Macc No longer displayed?

[FaeQueenCory]

So it seems that now EVERYONE is getting Macc determined from the "fake" skill stats on iLv gear and not just hybrid mages like DRK, BLU or RDM...

And I like the whole "simplification of the iLv Macc formula" thing....

But I don't like being in the dark about the gains from the "fake" skill stat...
I for one would REALLY appreciate a dev note about the comparison to former stats.
They've already said that the new formulas make the Voay staffs have MORE Macc than they did before.... But what does that mean for regular staves?

Let's look at Atinian.
Before: +180 Macc +215 "fake" staff skill
Now: +215 "fake" staff skill

Does this mean that it's now getting an effective +215 Macc? or is the formula such that it maintains a +180 Macc....
This is rather complicated.... or at least it holds the potential to be so.
Especially for comparison sake.

How will +215 "fake" skill compare to Magic Affinity +6? Because... that's basically what you're dealing with as a Mage.
And without some sort of note about the formula.... some general gist of it... How can the playerbase eyeball Macc anymore without knowing how "fake" skill translates into Macc?

[Demon6324236]

Affinity loses by far if its the same accuracy as before, to my knowledge.

In all honesty, this is something I am deeply concerned about myself. As a RDM, for a little bit now I have had fears of being behind other jobs such as SCH when it comes to Magic Accuracy on my spells simply because of the fact a SCH had access to an Atinian Staff, where as I was stuck with a Soothsayer, which gave me a massive handicap. Now that this update has taken place, I would like to know if my Buramenk'ah is better than my Rank 15 Soothsayer, or better yet, if it is better than an Atinian Staff even.

[FaeQueenCory]

Affinity loses by far if its the same accuracy as before, to my knowledge.

In all honesty, this is something I am deeply concerned about myself. As a RDM, for a little bit now I have had fears of being behind other jobs such as SCH when it comes to Magic Accuracy on my spells simply because of the fact a SCH had access to an Atinian Staff, where as I was stuck with a Soothsayer, which gave me a massive handicap. Now that this update has taken place, I would like to know if my Buramenk'ah is better than my Rank 15 Soothsayer, or better yet, if it is better than an Atinian Staff even.
And then let's also think to next month's update.... the REMs are supposed to be updated... but if they aren't given proper iLvs.... then they're gonna be the same PoS they are now.
Because w/o the "fake" skill... they just have the base dmg of the 113 and 119 delve gear.... but your Macc is nerfed and you won't be able to touch jack in Adoulin.

Just having 250 base dmg doesn't make the weapon not a PoS.

[Demon6324236]

I have no doubt the RMEs will get skill the same as everything else has been. The real thing is this enforces even more the idea that unless you have these top tier weapons, your far weaker than everyone else. The gap keeps getting bigger. Originally the difference between a T2(4~5, whatever) Delve weapon and a Boss weapon was just a few DMG, the same as most weapons have as a difference. Since the update which added them though, the differences are now far larger, including Attack, Accuracy, and Magic Accuracy, on an incredible scale, so large that a MNK with Rigors rather than Oats is extremely weaker.



For that exact reason, nearly every job is going to be in this same situation in the end. If you want to participate, you need a high end weapon, anything below the best puts you far below others in stats simply because of the way things work now, not only melee jobs, but mages too, which only made the issue worse.

[Okipuit]

Greetings, everyone!

There have been a couple of questions regarding the magic accuracy adjustments that were made during yesterday’s version update, and Producer Akihiko Matsui has some comments to share.



Matsui here.

I would like to answer a couple of questions that we've received.



Exactly what weapons will increase magic accuracy? It's not listed on the item so can we have some kind of guide?

As the effects given to magical accuracy from equipping a weapon in your main hand are different from the existing "magic accuracy+" stat, we decided not to list them on items to prevent confusion. However, the development team feels that there should be some kind of indication, and in the November version update we will be adding the new "magic accuracy skill+" stat to the item help text for easy confirmation (stat name is subject to change).

I apologize for the confusion in the meantime.



If the item level is the same for a weapon will they increase magic accuracy by the same value? Also, for different item levels, how much of a difference will there be?

I’d like to explain by showing a couple of examples:

<table width="480" border="1"><tr><td width="30%" align="center" bgcolor="#a8d0d7">Item Level</td><td width="35" align="center" bgcolor="#a8d0d7">Item Name</td><td width="35" align="center" bgcolor="#a8d0d7">Magic Accuracy Skill +</td></tr><tr><td align="center" bgcolor="#eaf2f3">113</td><td align="center" bgcolor="#eaf2f3">Iztaasu +1</td><td align="center" bgcolor="#eaf2f3">Magic accuracy +126</td></tr><tr><td align="center" bgcolor="#f5fafb">113</td><td align="center" bgcolor="#f5fafb"> Lehbrailg +1</td><td align="center" bgcolor="#f5fafb">Magic accuracy +156</td></tr><tr><td align="center" bgcolor="#eaf2f3">117</td><td align="center" bgcolor="#eaf2f3">Atinian Staff</td><td align="center" bgcolor="#eaf2f3">Magic accuracy +203</td></tr></table>
*The "magic accuracy +" value listed in the table is the value when "magic accuracy skill +" is converted into "magic accuracy +." The value will be different than that which will be listed in the item help text.

Even if weapons have the same item level, we've set slight differences based on the weapon type. Fundamentally, we’ve given a higher value of "magic accuracy skill +" to weapons used by backline jobs. Also, higher values of "magic accuracy skill +" will be applied to higher item level equipment.



What is going to happen to magic accuracy for jobs that mainly use bows, crossbows, and guns?

We currently have no plans to add "magic accuracy skill +" to off-hand weapons and ranged weapons. Despite being a job that utilizes ranged weapons, they will have to equip a weapon in their main hand that gives "magic accuracy skill +." We feel that this actually beneficial to jobs that use ranged weapons predominantly.



The Filiae Bell shows "Geomancy skill +15" but only the MP +30 seems to be applied. Is this a bug?

We will not be removing the property, but we will be changing it from geomancy skill to handbell skill.

[Demon6324236]

How much does Buramenk'ah get? By not giving RDM Atinian Staff you are still screwing RDM over at Enfeebling Magic, going by your little chart, its safe to assume Buramenk'ah gives less still, which means SCH can enfeeble better than us.

This is wrong.

:mad:

[doctorugh]

As the effects given to magical accuracy from equipping a weapon in your main hand are different from the existing "magic accuracy+" stat, we decided not to list them on items to prevent confusion

Ah...now its clear. You didn't want to create confusion, but by SE's nature it was unavoidable. Working as intended.

As an aside: Fix tourbillion/barbed crescent,Fix tourbillion/barbed crescent,Fix tourbillion/barbed crescent,Fix tourbillion/barbed crescent,Fix tourbillion/barbed crescent,Fix tourbillion/barbed crescent......I know this is probably in some office pool to see who complains about this the most, but 3 years later the joke has died, please fix, thank you.

[Rwolf]

Ah...now its clear. You didn't want to create confusion, but by SE's nature it was unavoidable. Working as intended.

As an aside: Fix tourbillion/barbed crescent,Fix tourbillion/barbed crescent,Fix tourbillion/barbed crescent,Fix tourbillion/barbed crescent,Fix tourbillion/barbed crescent,Fix tourbillion/barbed crescent......I know this is probably in some office pool to see who complains about this the most, but 3 years later the joke has died, please fix, thank you.

I agree. I don't understand the logic in not listing them on them on the items in some way, especially if they differ that much on weapon type. How is anyone supposed to figure that out on their own? I am glad they are changing it and realizing how mad it would be to keep it invisible.

They need to learn to stop shrouding stats, abilities and functions. All this "test it and figure it out" I'm sure makes some people happy but it makes a lot of people frustrated and confused. And if you don't frequent forums, then sometimes you just don't get the information on what is better.

And please for the love of all, just fix blue magic additional effects (i.e. Tourbillion and Barbed Crescent). I don't know how many times people have to mention it, make new threads, submit bug reports over the years for it to be completely ignored.

[FrankReynolds]

Yo dog, I heard you liked hidden stats, so here's some hidden stats to go with your hidden stats. As a bonus we named some of the stats in a way that makes them hard to differentiate and then didn't tell you what they do.

Seriously. How are we supposed to respond to this stuff?

[Behemothx]

Seriously. How are we supposed to respond to this stuff?

Yeah, seriously. I'm starting to get pretty tired of the poor quality control on new content, first we get an idea of what weapons have magic accuracy, now we have to play this broken game for a month before we can figure it out again.

Dev. Team, we are paying for this service and yet everything feels rushed out and cheap.
An example, the <Weapon> skill +188 etc, could you not find a useful name for that skill that didn't conflict with a skill name that already existed?

[Demon6324236]

To me, SoA feels like nothing more than a beta. They released unfinished content, raised the DMG on weapons, finally implemented skill but left magic horrible, now they fix magic but don't explain it properly, next they are finally fixing that. Feels like its just so stupid at this point, like its nothing but testing.

I do not expect things to be perfect, but this seems like they are literally just adding it in steps, bit by bit, but not just for missions/quests/areas like you would expect, but real gameplay changers like weapons and armor themselves. Its a mess.

[Karah]

To me, SoA feels like nothing more than a beta.

I've been saying this for 6+ months, and everyone got pissed at me for saying it. Now it's pretty obvious I should hope.

[FaeQueenCory]

At first I was like: Awesome. Not only a Dev, but a translated Matsui response! Go my thread.

Then I read it....

Please.... for the love of GOD..... If you're gonna add a Macc stat on stuff.... just make it the +Macc.
Don't put the Macc gain inside of another "fake" stat.
The reason why it worked for weapon skills is that we already know how more weapon skill will increase our acc.
But making a new Macc "skill" is.... just awful.
Macc is the end result... I suppose we can think of it as + ALL MAGIC skill....
And I wouldn't be surprised if you did make the TBD new "super fake" skill be that.

But why can't you just put +X Macc?
If you're just adding in a new line in... why then did you take it out? It can't be to save space... otherwise you wouldn't be immediately adding it back.
And seeing as how ALL iLv weapons give +Macc now.... that's a LOT of work that has to be spreadsheeted.

I realize that the obvious +150 "fake" skill gives more Macc than +130... but now that I see there's weapon type and that it's not a 1:1 or even 1:.5 type situation....
Why couldn't it have been simple?
Since you're going to add that line of txt back in... Why must it be through a new even more fake skill?
Why can't it just say +200 Macc.

[Karah]

That's what I don't understand, you added the hidden menu for augments, why didn't you just add MACC in the sub menu like the augs.

It's like you WANT to make more work for yourselves, work smarter not harder with your limited resources.

It's apparent what the plan is, even if everyone hasn't figured it out , they're just in denial.

[Babekeke]

To me, SoA feels like nothing more than a beta. They released unfinished content, raised the DMG on weapons, finally implemented skill but left magic horrible, now they fix magic but don't explain it properly, next they are finally fixing that. Feels like its just so stupid at this point, like its nothing but testing.

I do not expect things to be perfect, but this seems like they are literally just adding it in steps, bit by bit, but not just for missions/quests/areas like you would expect, but real gameplay changers like weapons and armor themselves. Its a mess.

If only there was some way that they could have released this update for the players to test, but without it actually being live on the main servers.

You know, like say if there were a server where players could log on and test stuff before it was released and report on any bugs that were found.

Of course though, SE would have to then read said reports and act upon them or silly things would happen like, RUN's merit trait reducing the recast time of runes, unintentionally.

[Zhronne]

My concern about this is that it's gonna be hard to understand if item X is better than item Y.
You decided to hide the magic accuracy stat to simplify item description and that's fine.
But in such a scenario then you should create simple and transparent rules for Magic Accuracy "conversion" so that, even if the info is not displayed, each user can calculate how much Magic Accuracy+ an item is going to give.

Without this how can we compare items and decide which one to use?

Simple example: Izhiikoh vs Soothsayer Staff for Bard.
Should BRDs use Soothsayer because it's a "backline job weapon" or should they use Izhiikoh because it has higher item level?

[Demon6324236]

I've been saying this for 6+ months, and everyone got pissed at me for saying it. Now it's pretty obvious I should hope.6+ months would mean since the beginning, but its not really a problem easily seen from the start, at the start, it was just items which were overpowered, since then, its become much more. Originally we had high DMG weapons, for instance, Oats, Oats were high DMG H2H, but that's all they were. Little bit later, the ilevel update happened, and they got Skill out the ass, which fixed the Accuracy/Attack issues we were having, almost as though SE planed to implement this later on, and half assed it originally. Now, we got our Magic Accuracy, another forgotten issue with it, it would seem, which caused our stats to be far behind what they should be. Along they way we had updates for Pets which were seemingly forgotten or ignored too. Armor had its own updates as well, making every piece bland for the most part, making the level the only important thing, as every other stat is sure to be better than the items that came before it.

What I mean to say is, originally, it didn't seem to bad, it was a poorly thought out expansion which brought horrors upon the game, yes, but it was not what it is now, and things did not look the same in terms of it being so, unfinished. At this point, it seems like every item was intentionally released with everything but its DMG missing, same with Armor having only a few key stats on it till they could overcome the technical issues with having a ton of stats on gear. But in the end, the picture is easier to see now, and its a disaster, so if you have been saying this, I agree, but depending how early you said it, depends on if it seems reasonable or not, and at the start, I don't think this would have, but now... things have changed.



To me it seems more and more every day like the people in charge of Adoulin's gear just do not understand what our issues are, or what is missing. They also seem to fail to understand that by simply doing what they are now, they lump many things together to easily.

What I mean is, for instance, RDM. This update to Magic Accuracy shows a perfect example of their lack of attention to what jobs need what. RDM needs Magic Accuracy for Enfeebling Magic, its the most important thing, yet, we are on the best sword, and not the best staff. I love my Bura, but I have to admit, Atinian is greatly needed for my magic side of my job. The simple fact that PLD & BLU are on it as well as RDM means that Bura likely has a lower Magic Accuracy rating than Atinian, as it should, however that leaves RDM behind on one of its most vital stats, simply because they lump every job together like this.

Besides that, it seems like many stats in general such as Magic Accuracy were originally forgotten, and they thought nothing of it, as though we would just go out and perform just fine without that addition. Some things have been good, others bad, but nearly everything gear related seems like its an afterthought when it comes to balance and how it effects jobs overall. Like I said, this seems like they are just testing everything out, throwing things around randomly, trying to learn how to make the game, which is all kinds of bad.

[Demon6324236]

Without this how can we compare items and decide which one to use?

Simple example: Izhiikoh vs Soothsayer Staff for Bard.
Should BRDs use Soothsayer because it's a "backline job weapon" or should they use Izhiikoh because it has higher item level?Going by their example, its about .95 MAcc for 1 Skill on 'Backline weapons' and it looks like around .77 MAcc for 1 Skill on 'Frontline weapons', but that's only going by Staff/Sword, who knows if there is a difference based on individual job use, meaning dagger could have less, who knows. But going by that math, Buramenk'ah would have around 188ish MAcc. If that's how much it has, or around that, then level 119 weapons should have more MAcc than level 113 weapons no matter what type of weapon it is, however, Atinian still beats everything in the game with MAcc by about 15 MAcc.

Just an idea of how it might work. Even if I am off by a bit, this approximation would put it at 22 more MAcc on the Skirmish+1 Sword than a Skirmish+1 Staff has, so assuming all Frontline weapons are equal, and Lehbrailg is equal to Soothsayer still, I would have to be off by more than 22 MAcc for BRD to be better off with Soothsayer.

[Zohno]

Most of the stats are already hidden to players and they have to figure out the totals.
Then they add new stats and name it the same way as existing stats creating even more confusion.
Then they remove those new stats and hide them behind new stats with different names and totally different values.

Do you have a plan or are just throwing stuff into the game going by trial and error until everyone gets tired and quits?

[Demon6324236]

Do you have a plan or are just throwing stuff into the game going by trial and error until everyone gets tired and quits?It seems like this is the answer sadly. They have been doing things one after another which they had to go back and fix it because the issues were brought up shortly after, which they didn't figure out till after implementing it, or making themselves look foolish.

One of my favorite errors is the case of their original solution to the RME issue. While they thought it would be find to unlock RME WSs and never update our RMEs, they somehow actually forgot that we can already unlock Mythic WSs.

[Karah]

From the very first minute SoA went live it was obvious as far as I could see with the immediate adjustments to reive and the fact that almost nothing went unchanged.

Maybe some people just slower to catch on though...

Really though, this hidden MACC stat isn't going to fly. But, the sad truth is we're going to complain, and continue to complain (about this and 50 other things that're retarded) and our disgust will continue to go unanswered.

[Okipuit]

Hello,

Following yesterday’s post on magic accuracy, Producer Akihiko Matsui would like to explain about the new magic accuracy skill + system.



Matsui here.

I’d like to explain about the concept of the “magic accuracy skill +” that was implemented in the October version update.



This is not the existing “magic accuracy +” stat, it is a new system
Prior to the version update, we had added “magic accuracy +” to weapons individually so that players could deal with the high magic evasion of high level monsters.

However, considering the situation of jobs such as red mage, dark knight, ninja, and blue mage who equip weapons other than clubs and staves, there was a necessity to add magic accuracy to just about every weapon, and this removed one of the possible stat slots on weapons.

Also, as we had to give consideration for having two weapons when dual wielding, the amount of magic accuracy given to one-handed weapons would have to be limited making it inconvenient to dual wield, so we decided to adopt the “magic accuracy skill +” system that would be applied to only main hand weapons, much like the “combat skill +” stat.


Magic accuracy skill + for jobs whose mainly use ranged weapons
Similar to dual wield, we’d have to give consideration for how magic accuracy is applied to the both the ranged weapon and the main hand weapon as well as making it easy to understand like other jobs, and we decided to apply this to main hand weapons only.

However, since abilities and weaponskills associated with ranged weapons can only be used when they are equipped, we would like to explore whether we can implement the below:


Main weapons’ weaponskills and magic granted from support jobs reference main weapons’ magic accuracy skill +
Wildfire and other ranged weapon elemental weaponskills reference ranged weapons’ magic accuracy skill +




Standardized settings for magic accuracy skill + on equipment
We will not be setting values on a per weapon basis; instead we will be adding a standardized amount of magic accuracy skill + depending on the weapon type and item level. (There is a possibility in the future that we introduce weapons with special characteristics that deviate from the standard.)

Fundamentally, clubs and staves which are predominantly backline job weapons will have higher value of magic accuracy skill +. Also, within the same weapon types, the more magic focused staves as opposed to poles used for attacking will receive a somewhat higher amount of magical accuracy skill +.

Furthermore, considering that it is possible to equip a sub-weapon when using a club, we will be giving a slightly higher value of magic accuracy skill + to staves. (This will be only a very slight difference)

Please consider this adjustment one that preserves the magic-centric aspects of clubs and staves, while making it possible to utilize magic when you equip swords and two-handed swords.


I apologize for the inconvenience as this stat is not listed on the item help text currently.
Comparing frontline weapon types to backline weapon types, there is a disparity of roughly 1-3 item levels, but essentially we’ve added a higher amount of magic accuracy skill + to higher item level weapons, so please use item levels as a reference for this in the meantime as we prepare for the November version update.

[Kavik]

With the new augment text box thingy... please just put on the weapons what the weapon does! It would be REALLY lovely so that like spells, the weapon/armor etc would say what the latent effect does. All hidden stats (like the ones on ele staves) and especially chatoyant staff where it says "Iridescence" ( i can't tell you how many people have asked me this exact question "What does that do anyway?") Hidden stats are lame. Additional effects under certain conditions without those conditions being listed anywhere but on the internet... are lame. Please change them so we can just SEE what we're getting. For example... 'occasionally deals light elemental damage' on a weapon... huh? *goes and beats a ton of stuff to death with the weapon, no light dmg procs* *looks to internet* 'occasionally deals light elemental damage' IF 'it's the 3rd tuesday of the month under a full moons and it's darksday' no THANK YOU!

Obviously this applies to the new stuff with magic acc skill + and all things going forward. Hidden stats and 'testing' them with so many variables is the dumps. Do not make any 'hidden' stats, if it's 1 magic acc skill of, SHOW IT.

[detlef]

Think back to when the gave us a teaser of what updated Excalibur/Almace/Burtgang would look like. They didn't have weapon skill+ which just goes to show how hastily conceived and implemented the whole item level concept is. It's actually quite frightening to think about.

I can't help but wonder how the dev team didn't see these issues coming when they introduced the whole item level concept. When you put all the stats into the gear instead of the character, of course you're going to have issues like this. Now we have to deal with all these fixes that are necessarily because the original item level idea was so shaky in the first place.

[Malthar]

Producer Akihiko Matsui, why are you shouting at us?

[FaeQueenCory]

I understood the concept of the "Macc skill +"...
It's basically as if you had +X in that magic skill. (namely thinking about magic skills like Elemental or Summoning where your Macc is determined from the skill)

My problem with that is that it's a modification of a modification of a modification.... there's a LOT of translating to do between skill level and Macc. (for smn, I just 1/2 and + summoning skill because when you're at cap, that's roughly what it'll be.... kinda. It's good enough to evaluate gear with +10 and +6 skill and determine what that loss of Acc/Macc is worth the other effects of the gear.)

While I can understand the desire to uniformly have + "fake" combat skill and + "fake" magic skill...
I really think either just condensing the help text to + "offensive acc" and drop the skill reference...
Or to have the simple +Macc...
My problem is with the intuitive comparisons between gear.
Which will give me more Macc: a 119 dagger? or a 113 staff? If it was just a 1:1 ratio to the "fake" skill... the dagger should give more by a lot.
But it's not. It's not even like a uniform 1:x ratio... the x is dependant on the type of weapon so it's 1:y(1) where y is an undisclosed modifier for the weapon type.
If it was uniform.... we could just condense the "fake" skill stat on iLv weapons to an "offensive acc" or "Macc/acc" stat.
But if I understand everything correctly... that would require the +Macc to be equal to the + "fake" skill...
But it doesn't...

Basically: too much maths for eyeballing.

[Rubeus]

I for one would just like to say "Thank You!" to Matsui-san. When you said "from now on, I'm going to be explaining things and why we could/couldn't do something" I don't really think many (jaded and/or forum) players really took it very seriously, given the way this MMO by-and-large expects you to figure it out on your own and through testing. So, thank you for being forthright. Please keep up the good work!

Also, in the future, it would be nice if things were more standardized; it's somewhat annoying to be searching on ffxiah for a piece of gear that gives "magic attack bonus" vs "magic atk. bns." or "haste +5%" vs "haste 5%." There are a LOT of items in this game that don't often follow the same naming scheme.

But aside from that minor suggestion, it's really nice to see new unique stats.

[Zohno]

it's really nice to see new unique stats.

They are nice when have meaning, not as a workaround for poorly thought features :/
Anyway, try this for stats http://ffxiarmory.com/. I still gotta fix some stats of the recent changed weapons, but for the rest I tried to merge the similar ones together.

[Rwolf]

The chaos that is item leveling. Abolish it for a new system?
My continued opinion is that this whole item level process is just creating chaos and tying up valuable development time. Keeping lots of fixes and promises of new content, spells, summons, traits, items, etc. left on the backburner for years.

Sometimes just realizing something doesn't work and scrapping it is better than going full throttle with it. Multiple small expansions to merit categories and unlocking additional merit categories via Seekers of Adoulin content (much like genkai) would avoid all of this. Adding a rank while being checked/searched to denote while Level 99, this is their "true level".

Experience points would not be irrelevant to veteran players. You would have the ability to make new weapons and armor without this balance act of making all jobs "level up" and most of all, it would make relevant again all the 99 gear that just before Delve was released, relevant again. That is my optimum opinion that would make this game relevant and more playable again and would not diminish past accomplishments with easy to obtain gear. An RPGs roots are all about being proud of your accomplishments, feeling that sense of victory of completing something worked arduously on.

With that needing to be said:

Continuing with item leveling: Clarity and simplification
At the least, we need to make items easier to understand from day 1 of release. If the intent is main hand only to prevent Dual Wield being the only optimum choice (which I agree on), then just put everything affected by it followed by "Main hand:" Example:

Iztaasu +1
(Sword) All Races
DMG:97 Delay:236 Parrying skill +162
Current Hand: Sword skill +162
Main hand: Magic acc. +126
Lv. 99 RDM/PLD/BLU
<insert augments>

In regard to ranged weapon jobs. I think there just needs to be a check on the quantity which having the most magic accuracy taking priority.

Example:
Hgafircian +1
(Marksmanship) All Races
DMG:95 Delay:660 Marksmanship skill +162
≥ Main Hand: Magic accuracy + ???

By just putting a greater than or equal to sign. It's clear that any of the stats here will only conflict with the main hand if it is equal or higher. This should remedy using Quick Draw / Elemental Ranged WS and allow using weapons that aren't item level to further enhance attacks without the large disparity in magic accuracy.

What happened to ranged enhancing main weapons?
Slightly off subject, I'm actually sad to see the discontinuement of weapons that are built solely for assisting ranged attacks. (Carabineer Dagger, Vulcan Staff, Mekki Shakki, Fransisca, Kriegsbeil, etc.) I would like to see some more optimal ranged attack centered main weapons that are item leveled.

Edited suggestion: Saying Main hand is very confusing.

[Fynlar]

Continuing with item leveling: Clarity and simplification
At the least, we need to make items easier to understand from day 1 of release. If the intent is main hand only to prevent Dual Wield being the only optimum choice (which I agree on), then just put everything affected by it followed by "Main hand:" Example:

Iztaasu +1
(Sword) All Races
DMG:97 Delay:236 Parrying skill +162
Main Hand: Sword skill +162 Magic acc. +126
Lv. 99 RDM/PLD/BLU
<insert augments>

Minor gripe: it doesn't just work in the main hand only. It works just fine in the off hand, just that it works for THAT weapon only.

The intent wasn't to discourage Dual Wield, it was to make it so that you can't wield two of those things and have sword skill +324 or whatever it would be.

[Rwolf]

Minor gripe: it doesn't just work in the main hand only. It works just fine in the off hand, just that it works for THAT weapon only.

The intent wasn't to discourage Dual Wield, it was to make it so that you can't wield two of those things and have sword skill +324 or whatever it would be.

That was my fault for writing it as Main Hand: Current hand or something equalivent would work. The intent WAS to discourage Dual Wield when I mentioned it regarding magic. accuracy. They just stated that. I was not speaking on Sword Skill+ or Parrying Skill+. This thread is about Magic Accuracy, I didn't think it needed to be reiterated.

[Ang]

Wouldnt it be better to just raise the magic skill cap? Magic accuracy is good and all but it does nothing for the potency of certain spells like drain/aspir/stoneskiln/endark/cure spells/embrava...just to name a few. I think we're missing a larger underlying problem here, if we are supposed to be level 120 or whatever, all of our respective magic skill level caps should be raised to that level. What does magic accuracy do for any support spells? (i.e. cure, protect, shell, phalanx etc...) There's also the problem of spell interruption rate, magic accuracy doesn't affect that either.

[Alpheus]

Spell Interrupt was actually patched into Item Level weapons a patch or two ago but I agree with the other issues you brought up I wish they'd address the various scaling issues.

[Karah]

Wouldnt it be better to just raise the magic skill cap? Magic accuracy is good and all but it does nothing for the potency of certain spells like drain/aspir/stoneskiln/endark/cure spells/embrava...just to name a few. I think we're missing a larger underlying problem here, if we are supposed to be level 120 or whatever, all of our respective magic skill level caps should be raised to that level. What does magic accuracy do for any support spells? (i.e. cure, protect, shell, phalanx etc...) There's also the problem of spell interruption rate, magic accuracy doesn't affect that either.

It's like I've said as soon as they announced it, ilvl is the stupidest thing they've ever done. Is there one person (who actually plays) that thought leveling by gear was smart? I sure hope not.

Anyone that does obviously forgets about all the details mentioned here, and encumber, and the fact that it's required, not optional.

I mean seriously, someone needs to be drug into the street and beaten with a bag of oranges.

[Demon6324236]

The problem with Item Levels in general is that there are so many things that would need to be enhanced by a single piece of gear to make up for the levels not truly gotten that its impossible to fit it all on only a few pieces of gear, there are just to many stats in the game to account for in order to balance it all properly at this point.

[predatory]

Well if the mobs had such a high difficulty level that they had to add ilevels to be able to beat them, then they should have done one of two things, either unlock all the merit categories so we could merit everything, or and this would have been good too, scale back the strength of the mobs so they con the same at 99 without ilevels as they do now with ilevels. Bayld armor could have been put as an option to +1 aby armor, skirmish armor could have been made to be a side grade to +2 aby armor, skirmish weapons could have been compatible with the elemental trial weapons, and delve weapons could have have been comparable to the level 90 and 95 trialed RMEs. The whole ilevel thing was any easy way out for developers and programmers, but of course in the end it bit them in the ass, as they are having to revamp the old weapons and content anyway. It was basically just a lack of forethought on the part of the development team

[FrankReynolds]

WOuldn't it be waaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyy easier to just boost magic accuracy in general for the jobs that need it? This iLevel crap is insanely convoluted crap.

[Demon6324236]

It would be way easier to just balance the content for level 99 and get rid of ilevels to begin with...

[Zohno]

The mess has been done. There is no way they can implement another growth system now.
They would have to change all the current items in game and how would they justify it?
They made a really serious damage to FFXI with really little possibility to put back the pieces together.

[Rwolf]

The mess has been done. There is no way they can implement another growth system now.
They would have to change all the current items in game and how would they justify it?
They made a really serious damage to FFXI with really little possibility to put back the pieces together.

I think it's never too late, especially when the system causes such a rapid decline in play and overwhelming sense of dissatisfaction. Everyone is human and makes mistakes, including developers/producers. It's all in how you deal with those mistakes after the fact.

In my opinion, I'd prefer they just revamp all the item level stuff. They've already done a lot of it adding skill, evasion and parrying. Spell interruption rate, now magic accuracy and again to add m.acc stats and R/M/E upgrades. They will continue to have to change everything each time we complain we are missing something fundamental to leveling up normally and gear is already getting ridiculous that it needs two pages to even see what all is on it.

From a public relations standpoint, I would just apologize that the plan didn't work out. Issue out some kupons for popular stuff that's not too game breaking and throw in some exp, bcnm, abyssea campaigns. Even another welcome back campaign to appeal to people who left when this all started. Make a merit based system that focuses on using SoA content to unlock brackets of it, even exp in SoA events only.

Make the Adoulin gear range from equivalents to 99 gear that would get you into groups from bayld. Escalate the rest from there that beat everything older (99 rare items before SoA) over time. I don't think anyone had an issue with gear eventually being outdated but it was a hard stop and threw almost everything worked on in Voidwatch, Legion, Meeble Burrows, Salvage II, NNI and Abyssea out the window all at once. And essentially told everyone to start mostly from scratch.

What I miss more than anything though is storyline. This game pulled me in with the story over the years. From the 3 Nations, the Zilart, Promathia, Aht Urghan, hell contrary to belief even the past had a lot of history and story even though the main story was kinda so so. Adoulin is so dry on story. I don't feel connection to these NPCs, I don't feel connected to Colonization like I did with Besieged or Campaign. I don't understand Skirmish and Delve at all story wise, and what dimension this is and why we are even going there. There are hints to an underworld but I don't even get that. Adoulin was supposed to be the place where Dragoons weren't extinct. What happened to that?

[Jerbob]

I think the massive levels of dissatisfaction and obvious downward trend in participation is justification enough to reverse these recent changes. It's really good that so many people are voicing their concerns, and often, because there's at least a very slim chance that SE will actually take note of the problems and do something sensible about them. Yes, I'm being wildly optimistic on both of those counts, but it's a start.

As people have said, the fact that so many weird and convoluted systems need to be put into place to shore up this item level horror is testament to its weaknesses. Item levels and vertical progression are the cause of the myriad new problems in XI, NOT the solution, and until the game has been righteously purified of them there's no real way to move forward.

I am certain our community reps have already passed on our feelings on the matter, but I would ask them not to give up. SE needs to understand how unhappy people are about this.