Update preview hype thread!

Hey, anyone else see the POL post for the July update? That sneaky Putraxia there? Now I know that's not some crazy new Ambuscade lineup, so taken with what's slated to be added ("new Records of Eminence objectives and the monthly updates to Ambuscade"), it looks like that can only mean one thing:

We're getting Sortie RoE objectives! Rejoice! We can come back to this thread later and be disappointed if it turns out to be 500 sparks once ever, but for right now that's pretty exciting stuff!

What's everyone thinking? Old Case for beating each boss? Maybe a monthly (or even weekly?) gallimaufry bonus? Or is it just a red herring?

I don't see any specification or implication of what the new RoE objectives are so I wouldn't get too giddy until it's clarified; even though the pic definitely does imply it. Personally i'd like to see some bonus exemplar points and/or galimuffins or something.

You need to seriously calm down chief. Your expectations are sky high, reality is going to hurt when you fall that far.

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Originally Posted by Zenion

Hey, anyone else see the POL post for the July update? That sneaky Putraxia there? Now I know that's not some crazy new Ambuscade lineup, so taken with what's slated to be added ("new Records of Eminence objectives and the monthly updates to Ambuscade"), it looks like that can only mean one thing:

We're getting Sortie RoE objectives! Rejoice! We can come back to this thread later and be disappointed if it turns out to be 500 sparks once ever, but for right now that's pretty exciting stuff!

What's everyone thinking? Old Case for beating each boss? Maybe a monthly (or even weekly?) gallimaufry bonus? Or is it just a red herring?

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Ignore them! lol

Honestly: I went right to those RoE Quests 4 with the Putraxia. Maybe capacity points? Maybe new ambu mode?

I mean RoEs for sortie is a good thing regardless of what it actually gives, its just a matter of how good of a thing it ends up being lol.

Well, I haven't seen any July Update preview yet so I'm hoping they'll tell what those new ROE will be. If it is Sortie, then good but most likely we'll be disappointed. I was expecting the update preview this week but yet to see it.

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Originally Posted by Alhanelem

I mean RoEs for sortie is a good thing regardless of what it actually gives, its just a matter of how good of a thing it ends up being lol.

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I'm kind of expecting it to be parallel to the Omen ones: Beat a basement boss, get the reforged +3 material from it, good for one clear per boss per character ever. Hoping to be pleasantly surprised though.

Records of Eminence
This time, we will be adding a number of objectives related to Sortie. Although you can only complete each objective once, you will be able to acquire +2 job-specific earrings from old cases +2. So remember to set your objectives so that you don't miss out!

That... sounded great at first but it gets worse the more I think about it.

If it were a monthly set of objectives, that would be great, making +2 earrings way less random and luck-based. But if it's a set of objectives you can only clear once ever... that's, what, like a 36% chance of the reward you get even being relevant to you at all, if you're actively playing 8 jobs? Oh boy, I can't wait to go out and work toward these objectives to get a +2 earring for Puppetmaster so I can sell it to an NPC.

Nice thought, but the execution... I'll hold out some hope but it could be very poorly done.

EDIT: There are two ways I can see this going where it would still feel fair. Either an Old Case +2, unlike NQ and +1, respects the job it's opened on so you get one guaranteed +2 earring that is actually relevant to you for each objective... or the Old Case +2 functions like the other cases, but monthly objectives are added for at least bosses E, F, G, H, and I - the ones which have the highest chances of dropping an Old Case +1, sort of stabilizing the chances on those (you will roll a +2 once a month on them, versus you'll probably see a +2 in a month of fighting them.)

Then the one-off rewards are kind of a boost for people who can't do those bosses, but there's still something that mitigates the sheer awfulness of trying to get +2 earrings normally.

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Originally Posted by Zenion

That... sounded great at first but a 36% chance of the reward you get even being relevant to you at all.

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I was not very excited just about sortie RoE, (not that was not excited at all, just not very excited, but something is always something, and SE could have easily shut this game down, so I'm grateful its even still playable.)

Now I'm a bit more excited based on how it reads.

I can't imagine is Just a +2 old case.

Right? Wouldnt it be a +2 earring case based on the job?

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you will be able to acquire +2 job-specific earrings from old cases +2

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Its plural, but then goes on to say "only one time."

So I would have to assume its job specific to your desired job. It would only make sense that way right?

Based on what you're implying, its just completely random and they just give you 1 old case +2. But why would he use plural in that case?

I guess we'll just have to see for the specifics. I personally am assuming its +2 based on the job you clear the RoE as? I dont know for sure.

You're looking at this only in short term. Yes right now this is only single, but this is exactly how vagary RoEs were until they later added the weekly RoEs. This is stepwise, this opens the door for the future addition of weekly RoEs, and the possibility of an ambuscade like bonus seal. Though if a seal were to be added and if it only applied to 1 mob players would only likely be using it on aminon for 60k gallamufry.

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Originally Posted by Dihlyte

I was not very excited just about sortie RoE, (not that was not excited at all, just not very excited, but something is always something, and SE could have easily shut this game down, so I'm grateful its even still playable.)

Now I'm a bit more excited based on how it reads.

I can't imagine is Just a +2 old case.

Right? Wouldnt it be a +2 earring case based on the job?



Its plural, but then goes on to say "only one time."

So I would have to assume its job specific to your desired job. It would only make sense that way right?

Based on what you're implying, its just completely random and they just give you 1 old case +2. But why would he use plural in that case?

I guess we'll just have to see for the specifics. I personally am assuming its +2 based on the job you clear the RoE as? I dont know for sure.

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The simplest answer to "why would he use plural" is "you can receive multiple" - more than one RoE with an Old Case +2 as a reward means multiple +2 job-specific earrings.

As it stands right now, prior to the update, Old Case +2 isn't a thing that exists yet, so we don't know how one will behave. It could work exactly like Old Case and Old Case +1, or it could be different. I certainly hope that it at least biases its selection toward the job it's opened on, if it doesn't just always drop an earring for that specific job... but I'm not optimistic.

What we do know is that it's not a voucher, it's not an earring, the delivery mechanism is specifically an Old Case +2, so you don't get to just pick an item from a list; that certainly suggests, to me anyway, the same gacha mechanics that Sortie earrings are built around.

I'm thinking they are just going to give old cases+2 and you will get one or more for each completed objective. But I'd love to find out it's better than that.

Well, I have to say, I wasn't really expecting much but somehow I'm disappointed.

Ghatjot is only worth an Old Case (and that's apparently only if you survive the fight, sucks to be the one member of my party who didn't.) I imagine it wouldn't be any different for the rest of the top floor bosses.

So I guess that means one Old Case +2, once, for defeating Aminon. I'll never find out; not having a consistent group to run with and able to challenge the basement bosses is why I gave up on Sortie in the first place.

With the rewards so tiny and only boss clears being worth anything at all, I have to wonder who this update was for? Nobody who can readily complete the objectives is going to feel particularly well rewarded by the caliber of prize on offer.

I agree.

1/22 chance for a +2 earring (ignoring the augments factor) for defeating one of the most, if not the most difficult boss is a bit underwhelming.

I appreciate they added anything at all, but it really is next to nothing.

The only way it could be even more useless would be to add only old case or old case +1.

Maybe in the future they will make them repeatable, this way the people who can clear Aminon will increase their chances at a +2 earring.


With that said, I don’t believe more than 10% of players can even defeat Aminon.


I personally can only clear A boss, and C boss. I can barely clear C boss.

I also don’t even have many +1 earrings.

Normal quality earrings are pretty pointless. The only characters using a NQ earring would be those getting carried through content most likely. (Alts, and people getting power leveled.)

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Originally Posted by Dihlyte

Normal quality earrings are pretty pointless. The only characters using a NQ earring would be those getting carried through content most likely. (Alts, and people getting power leveled.)

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I'm still using an NQ earring for my summoner main, sadly. I got a +2 once, but of course that was on the character that didn't even have summoner unlocked yet; never seen so much as a +1 on the one who actually has a use for it.

Yeah... not surprised (unfortunately).

I've only defeated Ghatjot so far, and it would have been nice to have at least one earring from it every run... but I suppose that would be "too good". :\

I am glad they put effort into adding new things (thank you!), but this one seems rather pointless to put it blunt-like.

I more or less meant that as there are other earrings, so a more well established character wouldn’t be using NQ earrings.

I don’t know enough about summoner to say if a NQ sortie earring is better than other options, but for most earrings, there are much better options that are easier to obtain.

the earrings are way too hard to get for what they are
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Originally Posted by Alhanelem

the earrings are way too hard to get for what they are
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Well, no, that's the problem, they're not hard to get. You can get one naked on a level 1 job if you really try. They'd feel a lot better if they were hard to get - you don't see people complaining (much) about Odyssey gear or Empyrean weapons, because those require raw effort (and for Odyssey, a reliable group, but it's an MMO so that's technically a reasonable ask.)

No, the earrings are awful because they're so bloody luck-based. A chance to get an Old Case, then a chance to get a relevant job, chance that it's a +1, chance that the augments are good, you have to roll the dice and get lucky four times in a row to get a single piece. It would be like doing Up In Arms knowing there's a slot that can contain the Kraken Club, but that drop slot is only added to the pool 25% of the time, and it's shared with a dagger, a sword, a staff, an axe, a great axe, and so on... and then if a club drops, it could be an Octave Club, or it could rarely be a Kraken Club, but the Kraken Club is just a normal club now except it has a random augment on it which can be from "occasionally attacks twice" to "occasionally attacks 2 - 8 times."

(To be fair, with that example, yes, that's kind of how it works I think? A bit like Pixie Hairpin and Defending Ring, you get either Walkure Mask or Kraken Club if that particular drop slot gets added to the pool, which is itself rare? But that's still only two rolls you have to beat.)

I think he meant defeating a boss in Sortie is the hard part.

Which I would agree. As I said, 90% of the playerbase probably can’t even clear Aminon. I mentioned, I can only clear A boss and C boss.

For Square-Enix,

On the off chance SE actually reads their forums at all, this is what I believe we're trying to say.

Sortie earrings are a good idea, poorly implemented.

If:

-Every boss dropped a oldcase 100% chance (with a small chance of +1)
-Aminon: 100% drop rate oldcase +1
-RoE montly repeatable oldcase +2 from Aminon

Would be much more sensible.

Rare things are good, but making getting a +2 earring, with max augments, on an appropriate job, with the content being as difficult as it is, is a bit excessive.

FFXI players expect excessive, but if this is the only thing we're getting for the next 1-2+ years, at least make the RoE for Aminon repeatable monthly.

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No, the earrings are awful because they're so bloody luck-based.

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Well you see, thats what I mean when I say hard to get. lol