Rune Fencer Merit Ability List

[Shibayama]

So the Devs posted the Geo and Run merits and they were promptly translated - Here's what we got:


Group 1
Rune Enchantment Effect
Elemental resistance of rune enchantment increases by +2 per merit.

Vallation Effect
Magic defense increases by +1 per rune per merit.

Lunge Effect
Lunge accuracy increases by +3 per rune per merit.

Pflug Effect
Resist rate increases by +1 per rune per merit.

Gambit Recast
Recast is reduced by 10 seconds per merit.

Group 2
Job Trait: Inspire
Enhances Vallation and Valiance with casting speed reduction.
Additional merits decrease casting speed by 10%.

Job Trait: Sword Sleight
Enhances Swordplay with a Subtle Blow effect.
Additional merits increases the Subtle Blow effect by +5.

Job Ability: Battuta
Recast Time: 5 minutes, Duration: 90 seconds
While in effect, grants a bonus to parry rate. Additionally, upon parrying, attacks will be countered with damage dependent on the enchanted runes present when the parry was activated.
Additional merits increase the parry activation rate by 4% per merit and the counterattack damage by +4 per rune per merit.

Job Ability: Rake
Recast Time: 5 minutes, Duration: 30 seconds
Consume active runes to reduce the elemental resistance of the target.
Additional merits extend the effect duration by 3 seconds per merit.


Thoughts: Well, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't pretty disappointed in these, since rather than being the awesome job fixes we were expecting them to be, it's mostly continuing on with SE's current train of thought with the job as a magic tank. Some of the abilities look interesting but some are down right bad. Looking at some of them...

Rune Effect vs Vallation damage and Pflug Effect: So this comes out to 10 extra resistance per rune for 30 more with 3, vs -15% more elemental damage taken with Vallation (no Valliance? Guess we'll have to see) up, and +15 stat resistance with 5/5 in each of these. One flat out cuts your magic damage taken while the other I'm assuming helps you flat out resist damage and enfeebles? How exactly would Pflug resist rates vs more elemental protection factor in? Thoughts on this?

Lunge Effect Vs Gambit Recast: I feel like they got these backwards somehow - everybody was hoping for Lunge Recast from what I've seen. Lunge Accuracy seems about as useful as Step Accuracy for DNC merits IMO, and the gambit recast assumes that you either a) will be using this to boost your lunges and enspell damage, which seems like a moot point since its only for Gambit and not Effusions in general. b) have somehow teleported yourself back to 2005 and manaburn parties and throwing more black mages at something to win is still a thing.

However I could be wrong since I'm wondering - does Gambit effect Skillchain and Weaponskill damage on the target as well? I haven't seen anything that says that anywhere.

G2's:

Sword Sleight: Wow, more subtle blow! - said no one ever. I don't get what SE's thought process with this one is, could have been damage taken -, or added attack or something but subtle blow? This gives me the sinking suspicion that our AF is going to end up being a glorified Alcede's harness with the generic light armor accuracy, evasion and subtle blow with some dex and agl, since only heavy armor jobs seem to get things like weaponskill damage or occasionally absorbs damage taken.

Battua: this is more on the right direction, if only it lasted a bit longer - is there really any reason to have this ability last 90 secs but with a 5 min recast? If anything keep the duration the same but make it last 3 mins or something. However it's hard to argue with 20% extra parry/counter rate, assuming it breaks the current parry cap, so i'm thinking 5/5 here.

Inspire: this will def be at least a 4/5 in my book, since getting 45% fast cast would help with keeping those buffs like stoneskin and blink up, though as a galka I worry about my limited MP reserves since I already need to keep up flash and foil if I want to keep hate or whatever.

Rake: So... how is this ability different from Gambit? It seems like it does the exact same thing.

I was really hoping for more impressive merits than this, hell I was mostly gunning for Foil II (aoe tp move protection - I feel like If SE focused more on AOE party protection for mobs that use nasty AOE TP moves and lots of status ailments rather than MAGIC TANK we'd get somewhere with it) or some more exclusive enhancing spells.

Right now its looking like:

5/5 Battua 4/5 Inspire 1/5 rake (depending on what this actually does, if not i'm just gunna 5/5 inspire)

Honestly I have no clue on the G1's.

[Cljader1]

Inspire looks great, and battua looks very good but the duration is to low. The uptime on battua has to be adleast north of 50% and of course it MUST exceed the cap, the rest of the G2 abilities look like crap. G1 abilities are a little disappionting, the Vallation effect should have been magic defense against all elements. SE still have not did anything significant to deal with multi element casting mobs.

[Zuidar]

.............................Subtle Blow? Are you missing something up here DEV team? I thought Subtle Blow was more for Ninjas / monks / dancers.

I honestly don't understand any relevance in their vision of RUN having a merited job trait that adds subtle blow to an ability instead of something that's more beneficial to a RUN's strong point. Now it would of been a less shocking story if RUN was to get Subtle Blow trait like NIN/DNC/MNK, but not as a merit.

...........Lunge Effect Accuracy? Must I go on? I would rather have it replaced by "Enhancing Magic Duration".

The "Vallation Effect" merit is alright, but I hope this would also apply to Valiance if the main idea for RUN is to support reducing Magic Damage to their party members.

"Rune Enchantment Effect" is fine, but it should also in addition apply to the enspell effect damage as well. Elemental Resistance can stay the same but Enspell could be either +2 or +1 per rune per merit.

"Battuta" looks really interesting for a new merit ability, however the duration is a little too short like for a 5 minute recast. other than that, Parry Counter sounds fun.

"Inspire" is definitely a thumbs up right here!

"Rake" sounds good but I think they need to have a better look between the duration and recast.

[Makenshi]

I don't get how Rake is different to Gambit.

[Nightfox]

My personal choice would be 5/5 Rune Enhancement Effect, 5/5 Vallation Effect, 5/5 job trait: inspire, 4/5 job ability: battuta, and 1/5 job ability: Rake

If these merits are final that is. Though alot of these should be different since -- I don't how many already -- people have posted pretty soliid ideas. Oh well, some of these are really nice merits too.

[Zagen]

So I'm overall disappointed that this is what we get for merits. It's obvious SE wants RUN to remain a tank but it's also obvious they don't have a damn clue about how to make it an effective tank let alone a unique butterfly of a magical tank.

Rune Enchantment Effect - Why couldn't we have +2 MDB to the element? You know something that gives a consistent reduction in damage.

Vallation Effect - Is this Magic Defense or Magic Damage as those are 2 different things and the wording on the ability implies damage not defense.

Lunge Effect - Maybe I haven't been messing with hard enough content but is this even an issue for anyone?

Pflug Effect - Okay this I kind of like but since I can't full time Pflug it loses some of it's appeal. Though maybe there will be Relic gear to knock off 1 minute or AF to extend it and Relic to reduce the recast I can dream I guess.

Gambit Recast - So we can give 25%~ damage increase to nukers. Maybe manaburns are making a comeback and I didn't get the memo.

Group 2
Job Trait: Inspire - Holy crap SE you actually surprised me with something here. Assuming that 1/5 is also a 10% bonus at 5/5 it's the equivalent of a RDM with AF hat and Relic body.

Job Trait: Sword Sleight - Really? Subtle Blow? How about enhances Inquartata or a Desperate Blows type of effect to help with the loss in attacks from using our JAs? You know something that would help us try to tank.

Job Ability: Battuta - Okay this could be awesome and it better be considering it can't be full timed

Job Ability: Rake - So reduce the monster's magic evasion? Well if we get in to a group I guess we can help extend the amount of time stun can be used.

I'm left to bank on our AF being freaking awesome to bring RUN up to the point there it might get to the point where it is strong enough in the physical damage taken department to be called a tank. Hell I'd settle for it becoming a DD at least it would then be able to fit the DD/tank hybrid that most DDs fit but that would require stuff like Berserk to push it's melee damage up so people want it in a group.

Edit: I guess I should actually comment on what I might do for merits.
No clue what would be of value in group 1 at the moment so I'll wait until AF stats are found to decide.

For group 2 I think it's fairly straight forward:

Rake 5/5 if it is magic evasion down
Battuta 5/5

I'd consider Inspire over Battuta if we somehow get a way (that can be used on every cast) to boost Blink and Stoneskin to more than eh damage mitigation. For context sake I'm thinking 2-3 times the current potential effects.

[Darthmaull]

If 5/5 Inspire gives 50% spell casting for all casting, /nin maybe the new tanking sub for RUN. Getting shadows up 50% faster along with 50% faster stoneskin and regenIV should make damage mitigation alot easier.

[Babekeke]

Inspire/Battuta 5/5.

Group 1 is basically terrible, but best of a bad choice? 5/5 rune enchantment and lunge accuracy.

If Rake is just Gambit but for all elements, that's the only difference I see. Might be useful for enfeebs/stun, but I'll wait and see.

Personally I'd be happy to lose the counter effect of Battuta in exchange for a 3 min duration.

Edit: I wonder if the fast cast is just on native spells, or if it will work with cocoon...?

[Delvish]

5/5 Rune Enhancement, Vallation Effect
5/5 Battuta, Inspire

Pretty easy choices. The only one that may change things is Lunge accuracy and what it does to the effect.

[Xerius]

I don't get how Rake is different to Gambit.

Gambit targets magic defense I believe this targets actual resistances. Basically, Lunge and spells of the same elements as runes will be more accurate.

[Babekeke]

Pretty easy choices. The only one that may change things is Lunge accuracy and what it does to the effect.

Whenever you see a lunge that did less than the ~1500 that you were expecting, unless the mob has -MDT%, then it was resisted in some way. Lunge accuracy lessens the chance of these resists.

[Babekeke]

Oh and there's some slightly different wording in the (now released) english version of the merit abilities:

[dev1151] Job Adjustments: Rune Fencer
Rune Fencer has been added to the Categories under Merit Points.
Group 1
Rune Enhancement Effect
Increase potency of runes harbored by 2 points.

Vallation Effect
Add a magic defense bonus to Vallation and a magic defense bonus to Valliance of 1 point per harbored rune.

[Zagen]

Oh and there's some slightly different wording in the (now released) english version of the merit abilities:

[dev1151] Job Adjustments: Rune Fencer
Rune Fencer has been added to the Categories under Merit Points.
Group 1
Rune Enhancement Effect
Increase potency of runes harbored by 2 points.

Vallation Effect
Add a magic defense bonus to Vallation and a magic defense bonus to Valliance of 1 point per harbored rune.

Well then Vallation Effect is a given at 5/5 now and assuming potency on runes includes damage (seems logical) then that would also be 5/5 for me at least.

[Ariyon]

Will just copypaste this from FFXIAH, but these are my thoughts on RUN merits...

Rune Enhancement Effect- This one confuses me. Will we simply deal an extra 2 damage per rune, or will the increase be larger than that?

Vallation Effect- If the extra MDB has a substantial enough effect, like One For All, this could be worthwhile.

Lunge Effect- Lunge rarely misses anyways, even on high-level mobs.

Pflug Effect- I have never gotten this damn JA to work. I can have 3 matching runes, the appropriate bar- spell, and still get slammed with status effects all day. I get more random resists with Tenacity alone than when I actively try to prevent one.

Gambit Effect- Reduced recast on an already short-lived ability? Why not increase the effect or the duration? Then it might be somewhat useful.

Battuta- Probably one of the few merits that I actually went "Wow, that might not be too bad."

Rayke- Gambit 2.0, but with the increased duration that Gambit should've gotten. If the effects stack it could make for some sick Lunges, but I wouldn't be surprised if they share a recast ala Collaborator/Accomplice.

Inspiration- I cast three, maybe four spells while I'm actively tanking: Flash, Foil, Phalanx, Regen IV. That's it. Anything else either takes too long or isn't worth the MP cost.

Sleight of Sword- Because Great Swords swing so fast that we actually needed this?

[Babekeke]

Will just copypaste this from FFXIAH, but these are my thoughts on RUN merits...

Rune Enhancement Effect- This one confuses me. Will we simply deal an extra 2 damage per rune, or will the increase be larger than that?

It would have to be per rune per merit, if it is a straight +2 damage, which means +30 enhantment spell damage per swing, which seems unlikely, but possible. This would definately lean towards the sword > GS argument.


Vallation Effect- If the extra MDB has a substantial enough effect, like One For All, this could be worthwhile.

Most likely it will be single element only, unlike OFA. 15 MDB total, not ground breaking by any means.


Lunge Effect- Lunge rarely misses anyways, even on high-level mobs.

Maybe it's just me, but I've often seen 50%/75% resists on Lunge.


Pflug Effect- I have never gotten this damn JA to work. I can have 3 matching runes, the appropriate bar- spell, and still get slammed with status effects all day. I get more random resists with Tenacity alone than when I actively try to prevent one.

This seems to work fine for me. Just be sure you're using the right rune element for the enfeeb you want to block. Eg fire runes to block para, not ice runes.


Gambit Effect- Reduced recast on an already short-lived ability? Why not increase the effect or the duration? Then it might be somewhat useful.

I can only agree. I've never found the damage on the enchantments, and the time lost from DoT to put up another 3 runes, to be worth using this JA.


Battuta- Probably one of the few merits that I actually went "Wow, that might not be too bad."

I agree, if only it had a higher duration. But there's always the chance of relic+2 gear augments. ^^


Rayke- Gambit 2.0, but with the increased duration that Gambit should've gotten. If the effects stack it could make for some sick Lunges, but I wouldn't be surprised if they share a recast ala Collaborator/Accomplice.

Gambit lowers magic def, this lowers magic eva. The durations would need to be fairly long to use 1, get 3 more runes up, use the other, get 3 more runes up, then use Lunge.


Inspiration- I cast three, maybe four spells while I'm actively tanking: Flash, Foil, Phalanx, Regen IV. That's it. Anything else either takes too long or isn't worth the MP cost.

SS can be useful if a mob is casting a long-cast-time spell (of element you're not prepared for) and it can't be stunned.


Sleight of Sword- Because Great Swords swing so fast that we actually needed this?

Again, yet another way that SE is saying "You don't get native dual-wield, shields, ToM or delve swords, but DW swords are much better for your job overall, so it's time to decide!"

[Ariyon]

Maybe it's just me, but I've often seen 50%/75% resists on Lunge.

I've had a few rare instances where Lunge will only use 2/3 runes and deal less damage, but other than mobs that are outright resistant to damage (i.e. Acrolith NM in Bhaflau II) I've never had a problem.


This seems to work fine for me. Just be sure you're using the right rune element for the enfeeb you want to block. Eg fire runes to block para, not ice runes.

Runes are fine. Maybe I've just had bad luck with it so far.


Gambit lowers magic def, this lowers magic eva. The durations would need to be fairly long to use 1, get 3 more runes up, use the other, get 3 more runes up, then use Lunge.

I must've misread that part then. If Rayke lowers magic evasion then it could be useful for putting enfeebs on more finicky enemies. (The Jagil NM in Fractures, for example. Sometimes Silence likes to not stick.)


SS can be useful if a mob is casting a long-cast-time spell (of element you're not prepared for) and it can't be stunned.

A valid point, but if a spell is taking that long to cast I'm far more likely to just use Liement if it's available.


Again, yet another way that SE is saying "You don't get native dual-wield, shields, ToM or delve swords, but DW swords are much better for your job overall, so it's time to decide!"

RUN actually does get access to the Delve plasm sword, as well as a few other ones. I'm not sure if they get access to the Fracture boss sword, but our selection is far better than axes or great axes.

[Babekeke]

Hmmm, so it does. Not on the boss sword though (nor does there seem to be a boss GS). Best combo of swords is delve/bihkah +1? (it's not on skirmish or naakual)

[Yinnyth]

However I could be wrong since I'm wondering - does Gambit effect Skillchain and Weaponskill damage on the target as well? I haven't seen anything that says that anywhere.
Gambit does affect skillchain damage. I've only done some very basic tests, but it seems that each skillchain only does 1 type of damage, and its damage type is that skillchain's lowest-tier element (element tiers: earth > water > wind > fire > ice > thunder > light/dark (no idea what order those are in)). So if you want to boost the damage of a light SC, you need to weaken the enemy to wind.

Rake: So... how is this ability different from Gambit? It seems like it does the exact same thing.
It's been mentioned before, but rayke will be like threnody and just decrease the enemy's magic evasion for that element. Mostly just seems useful for helping the mages stick slow and elegy on something particularly resistant. Though that would suck because you'd have to use tellus runes on something particularly resistant to earth.



The biggest thing here seems to be inspiration. 50%(assuming first tier is the same as upgrades) fast cast which you can keep on yourself 99% of the time as long as enemies don't spam dispels on you. Heck, if enemies spam dispels on you, throw on 3 lux runes and use your meritted pflug. But if you can get 30% fast cast from gear, you'll max out spellcasting time reduction. Add in 40% haste, and you'll be able to spam flash every 9 seconds. Sub DRK, and you'll be able to keep lesser enemies flash/stun-locked.

[Alpheus]

Wonder how many more stuns it would buy against something like Tojil?

[Yinnyth]

I'm pretty sure you wouldn't want a run/drk to be on stun duty for tojil

[Alpheus]

Not saying you would, was just thinking how useful it would (should) be for a merit JA.

[Yinnyth]

Oh, you're talking about rayke? Most likely none. If I understand correctly, after you've done enough stuns to tojil, no amount of thunder evasion down, no amount of magic acc up can get a stun to land on him. He's just 100% immune to stun after that.

[Shibayama]

Ok so just from eyeballing some of these on the test server -

Battua is under the wards category, and the "counter" triggers with every parry, acting as a spikes of the element you warded against - against blanched mandragoras the spikes dealt 84-96 damage per parry. Elemental weakness/strength doesn't seem to play into effect from what I saw, as 3 light runes dealt the same damage as 3 ice runes, and gambit had no effect on it. - Definately needs a longer recast though.

Inspire - not 100% sure but it looks like it with 5/5, it could potentially bypass the fast cast casting time and recast caps, acting as "job ability fast cast" - again not 100% sure since I just played with it abit after work, and all I was using was orveil pants and a seigel sash, but it was very nice for flash and foil. I'll test it some more with /rdm to see if it does actually bypass the caps.

[Zagen]

Inspire - not 100% sure but it looks like it with 5/5, it could potentially bypass the fast cast casting time and recast caps, acting as "job ability fast cast" - again not 100% sure since I just played with it abit after work, and all I was using was orveil pants and a seigel sash, but it was very nice for flash and foil. I'll test it some more with /rdm to see if it does actually bypass the caps.

You mean the 80% casting time cap? If that's the case that would put the 1/5 at least at 50% (50 + 10 + 10 + 10 +10 = 90). That seems a bit broken although might make stoneskin an option for spamming well every 15 seconds anyway.

[Shibayama]

Ahh my mistake - I had looked at the wrong info so i assumed the cap was lower - had just gotten home from work and hopped on the test server, so I'm sure somebody who is a bit more mathy and knows the formulas better would be able to give better info - my bad.

[Cljader1]

Playing with run on the test server right now and there are some amazing enhancements that SE did not mention. First off SE remove the 10 second recast timer for rune enchantment, you can cast multiple runes with no recast at all even before the animation of the last rune is finished. This could make rake + gambit with 3 runes a piece a major damage dealing combination and a nice hate grab. This also potentially address some of the issues run has with multi element casting mobs, now it only take 1 second to pump out 3 runes. God I hope this is not a glitch.

Next inspire is off the chart, stoneskin cast almost as fast as a cure 3 spells and inspire effect the recast of all spells, the recast after I applied stoneskin was 15 seconds. Inspire also affect cacoon as well as other blu magic, and it reduce cacoon's recast by 50%. This leads be to believe it affects all magic. Next I will see it inspire effects ninjutsu.

[Zagen]

Playing with run on the test server right now and there are some amazing enhancements that SE did not mention. First off SE remove the 10 second recast timer for rune enchantment, you can cast multiple runes with no recast at all even before the animation of the last rune is finished. This could make rake + gambit with 3 runes a piece a major damage dealing combination and a nice hate grab. This also potentially address some of the issues run has with multi element casting mobs, now it only take 1 second to pump out 3 runes. God I hope this is not a glitch.
It may be a glitch but are you seeing the 0 recast with merits into Rune Enhancement? Reports I read were getting 0 recast with 5/5.

I can't test it myself as I can't hop on the test server so I just get to ask questions :(



Next inspire is off the chart, stoneskin cast almost as cast as a cure 3 spells and inspire effect the recast of all spells, the recast after I applied stoneskin was 15 seconds. Inspire also affect cacoon as well as other blu magic, and it reduce cacoon's recast by 50%. This leads be to believe it affects all magic. Next I will see it inspire effects ninjutsu.
Was this with haste spell/gear on or without?

[Cljader1]

Late last nite I tested out more spells, inspire does effect both Utsusemi: Ichi and Utsusemi: Ni, and it's just a natural fit, with half the recast time. With shadows ichi/ni and battuta, your almost always protected


It may be a glitch but are you seeing the 0 recast with merits into Rune Enhancement? Reports I read were getting 0 recast with 5/5.

I can't test it myself as I can't hop on the test server so I just get to ask questions :(

Yes I have 5/5 into rune enhancement, that might be the reason for the zero recast time. I'll test this out in a few hours




Was this with haste spell/gear on or without?
Yes I had about 21% haste gear on but no haste spell, I'll test it without gear tonight.

[Yinnyth]

The 0 recast is most likely a glitch, as Zagen said. If it's not a glitch, that would make rune enchantment the first ability ever with no recast on it. Would also be a little broken for generating hate.

[Cljader1]

Just did more testing, the zero rune recast timer is not a glitch. With 5/5 rune enchantment effect you will get zero recast on the timer, I subtracted the merits 0/5 from rune enchantment effect and the recast timer was 10 seconds. In essence, the reduction is 2 seconds per merit, this is a must have.

Next Gambit and Rayke are completely different. Gambit effects elemental defense which in turn increase lunge potency and enspells damage where as Rayke reduce elemental resistances and does not increase lunge damage or enspell damage. Rayke seems to me to lower the mob's ability to resist magic, in other words magic accuracy up for lunges and elemental magic of party members. In my personal opinion Rayke is not worth a merit point, I would pass it up.

Battuta is even better than I thought, if your /nin and have shadows up, the mob must get through your Battuta first before it can remove a shadow. The lines of protection is like this "Evasion > Battuta > Shadows" before you take a hit.

[Zagen]

The 0 recast is most likely a glitch, as Zagen said. If it's not a glitch, that would make rune enchantment the first ability ever with no recast on it. Would also be a little broken for generating hate.

If generating hate was the issue with tanking I would agree about it being broken but that has never been an issue as getting to the cap even after the changes is still easy. It could be a little "broken" for hate reset monsters but even then that's only true if it resets hate on multiple targets.

I really hope it isn't a glitch as it potentially brings up an interesting gameplay change to RUN.


Battuta is even better than I thought, if your /nin and have shadows up, the mob must get through your Battuta first before it can remove a shadow. The lines of protection is like this "Evasion > Battuta > Shadows" before you take a hit.

Now this is very interesting if only it lasted longer :/ Definitely a step in the right direction towards actually making this a tank job. Utsusemi's utility on the other hand is somewhat limited even against the new monsters as some still do the stupid aoe/fan normal attacks that wipe shadows.

Oh thanks to those who've been doing the testing and posting about it definitely nice to be able to read about it.

[Darthmaull]

But even with AOE mobs, the recast for Utsusemi is now so much faster that it shouldn't be a problem to put up more shadows. Hopefully the artifact armor will have some way of extending Battuta and that should make playing RUN more useful against Physical damage.

[Babekeke]

Just did more testing, the zero rune recast timer is not a glitch. With 5/5 rune enchantment effect you will get zero recast on the timer, I subtracted the merits 0/5 from rune enchantment effect and the recast timer was 10 seconds. In essence, the reduction is 2 seconds per merit, this is a must have.

This doesn't mean that it's not a glitch, just that it's a glitch with the merits, not the ability itself. It would be nice if it's not a glitch, but I can't see it somehow.


Next Gambit and Rayke are completely different. Gambit effects elemental defense which in turn increase lunge potency and enspells damage where as Rayke reduce elemental resistances and does not increase lunge damage or enspell damage. Rayke seems to me to lower the mob's ability to resist magic, in other words magic accuracy up for lunges and elemental magic of party members. In my personal opinion Rayke is not worth a merit point, I would pass it up.

Lol, thanks for clearing up that reducing a mob's resistance will reduce it's ability to resist. ;p


Battuta is even better than I thought, if your /nin and have shadows up, the mob must get through your Battuta first before it can remove a shadow. The lines of protection is like this "Evasion > Battuta > Shadows" before you take a hit.

Battuta is essentially parrying, and this has always been the way that defenses proc; Eva > parry > utsusemi, so it's not surprising.

[Zagen]

But even with AOE mobs, the recast for Utsusemi is now so much faster that it shouldn't be a problem to put up more shadows. Hopefully the artifact armor will have some way of extending Battuta and that should make playing RUN more useful against Physical damage.
I understand the recast is lower but that means nothing when normal hits that are aoe/fan are coming in at 2-4 second intervals. Like I said "a step in the right direction" but we're still far from becoming a go to for the 2 reasons people even use a dedicated tank in ffxi.

[Cljader1]

I'm nervous to use liement ward, as it still wipes wards upon its use, and almost under no circumstance while tanking can I afford to be without inspire on fulltime. SE needs to fix liement ward from wiping vallation and valiance, it only last 8 seconds, liement ward should not feel like such a gamble which is not worth wiping vallation or valiance.

[Camate]

Greetings,



Physical damage mitigation
Moving forward we plan on adding more equipment that reduces physical damage taken for all jobs, not only rune fencer.

The fact that paladin is the job that is most apt to deal with physical damage will not change; however, our goal is to bring other jobs closer to where paladin is currently.

Rune fencers are not supposed to be strong defenders against physical damage, and as such we have no plans to add stats that will make them like a paladin.


Comparisons to paladins with Aegis/Ochain
When comparing magic defense between the current rune fencer and equipment to a paladin that is completely decked out, a paladin with Aegis will be better at reducing the magic damage of all elements. However, since rune fencer excels at elemental defense, they are also extremely strong towards status ailments in addition to elemental damage.

Also, the effects of Aegis only apply toward the paladin, while rune fencers are able to spread the elemental damage reduction effect to party members making them extremely beneficial in party situations. When adding job-specific equipment to rune fencer moving forward, we will be paying careful attention to the balance between them and Aegis/Ochain and be making necessary adjustments.


Rune fencer stats
We understand that there are aspects that make it difficult for rune fencer to act as a tank and players often see them as being in a support role instead.

With the addition of the rune fencer merit point category as well as artifact equipment, we plan on making adjustments to make it more possible for rune fencers to tank and shine even more on the support front.

These are not the only adjustments that will be made, so rest assured that we will continue to adjust this job.

[bigdave]

so far run is a let down thanks once again se

[Kojo]

With "No plans" to enhance RUN against physical attacks, I don't see RUN being very successful as a tank, I'd recommend adding some DD gear for them so they will perhaps have some use as a light DD.

[Zagen]

Physical damage mitigation
Moving forward we plan on adding more equipment that reduces physical damage taken for all jobs, not only rune fencer.

The fact that paladin is the job that is most apt to deal with physical damage will not change; however, our goal is to bring other jobs closer to where paladin is currently.

Rune fencers are not supposed to be strong defenders against physical damage, and as such we have no plans to add stats that will make them like a paladin.

First on the note of PDT gear for other jobs unless the developers are being obtuse every front line job can effectively cap PDT to swap into place as needed. Many of the front line jobs not only can cap PDT they can do it in a hybrid armor setup meaning the could keep the gear on a more full time basis than just swapping into it for "oh crap" moments.

As to bringing other jobs closer to PLD for physical damage mitigation: Are you actually trying to completely kill off the need for a PLD it's already very very small and RUN fills none of those reasons?

As to RUN not supposed to be strong against physical damage then unless the developers plan on adding monsters that do exclusive single element magical damage or a way for RUN to convert physical damage into magical damage you've killed the job's potential of being a tank for those few situations where a tank would be considered over a heavy melee damage dealing job.



Comparisons to paladins with Aegis/Ochain
When comparing magic defense between the current rune fencer and equipment to a paladin that is completely decked out, a paladin with Aegis will be better at reducing the magic damage of all elements. However, since rune fencer excels at elemental defense, they are also extremely strong towards status ailments in addition to elemental damage.

Also, the effects of Aegis only apply toward the paladin, while rune fencers are able to spread the elemental damage reduction effect to party members making them extremely beneficial in party situations. When adding job-specific equipment to rune fencer moving forward, we will be paying careful attention to the balance between them and Aegis/Ochain and be making necessary adjustments.

The thing is there isn't a need for an additional aoe single element magic damage mitigation job. The job does poor damage when compared to an accepted heavy damage dealer and the specialty of reducing damage of magical damage is easily replaced by a WHM, SCH, BRD, and even COR. Now you could argue that RUN could compliment these job's abilities but the thing is these jobs are already going to be in the party meaning that you aren't taking a party/alliance slot to add their buffs but with RUN you will be doing just that.

As to the status aliment issue, that's great if it were actually true to the degree GEO's enfeebles work. In other words if RUN could 100% remove the chance of paralyze landing on the party or amnesia or any other enfeeble that could be deemed a threat to the party a WHM and various supports casting ~na/erase or DDs using Remedies or Panacea avoid the need to take up a slot on RUN.



Rune fencer stats
We understand that there are aspects that make it difficult for rune fencer to act as a tank and players often see them as being in a support role instead.

With the addition of the rune fencer merit point category as well as artifact equipment, we plan on making adjustments to make it more possible for rune fencers to tank and shine even more on the support front.

These are not the only adjustments that will be made, so rest assured that we will continue to adjust this job.

Actually when RUN (currently all new content) has difficulty acting as a tank the players leave it at home because it isn't worth losing a support role slot.

I really hope that the AF gives RUN a chance to tank but considering the responses in points 1 and 2 I won't be holding my breath. Merits were a step in the right direction but that's just it, they are a step and well you've got quite a few steps to go before it fills any role besides "fun job" or "abyssea tank", in either case both are useless roles when compared to the other jobs available.

As to fitting the "support role" unless you're planning on giving RUN a way to increase Attack, Accuracy, TP, Multi-Attacks, etc. it won't be filling a support role slot. Only helping mitigate magical damage when getting to 50% Magic Damage Taken isn't hard, where existing support roles can already offer the DDs a way to further mitigate magical damage while still providing damage dealing buffs isn't enough.

[Cljader1]

Greetings,



Physical damage mitigation
Moving forward we plan on adding more equipment that reduces physical damage taken for all jobs, not only rune fencer.

The fact that paladin is the job that is most apt to deal with physical damage will not change; however, our goal is to bring other jobs closer to where paladin is currently.

Rune fencers are not supposed to be strong defenders against physical damage, and as such we have no plans to add stats that will make them like a paladin.


Comparisons to paladins with Aegis/Ochain
When comparing magic defense between the current rune fencer and equipment to a paladin that is completely decked out, a paladin with Aegis will be better at reducing the magic damage of all elements. However, since rune fencer excels at elemental defense, they are also extremely strong towards status ailments in addition to elemental damage.

Also, the effects of Aegis only apply toward the paladin, while rune fencers are able to spread the elemental damage reduction effect to party members making them extremely beneficial in party situations. When adding job-specific equipment to rune fencer moving forward, we will be paying careful attention to the balance between them and Aegis/Ochain and be making necessary adjustments.


Rune fencer stats
We understand that there are aspects that make it difficult for rune fencer to act as a tank and players often see them as being in a support role instead.

With the addition of the rune fencer merit point category as well as artifact equipment, we plan on making adjustments to make it more possible for rune fencers to tank and shine even more on the support front.

These are not the only adjustments that will be made, so rest assured that we will continue to adjust this job.


First off Thank You Camate for the response, and I'll like to thank SE for the additions they made in the test server its definitely a huge step in the right direction. Physical damage reduce is not runs strength, however I like the idea of evasive tanking, especially with runs new ability with inspire to utilize shadows more efficiently than any job in the game. Battuta is for good crowd control and added protection to reapply buffs and shadows. With that being said I have a few criticisms below.

SE runs still gets raped by statuses, we do not have that much protection from mob inflicting a multitude of negative statuses on run. Secondly, under no circumstance should pld be better at mitigating magic damage over run, run should be hands down the best in this field of battle. Next Liement Ward needs to be adjusted, is should not wipe other wards like vallation and valiance. Vallation/Valiance with inspire is needed for tanking and Liement ward should not interfere with that but rather be a added benefit. Finally run could use more original magic, I would like to see run get new useful magic that it exclusive only to run.

[Zirael]

Rune fencer stats
We understand that there are aspects that make it difficult for rune fencer to act as a tank and players often see them as being in a support role instead.

With the addition of the rune fencer merit point category as well as artifact equipment, we plan on making adjustments to make it more possible for rune fencers to tank and shine even more on the support front.
[/list]

If I understand this correctly, you understand that RUN fails as a tank (if you fail to parry physical attack, you tear like toilet paper) and DD (Attack penalty to Resolution against strong enemies) and the best it could be used for is support role, namely, one job ability (Valiance: 3min duration, 5min recast), so you will give it buffs akin to SubtleBlow+25 to make up for it?

[Zhronne]

Greetings,
Physical damage mitigation
Moving forward we plan on adding more equipment that reduces physical damage taken for all jobs, not only rune fencer.

The fact that paladin is the job that is most apt to deal with physical damage will not change; however, our goal is to bring other jobs closer to where paladin is currently.

Rune fencers are not supposed to be strong defenders against physical damage, and as such we have no plans to add stats that will make them like a paladin.

Yai more inventory wasters! I'm so happy!

After the trend with Puppetmaster and after that SMNs, BSTs and what not it seems that SE wants to balance everything's that broken through gear.
Awesome, right?

[Yinnyth]

Thank you for addressing our concerns, Camate, but I get the feeling there a few things that the dev team and the EN playerbase don't see eye-to-eye on as far as runefencer goes.


When comparing magic defense between the current rune fencer and equipment to a paladin that is completely decked out, a paladin with Aegis will be better at reducing the magic damage of all elements. However, since rune fencer excels at elemental defense, they are also extremely strong towards status ailments in addition to elemental damage.
They should be strong to status effects, yes. If an enemy only does ice damage and the only status effects he inflicts are bind and paralyze, then awesome, RUN will do above average defensively against that enemy. Most enemies can inflict several kinds of status effects though, and RUN can't even reach 100% resist rate for 1 status effect from "even match" enemies.

The best cure for a status effect is a healer who spams -na spells regardless of whether or not the effect was resisted. The best cure for a large swathe of status effects is fealty.

And until RUN gets barlight and bardark, they're not going to be very good at blocking the status effects which really matter anyways.



Also, the effects of Aegis only apply toward the paladin, while rune fencers are able to spread the elemental damage reduction effect to party members making them extremely beneficial in party situations.
RUN has two abilities which affect party members: one for all and valliance. One for All does almost exactly the same thing that PLD's rampart does, minus the fact that rampart also gives defense to the party members. So valliance is the unique thing that RUN does which sets them apart from PLD. 3/5 minutes, we can reduce the damage taken from one element by 45%, provided valliance doesn't get dispelled.

There are 8 elements of damage, and most enemies make use of more than one. Because of this, it's hardly ever worth bringing a RUN along. The thing which makes RUN unique does not make RUN useful.



These are not the only adjustments that will be made, so rest assured that we will continue to adjust this job.
Now this is something we do agree on, and I'm ok with waiting. I'm just worried that things which prevent RUN from proving themselves useful to a group may not be seen as such by the developers.

[Rwolf]

[list=1]
Physical damage mitigation
Moving forward we plan on adding more equipment that reduces physical damage taken for all jobs, not only rune fencer.

The fact that paladin is the job that is most apt to deal with physical damage will not change; however, our goal is to bring other jobs closer to where paladin is currently.

Rune fencers are not supposed to be strong defenders against physical damage, and as such we have no plans to add stats that will make them like a paladin.

If the focus is on keeping Paladin as the most apt to deal with physical damage, then why is Rune Fencer (the job that is advertised as a magical tank) not the most apt to deal with magical damage?

Bringing other jobs closer to physical damage taken -50% cap (which I'm not sure what job can't other than RUN) will not improve RUN's standing as a tank. It just makes it worse.

Currently Paladin is the most apt to deal with both forms of damage as they go beyond the damage caps and they still have almost complete status ailment resistance through Fealty, gear that stacks to reduce overall status ailments and access to support jobs with their native Enhancing magic skill to boost it further.



[list=1]
Comparisons to paladins with Aegis/Ochain
When comparing magic defense between the current rune fencer and equipment to a paladin that is completely decked out, a paladin with Aegis will be better at reducing the magic damage of all elements. However, since rune fencer excels at elemental defense, they are also extremely strong towards status ailments in addition to elemental damage.

Also, the effects of Aegis only apply toward the paladin, while rune fencers are able to spread the elemental damage reduction effect to party members making them extremely beneficial in party situations. When adding job-specific equipment to rune fencer moving forward, we will be paying careful attention to the balance between them and Aegis/Ochain and be making necessary adjustments.

The comparisons to Paladin with Aegis/Ochain is valid.

1. Of course the community is comparing a "completely decked out Paladin" with the current Rune Fencer because they are providing feedback on what Rune Fencer needs in gear going forward to excel at elemental defense more than any other job.

2. You (the development team) concur that a Paladin with Aegis is better at reducing magic damage of all elements. Therefore they excel at elemental defense from an overall point more than Rune Fencer.

3. Rune Fencer is not "extremely strong" toward status ailments. Even with the correct element runes, bar-element, bar-status, and Pflug, I still get hit with status ailments, especially on harder targets (Very Tough and higher) which Rune Fencer is supposed to be able to tank.

4. Distributing elemental damage reduction most of the time, is not enough especially when a large part of that is limited to 1 element. Rune Fencer can't deal as much damage as current 2-handed damage jobs. They also can't tank anything in Adoulin as everything has high accuracy and attack, and will bypass their evasion and shadows to tear them apart. So their party slot is supposed to be justified on simply reducing magic damage of a single element? And the brief One for All? There are other jobs who do the exact same thing and have other roles they can fill.

[Glamdring]

Greetings,



Physical damage mitigation
Moving forward we plan on adding more equipment that reduces physical damage taken for all jobs, not only rune fencer.

The fact that paladin is the job that is most apt to deal with physical damage will not change; however, our goal is to bring other jobs closer to where paladin is currently.

Rune fencers are not supposed to be strong defenders against physical damage, and as such we have no plans to add stats that will make them like a paladin.


Comparisons to paladins with Aegis/Ochain
When comparing magic defense between the current rune fencer and equipment to a paladin that is completely decked out, a paladin with Aegis will be better at reducing the magic damage of all elements. However, since rune fencer excels at elemental defense, they are also extremely strong towards status ailments in addition to elemental damage.

Also, the effects of Aegis only apply toward the paladin, while rune fencers are able to spread the elemental damage reduction effect to party members making them extremely beneficial in party situations. When adding job-specific equipment to rune fencer moving forward, we will be paying careful attention to the balance between them and Aegis/Ochain and be making necessary adjustments.


Rune fencer stats
We understand that there are aspects that make it difficult for rune fencer to act as a tank and players often see them as being in a support role instead.

With the addition of the rune fencer merit point category as well as artifact equipment, we plan on making adjustments to make it more possible for rune fencers to tank and shine even more on the support front.

These are not the only adjustments that will be made, so rest assured that we will continue to adjust this job.


1. Physical damage mitigation-ok, so Rune isn't meant to be good in this arena. I can accept that, you have said we were a magic tank, fine. I still have concerns about this but they'll be addressed below where the concerns overlap.

2. Comparasins to paladin... VALID! Paladin is-at least many think-the only designed traditional tank, nin was an exploit of shadows that the players ran with and SE decided to embrace-seeming to be designed as a hybrid puller/medium DD but the shadows made it more since players didn't mind burning Shehei, the eva tanks are even less designed to work as such (although dnc clearly has some tank in the design) but with the way abilities scaled into end-game post lvl 75 they became valid-especially with a dedicated curebomber. But Rune is meant to be a designed tank, and therefore should be comparable-even if in a reciprocal nature-to a pld. Now, I understand the pld that strong is wielding a full 99 relic or equivalent, so a rune with the same might be just as tough. BUT SE has already stated we will get no Relic or Full Empy weap equivalent and with all due respect to those saying "mythic" I haven't seen a peep about that since that early job announcement so I'm assuming that went the way of Bst's +Pet TH gear until I see differently. I'm fine with a non-relic Run not matching a full relic pld, but if that is the case then we need an option for a full relic rune to match a full relic pld in terms of survival.

3 Stats

ok, this is also partially in response to #1 since there is an overlap. You might want to remind the devs that almost every mob added in the new content excells at physical damage! In other words, WHAT THE HELL ARE WE SUPPOSED TO BE TANKING? Seriously, this is a core issue with this job if you mean us to be a tank. It's like making us superresistant to biological attacks and then not having any biological attackers. I'm not saying to adjust the prey you guys have added, I have many paladin friends and they are thrilled to have their jobs back. But as you add more you might want to look at giving us a party role with the prey you add. And keep in mind, making it magic heavy doesn't do jack if it can still 1-2 shot us with physical attacks-especially if a pld tanking the same mob will be fine regardless of which damage type it uses.

Now, assuming you give us something to tank we still need a means of holding hate-without our own personal pet thf. These days hate is held primarily on the basis of melee damage dealt since the making of ZERG UBER ALLES the only acceptable strategy for all content; translation-Rune BOHICA ("Bend Over, Here It Comes Again"), as we are only moderate DD for melee-and no magic damage dealt. You want to keep us on GS primarily, fine with me, but then we need a grip from hell to match a Greatsword from hell to allow us to stay at the top of the hate list. Maybe some more magic tools, too.

So, we're going to have to hold you to that last sentence because you (SE, not you Camate) still have a LONG way to go to make this job realize your vision of it.

[Cljader1]

Now, assuming you give us something to tank we still need a means of holding hate-without our own personal pet thf. These days hate is held primarily on the basis of You want to keep us on GS primarily, fine with me, but then we need a grip from hell to match a Greatsword from hell to allow us to stay at the top of the hate list. Maybe some more magic tools, too.

This Hate issue might be solve with the Rune Enchantment merits, by reducing our rune application to zero, spamming runes multiple times will be our primary hate tool. Spamming a rune 6 times is equivalent to a provoke, I like this change I just hope plds don't start to complain about it.

[Losie]

Physical damage mitigation
Moving forward we plan on adding more equipment that reduces physical damage taken for all jobs, not only rune fencer.

The fact that paladin is the job that is most apt to deal with physical damage will not change; however, our goal is to bring other jobs closer to where paladin is currently.

Rune fencers are not supposed to be strong defenders against physical damage, and as such we have no plans to add stats that will make them like a paladin.

There seem to be few, if any, situations which call for a tank more capable of handling magic damage than physical.



Comparisons to paladins with Aegis/Ochain
When comparing magic defense between the current rune fencer and equipment to a paladin that is completely decked out, a paladin with Aegis will be better at reducing the magic damage of all elements. However, since rune fencer excels at elemental defense, they are also extremely strong towards status ailments in addition to elemental damage.

Also, the effects of Aegis only apply toward the paladin, while rune fencers are able to spread the elemental damage reduction effect to party members making them extremely beneficial in party situations. When adding job-specific equipment to rune fencer moving forward, we will be paying careful attention to the balance between them and Aegis/Ochain and be making necessary adjustments.


Two things here:

First off, regarding the second section and the remark about status ailments: That's true on status ailments, however if it's more than one element, i.e. requiring different runes of the switching of runes, than the ability to mitigate status is nearly irrelevant anyway. The same problem in dealing with more than one element is present in dealing with more than one status ailment - it takes 20-some seconds to swap runes, and much longer for any Valiance/Vallation/Pflug to swap, as they do not appear to update dynamically, but only based on what runes are active *when used.* The status ailment protection is also self only. The group elemental damage reduction from val- is nice, but.. the enmity generated is absolutely ridiculous. For tanking it's great, but for providing support it screws up tanking for anyone else.

As for the comparing of Aeg/Ochain vs RUN - it may be an Apples to Oranges comparison, but realistically it *is* the comparison players will be making. There are more PLDs out there with one and/or the other of the two shields now, and with the creep of levels and gear, more and more are obtaining them all the easier. You'd have been lucky to get into ANY delve run at first without ochain or aegis, the items are simply THAT good. Until RUN gets a class-specific item on the same astounding level of Ochain/Aegis then your quote essentially says they will not measure up. You put a new tanking job into a game with one class already in which is designed to tank anything with two end-all-beat-all ultimate shields at their disposal.

So yeah:

* RUN can resist ailments, but few at a time and far between, recast and rune switch time does not support this.
* RUN can protect group, but again recast does not support full time, minutes of no protection, and it screws up aggro.
* Aegis/Ochain may be an 'unfair' comparision to RUN, but it's a realistic one. An ideal scenario would to have had RME weapons ready for RUN so that there would be an item that could be added to help make up the gap created due to the poor itemizations that Aegis/Ochain represent (let's be honest, they are astoundingly good shields and seem to have been made by devs who didn't expect to ever need to make an item players would want more).

Any, to emphasize it more - Even IF some mob was ailment heavy and AE heavy, it would still deal physical damage and smack a RUN around way more than PLD, so the benefits above end up being pretty moot.

[Yinnyth]

As a follow up regarding Camate's statement that RUN is extremely strong to status ailments, I've thought even further about the topic. In my opinion, the status effects in order of worst to very annoying are:

Death (darkness?)
Weakness (unknown element)
Charm (light?)
Edit: Encumberance (unkown element)
Terror (darkness?)
Stun (thunder)
Amnesia (fire)
Doom (darkness?)

this is mostly ignoring status effects which are easily removed because any good tank will have a good healer, and a good healer will easily remove any other status effect as soon as it happens. What RUN needs to set it apart as far as resisting status effects goes is the ability to reliably resist these more annoying status effects, but the most annoying status effects (besides amnesia) have no barspell specifically for them, and (besides amnesia and stun) have no elemental barspell which can touch them.

So RUN is like a gimpy WAR who takes less damage from one element of magic and often resists one of the lesser status effects which can easily be removed anyways. Give RUN some bardeath, bardoom, barcharm, barterror, barweakness, barstun, barlight, and bardark, and then we can talk about their ability to resist status effects as though it's something which makes them useful or unique. Until then, it's a cute little gimmick, about as useful as the fact that anytime a puppet gets a status effect, the master can deactivate, then deus ex automata.

[Kincard]

I don't think the dev team understands that people don't have very much confidence in their ability to add a JSE that makes RUN even as useful as PLD (Read: not very) when Ninjas are running around with 3 JSE super katanas which are actually all garbage. (Yes I know they're the best katanas, that doesn't mean they're good)

And while it's unfair to compare a job without all the potential unlocked to jobs that have been around for a while, maybe that's a clue to the devs that maybe for once they should finish development on something before releasing it and then acting surprised that people think it sucks.

[Nebo]

Rune fencers are not supposed to be strong defenders against physical damage

A job that is weak against physical attacks is not a tank. A job that cannot deal with just basic auto-attacks is not a tank.

There are no monsters that use only Magical attacks and only of one element. This means RUN is not valuable in a support role either.

FFXI is a pretty cool game. You should try playing it sometimes. You might get a feel for the updates that it actually needs.

There is no strategic reason to bring the RUN job to anything right now.

[Tsukino_Kaji]

Comparisons to paladins with Aegis/Ochain
When comparing magic defense between the current rune fencer and equipment to a paladin that is completely decked out, a paladin with Aegis will be better at reducing the magic damage of all elements. However, since rune fencer excels at elemental defense, they are also extremely strong towards status ailments in addition to elemental damage.Except if the mob in question using more then one element, said runefencer will be SOL. On the otehr hand, the pld will be just fine.

[Cljader1]

Camate if one of runs specialties is parrying than we need gear that break the cap, just like aegis and burtgang's protection is separate from the 50% damage reduction caps. Furthermore Run needs to have an relic type grip, with maybe a stats that increase the parry rate by 20%, grips should be one of runs specialties in my opinion

Lastly can we get some examples on how the stats of run's af armor will look? I'm really interested on what those stats could look like or an example of how it would look.

[Futan]

Since you apparently have no intention on making this job a tank, could you help it's DD capabilities so it has *some* use(exact same thing applies to NIN as well)?

[Babekeke]

Less than 24 hours....

[Cljader1]

Cant wait!

[Kanryu]

You have to love that it too SE all of 24 hours to nerf the Rune Enhancement merits from really useful to 'eh thats nice. No CD on the runes was surprisingly handy.

[Glamdring]

I'm a bit underwhelmed with the rune enhancement merit. I read it to be +damage, if it is, I ain't seeing it. Battuata, that should just be a job trait, full time if parry is supposed to be one of our core defensive traits (like monk counter).

[Kanryu]

Battuta is stunningly useful even with only 90 seconds of duration. The rune enhancements also increase resistance granted by the runes so it is still the way to go, but it had been reducing the reuse CD to 0. No rune CD is something that in my opinion should be a job trait for the class anyway since all the CD does is hurt it.

[Glamdring]

oh, I know, I love battuata-granted, I haven't tried it yet against a mob where all their attack are considerred TP moves, ala Iron Giants, I would assume it will be useless there-but our physical defense is still the pits which is why I think it should be a full-time trait. Battuata is the only time our parry is making an appreciable difference in how often we are getting hit-outside the eva on Swordplay that is.

[Kanryu]

I agree about the fragility thing. To be honest the easiest way I see to fix it is an enmity boost trait so we can actually fulltime PDT without losing agro to the normal DDs easily. However, I don't see things that do only tp moves (IGs) being relevant in content that RUN seems intended for. As far as I'm aware its intended use is almost exclusive to the new continents as most old content material is random elements and ... Abyssea.

[Babekeke]

You can parry a TP move, so it should have just as much use vs mobs where all moves are TP moves (unless they're all magical TP moves). Just like you can also guard against them when using H2H.

I actually have a pic somewhere that proved this (a parrying skillup from a rabbit using whirl claws), but then SE later allowed parrying skillups even if you didn't actually parry, and I have no way of proving (I don't think) that I took the SS before the update.

Edit: Also I love how we knew about this months ago on the test server, but due to being ignored, the devs didn't know about it >.>


Current Known Issues (Jul. 9)
We have confirmed the following issue as of Jul. 9, 2013. Investigation and recovery work is currently underway. We ask for your patience in this matter until the issue is addressed.

[Issue Details]
- An issue wherein if a player puts points into the following merit point categories, the cool down of the corresponding job abilities is decreased.

* Geomancer: Full Circle

* Rune Fencer: Rune Enchantment / Vallation / Lunge / Pflug

We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause and thank you for your understanding.

[Glamdring]

I agree about the fragility thing. To be honest the easiest way I see to fix it is an enmity boost trait so we can actually fulltime PDT without losing agro to the normal DDs easily. However, I don't see things that do only tp moves (IGs) being relevant in content that RUN seems intended for. As far as I'm aware its intended use is almost exclusive to the new continents as most old content material is random elements and ... Abyssea.

agree about the iron giants-and I would never rune against them anyway. However, I fully expect SE to put more of them in-or other mobs with the same trait down the road. I mean let's face it, precisely what are we supposed to be tanking? Even the magic-heavy mobs in the new areas can still pound us into dogmeat in a hurry with physical attacks-assuming we got lucky and picked the right runes for resists to get by the magic-type damage (Tsukino is absolutely right about the multi-element thing which is why pld still gets the tanking love since they can eat both damage types).

[Reaper]

wait, so the 0 reuse time for maxing rune enhancement is a bug? that's massively disappointing

[Cljader1]

wait, so the 0 reuse time for maxing rune enhancement is a bug? that's massively disappointing

no its not each merit reduce the rune recast time by 2 seconds its been like that on the test server and it like that on the live server its not a bug

[Reaper]

no its not each merit reduce the rune recast time by 2 seconds its been like that on the test server and it like that on the live server its not a bug

i was refering to babekeke's quote above where it says
" [Issue Details]
- An issue wherein if a player puts points into the following merit point categories, the cool down of the corresponding job abilities is decreased.

* Geomancer: Full Circle

* Rune Fencer: Rune Enchantment / Vallation / Lunge / Pflug"

[Kanryu]

SE. This rune CD nonsense needs to be changed back. Let the merits decrease the cooldown as well. It was fantastic this way. At least it wasn't a hindrance to put them back up after Lunge/Gambit/Rayke like that.

[Alpheus]

Considering most high end enemies use or inflict moves of various elements even opposing ones, I would like to see the Cooldown enhancement via merits put back into place. For a few hours RUNs were given a chance to react to a changing battle and it was actually rather engaging.

[Babekeke]

no its not each merit reduce the rune recast time by 2 seconds its been like that on the test server and it like that on the live server its not a bug

It was a bug. Apparently noone from the dev team bothered to use the test server.

[Alpheus]

Which begs a whole different set of questions >.>; like if any BS encountered by the player base is as it should be. Heck maybe Macro Books are a fluke.....

Sorry just a tad bitter the cooldown buff was awesome.

[Cljader1]

They better give us our rune cooldown buff, it makes NO sense to have a 10 second recast time

[Babekeke]

They better give us our rune cooldown buff, it makes NO sense to have a 10 second recast time

Because RUN is so OP...

[Babekeke]

Anyone managed to achieve anything noteworthy since the merits came out?

So far I've merited Rune Enchantment 5/5 and Battuta 5/5 but I haven't actually played RUN, so can't say how well they work.

Also has anyone confirmed whether the Rune Enchantment potency is solely the elemental resistance, or is it a straight addition to en-damage, or a % bonus to en-damage as well?

[Darthmaull]

Ive been playing RUN and as far as en damage, there is no increase with 5/5 merits. At least nothing noticeable by looking at it.

[Cljader1]

With the new abilities I was tanking Magamaw Mikey during a worm party.

[Babekeke]

With the new abilities I was tanking Magamaw Mikey during a worm party.

..........

[Darthmaull]

With the new abilities I was tanking Magamaw Mikey during a worm party.



No offense but that is not a hard thing to do. I would like to see if someone was able to tank or solo an NM outside of Abby. With the merits it is easier to face some mobs that I couldnt prior but we need to figure out what is it that RUN brings to an alliance fight. Some things I have thought about but needs others to test, is Rayke an ability that can help the alliance land more enfeebles on an NM? Has anyone tested Parry lately and does it seem to proc more with more skill added from gear? Is all this eva making evasion tanking feasible?

[Alpheus]

Only use i can see is using Rayke to further counteract Kurma's Dispel resistance but that's just a use, you'd have to justify it repping one of the 18 jobs already there and that's a much harder sell.

[Babekeke]

Only use i can see is using Rayke to further counteract Kurma's Dispel resistance but that's just a use, you'd have to justify it repping one of the 18 jobs already there and that's a much harder sell.

All caps for resistance rates have been increased, for players and mobs. This means Rayke might be the only way to get into a party now, and also mean that RUN can resist more stuff than it used to. It could be interesting to see RUN vs the Jagil NM in Adoulin, and see just how much those ridiculous en-spells do to a RUN fully buffed vs the element of the fish (probably get 1-shotted as soon as it changes element though), and also see if Rayke makes enough difference to actually make Silence possible during ice/wind phases.

[Darthmaull]

Then this brings up the question of which tier 2 merit are you giving up to get Rayke? Is 1 merit good enough or will more be needed? I dont know about other RUN but this job has become a button masher. I find myself using alot of macros with this job and with the new GS's holding hate is not a problem. Also I dont know if Sword Play has been tested but I seems to allow me to evade enough hits along with parry for me to use Regen 4 and an occasional Cure Waltz 3 and survive the mobs in Ceizak Battlegrounds now. Before the update this was harder to do on this job.

[Cljader1]

Then this brings up the question of which tier 2 merit are you giving up to get Rayke? Is 1 merit good enough or will more be needed? I dont know about other RUN but this job has become a button masher. I find myself using alot of macros with this job and with the new GS's holding hate is not a problem. Also I dont know if Sword Play has been tested but I seems to allow me to evade enough hits along with parry for me to use Regen 4 and an occasional Cure Waltz 3 and survive the mobs in Ceizak Battlegrounds now. Before the update this was harder to do on this job.

/nin is the much better option run with inspire merits is the best job to utilize shadows

[Darthmaull]

/nin is the much better option run with inspire merits is the best job to utilize shadows


Im not 100% sure of that yet. Since the update all I have been playing is /nin. Yes it is a great option but what happens if you do get enfeebled? Its not always easy for the whm to get the correct na on you on the first try. Besides you still have blink if you want some shadows. The added stun and healing waltz are a plus for me so far but I need to try on some harder mobs. Mobs outside of Abby.

[Delvish]

The problem with /nin is the same issue with main NIN. NMs in Adoulin are designed to combat several DD's at once. As such, many abilities are AoE and wipe shadows. As such, you will spend a considerable amount of time recasting shadows as opposed to the actual frequency of them serving their purpose.

[Cljader1]

The problem with /nin is the same issue with main NIN. NMs in Adoulin are designed to combat several DD's at once. As such, many abilities are AoE and wipe shadows. As such, you will spend a considerable amount of time recasting shadows as opposed to the actual frequency of them serving their purpose.

yeah but we got alot of things Nin main dont have, those AoE shadow wipers abilities are tailor made for foil. Foil is great for mobs who continually spam AoE type abilities and tp moves. Foil <- Battatu <- Shadows together barely lets ANY damage in, the only thing to address is aga spells and we know how to deal with those. the levels of protection first goes Foil <-- then Battatu <-- next Shadows <-- then Stoneskin before you even take a hit. /nin strengthens that mid tier of protection with 2 shadows timers at no mp cost, I personally think its our top option.

[Babekeke]

Finally got the chance to mess about on RUN since meriting it (not finished yet though). 5/5 Battuta is freaking awesome. Great for if aquaveil is down and you can't get buffs up again, or if you get an add or 2. I was only doing the reives in Yahse, but to give you an idea of how good it is, I was RUN/WAR, soloing lair reives and colonisation reives (I was solo as in not in a pt, and noone else was curing me, but there were a couple of other people about).

On a colonisation reive, I could attack the root until I had all 6 mobs on me, then swap to -PDT gear (38% when not using tenebreuse) until I was @ 50%, then disengage the root, move to the wall so they are all in front of me, hit Battuta and start taking them out 1 at a time. 1 or 2 of them would generally be quite low already as I was using Shockwave on the root to AOE them.

With Battuta up, my parry rate seemed to be over 50%. I was expecting to see it around 38% as I thought base was 5% cap and RUN could get a bonus 13% through Inquatarta, and battuta offered 20%, but it was definately over 50%.

With the new combat stills on weapons from august onwards, we might actually be able to parry things of worth with +188 parry skill on bereaver for example.

On top of this, the update that states when wielding a weapon in the main hand that has an item level over 100 and combat skill + on it, you will receive a bonus to interrupt rate, and less shadows will be consumed from AOE attacks, makes RUN/NIN look like an even better option. :)

Personally I still like /WAR if you're going to get any chance to DD at all. I haven't tried /DRK yet though.

[Babekeke]

Oh and for the record, I went 5/5 Battuta, and going 4/5 Inspiration, 1/5 Rayke.

Group 1 I'm 5/5 Rune Enchantment, but not decided which other(s) I'll go for in group 1.

Any suggestions, or different opinions?