Skyver
08-31-2011, 05:37 AM
Right, so we get Abyssea and it's neat and all, and we get these Notorious Monsters that drop precious items everyone needs for their gear, which you make drop by Staggering (or as some say, proc'ing, for reasons I'm still not sure) with extremely specific Weaponskills and Magic. However, it's horribly flawed, for two primary reasons.
The first reason being, let's say the NM's red weakness is Fire. Cool, there's a Samurai in the party, they have a fire-based Weaponskill. What? It won't stagger the enemy? Only Red Lotus Blade will? How does that make any sense? So that's the main problem here: why is it so specific? If the enemy is weak to Fire, shouldn't a Fire-based Weaponskill stagger it?
But what really should be changed, and here's my real suggestion: Weakness Targeting should be done via Skillchains and Magic Bursts. What's a Skillchain? <--That's something that could possibly be asked these days, because no one uses them anymore (on purpose). This shouldn't happen--core game mechanics just shouldn't go unused like that. But that's not why Staggering should be changed to Skillchains. The main reason is, simply, because Abyssea broke the job system. In the old days, you'd create a party or alliance and have a wide, diverse group of people. You could unlock and level any job and you'd be doing something good. FFXI was all about the diverse job system--but it's not anymore. Now if you're not a Ninja, Warrior, Black Mage, or White Mage, you're useless (unless you're a Blue Mage, in some unfortunately rare cases). Why? Why would the game's developers deliberately make it so a large percentage of the game's jobs are useless. Think about it: a world where you could be any job and be useful in an Abyssea party. Even a Puppetmaster!
We'd be:
-Bringing back an unused game mechanic
-Bring more strategy and teamwork, by working together to figure out/make Skillchains.
-Fixing the job system, by make most, if not all, jobs useful in the game--rather than just having 90% of the player base being Black Mages.
The first reason being, let's say the NM's red weakness is Fire. Cool, there's a Samurai in the party, they have a fire-based Weaponskill. What? It won't stagger the enemy? Only Red Lotus Blade will? How does that make any sense? So that's the main problem here: why is it so specific? If the enemy is weak to Fire, shouldn't a Fire-based Weaponskill stagger it?
But what really should be changed, and here's my real suggestion: Weakness Targeting should be done via Skillchains and Magic Bursts. What's a Skillchain? <--That's something that could possibly be asked these days, because no one uses them anymore (on purpose). This shouldn't happen--core game mechanics just shouldn't go unused like that. But that's not why Staggering should be changed to Skillchains. The main reason is, simply, because Abyssea broke the job system. In the old days, you'd create a party or alliance and have a wide, diverse group of people. You could unlock and level any job and you'd be doing something good. FFXI was all about the diverse job system--but it's not anymore. Now if you're not a Ninja, Warrior, Black Mage, or White Mage, you're useless (unless you're a Blue Mage, in some unfortunately rare cases). Why? Why would the game's developers deliberately make it so a large percentage of the game's jobs are useless. Think about it: a world where you could be any job and be useful in an Abyssea party. Even a Puppetmaster!
We'd be:
-Bringing back an unused game mechanic
-Bring more strategy and teamwork, by working together to figure out/make Skillchains.
-Fixing the job system, by make most, if not all, jobs useful in the game--rather than just having 90% of the player base being Black Mages.