Somebody needs to do some testing and find out how much -DT they just gave him.
Valaineral
HP: 2038
MP: 744
DT: 8% (1,000 needles split between Val and I did 460 damage to Val)
Phalanx Potency: 29 (460 damage from 1k needles is further reduced to 431 with Val's phalanx up)
MP Per Tick: 1 (auto-refresh)
Reprisal observation: Block Rate still sucks on Apex. 12% maybe, at best?
Accuracy Observation: Val is probably on the floor (19% acc) against the same Apex Jagil that August is at 72% accuracy on.
AoE Threat Observation: Val's aoe cures and Uriel Blade do indeed allow him to keep 6 (as tested) apex mobs off Joach or Ulmia or me (Aeolian Edge) no problem. That's about the line for survival for him though, unless you experiment with Barrier or Minne, which might be an interesting test.
Val seems to be using Uriel Blade upon engagement without TP. Seen it uses quite a few times at less than 100 TP. Able to be used within less than 10 secs from last use if you rapidly engage from one mob to the next, even.