Enfeebling Magic and its update

[Demon6324236]

[dev1093] Enfeebling Magic Resistance of Monsters

•A log message now appears when a monster resists an enfeebling spell which enables the player to determine whether a monster possesses complete resistance to a particular type of enfeebling magic.
As long as the monster does not completely resist the effect, it is possible to inflict enfeebling magic upon them. The number of affectable monsters has drastically increased.

•A new system has been added in which using enfeebling magic multiple times will lower the target enemy's resistance. This system is known as "Immunobreak."

When an Immunobreak occurs after the enemy has resisted a particular enfeebling magic, the resistance of the enemy to that effect will decrease by a certain amount.
Immunobreaks can stack and continually lower an enemy's resistance.
The more times the enfeebling magic is resisted, the greater the likelihood that an Immunobreak will occur.
When the enfeebling effect is successfully applied, the resistance will reset.
If the effect is continuously applied, the enemy will slowly gain more resistance, and eventually Immunobreaks will no longer occur.
Note that some monsters have complete resistance to enfeebling effects.
(Immunobreaks will not occur on enemies which have complete resistance.)
Immunobreaks only apply to enfeebling effects (magic abilities based on Enfeebling Magic skill level).

SE, thank you for taking notice in Enfeebling Magic having a problem. Thank you for at least attempting to do something that could potentially help RDM. But sorry to say, you failed RDM once again.

As with melee gear, you have fixed only part of a problem, when fixing gear you gave us some very nice TP gear and a spell for it which is great, but you completely left out alot of DEX gear leaving that far behind which is some for one of our greatest WSs.

This time you fixed our resists, but you didn't help give us a position. You gave every job the power to use enfeebling magic again and again till it lands, due to already low cast timers this is easy to do. RDM's fast cast can not be used to make the casting of these spells faster or easier because the cast time is a matter of 5 seconds for most of them, and now the ability to land them is trivial due to it becoming easier with the more they resist it.

Some time ago when we asked about what was happening about RDM and its merits, due to their need for adjustments, we were given this response.
Greetings,

I understand your desire to see some updates to your favorite job, but I wanted to let you know that these latest rounds of adjustments were more focused on Group 2 merits and those that specifically had long re-use timers, and making adjustments to them beyond that. For our red mages, we're still planning the changes outlined in the [dev1093] Enfeebling Magic Resistance of Monsters (http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/21162-dev1093-Enfeebling-Magic-Resistance-of-Monsters) and as soon as we have more to announce you can be sure we'll share it with you!But as predicted, these changes were not for RDM alone, it helps many jobs, and in fact, seemingly every job with enfeebling magic or the ability to use enfeebling magic through a subjob was assisted with this to the point they can now land spells given the time.

I understand, RDM is a hard job for you it seems because you want it to do everything, and are having a hard time with making it a strong job, that is wanted in events, without making it the overpowering god it once was. But right now, it seems it would make more sense to give the job larger boosts in power, and if needed slowly lose some to find a balance, rather than making small boosts like you are now, but giving so little that most don't do much of anything to change RDM and its current position.

[Merton9999]

Didn't a dev post mention that they were going to implement this system first, see how it goes, balance it, then keep it in mind as they add new enfeebling spells for RDM later?

My point is it might be too quick to judge if this will eventually give RDM a place or not. It will depend what the new enfeebles are. To me those are what really matter. The problem is, it takes so long to add anything new that I probably won't care anymore by the time they do.

[Demon6324236]

Didn't a dev post mention that they were going to implement this system first, see how it goes, balance it, then keep it in mind as they add new enfeebling spells for RDM later?

My point is it might be too quick to judge if this will eventually give RDM a place or not. It will depend what the new enfeebles are. To me those are what really matter. The problem is, it takes so long to add anything new that I probably won't care anymore by the time they do.

Thats part of the problem as well though. They are going very slow with RDM right now as to make sure they do not make it to strong but in the mean time they are keeping it so weak that by the time they make it good again, who knows how many people will actually care anymore. It would be somewhat better for them just to throw a few things at it then weed it out little by little making it more balanced instead of keeping it dead and weak while giving it small boosts that mainly leave it the same way.

[Badieh]

Patience man!

[cidbahamut]

Patience man!

Pattern recognition is more useful.

[Flyinghippress]

Seeing as how GEO enfeebles aren't susceptible to resists at all I'd assume that this new system is implemented to be able to put an enfeeble on doubly. My guess is they're keeping it this way for the moment to make sure that when GEO is released there's no way that RDM+GEO could cripple an HNM beyond belief.

It's easier to give a little here and there on the way than to give a lot now and take most of it back later.

[Lilia]

little here and there..... rdm have become nothing for enfeebling in the last years. (gravity2...lol)

pl ask for so many

example: poison2 -10tick or bio3 is low ,when you see the higher 1 from other jobs (blu spells 18-25 tic)
and where is the merit change for rdm??

[ManaKing]

I actually like where enfeebling is at right now. I can finally tell if I'm wasting my time on casting magic because it provides me with feedback.

I'm hoping they expand it's usefulness to most NMs and being able to land all of my spells. Gravity not being able to land on anything for the longest time was stupid. I'm not going to waste my time on kite/nuke. I just want it to have lowered evasion so I can beat it to death and walk away from some NMs when they start getting crazy.

[Demon6324236]

The change is good but the problem is its to wide, it helps many if not all jobs where RDM is the only one that really needs the help that way it can have a defined role. This helped Enfeebling as a whole which is great but it doesn't solve RDM's underline problem of having no place in most/all current endgame events, which this also failed to fix by helping everything not just (or mainly) RDM.

[Neisan_Quetz]

This change is literally a joke.

[Sunrider]

little here and there..... rdm have become nothing for enfeebling in the last years. (gravity2...lol)

pl ask for so many

example: poison2 -10tick or bio3 is low ,when you see the higher 1 from other jobs (blu spells 18-25 tic)
and where is the merit change for rdm??RDM was never that big a deal for enfeebling.

NIN had two-tier enfeebles before we ever even got introduced to merits, and BRD Elegy has traditionally outshined Slow with minimal effort, in addition to Lullaby which picks up where Sleep falls down. BLM and DRK make better use of Bio simply for having higher Dark Magic skill and wider access to Dark skill equipment. Let's not forget that BLM has always exclusively held the elemental DoTs in Choke/Frost/Burn/Drown/Shock/Rasp, any three of which bearing similar affinity can be staked, any two of which bearing neutral affinity being stackable, and has native Sleepga access. We have to sub DRK or BLM for Stun, PLD for Flash, and since then, WHM has gained native access to light-based Repose, which was, until the cap raise, exclusive to WHM. Meanwhile, BLU gets access to Disease in Lowing, regardless of whether they actually use it. RDM never so much as narrowed the market on unique spells, let along potent ones.

The only reason people jock-ride RDM enfeebling so hard is because they were eager to find something to attach the class to and got gassed up by it's status as our only A-rated skill, a status which has been of ambiguous benefit since about the release of ToAU.

[ManaKing]

I can proc in VW for enfeebles...mission accomplished for that.

[Neisan_Quetz]

Except they removed T2 procs before this joke of a resistance update.

[saevel]

They removed all merited spell / ability, and thank goodness for that.

[ManaKing]

I'm ok with them getting rid of merit spells as procs. What I'd like to see next is them get rid of merit spells...

*Checks Category 1 Merits*...wow these are still pretty bad

*Checks Category 2 Merits*ummm not much better....

*Checks everyone else's merits*Yeah, we're getting screwed....

[Demon6324236]

Getting rid of merits in VW Procs was a double edged sword. It effectively killed the need for a few jobs like NIN or RDM, while making VW easier to fill up because you don't need as specific of job setups to maintain procs.

Imo I like the change but at the same time hate that it killed most want for a RDM in VW due to no need for it, and thats why even though this update helped enfeebling it didn't really help RDM all to much. At least when we had our own unique procs this would have given us a good chance to stick them and would have actually got us in more partys, not less.

[sweetidealism]

I think the easy follow-up to this update is that Red Mage should receive some means of causing Immunobreak faster and more reliably than other jobs. This could perhaps be achieved through a passive trait, or maybe the tier 2 merits could cause the various debuffs to wear away resistance faster. Thoughts?

[saevel]

Getting rid of merits in VW Procs was a double edged sword. It effectively killed the need for a few jobs like NIN or RDM, while making VW easier to fill up because you don't need as specific of job setups to maintain procs.

You NEVER brought a RDM anyway, too few procs to give a damn about. Ninja I can see, one of our BRD's now goes /NIN to cover those procs. But our NIN now comes THF, so it's still a win.

[Freebytes]

Sweetidealism, that is a good idea. I think giving Red Mage an immunobreak ability that lasts for one minute has a three minute recast would be good. A passive ability would be good too, but it would likely not be 100% like an ability would be.

Someone on page 1 mentioned that enfeebling should not be the only focus of Red Mage, though. Something new should be added that is totally different within the game that would make Red Mage unique. I do not have the imagination to conjure up something that would be sufficient, though.

[Demon6324236]

1 unique thing about RDM is the self buffs, however no one counts it because they are almost never used due to the fact they are mostly useful for melee. Seriously having Brave/Faith with them not stacking would be kinda a fixer of that so that we would have some good selfbuffs for both sides.

[Rooj]

I'd almost guarantee that if Brave and Faith were added, they'd not be stackable due to balance issues.

[Sunrider]

I'm having a bit of FF amnesia. What the hell are Brave and Faith supposed to do that everyone's got such a hard-on for them?

[Demon6324236]

I'm having a bit of FF amnesia. What the hell are Brave and Faith supposed to do that everyone's got such a hard-on for them?

Think of Brave as what would likely be Attack%+ and Faith is basically the same but with MAB.

[Kristal]

Think of Brave as what would likely be Attack%+ and Faith is basically the same but with MAB.

I think Brave is covered by Embrava. It would be nice and balanced if SE decided to give RDM the magic equivalent of that.
So it would be a spell requiring the new RDM 2hr to be active, and which grants a considerable bonus to Magic Accuracy, Magic Damage and Refresh. Almost elegant, considering the 2hr boosts enhancing magic.

Ofcourse, we all know they will simply give it to SCH, who then complain it sucks compared to Embrava and SE can shove it where the sun doesn't shine.

[Demon6324236]

I think Brave is covered by Embrava. It would be nice and balanced if SE decided to give RDM the magic equivalent of that.
So it would be a spell requiring the new RDM 2hr to be active, and which grants a considerable bonus to Magic Accuracy, Magic Damage and Refresh. Almost elegant, considering the 2hr boosts enhancing magic.

Ofcourse, we all know they will simply give it to SCH, who then complain it sucks compared to Embrava and SE can shove it where the sun doesn't shine.

I would think of it being MAB+Refresh+Fast Cast, seeing as Fast Cast is the same as Haste but for magic. Fast Cast caps at 80% just like delay reduction, and effects the rate at which a magic attacker, attacks.

[Daniel_Hatcher]

I think Brave is covered by Embrava. It would be nice and balanced if SE decided to give RDM the magic equivalent of that.
So it would be a spell requiring the new RDM 2hr to be active, and which grants a considerable bonus to Magic Accuracy, Magic Damage and Refresh. Almost elegant, considering the 2hr boosts enhancing magic.

Ofcourse, we all know they will simply give it to SCH, who then complain it sucks compared to Embrava and SE can shove it where the sun doesn't shine.

Except it would be pointless as a 2-hour, as it would be balanced in being self-cast only, and would gimp the magical side, likewise for Faith.

SCH can go to hell basically, that's one seriously strong job.

[Demon6324236]

In my opinion nothing is wrong with RDM having self only buffs like Brave or Faith. They just need to be potent enough for most to see a reason to accept RDM.