Skirmish Additions and Adjustments

[Camate]

Greetings everyone!

I'd like to share some information on what we have planned for Skirmish, in terms of both additions and adjustments.

Skirmish Additions
We will be adding new skirmishes along with new areas that are added, and the content level for these will be set to level 13.

With this, we are trying to accomplish the below:

To provide a variety of content to cover a single content level.
As it's possible to get burned out rushing to the top, we'd like to provide alternative ways to spend your time, which focus on non-vertical growth.

*In addition to Skirmish we will also be adding new Colonization Reives and Lair Reives for content levels 6-9, and new Wildskeeper Reives for content level 17. We'll be introducing new gear for these new content levels and we'll also be adding new gear that can be purchased using Bayld.


Below is a representation of how it will look:

<table width="650" border="0"> <tr> <td width="2.0%" align="center">119</td> <td width="2.5%" align="center">20</td> <td width="1%" style="border-style:none;"></td> <td width="4%" align="center">Delve (Boss monsters)</td> <td width="1%" style="border-style:none;"></td> <td width="4%" style="border-style:none;"></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="center">118</td> <td align="center">19</td> <td style="border-style:none;"></td> <td style="border-style:none;"></td> <td style="border-style:none;"></td> <td style="border-style:none;"></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="center">117</td> <td align="center">18</td> <td style="border-style:none;"></td> <td style="border-style:none;"></td> <td style="border-style:none;"></td> <td style="border-style:none;"></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="center">116</td> <td align="center">17</td> <td style="border-style:none;"></td> <td style="border-style:none;"></td> <td style="border-style:none;"></td> <td align="center">New<br>Wildskeeper Reives</td> </tr> <tr> <td align="center">115</td> <td align="center">16</td> <td style="border-style:none;"></td> <td style="border-style:none;"></td> <td style="border-style:none;"></td> <td style="border-style:none;"></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="center">114</td> <td align="center">15</td> <td style="border-style:none;"></td> <td style="border-style:none;"></td> <td style="border-style:none;"></td> <td style="border-style:none;"></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="center">113</td> <td align="center">14</td> <td style="border-style:none;"></td> <td align="center">Delve (NM group 2)</td> <td style="border-style:none;"></td> <td style="border-style:none;"></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="center">112</td> <td align="center">13</td> <td style="border-style:none;"></td> <td style="border-style:none;"></td> <td style="border-style:none;"></td> <td align="center">New Skirmish</td> </tr> <tr> <td align="center">111</td> <td align="center">12</td> <td style="border-style:none;"></td> <td style="border-style:none;"></td> <td style="border-style:none;"></td> <td style="border-style:none;"></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="center">110</td> <td align="center">11</td> <td style="border-style:none;"></td> <td align="center">Delve (NM group 1)</td> <td style="border-style:none;"></td> <td style="border-style:none;"></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="center">109</td> <td align="center">10</td> <td style="border-style:none;"></td> <td style="border-style:none;"></td> <td style="border-style:none;"></td> <td style="border-style:none;"></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="center">108</td> <td align="center">9</td> <td style="border-style:none;"></td> <td style="border-style:none;"></td> <td style="border-style:none;"></td> <td rowspan="4" align="center">New<br>Colonization/Lair Reives</td> </tr> <tr> <td align="center">107</td> <td align="center">8</td> <td style="border-style:none;"></td> <td style="border-style:none;"></td> <td style="border-style:none;"></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="center">106</td> <td align="center">7</td> <td style="border-style:none;"></td> <td align="center">Wildskeeper Reives</td> <td style="border-style:none;"></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="center">105</td> <td align="center">6</td> <td style="border-style:none;"></td> <td align="center">Skirmish</td> <td style="border-style:none;"></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="center">104</td> <td align="center">5</td> <td style="border-style:none;"></td> <td rowspan="5" align="center">Colonization/Lair Reives</td> <td style="border-style:none;"></td> <td style="border-style:none;"></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="center">103</td> <td align="center">4</td> <td style="border-style:none;"></td> <td style="border-style:none;"></td> <td style="border-style:none;"></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="center">102</td> <td align="center">3</td> <td style="border-style:none;"></td> <td style="border-style:none;"></td> <td style="border-style:none;"></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="center">101</td> <td align="center">2</td> <td style="border-style:none;"></td> <td style="border-style:none;"></td> <td style="border-style:none;"></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="center">100</td> <td align="center">1</td> <td style="border-style:none;"></td> <td style="border-style:none;"></td> <td style="border-style:none;"></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="center" style="border-style:none;">Item Level</td> <td align="center" style="border-style:none;">Content Level</td> <td style="border-style:none;"></td> <td align="center" style="border-style:none;">Up to April 2013</td> <td style="border-style:none;"></td> <td style="border-style:none;"></td> </tr></table>


What can you do with the new Skirmishes?


Enhancing current Skirmish weapons
By clearing new Skirmish areas, you may obtain a key item and new enhancement materials.


Key item
It will be possible to evolve your current Skirmish weapon a stage further.

For example:
Ninza + key item= Ninza +1


There is only one type of key item.
You can freely choose which weapon you would like to evolve; however, once you evolve it, the key item will be consumed.
You will have to obtain a new key item if you wish to upgrade multiple weapons.
Arcane Glyptics will be reset. The reason for this being that there are issues with the item system when it comes to carrying these over to the next stage.


New enhancement materials
These will allow Arcane Glyptics to be added to your newly evolved weapons.


New armor to be obtained
5 new sets of armor will be added. With the new enhancement items it will also be possible to add Arcane Glyptics to this equipment.



Adjustments to Arcane Glyptics
We agree with the feedback about allowing Arcane Glyptics to be added more easily and will be performing the below adjustments.


Ghastly Stones
In the next version update we will be making Ghastly Stones an item that can be sold on the auction house (The new enhancement items will also be treated the same way.). Also, there has been feedback asking to tie the rank of the head piece to the level of Ghastly Stones that can be obtained; however, this is how the system already works currently.


Bayld required for adding Arcane Glyptics
In the next version update we will be lowering the Bayld cost for Arcane Glyptics to 500 Bayld.



Other feedback

Exchangeable goods
Exchanging items for Bayld has been primarily setup to be used in conjunction with coalitions. As we will be adding things such as new Wildskeeper Reives, we would still like to keep Bayld use tied to coalition-related content.


Obsidian fragments
Obsidian fragments have been set to be a sort of bonus point type of thing for doing Skirmish. The main purpose of this content is not to save up these points, and as such we are not thinking about making it so you can exchange these for weapons.


Acquiring the weapon you are aiming for
By clearing Skirmish once, 1-2 weapons will drop at minimum, and the difficulty for obtaining the weapon you would like has not been set very high. We would like to keep the methods for obtaining weapons as they are currently, but plan on increasing the opportunities to obtain statue segments.

[Olor]

I have to say this is another epic-bad idea from the development team. I'll let you in on a little secret: the only people who will even look twice at this content are those looking for an offhand for their delve weapon. Also erasing augments in order to upgrade is just bad design all the way around.

I've been wanting to try skirmish (have a bunch of pops cluttering my inventory) and I can't get 6 people interested. Why? Because their time is better spent grinding plasm for more powerful delve weapons. The lack of any drops of note besides 3rd rate weapons means there isn't any incentive to go back to the content - especially with the announcement that all augments will be wiped when you upgrade your weapon.

Now, if you added additional augments AND some nice, low-drop rate gear, you might have gotten people interested, but this is going to be dead on arrival.

[Yinnyth]

I have to say this is another epic-bad idea from the development team. I'll let you in on a little secret: the only people who will even look twice at this content are those looking for an offhand for their delve weapon. Also erasing augments in order to upgrade is just bad design all the way around.

I've been wanting to try skirmish (have a bunch of pops cluttering my inventory) and I can't get 6 people interested. Why? Because their time is better spent grinding plasm for more powerful delve weapons. The lack of any drops of note besides 3rd rate weapons means there isn't any incentive to go back to the content - especially with the announcement that all augments will be wiped when you upgrade your weapon.

Now, if you added additional augments AND some nice, low-drop rate gear, you might have gotten people interested, but this is going to be dead on arrival.

Neo skirmish is going to have 5 sets of armor. This armor is going to be considered item level 112. Some of the armor you have from delve is considered item level 110. From a strictly numeric standpoint, one could assume that skirmish armor is going to be an easier alternative with better stats.

Old skirmish has a few weapons which are competitive with delve weapons (I'm speaking mostly about the blm staff). If it's going to be possible to further augment them, we might see some weapon classes from skirmish that are better than delve weapons.

[sweetidealism]

Here's a thought. If you're upgrading a weapon that is already augmented, then perhaps you could have the item used to augment it refunded. Would that work? I certainly think it would be better than nothing.

Also, if I may ask, why is it that the new Wildskeeper Reives will offer better rewards than new Skirmish? Wildskeeper Reives, despite having strong attributes, can be won simply through perseverance and patience, as opposed to Skirmish which, with its expansive areas and short time limits, can get pretty hectic and actually sometimes be difficult to complete. I feel like the reward quality between these two events should be reversed.

[Catmato]

Edit: I'm retarded.

[Karah]

Just stop, seriously, have you learned nothing?

119 20 Delve (Boss monsters)

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
This is the -only- thing that matters unless the new skirmish has some situally kick-ass macro gear, it's trash, right out of the box, period.

[Olor]

Neo skirmish is going to have 5 sets of armor. This armor is going to be considered item level 13. Some of the armor you have from delve is considered item level 11. From a strictly numeric standpoint, one could assume that skirmish armor is going to be an easier alternative with better stats.

Old skirmish has a few weapons which are competitive with delve weapons (I'm speaking mostly about the blm staff). If it's going to be possible to further augment them, we might see some weapon classes from skirmish that are better than delve weapons.

Derp. I missed the gear, though I was actually talking about gear for T1 Skirmish. I also still think wiping augments that people worked hard to get is a bad idea. I just don't see anyone wanting to farm for stones anymore with that being the case - reducing the number of people wanting to do base skirmish once they have their weapon even more. The entry level content needs to be improved before they worry about the next step.

[Yinnyth]

Just stop, seriously, have you learned nothing?

119 20 Delve (Boss monsters)

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
This is the -only- thing that matters unless the new skirmish has some situally kick-ass macro gear, it's trash, right out of the box, period.

If you don't want item level 112 armor, hey, that's your choice. Send any simulacrum pieces you find my way though, would ya?

[Zirael]

I have to say this is another epic-bad idea from the development team. I'll let you in on a little secret: the only people who will even look twice at this content are those looking for an offhand for their delve weapon. Also erasing augments in order to upgrade is just bad design all the way around.

I've been wanting to try skirmish (have a bunch of pops cluttering my inventory) and I can't get 6 people interested. Why? Because their time is better spent grinding plasm for more powerful delve weapons. The lack of any drops of note besides 3rd rate weapons means there isn't any incentive to go back to the content - especially with the announcement that all augments will be wiped when you upgrade your weapon.

Now, if you added additional augments AND some nice, low-drop rate gear, you might have gotten people interested, but this is going to be dead on arrival.
Add Alexandrite, Heavy Metal, Cinder and Dross to Skirmish.
/fixed

[Karah]

If you don't want item level 112 armor, hey, that's your choice. Send any simulacrum pieces you find my way though, would ya?

If they magically fall into my inventory afk in Port Jeuno, and you server transfer to pick them up, I'll give them to you for free. I couldn't even give away the ones that I got after Delve came out.


Add Alexandrite, Heavy Metal, Cinder and Dross to Skirmish.
/fixed

NO
http://i44.tinypic.com/mx1zqa.jpg

[Unaisis]

im going to equip Oatixur on my feet~

[SpankWustler]

New armor to be obtained
5 new sets of armor will be added. With the new enhancement items it will also be possible to add Arcane Glyptics to this equipment.


The quality of this armor is probably what the new tier of Skirmish will live or die by, so I'm happy to hear that there will be more than three sets of the stuff.

Light melee and Rangers/Corsairs might not have to share a set!? Support mages might get something besides huge amounts of INT and Magic Attack Bonus?! The possibilities are...not endless but a lot better than with just three sets, I guess.

[Demon6324236]

Going by example...

3 sets = Heavy/Light/Mage
Heavy - WAR/PLD/DRK/BST/SAM/DRG
Light - MNK/THF/RNG/NIN/BLU/COR/PUP/DNC/RUN
Magic - WHM/BLM/RDM/BRD/SMN/BLU/PUP/SCH/GEO/RUN



5 sets = Heavy/LightRanged/Asian/White/Black
Heavy - WAR/DRK/PLD/DRG
LightRanged - THF/BST/RNG/COR/DNC/RUN
Asian - MNK/SAM/NIN/PUP
White - WHM/SMN/BRD
Black - BLM/RDM/BLU/SCH/GEO

[Demon6324236]

The fact we are getting something I think will be similar to Morrigan's I hope we might get some actual meleeish gear for RDM again, maybe this time it will be TP gear to go with Morrigan's WS gear...

[Garota]

Going by example...

3 sets = Heavy/Light/Mage
Heavy - WAR/PLD/DRK/BST/SAM/DRG
Light - MNK/THF/RNG/NIN/BLU/COR/PUP/DNC/RUN
Magic - WHM/BLM/RDM/BRD/SMN/BLU/PUP/SCH/GEO/RUN



5 sets = Heavy/LightRanged/Asian/White/Black
Heavy - WAR/DRK/PLD/DRG
LightRanged - THF/BST/RNG/COR/DNC/RUN
Asian - MNK/SAM/NIN/PUP
White - WHM/SMN/BRD
Black - BLM/RDM/BLU/SCH/GEO

These armor classifications are the same as the 5 Salvage gear sets.

[Demon6324236]

Which was in fact my point, however so far as I know Salvage is the only event to have 5 sets rather than 3 that we have ever really had, as such, it seems to stand out that they will likely be the same way.

[hiko]

Which was in fact my point, however so far as I know Salvage is the only event to have 5 sets rather than 3 that we have ever really had, as such, it seems to stand out that they will likely be the same way.
abjuration doesnt have 3sets with some jobs being able to equip different sets
- 6set lvl73from RoZ,
- 2 sets lvl75 AU,
- 6 sets 99 from VW/legion


shijin/limbus sets were weird job distribution

[Pebe]

People say that the new skirmish will be irrelevant because of delve boss gear, however this isn't true. Delve boss gear only covers weapons and a few pieces of armor here or there. This armor will be basically on par with delve t2 NM armor and beat some delve T1 NM armor. Also the fact that these weapons from skirmish v2 are augmentable, will probably beat out some delve weapons. Even if it doesn't, it will bridge the gap between bayld gear and delve gear. So now instead of R/M/E/D DD it will be R/M/E/D/Skirmish v2 DD :P. This should go a long way in help people catch up to the delve level who missed out when every was spamming it regardless of gear.

One final thing: Since we are getting new zones and wildkeepers, does this also translate into a Delve v2 with lvl 125+ content? Needs more Delve mage gear.

[Zhronne]

5 sets = Heavy/LightRanged/Asian/White/Black
Heavy - WAR/DRK/PLD/DRG
LightRanged - THF/BST/RNG/COR/DNC/RUN
Asian - MNK/SAM/NIN/PUP
White - WHM/SMN/BRD
Black - BLM/RDM/BLU/SCH/GEO
Some jobs could be on multiple sets! Like SCH for instances, in your scheme SCH deserves both Black and White imho.

Hope BRD and WHM get some more DD options :D
I'd love some piece that would be retardedly broken for melee jobs but it's only equippable by WHM and/or BRD.
<3 <3 <3

[Demon6324236]

abjuration doesnt have 3sets with some jobs being able to equip different sets
- 6set lvl73from RoZ,
- 2 sets lvl75 AU,
- 6 sets 99 from VW/legion


shijin/limbus sets were weird job distributionOk, I give you the VW/Legion Abj set, your right on that part, the Corvine, Foreboding, Lenitive, Supernal, and Transitory sets were 5 sets of gear, and followed different rules. It is completely possible we will see something similar to their setup as well, with multiple jobs being on some sets(like RDM with F/L or MNK on S/T) but it would be a bit weird for an event like this in my opinion. So far as the other Abjuration gear, at the time they also did not follow what has become standard rules for gear, at the time the only event which really did was Nyzul. As for Limbus gear, yeah, it is weirdly setup, but all in all these are all different from Skirmish, the most comparable to what this gear is likely to end up as is Salvage sets and VW/Legion sets.

[Demon6324236]

Some jobs could be on multiple sets! Like SCH for instances, in your scheme SCH deserves both Black and White imho.I would argue that RDM, BLU, and MNK should be on light DD sets, BST & RUN on heavy, and RDM on White as well, but I did go by the Salvage setup so~.


Hope BRD and WHM get some more DD options :D
I'd love some piece that would be retardedly broken for melee jobs but it's only equippable by WHM and/or BRD.
<3 <3 <3Its possible, if I remember right Salvage gear had a TP piece for WHM, it was not the best if you had KClub or something like that but yeah. In either case mage sets often have that random weird piece with melee stats, like Shedir body, Rubeus Spats, Goliard Saio, Morrigan's body, Fea's hands, and so on, so I would not rule it out.

[Demon6324236]

Since I don't think anyone else said it, I will...

Please for the love of all that is FFXI do not make the augments random like you did with the original Skirmish areas!

[Kristal]

Since I don't think anyone else said it, I will...

Please for the love of all that is FFXI do not make the augments random like you did with the original Skirmish areas!

Augments aren't random, only their strength levels. For example, Ninza has DMG, STR, DEX and Counter.
The question is, will a Ninza +1 with maxed augments be on par with a maxed delve weapon? If so, you can get a good weapon with less effort and cost, but are more dependant on getting a good roll of the dice to balance it out.

[Kristal]

I have to say this is another epic-bad idea from the development team. I'll let you in on a little secret: the only people who will even look twice at this content are those looking for an offhand for their delve weapon. Also erasing augments in order to upgrade is just bad design all the way around.

I've been wanting to try skirmish (have a bunch of pops cluttering my inventory) and I can't get 6 people interested. Why? Because their time is better spent grinding plasm for more powerful delve weapons. The lack of any drops of note besides 3rd rate weapons means there isn't any incentive to go back to the content - especially with the announcement that all augments will be wiped when you upgrade your weapon.

Now, if you added additional augments AND some nice, low-drop rate gear, you might have gotten people interested, but this is going to be dead on arrival.

Skirmish +1 weapons could potentially have a higher DMG rating with better WS stats and different combat stats, compared to maxed delve weapons. Though it would be nice if the devs showed some screenshots of Ninza +1, because right now it's all guesswork.

I'd also like to know if Ninza (+1) has anything other then DMG STR DEX Counter, because as a PUP I'm utterly disinterested in a weapon that is weaker then a delve weapon and even lacks pet stats. Simply put, I want the potential Counter on Ninza to be available on both master AND pet. (And similar for BST's axe and DRG's polearm.)

[Demon6324236]

Augments aren't random, only their strength levels. For example, Ninza has DMG, STR, DEX and Counter.
The question is, will a Ninza +1 with maxed augments be on par with a maxed delve weapon? If so, you can get a good weapon with less effort and cost, but are more dependant on getting a good roll of the dice to balance it out.I rather Delve's progression style augments myself... Which is what I was referring to, I hate how random some are rather it be, perhaps a random gain per use but not a random amount and if you get a bad augment then oh well. Like my cure feet for instance, I have Zenith, its truly infuriating when I get 4% CP but terrible -cast time, or none at all, when they are the only stats I care abut anyways. It would be nice to be able to lock stats as they are, if you roll any stat higher you can choose to take 1 stat upgrade, all stat upgrades, or no upgrades listed. For instance, say those H2H, you can get DMG, STR, DEX, and Counter. A cool way to do it would be that if I role the first time, get 11DMG, 4STR, 7DEX, & 2Counter, then I reroll, if I get, say, 15DMG, 1STR, 4DEX, & 5Counter, I can choose to accept all stats, accept 1 stat, in this case, say, DMG, or choose to ignore them all. If I pick to take all, I lose some STR and DEX from my previous version, but gain both the DMG & Counter boosts from the new augments, if I pick just DMG, I do not get this boost to my counter, but I also lose no STR/DEX from my previous augments, and if I pick to leave them all behind, well, in this case I would not, but if they all sucked, I would do it to avoid being downgraded.

In my opinion it would be a more progressive way of doing it, rather than simply random augments that make you spam through them over and over trying to get the right set, because you could get a great augment on 1 stat, keep it, and work on others. Once you get all stats to a high enough amount or capped, you can stop with the item, but as of right now perfect augments are far from likely, and often, the attempt to get better augments is hopeless and infuriating.

[Guppie]

The new content sounds interesting, but any chance it will include a new bard instrument? The Seekers of Adoulin expansion has introduced zero new musical instruments for Bard, which seems like an odd omission.