
[*]Blast's Damage buff applies ONLY to Blast and has no effect on ACB Charge attacks
[*]When consuming the 5 Stacks on Elemental Charge, you lose all of the buffs from those charges (You lose the % Damage, 10% Reduction, and so on)
[*]You can recharge your Elemental Charge Stacks after you get your Blast buff, but you have to use your Charges to do so like usual (Blast doesn't recharge Elemental Charge stacks)
-When the Blast buff is completed it's 45 seconds you may repeat the process to get the buff again, but remember you'll have to recharge your Stacks back to 5 before you do so if you haven't already
-You can still cast Blast if you don't have 5 Stacks, but you won't get the Blast buff until you get all 5 Stacks. (Does not consume Stacks unless you have all 5)

Hope this clears things up for you guys for the new gameplay style.[/quote]

wow thanks this really helped a lot. though some questions...

does this mean lightning -> holy for 6 seconds -> repeat is the best mobbing way now? i didn't know you still could use holy continuously for 6s. oh but lightning -> holy -> repeat is still the best for bossing i guess, to charge stacks faster.
say if you charge 5 stacks, and you use blast. if you charge another 5 stacks (while blast's buff is still on), and you use blast after that, will the stacks be used up? if they are, then it means we won't be able to get our full bonus from the elemental charges when we are bossing...

No they changed it. Blast should be back to freely casting whenever. (sort of) It's a little more complicated now, but it's easy to get the hang of once you realize what's going on.
Here is how the new gameplay should work:

[b]How Charging/ACB works[/b]
-First off, you get the new buff called Elemental Charge. Every time you alternate charges (Not using the same charge twice in a row) you get 1 more Stack to it, totaling up to a maximum of 5 Stacks on Elemental Charge.
[*]Each stack gives you a buff of 2% Damage, 2% Damage Reduction, +2% Status Resistance, 2% Healing, and +8 ATT. (Total: 10% Damage, 10% Damage Reduce, 10% Status Resist, 10% Healing, and +40 ATT)
[*]The buff does not have a duration and is permanently applied until Blast is used or possibly Dispelled.
-Charges gain extra damage when they have a previous Charge's status effect on a monster.
[*]Fire Charge's DoT effect gives Ice Charge +15% Damage increase (Works on bosses)
[*]Ice Charge's Slow effect gives Lightning Charge +15% Damage increase (Works on bosses)
[*]Lightning Charge's stun effect gives Holy Charge +20% Damage increase (Status Effect applies onto a boss so you can get the damage buff, but has no effect and does NOT stun the boss)
[*]Holy Charge's Seal gives no damage buffs to any other charges (Does NOT work on bosses)
[*]Status Effects from Charge's do NOT disappear when another effect is applied and will go through it's duration before disappearing
[*]The %Healing only applies to Hp Recovery(skill) in 3rd Job, boosting it from 50% to 60%.
-For maximum damage on Charge attacks, you can apply the previous Charge's status effect once and then keep using the upgraded Charge for the additional 15-20% Damage buff until the status effect is gone. (Meaning you can hit the boss/monster with Lightning Charge once for the 6 second Stun debuff, and then cast Holy Charge consecutively for 6 seconds for the 20% damage increase WITHOUT having to alternate between Lightning and Holy. After the 6 second Stun debuff is gone you can hit them again with Lightning to cast the debuff once more and continue the same process)
-Advanced Charge's buff upgrades the buffs from Elemental Charge.
[*]When ACB is fully leveled, the ATT and %Damage of each Charge is increased to +12 ATT and +5% (Total: 25% Damage, 10% Damage Reduce, 10% Status Resist, +60 ATT)

[b]How Blast works[/b]
-When you have 5 Stacks on Elemental Charge's buff counter, using Blast will consume all 5 charges to produce Blast's massive damage buff for 45 seconds.
[*]Blast's Damage buff applies to all skills and not just Blast
[*]When consuming the 5 Stacks on Elemental Charge, you lose all of the buffs from those charges (You lose the % Damage, 10% Reduction, and so on)
[*]You can recharge your Elemental Charge Stacks after you get your Blast buff, but you have to use your Charges to do so like usual (Blast doesn't recharge Elemental Charge stacks)
-When the Blast buff is completed it's 45 seconds you may repeat the process to get the buff again, but remember you'll have to recharge your Stacks back to 5 before you do so if you haven't already
-You can still cast Blast if you don't have 5 Stacks, but you won't get the Blast buff until you get all 5 Stacks. (Does not consume Stacks unless you have all 5. Does not consume stacks while Blast buff is active)

Hope this clears things up for you guys for the new gameplay style.