New 2-hour Abilities

[Daniel_Hatcher]

Most of the *new* 2hr's are complete crap, either far to short a duration or to weak an effect to be useful. A few are good though highly situational.

Camate could the devs look to shorten the recasts of all "2 hours" into something like 30 minutes? The game has changed significantly since 2002 and the idea of any ability being on a 120 minute timer is really bad. Super awesome abilities should be on a 30 minute time, short enough to be used yet long enough to prevent abuse.

The 2-hours just need to be as crazy OP as SCH's to work. As it stands, only SCH's (original obviously) can be justified for 2-hours. It's the same as the merit system, they lack power to justify the limit.

Every last new 2-hour has no true justification for the 2-hour delay, a lot of these are not even powerful enough to justify longer than 10 minutes.

I've noticed the new guy has posted something on the JP forums about the 2-hours recast etc I can only hope it gets translated soon and is positive.

[Okipuit]

Hello!

I have some news from Producer Akihiko Matsui, which I believe you will all be quite happy about!

Hello this is Matsui.
Sorry to keep you waiting, but I have some follow up information in regards to SP abilities.

Today we once again looked into what would be the best way to implement the new SP abilities moving forward. I’d like to give a brief summary of the development plans based on the results of our discussion.

The below are the 4 main aspects of change for the 2-hour abilities.
　
1. New SP ability and existing SP ability recast timer separation

As we previously explained, the new SP abilities we designed based on the idea that the recast timer would be shared with the existing SP abilities and players would use them accordingly. While the effects and usages have been compared to the existing SP abilities and consideration has been given so that they are balanced, we will be completely separating the two and changing the concept so that each ability can be used separately.

We will be making them so they are complete abilities on their own and do not need to be constrained to using one or the other.

　
2. Recast time reduction

Originally the idea for SP abilities was to have players use them one time for specific content or battle situations and to use it wisely. When considering the current battle tempo and the average time for content these days, we feel that it would be beneficial to make the recast 1 hour with the ability to reduce it a minimum of 30 minutes via merit points. With this, the idea of “2-hour abilities” will changed when we explore the effects.

　
3. New SP ability effects revamp

Based on the changes stated above, we will be looking into the effects for the new SP abilities once again.

This does not mean only time related adjustments will be made. If deemed necessary we will be completely revamping the effect from the ground up.

　
4. Existing SP ability effects revamp

We will be looking into revamping existing SP ability effects based on the two points below.

• Adjustments to effects to coincide with recast shortening
• Balance adjustments to coincide with the new SP ability effects revamp

Even with the existing SP abilities there is a division between those that have good uses and those that do not depending on the job. Ultimately our aim is to make it so that by putting together the effects of the two SP abilities every job can have a boon. With that said, we will be revamping the existing SP abilities so that balance is not thrown off when incorporating usage of the new SP abilities.

As a general direction we will be raising all of the abilities so that they become useful. However, we believe that we will have no choice but add the lowering of effects of Perfect Defense and Embrava to our scope of adjustments.

　
With all of these changes, the previously planned implementation date for the new SP abilities as shown on the roadmap will be significantly pushed back. I apologize deeply for making you all wait, but we took a lot of time to decide the above so that we could deliver something that everyone enjoys and matches the current game.

We are currently working on preparing a revised roadmap to be released. We expect this to take a little bit of time, but please hang in there.

[Byrth]

Generally these are steps in the right direction.

Please don't nerf stuff too much. You note in the JP version of this post that the content time these days is more like 30 minutes than 2 hours, and there really shouldn't be a compelling reason to nerf something that you can only use once per event.

As for Embrava and Perfect Defense, nerfing these is acceptable as long as you adjust the content that heavily relies on them.

[Ophannus]

As a prime suggestion from the Dragoon community regarding Rouse Wyvern SP ability, Dragoons need an SP ability that does not require the Wyvern to be alive to be used. The reasoning is that if the player is KO'd in the first few moments of a battlefield, the Wyvern is KO'd too since all of the damage resistance and Steady Wing and etc don't mean anything if the player itself dies(which is extremely likely in VW or Legion).

That being said, Dragoons need an SP ability to use that can be used if the player's Wyvern is unavailable, which in practical applications and reality, is very often in end game fights with the dizzying prevalence of AoE Death or Doom or high damage Meteor or TP moves which the Wyvern would have survived, if the Dragoon player didn't take 2400 damage.

One suggestion for a revamped DRG 2hr is to make all of the Dragoon's attacks ignore physical defense(includes weapon skills) or level correction, which fits Dragoon's theme of piercing and ignore defense(Wheeling Thrust; Camlann's Torement) Alternatively, the revamped SP could be a monumentally high Attack Bonus since this is really at its core what Dragoon sorely lacks, a self buff that enhances damage directly.

[Insaniac]

However, we believe that we will have no choice but add the lowering of effects of Perfect Defense and Embrava to our scope of adjustments.

You really don't have to do this. There are several events that rely very very heavily on Perfect Defense and Embrava that would also require a near complete rebuild if you mess with these abilities. Some NMs and events, I believe, were created with these specific abilities in mind. Arch Dynamis Lord for example would be a nightmare without perfect defense, Neo-Nyzul would be even more unreasonable without embrava, and some legion halls would be completely impossible without both.

If you absolutely must change these abilities then remove the necessity for them from the the game first. I think, though, that you could make people much more happy by bringing other 2hours up to their level.

[BigPapaBlueJay]

Don't start off as the new producer nerfing things, we are happy with 2-hour waits for their current effects.

[Zhronne]

I like everything Mr Matsui said.
My only concerns is for those events which currently rely heavily on Embrava and Perfect Defense.
Stuff like Legion, Arch Dynamis Lord and New Nyzul.

My opinion is that... it's a vicious circle.
PD and Embrava were too powerful to begin with.
Taking that into consideration, SE played cheap while creating new events, trying to keep them challenging despite Embrava and PD.
The consequence of this is that Embrava and PD became mandatory and not just optional for events like those.

If they nerf PD and Embrava the result will be that those events will be even harder, and Marrows price will go up.
I seriously hope that if they really go that way, they'll slightly tweak the 3 mentioned events, and anything else necessary.

[tyrantsyn]

Well timer's are getting reduce and seperated, that should make more than a few ppl happy.

[MarkovChain]

Arch dynamis lord is unkillable w/o PD so please take caution to this.

[Insaniac]

That's not entirely true. I've seen it killed with EA/Scherzo but it took an entire alliance and it wasn't pretty.