Alluvion Skirmishes

[Afania]

Cons:

-Augments are still horribly random

-The community seems to have garnered that each stone corresponds to a type of stat associated with it (-slit = DD, -dim = Mage, -tip = Ranged DD, and -orb = Pet jobs). The problem though is that, for example, there is still a chance to use a -slit type stone and receive a Mage augment like Macc or Mab. Perhaps the dev team was thinking that they didn't want certain stones to be absolutely useless to people who don't have the type of jobs that the stone would be useful for (Pet jobs for example) so they wanted to include a random chance to receive a different type of augment associated with a different type of stone. This is horribly problematic because it undermines the entire augment system to begin with.

The augment pool is too huge, since there are tons of ilv119 options already, you need very specific augment for the new skirmish weapon to beat current ILV119 options. It's not that easy to get the augment you want.

[FrankReynolds]

The augment pool is too huge, since there are tons of ilv119 options already, you need very specific augment for the new skirmish weapon to beat current ILV119 options. It's not that easy to get the augment you want.

I haven't seen anything in there that warrants me spending time / money on this random augment crap and if I did, I would rather just not have it than feed SE's deranged obsession with annoying game mechanics.

[Demonjustin]

The fact the augment system seems to suck still(and someone told me it's even a bit worse) on top of the fact the weapons themselves looked fairly bad to begin with are why I've not even logged in more than a total of 4 hours since the update. Keep in mind I normally used to play this for more than 4~8 hours a day. The game and it's content is starting to bore me to say the least and the constant focus on augment systems like the ones used in Skirmish are a big reason why.

[Karbuncle]

Anyone who would say it was worse, or even "As bad" just sound like someone who expected to trade one of each stone and be capped on the best augment available, or forgot to breathe that day and was working on a dead brain. The Augment system accompanying Alluvian Skirmish is significantly better than old skirmish, and in ways some people might not realized. The chances of getting a magey augment off a DD stone or vice versa is really really low. This is from first had experience, not third hand accounts.

Out of all the stones I've traded, well into the 40's or 50's, only 2 have giving me an augment that would be considered not linked to their stone type. Outside of that, its been much easier getting the augments I want on my weapon. For instance I've been augmenting Gun/staff since I've got them, and even with NQ Leaf stones, I've seen Snapshot+2, Pet:Regen+3, Pet:Crit Rate+2, Pet: PDT-4% and a few more on the gun I cant quite recall. And with NQ/+1 stones my gun now has R.acc+17 and my staff Pet:MAB+17.

In all of these augments, save the two I mentioned before (Magic burst damage i think on shield, and fast cast on gun), all have been proper for their weapon type... and have lead to worthwhile augments on them.

Now, ideally I want a gun with R.acc/R.atk+17~20 and Snapshot+6 or WSdamage+6, and for my staff Pet Macc/Matk+17~20 and idk the secondary... this will take some time, but when I do achieve them, they will be the best weapons I can use for their situations... (gun is for COR btw).

the Dagger I have, with an NQ stone, has been Augmented with Waltz Potency +5%, meaning it probably goes to 15% or so with a +2, making it quite fun for Dancer at the least... If you people have see anything impressive with these weapons you're not looking hard enough.

The Greatsword with Acc/atk+17 Dbl Attack+6 is probably the best GS most of those jobs can use, especially on content that requires accuracy, and while the GS is the only confirmed DBL+6, other weapons have shown stuff like Snapshot+6, WS damage+6 and so on, theres a better than good chance these weapons can get +6 as a high end for their secondary augments save some special ones, making a lot of them real good fo DD purposes. I think the only ones that are significantly unlikely to replace whats already there are Shield and Great Katana, and probably Bow/Gun for RNG, other than that a lot of these weapons have high potential.

This isn't even mentioning the fact +2 stones, snow specifically, are much easier to get, and +2 Leaf stones are about as common as old skirmish +2's... also leaving out the awesomeness of the BRD instrument...

And those "Ways people may not realize" I mention about the augmenting? DD stats on a mage weapon like club/etc, or Cure POtency/Fast cast on Sword/Shield, something like that. Allowing us to pick which augments to use for which weapon opens up what type of weapon you may want to turn it into... Like making the club a DD club, or the dagger a Waltz Potency/Acc dagger, or the Sword a Fast Cast+Acc instead of Crit+acc... so on.

[Balloon]

Now, ideally I want a gun with R.acc/R.atk+17~20 and Snapshot+6 or WSdamage+6, and for my staff Pet Macc/Matk+17~20 and idk the secondary... this will take some time, but when I do achieve them, they will be the best weapons I can use for their situations... (gun is for COR btw).

Sincere question, would that gun be better than the alternatives? I've heard the delay is quite high for a shooty shooty gun, but that it's ideal for a melee/last stand build because of the high Damage and ability to slot DA, WS dmg and to a lesser degree accuracy. I also forget if you can hold two of the guns at a time.

How does it rank against R15 Delve and Vanir for shooty shooty.

With the gear we currently have and Flurry2/Coursers it seems we might already be able to cap snapshot (Not sure, heard on the grapevine, haven't been very active in the ffxiah thread). All I know is on release I was thrilled by the name, but dissapointed by the delay.

[Karbuncle]

Sincere question, would that gun be better than the alternatives? I've heard the delay is quite high for a shooty shooty gun, but that it's ideal for a melee/last stand build because of the high Damage and ability to slot DA, WS dmg and to a lesser degree accuracy. I also forget if you can hold two of the guns at a time.

Edit: Hold on, confusion on snapshot. give me a few moments...

Edit2: Okay, I assumed Snapshot worked like haste for ranger, and it essentially does, but according to the RNG guide in XIAH, "Snapshot +5" is essentially -10% delay? Its all very confusion. But, for the sake of argument lets assuming Snapshot+5 works like Haste+5, because even if its doubled you can convert it up later.

Basically, Delve/Vanir will be 10% quicker than Doomsday regardless of your Snapshot value, for instance with no Snapshot, its 600/660, with 50% Snapshot it would be 300/330, so the delay difference will change (from 60 to 30), but overall it will still be about a 10% difference.

HOWEVER, if the Snapshot+6 from the gun is included/bypass our imaginary 25% cap, at around ~50% Snapshot the Snapshot+6 on the gun will make Doomsday pass the 600 delay guns in delay reduction. Uh, if thats confusing, its basically saying the Snapshot+6 on the gun will be available only to that gun, so its extra snapshot you cant get otherwise. So if you tak the above calculation (600/660 + 50% Snapshot = 300/330) and add +6% more snapshot to the 660 gun, the 660 gun comes out to 291 Delay, 9 less than the 600 gun. To sum that up..

50% Snapshot
660 = 330
600 = 300

Adding +6% to 660 gun only
660 = 291
600 = 300

So with that additional 6% snapshot on Doomsday, it surpasses the delay reduction of the 600 delay guns (Vanir/Delve II), so its superior in both delay and damage. (Not calculating the 3% on Delve II yet but they'd be real close).

Again, this is assuming 1 Snapshot = 1% haste, but RNG Guide says 1 Snapshot = 2% Delay reduction for ranged weapons... either way its all very annoying with how little legitimate info there is on snapshot, its caps, its gear caps, and so on.

Conclusion: With Flurry II and good gear, the actual delay difference between a 600 and 660 is very low, and if what i mentioned above about gear is right, sometimes favors the 660 with right augment. What it boils down too is their secondary stats.

And for what its worth, I'm pretty sure you can get Macc/Matk Augments on the gun by using Dim stones.

Also, have to consider the delay and how it would benefit store-TP and such, IDK if its build changing but eh,

Edit: Also its 680 Delay, not 660.

[FrankReynolds]

So how many million would you have to spend to get a gun that might come close to or slightly surpass a gun that you can guaranteed get in a few runs of delve? I mean money / time wise it seems like you are probably going to spend an incredible amount in order to get something that may not even be better and if it is better, probably won;t be for very long. Or you may spend days / millions and end up with something that is inventory -1.

Even if the augments were twice as good, I would not condone this infuriating lottery system. It's bad enough that we have the lottery system that is the development team randomly out dating items by adding better items that are far easier to get every update. I don't need another layer of random statistics between me and the fruits of my labor.

[Karbuncle]

So how many million would you have to spend to get a gun that might come close to or slightly surpass a gun that you can guaranteed get in a few runs of delve? I mean money / time wise it seems like you are probably going to spend an incredible amount in order to get something that may not even be better and if it is better, probably won;t be for very long. Or you may spend days / millions and end up with something that is inventory -1.

no way to tell, I'm currently using a gun that has R.acc+17 Snapshot+2, and as far as bought stones go, I've spent under 400k or so... If i really wanted to blow gil I could probably have higher snapshot and some r.atk... the Delve II gun is probably better right now, but Doomsday isn't bad even with these lesser augments

And in reality, how much the best COR gun you can wield short of Mythic worth to you? I'd say a few million is pretty cheap comparatively :P

[FrankReynolds]

no way to tell, I'm currently using a gun that has R.acc+17 Snapshot+2, and as far as bought stones go, I've spent under 400k or so... If i really wanted to blow gil I could probably have higher snapshot and some r.atk... the Delve II gun is probably better right now, but Doomsday isn't bad even with these lesser augments

And in reality, how much the best COR gun you can wield short of Mythic worth to you? I'd say a few million is pretty cheap comparatively :P

Okay so, you said you used in the ballpark of 40-50 stones. On my server that is a substantial amount of gil to get upgrades that may or may not be any better than what you get in like 3 hours of delve runs. I know people on my server that are 20 mil deep and have't gotten the upgrade they want on the instrument.

I mean if it's fun to you, then it's not really gonna matter how crappy the augment system is. For me though, I was burned out on random augments on gear back when they put them on HNM / Sky armor. There's nothing in that random gear that is significant enough to make or break a run in any event right now, so I'm gonna opt out of the gil sink.

As I write this right now, my server has peaked at a weekly high of 800 people and the one guy who has shouted for alluvian skirmish today has been looking for a bard for 2 hours. Regardless of how much better this gear system sounds on paper than X event, it's still not good. If this is their long term plan for top tier weapons and armor, I'll probably just take another year off. I like having the best gear, but I'm not gonna encourage these guys to keep making annoying systems by popularizing them.

[Karbuncle]

Okay so, you said you used in the ballpark of 40-50 stones. On my server that is a substantial amount of gil to get upgrades that may or may not be any better than what you get in like 3 hours of delve runs. I know people on my server that are 20 mil deep and have't gotten the upgrade they want on the instrument.

I mean if it's fun to you, then it's not really gonna matter how crappy the augment system is. For me though, I was burned out on random augments on gear back when they put them on HNM / Sky armor. There's nothing in that random gear that is significant enough to make or break a run in any event right now, so I'm gonna opt out of the gil sink.

cut out a spot there i think. Anywho!

It is fun, the event itself is fun. Its like Nyzul for Skirmishes, the bosses are fun, the coordinating is fun, and its a good mix of easy and difficult to where you dont need 119 Mythic SAMs, but you need competency and cooperation to win... I did a 3 body run with a RUN, BST, and NIN as my DD... and we won with little problems (except f**k the Uragnite, thats all). At the end of the day, this weapon can and will be the best gun you can get for COR with the right augments, what I guess I should have clarified is that of those 40-50 stones, most were NQ/+1 that I got from actually doing the event (on a good 3 Body run, You can get 6-7 or more Stones in a single run, alot of them +1 or +2... 40-50 is not a lot of stones, and +2's aren't as rare as old skirmish (Save leaves, which are still not super rare).

The event itself is where I get the joy from, the weapons are a nice side reward and some of them can be quite good for the jobs on them.... plus I have no reason not to believe these weapons will be upgraded to +1 or +2 with the next installments of delve, making them even more valuable.

This is directed more to the audience reading here, and not you... but If you want instant gratification and (as you described) "3 hours" to cap out on the weapon you want... do Delve, and then find a corner to afk in and wait for next patch complaining about no content... personally I'll take a slightly random augmenting system over 1 week lock outs or 1% drop rate any day.

There are only so many ways you can make an event last longer than launch day... Delve is nice, I don't deny that, Airlixirs are a nice system too, but I don't want everything in this game to be "Spend 3 hours at x event and be done until next update". They haven't hit "perfection" with Alluvian Skirmishes augment system, but its getting better.... I just hope they continue to learn and refine it, but as it stands now its a fun event with decent rewards for some jobs.

Perfect? no, but far from the terrible end of FFXI some people make it out to be.