Hey remember SC > MB? Make it required.

[ManaKing]

SC+MB is the same as it ever was.

People just got LAZIER.

Fix't and Agreed.

[Arcon]

Fixed and agreed.

Fixed and disagreed.

[Tsukino_Kaji]

Fixed and disagreed.

Only if the disagree is about the term lazy as people did not get lazier, they got too impatient to use them.

[Shinzonx]

stop being lazy and just type not everyone wants to hear another guys voice or w/e i dont i perfer typeing

[Tamoa]

stop being lazy and just type not everyone wants to hear another guys voice or w/e i dont i perfer typeing

Um... what?

[Horadrim]

Only if the disagree is about the term lazy as people did not get lazier, they got too impatient to use them.

To be honest, as much as I liked them, the incentive was minimal -- if they want people to do SC+MB they need to greatly increase the bonus damage received for the chain and intensify the effects of bursts. Maybe have them generate positive buffs that can stack over time based on the number of skill chains done within a decent window of time (15 minutes?) and decay over time. Then pair that with decent bonus damage and people would start doing them a lot more.

Right now there's no real reason to coordinate that much aside from nostalgia.

That was the start, and it should have been the warning signs- much like the exp system now, the combat system has significant flaws that it's "marquee feature" of SC/MB is generally ignored in favor of spamming DPS...because spamming DPS is more effective and efficient.

SC's were moving out of the door before CoP even came out. They were honestly barely used even when I was first learning them back in 2003 -- it was mostly the Japanese players perpetuating their use and even when they came up the additional damage in areas like Yhoator Jungle and the like was "meh" worthy. They just seemed new and excited because most NA's were still learning the game back then.

[Greatguardian]

Fix't and Agreed.

Nope.

I can make skillchains and magic bursts all day. Anyone can.

We don't because they suck and they reduce the overall damage you do by an epicly massive landslide, so much so that actually sitting around and waiting for everyone to get TP at the same time and making a Black Mage stop casting their other spells long enough to time their nukes to MB off of our Skillchain is detrimental.

People got smart. They can do SC+MB if SC+MB is good. But SC+MB is not good. Make SC+MB good and people will do it again. It would have to be damn good, though, to make up for how much the entire concept epicly sucks in the context of FFXI battle mechanics.

[Phafi]

Nope.

I can make skillchains and magic bursts all day. Anyone can.

We don't because they suck and they reduce the overall damage you do by an epicly massive landslide, so much so that actually sitting around and waiting for everyone to get TP at the same time and making a Black Mage stop casting their other spells long enough to time their nukes to MB off of our Skillchain is detrimental.

People got smart. They can do SC+MB if SC+MB is good. But SC+MB is not good. Make SC+MB good and people will do it again. It would have to be damn good, though, to make up for how much the entire concept epicly sucks in the context of FFXI battle mechanics.

Skillchains and magic bursts aren't bad, it just requires going BLM heavy instead of melee heavy. Which hinders stagger rates. In a fight like Pil, I would much rather have 2 sams and 10 BLMs than 1-2blms and 13 melees(I'd also like to RDM tank him, but that's a different story); but that can't be done while maintaining effective stagger rates.

You get points sir. I would happily agree to any increase in the potency of SC > MB.

We have gotten increases to potency, Magic Burst Bonus and Skillchain Bonus traits were added after skillchains lost popularity.

[Greatguardian]

Skillchains and magic bursts aren't bad, it just requires going BLM heavy instead of melee heavy. Which hinders stagger rates. In a fight like Pil, I would much rather have 2 sams and 10 BLMs than 1-2blms and 13 melees(I'd also like to RDM tank him, but that's a different story); but that can't be done while maintaining effective stagger rates.

Fanatic's Drinks and a good Monk+Warrior tank combo will solve that problem quick. Just run in and zerg when Fanatic's is up, then run in/WS/proc when Fanatic's is down; repeat whenever Fanatic's is refreshed. As long as you aren't one-shot from full HP (which should only happen with shield up, and shield shouldn't stay up long with 2 Cors), melees shouldn't be dropping too often.

I dominated my last Pil parse on Armageddon COR last night, too, doing 30%~ of total alliance damage against 3 Ukons, 1 Vereth, 1 Kannagi, 1 Masamune, 1 Rhongomiant, 1 WoE Gun COR, 1 Gandiva, 1 Almace BLU, and 2 Blms. Throwing more BLMs at it is a pretty old hat way to handle him. It's a lot easier to allocate the black mages to proc duty to keep a steady stream of temp items and staggers flowing in than losing direct damage from the DDs during fanatic's and/or putting DDs in harm's way more often without Fanatic's.

Skillchains were also being fully resisted by Pil too, to stay on topic. 1.5k Wildfire closed a 91 damage Darkness, and the Light SCs that the Mnk was self-SC'ing weren't doing much better.

[Phafi]

Skillchains were also being fully resisted by Pil too, to stay on topic. 1.5k Wildfire closed a 91 damage Darkness, and the Light SCs that the Mnk was self-SC'ing weren't doing much better.

probably because you're making a skillchain that doesn't fit the monster's weakness, had you made light, it would have yielded fire or wind damage which is a caturae's weakness.