Thoughts on the FFXI Job Adjustment Manifesto

[TimeMage]

Raksha it was on Ultima and Omega (as my LS prefers BLM > SCH in abyssea but SCH > BLM outside it because of that body piece and the fact that I never run out of MP and rarely have to use Convert to do so)

And on both of those (casting all my strong magic practically continually as well as landing 200/tic helices on them) never made my hate go above 25% (according to Libra) and I was spamming them as we had a WHM and an Ochain90 PLD tanking, so didn't need to use Light Arts at all.

Well, this explains it, and I'm sorry, but you don't understand Libra.

What probably happened is that, at first, with hate not capped, let's say that the PLD had 1000 enmity, the highest, and Libra labeled it 100%. you nuked hard, let's say, enough for 250 enmity (I'm pulling simple numbers from my ass, btw, I know enmity is not like this, neither it has this numbers) and your hate, being 25% of the Paladin's, was labeled 25%. then, later in the fight, the PLD has his hate capped. I think it's 10k or something, I don't really remember. In any case, you've been churning those awesome spells of yours constantly, but since the PLD's hate was still increasing it seemed to you that your nukes weren't generating hate, since... You still stayed at 25%! Well, that's wrong. because 25% of 10k is 2500, and that means you did 10 nukes of the exact same enmity of the first one, but your % total of enmity kept constant when using Libra.


Which, btw, this proves that Libra not also needs a range change, but also needs to show actual enmity total numbers, and not percentages relative to the highest in the list.

[Merton9999]

If a Modus Veritas type ability were to be added for curative, enfeebling and buff spells, the recast should be a lot less than 5 minutes, and not tied to strategems. If this is going to be the method by which Adloquium and Animus are made worthwhile, and by which SCH can become a viable healer again, it would need to be available much more frequently, unless straight Cure V or more base potency were added.

I agree with the trade-off concept though. I'm looking for an ideal recast where you could make good use of the ability to buff either healing, OR enfeebles, OR cures OR buffs consistently, but not something that freely lets us do all of them simultaneously. I like the current choice concept of SCH and want that to remain. But, to even rely on a MV regen as a replacement for Cure V, since Regens tend to last less than two minutes, not even one minute recast would enough to full time an MV ability on one target, let alone having the choice to use it on anything other than that one spell.

Again, if this is the mechanism by which our healing, enhancing and enfeebling sides are to compete to 99, I don't think something like a 30 second recast is unreasonable.

Another possibility is for the party-target MV to affect all existing slip spells on the target. So if they have Regen, Regain and Dia on them, MV would double all those potencies and halve all the durations. Then the recast could be upped.

Keep regular MV at 5-10 minutes (no ability should be more than 5 minutes, imo, except 2 hours), so we're not overdoing it on nukes.

My biggest gripe with the MV nerf is that the potential for it was widely known and talked about on forums from the day the ability was made available. I looked forward to doing it myself from the day of the expansion release. Either SE was not aware of something so ridiculously obvious and didn't read any forum posts, or they knew about it from the beginning and were waiting to see if people could pull it off just to nerf it as soon as they did. Either scenario is pretty sad.

I agree it shouldn't stack. I also agree that not many people bring more than one SCH to events. The problem is the potential to stack 18 MVs can destroy anything without effort. I don't think something like that should be available for new non-Abyssea content. Just make it 100% and either non-stackable or a low stack chance, like everyone has said.

[Sotek]

Keep regular MV at 5-10 minutes (no ability should be more than 5 minutes, imo, except 2 hours), so we're not overdoing it on nukes.

Hmm? Having Modus for every other Helix hardly sounds overpowering. Rather, it sounds like quite a good way to buff our nuking potential without stealing anything away from Black Mage. Modus is either a increase in DoT - which is redundant right now - or an extra two tics (well, a single extra tic with double damage), neither sound overpowering.

[Raksha]

Keep regular MV at 5-10 minutes (no ability should be more than 5 minutes, imo, except 2 hours), so we're not overdoing it on nukes.

No ability at all? 5min convert?

[Merton9999]

Hmm? Having Modus for every other Helix hardly sounds overpowering. Rather, it sounds like quite a good way to buff our nuking potential without stealing anything away from Black Mage. Modus is either a increase in DoT - which is redundant right now - or an extra two tics (well, a single extra tic with double damage), neither sound overpowering.

I don't really care. Maybe before Enmity Douse I would have said it was unbalanced because helices are hateless, but with it I agree the timer could be lowered significantly.

[Jamesy]

I've waited a really long time before joining this forum site, but i finally decided I'm going to clear the air and the senseless shouting of ides for jobs has to end.

i completely agree scholar needs an overhaul as someone who has had scholar as his main job since the release of it.
i am going to categorize and state what needs to be changed and fixed as someone who understands the job completely, I'm not saying people on here don't its just a lot of ideas are being thrown and we need order.

1- modus veritas: undo the gimping and just make it so it doesn't stack and have a % of accuracy not a complete immunity for notorious monsters. P.s. our recast timer needs to be shortened

2- Cure V or cure v type spell: we all need one stop beating around the bust it doesn't need to be the same exact potency but scholar's cure capability is gimp with the level increase and it has to be addressed.

3- storms: we either need a second tier or their level acquirement has to be adjusted because storms and helices are a part of our individualism and since most jobs can /sch and get most of our storms we are losing a fine part of our job.

4- Libra: ok we all know libra is a joke the idea was cool but execution was lack luster it didn't really follow how libra worked in the old games and we need a range increase aswell as something other then enmity read because personally i can tell hate levels without it.

5- nukes: we have helices but honestly we need something else to give scholar more variety the high damage over time is cool in all but in use it makes it difficult to fight high level monsters. so it would be nice to see a second tier or maybe another elemental selection of area nukes scholar can tap into.

6- break(not just for scholar): this spell is currently a hilarious mix between stun and bind. which needs to be improved considering monsters can cast break and petrify for an extended period of time and hit us the players multiple times while we cant accomplish anything. I'm not saying give us par to monster strength but maybe implement a strength of petrify based on enfeebling skill.

7- as far as the manifesto goes i think its funny that they want to give us a spell or ability that can only be used under tabula rasa while it sounds cool id much rather prefer like previously stated to see stratagems not wear off during the ability.

8- spell possibility Omega: this adds to the helices section of my post have a new spell for scholar that is acts like a helix with 2x the potency and mp cost but is a non specific element or mixes elements depending on the day kind of like staggering elements it has the possibility of being the current days element along with the day before or after along with it.

well that's my 2 cents and i apologize if i offended anyone i just wanted to try make it clear to se what scholar really needs.

[Watts101]

As someone who's practically brand new to Scholarl I've enjoyed seeing where others feel the job needs adjusting. Since SCH is my first real "Mage" job I've been eagerly seeking info about the job. As I've played it I feel I've almost instantly discovered a lot of the shortcomings of the job and that isn't saying much for the job since I've only played it for about 2 weeks. All in all i love SCH the basis of the job is sound. But like several others have already posted it needs some serious overhauling attention. I'll try to Highlight or bold my main points so you can sift through my blathering.

I really don't think it's unfair to say that the reason SCH is 18th in popularity, according to the recent census, is because the job has a lot of lack. Nearly everyone who's posted in here is saying it.

Very first thing I noticed had issue was Modus Veritas. Awesome idea! I read about it and was way excited to use it. So when i decided to pew a mob with it and it says missed target I was furious since nearly every JA that isn't melee is either 100% hit or totally resisted! I went back to read on the JA and found in some comments that it'd been adjusted.

Talk about deflating for someone who's wanting to try this new job and use it to its utmost, only to find that the one really cool JA had been hit with the nerfing stick and been buried 6 feet underground and forgotten about entirely or just simply ignored in order to give other jobs attention.

Alright maybe it's overall potential was higher than the Dev. Team intended but it didn't need to be murdered in the dark.

My second real hangup on the job is healing. Yup, it's been said plenty already and i completely agree. I've got Galkas with empyrean weapons wanting me to cure and keep them alive in abyssea with rapture > cure 4 which at the moment with my limited skill is only getting them maybe 720 HP. That's with whatever gear to increase it I've got. Lots of abyssea nm's hit for 500's How is a lowly sch supposed to keep even one galka alive without cure 5? maybe the Dev. team is worried about accession cure 5's; in an aoe sense that would put us above WHM's because they're currently at curaga 4. Understandable to an extent when viewed from that perspective. So don't let accession affect cure V. You did it to haste clearly it's possible.

My third and really most recent complaint is actually just that. Accession > Haste. Why not? Garuda gets it but last time i checked most summoners aren't invited so they can AOE haste. As a SMN i generally only use hastega when i'm in party with some melee and figure i've got some mp to spare. I've had multiple people in my LS that aren't sch's ask if i can AOE haste. Every time i say i can't the response is the same "Lame". Melee's are wanting it from us. Sch's are wanting it so we can give it to them. Come on.

I haven't really messed with the 2-hour on SCH but from what i've read i can understand other SCH's complaint that it needs fixing. This recent july update affected tons of jobs. Where's the sch update? Is it in Aug.? I sure hope so. Fix the 2-hour to do what it was originally intended to do then you'll find players wanting to give greater feed back on additional content like spells under 2-hour.

I'll put it out there right now. As much as i'd LOVE to have Ultima on SCH. If the Dev. team decided to make it a 2-hour spell could you kindly ask them to change our 2-hr's name to Ultima instead? If the 2-hour doesn't work properly to begin with that's all that it's gonna get used for. A single 2hr boom! ULTIMA!!!!


Here's a few of my ideas regarding the manifesto.

Help define SCH's role in an alliance! If we're working towards endgame material it needs to be able to have purpose. A previous post suggested making SCH an enhancing master and to stop treading so much on RDM's enfeebling magics. Regain; although nice 1tp tic's are like waiting for your laundry to dry; Boring and kinda pointless.

Add spells to enhance damage given from specific weapons. piercing, slashing, etc. maybe that's overpowered i dont know. it would make sense for a second teir of storm spells or something like unto it.

Give our emnity spells more Power! At the moment the emnity difference is minimal. If i cast Animus Augeo on a Ninja. That ninja should be getting a noticeable increase in emnity. Animus Minuo needs to lower emnity more also.

Another person suggested modus veritas be able to be used for buffing spells on allies. A good idea. Adjust the timer though.

Libra, I've used it once to see what it looked like. I saw it laughed and then proceeded to ignore it. I definitely liked the suggestion of changing libra from an emnity examination to scanning for weaknesses blunt resistance, piercing resistance, slashing, magic, enfeebling etc. A scholar should be able to assess his enemy and determine his weaknesses! That's what strategists are supposed to do! Find the loop holes in an enemies defense and exploit it. If that kind of useful information was being given I wouldn't be against moving into range of a dangerous mob to attempt, with reasonable success, to obtain it. Keep the range the same but with the risk increase the reward!

Also for the manifesto, I like the idea of allowing SCH to magically create more skillchain options! Immanence allows us to create a lvl 1 skillchain. Take it further! Introduce some final spells that have dual elements or at the least allow for the building of tier 2 skillchains. It offers increased dmg to or risk of healing a mob. It would also allow for BLM's to have more magic bursting opportunities and wouldn't tread on BLM's spells and power so much since the spell has to connect with a weaponskill to create the chain or potentially another SCH.





I want tier 2 helix spells! P.S. don't nerf them! grant them an additional affect like magic evasion down or amnesia. Effect diminishes with time. make the effect useful!

Finish giving SCH the tier 5 elemental spells.

[Watts101]

bah i was in the midst of editing my previous post. Sorry i know it's big. LOL. Lastly i'd love to see a forbidden gray or red arts. Cause it to remove access to all other spells while gaining access to some endgame power spells. Cause the spells to have dangerous casting costs.

Quick: Allows next spell to be cast instantly with no recast timer but still costs full mp" 50 tp 100 MP

Temporal Tear: True AOE haste 15% for 5 mins hits everyone including mobs in cast range. casting cost 250 HP 250 mp

Seraphims Halo: AoE DMG Spell with additional affect light based healing helix effect for 1/6 the damage done. stacks with regen. Spell cost 50% HP 50% mp

Ultima: Yes every SCH wants it. SCH's final spell. 75% hp 50% mp 100 tp to cast.

Perhaps some tier 2 helix and storm spells. Just some food for thought to play with. If sch is to tread on both White magic and Black magic it only makes sense to allow for some powerful spells unique to them that dont take away from WHM or BLM. A set of Red or gray arts spells would allow for that. Limit it's use. Can only be active for 1 min. 5-7 mins recast. Powerful spells with dangerous consequences, while restriciting the sch's ability to over use the spells given. The numbers i'm offering for casting costs are just speculation and suggestive. I'd expect the dev, team to hammer out those kinds of details.

[Merton9999]

@Watts101
Immanence can create level 2 skillchains already. It can't create level 3 alone - you have to add Black Halo or Retribution, so not really happening in parties on important mobs. This is one way in which the previously mentioned dual-element spells would come in handy.

Curaga IV is essentially AOE Cure V - all curaga tiers cure roughly the same as the single target spell above their number. Also, the .dats indicate WHM will be getting the Curaga V next update, meaning AOE Cure VI strength. I'm not trying to be a nitpicking jerk, just wanted to point out there's nothing about SCHs getting Cure V that would put us past WHMs, at least as far as the strength of cure spells.

[Raksha]

One other thing to add is that Accession already doesn't work with cure5/6.