10th Anniversary Special Items!

[Camate]

For the 10th anniversary of FINAL FANTASY XI we are preparing some pretty cool items that I think you would all be interested in :)

How would you all like to wield the same weapons as the Archangels?

1648

1649

These weapons are being prepared specially as cosmetic items. The one-hand sword is not a set, but there will be no “Rare” tag so it will be possible to get two and dual wield :)

We are planning to use 1 or 2 of these for our 10th Anniversary Mog Bonanza. Hope you are all looking forward to trying them out.

P.S.: Divine Might was probably one of my favorite battles (music-wise too).

[Karbuncle]

I really like the idea of getting them :O

But being Mog Bonanza, Unless they're Rank 5, I'll never see one lol Q_Q

[Yurai]

That's a really awesome idea! It does kind of suck that they will be MogBon rewards though. Even being the lowest rank Prize you can only get one per character (unless you for some reason decide to pick the same number twice??). Besides that, only two of the five will be made available? :(

[Stromgarde]

As I recall, Ark Angel's HM's swords utilize a different design from that of Ark Angel EV; will both be available?

[Cowardlybabooon]

Will there be anniversary rings too? We all have to level sch now to cookie cutter nyzul :-)

[Tile]

These weapons are being prepared specially as cosmetic items. The one-hand sword is not a set, but there will be no “Rare” tag so it will be possible to get two and dual wield :)

We are planning to use 1 or 2 of these for our 10th Anniversary Mog Bonanza. Hope you are all looking forward to trying them out.

I read this and think maybe they will all get added but only 1 or 2 will be from Bonanza, but i doub thats the case. Should make it where you can also redo Divine Might and get one, or they have a chance to drop from each angel, like a 10-20% chance.

as for there being no rare tag, will there be a Ex tag? or can we sell them like the statues of the angels?

dont tease me bro :D

also any word on Cait Sith/Atmos avatars?

[Bulrogg]

I've wanted to wield some AA weapons for the longest time... (whoa-oh-oh-oh for the longest time)

I just hope acquiring them is not limited to the mog bonanza.

[Anathiel]

I noticed the "specifically cosmetic" so...why mog bon? make it a quest item :P

[Ausp]

At first I was upset because they aren't going to be actual weapons to use in battles but then my hope suddenly shifted at the weapons being able to be used by all jobs and then my NIN can get access to another red proc in Abyssea thanks to the AATT's scythe. :D

[mattkoko]

Well they did say "I hope all of you are looking forward to trying them out." Key word is "all." Last i checked, all of the items in Mog Bonanza are not exclusive just to that event (I may be wrong since i do not pay attention to it that much. i find obtaining marbles as a waste of space, gil and time). Honestly, if these items are just Mog Bonanza exclusive, i would look at it as SE giving us all the finger and saying "good luck being that .1% that wins 1 of them." I seriously doubt that is the case though. *crossing fingers* lol

[Zumi]

These weapons are being prepared specially as cosmetic items. The one-hand sword is not a set, but there will be no “Rare” tag so it will be possible to get two and dual wield :)



How come you just don't make them comparable to level 99 ah weapons. So people could you know actually use them. They shouldn't be as strong as a relic or empyrean obviously but why not just give them stats similar to something you can buy from the AH? That way people who don't want to do a relic/empy can make some use out of them.

There is already too many event items which have no use.

A lot of MMOs already do this if they have special event items they make them usesable but they are pretty average and not even close to the best weapons in the game. So I can't see why FFXI can't do the same after all these years.

[Duelle]

I noticed the "specifically cosmetic" so...why mog bon? make it a quest item :PI wonder whether they mean "cosmetic as in having no stats and being pretty much wastes of space outside of wearing them in Jeuno" or cosmetic as in "we'll implement these along with a system to change the appearance of in-game weapons and armor, and these will be special 'skins' for your weapon of choice".

[Glamdring]

yay! more inv -1!

[Tsukino_Kaji]

Ad more attempted stupidity like 500k statues.

[Kaisha]

Mocchi has a red name. Does this finally mean we can beat the crap out of our favourite player who keeps teasing us with these pre-release snapshots?

[Vagrua]

Why not add latent effects onto them such as refresh, regen, or regain?

Or maybe rechargeable uses every set amount of time such as flee, escape, or restore hp/mp like an elixir.

My last idea would be some sort of small immunity to all status ailments.

This way people could still idle in them for something other than just looks.

[Huevriel]

I keep thinking this is an April Fool's Joke. I have nothing productive to say about this. Would look nice on a mannequin at least.

[Dragoy]

Cool.

Would be even more cool, if the inventory system was not just one big of an issue in this game. ^^;
Oh well, time to drop something useful again ! !! !

P.S.: I prefer (still) Ark Angels over Divine Might as favourite battles (music-wise too). Did it them with few years back and they're some fond memories... Will likely do Divine Might sometime soon, too, as it has become possible for a small group now but it will never be the same... sigh.

The memory remains.

[Ophannus]

WIll probably have a costume effect enhancement or something. They're neat but kind of wish they at least were somwhat more useful given their origin. But I suppose it would be unfair seeing as there are only 5 weapons corresponding to the 5 AAs and there's many weapon categories so jobs that use katanas/daggers/polearms/great swords/staff/club etc would be left out(just as many jobs were left out of useful stats on those DM earrings)

[Dragoy]

Oh and it's cool as in they're implemented, but Lottery I dislike, be it spawns or balls.

If it's Rank 5, which can be obtained with basically 100% certainty, then it'll pass I guess...

[Rosalie]

:/ I still want my Chocobo Wand.

[Phogg]

I would like to cosmetically upgrade my inventory space before being given anymore cosmetically useless crap I might otherwise like to keep but have no room to do so, cosmetically speaking.

[Khajit]

I like the new weapons. People are acting unnecessarily pessimistic about some fun items. Having said that it would be nice if they were actually useful weapons.

[Duelle]

I like the new weapons. People are acting unnecessarily pessimistic about some fun items. Having said that it would be nice if they were actually useful weapons.Considering the current inventory woes, more "inventory -1" gear is not going to please some. Again, if Camate had said something like "these are 'skins' you can use to change the appearance of your swords and scythes", we might see some potential there.

[Teraniku]

For the 10th anniversary of FINAL FANTASY XI we are preparing some pretty cool items that I think you would all be interested in :)

How would you all like to wield the same weapons as the Archangels?

1648

1649

These weapons are being prepared specially as cosmetic items. The one-hand sword is not a set, but there will be no “Rare” tag so it will be possible to get two and dual wield :)

We are planning to use 1 or 2 of these for our 10th Anniversary Mog Bonanza. Hope you are all looking forward to trying them out.

P.S.: Divine Might was probably one of my favorite battles (music-wise too).

Too bad we probably can't put stats on them, or better yet use synergy to have the AA Weapon be the look and whatever similar item you bind with it be the stat! Make it happen

[Khajit]

Considering the current inventory woes, more "inventory -1" gear is not going to please some. Again, if Camate had said something like "these are 'skins' you can use to change the appearance of your swords and scythes", we might see some potential there.

I have 14+ jobs with all of the gear in some sort of inventory and/or slip, forgotten items, misc types of currency and other junk lazing about. 1 extra space isn't going to kill me and you need to better organize your inventory. Unless it's overly full from getting the VW drops that dont exist for the rest of us in which case I hate you.

[Rekin]

Please tell the devs to make these weapons look not just good visually. That way I can run in a VW group and exclaim "These AA weapons aren't just for show!"

[Zerich]

I always wanted to use a 1 DMG fast blade on my SCH!

[Aleste]

@stromgarde

Both weapons turned up in the latest altanaviewer. Id assume that they're all obtainable.

[Phogg]

I have 14+ jobs with all of the gear in some sort of inventory and/or slip, forgotten items, misc types of currency and other junk lazing about. 1 extra space isn't going to kill me and you need to better organize your inventory. Unless it's overly full from getting the VW drops that dont exist for the rest of us in which case I hate you.

I'm guessing you don't craft....

[Khajit]

I'm guessing you don't craft....

Not lately. I have a few spaces taken up with fewell, synth mats tatters, and etc for my skillups. I'd have even more space if I got off my butt and finished some seals/+2 that I've not prioritized, tossed off my 5~ different types of jug pet and exclusively used falcorr, undecorated my mannequin's misc frivolous wear, tossed out 8~ pop items I don't get around to using, did magian trials for my relic+2, turned in or muled my multiple stacks of misc empyrian weapon items, etc etc etc. I'd need to be losing 30+ slots while crafting for it to even affect me if i was anywhere near the point you claim to be at currently.

I just had a quick look at my storage and I can get rid of 30~40+ items without consequence gear/med/synthwise just via mailing them to mule

[Camate]

Hey everyone! I am glad to see there is a bunch of excitement for the weapons as well as all your feedback. I have some responses to your questions and comments.

• Add actual stats to the weapons!
These weapons are meant to be special items and also ones that are outside the rules. If we were to put actual stats on these weapons, then we would have to follow equipment rules and set the proper jobs that can equip them. This would result in a split of opinions with some of you saying “Who cares, just do it!” and others saying “If I can’t equip it then I don’t want it.”

With that said, we will be keeping these specialty weapons in line with our original objective of cosmetic equipment. (We are actually discussing about making it possible to changing into the Archangels with an enchantment.)

　
• Make a higher level Divine Might
As a future plan, we are exploring the possibilities of an impressive level 99 version battlefield mission or quest. A high level Divine Might is included in this, but the rewards for the battlefield is a sticking point.
　
While it might be possible to create actual weapons to go along with the high level Divine Might, if we only have this as a reward for an 18 person battle, mages and support jobs might not be as inclined to participate.
　
　
• Can’t you make the shield and armor too?
The shield is design special to the Elvaan Archangel.

We realize there is a high demand for this, however, adding the shield with the same design and shape for players to use would result in weird graphical glitches. If we changed the shape, then it wouldn’t be the Elvaan Archangel’s shield anymore, so we decided to cut this.

In regards to the armor, there are two reasons why we decided not to do it currently.

The first being that we would need to retexture them the same as we had to do for the weapons, which take quite a bit of time and it would be race specific.
The next reason being that the armor was created to match the Archangel’s white skin and if a player were to equip it there would be quite a lot of strangeness.

[Karbuncle]

Awesome info. Tell them to really push the "Turning into an Arch Angel" Thing. That sounds like the most fun.
\
Also, We haven't had good RSE In a long time. Arch Angel Armor could just be high level RSE. Don't see much of an issue with that, no? I wouldn't mind turning white :O. That would erase needing to re-do it for every race.

[Fusionx]

　
• Make a higher level Divine Might
As a future plan, we are exploring the possibilities of an impressive level 99 version battlefield mission or quest. A high level Divine Might is included in this, but the rewards for the battlefield is a sticking point.
　
While it might be possible to create actual weapons to go along with the high level Divine Might, if we only have this as a reward for an 18 person battle, mages and support jobs might not be as inclined to participate.

The biggest problem I see with making them useful, or even including some type of AA weapon as a drop from a new high level battlefield is that some weapons are simply not represented. Originally when I saw the weapons, I thought they would be a high level weapon reward from a new AA battlefield and thought "well great, none of them had a polearm pssh". Though perhaps it might not be out of the question to create new weapons with the same type of design/theme of the AAs?
Also, they should glow... just because.

[Economizer]

Hey everyone! I am glad to see there is a bunch of excitement for the weapons as well as all your feedback. I have some responses to your questions and comments.

• Add actual stats to the weapons!
These weapons are meant to be special items and also ones that are outside the rules. If we were to put actual stats on these weapons, then we would have to follow equipment rules and set the proper jobs that can equip them. This would result in a split of opinions with some of you saying “Who cares, just do it!” and others saying “If I can’t equip it then I don’t want it.”

With that said, we will be keeping these specialty weapons in line with our original objective of cosmetic equipment. (We are actually discussing about making it possible to changing into the Archangels with an enchantment.)

This makes sense in some ways, and I definitely think that if you want it to be a Mog Bonanza prize, then this would be a good way to go about it.

However, you could easily have two versions of these weapons. One could be the cosmetic Mog Bonanza prize, and the other could be one of the rewards from a very special and much demanded fight.


• Make a higher level Divine Might
As a future plan, we are exploring the possibilities of an impressive level 99 version battlefield mission or quest. A high level Divine Might is included in this, but the rewards for the battlefield is a sticking point.
　
While it might be possible to create actual weapons to go along with the high level Divine Might, if we only have this as a reward for an 18 person battle, mages and support jobs might not be as inclined to participate.
　
Hey look the fight you could add non-cosmetic variants of the weapons to! And even gear.

Mages and support jobs rarely are inclined to participate in anything because most gear gives poor stats for those jobs (and most of the gear that gives nice boosts is either incredibly easy to get or impossible hard with no middle ground, macro pieces that eat through inventory like it is going out of fashion, or all jobs gear). When damage dealers get +15 to all stats including INT, MND, CHR and mages get +10 to one or two stats, or when damage dealers get +5% attack but mages gets +10 magic accuracy there is an imbalance.

Additionally, damage dealers that are well geared can equate to several poorly geared damage dealers but a support mage can at best equal maybe two support mages if they have good gear. The only gear that really changes this up in a major way are Bard instruments or Mythic weapons.

In fact, this imbalance largely leads to stuff like people getting another account and playing their own support mage while doing damage or accepting poorly geared support mages when they only accept top tier damage dealers. The knowledge that this happens also leads to mages being more disposable, meaning that in any group situation they don't get top pick of gear as often.

I think this is an issue that has more far reaching implications, but particularly for fights that there are concerns that mages won't show up for this must be thought of as well. Still, given the poor quality of universal mage gear in general, there are lots of options for gear that would be better then the current crop in some ways without being remotely overpowering.

The armor comes to mind in some way, but that's addressed next for a different reason. Accessories and non-visible armor could work however. There are many, many ways to do this, but the easiest one that comes to mind would be a drop that allows players to combine their elemental obi into a single obi to save inventory. Although this would be another case of "all jobs" equipment with powerful mage stats, it is long overdue and mages everywhere would benefit from it greatly.

Additionally, adding a bit of mage gear or even a scroll might help add interest... many players, particularly Tarutaru are jealous of TT's unique ability. Being able to "Float" to remain suspended in the air (which obviously, would be less evident for larger races and more evident for Tarutaru) would make the gear highly desired. This could be a scroll, or some piece of armor that gives this ability. If it is in armor form, it might even grant some movement speed as many jobs have been given the short end of the stick with speed gear.


• Can’t you make the shield and armor too?
The shield is design special to the Elvaan Archangel.

We realize there is a high demand for this, however, adding the shield with the same design and shape for players to use would result in weird graphical glitches. If we changed the shape, then it wouldn’t be the Elvaan Archangel’s shield anymore, so we decided to cut this.

In regards to the armor, there are two reasons why we decided not to do it currently.

The first being that we would need to retexture them the same as we had to do for the weapons, which take quite a bit of time and it would be race specific.
The next reason being that the armor was created to match the Archangel’s white skin and if a player were to equip it there would be quite a lot of strangeness.

Obviously that shield is probably too large to be given to players so that is completely understandable.

As per the gear, Race Specific Equipment comes to mind. It could definitely be a reward from the before mentioned Ark Angel rematch fight as well, which would also make mages and even DDs that might not be on particular weapons more likely to join. If the way it would look on players is strange, then perhaps the gear should also change the color of player skin as a result, which would also draw players to the armor.

-

And as a bit of an afterthought, if our Mog Houses ever get a bit of a size expansion in terms of floor space and maybe even extra types of storage spaces, perhaps we could see life sized Ark Angel Mannequins in the future.

Also, if there is a future Divine Might v2 fight, please don't call the mobs Arch Arch Angels, they may arch too much and break something.

[Zubis]

Divine Might was the reason I started playing the game more than eight years ago as a friend of mine showed me it. I think it took me like 18 months to get there and it was such epic fight that has special meaning for me, so I welcome a chance to repeat it, awesome cutscenes and music to go along with it.

tldr: DAT MUSIC.

[Erics]

Hey everyone! I am glad to see there is a bunch of excitement for the weapons as well as all your feedback. I have some responses to your questions and comments.

• Add actual stats to the weapons!
These weapons are meant to be special items and also ones that are outside the rules. If we were to put actual stats on these weapons, then we would have to follow equipment rules and set the proper jobs that can equip them. This would result in a split of opinions with some of you saying “Who cares, just do it!” and others saying “If I can’t equip it then I don’t want it.”

With that said, we will be keeping these specialty weapons in line with our original objective of cosmetic equipment. (We are actually discussing about making it possible to changing into the Archangels with an enchantment.)

　
• Make a higher level Divine Might
As a future plan, we are exploring the possibilities of an impressive level 99 version battlefield mission or quest. A high level Divine Might is included in this, but the rewards for the battlefield is a sticking point.
　
While it might be possible to create actual weapons to go along with the high level Divine Might, if we only have this as a reward for an 18 person battle, mages and support jobs might not be as inclined to participate.
　
　
• Can’t you make the shield and armor too?
The shield is design special to the Elvaan Archangel.

We realize there is a high demand for this, however, adding the shield with the same design and shape for players to use would result in weird graphical glitches. If we changed the shape, then it wouldn’t be the Elvaan Archangel’s shield anymore, so we decided to cut this.

In regards to the armor, there are two reasons why we decided not to do it currently.

The first being that we would need to retexture them the same as we had to do for the weapons, which take quite a bit of time and it would be race specific.
The next reason being that the armor was created to match the Archangel’s white skin and if a player were to equip it there would be quite a lot of strangeness.

You do know, people have made .dats of the armor for characters. It looks pretty sweet honestly....

[Kluaf]

With that said, we will be keeping these specialty weapons in line with our original objective of cosmetic equipment. (We are actually discussing about making it possible to changing into the Archangels with an enchantment.)


Oh my I'm as giddy as Tiny Tim was when he found out he was going to have real roasted chestnuts for Christmas ...

[Khajit]

I'd like it very much if I floated in the air while idle with the scythe. The needed animations are even already present in the game data.

[Sonshou]

Might be it is a good idea to have ArchAngel costume to run around town with archangel appearance.

/wait 10

/wait 10

/wait 10

Are the moogle reps gonna relay the words?

[Babekeke]

While it might be possible to create actual weapons to go along with the high level Divine Might, if we only have this as a reward for an 18 person battle, mages and support jobs might not be as inclined to participate

The beauty of FFXI is that the majority of players don't just play 1 type of job. I'll happily help out in a lvl 99 DM fight as a mage to get a weapon for one of my melee jobs, and I'm certain I'm not the only one! (but you could always add Meteor and Arise to the drops^^)

[Duelle]

Divine Might was the reason I started playing the game more than eight years ago as a friend of mine showed me it. I think it took me like 18 months to get there and it was such epic fight that has special meaning for me, so I welcome a chance to repeat it, awesome cutscenes and music to go along with it.The cutscenes are awesome and all, but I've yet to see what is so epic about:

1) AoE damage spam fest
2) AoE status effects
3) Mijin Gakure wiping you
4) LOLSpirits Within one-shotting you
5) A geared PLD running around like a pansy with an earth staff on his back while kiting the non-kill targets

That's what Divine Might was at 75. Why do we want to go through that, again?

PS: On Camate's post, I shouldn't be surprised that the devs want to make more inventory -1 gear. Oh well. I guess I'll go back to asking for costume slots via another method.

[hiko]

The cutscenes are awesome and all, but I've yet to see what is so epic about:

1) AoE damage spam fest
2) AoE status effects
3) Mijin Gakure wiping you
4) LOLSpirits Within one-shotting you
5) A geared PLD running around like a pansy with an earth staff on his back while kiting the non-kill targets

That's what Divine Might was at 75. Why do we want to go through that, again?

PS: On Camate's post, I shouldn't be surprised that the devs want to make more inventory -1 gear. Oh well. I guess I'll go back to asking for costume slots via another method.
because people are bored of

-use temp
-proc
-zerg
-rinse&repeat
grats you win!

[Duelle]

because people are bored of

-use temp
-proc
-zerg
-rinse&repeat
grats you win!Because a super tank running in circles or 18 BLMs was so much more engaging and complex--oh wait, they weren't.

If the devs redesigned divine might as a real encounter that didn't involve circumventing the fight's design, then I could get behind that. AoE status effects screw over melee, so yes, those have to go, as that was a contributing factor to people using 18 BLMs. Damage needs to be toned down so you can afford to have more than one tank in the group without also requiring an overwhelming number of healers. Each AA should gain a buff if they're in proximity to one another to encourage the group to separate them, have one require a sword&board tank, one require a Two-hander job to tank it and one require a ranged tank. That's just for starters, mind you.

[Calysto]

not sure if it's been suggested before, but what about the AA "intro emotes" instead of costume enchantment ?

[Septimus]

In regards to the armor, there are two reasons why we decided not to do it currently.

The first being that we would need to retexture them the same as we had to do for the weapons, which take quite a bit of time and it would be race specific.
The next reason being that the armor was created to match the Archangel’s white skin and if a player were to equip it there would be quite a lot of strangeness.

Dearest Camate,

Retexturing the armor isn't as tough as it seems. For example:


http://images.bluegartr.com/bucket/gallery/7f37e01954be6e29be9b8a8aa0154660.png (http://images.bluegartr.com/bucket/gallery/8be4960fb77ed8f3f6f2e0f999115b11.png)


That took about 20 minutes, and part of that time was redoing the pants so that they showed a little skin like Warrior's/Fighter's Cuisses. (For those who don't know, AA-Hume's armor is reskinned Warrior Artifact/Relic Armor.) I may go back and work on the pants a little more, the edge is a little rougher than it could be. But honestly though, it would probably take less than a day of work for a real graphic artist to port all except AA-Tarutaru's armor to all races. (Ports from Taru versions are generally tougher to do since Taru armor textures are shrunk compared to other races.

With that said, however, when I saw that picture I thought, "I don't want to see that diluted by seeing everyone and their grandma wearing it." The best argument against making AA Gear available is that it would take away the specialness of the gear itself.

[Misi]

Cool Idea, but sad that AA EV Shield is getting scrapped, being it is one of the most iconic weapons from that fight. (also partial to it because I've made one and would like to have one in game) Maybe later down the line it can be re-worked into a augmentable / magian armor. fingers crossed!

[Zigou]

Since to me then after 10 years of subscription and fee , SE is not welling to put more effort for an awesome reward for Veteran player.

Here an suggestion what about no item , no random luck for some but something for all:

1 month free of FF11 , that i am sure will please many more people then 1% happy and 99% upset.

What do you think about that ?

[Camiie]

So with the permanent ending of Mog Bonanza how will these items be distributed?

[Twille]

So with the permanent ending of Mog Bonanza how will these items be distributed?

I'm curious about this also.