Suggestions to improve Ambuscade

[Olor]

I appreciate you not dismissing my suggestion out of hand. The issue is I tend to play maybe 3-5 times a month for a few hours at a time, so I either make my eyes bleed by grinding as much ambuscade as I can stand or I just can't get any HQ items. Doing 5 fights per day would necessitate setting aside time for the game on days I don't really have it.

I don't want them to make it any easier - just to give folks with different playstyles the ability to access this stuff - as I said above I'd even be willing to pay 2X the cost or more. Just would like to have a shot at it.

[Seriha]

Maybe not everyone should get everything??? Like casual is casual, why should you get the same as someone who put in way more time? Isn't that the point of being casual?

Everyone sure complains a lot, for content that is easy prey...

I know it isn't the popular opinion... but lets be real... casual's don't deserve the same gear as a hardcore player...

And there's always more to the equation than whether or not someone put in the proper amount of time. Server conditions vary. When you log on matters. What job(s) you play matter. Who else is looking to do a particular piece of content at the time matters. Realistically, if something can be soloed in this game, there's a good chance that person actually worked harder for it than someone taking advantage of group benefits.

Ambuscade is a good example of how not to do casual friendly content. And I will assert it is such due to the gear being lesser than other options you can find elsewhere. If this stuff was unquestionably the best of the best, then sure, I'd possibly budge some on the "only the hardcore deserve it!" side of the spectrum, but I'm also not so quick to lock something between 18-man content or 200+ million gil grinds. The more people can readily gear up, the better the PUG scene potentially gets. And if you don't actually PUG, instead consistently running with a group of friends/shellmates, then consider yourself lucky and that the issues some bring up don't really apply to you. Random people getting a full +1 set here isn't gonna ruin your day.

[OmnysValefor]

As someone who is 5/5 +1 on 5/5 sets of gear, someone who logs in for at least a little while almost every day,

It's got some nice macro pieces, but ambuscade is largely stopgap gear. If you're killing Ru'aun t2-t3 and Rei t1-t2, you won't be full-timing Ambuscade gear. You might not even be using most of the pieces. It's meant for people gearing up and alt-jobs.

A WAR/PLD/DRK/DRG can -50% DT cap in Sulevia's, but the set has terrible HP, no magic evasion (or nearly none), no enmity (for the Paladins) and very little magic defense bonus. You'll be taking the full brunt of every nuke and every enfeeble. Still, I'm excited for my SAM/NIN/PLD friend who came back last month to get it. It's a sick upgrade for WS macros and filler pieces til he gets better.

He and two others came back last month (gosh, dragging them through the roc was terrible, with the -dt mechanics). I don't feel superior to them that I got 5/5 Ambuskadi +1 and they only got 4/5. I'm rather frustrated by it.

I'll be the first to call out people complaining about how difficult the JP grind is, how unfair HP scaling is, but Ambuscade is not a very enjoyable system.

[Dale]

As someone who is 5/5 +1 on 5/5 sets of gear, someone who logs in for at least a little while almost every day,

It's got some nice macro pieces, but ambuscade is largely stopgap gear. If you're killing Ru'aun t2-t3 and Rei t1-t2, you won't be full-timing Ambuscade gear. You might not even be using most of the pieces. It's meant for people gearing up and alt-jobs.

A WAR/PLD/DRK/DRG can -50% DT cap in Sulevia's, but the set has terrible HP, no magic evasion (or nearly none), no enmity (for the Paladins) and very little magic defense bonus. You'll be taking the full brunt of every nuke and every enfeeble. Still, I'm excited for my SAM/NIN/PLD friend who came back last month to get it. It's a sick upgrade for WS macros and filler pieces til he gets better.

He and two others came back last month (gosh, dragging them through the roc was terrible, with the -dt mechanics). I don't feel superior to them that I got 5/5 Ambuskadi +1 and they only got 4/5. I'm rather frustrated by it.

I'll be the first to call out people complaining about how difficult the JP grind is, how unfair HP scaling is, but Ambuscade is not a very enjoyable system.

Magic evasion has never impressed me. Spells and enfeebles still hit me even when I put on gear that has it. I've never noticed magic defense bonus doing much for me either. -MDT or -Damage seems to work better.

Enmity is alright I guess. But I'd rather have more accuracy and -damage in most situations.

More HP? I prefer more - damage. Extra HP is always nice - especially against hard-hitting NMs. But it's mostly a situational stat that's only a must-have against against a few high-tier notorious monsters.

You can get some better gear than Ambuscade (depending on what you want to do) by obtaining abjurations from Escha or getting good augments on Reisinjima gear - especially if you can afford the +1 sets. So I'm not disagreeing with you. But even then the ambuscade stuff compares well in my opinion. And let's not forget, you have to kill t2-t3 and Rei t1-t2 notorious monsters to get this better gear to begin with. So unless you plan on doing this naked you are going to have to wear something and Ambuscade gear certainly qualifies for that.

I guess what I'm trying to say is I believe Ambuscade gear is high-end gear. It may not be the very best, but it's definitely good - especially considering how easy it is to get (at least for those of us who have the time to play consistently through-out the month).

[Dale]

I appreciate you not dismissing my suggestion out of hand. The issue is I tend to play maybe 3-5 times a month for a few hours at a time, so I either make my eyes bleed by grinding as much ambuscade as I can stand or I just can't get any HQ items. Doing 5 fights per day would necessitate setting aside time for the game on days I don't really have it.

I don't want them to make it any easier - just to give folks with different playstyles the ability to access this stuff - as I said above I'd even be willing to pay 2X the cost or more. Just would like to have a shot at it.

Yeah I tend to agree with you you. The point reset every month is needless and shuts out players like you who may only be able to play a few times a month. If you can't play consistently and are trying to rack up enough points for the whole +1 set in just a couple of days.... that would be mind-numbing for sure. And I don't see the big harm in letting players keep their points from month to month anyway. I lost over 8k gallantry and 20k hallmarks one time because my PC monitor burned out right before the update and I wasn't able to spend my points in time.

[OmnysValefor]

Magic evasion has never impressed me. Spells and enfeebles still hit me even when I put on gear that has it. I've never noticed magic defense bonus doing much for me either. -MDT or -Damage seems to work better.

Enmity is alright I guess. But I'd rather have more accuracy and -damage in most situations.

More HP? I prefer more - damage. Extra HP is always nice - especially against hard-hitting NMs. But it's mostly a situational stat that's only a must-have against against a few high-tier notorious monsters.

... what? Of course a PLD PDT/MDT caps first (Hard MDT or BDT depending on fight). I have sets that can do any of it and sets that can do all of it. It's nice that Sulevia's can but Paladins should want better.

Magic evasion on its own usually don't cause a resist or a partial resist unless you significantly outgear the content you're fighting, but neither will a barspell when stacked on gear without magic evasion, it's the combined effect of both that is usually what helps.

I have 3k HP (no buffs) in simultaneously PDT and MDT capped gear (my HP set is 3200). While enmity is not a stat I prioritize in my engaged set, I have plenty of it. Thanks to enmity on gear affecting the decay of enmity, as well as plentiful HP, I lose far less enmity from every swing than someone in Sulevia's. When you are MDT capped, the only real way to diminish the effects of magic anymore is Magic Defense Bonus. (int works, but is impractical to gear towards, lol. Although boost-int is frequently the best boost for tanks)

[Ketaru]

Maybe not everyone should get everything??? Like casual is casual, why should you get the same as someone who put in way more time? Isn't that the point of being casual?

Everyone sure complains a lot, for content that is easy prey...

I know it isn't the popular opinion... but lets be real... casual's don't deserve the same gear as a hardcore player...

While I'd be the first to normally agree with this sort of attitude, we already have plenty of gear that is well out of reach of much of the player population.

Ambuscade is actively thwarts players from going at their own pace. And if we want to say it should take at least 20 hours to get a piece of gear, what should it matter whether it's 20 hours over two days or 20 hours over two months? The former already has the benefit of having more of the gear.

[Dale]

... what? Of course a PLD PDT/MDT caps first (Hard MDT or BDT depending on fight). I have sets that can do any of it and sets that can do all of it. It's nice that Sulevia's can but Paladins should want better.

Magic evasion on its own usually don't cause a resist or a partial resist unless you significantly outgear the content you're fighting, but neither will a barspell when stacked on gear without magic evasion, it's the combined effect of both that is usually what helps.

I have 3k HP (no buffs) in simultaneously PDT and MDT capped gear (my HP set is 3200). While enmity is not a stat I prioritize in my engaged set, I have plenty of it. Thanks to enmity on gear affecting the decay of enmity, as well as plentiful HP, I lose far less enmity from every swing than someone in Sulevia's. When you are MDT capped, the only real way to diminish the effects of magic anymore is Magic Defense Bonus. (int works, but is impractical to gear towards, lol. Although boost-int is frequently the best boost for tanks)

I think you're missing my point.

My point was Ambuscade gear has really good stats on it. Stats even you are suggesting you should prioritize.

In a previous post you seemed to be making light of Ambuscade gear because it did not have Magic Evasion or Magic Defense Boost stats on it. MaybeI misunderstood you. I was trying to point out that these stats really aren't that great anyway, so their absence really doesn't diminish the value of the gear that much. They're still very nice pieces. And if a player is prevented from obtaining them due to time constraints they are at a significant loss.

[detlef]

Let's not argue over this. Magic evasion is a very important stat and that's much closer to fact than opinion.

[Seriha]

Yeah, seems more like people think it "sucks" because they're not quite understanding its purpose. MEVA on most ilvl items is mean to translate to a passive gain we'd get if we were actually leveling, and in terms of skill ranking, I think that's long been established everyone's a C rating regardless of job. Now, when fighting actually difficult things, no, you're probably not going to see frequent resists if you're not adding additional sources like barspells, carols, runes, and so on, as that C rating will be grossly deficient to the mob's (magic) accuracy values. If one wants to make the argument that SE doesn't quite give us the tools to really make this shine, especially as non-tanks, I won't disagree, but the stats aren't useless.

As for the faults of the Jhakri set, no HP/MP doesn't help and the Haste values aren't enough on their own to win it a spot as a melee set despite all the ACC/ATK. I guess you could technically make a Haste cape for your job of choice, but the sacrifice there is pretty high. Otherwise, my PUG experience on Sylph still commonly reflects that being at Ambuscade gear tier or lower doesn't make you very desirable in any flavor of DPS role. It's Escha Ru/Rei augmented or uncursed stuff if you even want to get looked at. Pretty sure I touched on Skirmish gear augments being out of reach these days in an earlier post here, and those compete more with Ambuscade stuff than the other 2 categories.