Merit Weapon Skill Adjustments April Update

[Karbuncle]

I didn't say remove "All the games limits", I said, and I'll quote:

Honestly, If they want a bit more longevity, they should just uncap merits entirely, but I'm sure they're saving that for the games Swan Song update.

Meaning, If they Uncapped Merit Categories, It would give people a lot to work on, I mean, Some would probably finish it in a day or two but they haven't seen the sun in about 4 and a half years and look like Tom Hanks at the end of the Movie where he's stranded on a Desert Island.

It wouldn't break the game in literally any way. The only thing the limits currently do is make us chose which jobs to max toward... Job Specific Merits have never been too broken that their limits stop the game from collapsing and having a Single PUP Solo Provenance or a SMN Soloing AV... They aren't broken and its nothing like a "Cheat" mode.

Plainly put, No combination of Merits, Individually or together, are so broken that they need limits on them, SE Was just trying to create diversity in Endgame by having choices and limits, which was an admirable ideal, I'm just saying if they removed the cap very few would complain and would give people a lot of new merits they need to build up and make all that Exp we're getting from Reives and Coalition Assignments mean something other than what they are now... "Change jobs > Turn in > Change back"

[Asymptotic]

makes players who have played the game longer all the more better than people who haven't played as long

Isn't this generally how games work ? ?

That aside, I don't see how removing the cap and allowing people who want to cap everything to do it negatively affects players who are fine with having 3 capped weapon skills.


They won't uncap it though which is why I think they should just raise the cap to the point where the probability of people being annoyed by it is low.

[Karbuncle]

They want to be unique snowflakes and without that uniqueness they feel cheated. Honestly, going to quote Star Trek...

"A Diamond is still a Diamond even if its just one of many, it still shines as bright".

Rather we have to chose, or can all possess the best, Doesn't matter, We're all still awesome. Some more awesome than others. Like me. :3

Edit: NO offense to Snowflakes, I love winter

[Alhanelem]

That aside, I don't see how removing the cap and allowing people who want to cap everything to do it negatively affects players who are fine with having 3 capped weapon skills.

Nobody wants to have less. More is always better! Do you think anyone would purposely stay at 3 capped WS if they could raise more?

As I said, part of the point is to give the player decisions to make. Ever heard the expression, "Can't have your cake and eat it too?"

Isn't this generally how games work ? ?

As I said, uncapping the merits takes what is normally a minor, unavoidable issue and makes it worse. Old content is made easier over time to allow newer players to catch up to minimize this, though of course you can't make it go away completely without a time machine. Why take an inevitable problem and do something that makes it worse?

Many games make you choose between having this and having that. I don't know why everyone in this game thinks that's so horrible.

They want to be unique snowflakes and without that uniqueness they feel cheated. Honestly, going to quote Star Trek...

So, you hate customization. Okay, well why don't you just say so? less beating around the bush. This isn't like making stupid people feel special. Why do you act like uniqueness is some kind of bad thing that people shouldn't want?

In most games to be the best at one thing, you have to give up being the best at something else. But in this game, everyone wants to be able to be the best at everything. Why am i the only one that sees this as a problem?

[Karbuncle]

Because FFXI is the one MMO that breaks that stupid "ONE ONRY" Stigma all MMOs posses, ONE JOB, ONE CHARACTER, FINAL DESTINATION, is boring. I don't hate Customization, I hate Limits. Limits are just artificial walls. Customizing is exactly what I want in this game, and no, Limiting my Ability to Customize isn't so how a Customization itself.

FFXI has a job system you can switch between at any time for a reason. merits contradict the logic to allowing free access to all jobs all the time. If use my Personality and playstyle to be unique in FFXI, I don't need Merits for that. Do you? Cause i feel plenty unique without the need to know I somehow have Merits to back up my lack of other qualifying features.

[Demon6324236]

Uncapping merits wouldn't provide longevity, it would help kill the game faster.

Fast and easy way to say why you are wrong, I would need more merits to cap them all, and most of them are worthless anyways which is why we do not pick certain ones. Let me give an example, WAR, Aggressive Aim, normally I would look at this merit a single time, and never again because it is absolute trash. Now, if I could 5/5 all merits on WAR, I would 5/5 this, why? Because I can, simple enough, not hard, just something more to do, and I like knowing I have capped all merits. Now lets say they removed all of the current limits, you would more than double the amount of merits people would need to cap everything. Every job would have 2~3 times as many merit points needed to finish them because you could cap all 4~6 options rather than simply 2. Merit WSs would provide many more, currently we can have 3/14, thats a total of 100 merits per completed WS, so doing the math, we would have 1100 more merits to get simply because of WSs alone. All in all, more work, now how many of these are overpowered? None, because most merits are not used as it is, there are only a few jobs that have actual hard choices.

Basically, we would spend more time meriting, and gain little from it that would really speed other things up, if anything it would make playing a larger variety of jobs more enjoyable, and by doing so, making you take even longer because you are opened up to more jobs. It could not really make the game go shorter, it would not make things easier, it would eliminate the false ideal of unique merits that exists, thats about it, when if you look at the census info anyways you see that most people seem to pick the same merits anyways. So unless you can explain exactly how and why it would make the game shorter, and would kill the game faster, I have to say, you are incorrect.

[Yinnyth]

How much time would it take you to get those merits? The ones you would actually put forth an effort to obtain instead of just spending your VW exp on them every now and then, I mean. Even if you're a casual player, you could finish that in one billing period.

I enjoy the fact that I am uniquely good at bard because I have invested my merits specifically into bard. I lose these defining characteristics which help to make me who I am so you can spend a few afternoons getting merits which "wouldn't even make the game any easier" for you? You can still play bard without singing merits, you'll just have a harder time landing songs on enemies than I will. I can still play samurai, I'll just do slightly less damage than a meritted samurai because I've specialized around bard, thief, and corsair.

These sorts of distinctions are a healthy thing in RPGs, particularly when it comes to forming and maintaining a varied community. You can master a few things and stay mediocre in others, or you can choose to be a jack-of-all-trades, master of none.

I oppose the idea of removing the merit cap. I would sooner have the lesser-used merits buffed to a point where the playerbase would find them useful so we get more variety, not less.

[Demon6324236]

I am really not in the mood to argue trivial matters like this, the simple matter of it is, you are probably the only person who knows your unique, so no one but you actually cares about your special BRD merits. When I goto a VW party I could go RDM, or I could be stuck on any other job in the game even though the majority of my merits are RDM focused, guess how many people care that I actually focused my merits on RDM? No one, because no one else sees them except on AH.com, and even then, who cares? The point is that its a false sense of being unique in my opinion, which is all it is, an opinion, and for that reason no one is right or wrong, but it seems we mostly have people here who think its a better idea to simply go with unlimited merits rather than limited merits I think.

[Yinnyth]

Trivial matters like this... false sense of being unique...

Sorry, but have I done something to offend you besides having a differing opinion? I assure you it has never been my intent to cause you harm, merely to call attention to the fact that an RPG which lets you be the best at everything is not really a role playing game at all. It's a god-sim.

A person must be good at some things, and they must be bad at some things. If you're good at all things, why would you ever seek the help of an itinerant minstrel when you yourself can handle that role just as well? Why would you grudgingly pay for the services of a surly mercenary if you're every bit as good at hewing bones as he is? We're not playing this game to be the best at everything. We're playing to take part in a story that we ourselves help write. If you think that no character in this story is unique then... well, I suppose there's no convincing you otherwise.

I have yet to play a good RPG which allows the character to have no weak points. You're accepting the role of a character. All his strengths, all his shortcomings.

[Demon6324236]

Trivial matters like this... false sense of being unique...

Sorry, but have I done something to offend you besides having a differing opinion? I assure you it has never been my intent to cause you harm, merely to call attention to the fact that an RPG which lets you be the best at everything is not really a role playing game at all. It's a god-sim.

Nah sorry, was in a pissy mood and looked at posts like a derp so I wonderfully threw some of my rage into my post like an Ahole.

In all honesty though I feel no more or less unique than the next RDM, merits in general annoy me more as a RDM because mine are fairly horrid in my opinion since its entire spells I am missing, most of which are my most unique spells of all. So in one respect I hate merits as my main job is worse off because of them.