Why R/E/M weapons should be a priority.

[Fermion]

I'm not going to go into an emotional rant, rather, I'd like to talk about why and how, R/E/M's resurgence can revitalize the game. With a few simple gameplay adjustments, it will be beneficial to R/E/M holders, and those without them as well.

Increase the discrepancy between Heavy DD and Light/Hybrid jobs.
This is an issue that has long been a problem, and is starting to careen out of control. I see that your staff acknowledges the problem (with the 1h adjustments) but I believe you're going about it in the wrong way.

Light/Hybrid jobs will never max out as high as the Heavy DD jobs. It's just simple mathematics. But, Heavy DDs will never have the self-reliance and party resource management as Light/Hybrids either.

A Light/Hybrid can't fill the shoes of a Heavy DD in an alliance setting. Inversely, a Heavy DD can't sub in for a Light/Hybrid in Solo, low-man either. This leads me to my next point.

Increase Solo and low-man options to include EVERY event.
Let the Heavy DDs have the big alliance fights. As party/alliance size increases, they have an inherent advantage. This is not an issue. The issue is the fact that the Light/Hybrid jobs have no way to use their natural advantages to procure the same gear. Although I do believe that based on the time and difficulty to set up an alliance should allow for relatively quicker rewards, there should still be a solo, low-man option, albeit, it should be slower. There is something to be said for being able to hop on the game, grab a friend or two, and immediately enjoy the content we're paying for.

The focus on raw dps is stagnating gameplay.
Everyone wants to improve their character. That's the whole point. But this obsession with damage over anything else has to stop. We have other skills that should be just as important as damage, when it comes to victory. Evasion, parry, adaptability, etc. These are very important skills and abilities that should not be overlooked any longer. Having multiple ways to successfully complete content (not just damage) can only help the game.

R/E/M should be back on top
Most R/E/M weapons belong to Heavy DDs. Heavy DDs have one job (well two if you count switching to - damage take sets, but I feel that every job should be doing that anyway) and that's to deal as much damage as possible. If they put in the work to excel at their job, don't take that from them. Don't take that from any job.

Conclusion
You guys are starting to do a lot of things right. The Elemental Magic update seems to be wonderful. It puts magical DDs right around the DoT of a lightly buffed Light DD. I believe it's going to give RDM a much needed boost as well, making the job extremely well rounded (healing updates, 1H adjustments, Elemental Magic updates).

All that being said, I hope you scale the solo, low-man adjustments properly. Because if you can do that properly, AND bring R/E/M back to dominance, I can't think of one person I know that would have a problem with that. These two changes will make Heavy DDs happy, Light/Hybrids happy, and Magical DDs happy. The only groups this doesn't affect are healers and buffers, but they're universally accepted, so that doesn't seem like too much of an oversight.

[Daemon]

Well until the update happens I'm worried about the elemental adjustments as Ice and Thunder for Tier 4 & 5 are getting a raise in MP Cost. Some of us are wondering if SE is shifting all mages into using Stone & Water. That's why a few of us are already Re-Meriting our Elemental Points. Although Damage is going to change, it still doesn't avoid the fact that those spells that we used the most is going to deplete our MP pool pretty quickly.

As for allowing people to solo.. If SE wanted to allow that they would have years and years ago listened to thousands of players begging for it since the beginning of time.

As for REM, well people are already starting to put it aside and latch onto the new shiny Delve weapons. I guess they are happy with their merit ws damage.

And well, SE way too busy adding stuff rather than fix what's broken. So no matter how many of us try to write a nice post like yours. I've yet to see anyone get an answer back. Outline for June and August is already posted and no signs of REM fix.

[Fermion]

I'm kind of withholding judgement on the magic update. It's one of those things I'm just going to have to "test drive". It does seem to have a too good to be true feeling about it. But idk, the damage may have to be pumped up a bit, because MP will still go fast, especially considering nukers will still not be competitive with Heavy DDs, even post update, with every refresh possible.

Maybe they'll listen now. They are kind of desperate and I don't see where it hurts anything.

R/E/M is the topic that just won't die. People just can't let go of their work they put in, so may as well throw them a bone. They should not blow delve weapons out of the water, but they should win by a few % points (so we don't go back to R/E/M only). Boss weapons will still be the best.

Well, the good part about the R/E/M fix, is that it won't take much to get it implemented. I'm sure the hold up is them trying to decide the correct damage values and stats. The implementation will be quick after that. So, maybe instead of everyone being so critical, perhaps a thread or two discussing the hypothetical damage values of R/E/Ms would help speed things up.

[Daemon]

I'm kind of withholding judgement on the magic update. It's one of those things I'm just going to have to "test drive". It does seem to have a too good to be true feeling about it. But idk, the damage may have to be pumped up a bit, because MP will still go fast, especially considering nukers will still not be competitive with Heavy DDs, even post update, with every refresh possible.

Maybe they'll listen now. They are kind of desperate and I don't see where it hurts anything.

R/E/M is the topic that just won't die. People just can't let go of their work they put in, so may as well throw them a bone. They should not blow delve weapons out of the water, but they should win by a few % points (so we don't go back to R/E/M only). Boss weapons will still be the best.

Well, the good part about the R/E/M fix, is that it won't take much to get it implemented. I'm sure the hold up is them trying to decide the correct damage values and stats. The implementation will be quick after that. So, maybe instead of everyone being so critical, perhaps a thread or two discussing the hypothetical damage values of R/E/Ms would help speed things up.

Yeah I totally agree though mages will still be like DD Airheads who don't care about anything else other than dealing the highest damage possible because they are so addicted to power and want to show off their awesome damage. But sadly mages will want the same but have downtime recovering MP.

[OmnysValefor]

Light/Hybrid jobs will never max out as high as the Heavy DD jobs. It's just simple mathematics.

No, it's just how the game is designed at the the moment, and probably will stay. Dual Wield is something to fill slots with but it's not the cream filling that Store TP is for 2h'ers.

They're not desparate either. Desperation resorts to action, either good or bad, and action is one thing we're not getting. We're not even really getting responses.

They replied to the thread inquiring about the delay of the new SP but completely ignored the few threads about why the REM updates aren't even mentioned in the forecast. Honestly, considering the size of the {Upheaval}, it took a lot of time to respond when things first happened.

I don't know if the NDA SE employees sign bars them from talking to customers about the game either or what. =P

[Vold]

They should not blow delve weapons out of the water, but they should win by a few % points (so we don't go back to R/E/M only).The only reason we were ever "RME only" is because of SE's content design, and even then if the vast majority of players weren't scared to death of forming groups for stuff because they might come across that person, there never would have been a 'RME only' era. Those shouters would have been mocked like the old days when someone would put '2 BRD only' or '1 BRD 1 COR only' etc variants in their search message.

Also, I'm not sure some people fully understand the concept of RMEs. It's okay to replace a weapon worth hundreds of millions of gil as long as it's replacement is worth hundreds of millions. Delve weapons do not meet the standards of RMEs. They don't have an exclusive WS nor an aftermath. At best you can spend alot of gil for augments but that is no where in the same league as RMEs. It just means you have nothing better to spend your money on than augments on weapons that will almost certainly be followed up on by the newest ultimate weapon set. We'll call this set of weapons "Ancient Weapons."

So in 3 months to 2 years a new set of weapons will appear on the scene called ancient weapons. They'll have new bestest WSs ever except mage stuff. It'll have aftermaths. Roses will fall from the heavens. These will be the weapons SE has warned us will come eventually that will put RMEs in their graves. They will come because people demand ultimate weapons to work towards, especially with how basic and fugly delve weapons are. They might even require RMEs to trade in for the quest so RMEs don't become a complete waste and won't end in a mass exodus of players. This is Final Fantasy. Yes, such weapons are coming and will continue to come every 3-5 years or so as they have been thus far. It's just this time around, the new set of weapons will probably mark the end of RMEs as SE doesn't want to go backwards anymore. That's okay as long as they are required to obtain ancient weapons.