Man, I think I haven't been piled on this hard since Terrascape! Ahh, the nostalgia.
Anyway the option for Star basically outright states that it's immediate power, i.e when we go voting for our next fight, we'll basically be taking on more risk compared to the other option.
The safest overall option
It seems Rihaku disagrees with you. The above is despite the option taking Exhausted, even. Again, due to fucking magic Stats can't guarantee safety, especially from complications. If you want save advancement without complications go for Saint.
In comparison, Quickening can get the cake of not taking Exhausted, before proceeding to fix it! Amazing! No risk! No long term penalties! Behold, the awesome power of being consistent with our previous build vote! How could anything possibly compete with such power on objective grounds?!
Man, imagine wanting to have consistency with our other forms instead, what a novel idea! We only pop Second Form when whatever we are fighting would have already killed us once; I don't want it to be massively weaker than our base form. Kind of detracts from one of the benefits of the form, even.
If you don't want long-term penalties vote for Saint. I don't think we will be getting rid of Paralysis. And despite taking Paralysis, Bloodslayer is risker anyway. Just surviving is great as a Progression-type because we will outscale whatever opposes us anyway. So it seems a much better thing to prioritize here.
Wait what? Omakes count for extra votes?
They are the equivalent of arguing for an option, I think. The point is to reward effort given to the quest.
I'm sure we will be offered good Blood options in the future if we don't pick Quickening!
They'll be called Quickening.
Pre-requisites.. damn.
Anyway, what I mean by not being consistent at all is that the previous build vote was Bloodmight, ignoring the caster-specific exp drops that we selected Magus for (???). The vote before that was Apex, then Bright Vanquisher, and you'll notice that the one thing these successive Build Votes have in common is that they don't really synergize with each other in the sense of 'compounding capabilities' and instead are like 'linear to quadratic improvement'.
Going for the blood compounding build multiplies our power by, like, 17 times? It would be a definite break from previous Build Votes which didn't exactly have synergistic (In the 1+1 = 3 sense) outcomes.
17 times is a gross exaggeration. And better Nullity would give us way better mach-ups against foes that no amount of Stats could give. And usually if an option is a requirement for something it will say so. Can't think of an example otherwise, from Vanguard to the Martial Stances to Pearlescence. So I don't think an even more shiny option is hiding behind it, no. Safety is better anyway.
I didn't say Blood Advancements are locked up behind Quickening, I am saying Quickening our allies is behind it. I am just applying a simple thinking, the only reason we even have Evening Gown to give it to Gisena is getting the Evening Sky in the first place. How can we give Quickening to others if we don't have it in the first place?
See above. There isn't a systemic nor even lore mention about helping others, just about channeling the power of Progression; something only we have. I don't think this will lead to an ally buff due to that.
This is really not your day is it? To clarify, I meant to say the enemies that can't be defeated with Bloodlslayer but could be defeated by Saint are incredibly few and too specific. It's not like we are losing Gisena if we don't pick Evening Gown. Plus with Quickening and Gisena, we wouldn't need all of our forms and have such a devastating alpha strike, continuous attacks and fighting stamina that anything that can survive Bloodslayer can probably defeat Saint easily.
Again, pure stats are a very imperfect defense. Any bad touch or debuff effects that enemies rely on is much better countered by Saint than by Bloodmight, who just has to tank it. Attritional strategies don't limit themselves to attriting down our HP, you know. If anything makes us drop our First From with Quickening we are turbofucked.
But we'll be getting better options with Bloodslayer. Progression spins our Legend on top of what we have (unless we're in the mood to steal our enemies' stuff), the more powerful our blood magic, the more it gets enhanced. A 7 Arete + 3 pick is a significant investment into the theme that pays off in stronger Blood Advancements.
I mean, yes, we can (and likely will) pursue Blood Magic in both options, just as we will buffing Gisena as we progress. But I want to see Bloodmagic more than I want to see Nullityplosions.
And this investment in Gown will likely give us more
findross stuff in general; given our Pseudo-Grace. Compounding magic systems is something with Incredible power in these Quests and so getting another one may give far better returns than just more blood.
