FFXI Job Direction?? Dev Team, Please Respond.

[Alhanelem]

I think blood pacts should implement a charge system to give you more freedom over their timing.

[Duelle]

no no no...dont give them any ideas, we dont want to spend all day casting, we want to toss out a few spells here and there to increase our DD and save ourselves when we take hate

What DRK in part needs is much shorter cast times. Most DRK spells should be around the same cast time as Stun to minimize melee time lost. While I'd love an enmity drop spell, I don't think any job would get something like that.

[Selzak]

Dear SE, I was wondering if you can tell us what direction the ffxi jobs are heading in?

A link to great examples you given us in the past.

http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/top.../060330_1.html

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

**Edit**

I never saw that post on POL, and that is something that I definitely agree would great to see more of. Some jobs have a serious lack of direction, which I think is the basis for a lot of complaints whether it's realized or not.

Dark Knight is a good example of this. The recent adjustments were fantastic, since DRK's inability to...use its abilities...was a glaring problem. However, I think that instead of delicately trying to make DRK DD exactly like a WAR but different, a unique role should be defined. Stun Knight only has Stun and Weapon Bash...and Absorb Spells + Useless Elemental magic isn't worth much.

Summoner is still struggling for its identity, but progress has been made here, too. Splitting Blood Pacts was a definite step in the right direction, but secretly I think the most exciting adjustment for SMN was Avatar's Favor. SMNs should bring some unique benefits to a party, but most importantly SMNs should be encouraged to have their avatars out somehow.

Paladin has no lack of identity, but out of all jobs it's probably struggling the most right now. There needs to be some serious consideration of PLDs as soon as possible. This seems like a tough problem that has a solution somewhere within the game's mechanics and not within the job itself.

Thief is rocking Abyssea, and has also gotten some great attention with respect to its role in a party. THFs can chime in here and disagree if I'm wrong, but this seems like one job that SE has done very well with over the past few years.

Dragoon is another job that proves SE can fix things.

Ranger is one job that shows how SE can break things. This job needs perhaps one more layer to it. It used to be the job that you throw gil into for damage, now it's just the job that you throw gil into.

[Soundwave]

Well said Selzak!

[Return1]

Anyone that thinks DRK needs a lot now is just wrong. The Last resort buff essentially makes them the strongest DD in the game outside abyssea , and a competitive one inside, unless you have a BRD/WHM + DNC in the party as well. If they really want to make a strong boost to DRK's magical side, they could boost Absorb spells. f they made Absorb Spells last 3 minutes and have the boosted stat remain static instead of decaying constantly, the effects would actually be worth casting the spells.

SMN has found its place in my opinion. You're a defensive support job that throws out supplemental damage. Earthen Armor with Scherzo is an amazing combo and is extremely effective for new NMs and Voidwatch. The fact you can solo well and have strong bursts of magic and physical damage types is a blessing people need to take advantage of.

PLD also has benefited. The addition of mobs that hit very hard, have high accuracy, and strip shadows, make them more desirable. If SE keeps the newer, more difficult fights churning out, we'll see PLD return in a real tanking role. The fact they made the recent VIT change was a precursor telling us of their intention.

THF is another example of SE getting it right. THFs wanted to be allowed to melee/DD on bigger mobs. SE made it so they would be encouraged to melee by making TH effects build as they do damage. To get rid of that pesky "THFs feed the mob too much TP" argument, they made AGI, a stat THFs have good amounts of, lower the TP given to mobs per hit, and release tons of good Subtle Blow gear, especially in slots that won't eat up Haste gear. The THF adjustment is probably my favorite adjustment as they fixed THF by not just giving boosts by damage, but by increasing its own unique way of contributing to groups.

[Soundwave]

SMN has found its place in my opinion. You're a defensive support job that throws out supplemental damage. Earthen Armor with Scherzo is an amazing combo and is extremely effective for new NMs and Voidwatch. The fact you can solo well and have strong bursts of magic and physical damage types is a blessing people need to take advantage of.

I'll just reply to this one because your saying all the jobs you listed don't need adjutments.

With smn yes everybody I'm sure is blessed by what they have atm, you can't hurt a job by giving it another tool in the bag. The goal again is to see if SE will respond and tell us what they somewhat have in store in the future for the jobs. Its better to see what they say if they say anything so we can comment on that instead of making stuff up based on where we think the job is heading, granted I'm sure most guessing are right but they are only guesses.

[Glamdring]

PLD also has benefited. The addition of mobs that hit very hard, have high accuracy, and strip shadows, make them more desirable. If SE keeps the newer, more difficult fights churning out, we'll see PLD return in a real tanking role. The fact they made the recent VIT change was a precursor telling us of their intention.

good luck selling that one to the player-base that already "knows" better. Honestly, the Abyssea content has been as devastating to paladin as the old XP penalty being published in an early how-to guide was to beast. They removed it in year 2 or 3 of release but we beasts still get crap about it. Paladin is going to take almost as long to recover from Abyssea, and the 75-90 boosts to other jobs. This is all barring some radical redesign of the game.

Not with me mind you, having played some jobs that have long been discriminated against I've gotten used to doing things in ways other than the cookie-cutter approaches on wiki and alla, so I know there are other ways to get things done. Paladins are welcome in my parties, just not in a DD role.

[Return1]

Even the guys at BG were talking bout how they found PLD useful for the newer NMs and voidwatch. PLD will become more desirable because SE is designing more PLD friendly fights. High Accuracy means eva tanks lose their main advantage. Real hard hitters remove something like WHM+WAR/SAM tanking it from 100% to dead. The ability to strip shadows, like spamming ga spells, or AoE melee attacks. No 20mp a tick in Atmas helps too.

I will not be surprised when the next tier of Voidwatch scheduled to come out in the August update, and new NMs they'll add to the next revamped system, makes PLD important again.

[Alhanelem]

pup: the only things we can be absoutely certain of; whm AI will never be fixed, scanner will never be made to function, rdm pup will remain capped at level 72 and harlequin at 50.

Um, harle/rdm are not capped to those levels. not learning more magic != capped. Scanner already functions, it just doesn't do what we want it to do. WHM AI isn't broken, strictly speaking, though the majority of us would like some changes to its default behavior.

[Sparthos]

Even the guys at BG were talking bout how they found PLD useful for the newer NMs and voidwatch. PLD will become more desirable because SE is designing more PLD friendly fights. High Accuracy means eva tanks lose their main advantage. Real hard hitters remove something like WHM+WAR/SAM tanking it from 100% to dead. The ability to strip shadows, like spamming ga spells, or AoE melee attacks. No 20mp a tick in Atmas helps too.

I will not be surprised when the next tier of Voidwatch scheduled to come out in the August update, and new NMs they'll add to the next revamped system, makes PLD important again.

While part of me agrees with you, Voidwatch has been a drop in the sea known as post-Abyssea FFXI. Really, the system is so incomplete and rewards so few it has failed to even divert the smallest iota of attention away from Abyssea.

Really it's starting to smell like VNMs all over again.