Adjustments to Embrava and Perfect Defense

[Insaniac]

Holy shit~ Worst adjustments ever. They wouldn't be that bad if you adjusted the content properly but you went full lazy and did almost nothing. A truly pathetic attempt. Go back to the drawing board. The Embrava Nerf should be duration only and it should be 3 minutes base not 90 seconds. PD can stay ~60 seconds but you need to make thoughtful adjustments to content instead. For instance instead of throwing up your hands on ADL let me fix him for you right here.

Lower his AoE range to 15-20. 40+ IS ABSOLUTE INSANITY.
Completely separate the Enmity between him and his clone(s).
Increase the ready time of Terra Slash and Dynamic Implosion.
In general just make this fight less of a clusterf*ck. Being able to control and predict an opponents actions with decent gameplay is what makes interesting and fun fights.

I'll talk about legion for a second too I guess.

For Legion make adjustments to all of the monsters stats not just HP.
Reduce the crit penalty.
Introduce some sort of TE system for a max time of 45 minutes. A 5 minute TE per wave would make sense. Not including extra clears of wave 3.
The rewards from legion are not good enough to warrant the level of difficulty you have given it. I'm not saying change the rewards. I'm saying if the only thing you have in your yard to steal is a decent set of lawn furniture you probably don't need a 20 foot high fence topped with razor wire.

[Chimerawizard]

90 second Regen VI+Haste

damn that's one nice spell, I'll have that on DD 24/7. wait, that's my 2hr ability. that regen better be 1000hp/tick and haste better break the magic haste cap by itself.

[IvyKyori]

Hi, I think the devs over there don't realize that refresh does fuck-all for melee characters who normally have ZERO mp to begin with...

Thanks for making the one job I actually enjoy playing a complete joke.

[Luvbunny]

It's like this - they let embrava to be awesome in the past two years because there were not that many events back then that required you bring multiple scholars to actually be able to complete it and make people depended heavily on the job (as well as PD). Back then most people did not yet realize how good the embrava 2 hours when they first implemented. When the majority of players actually realizing it and rejoicing the benefits, and paying costumers were able to complete contents that they designed to be incomplete able, this start putting fires in the developer's arse. Hence you see many of the multi nerfs that hit warrior, monk, beast master, and now scholar and summoner just to name a few. When people able to have fun, and access the content readily, they make sure the opposite happens. Instead of focusing in creating more contents for us to consume, they decided to halt consumption and make the game even more frustrating for the majority of the players.

[shigen]

No big surprise here really. Been playing long enough to expect drastic measures any time something is "adjusted" by SE. In my experience there are only a select few events that when introduced did not need massive and in some cases repeated overhauls by SE to become enjoyable and playable content. I'm thankful for the playerbase who dissects new battles quickly, but usually disappointed by the fact that it's gonna be gimmicky or outright impossible at first without strict requirements.

It'll be interesting to see if this new guy and a skeleton crew can keep this game afloat with the pressure of a new expansion in the works, and who knows, maybe create some redeeming gameplay to counter the shitty stuff we've dealt with lately. Meeble Burrows is somewhat entertaining until you realize how small it is and ineffective as a stopgap (the concept of a short, intense dungeon crawl is great but it reeks of limited resources and intent to stall progress to create false longevity) to deliver something to a playerbase that is pretty discontent at the moment.

I wish the devs good luck, they're gonna need a helluva lot of it.

PS. While novel upon first use, primeval brews, fanatics drinks, and even perfect defense have got to be some of the worst game design decisions I've ever seen, particularly in an MMORPG.

[Chimerawizard]

The game needs an overhaul.
Macros need to be at minimum 16 lines long; (mobs like to make people naked and when we're finally able to put things back on 3~4 macro's shouldn't be needed just to re-equip.
The enmity system; (not even gonna really touch on that; I don't know where to start)
attack, defense, mab, mdb, dt, pdt, mdt, etc need to be looked at to find out what needs re-worked.
the plethora of gear needs overhauled to be relevent after above-mentioned overhaul of systems.
weapon skills, skillchains, and magic burst needs adjustments so that it makes more sense.
weapon overhaul with the gear overhaul.
physican and magical damage calculations, enhancements, enfeeble effects, and cure(kinda done already) need to be math'd to make sure they fit into the new system.

the reason everyone hates so much about any 'fix' proposed is that they are always half-ass'd. (well in my case anyway)

Don't 'fix' anything til you can have the staff make adjustments to all the things player-side and create a program to check damage calculations on the monster side to make sure normal attacks don't go over a certain number, instant-KO moves are extremely rare, instant-wipe moves are removed from the game, and back to back moves normally won't instant-wipe either. Then test it, every aspect to make sure it's not just going to be another failure.

i'm sleepy so this was probably an overzealous post. w/e it's what I actually think.

about embrava not being known when it was first introduced, Perpetuance is a lv76 spell. so embrava really was not huge when it first came out since 30-40 regen, 2-3 regain, and 15-20 haste. after perpetuance was out, people had abyssea on the brain all the way through lv90, easy content is easy and SCH didn't bring what all low man groups want, max proc's per character.

[Luvbunny]

Totally agree. They should instead focusing on adjusting those said content in the first place. The fact that you MUST have Embrava and PD to actually have a chance to complete it is beyond retarded. It's like they are not even thinking over there. They said they will adjust those events accordingly in response to these adjustment but when you actually read what they are planning to do, your head spin faster trying to comprehend the reason and logic. 10% HP adjustment???? really??? Not even considering what everyone been telling them that these NMs hit like a truck and pretty much guaranteed to one shot most of the players without PD on, wide AOE range, massive critical hit rate rendering your merit useless. All they are doing is adjusting the HP.... They deserve our wrath and massive trolling on the forum. They don't even care what the NA and European players think anyway, we don't exist, our opinions don't matter, we are just auto ATM for them paying monthly fees but with no voice when it comes to game decision.

[Muras]

I apologise for such a lengthy post, and understand if most people just skip over it. If anything I hope at least some of what I say reaches the eyes of Mr. Matsui but I won't hold my breath.

I got so much to say I'm having a hard time sorting it all out in my own head. I've been a SCH for a very long time, long before even Abyssea came out. It's a job I truly enjoy playing, and when Matsui made his original post describing possible nerfs I was very happy to hear what he had to say. It sounded to me that he was more concerned with making the game playable and enjoyable than anything else. I was totally for a nerf to Embrava and Perfect Defence if it meant content would become more accessible to me and my few friends (As most others have quit...).

But you've done it wrong. That is to say, there isn't a single thing right with your adjustments. Camate, or someone, if you read my post I want you to keep in mind I'm writing this to my best ability to not insult the devs as you guys often ask. But as someone who takes game design very seriously himself, these terrible ideas and adjustments are incredibly angering and almost insulting. I understand very well that game design is art and there's bound to be disagreements between two artists, but what I find incredibly aggravating is that the FF11 devs seem to forget that they're not making this game for themselves, it's for other people. Game designers are like the chefs of video games, and like actual chefs who prepare food for others, they have to take into consideration the pallet and tastes of those they're preparing food for.

Do not tell me to wait and actually see what these adjustments are like. Don't tell me I don't know what I'm talking about just because I'm speculating based on the information you gave me. Don't tell me that just because you're a designer and I'm the player that you're always right by default. Do not insult us, the players, who have played this game for years. Unless you're telling me that you're going to be completely revamping the battle system, we know EXACTLY how these adjustments are going to play out in practise.

With that out of the way, I'll get to the part where I explain why I disagree so much, and what I'd do differently if I actually had some influence (Which I and obviously every other player clearly don't have). I just want to clarify that the Embrava isn't my main concern, but rather the lack of adjustments to content. I'm just mentioning it first since that's the order Camate's post went in.

• Embrava:
• Effect duration: Currently 5 minutes → Adjusted to 90 seconds
• Haste: Currently 1% increase for every 15 enhancing skill points → Adjusted to 1% increase for every 20 enhancing skill points. Maximum of 25% at 500 skill
• Regain Effect: While the value will remain unchanged, the Regain effect will be changed to Refresh.

Ok so... I'll get right to the point. This spell is no longer worthy of being attached to the 2 hour, save for the Haste part. Although due to the duration it's practically worthless. I always hated the fact that the spell Embrava was tied to the 2 hour, but I could accept the reasoning behind it because the spell was very powerful.

If you're going to go this far with the spell, you might as well do it right. This is how I'd do it:

Embrava
Duration: 3 minutes
Regen: (Enhancing Skill / 10) +1 (51 HP at 500 skill)
Haste: (Enhancing Skill /100) +5 (10% with 500 skill, capped at 10%)
Refresh: (Enhancing / 150) +1 (4 at 500 skill)
MP Cost: 12.5% of max MP.
Usable at all times.

My reasoning for these adjustments are as follows.

1) Duration is 3 minutes because it's the perfect length, and goes along with other buffs in the game, and can be increased up to 7.5 minutes with Perpetuance. Simply put, this duration makes it usable and useful.

2) Regen is reduced because the spell isn't attached to the 2 hour anymore. I made it 51 HP because combined with Regen V and Empyrean +2 head it evens off at an nice healthy 120 HP/tick.

3) Haste is reduced and capped at 10% because Embrava isn't attached to the 2 hour anymore. I picked to cap it at 10% because it'll remain weaker than the actual Haste spell itself but remains stackable with Haste and BRD songs. It's also weaker than Haste itself because the spell has many other properties. Haste is one spell many SCHs wanted naturally and this is a good alternative.

4) Refresh is reduced because again, the spell is no longer attached to the 2 hour. I chose to make it 4 MP/tick at 500 skill to make it stronger than Refresh 1 but weaker than Refresh 2.

5) The cost of 20% of your max MP doesn't make sense for this spell anymore. It still remains quite costly at 12.5% though, especially when used with Accession.

In regards to the change from Regain to Refresh, this is fine as long as you make Adloquium suck less and make it give 2 TP/tick, preferrably 3. It's also my opinion that Regain from all sources should cap at around 5 because obviously Regain is a very powerful thing. Because stacking Regain from multiple sources is clearly worrisome to the devs, they've chosen to keep spells like Adloquium very useless. If we have a cap then we can have decent abilities and spells that give Regain, but have the choice to strategize which to use given the situation if we have those multiple sources available at one time (Which honestly doesn't happen much, I don't think I've ever been paired with a COR when playing as SCH, ever).

In regards to Kaustra, I've never been very impressed with it and thus feel you could take it off the 2 hour too. I think the damage it deals per tick is the initial damage/3 so it's really not much more potent than a regular helix in the long run, especially when AoE'd.

Perfect Defence:

• Effect duration: Currently 90 seconds → Adjusted to 30 seconds. +1 sec for every 20 summoning skill points, maximum of 60 seconds with 600 skill (30 seconds +30 seconds)
• Effect: No change

Still usable I guess, but like others have said 600 skill might be a little... Impossible. Only thing I can speculate is that you're releasing more Summoning Skill+ gear in the future with the new expansion. I'm still worried that you'll make content with mobs that hit as hard as trains though. Especially because of what you said next...

Along with the above adjustments, the content that featured these abilities heavily into their strategies will see adjustments as well.

• Nyzul Isle Uncharted Area Survey
  We'll be reducing the number of Astrariums necessary to exchange for equipment from 25 to 5.
  *As a result of this, the number of Astrariums players have in possession will be reduced by 1/5.
  
  The idea that you'll need some luck on your side to reach level 100 will not change. While we expect that the number of floors reachable and the frequency will decrease due to the adjustments to Embrava, we decided to balance this by reducing the number of Astrariums required for equipment.
  
  
• Legion
  Monster HP will be reduced by around 10%
  
  This will be applied to all monsters, and adjusted so the overall pace will become faster making it possible to defeat close to the same amount of monsters as before within the 30 minutes time limit.
  
  
• Einherjar
  Odin's Chamber II: Odin's HP will be reduced by around 10-15%.
  
  As this is different from Legion and only a single monster battle, we will be adjusting the HP on a slightly larger range.

This right here tells me you just don't get it. Yes, mobs that die faster deal less damage, but that doesn't matter if we're all getting killed in the first place. Can't deal damage when you're dead and all. And that isn't even the biggest point. Your content that involves these monsters isn't fun. It's quite the opposite, which is weird because I'd imagine most people play this game to find entertainment of some kind. I'm sure some people really do really like this stuff though, but I'm pretty sure most people don't. I wish there was a way to satisfy everyone in the world, but it's just not possible. Things always fall apart when you try to "please everyone". Anyone who's taken any kind of basic marketing in college knows this.

Personally it's their lack of adjustments to content that bother me more than anything. Even as a SCH I wouldn't care much at all if they just outright removed the Embrava spell entirely. I'd much prefer proper adjustments to broken events.

Besides the above content, Perfect Defense and Embrava are utilized for Arch Dynamis Lord and Provenance Watcher; however, the battle times for these monsters are relatively short, so we would like to monitor the battle situation at their current difficulty.

I don't really want hand-me-outs and freebies, so I don't mean to say I want these mobs to be hilariously easy. But on the other hand, I want to be able to just casually reach my goals with my small group of friends. This means being able to somehow kill Arch Dynamis Lord with 3-4 people without Embrava or Perfect Defense.

So why not try this? Why not have every zone boss in every zone (Bastok, Windurst, San'd Oria, Jeuno, Beaucedine) drop a Rare/Ex item. Once you have all 5 on a single character, you can exchange them for a weakening item that can be used against Arch Dynamis Lord that lasts a specific amount of time. You can assume that a group of lesser geared/skilled players may need to use two or three of these items to keep Arch Dynamis Lord at bay while they kill him so a small group could take 1.5 to 2 weeks to build enough weakening items to kill him once or twice due to having to enter multiple different zones. Is this not satisfactory? It's much longer than the regular way but allows small groups to have an actual shot at getting their relics upgraded. If this isn't good enough then we as players need to know what on earth your criteria for balance is.

At the end of the day though, do I expect any of what I said to be considered? No, I don't. It's been very clear during the years that FF11 has been in existence that our voices only effect the smallest of details in FF11, and the devs do whatever they want. But I take the time to do this for the same reason people say you have no right to complain if you don't vote in an election; I have said my part before all of this is permanent and will have no regrets in the future.

[Luvbunny]

PS. While novel upon first use, primeval brews, fanatics drinks, and even perfect defense have got to be some of the worst game design decisions I've ever seen, particularly in an MMORPG.

When they actually design content where you could employ a sane strategy instead of zerging, kill first or be killed in the first 2 mnts, maybe they will deserve our respect. As it is now, your options are zerg or die, use fanatics or wiped, even the level 99 limit break need PD for safe assumption you may win.

[Nixxa]

Re-subscribed yesterday, re-canceled my subscription today. xD think this game needs a bit more time afterall haha. All I wanted was to come back and enjoy some of the FFXI content I grew up with, relieve some stress, hang out, and enjoy some fun endgame content. I was ok taking the good with the bad for the most part, simply taking breaks when I needed a breather or felt the game was headed in the wrong direction...but sadly pretty much all of the endgame content I was hoping to jump back into is just about to become absurdly complicated (not that it wasn't ridiculous to an extent already xD). Well, I got 29 days left of enjoyment to try and suck out of this game, after that I'll go back to lurking through forums and what not while I wait for the day FFXI gives me a reason to crave adding a few more hours to my playtime once again.