Overall Battle System Adjustments for the Future

[Yinnyth]

I'm trying to understand a lot of the things said by the reps in this thread, but there is a chain of logic I simply cannot follow. From what I've read, it sounds like they think DRK is too powerful because of desperate blows:

This is a topic that has been discussed in several threads, particularly one about dark knight being too powerful. As was commented during VanaFest, we feel dark knight is becoming powerful

So they're going to nerf desperate blows while boosting last resort by exactly the same amount so... no nerf is really accomplished:

•Current
•Desperate Blows +25%
•Post-adjustment
•Desperate Blows +10% (*Value with 5 merit points)
•Last Resort +15%

But this makes it so that DRK becomes a new viable option for a SJ:

Simply put, this adjustment will allow you to gain this effect in the case you use dark knight as your support job.

But since this change will have no effect on one-handers:

Currently, the development team plans to have the proposed Last Resort haste benefit only apply to two-handed weapons. The reason being is there are already a number of benefits that single-handed weapons posses such as dual wield, martial arts, etc.

Then all of this is moot. There is only one job that seriously gains from using drk as a SJ, and that's samurai. Samurai is still a better SJ than drk because hasso can be on full time so you never lose the haste, plus the various TP benefits and seigan if stuff takes a turn for the worse. So forgive my ignorance if this is not the case, but this whole chain of logic looks like it is designed only to give SAM the ability to reach the same amount of JA haste that DRK can reach. And even then, it still probably won't be used over /war or /dnc.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for making it so there's more SJ diversity! And this change might just be one step towards making drk a more viable SJ with other changes on the horizon. But the whole reason people sub sam is it gives them massive boosts if they use a 2h weapon. Don't you think there should be SJ options that give you almost comparable boosts regardless of how many hands you use to hold your weapon? Also, I think it would be better to start with the jobs that people almost never sub (like cor, brd, pup, rng, drg, blu, bst, smn, mnk), not one that people situationally sub like drk.

[Demon6324236]

Greetings

Thank you for answering more questions, however I would like to know if there is any chance mine might be answered. So that it is easier to find, my question and the post in which it in are right here.

Since we have had a few questions directly answered in this thread it seems, I would like to ask one or two myself if possible. Is there any chance we will be seeing a point system in Voidwatch sometime before the release of Seekers, and if so, how might it work? I recall talk of Crystal Petrifacts being used for something else when the Chocobo Blinker nerf was done, and the ability to trade them for cruor was held back, around the same time is when we heard that we may be seeing more point system like functions in the game. So I would also like to know if they might be involved in something like that, or what the current plans are for Crystal Petrifacts outside of Provenance.

I would be very happy if I could get some info about these things, as I feel they are very important to the future of Voidwatch and its items.

[BorkBorkBork]

Greetings,


Lastly, we understand that some of you wish to be able to increase the number of merit weapon skills that can be fully upgraded, but this is something that we discussed previously. Instead of making it so you can get everything, we're thinking about making it so there will be benefits without having to max out a category, which will open up the choices a bit more.

I think people would be satisfied if the cap was increased 5-10 points. The proposed idea of making them less powerful but having access to more doesn't come close to what the player base wants and the reasoning for it smacks of 2008.

[Prothscar]

Last Resort change is essentially worthless and is not conducive to the Dev Team's overall goals. 2h jobs won't see very much value in the change outside of lowman and low buff situations. Also, level the playing field between 1h and 2h jobs by buffing 2h, yes. That aside...

The 1h adjustments in general are pretty horrible. Simply increasing the STR/DEX conversion ratio for 1h weapons (through a limited resource no less) is not a good solution whatsoever. The attack and accuracy from STR and DEX are fairly inconsequential, the main issue is that 2h jobs have a huge edge generated from Job Abilities and, to a somewhat lesser extent equipment, while enjoying hefty bonuses when fighting high level targets.

Ergo, what 1h weapons need are their own set of unique attributes. A bonus to critical hit rate and/or critical hit damage parameters for all 1h weapons would do well to help leveling the playing field. I'd also suggest having Fencer activate while Dual Wielding rather than just when you're single wielding. These adjustments would help alleviate major issues with 1h weapons, especially 1h weapon's harsher penalties for fighting high level targets. It would also somewhat alleviate 1h job's general lack of strong attack buffs and lower overall attack scores across the board.

Alternative solutions, such as allowing 1h weapons to bypass part of level correction, increasing 1h weapon's ratio cap, or adding new job abilities, spells, and traits to all 1h jobs are also possible. I'll reiterate: STR/DEX conversion is not the most crippling issue facing 1h weapons, please do not focus on that aspect of it.

[bigdave]

is it sad that i want the old directer over this new one

[MarkovChain]

Proof that the dev team has no clue. The only thing /DRK will do is actually buff a mythic dragoon because they lack so much attack, and only for 3/5 minutes guys ! At the end of the day it's gimped SJ, and it would have also been so for one hander because delay caps at 80% anyway. No wait, you are better off WAR or MNK as always haha.

Due to this, please let the dev team know that what that do doesn't make sense. The only thing that is potentially making DRK overpowered is the relatively low HP loss per second during souleater, so if you want a nerf touch it ; but right now it's about 120 HP loss per second, no group can seriously afford it, so it's not that much threatening. I myself have done various maths and prior to souleater being accounted for, DRK does about the same damage as a relic MNK or an empy WAR.

[Cyprias]

Last Resort change is essentially worthless and is not conducive to the Dev Team's overall goals. 2h jobs won't see very much value in the change outside of lowman and low buff situations. Also, level the playing field between 1h and 2h jobs by buffing 2h, yes. That aside...

The 1h adjustments in general are pretty horrible. Simply increasing the STR/DEX conversion ratio for 1h weapons (through a limited resource no less) is not a good solution whatsoever. The attack and accuracy from STR and DEX are fairly inconsequential, the main issue is that 2h jobs have a huge edge generated from Job Abilities and, to a somewhat lesser extent equipment, while enjoying hefty bonuses when fighting high level targets.

Ergo, what 1h weapons need are their own set of unique attributes. A bonus to critical hit rate and/or critical hit damage parameters for all 1h weapons would do well to help leveling the playing field. I'd also suggest having Fencer activate while Dual Wielding rather than just when you're single wielding. These adjustments would help alleviate major issues with 1h weapons, especially 1h weapon's harsher penalties for fighting high level targets. It would also somewhat alleviate 1h job's general lack of strong attack buffs and lower overall attack scores across the board.

Alternative solutions, such as allowing 1h weapons to bypass part of level correction, increasing 1h weapon's ratio cap, or adding new job abilities, spells, and traits to all 1h jobs are also possible. I'll reiterate: STR/DEX conversion is not the most crippling issue facing 1h weapons, please do not focus on that aspect of it.

This proposal for 1H users is the exact proposal that should be implemented. Then, we may finally have more job versatility in all events, whereas NNI and Legion typically just go 2H's. I believe this would open up more jobs like MNK, BLU, THF, NIN, and DNC to enter the fray.

[Drac]

This is in regards to the pace of battle we see in Most new content. As we have seen Battles become more fast pased and in quick succession, This leave little time to recover MP. I would propose that a reduction in MP Cost in addition to the changes proposed would help to balance Mages to the pace of battle.

[ManaKing]

Lastly, we understand that some of you wish to be able to increase the number of merit weapon skills that can be fully upgraded, but this is something that we discussed previously. Instead of making it so you can get everything, we're thinking about making it so there will be benefits without having to max out a category, which will open up the choices a bit more.

Yeah well what if you are maxing out Requescat to compensate for how bad RDM is?

You really could stop pissing people off by giving us another 5 points so we could at least be 4/14 instead of 3/14. I'm sorry you don't understand your fan base and how people actually play this game. No one is going to choose to be voluntarily inferior to other people. That's how you get excluded.

You want people to actually play your game and attract new players? Well you're doing it wrong, because you aren't giving us incentives. We don't say nice things about FFXI because you won't just give us what we want sometimes when the reason you won't give it to us is nothing better than you don't feel like it. A little more wiggle room is the sort of policies that make people happy. The only thing that keeps your customers coming back is nostalgia after FFXIV failed it's first release.

You want us to get more people for you so you can make better profits? Make us happy.

[Zhronne]

Instead of making it so you can get everything

One thing is "getting everything"
One thing is "getting 1-2 more".

Why does it have to be black or white? Why can't you find a better compromise that allows us to get one or two additional MAXED weapon skills? I don't want to have a WS that is not maxed, I'll never, ever, ever feel "good" if I know the WS I got is missing something, be this something 90% or 1%, I'll just never be satisfied by such a solution.

You said it yourself in the discussion you linked. Allow me to quote:

As a part of the character growth system, we will be increasing merit caps and adding new categories in the future. However, we will not be removing the cap entirely.

See? INCREASING merit caps.
That's fine! Increase it! Give us 5 or 10 more points into the category, I'll be happy enough even with just 5 more (another maxed WS), I swear.
The fact that you are doing the change to the attribute % per merit level doesn't mean you can't ALSO give us 5 more points for the category. Give us both and we'll all be happy, I'm sure no living player will complain, and nobody will be able to cap everything.

See? Everybody is happy that way, it's so simple, why can't you just go that way? ("you" as in "Square Enix", I'm not pointing my finger at you specifically Oki, of course)