Suggestions to improve Ambuscade

Returning player here.

Thoughts on this thing. Ok I did this Ambuscade because someone on a forum said I should do it for gear. I put it on very easy since I am solo use my 5 trusts it was pretty easy in that mobs did very little damage and it was just auto attack WS pretty much really no challenge or anything 3 mobs die in about 5 min. I get 50 hallmarks. Then I find the npc is only selling mage gear and I only play Paladin. I look up on the Wiki and it says the sets rotate every month. Which is not good game design at all.

Yea this is pretty dumb you can't get gear for the job you actually play. FFXIV is my main MMO now. This is basically the same thing as grinding tomes in FFXIV. Just imagine if you grind tomes in FF14 then can't buy the gear for your class. That would never happen people would rage. It's unacceptable to expect people to grind for a currency then make them wait 1-5 months until their jobs set comes up at the NPC to buy.

OK SE you want people to come back and sub to 11 but stuff like this really needs to change some of us only play 1 job and now you telling us we have to wait around 5+ months or something to even buy the gear?

I hope you take this feedback to the dev team. An event where you can only buy the gear you want once every 5 months just encourages people to un sub wait till the guy sells the gear you want then sub for that 1 month.

The only real problem with Ambuscade that I can see is that the rewards are so good it encourages people to spam it until they are sick of it.

Doing anything over and over and over and over again will get old.

I would suggest the obvious solution of putting a cap on the amount of times in a day people can do ambuscade while lowering the over-all amount of points required to purchase rewards. But then that would likely make it more difficult for others to find party members so this fix would probably do more harm than good. So I don't really had a good solution to offer at the moment.

After reading this thread there are few things I would like to add.

1. If you are using trusts then you are not technically soloing. I see this blanket term soloing used way too frequently. If you are using trusts then I believe you need to clarify that and describe which trusts you are using. To just say you can solo this or solo that is not particularly accurate, nor is it helpful. Because not all trusts are created equal.

2. I agree with those who say the focal point of this game should remain focused on group activities. Playing with trusts should be there as option when other players are not available. But it should never become this game's center of attention. Final Fantasy's XI's emphasis on group-style combat is really the only thing this game has going for it in the current market. To give that up would be a huge mistake.

3. To those who say ambuscade is too difficult or hard to get a group for: it's not really. Any modest effort should suffice. The event is extremely group-friendly. Try putting a successful group together to do something like Vagary if you think doing Ambuscade is difficult. That should give you some much needed perspective.

Greetings, everyone!

I’d like to pass on some comments from the development team in response to the suggestions in this thread.

• Key items
  Currently no plans to change the way key items are obtained, and system-wise it would not be possible to make it so the monster targets change each day. Also, in regards to preparing various ways to obtain the key item, when repeating runs as a party, you’ll ultimately all be doing the same method to obtain it, and would likely choose the most efficient option. We'd like to hear additional feedback on what everyone feels would be an appropriate method to obtaining the key item.
  
  
• Area appearance
  Unfortunately we aren’t able to change the maps for Ambuscade. While it might be possible for us to place objects or add some variation inside of the instance, this would not be a proper solution. If you feel you are getting worn out while doing it, we recommend taking a break from Ambuscade to do something else, then come back when you are reinvigorated!
  
  
• Adding a reward NPC to other areas
  Since it’s not as simple as using the same exact NPC data, it would take a bit of work to do, but this might just be possible. We’ll take a look and see if we can accomplish this!
  
  
• Method to swap in differently augments capes
  Unfortunately from a technical perspective, renaming capes so that they can be macroed in is not possible. While it may be possible to create the same exact item with a different name, which can then be augmented, this would reduce the amount of space available for other new items. However, if you use your inventory and wardrobes, you can actually successfully swap in different types of capes.
  
  
• Purchasing Abdhaljs Seals with login points
  We can look into this; however, it would not be possible to transfer these between characters under the same account.

We’re happy to see all the feedback on Ambuscade and hope you continue to suggest ways to improve this content moving forward! :D

Would really be good if you could add a roe quest which give a bonus on hallmarks when you are doing daily for example 50% extra hallmarks based on which difficult you are doing.


Add old gear to total gallantry because if ppl miss the 5 pieces they need to farm like 50k hallmarks 25k gallantry to cap on old gear.

Actually I think adding some seasonal or themed objects inside the arena would be amusing like it is in the Mog Garden. Themed wall hangings or other sillyness that the battle planner comes up with etc. As long as it's not a time consuming change it could be a nice touch.

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Originally Posted by Sicycre

Key items
Currently no plans to change the way key items are obtained, and system-wise it would not be possible to make it so the monster targets change each day. Also, in regards to preparing various ways to obtain the key item, when repeating runs as a party, you’ll ultimately all be doing the same method to obtain it, and would likely choose the most efficient option. We'd like to hear additional feedback on what everyone feels would be an appropriate method to obtaining the key item.

[...]

We’re happy to see all the feedback on Ambuscade and hope you continue to suggest ways to improve this content moving forward! :D

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I don't understand this. The constant need to go reacquire the key item is part of the drain on the fun. This is one of the parts that really needs to be improved. As I've said before, it takes longer to get the key item than to lose it.

You're right that whatever you make the most efficient option is the method we're going to use because beating up 10 mobs that are no danger in the slightest isn't any sort of fun.

Right now it's Set HP in Mhaura > Zone to obscure location noone would otherwise be in > Fight other groups for the same mobs (which admittedly isn't as bad this month since Ru'aun has so many arcana > kill 10 of these > zone back > zone in > prep for fight > kill in two minutes > zone back to mhaura. Repeat.

Each and every time.

Is there any way we could have an expiring KI?
You do the RoE to get the KI, then have it until JP Midnight or something.

I don't know if that would work.

Could pull a page from the Manaclipper's KI and let certain quests refresh X amount of attempts. Though, if I'm being honest, that hasn't really felt like the hassle of the process. Rather, the sheer number of runs you need to do, even on VD, to get the gear at a decent pace. The other consumables and perhaps new stuff can help keep people coming even when they're done with that phase.

I do feel like they should try to incorporate some kind of bonus for groups who include individuals with a small amount of total hallmarks. Right now, there's that whole MMO Catch 22 going on where people want you to have the gear (or better) just to participate. Some of this is because earlier difficulties reward diddly for the time, but more because better gear will translate to higher success rates. If the total average of the group is under some certain threshold, granting a bonus to everyone wouldn't be a terrible idea. The daily quest rewarding the consumable that doubles your reward for the next run wouldn't be a bad thing, either.

Adding a hallmark bonus to the daily might just be enough to reduce the grind to bearable levels for most. Ambuscade feels like an event that we should be running 1-2x per day in order to get the full gear. For the most part, it's basically starter gear that will end up getting replaced rather soonish. In the begininning, it was positioned as something that would be rewarding to smaller groups and even soloists, so why has that turned out to not be the case? A lot of players who this gear would be upgrades for are in the position that no group wants to take them and it's quite unlikely that they are going to be able to solo anything above Normal.

Normal Ambuscade, Normal difficulty: 100hm/0gal per run... the body+1 is what, roughly 15000 total hm? That's roughly 150 runs per month. It's unreasonable to expect anyone to be happy with that large of a monthly grind. Perhaps add a daily ROE quest for your first Ambuscade completion per day that rewards 200hm/50gal, regardless of difficulty/volume completed. That would reduce the workload down to a somewhat more reasonable 90 runs of N/N per month to get the total hallmarks gear (provided you do it 3x per day, which might still be a bit much for some.. but that is assuming N/N for all runs.)

edit: I don't believe I've seen anyone else toss out this suggestion, so...

How about changing the entry system from KI > currency? Instead of giving us a single/unique Key Item, the RoE could instead add 1 to "Ambuscade Vol. 1" or "Ambuscade Vol.2" currencies, maybe capped ~10? (Higher might be nice to know for sure that you have enough for an hour's worth of Ambuscading, but 10 should be about right for that for most groups in my experience.)

This would allow the game-flow to shift from where it is now :
find group > get KI > beat Vol.2 > farm 10x mobs > repeat
into: kill lots of mobs > find group > beat Vol.2 x10 > repeat

Basically would shift the prep work of farming KIs from "during" to "before". Same number of mobs to kill overall, lots less zoning involved, and gives me a feeling closer to the old BCNM/orb days vs this annoying back<>forth between NM<>trashmobs which is oddly stressful/draining on a lot of us.

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Originally Posted by OmnysValefor

I don't understand this. The constant need to go reacquire the key item is part of the drain on the fun. This is one of the parts that really needs to be improved. As I've said before, it takes longer to get the key item than to lose it.

You're right that whatever you make the most efficient option is the method we're going to use because beating up 10 mobs that are no danger in the slightest isn't any sort of fun.

Right now it's Set HP in Mhaura > Zone to obscure location noone would otherwise be in > Fight other groups for the same mobs (which admittedly isn't as bad this month since Ru'aun has so many arcana > kill 10 of these > zone back > zone in > prep for fight > kill in two minutes > zone back to mhaura. Repeat.

Each and every time.

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My guess, to ease congestion? To make the content last longer?

I mean, Abmu feel intentionally designed to make long-lasting content with least efforts.

Please please please please add a daily ROE quest that gives a half decent amount of hallmarks for completing an ambuscade volume 2. It's simply not realistic for soloists/lesser geared folks to get a set of +1 armor in a month when groups pretty much universally just do VD. Either that or allow some ability to carry hallmarks over each month. I don't mind working for the gear. I don't even mind working harder to do it solo - but with the points getting deleted every month it makes it impossible/demoralizing. Most of us don't have the playtime to do 150 runs in a month.

Seriously, I'd be fine with trading in hallmarks to get half back in something I could carry over for the month so it would take double the amount of hallmarks to get any item if I could just do it at my pace. Having to play a ridiculous amount of time in one month to get any armor is just not on for me. I really can't emphasize enough that deleting the currency every month is a huge negative for folks with more limited playtime.

At this point it feels pretty pointless to sub as I can't make any progress at my own pace, really.

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Originally Posted by Olor

Most of us don't have the playtime to do 150 runs in a month.

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I'm finding it hard to do the 11 runs for the NQ armor, but I do make sure to get it done every month.

Are you guys still having trouble with this month? I don't think you even need a tank, just a couple of DDs standing together and cure bomb your way through the fight.

It's not the difficulty of the fight, it's the motivation to play.

Ambuscade was practically designed to burn players out and I challenge anyone to argue against it.

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Originally Posted by Diavolo

Ambuscade was practically designed to burn players out and I challenge anyone to argue against it.

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While I, for one, see no shame in just going for the NQ set if you're just a casual player (or doing it just enough every month to get a A. Seal, and hoard them until a set you want comes along), this does seem rather accurate. And bodes poorly for the future of the game if this is really what we have to look forward to forever into the future.

EDIT: Stupid smartphone touchscreen sensitivity!

I agree that, if the future of the content is the old gear cycled monthly, there should be no more perceived need to wipe your hallmarks every month. Or, a separate set of points that don't reset monthly should be used exclusively for older gear.

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Originally Posted by Diavolo

Ambuscade was practically designed to burn players out and I challenge anyone to argue against it.

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Originally Posted by Catmato

It's not the difficulty of the fight, it's the motivation to play.

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These things.

I am just about done the NQ set and I will push myself to login and finish it, but the event is a real drag at this point.

I am glad this month's battle is solo friendly but yeah I just get so tired of having my progress wiped every month it is demoralizing.

I really liked the event at first but the lustre has worn off as it becomes more and more of a naked grind. Once I have all NQ sets it will be even harder to find the motivation to try to super grind out HQ.

And stopping at NQ is mostly pointless for me because outside of a few slots/macro bits I have stuff that is better than the NQ of most of the sets (not the PLD/WAR/SAM etc set, but I don't play any of those jobs so I didn't have any armor for them really)

But I am doing it because I don't have a ton of 119 armor and some of it may be useful for jobs I don't really play and am not paying attention to.

Dunno... love the game but they need to step up.

Maybe not everyone should get everything??? Like casual is casual, why should you get the same as someone who put in way more time? Isn't that the point of being casual?

Everyone sure complains a lot, for content that is easy prey...

I know it isn't the popular opinion... but lets be real... casual's don't deserve the same gear as a hardcore player...

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Originally Posted by Mxsx

Maybe not everyone should get everything??? Like casual is casual, why should you get the same as someone who put in way more time? Isn't that the point of being casual?

Everyone sure complains a lot, for content that is easy prey...

I know it isn't the popular opinion... but lets be real... casual's don't deserve the same gear as a hardcore player...

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I am not asking to "get the same as someone who put in more time" - and I don't see why I shouldn't get the gear if I spend as much (or more time) to get it. Just because I can't spend it all in one month I shouldn't be punished.

I am asking for my progress not to be wiped so I can put in the time in a way that is more sensible for my schedule and in a way that keeps the game fun for me.

I'd even be happy with having to spend twice as many hallmarks to get the item if I can gather those hallmarks at my own pace, as I have stated above.

Like if I could buy an item for 1000 hallmarks that I could trade in for 500 total hallmarks I'd be fine slowly working up to buying pieces.

Or they could stop deleting our spendable hallmarks and let us buy stuff with them - continuing to roll over total hallmarks earned each month? There has to be a way to do it.

I don't think it's particularly unreasonable to wish to have a way to complete the armor set on my own time. I'm not asking for a way to earn gear from 130 level fights here, just a way to slowly pick away at super easy grindy content at my own pace.

The current way would be like having your ancient currency for a relic disappear every month so if you couldn't finish your whole relic in a month you could never get one. It's bad design.

And it makes the game less fun because I don't feel like I can reasonably spend my playtime doing anything BUT ambuscade.

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Originally Posted by Olor

I am not asking to "get the same as someone who put in more time" - and I don't see why I shouldn't get the gear if I spend as much (or more time) to get it. Just because I can't spend it all in one month I shouldn't be punished.

I am asking for my progress not to be wiped so I can put in the time in a way that is more sensible for my schedule and in a way that keeps the game fun for me.

I'd even be happy with having to spend twice as many hallmarks to get the item if I can gather those hallmarks at my own pace, as I have stated above.

Like if I could buy an item for 1000 hallmarks that I could trade in for 500 total hallmarks I'd be fine slowly working up to buying pieces.

Or they could stop deleting our spendable hallmarks and let us buy stuff with them - continuing to roll over total hallmarks earned each month? There has to be a way to do it.

I don't think it's particularly unreasonable to wish to have a way to complete the armor set on my own time. I'm not asking for a way to earn gear from 130 level fights here, just a way to slowly pick away at super easy grindy content at my own pace.

The current way would be like having your ancient currency for a relic disappear every month so if you couldn't finish your whole relic in a month you could never get one. It's bad design.

And it makes the game less fun because I don't feel like I can reasonably spend my playtime doing anything BUT ambuscade.

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You don't have to burn yourself out. Just do it consistently - something like 3 ~ 5 fights a day - and you should easily have enough for your entire +1 set before the month is out. Comparing ambuscade to the relic grind is like comparing apples to oranges because the two are on different planets in terms of grinding.

I'll admit it can get repetitive - especially if you try to bang it all out at once. But in all honesty, it's not that much of a grind considering the quality of the gear or items you can buy. That being said: I don't really object to your idea. I would have no problems with SE giving players the option to carry over their points from month to month.

I appreciate you not dismissing my suggestion out of hand. The issue is I tend to play maybe 3-5 times a month for a few hours at a time, so I either make my eyes bleed by grinding as much ambuscade as I can stand or I just can't get any HQ items. Doing 5 fights per day would necessitate setting aside time for the game on days I don't really have it.

I don't want them to make it any easier - just to give folks with different playstyles the ability to access this stuff - as I said above I'd even be willing to pay 2X the cost or more. Just would like to have a shot at it.

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Originally Posted by Mxsx

Maybe not everyone should get everything??? Like casual is casual, why should you get the same as someone who put in way more time? Isn't that the point of being casual?

Everyone sure complains a lot, for content that is easy prey...

I know it isn't the popular opinion... but lets be real... casual's don't deserve the same gear as a hardcore player...

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And there's always more to the equation than whether or not someone put in the proper amount of time. Server conditions vary. When you log on matters. What job(s) you play matter. Who else is looking to do a particular piece of content at the time matters. Realistically, if something can be soloed in this game, there's a good chance that person actually worked harder for it than someone taking advantage of group benefits.

Ambuscade is a good example of how not to do casual friendly content. And I will assert it is such due to the gear being lesser than other options you can find elsewhere. If this stuff was unquestionably the best of the best, then sure, I'd possibly budge some on the "only the hardcore deserve it!" side of the spectrum, but I'm also not so quick to lock something between 18-man content or 200+ million gil grinds. The more people can readily gear up, the better the PUG scene potentially gets. And if you don't actually PUG, instead consistently running with a group of friends/shellmates, then consider yourself lucky and that the issues some bring up don't really apply to you. Random people getting a full +1 set here isn't gonna ruin your day.

As someone who is 5/5 +1 on 5/5 sets of gear, someone who logs in for at least a little while almost every day,

It's got some nice macro pieces, but ambuscade is largely stopgap gear. If you're killing Ru'aun t2-t3 and Rei t1-t2, you won't be full-timing Ambuscade gear. You might not even be using most of the pieces. It's meant for people gearing up and alt-jobs.

A WAR/PLD/DRK/DRG can -50% DT cap in Sulevia's, but the set has terrible HP, no magic evasion (or nearly none), no enmity (for the Paladins) and very little magic defense bonus. You'll be taking the full brunt of every nuke and every enfeeble. Still, I'm excited for my SAM/NIN/PLD friend who came back last month to get it. It's a sick upgrade for WS macros and filler pieces til he gets better.

He and two others came back last month (gosh, dragging them through the roc was terrible, with the -dt mechanics). I don't feel superior to them that I got 5/5 Ambuskadi +1 and they only got 4/5. I'm rather frustrated by it.

I'll be the first to call out people complaining about how difficult the JP grind is, how unfair HP scaling is, but Ambuscade is not a very enjoyable system.

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Originally Posted by OmnysValefor

As someone who is 5/5 +1 on 5/5 sets of gear, someone who logs in for at least a little while almost every day,

It's got some nice macro pieces, but ambuscade is largely stopgap gear. If you're killing Ru'aun t2-t3 and Rei t1-t2, you won't be full-timing Ambuscade gear. You might not even be using most of the pieces. It's meant for people gearing up and alt-jobs.

A WAR/PLD/DRK/DRG can -50% DT cap in Sulevia's, but the set has terrible HP, no magic evasion (or nearly none), no enmity (for the Paladins) and very little magic defense bonus. You'll be taking the full brunt of every nuke and every enfeeble. Still, I'm excited for my SAM/NIN/PLD friend who came back last month to get it. It's a sick upgrade for WS macros and filler pieces til he gets better.

He and two others came back last month (gosh, dragging them through the roc was terrible, with the -dt mechanics). I don't feel superior to them that I got 5/5 Ambuskadi +1 and they only got 4/5. I'm rather frustrated by it.

I'll be the first to call out people complaining about how difficult the JP grind is, how unfair HP scaling is, but Ambuscade is not a very enjoyable system.

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Magic evasion has never impressed me. Spells and enfeebles still hit me even when I put on gear that has it. I've never noticed magic defense bonus doing much for me either. -MDT or -Damage seems to work better.

Enmity is alright I guess. But I'd rather have more accuracy and -damage in most situations.

More HP? I prefer more - damage. Extra HP is always nice - especially against hard-hitting NMs. But it's mostly a situational stat that's only a must-have against against a few high-tier notorious monsters.

You can get some better gear than Ambuscade (depending on what you want to do) by obtaining abjurations from Escha or getting good augments on Reisinjima gear - especially if you can afford the +1 sets. So I'm not disagreeing with you. But even then the ambuscade stuff compares well in my opinion. And let's not forget, you have to kill t2-t3 and Rei t1-t2 notorious monsters to get this better gear to begin with. So unless you plan on doing this naked you are going to have to wear something and Ambuscade gear certainly qualifies for that.

I guess what I'm trying to say is I believe Ambuscade gear is high-end gear. It may not be the very best, but it's definitely good - especially considering how easy it is to get (at least for those of us who have the time to play consistently through-out the month).

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Originally Posted by Olor

I appreciate you not dismissing my suggestion out of hand. The issue is I tend to play maybe 3-5 times a month for a few hours at a time, so I either make my eyes bleed by grinding as much ambuscade as I can stand or I just can't get any HQ items. Doing 5 fights per day would necessitate setting aside time for the game on days I don't really have it.

I don't want them to make it any easier - just to give folks with different playstyles the ability to access this stuff - as I said above I'd even be willing to pay 2X the cost or more. Just would like to have a shot at it.

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Yeah I tend to agree with you you. The point reset every month is needless and shuts out players like you who may only be able to play a few times a month. If you can't play consistently and are trying to rack up enough points for the whole +1 set in just a couple of days.... that would be mind-numbing for sure. And I don't see the big harm in letting players keep their points from month to month anyway. I lost over 8k gallantry and 20k hallmarks one time because my PC monitor burned out right before the update and I wasn't able to spend my points in time.

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Originally Posted by Dale

Magic evasion has never impressed me. Spells and enfeebles still hit me even when I put on gear that has it. I've never noticed magic defense bonus doing much for me either. -MDT or -Damage seems to work better.

Enmity is alright I guess. But I'd rather have more accuracy and -damage in most situations.

More HP? I prefer more - damage. Extra HP is always nice - especially against hard-hitting NMs. But it's mostly a situational stat that's only a must-have against against a few high-tier notorious monsters.

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... what? Of course a PLD PDT/MDT caps first (Hard MDT or BDT depending on fight). I have sets that can do any of it and sets that can do all of it. It's nice that Sulevia's can but Paladins should want better.

Magic evasion on its own usually don't cause a resist or a partial resist unless you significantly outgear the content you're fighting, but neither will a barspell when stacked on gear without magic evasion, it's the combined effect of both that is usually what helps.

I have 3k HP (no buffs) in simultaneously PDT and MDT capped gear (my HP set is 3200). While enmity is not a stat I prioritize in my engaged set, I have plenty of it. Thanks to enmity on gear affecting the decay of enmity, as well as plentiful HP, I lose far less enmity from every swing than someone in Sulevia's. When you are MDT capped, the only real way to diminish the effects of magic anymore is Magic Defense Bonus. (int works, but is impractical to gear towards, lol. Although boost-int is frequently the best boost for tanks)

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Originally Posted by Mxsx

Maybe not everyone should get everything??? Like casual is casual, why should you get the same as someone who put in way more time? Isn't that the point of being casual?

Everyone sure complains a lot, for content that is easy prey...

I know it isn't the popular opinion... but lets be real... casual's don't deserve the same gear as a hardcore player...

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While I'd be the first to normally agree with this sort of attitude, we already have plenty of gear that is well out of reach of much of the player population.

Ambuscade is actively thwarts players from going at their own pace. And if we want to say it should take at least 20 hours to get a piece of gear, what should it matter whether it's 20 hours over two days or 20 hours over two months? The former already has the benefit of having more of the gear.

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Originally Posted by OmnysValefor

... what? Of course a PLD PDT/MDT caps first (Hard MDT or BDT depending on fight). I have sets that can do any of it and sets that can do all of it. It's nice that Sulevia's can but Paladins should want better.

Magic evasion on its own usually don't cause a resist or a partial resist unless you significantly outgear the content you're fighting, but neither will a barspell when stacked on gear without magic evasion, it's the combined effect of both that is usually what helps.

I have 3k HP (no buffs) in simultaneously PDT and MDT capped gear (my HP set is 3200). While enmity is not a stat I prioritize in my engaged set, I have plenty of it. Thanks to enmity on gear affecting the decay of enmity, as well as plentiful HP, I lose far less enmity from every swing than someone in Sulevia's. When you are MDT capped, the only real way to diminish the effects of magic anymore is Magic Defense Bonus. (int works, but is impractical to gear towards, lol. Although boost-int is frequently the best boost for tanks)

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I think you're missing my point.

My point was Ambuscade gear has really good stats on it. Stats even you are suggesting you should prioritize.

In a previous post you seemed to be making light of Ambuscade gear because it did not have Magic Evasion or Magic Defense Boost stats on it. MaybeI misunderstood you. I was trying to point out that these stats really aren't that great anyway, so their absence really doesn't diminish the value of the gear that much. They're still very nice pieces. And if a player is prevented from obtaining them due to time constraints they are at a significant loss.

Let's not argue over this. Magic evasion is a very important stat and that's much closer to fact than opinion.

Yeah, seems more like people think it "sucks" because they're not quite understanding its purpose. MEVA on most ilvl items is mean to translate to a passive gain we'd get if we were actually leveling, and in terms of skill ranking, I think that's long been established everyone's a C rating regardless of job. Now, when fighting actually difficult things, no, you're probably not going to see frequent resists if you're not adding additional sources like barspells, carols, runes, and so on, as that C rating will be grossly deficient to the mob's (magic) accuracy values. If one wants to make the argument that SE doesn't quite give us the tools to really make this shine, especially as non-tanks, I won't disagree, but the stats aren't useless.

As for the faults of the Jhakri set, no HP/MP doesn't help and the Haste values aren't enough on their own to win it a spot as a melee set despite all the ACC/ATK. I guess you could technically make a Haste cape for your job of choice, but the sacrifice there is pretty high. Otherwise, my PUG experience on Sylph still commonly reflects that being at Ambuscade gear tier or lower doesn't make you very desirable in any flavor of DPS role. It's Escha Ru/Rei augmented or uncursed stuff if you even want to get looked at. Pretty sure I touched on Skirmish gear augments being out of reach these days in an earlier post here, and those compete more with Ambuscade stuff than the other 2 categories.

Seriha, the bits about magic evasion are as best said as it can be. Good job.

ambuscade should be more user freindly(solo wise) i won one battle and have not won again everytime ive tried ive failed on top of that i lost the HR i did get because of reset....i have not been a party player for a very long time sence b4 75 cap was lifted and 50 cap fights where lifted so i dont play party im old gaurde rdm and tend to do my own thing while helping new players or returning players.... acc gear for rdm is almost nonexistant .... trusts take cues from my Igear and hit accordingly unfortunatley they hit harder than i do and for everything to work right i shouldnt have to over work to get hate from trusts and then not able to survive hate once i get it... was once told "you cant get hate from me" my responce was "you called a timeout to apply Utesenmi?"

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Originally Posted by Ketaru

While I'd be the first to normally agree with this sort of attitude, we already have plenty of gear that is well out of reach of much of the player population.

Ambuscade is actively thwarts players from going at their own pace. And if we want to say it should take at least 20 hours to get a piece of gear, what should it matter whether it's 20 hours over two days or 20 hours over two months? The former already has the benefit of having more of the gear.

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Because the design like this rewards people does higher difficulty, such as intense or VD. From game design's POV, higher difficulty should yield better reward.

If someone doesn't have a lot of playtime within a month, a good way is to do intense which gives way more points.

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Originally Posted by Afania

Because the design like this rewards people does higher difficulty, such as intense or VD. From game design's POV, higher difficulty should yield better reward.

If someone doesn't have a lot of playtime within a month, a good way is to do intense which gives way more points.

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So getting it sooner, and with less dedicates hours isn't good enough for you?

How about also letting players trade +1 vouchers to an npc for Abdhaljis Thread/Dust/Sap/Dye?

If each +1 voucher gave 5, 5, 2, and 2, it would take trading full +1 vouchers for a complete augmentation set.

Also, please consider the request made in the past, put an NPC in other areas, like Selbina and Kazam?

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Originally Posted by detlef

Let's not argue over this. Magic evasion is a very important stat and that's much closer to fact than opinion.

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You're right. Very important stat. I really don't know what I would do without Magic Evasion on my gear. Clearly all of that ambuscade armor is crap because it lacks it. Who needs Accuracy/Attack and - Damage Taken when you can get + to magic evasion.

I don't know what I was thinking earlier to even begin to argue otherwise. Thanks for setting me straight.

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Originally Posted by Seriha

Yeah, seems more like people think it "sucks" because they're not quite understanding its purpose. MEVA on most ilvl items is mean to translate to a passive gain we'd get if we were actually leveling, and in terms of skill ranking, I think that's long been established everyone's a C rating regardless of job. Now, when fighting actually difficult things, no, you're probably not going to see frequent resists if you're not adding additional sources like barspells, carols, runes, and so on, as that C rating will be grossly deficient to the mob's (magic) accuracy values. If one wants to make the argument that SE doesn't quite give us the tools to really make this shine, especially as non-tanks, I won't disagree, but the stats aren't useless.

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I rarely see any resist even when fighting easy things. I've combined magic evasion with bar spells as well. I still don't see any resist. Maybe once in a blue moon. If I'm lucky.

It's an unreliable crappy stat. At least in my opinion. I'll take Accuracy/Attack and - damage taken any day of the week. Those stats actually have noticeable results.

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Originally Posted by Dale

You're right. Very important stat. I really don't know what I would do without Magic Evasion on my gear. Clearly all of that ambuscade armor is crap because it lacks it. Who needs Accuracy/Attack and - Damage Taken when you can get + to magic evasion.

I don't know what I was thinking earlier to even begin to argue otherwise. Thanks for setting me straight.

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You're welcome. Happy to help.

By the by, did I say that Accuracy/Attack/-Damage Taken were bad stats? I could have sworn that all I said was that Magic Evasion was an important stat (which it is). Also, I'm not certain anybody said the gear was crap (certainly I didn't). Did somebody actually say this? I feel like you're arguing against statements that were never made.

We don't idle in ilvl gear anymore because it's dangerous. We use Vex because it's awesome. We use bar spells because they help. Magic evasion probably isn't something that you gear around but you shouldn't forget about it.

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Originally Posted by detlef

You're welcome. Happy to help.

By the by, did I say that Accuracy/Attack/-Damage Taken were bad stats? I could have sworn that all I said was that Magic Evasion was an important stat (which it is). Also, I'm not certain anybody said the gear was crap (certainly I didn't). Did somebody actually say this? I feel like you're arguing against statements that were never made.

We don't idle in ilvl gear anymore because it's dangerous. We use Vex because it's awesome. We use bar spells because they help. Magic evasion probably isn't something that you gear around but you shouldn't forget about it.

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It was implied.

Sarcasm aside, we just disagree. I don't think it helps - at least not enough to matter. It's a crap stat in my opinion and not something I would describe as a very important stat. So not only do I forget it, but I would urge everyone else to as well. It's just not worth any consideration at all when determining gear in my opinion. But hey, it's a free country and we are allowed to disagree with one another. I got no problem with that.

The initial point of my post was that I don't believe a lack of magic evasion on some of the ambuscade sets do anything toward diminishing their value. They are still excellent sets irregardless of a useless stat being absent on them. That was the context of my comments.

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Originally Posted by Dale

Sarcasm aside, we just disagree. I don't think it helps - at least not enough to matter. It's a crap stat in my opinion and not something I would describe as a very important stat. But that's ok - it's a free country and we are allowed to disagree with one another.

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If you're fighting monsters that aren't challenging to you or have much in the way of magic attacks then I can see why you might say that, but I'd imagine you aren't doing much at end game to believe it. Either that or you just aren't stacking enough of it to make a difference where it's needed.