Congratulations FFXI team for Skirmish 2.0

[Spectreman]

I think it was the best planned event for all players. Myself not being a hardcore managed through my ls get stuff done there and now im able to get through random groups as well.

Though the weapons are not as good as delve they feel powerful and rewarding. The red gear (all of them are red) looks awesome and have awesome stats as well that gives up pride in wearing them.

It was a well thought event that is avaiable to all players instead of the same minority of elitists that would call you in the middle of night to get online.

The rewarding system through wings gives us reason to keep happy doing it even if we dont get drops in our runs. The augment stones makes veterans who already collect all gear come back to gamble for better results and keeps the event alive with constant tells that allows those that havent got gear to start.


This is how an end game event should be made. The only thing i think that it still needs some improvement is to make them more like cirdas in terms of gameplay, fast and fluid, being fun to do. Yorcia is kinda boring to wait for waves.

But the event is a success. Now people like us can even dream about doing stronger stuff in the future without having to submit to a nazi linkshell for delve.


Thank you.

[Karah]

It's odd that I find a post on the forums that I agree with...

But, yeah, skirmish II was done extremely well, I absolutely love the tower defense style of the yorcia sets. Legit.

The only problem I have, is still this iLvL garbage. Skirmish II gear isn't good because it's actually good... It's only good because it HAS to be worn to be counted as a level 113.

The gear itself doesn't actually give any bonus stats, only things that we should already have. it's like the gear is worn to make us the equivalent of a 113, and that's it. Like if you had to wear an Armada hauberk to be level 79ish way back when. But you wouldn't actually get the +11 stats... I know it's a difficult concept to grasp.

If we were actually level 113 the stats on the skirmish set would be (nothing but defense and augs) the raw stats technically don't exist... I would rather actually be level 113 and still wear my previous gear sets, with actual (bonus) stats, or actually be 113 and still have the stats on the skirmish set.

[Daemon]

It's odd that I find a post on the forums that I agree with...

But, yeah, skirmish II was done extremely well, I absolutely love the tower defense style of the yorcia sets. Legit.

The only problem I have, is still this iLvL garbage. Skirmish II gear isn't good because it's actually good... It's only good because it HAS to be worn to be counted as a level 113.

The gear itself doesn't actually give any bonus stats, only things that we should already have. it's like the gear is worn to make us the equivalent of a 113, and that's it. Like if you had to wear an Armada hauberk to be level 79ish way back when. But you wouldn't actually get the +11 stats... I know it's a difficult concept to grasp.

If we were actually level 113 the stats on the skirmish set would be (nothing but defense and augs) the raw stats technically don't exist...

Nice comment from both of you. I haven't played Skirmish yet but after reading both comments, I'm interested to find out how the new improvement is. Also good review coming from Karah alone means its worth checking out.

Thanks.

[detlef]

It's not all peaches and cream unfortunately. The way the event is structured means you are forced to wait around while mobs spawn and make their way to wherever you are. Also, depending on what level you're doing, you're stuck standing around for 25, 35, or even 45 minutes if you want to complete the secondary objective. It gets frantic at the end, but before that it's very boring. Since winning or losing depends on defending the cantonment for X amount of time, there's no way to win early by being good like there was with Rala and Cirdas Skirmish.

The gear is excellent, but you'll find yourself capped out on what you need very quickly. It's kind of on the opposite scale of WKR in that you get too easily. Between direct drops and wings, you'll can finish the event within a day if you wanted to.

Or at least you could if not for the maddeningly random augments. That's a whole 'nother thing. PDT is always given, occasionally you'll get a second augment. The stat ranges are way too wide. As an example, MATK can vary from 1 to 30 on Hagondes armor. However, you also have to get lucky that MATK even loads because 10 different types of augments are possible. It can be very frustrating.

Overall, the event is good and bad. Very powerful gear, very easy to get. Augments are frustrating and you will have to settle on something you're not entirely happy with or you'll go crazy. Also the gear is ugly!

[Karah]

The way the event is structured means you are forced to wait around while mobs spawn and make their way to wherever you are.

Well, you could be standing around in jeuno or adoulin instead, no matter what there is A LOT of standing around to be done, whether its for gear or just plain doing nothing.


Also, depending on what level you're doing, you're stuck standing around for 25, 35, or even 45 minutes if you want to complete the secondary objective.

You're not stuck standing around, you're just waiting for spawns, that's how the game always has been.


It gets frantic at the end, but before that it's very boring. Since winning or losing depends on defending the cantonment for X amount of time, there's no way to win early by being good like there was with Rala and Cirdas Skirmish.
It's a classic tower defense, which i happen to LOVE, it's awesome. the waves start slow and easy and get harder and harder.


The gear is excellent, but you'll find yourself capped out on what you need very quickly. It's kind of on the opposite scale of WKR in that you get too easily. Between direct drops and wings, you'll can finish the event within a day if you wanted to.
The gear is "legit" barely passable, but opinions etc.


Or at least you could if not for the maddeningly random augments. That's a whole 'nother thing. PDT is always given, occasionally you'll get a second augment. The stat ranges are way too wide. As an example, MATK can vary from 1 to 30 on Hagondes armor. However, you also have to get lucky that MATK even loads because 10 different types of augments are possible. It can be very frustrating.

Augment system is always garbage, period. I have nothing good to say about augments whatsoever, but the event itself is great.


Overall, the event is good and bad. Very powerful gear, very easy to get. Augments are frustrating and you will have to settle on something you're not entirely happy with or you'll go crazy. Also the gear is ugly!
Only the helmets are ugly~ /displayhead off!

[Zumi]

I disagree I found skirmish 2 one of the worst events SE has ever made. Nobody I know in my LS liked it at all. Weak mobs that die in like 2-3 auto attack rounds guarding a tent for 30-45 min isn't fun. This is so boring waiting around, your good gear can't make it go faster due to the fact you have to just sit there and wait most of the time. To me skirmish 2 is a snoozefest, just got me playing FFXIV more.

I would make something that has actual challenge in it. Not stand around for 30 min doing nothing 90% of the time and collect loot.

Delve in comparison is a lot better because your actually going out and fighting stuff trying to do it fast to beat the timer.

[Vinedrai]

It isn't fun at all. It is almost like being rewarded for standing still. mobs hit hard but die too fast, you dont even break a sweat and waiting for waves is killing me. there was nothing wrong with the pace of rala and cirdas. they introduced a different style of gameplay with yorcia and this tower defence concept is fun on paper but they chose to slow down the pace too much for some reason. also, it doesn't matter how well geared and/or skilled you are. we had enough of this "waiting" game for years. why not just stick with your new mind set and keep it as a fast paced content since it was originally introduced as such. i mean just look at the rest of the SoA content. they are all about non stop combat. this could have been a much more faster tower defense action. faster waves, mobs getting stronger rapidly, more options to enhance your defenses, like various traps on the way of mobs, strong buffs for those who stand near the camp (see: campaign martellos), reinforcement NPCs, gathering materials away from the camp to repair the camp with some easy mini game etc etc

[Fynlar]

Try using some higher tier torsos; it gets pretty frantic then.

[Monchat]

I always use V/V/V but I find it super boring. Idk why people think skirmish is any "fun". I hate it, but the rewards are good.

[Demon6324236]

Its not challenging either, take some BLMs, a BRD, maybe a DD to kill nests while the BLMs do all the work, and it becomes effortless.

[Karah]

Its not challenging either, take some BLMs, a BRD, maybe a DD to kill nests while the BLMs do all the work, and it becomes effortless.

If it were challenging, no one could beat it. It's fine were it's at. If they made it like delve, then no one would have any skirmish gear. it's September and people STILL f*ck up the Matamata ffs.

I just did a tojil run yesterday. Guess what, people failed to "prep" the matamata and took 12 minutes instead of 5. It's unreal.

Challenge: <<No, thanks.>>

When players are capable of challenging content again, then by all means bring it back.

[Demon6324236]

Let me be more specific then, its simply to easy, I expect content to be harder than this, where I can literally have a single BLM solo a T1, BLM & BRD duo T2~3 if they are decent. I don't expect it to be as hard as Tojil, Dakuwaqa, or Muyingwa, but I do expect it to be as hard as some of those T1~3 NMs at least, seeing as the gear that drops is at a slightly high level than their's...

[Karah]

Well, yes it (could) be slightly harder, sure. The cantonment has a lot of health, it's near impossible to lose.

But let's look at the other end of the spectrum; that abyssea skirmish type thing ( i forgot the name). Enemies come in waves of 10~ and they hit the martello one time and the damn thing dies.

This was done soooo much better.

The thing is it has no scaling, 3 member 4 member 5 member 6 member, all have the same exact content, what's EXTREMELY easy for 6 people is not quite so easy for 3.

But just to be clear, I absolutely love ALL content that doesn't require 18. Even if they made skirmish easier, it'd still be awesome, just for the simple fact that I don't have to rely on 16 other people.

(yes I know tojil can be solo'd by an 8boxing bot user, that's skill, that's challenge, but i'm not gonna pay for 6 more accounts lol).

[Calatilla]

But let's look at the other end of the spectrum; that abyssea skirmish type thing ( i forgot the name). Enemies come in waves of 10~ and they hit the martello one time and the damn thing dies.

This was done soooo much better.

While I agree with your point that they could have made skirmish better ,I don't agree with this part. Bastion (as it's known) was a nice concept but poorly implemented. A wave mobs approaches the martello,the npc's nuke, you voke, ws w/e, the mobs totally ignore you and 1 shot the martello, now you get to wait 5-10 mins to do it again.

The hate system in Bastion sucks, if u don't kill the mob as soon as you take action on it it`s going to ignore you. If skirmish had the same mechanics as bastion it would be much harder to defend the camp, especially near the end when you get swamped.

[Spectreman]

I disagree I found skirmish 2 one of the worst events SE has ever made. Nobody I know in my LS liked it at all. Weak mobs that die in like 2-3 auto attack rounds guarding a tent for 30-45 min isn't fun. This is so boring waiting around, your good gear can't make it go faster due to the fact you have to just sit there and wait most of the time. To me skirmish 2 is a snoozefest, just got me playing FFXIV more.

I would make something that has actual challenge in it. Not stand around for 30 min doing nothing 90% of the time and collect loot.

Delve in comparison is a lot better because your actually going out and fighting stuff trying to do it fast to beat the timer.


Delve is one of the same events that applies to the 5% of playerbase that is in a hardcore endgame ls. Of course, players that cleared delve cant find any fun in the game because they have nothing that stands a challenge to them. Till something else stronger comes up and they rush to beat it in a week to find themselves bored again.


But SE did the right move to create an event that is doable for the majority that can't commit to a linkshell as a second job. It promotes healthy gaming by letting people gear up decently outside of linkshells like that and it is also a smart move towards appealing to the majority that keeps the servers online instead of the same 5% of elitists.

[pretre]

personally I think your all missing the point of skirmish, its supposed to be the middle ground between abby an delve, its meant for the people who missed out on the big surge of delve shouts and on servers like phoenix were u don't get many nm or plasm farm shouts anymore just boss shouts the players with lvl 99 weapons still have a chance to get up to par so they can join the runs. the 1 ls I have that hasn't died due to the REM issue or ffxiv release is the kind of group that doesn't care about progression, they just want to have fun with there group so due to a few members only getting SOA addon recently they missed out on all the shouts and felt that they were very slowly if ever going to catch up to peeps so I started walking them through skirmish an skirmish II, they had a blast. not only did they do something fun that would mostly catch them up but for people with lvl 90 emp weapons it was challenging, I think this skirmish event is perfect for the lvl of player it was aimed at, and trust me read some of my other posts im normally not handing out praise to SE (FIX MY RELIC DAM YOU)

[Meril]

Dumbest, boring, yawn event ever.

[Helel]

I hope OP is being sarcastic.

[Demon6324236]

Is the event good for a middle event? Yes.

Is the event fun? No.

Is the event hard? No.

Is the event too easy? Yes.

Are its rewards good? Yes.

Are its augments good? Hell no.

What could be improved? A more progressive augment system much like Delve had, where the best augments are able to be gotten with hard work, not pure luck. Luck based things on this level need to be removed, and fixed with more progressive styles of progression. Making everything a mass of luck is stupid, boring, and often disappointing.

[Annalise]

It was somewhat fun for me the first time in Yorcia. Every time after that I found pretty boring, though.

I'm hoping to skip putting more effort than I have into Skirmish gear and just get better stuff when newer Delve comes out. Skirmish bores me too much, and I don't like random gil sink augments. I prefer Delves augment system, where you know what you are getting.

[Demon6324236]

Part that sucks for mages, I doubt SE will beat a body with 40 MAB & 20 INT or a head with 17% Cure Potency any time soon, then again, with how things are going... chances are it will suck for mages and some other jobs, where Skirmish gear stays on top and we have to deal with the shit augment system.

[Fynlar]

I personally don't care all that much for the augments on this stuff, other than for the +1 weapons, but you can mainly just throw one +2 stone at them to bump up their DMG rating to something worthwhile.

The armor is, for the most part, pretty badass by itself even augmentless.

[Demon6324236]

For melee jobs the augments are fairly minor, some attack, some Double Attack, good stats but nothing to insane. On the other side of that though, is mage gear, with BLM gear getting +25 and above MAB on it, enough to make BLM go from mediocre to amazing on DMG, since your talking about effectively doubling a BLM's MAB they would normally have otherwise(most nuking sets put you at around 100~110 I think, and augments alone can total to 125+) or in the case of WHM, it can give you a ton of cure potency on pieces, specifically head which can end up with 17% Cure potency, maybe more, which makes capping even easier, allowing you to stack other stats.

I just think the augments are important for some jobs, yet at the same time are far to random.

[Umichi]

Is the event good for a middle event? Yes.

Is the event fun? No.

Is the event hard? No.

Is the event too easy? Yes.

Are its rewards good? Yes.

Are its augments good? Hell no.

What could be improved? A more progressive augment system much like Delve had, where the best augments are able to be gotten with hard work, not pure luck. Luck based things on this level need to be removed, and fixed with more progressive styles of progression. Making everything a mass of luck is stupid, boring, and often disappointing.

It's not really hard when your at the top of your game :p

[Kincard]

I'm not someone who loves ridiculously difficult or massive alliance content so I was looking forward to Skirmish 2.0.

I think its quite possibly the most boring event they ever made, and it's not because it's easy, but because it's boring. I don't care if an event is easy. Abyssea was easy and I loved it.

Assaults and Salvage 2.0 were not hard and I thought those were a lot of fun.

I think this a good example of how not to do a low-man event.

In b4 someone mentions how V/V/V is hard or something. The problem with events where you have to defend something is that if you don't design it correctly it will either be laughably easy like this event or it will just be frustrating like Bastion. I guess Operation: Black Pearl would qualify as an event where they did it somewhat correctly.

Really, "defend this" missions just don't fit well into XI's framework because XI was designed with fighting single targets in mind. Switching focus and making sure to keep attention on multiple targets does not fit well into the gameplay system and oftentimes that is what makes missions like that frantic and exciting. V/V/V Skirmish 2.0 isn't difficult because they inflated the fort's HP precisely because they knew how poor XI is at handling player VS multiple targets.

[Demon6324236]

It's not really hard when your at the top of your game :pA BLM with capped skill or /SCH and Dark Arts up, with some basic INT gear, and either the Atinian, Skirmish +1, Soothsayer, or Forefront Staff, a BLM can nuke all of the mobs for a ton of DMG. The only issue a BLM will have is resists, since all but Forefront have a ton of Magic Accuracy though it is almost never an issue. Its nothing that requires high end gear, boss gear, or anything of the sort, it only requires 1 decent BLM for T1, and an additional BLM for each tier, adding an additional BRD at T3 for ballads.

[Komori]

Or you know, people could not kill dens. I went with a group who thought it gave better rewards, the mobs come in a steady flow if you don't kill the dens, if you want to make it "a bit harder".

Or you could always not use the stockades etc. for artificial challenge.

[Damane]

I cant agree with the OP. Skirmish II is a total garbage snooze-fest and cant stand to do it. just did it like 10 times or so to cap out on gear and then say fuck to it. Most garbage event ever (not from the reward standpoint, they made a fair system, but the event itself is just boring to no end).

[MarkovChain]

The OP is pretty funny. So much hate for people with better gear. I don't think you are that much of a casual player, because you clearly like pixels more than anything else. I mean skimish in yorcia is boring. The waves come very slowly until the last 2 or 3 minutes. Noone can seriously like the event on itself, however everyone will like the rewarding aspect, like you do. That's why I say you are not what you pretend to be in the OP. All you want is the gear. Honestly the first weeks of delve were more interesting that this skirmish.

Personnally I liek skirmish because my mules get free up to date gear, and I suppose that it was SE's goal (READ : they want all level 99 to drop their preadoulin gear which they failed badly with delve V1 or V2 [pre item level and post item level])

[Glamdring]

my biggest issue is that the gear rewards-meaning the armor of course-those for pet jobs have no augments for the pets, excepting the summoner set-at least I haven't seen any yet. In fact, the bard usable set actually makes bard WEAKER. I mean, the fast cast is nice, and the additional defense, but really for increasing utility of buffs our AF3+2/relic+2 stuff is better, the rune set does little for my rune but boost it's damage-I mean considering that rune really doesn't work as the advertised tank Damage buffing is nice but it would have been better if the gear made us work as advertised, our AF is better for that. You get the idea.

Now, multi-job gear always has these kind of issues in comparrison to AF, but seriously, not 1 pet buff even possible for any job but summoner? What's the thinking there? ranged attack and acc on a rune, VERY handy, especially considering we can't even equip a ranged weapon.

But yes, the event itself is a winner, and the gear progression tiers do work to keep it challenging but not a deathtrap for casual players.

[Glamdring]

A BLM with capped skill or /SCH and Dark Arts up, with some basic INT gear, and either the Atinian, Skirmish +1, Soothsayer, or Forefront Staff, a BLM can nuke all of the mobs for a ton of DMG. The only issue a BLM will have is resists, since all but Forefront have a ton of Magic Accuracy though it is almost never an issue. Its nothing that requires high end gear, boss gear, or anything of the sort, it only requires 1 decent BLM for T1, and an additional BLM for each tier, adding an additional BRD at T3 for ballads.

not entirely true, but mostly. if you fail to 1-shot whatever mob you better hope you have enough defensive gear or moves because you are about to be reminded that mages are on the squishey side.

[Fynlar]

To be frank, SMN is the only pet job that really needs pet augments. All the rest of the pet jobs are fighters themselves to some capacity and will benefit just fine from standard "melee" augments.

Adding pet augments to the other sets would just lessen the likelihood of other jobs on those sets receiving relevant augments.



not entirely true, but mostly. if you fail to 1-shot whatever mob you better hope you have enough defensive gear or moves because you are about to be reminded that mages are on the squishey side.

SCH is probably better at this; Regen (and Phalanx if so inclined) is more than enough to keep them alive in Skirmish.

[Demon6324236]

Seeing as BLMs seem to nuke with T2s for 1~1.3k or so in decent gear, I don't see that as much an issue. Even if I get resisted, a T2 takes care of it, T2s now have a cast time of 2 seconds, which thanks to traits, will be at most 1 second cast time. In the end, its not even an issue if you get resisted, because you can throw out a couple low tier spells to recover. That's as a BLM, if your RDM or SCH, you have Regen, Phalanx, Cures, so on.

Its just to easy. :x

[Fynlar]

Seeing as BLMs seem to nuke with T2s for 1~1.3k or so in decent gear, I don't see that as much an issue.

Yeah, but something to consider is that people doing Skirmish might not have that decent gear yet and might be doing Skirmish to try to get it.

Out of BLM/SCH/GEO, SCH is unquestionably the best at staying alive in there while maintaining an offensive. Regen is just too damn broken.

[Glamdring]

To be frank, SMN is the only pet job that really needs pet augments. All the rest of the pet jobs are fighters themselves to some capacity and will benefit just fine from standard "melee" augments.

Adding pet augments to the other sets would just lessen the likelihood of other jobs on those sets receiving relevant augments.




SCH is probably better at this; Regen (and Phalanx if so inclined) is more than enough to keep them alive in Skirmish.

I gotta disagree. See, unless it actually SAYS pet: on a melee augment on a weapon it doesn't apply to a pet, but even if it did, all the Axe+ in the world isn't going to matter a hill of beans to my bunny until he starts carrying an axe! See, the reason beasts were using -pet PDT gear is because a. it was available and b. it helpped, ALOT. the same is true to a lesser extent for pups (pup has fewer options, but the pets can be buffed via other means), now, drg has always gotten the shaft there as wyvern+ gear has been rare in the extreme. Nonetheless, pups and beasts weren't running around in AF3/relic+2 gear at 99 for no reason, it was because the pet buffs helpped!

As to the argument that adding these buffs to the pool hurts the other jobs on the armor, NOT having them there hurts the beast or pup, and even half the buffs that ARE there aren't good for half the jobs on the gear. Like I said, what the hell does my rune need with range buffs? Why would my thief need Matk? i suppose for /nin but how much non-utsu or stealth casting do you see from a thf/nin? That argument simply doesn't hold up. Now, I'm not going to say scrap it completely, at least my rune gear I'm also using on my thf, dnc, rng and bst, the same is true of other sets. But as to the weapons, for the most part all they give is +that weapon, +parry/guard/shield-whatever works with that weap, none of that does jack for our "fighter" pets-and pups use mage autos at least half the time anyway. The only thing they give to our pets is an iLevel, which only give the commensurate increases to acc and the like you would see if we could actually level to 113, that's not a buff, just leveling up as someone else said earlier. Now, the AF revamp might give pet buffs, but if it is to be in line with the rune and geo AF that's gear below the iLevel of skirmish 2.0 and way below delve/WK, so we likely won't be using it anyway.

As to your SCH comments, I agree with you and therefore direct your attention to the angry mob of red, white and black mages over there with the torches, pitchforks and lynching ropes. Being passed over on your favorite job for scholar in every aspect of the game at any level since 75 is getting old to them. Can't imagine why not being able to play a job you love in favor of one you definately don't would get on anyone's nerves... hint to SE, you made 22 jobs so people could have a choice in playstyle to have fun, stop writing all your content for only 5 of them, and then only with specific gear.

[Fynlar]

I gotta disagree. See, unless it actually SAYS pet: on a melee augment on a weapon it doesn't apply to a pet, but even if it did, all the Axe+ in the world isn't going to matter a hill of beans to my bunny until he starts carrying an axe!

Yeah, but it still helps you as a BST. You'll usually be meleeing too along with the pet. Who cares if it doesn't help the pet too?


As to the argument that adding these buffs to the pool hurts the other jobs on the armor, NOT having them there hurts the beast or pup,

My DRG/BST/PUP are still fine and happy with standard melee augments. SMN, on the other hand, typically wouldn't be.