June 2019 FINAL FANTASY XI Digest

[Akihiko_Matsui]

The latest FINAL FANTASY XI Digest is now available! The digest covers key features from the most recent version update. Check out the video, try the version update, and leave a feedback based on your experience of playing the new content.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/D9If9HKGvOc" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>


Please reply to this thread to leave your feedback.
Please only post feedback pertaining to the version update and digest video in this thread.
To better collect your feedback, we ask that you post one specific feedback per reply (of course you are allowed to post several replies!)
Before posting your feedback, check the thread to see if similar feedback was already mentioned and hit the “Like!” button instead of re-posting the same feedback.

[Isola]

Black Mage update far from does what it needs to do. I'm baffled as to how this really does much of anything at all.

I get that you're not doing any "major changes" but really. This one needs to be addressed. BLM has absolutely zero appeal or play-ability with the way you've let the meta spiral out of control.

[TullemoreAsuraFFXI]

From what i have read in the notes and itemization adjustments, this is really a good adjustment for BLM. The only concern is still the very long re-use times on elemental seal, cascade, enmity douse.

In future update an issue of concern that effects multiple jobs that Isola is refering to is something i addressed in the May forum feed-back topic.
~
Magic Burst mechanism > Consecutive magic bursting penalty needs to be a significant compromise between when no penalty was imposed and what is currently imposed now. The current penalty for consecutive magic bursts is far too oppressive. Something in the ballpark of around 33-40% of what the current penalty is for consecutive magic bursts would be MUCH more diplomatic to all jobs that have access to elemental magic, dark magic, divine magic and elemental magic blood pacts.
~
It is an issue that debilitates alot of jobs, with BLM feeling this penalty to it's highest degree.

[Tarquine]

From what i have read in the notes and itemization adjustments, this is really a good adjustment for BLM.

No, it is not, and I highly disagree. Whilst the changes themselves are welcomed, they continue to fall very far short of addressing the multiple faults (and therefore desirability) of BLM, or indeed anything that uses elemental magic.

[Loona]

It's curious that the entrance to the Odin battlefield is in Selbina, I would expect something in Aht Uhrgan areas, like usual Hazalm Testing grounds, or maybe even Nashmau - so now I wonder if that Selbina entrace will be used for more places.

I admit that one thing I was expecting as a possible reward for a new Odin fight would be the use of his horse as a mount - maybe in a future login campaign, or for those who've both released Luzaf through the regular Odin fights and additional conditions?

Based on the video, I'm looking forward to ninja updates... Utsusemi: San scroll?...

[Isola]

No utsu san is a job gift. Elemental San wheel will be scrolled.

[camaroz]

@Akihiko_Matsui Thank you very much for continuing to provide updates. Specifically this digest, long overdue for at least the Western players. As for my concerns for Black Mage, really should have eliminated the resist wall for magic and increased the same amount of attack like has been done for all other jobs. At this point in the game we rarely will use BLM's for virtually anything because of at least those 2 glaring issues.

[Xilk]

I really like the pattern or changing merit categories away from spells.
I am very curious to see how this affects other jobs.

I don't really play blackmage so I'm not sure what to think of the changes. I am skeptical about the western player criticism though. There is so often a knee-jerk negative reaction, that I don't trust it. I think it takes some testing with a change in abilities to see how useful they are.

Then again, the jobs I'm expert on, it usually pretty quick to understand the implications.

I really like the Digest videos. Thank you and keep up the good work! (Also remember to look at my list on bst forums for a long list of WONDERFUL suggestions)

[Phioness]

Appreciate the video, look forward to seeing what the burn/shock/etc... spell will do. Thank you for your efforts, and i hope to see some awesome adjustments for Thief (praying to Alatana). =^.^=

[Nelius]

Odin new battle; A Stygian Pact, offers very nice and new items. I appreciate that a lot, only... won't be able to get them.
People refuses to help with it because...
The fight itself is not really fun & it is way too hard. Tanks dies from it so fast, seems harder to tank than Helms NM.
Normally I enjoy challenging content but the CL119 from very easy (miss typed; vrry easy) seems more like CL135 to me.
The CL124 from easy more like a CL148+. The CL129 from normal... lol, Helms NM looks like a joke compared to that. So... CL160?
Maybe make it more accessible for non RMEA players and perhaps ...enjoyable?

[TullemoreAsuraFFXI]

https://www.bg-wiki.com/bg/Category:High-Tier_Mission_Battlefields/StygianPact

[Otika78]

Hello everyone, i am Shadowdragon Prince Of Darkness ( Enkindled ) from Quezlecoatle, you need to concentrate on Dark Knight and ungimp us, i am a Fan Favorite of this Job, you have Destroyed my Home were i came from ( Midgarsmre ) i hated that, us Darks do not use Scythes in real life, u need to make Great Sword a A+ and disremove the stupide Scythe, in reality you do not see Knights useing Scythes in movies or in reality, in reality the Scythe was called a sickle it was used for farming and cutting Hay Fields, only in fantasy the Grim Reaper used a Scythe, and Dark Knights do not reseamble a freaking Grim Reaper, and Further more, u need to put a reality check in FFXI and bring out the True Beast in us DRKs one again, SOULS, BLOOD, DARKNESS, GIVE ME STRENTH, ARRRRRRRRRRRR, TORCLEAVER whoever gets in my way period.

[TullemoreAsuraFFXI]

Going to say Otika78's post is comedic intent. If for some reason i am mistaken, some comments. DRK has been attached to scythe since it's conception and introduction for all of ffxi's history. Some very useful utility is gained by brandishing a scythe, particularly with the Apocalypse. It is true that several Scythe weaponskills such as Quietus, Insurgency and less so Entropy do need a power scaling adjustment in the weaponskill damage formula to compete better with Torcleaver.
Potency from the "A" skill to the "A+" skill for greatsword wouldn't be tangibly significant other than the status menu showing a higher number.
On an itemization change, DRK should properly be placed as a user on the aeonic Lionheart and a greatsword for SU4/SU5 jse should be created and added to the game for DRK as well.
As it currently stands DRK is a high powered top tier DPS and does not require any increase in raw damage output. DRK has a job gift progression that is woeful in the area of physical accuracy compared to many other physical dps jobs and that could and should definately be looked at and adjusted to be in line with the physical accuracy gains of those jobs that obtain higher physical accuracy through their job gifts progression.

[Akihiko_Matsui]

Thank you for all the feedback.

As black mages can output high amounts of damage from a safe distance, and are also able to maintain their enmity, they’re very proficient damage dealers. When thinking about balancing them with other attackers, we didn’t want to make adjustments where we simply increase the damage, but instead strengthen their core, such as elemental enfeeblement and magic accuracy.

[Yoji_Fujito]

Thanks for the feedback!

We’d appreciate if you could please continue to leave detailed feedback based on trying out the changes, as they help us to have a better understanding of your comments. So be sure to keep the feedback coming!:cool:

[Isola]

Thank you for all the feedback.

As black mages can output high amounts of damage from a safe distance, and are also able to maintain their enmity, they’re very proficient damage dealers. When thinking about balancing them with other attackers, we didn’t want to make adjustments where we simply increase the damage, but instead strengthen their core, such as elemental enfeeblement and magic accuracy.

................................................................................................... That's a joke right? The ONLY thing a Black Mage is for is damage, and SMN does it better, while maintaining ZERO ENMITY and giving ZERO TP. The other jobs that can cast elemental magic do it almost as well as BLMs do. Elemental enfeebles accomplish nothing when they aren't even considered for group play. No one has cast Choke Drown Shock Rasp or Frost in over 10 years. Aside from trying to hit !! Helix is 30 times stronger. Elemental enfeebles do 100~ damage per second while helix does 10,000 every 3 seconds.

[TullemoreAsuraFFXI]

The elemental status down effects are very effective in battles against enemies that live beyond 45 seconds (as in NMs) and with the itemization/merits buff, they're even stronger now. Think of them in a sense of how offensive geomancy works, just for associated attributes. Beyond what was accomplished with this BLM adjustment with those spells, I could only suggest allowing all six to take effect on a single enemy by disabling the mechanism that doesn't currently allow for opposing elemental effects to stack. Since conception the lighter and darker types have been able to stack in threes ~burn+shock+choke~ ~frost+drown+rasp~. Again the job adjustment specific to BLM was good, but it doesn't address the penalty encountered for multiple magic bursts hitting after a skillchain which isn't only specific to the BLM job as that penalty affects all job types capable of magic burst damage.

[Rwolf]

I appreciate the recent listening to the English playerbase and making changes.

Overview of Concern
The resistance to Elemental Magic damage needs to be removed. It was put in place over a decade ago to prevent the strategy of 18 Black Mages from using Thundaga III on Divine Might. Respectfully the game has changed immensely since then.

Bosses have too much HP for this to be a fear of repeating history. Relying on Magic Burst is too slow and cumbersome. The only reasons it was used was due to Geomancy effects at the time and all the penalities that melee faced. Things have changed.

Comparison: Elemental Magic vs. Other Damage

Magic accuracy should be easy to cap just like it is with melee/ranged accuracy.
Other types of damage aren't waiting for a window created by another player to deal significant damage.
Other types of damage have traits and to increase speed of damage (Example: Haste, Store TP, Triple Attack, Triple Shot, etc.)
Other types don't have a damage resistance from dealing similar damage consecutively.
Ranger has a ton of enmity options and it doesn't stop them from doing more magic damage over time than Black Mage with Trueflight.
Blue Mage dealing significantly high AoE magic damage while inflicting potent debuffs. MP is no longer an issue with Tizona/Magic Hammer/Support


Closing Remarks
I think Elemental Magic has a stigma that it's easy and requires no skill. However, if magic damage was treated similarly to other forms of ranged damage currently, there would be nothing to fear.

Please remove the damage resistance to Elemental Magic. From there it can be decided if more is needed. It just doesn't seem fair or fun to wait on a damage window and have all these spells. Only use a few on repeat waiting on next Magic Burst just to get resisted if someone throws out a Fire II in front of your Fire VI.

[Dettz]

Do you plan on redoing the merits for RDM spells as scrolls? I have only a few complaints with my magic damage. No matter what I spec to do more magic damage on rdm seems to not matter. I got the mag acc but seems unimportant with nukes.

[Alhanelem]

Thank you for all the feedback.

As black mages can output high amounts of damage from a safe distance, and are also able to maintain their enmity, they’re very proficient damage dealers. When thinking about balancing them with other attackers, we didn’t want to make adjustments where we simply increase the damage, but instead strengthen their core, such as elemental enfeeblement and magic accuracy.

You'd be surprised at how often you can't be at a "safe distance" and still cast spells.

Elemental enfeebles on BLM have never been terribly effective and the merit changes do little to impact that. While perhaps the solution isn't to simply amp up their damage, BLM is very specialized right now when it used to be your core general source of magic damagee. BLM doesn't work as well as other jobs unless you have a party specifically set up to strengthen them, and there are easier-to-come-by ways to do damagee.

Your comment suggests that you think BLM is strong right now, but the impression I get from the people around me is that it is actually lacking right now, outside of some really gimmicky strategies.

[TullemoreAsuraFFXI]

This comment doesn't concern BLM or the most recent live adjustments for jobs, but it is a concern for the longevity of FFXI, the current state of our community and the overall health of each server.

At this point i really really really believe that FFXI is unworthy of it's ignorant peer to peer transaction interfaces. Unregulated interface design has lead to a manipulated and sometimes corrupt environment. All items in game categorized as equipment should be account-mail only (bound to account). This specifically concerns only the mail system, equipment will still have a place in the economy -> Read Below. Increase mail outslot/inslot to 32+. Trade boxes have the option for a gil trade completely removed. Crafting skill level cap per character reworked to allow all crafts to achieve maximum skill level.

"EX" itemization tag is completely removed from game with the exception of reforged armors, augmented equipment or equipment with Rank point upgrades. All items are given a NPC mediatory vendor listing in a new player supplied warehousing/pawnshop style environment including items that have "EX" tag removed. Auction house is removed and replaced with this new interface. SE dev team + director + producer select a base exchangeable gil rate for said items in the new warehousing system. Dev team + director + producer can elect to set a minimum and maximum value for every listing. Bazaar is linked to new warehousing system, prices of items placed into bazaar are set automatically by the current listing price through the new item commerce system. Item listings are subject to the supply and demand through easily constructed price formulas by which small percentages of value are subtracted or added based on stock levels and availability of items within each listing. Prices never exceed the maximum price for items that existing NPC vendors sell at: this includes all items that are currently sold by every NPC vendor. When selling to NPC vendors players are paid a suggested amount of 75%-90% of the item's current listing price. Listing prices adjust automatically based upon inventory levels. Sold items are automatically accounted for and added to the warehousing inventory. Inventory levels begin at and can become zero.

All equipment purchased with "Sparks" will receive a random stat augment applicable to the jobs that access user prerequisite. Example: Cloth armor sold from Sparks vendor with job listings for BLM/WHM/RDM/SCH/GEO/SMN could receive an augment of +INT or +MND based upon the level range bracket it's sold through.
New NPCs created that will remove any augment for the cost of X 100 the item's minimum equipment level. One placed in each city where sparks vendors are currently located.

Feel free to use this perspective and innovation in all of Square Enix's current and future titles. Thank you very much for your attention!

[Isola]

Craziness
Bro. The only thing that keeps MANY people playing is the ability to sell (everything). If you take that away. you make the game incredible, for the 3 people who stay.

I, would absolutely love if crafting sellables and mercing was gone. It. Is. Impossible. FFXII is that.

Sparks.......... REALLY do/did need to be nerfed though, wow. It's kinda too late now, but that's never stopped them before.

[TullemoreAsuraFFXI]

With this new system, they CAN sell everything -> to a vendor warehousing inventory system that is regulated by supply and demand with guidance of sufficient design.

[Sirmarki]

Bro. The only thing that keeps MANY people playing is the ability to sell (everything)

Then maybe they should just retire, rather than just bend game mechanics to gain gil that goes... Where exactly?

I mean, you are implying that mercing is the only thing that is keeping them playing... If that is the only thing that is keeping them playing, why do they need all that gil?

[TullemoreAsuraFFXI]

Mostly there's three applicable things that "those" players are doing.
One: Using mercing as a facet to short-cut more troublesome grinding or farming game content that they're able to buy with the merc'd payout.
This could be upgrading ultimate weapons, creating ultimate weapons, creating and itemizing new characters, purchasing crafting related items or reforging armors.
Two: currency supply to RMT transaction, which is a violation of ToS.
Three: Glutinous accumulation of gil for the pure purpose of hoarding as much as their account(s) can hold.
Regardless, some of the methods used at times can be down right sleazy.

[InvincibleShield]

Dear SE team,

thanks for the New Odin fight! So much new gears to look forward to.

1 small request: Can SE consider allowing us to get Odin's Big Black Horse as a mount? :p

That will be very very COOL. Haha

[YaeLim]

All elemental magic DPS could be improved by slight adjustments to how magic damage is calculated, and removing magic resistances(especially from spells like meteor) because NMs resisting elemental damage from repeated use of the same type is just too punishing in this era, the sheer amount of MBD and HP pools mobs have these days, elemental damage is just too inefficient compared to current melee DPS to down mobs. Removing magic burst penalties after skillchains will allow multiple mages to DPS considerably better in groups with more magic DDs because its not worth taking multiple in many situations in this current environment. Removing the damage reduction to AoE magic per additional targets because the damage is currently too low due to mobs having higher MDB and HP these days, its a outdated balancing adjustment that needs to be removed, its sad that BLU, THF, WAR etc can do better AoE DPS than BLM currently.

COR / RNG doing better magic damage than mage classes is just a sad state of affairs but, I think adjusting magic damage to scale better in this current age, allowing free nuking to be viable so DPS is good without the need of skillchains, removing skillchain magic burst and AoE magic penalties will improve what BLM is meant for, making it attractive for more content.

I know many of this has been said already but I still thought I might chime in, also more food for magic damage comparable to red curry bun would be a nice addition!

[Nyarlko]

Thank you for all the feedback.

As black mages can output high amounts of damage from a safe distance, and are also able to maintain their enmity, they’re very proficient damage dealers. When thinking about balancing them with other attackers, we didn’t want to make adjustments where we simply increase the damage, but instead strengthen their core, such as elemental enfeeblement and magic accuracy.

While I do appreciate the buff to our elememental debuff potency (even though damage over time effects as a whole still need a massive increase to have any impact at all on gameplay,) the biggest issues that BLM has been facing for a very long time are all centered around the job's core purpose of damage output lacking when compared to other damage dealer jobs, not our magic accuracy. There is something very wrong with the reality of COR and RNG being better at overall magic damage output than the job whose entire reason for being is magic damage. Simply comparing a WAR who is delay capped against a BLM who is casting time capped will have the WAR's auto-attacks out-damaging the BLM spamming spells, when the target has no defensive weaknesses or resistances. Which is effectively never the case in ilvl content as most targets have excessively high resistance to magic damage.) This is not an exaggeration, and also not an exception. Using that WAR in the example, if they start using weaponskills to skillchain and the BLM starts using magic bursts, the gap may lessen a bit, but the WAR will still usually end up outpacing the BLM. Again, this is not an exaggeration, and far from being an exception.

Lower enmity generation is absolutely no excuse for lower damage output. Modern tanks have little problem holding agro against melees (who have nearly zero options for reducing enmity) going full throttle most of the time, so our lower enmity generation never even comes into play on a fundamental level. Please do not even consider this to be a benefit to the job, much less something that needs to be taken into account for balancing purposes.

The safety factor of casting from range is often not a factor due to many modern foes having AOE range greater than maximum casting distance. When jobs like SMN, COR and RNG are able to output higher damage from the same range at a higher rate of speed, it also negates using this as a justification for refusing to increase BLM's damage output.

I suspect that the true reasoning behind the choice of changes made for BLM's job adjustment turn is that the vast majority of problems that BLM faces are not actually due to the job itself, but instead are rooted in system level problems. These systems were put into place pre-ilvl era and have no place continuing to exist in the modern game. Please, seriously consider the following adjustments to bring BLM back up to par with other jobs.


* Remove the area-of-effect multiple-target damage penalty. There is really no reason why only Elemental Magic AOE damage should be penalized for hitting multiple targets when other AOE damage sources are not. Blue Magic is unaffected by this, so it feels very unfair that Elemental Magic is. Weaponskills and SMN's Blood Pacts are more than capable of doing equal or greater damage than Elemental -ga/-ja/-ra spells, so why is Elemental Magic still viewed as being too powerful to be able to be allowed to fully function?

* Remove the damage penalty for casting multiple spells in rapid succession. This may have made sense when it was implemented, and even necessary at the time, but that is no longer the case. A full group of BLMs casting full speed without this penalty in place would, at the very best, match the performance of a full group of melee/ranged players, and would likely still come out slower than them. This system also discourages other jobs from ever casting due to how badly it lowers the damage of stronger casters. Why bother giving jobs like DRK, RDM and GEO access to Elemental Magic if casting it is actually a detriment to their groups due to how badly they can hobble a BLM? Why should players ever consider including more than one BLM in their group if they are guaranteed to have their performance halved or worse?

* Remove the additional casting lockout applied when attempting to cast a spell after casting a spell too early. The error message alone is plenty to let players know that they have to wait for the casting animation to complete before being allowed to cast another spell. The additional two second lockout caused by trying to cast another spell too soon should be removed entirely. Being off by just a small fraction of a second is currently enough to cost a player their second magic burst, greatly reducing their damage output. Players already have an unavoidable delay between casting, and weaponskills do not face the same penalty, so it seems quite unfair and unnecessary that magic casting does. Please note that I am not saying that there should be no delay between casting, only that the extra delay added when a following spell is cast too soon should be removed.

* Change debuffs which lower target Magic Defense Bonus from static values to percentage basis like all Defense Down debuffs are. There are only a handful of sources for MDB Down available to players, and what we have access to are all static value reductions, while we have a huge selection of sources for Def Down which are all percentage reductions. There is an overwhelming and unfair imbalance between the two on higher level content. For example, in case the current dev team is not aware, in all pre-Odin High Tier Battles, on the Very Difficult level, targets have a baseline of 400MDB. Something like the MDB-10 from Vidohunir is an utterly insignificant 2.5% reduction, while Defense Down debuffs apply at full percentage strength and are allowed to reduce Defense by 99%+. MDB also has a lower limit of MDB50, so it's not like T1 spells will be hitting the damage cap.

* Increase base damage caps based on INT scaling for Elemental Magic. One of the reasons that BLM casting outside of magic bursts is lackluster is due to how low the M/V modifiers are. Our non-MB damage output is worse than just about any melee's auto-attacks currently, and that is caused by the base damage being limited by the same modifier values that have been there for over a decade. Please bring Elemental Magic into the ilvl era. BLM should not be entirely limited to only casting during Magic Bursts. It would also be helpful to normalize M/V values across the board for tiered spells so that elements like earth or wind are not inherently weaker than other elements, barring target elemental resistances. This also ties in to other jobs capable of casting Elemental Magic spells, and would encourage jobs like DRK to stop ignoring that more than half of their spellbook exists.

[TullemoreAsuraFFXI]

The ~ Vast ~ majority of these issues are not specific to the BLM job, BLM just happens to be more specialized in it's design to utilize damaging magic spells. Below I am creating design innovations to improve the current environment.

Occult Acumen: Tier adjustment for BLM - Tier I BLM45, Tier II BLM58, Tier III BLM71, Tier IV BLM84. New BLM job trait gained at level 45, while under the trait of occult acumen player will not surrender TP for any equipment changes (weapon/sheild/grip/ammo/ranged). Name this new job trait something exciting and implement it as soon as possible. This trait will be specific to BLM lvl 45+ and /blm sub job use lvl /45+.

Scholar adjustment: Increase duration effect element-storm tier I and tier II weather changing spells to a base of 30 mins. New added effect, reduces vana'day element penalty for opposing element to 50% of current penalty.

COR itemization adjustment: Add effect to Navarch's Attire and Chasseur's Attire on Hands (gloves) that allows Allies' Roll to create a 3rd roll effect specific only to Allies's Roll and independent of the original two Phantom Roll.

Skillchain effect: Remove the decreasing window size of multi-step skillchain timing which would conform timings of all linked skillchains to the current timing of original skillchain.

Magic Bursts... as in prior comments, remove the penalty for multiple bursts per skillchain or adjust the penalty to where penalty begins on the fifth spell and beyond per skillchain.

Area of Effect Elemental Magic: Adjust to reduce penalty for multiple-target damage so the -ga and -ja spells function corresponding to BLU area of effect damage spells.

For 18-man available content, party songs for increased magic attack bonus stat and increased magic accuracy stat in a Bard job adjustment would (will) help. Offensive songs for lowered magic defense bonus stat and lowered magic evasion stat in a Bard job adjustment would (will) help. These days it's difficult to assemble a large alliance, adjusting rewards to scale up in treasure pools corresponding to number of participants or reworking a NPC vendor and point accumulation system that echoes the Delve system for Escha Zi'tah + Escha Ru'aun + Reisenjima Notorious Monsters would facilitate higher inclusion of job types. Especially if currency gain had a reasonably higher gain for inclusion for alliances with 7 or more players the way gallantry works for Ambuscade.

[Suteru]

Why are you telling Ninjas to reallocate merit points to reduce "wasted merits"? I thought you didn't get merit points back from lowering allocated merits. So no matter what, they're losing all the points they put into those two spells.

[TullemoreAsuraFFXI]

Ninjutsu spells will automatically be learned upon the July update patch for corresponding merit spells, therefore you will not need to buy scrolls for them if you have one merit point into each spell before the patch takes effect.

[Suteru]

Yes, but they're telling you to lower them to one if they're maxed out, which won't get you back any merit points to spend

[Zigou]

Another Filler from SE, more gear with still no wardrobes..... what a dilemma....

And still Monthly Roe can't be traduce properly ..... SE laziness or don't give a dam ????

Not impress or please with this work, for a paid game.... :mad::mad::mad::mad::mad: