Living in fear of more monipulators, both weak and strong, being nerfed to oblivion

[Edyth]

What is the balance philosophy in Monstrosity? I'm worried that weak monsters will be nerfed into something even more unusable, and I'm worried that the fun monsters will have the fun sucked right out of them.

Seeing that "balance adjustments" are in store for monstrosity in December has me concerned. I feel like, "Can you please tell us which monipulators will be unusably bad so we can level them before the update and unlock the species those monipulators lead to?"

Raptor, a very weak and dreadful monipulator to level, was nerfed as mercilessly as Embrava in the last update. It had TP moves that were useless in the first place (ex. Thunderbolt/breath whatever) that were made to cost more TP, and its only 1/4th decent excuse for a TP move (Chomp Rush) was nerfed in power.

I haven't touched antlions yet, but I hear that Mandibular Bite was nerfed so badly that it's like SE thought antlions were getting Chain #99 (I'm sure they weren't), and now antlions are unusable and miserable.

I'm also worried that the monipulators who take dozens of hours to unlock (Cerberus, Behemoth) will be nerfed to oblivion. If that happens, it would be like nerfing RME weapons, or Atma of the Savior, or Black Belt. Those monsters take so long to obtain that they need to be as powerful as they are so that they're worth it and so that they live up to their repuation.

Then, there are random monipulators that are just an absolute blast to level; they're unexpectedly fun and strong and they make Monstrosity the fun that it is. I'm worried that those monsters will be weeded out and treated like they're throwing off the balance of absolutely everything in FFXI just by being very fun, useful, and strong within their limited event.

Is anyone else worried about this? I stumbled upon a very lovable monipulator today who shall not be named, and I'm positive this one will be absolutely no fun after the update.

TL;DR: Monstrosity is fun, but its effects on the game are limited to the event itself and the zones where it takes place. Strong monipulators don't upset balance like Embrava and Perfect Defense did. And if gladiators are struggling against monipulators, they are able to make groups of up to 18. Besides, monstrosity is about the monsters, not the gladiators. I'm worried all fun and strong monsters will be weeded out and nerfed, and more horribly weak monsters will be targeted and made horribly weaker.

[Alhanelem]

I always thought the point of powerful monsters like behemoth etc was to give the feeling that you actually were one of those monsters. It should take a group of people to beat you. If someone is too storng, then why not just form a party and gang up to take him down? That's what it should be like. I reactivated just because of this update because monstrosity sounded fun and I liked the idea of monster PvP. If they take that away, well... I'll be pissed.

[Edyth]

I always thought the point of powerful monsters like behemoth etc was to give the feeling that you actually were one of those monsters. It should take a group of people to beat you. If someone is too storng, then why not just form a party and gang up to take him down? That's what it should be like. I reactivated just because of this update because monstrosity sounded fun and I liked the idea of monster PvP. If they take that away, well... I'll be pissed.

I'm worried they're going to nerf MONs to make them easier for gladiators to solo. There are some surprising strong normal monsters too that I wouldn't dare name, because it's fun to be powerful, and I don't want to put crosshairs on a nice monipulator, but then again, the crosshairs may already be there. They've avoided the word balance for months now, but they're using it again in regards to Monstrosity, and there's a very negative connotation with that word in the FFXI community. It's become synonomous with "super-nerfs," "inaccessibility," "imbalance," and "the worst thing possible."

[Alhanelem]

yeah, like I said, I thought monipulators were supposed to be powerful because gladiators can party against them like any regular monster, and monipulators can't party.

[dasva]

Yeah mand bite used to be pretty strong. Like was hitting 900 dmg to T/VT before they even added jas when I got it at 30. Which was nice since it's the only real dmg move they get in the entire leveling process (for some reason gravatic horn is locked even though it's in the dats). Now it's doing about the same amount of dmg to EPs in the 90s...

As far as the idea of "balancing" things so gladiators can solo them is just all kinds of bad. Namely because monipulators already have almost no incentive to actually fight and if they do the gladiator can just sic a pet on them and run away while the monipulator can't do anything to the pet and if things go bad for them pop a bunch of meds or warp scroll away. While the monipulator can't use items and a single hit will cancel their attempts to "warp" away. On top of that the only good way to get prestige is killing monipulators so basically you will end up having gladiators camping the 3 zones hoping to snipe a monipulator who is only trying to unlock a new model because no one in there right mind would continue leveling in belligerancy zones anymore if a gladiator could take them out one on one unless they absolutely had to. Especially since a nerf that would make it so gladiators could take us out that easy would mean normal mobs could too which would make the xping horrible enough that I'd probably quit playing any of the monsters nerfed that hard. Not to mention make sniping even more of a problem

[Alhanelem]

They need to make the pvp status easier to use. Instead of having to talk to an NPC far away from the areas you fight in, and being subject to a level cap every time they enter that area for every reason, why can't we just have a simple command to turn the pvp flag on and off, like every other MMO?

I have a question though. I thought there was a way for monsters to fight each other? I enter belligerency and i see someone else with the belligerency status and I can't attack them.

[Edyth]

They need to make the pvp status easier to use. Instead of having to talk to an NPC far away from the areas you fight in, and being subject to a level cap every time they enter that area for every reason, why can't we just have a simple command to turn the pvp flag on and off, like every other MMO?

I have a question though. I thought there was a way for monsters to fight each other? I enter belligerency and i see someone else with the belligerency status and I can't attack them.

Coming soon. And I'm really looking forward to that!

[Umichi]

Given the fact that I don't see alot of people PvP'ing on my server It could be that these abilities are to powerful based on the population that actually engages in PvP so perhaps they are scaling it down so smaller groups can fight the monsters without having one person being so one sided as a monster they are impossible to beat. (See pankration)

[Anjou]

Given the fact that I don't see alot of people PvP'ing on my server It could be that these abilities are to powerful based on the population that actually engages in PvP so perhaps they are scaling it down so smaller groups can fight the monsters without having one person being so one sided as a monster they are impossible to beat. (See pankration)

But the problem here Umichi, is that monipulators can't party up with their fellows monipulators, yet players can party up with their friends to gang up and kill monipulators who don't want to fight and just want to get through the dull stage to get to the much better phase so that they can get that next mob to control. Having someone sniping you is frustrating, and monipulators need to have some kind of edge to discourage players who might have a personal grudge or something like that against the person as the monipulator, attack them, and make that aspect of the game miserable. There are people who are like this, I know several of them who would just pick on a player for sheer kicks.

Nerfing monipulators is a bad idea, and it'll make the leveling experience that much more stressful than fun if you have some random passerby coming out of nowhere and slaughtering you.

[Alhanelem]

Also I feel like prestige has a lot more meaning and the title of notorious monster are more highly deserved with the way things are set up now. It won't make as much sense if the balance is shifted towards 1 on 1 battles.