Sept update blues

[MarkovChain]

regain and acc or att beats everything else. I believe a pure tanking earring counter+3 acc+3 surpass all others.

[Monchat]

With which augments? Also, this depends on the fact that you're using moonshade for MNK.

First the H2H earring does not break a H2H tier, nor do the faith torque; you do break a tier by wearing both though, but getting +1 base dmg with two items is not so good. Check the MNK forums. So far looks like the best capped acc combo is the new kick dmg necklace+ moonshade (regain/att), and the best uncapped is (ziel charm+moonshade(acc/regain)).

[Leonlionheart]

In other words, you pose the "Nu uh" comeback.

There's a universal cure body piece for RDMs, SCHs, and BLM to boot. A new PDT piece for DRG (And maybe even the other classes listed on that piece). Various accessories including that H2H piece and 7ATT/Wyvern DT for DRG. The helm accompanying the PDT body is good for WSs sets without a critical hit focus (i.e. for NMs you're close to floored critical hits against). Cure potency cape for RDM, SCH, and BLU. Ocelo for Benthic typhoon. Lenore for enmity cure sets. Torque for Alchemy and Smithing. Glassbelt for DRG breath moves. Two new skill up earrings. Fast cast ring. New sTP ring for those that were using the one from Tahrongi. Valseur any good for DNC? Aife Mantle for Benthic. Motenten found Ire+1 to beat the elemental gorgets and BB for belt (Nightfyre showing Anguinus in certain belts), so I imagine Justiciar will win in some of these cases, but I haven't calculated that yet. Phrenic for enmity certain cure sets (Depends on beginning set). Nefer Khat for SCH nukes for mix sets. Rauch for potency light enfeebles on SCH (And potentially RDM unless I'm forgetting a piece). Saevus for pure potency on SCH. Romanus for RDM? I don't recall any piece better than that.

I'm seeing niche pieces for a handful of jobs, no major upgrades besides some of the VW bodies/hats. Mostly Inventory -1, mostly things you will seldom use.

Better? Yes. But better in the sense of level progression that we've seen through out the rest of the game? No. Even if it is just 5 levels, you mentioned Hoard Ring Vs. the new Attack/STP ring. Yes it's better, but off the top of my head I can't think of one job that will benefit from it in the ideal set. WAR? 5hit will still require tactical mantle, so put your Blitz ring back on. SAM? 5hit requires haste sacrifices and you can 6hit w/ sword strap reliably, so go get a mars ring. DRK? Maybe for a Apocalypse build, but I don't get into that. Good if you're trying to push for a Cala 6hit, but you're still using tactical mantle and accuracy sacrifices so there's no way it'll be worth it.

85 and 90 content both brought in clearly superior pieces to anything we've seen before. Even 80 brought in things like Loki's Kaftan, 6% haste panties, and AF3 accessories.

Should everything in the update be far superior to previous gear? Maybe, maybe not. Should it show clear signs of level progression to make the average player want to spend 13$ a month? Yes.

Point is, this stuff isn't something that the average player is going to go gaga over like AF3+2. It's not as big of a jump, and it's harder. This isn't a good business model.

[Runespider]

Considering we pay for these updates and how lazy and lack luster this one is will everyone be so forgiving if the 95-99 one is equally as crap?

Honestly the way the game has been changing over the last few months is realy worrying, XI is enjoying somewhat of a resurgence lately because of Abyssea and if they carry on in how they used to run the game before Abyssea they are going to lose not only all the people that came back but the long-time loyal players too.

They changed the game too much from Abyssea to have us accept low standards now, there is a difference between being offered oatmeal 24/7 forever to being offered a steak dinner for a year then trying to feed us oatmeal again.

[Juri_Licious]

Ternary Flourish? WHY GOD WHY!?!??!?!?

[MDenham]

there is a difference between being offered oatmeal 24/7 forever to being offered a steak dinner for a year then trying to feed us oatmeal again.

I'm offended.

I happen to like oatmeal.

[Rambus]

I wanted to have faith SE, but this crap, for everything you've done for the last 10 years, is getting tiring. Might give up on your games all together.

Except of course, anything that the Kingdom Hearts team does. Whoever the devs are for those games, I salute you as you are by far the best at what you do.

Ok, I really liked that post. As far as the update, I was not expecting a lot of new gear. In fact I really do not care about gear anymore like i did at 75. There is no point to it, there is nothing hard. There is no reason to balance elemental magic skill and int (example for what I mean). For you to strive for having a real goal (I need a Sorcerer's Petasos). You wanted and needed a Sorcerer's Petasos for that perfect balance to help kill hard mobs effectively. I have seen people abuse the word ' need' since the game started but now it is ridiculous. What I wanted from this update was fixing balancing issues with adding some new things to current stuff to do. So they added small amount of new things like I expected. What shocked me to no end was the lack of fixes to balance issues.

Game is still a fake 'progress' of being 95 base on a level 75 game. (Jobs do not progress properly; I am not talking about the content)

[Malamasala]

Considering we pay for these updates and how lazy and lack luster this one is will everyone be so forgiving if the 95-99 one is equally as crap?

From what I can tell from some posters, even when 99 cap hits, they'll claim "there are plenty more updates in the future when the game will get good armors and balance updates". Because for some, infinity is the planned playing time.

[Mahoro]

I'm seeing niche pieces for a handful of jobs, no major upgrades besides some of the VW bodies/hats. Mostly Inventory -1, mostly things you will seldom use.

Better? Yes. But better in the sense of level progression that we've seen through out the rest of the game? No. Even if it is just 5 levels, you mentioned Hoard Ring Vs. the new Attack/STP ring. Yes it's better, but off the top of my head I can't think of one job that will benefit from it in the ideal set. WAR? 5hit will still require tactical mantle, so put your Blitz ring back on. SAM? 5hit requires haste sacrifices and you can 6hit w/ sword strap reliably, so go get a mars ring. DRK? Maybe for a Apocalypse build, but I don't get into that. Good if you're trying to push for a Cala 6hit, but you're still using tactical mantle and accuracy sacrifices so there's no way it'll be worth it.

85 and 90 content both brought in clearly superior pieces to anything we've seen before. Even 80 brought in things like Loki's Kaftan, 6% haste panties, and AF3 accessories.

Should everything in the update be far superior to previous gear? Maybe, maybe not. Should it show clear signs of level progression to make the average player want to spend 13$ a month? Yes.

Point is, this stuff isn't something that the average player is going to go gaga over like AF3+2. It's not as big of a jump, and it's harder. This isn't a good business model.

It would be a far worse business model to put stuff into the game that eclipses AF3+2 only ONE year after Abyssea was implemented. WoW does this sometimes, but as I pointed out in another thread, there would be literal howls of protest from the FFXI playerbase if SE up and made your precious AF3+2 obsolete at this point. Yes, it's not as big of a jump. The new gear is a liberal mix of best-in-slot upgrades and sidegrades. Really, what ELSE did you expect?

For the people who live in Abyssea and want to work on AF3+2 for their umpteenth job, it's still there for you. For some of us, who have long since capped out on Abyssea and are looking for a new challenge and new gear to tweak out our jobs, SE just delivered some fun new content.

[Kaisha]

Considering we pay for these updates and how lazy and lack luster this one is will everyone be so forgiving if the 95-99 one is equally as crap?

You pay for the maintaining of the servers, not the content.

The reason why everything has been lack luster is because they have no ongoing expansion pack that they stagger content out of over the period of 2-4 years as they have done repeatedly in the past. The story/abyssea add-ons were one-off deals that they charged for and had completed day 1 of their release (aside from post-patch tweaks which they still receive) so they can't really extend that content beyond what they budgeted.

If you want proper new content (rather than familiar NMs in old-locations with some new tricks that is Voidwatch), ask for them to consider another $40 expansion pack.