Thoughts on the FFXI Job Adjustment Manifesto

[Eric]

• Vision
  Students in the art of war who employ stratagems to alter the tide of battle along with elemental magic to support their allies and annihilate their foes.
  
  We wish for scholars to further their education in order to become absolute masters of their art, and the latter stages of their research will produce skills comparable to those of a white or black mage whose spells may take time to cast, but compensate with both the bliss and destruction they beget.

• Example Adjustments
  • Adding spells which gradually reduce an enemy's TP or status enhancements.
  • Adding a spell that can be cast while under the effect of Tabula Rasa.

I was mostly disappointed with the examples they gave. I really hope they come up with something more compelling than that.

I think they also need to consider the fact that Abyssea and new job abilities are making our bonuses from Light/Dark Arts and stratagems obsolete. It talks about how scholars' spells are quicker to cast than BLM/WHM yet BLM can already cast spells considerably quicker due to elemental celerity. Make Dark Arts(& Light Arts) surpass the -25% casting time given to BLMs and then we'll be talking.

That being said, I'm still generally happy with scholar in the position it's currently in, so it's not like this will deter me from continuing to use it as my main job.

What are your guys' thoughts on this?

[Merton9999]

I wasn't happy with these at all.

Spells to reduce TP and buffs seem odd, and more suited to RDM. The last 15 levels have seen only unique enhancement spells that are currently near useless. I'd rather those be buffed and our healing side be augmented than to introduce enfeebles. The only thing I can see being useful is to reduce TP so much that we actually don't need Cure V? Haha, if anything it will be like Adloquium's silly +1 TP, only -1.

I said in another thread if the Tabula Rasa spell is Ultima or Death, great. If it just works like another addendum for Raise 3 and Freeze II then yuck.

I'm wondering if the second vision paragraph was mistranslated or worded wrong, or if people are misinterpreting it. What I'm hoping they intended here is that SCH will receive new spells that are on par with WHM and BLM, those new spells will take longer to cast, but will be worth it for their recovery/damage. The way they worded it people seem to think SE is saying WHM and BLM take longer to cast.

I would take that interpretation - a SCH-exclusive Cure VII that takes 10 seconds to cast would be interesting. This also fits with a Tabula Rasa Ultima.

And I'll say it again here: fix that horrendous range on Libra, unbreak Modus Veritas, and make Enlightenment do what the description says. It's hard to think about new abilities for SCH when the unique ones we have are so broken.

[Eric]

I'm wondering if the second vision paragraph was mistranslated or worded wrong, or if people are misinterpreting it.

A comma can make all the difference in the world. It makes sense if you add a comma between "black mage" and "whose".

the latter stages of their research will produce skills comparable to those of a white or black mage, whose spells may take time to cast, but compensate with both the bliss and destruction they beget.

It's basically saying that SCH may be approaching the potency levels of WHM & BLM, but since WHM & BLM take longer to cast their spells, they are also more powerful than SCH's spells. Just kind of reinforcing the idea that scholar has always really been about--it's not stronger than either mage at casting a single spell, but it's quicker and more efficient.

New job adjustments, along Abyssea, and other things, have sort of killed this idea because now not only is SCH weaker than WHM and BLM, but now it's also not considerably better at doing the things it was supposed to excel in.

[Merton9999]

I get how people are interpreting it, I'm just hoping that wasn't SE's intended meaning, especially because it's functionally false.

I agree with you. With merits and various benison/celerity traits, WHM and BLM are casting their usual spells way faster than SCH despite our FC and /RDM. Not to mention WHM is subbing SCH or RDM anyway, which minimizes this difference even more. I honestly can't see an excuse of leaving SCH off the Cure V scroll because we can cast Cure IV faster. It doesn't make sense. It's the same with nukes, like you said originally.

What makes more sense to me is to give SCH access to these high tier spells and let us suffer from casting time in comparison to WHM and BLM with their traits, unless we choose to use Alacrity/Celerity.

[Sotek]

I'm assuming Tabula Rasa is getting Summoner treatment. Something like Ultima that uses up Tabula once cast, just like Odin/Alexander. I assume SE will be doing that to all 2Hours, people want more strong abilities and giving 2Hours dual uses pretty much does that.

I'm actually getting a bit more annoying at Libra now. Before the level cap rise we get "We'll be moving Scholar towards a hate management role" and now they've gone back to "We're making it a more efficient but weaker White and Black Mage". Great. Thanks for wasting 15 levels on completely worthless trash SE. I'd probably let it go if you weren't giving Dragoon and Ranger (and Paladin last update) more control with enmity than us. It really adds insult to injury.

Let me make a few suggestions (actually I'm pretty much just repeating everything I've said here already since the site opened) that you'll no doubt never read, SE:
-Change Libra to Scan. It shows a monsters elemental and physical (blunt/slashing/piercing) weakness and increases the damage dealt to it by magic and weapons that target its weakness. Also have it show a mobs Stagger weakness if it has one.
-Remove Animus spells and just slap Storm IIs in their place. Two birds with one stone, make Stormsurge stack with Storm IIs for a different effect like the ones mentioned in a few other threads.
-Make Tabula Rasa so it makes Stratagems not wear off after being used. One of the only Scholar enemies in the game gets this damn effect and it's a far better fix than "Oh look a pretty new spell!".
-If you're adjusting job-specific merits so that Modus merits are changed to "Increases the accuracy of Modus Veritas", well... May God have mercy on you. Just make it so Modus doesn't stack. Christ, no one ever really used that aspect of it apart from the very reason you made it worthless. There's a massive hole in your logic here.
-Change Enlightenment so that it changes your current Arts/Addendum. It's far more useful than "Use one spell from your other Addendum" because if I need to use one, go figure I'll need to use another.
-Change the merit Stratagems to using 1 charge if you're not already. If you're making it so, for example, Ninja doesn't have to pick which Ninjitsu to merit (so they get all in one merits like they should have in the first place), I'll probably expect the same for the Stratagems as well.
-Increase the range on Libra. It can't be that difficult and you just did the same thing for some Thief abilities. Again, insult to injury.
-Adjust Cure V/VI and give White Mage the enmity reduction bonus as a trait. Then give Scholar Cure V (and Red Mage). The fact that White Mage can cast it without pulling hate ever would already fit perfectly with your vision of what Scholar should be.
-If Dancer can use TP to get the party >1TP/sec, Scholars regain sure as hell best be upped to 2/sec, even if it's just through gear.
And finally:
-Hire someone new to do you're translations. I'm completely ignoring your vision for Scholar based on how poorly it's worded. I don't support allies with elemental magic and I'm fairly sure Scholar is weaker overall than Black Mage and White Mage who both cast faster than Scholar. So please, hire someone who's competent at wording and translating.

If anything that last point demands that one of the devs finally graces the Scholar section, if only to clear it up and say "We'll consider it" to things that don't even need considering like Modus Veritas.
(what a ridiculous idea, there aren't enough Scholars here for a single post to get enough "Likes" that someone from SE would come to investigate)

[Raksha]

The way I interpreted is that SCH is the one taking longer to cast the spells. Our taking longer to cast is compensated by being able to fill both roles.

It isn't spectacularly worded though.

[Covenant]

How many black mages would pass out if Scholars received meteor/comet via 2 hr? Lol. Or WHM if under light arts Ultima?

TP manipulation is interesting if looked at from both ends. If subtracting from mob not so much, since various jobs have a "TP reducer" moves. However, regain has always been far and few between.

[Sotek]

I think I'm going to take it as a jab at our Empyrean Armor Set: effect.

a white or black mage whose spells may take time to cast, but compensate with both the bliss and destruction they beget.

All spells take time to cast unless Quick Magic procs. Unless we're getting 100% Quick Magic I'll be taking that as an insult, SE.

In all seriousness though, I guess they could be talking about new Scholar specific spells. If you think about it Helices do have great potential to be more damaging than Black Mage but they are obviously slower (though not in casting, so what the hell, SE). Never been too psyched by the "Healing Helix" idea though, but I'll withhold judgment until I see the finished product, if that's indeed what they're getting at (I still don't see how making a whole new set of unique spells just for the sake of unique spells is a better fix that making two simple adjustments to a preexisting spell).

I think I'll stop wasting brain cells on this and just come back in a month to see SE contradict themselves and add Animus II spells.

[Sotek]

Anyone else find it massively depressing that a thread about giving Scholar Recall and Retrace gets more posts, views and likes than basically any of the suggestions in this section; regardless of what they are, when they were posted or who posted them? What exactly is the point of the Jobs section of this forum?

[Merton9999]

"Massively depressing" is about right. Thanks so much for pointing out that thread. I gave my two cents.

I'm struggling trying to find the point of the job section myself. I always looked at job adjustments in the past as nice candy that either would or wouldn't coincidentally fit with what I or others on non-sanctioned FFXI forums were asking for. "YAY!" if they do, "Oh well" if they don't. When an official forum is created, however, with a natural implication that the company is actually going to take what the players are asking for to heart, that invites a much more potent reaction from me when announced "improvements" don't remotely resemble fan requests.

I don't expect everything people have suggested here to be implemented. However, for the jobs I play, the manifesto announced the opposite extreme. Currently the job forums seem like an invite to request changes just so they can be officially ignored instead of coincidentally ignored.

I'll have to see what happens in the actual update. SE has the opportunity to prove the validity of their official job forum or make it a joke that degrades into a wasteland. Right now I'm still in the "too early for final judgment" mode, am hoping for the best, and calling the manifesto a rushed release of ideas that will evolve to be much better for the final implementation. We'll see if I'm right.