New 2-hour Abilities

[Minikom]

OK SE Nerfing PD and Embrava, honestly i think they just looking a good excuse to do thia and player already give it now
complaining about the recast time on new 2 hours being shared.....
if se do this please nerf legion .... an event where you need PD and embrava to max and where you can still fail if ppl do mistakes.

i dont see really useful reducing the recast timer for SP abilities, when ppl use thier 2 hours? abyssea ? einherjar? limbus? campaing battle? dynamis? basicaly the most of events are too short and dont need to reuse SP abilities and iff you need it like legion take 1-2 cors to wild card ppl

i'd like to know ppl thought about PD and embrava Nefr, dont let SE nerf those 2 abilities, sch and smn are useful now.... they were the most unwanted jobs

[Demon6324236]

Hello!

I have some news from Producer Akihiko Matsui, which I believe you will all be quite happy about!

You know, when I posted this yesterday...

I think changing this as players wish would go a long way in showing that the new man in charge, is truly listening to players feedback, and taking it into consideration.

I really didn't expect much, or anything, for at least a few days or a week. I admit I am amazed at what I woke up to today. Sadly still no word on the BST problem, however I can easily look past that for now to see everything else.

As we previously explained, the new SP abilities we designed based on the idea that the recast timer would be shared with the existing SP abilities and players would use them accordingly. While the effects and usages have been compared to the existing SP abilities and consideration has been given so that they are balanced, we will be completely separating the two and changing the concept so that each ability can be used separately.

We will be making them so they are complete abilities on their own and do not need to be constrained to using one or the other.

It is good this is being done, great even. It means you are giving us 2 abilities we will use rather than 1 we will use and one which will clutter our list. I am so very happy that this is being done because it means we will not be locked to 1 ability and that we can use both as we wish.

Originally the idea for SP abilities was to have players use them one time for specific content or battle situations and to use it wisely. When considering the current battle tempo and the average time for content these days, we feel that it would be beneficial to make the recast 1 hour with the ability to reduce it a minimum of 30 minutes via merit points. With this, the idea of “2-hour abilities” will changed when we explore the effects.

Ok, this is great and bad news at the same time. Great that you are making them faster to use, and realize the game has become much faster than before, making 2 hours an annoyingly long wait time. The terrible part is, if you nerf things to much. I think that while you should change the timers, you should not need to change the effects. These abilities are meant to be powerful but limited, but if they are adjusted to be to weak, then they will become just another ability. In my opinion, 1 hour is still a long enough time for these to stay as powerful as they are now, or some to become more powerful, so that they are still special and strong, but maintain a certain rarity on how they are used, because of the long wait.

Based on the changes stated above, we will be looking into the effects for the new SP abilities once again.

This does not mean only time related adjustments will be made. If deemed necessary we will be completely revamping the effect from the ground up.

This, worries me a little. Many of these new ones are already questionable in use, even shortening the recast does not make up for it entirely. But with previous changes it seems as if you might make the new ones shorter, or even weaker. If this is the case, it will make them worse and solve little, in fact, may even make things worse. So I ask of you, please do not make this great reduction to recast, a total reduction of their use, and there by make them to weak, or worthless.

We will be looking into revamping existing SP ability effects based on the two points below.
•Adjustments to effects to coincide with recast shortening
•Balance adjustments to coincide with the new SP ability effects revamp
Even with the existing SP abilities there is a division between those that have good uses and those that do not depending on the job. Ultimately our aim is to make it so that by putting together the effects of the two SP abilities every job can have a boon. With that said, we will be revamping the existing SP abilities so that balance is not thrown off when incorporating usage of the new SP abilities.

As a general direction we will be raising all of the abilities so that they become useful. However, we believe that we will have no choice but add the lowering of effects of Perfect Defense and Embrava to our scope of adjustments.

The same applies here. Please do not ruin these abilities by making them weaker, its still a long recast, they should still be just as powerful, if not more so for the weaker ones.

I am happy we were given some good news, just please don't let it go bad, and also please don't forget about BST.

[Sp1cyryan]

I do not trust for this to be done well at all honestly. Please tread lightly and don't pull one of those "typical SE" moves.

[Kroma]

BLM/RDM

Manafont Chainspell.

NOPE.

I think you misunderstood. The sub job would provide one of the new 2-hour abilities, not the original. So for instance, in your BLM/RDM example, the 2 abilities available would be Mana Font and the yet-to-be-named ability for RDM which would "grant an increase to the effect of enhancing magic." Realistically, why would you sub RDM? With it the other way around, you could have Chainspell and another yet-to-be-named ability for BLM which would "grant a drastic decrease in enmity generated by magic attacks." The first example with RDM sub would be so-so at best. But, Chainspell without generating enmity would be pretty awesome.

Think about it.

[Bloodrain]

Up until the release of the Abyssea Battle Add-on Trilogy , The 2 hour ability not only defined the job class it was for , but was the Last Resort or hidden Ace-up-the-sleeve that would or could turn the tide of battle . These Abilities are supposed to be over powered , hence the exceptionally long cool down . In the Official Strategy Guides this point was firmly stated and as the game progressed from Rise of the Zilart to Chains of Promithia thru the Treasures of Aht Urghan , crucial use of these extreme abilities was the difference between success and failure .

This. 1000 times THIS.

[Demon6324236]

I think you misunderstood. The sub job would provide one of the new 2-hour abilities, not the original. So for instance, in your BLM/RDM example, the 2 abilities available would be Mana Font and the yet-to-be-named ability for RDM which would "grant an increase to the effect of enhancing magic." Realistically, why would you sub RDM? With it the other way around, you could have Chainspell and another yet-to-be-named ability for BLM which would "grant a drastic decrease in enmity generated by magic attacks." The first example with RDM sub would be so-so at best. But, Chainspell without generating enmity would be pretty awesome.

Think about it.

Because your talking about 1 minute of spamming as many high powered T5 Nukes at a mob as you can, against spamming as many T4 nukes without Enmity at a mob as you can. While less~no enmity is helpful, its not often going to beat out the massive damage 20 T5 spells would do by compare to 20 T4 spells. Also you have to take into account how much more MAB is on BLM, so even more power, with Chainspell+Manafont there is no need to hold back for fear of anything except hate.

[Babekeke]

It depends HOW they nerf PD as to whether ADL is going to be 'impossible'. If they shorten the duration, you'll need to use more SMN per kill, but being able to merit recast down to 30 mins, you can get 3 uses per SMN in 1 dyna run, and that's without any CORs (assuming Wild Card isn't also nerfed).

[Sargent]

Way I see it, look at Ukko's and Smite. Everyone panicked when SE announced the nerf, but it wasn't as bad as people thought it would be (only a nerf to their native critical hit rate iirc)

Now if we look at Perfect Defense and what they could do with it. At the moment it starts off with around -90~95% Damage Taken and Resistance to most stats, decaying after 45 seconds or half duration. If they reduced potency to start at say, -75% Damage Taken, it would still be fairly decent, and not completely overpowered for the 30 minute recast on Astral Flow. You would require more healing power, but either way, thats likely to be needed anyway. imo, nerfing the duration would have a much worse effect on it.

Embrava on the other hand is a much different situation. Embrava excels at capping magic haste (when used with Haste itself), and providing a strong Regen and Regain effect. At the moment, a capped Embrava will provide 34% Haste. If they reduce the Haste on Embrava by any more than 5%, you no longer cap Magic Haste. The regain I don't see getting nerfed too much (maybe one/tick), making a 30min-1hr specific spell the same potency in Regain as a XI Tactician's Roll would be extremely unfair despite Embrava's other effects, and then possibly prompt a nerf to Tact Roll. Nerfing the duration would put a serious hindrance on Neo Nyzul, but I think this is the most likely route they'll take unfortunately.

On the other hand, now's the time to ask- for the love of god, give the current Astral Flow Blood Pacts (barring Zantetsuken) a damage boost.

[Yinnyth]

This. 1000 times THIS.

Because I cannot tell you how many times I've saved my party with overdrive. (For those of you who don't play pup, that was sarcasm).

In all seriousness though, that's not how 2hrs get used anymore. It might have been 5 years ago, but they're zerg fodder now. In most events, you save your 2hr for the boss, because you can't use it twice per event, and that's the place it counts the most. If you make it so your pld can hit invincible 3 times per salvage, then he c- wait, why do you have a pld in salvage?

!@#$ happens. Any run of any event can go south quickly. The ability to recognize these problems, weigh them with when you'll need your SPs again, and properly or improperly save the day will play a large role in the new shape of FFXI.

And make no mistake, changing SPs this drastically will COMPLETELY reshape FFXI. I'm not a fan of embrava and PD getting nerfed since nyzul and dynamis are about all I do ingame right now, but I think that's part of the reason why they're delaying. Or at least I hope so. Let's wait and see how naive I am.

[Yinnyth]

Side note, because this is something I'm really curious about...: What role will wildcard play with the new SPs? Will it be able to:

1: reset both SPs of any job on a roll of V or VI?

2: reset the secondary SP of the COR who used it, or any other CORs in party?

Obviously it shouldn't be allowed to reset itself since that would result in a party full of CORs spamming nothing but quick draw, random deal, and wild card. Ohhhhh, side side note: Since Wild Card will be reduced to a 30-60 minute recast, will random deal still be on a 20 minute recast?