[dev1049] New weapon skills

[Insaniac]

Something they keep saying is that we can enhance the new WSs with gear. What does that even mean? You can do that with any WS. I'm pretty sure I can use attack double attack and STR gear with rampage so what is their point? How does that make things any better?

Where do they expect most of these WSs to be used? Most of them will be completely worthless on anything that your attack isn't capped on. So are these WSs built to destroy TW mobs? I just don't get it. What is the point of releasing new WSs that will be worthless on new content? Why even waste time creating them?

[Alhanelem]

Well, techically, you can interpret it the way the other people are, but basically, a WS with 7 hits and no propgation of FTP would be at least 6.x overall (x being the fTP of the first hit if it's less than 1). a 0.7 fTP propgating to all hits would be 4.8 if added together, essentially making the WS inferior to other multi-hit WS, ignoring stat modifiers (Yes, the new WS have large stat modifiers when fully merited, but is this enough to offset the crappy fTP?)

The long and short of it is, applying a <1.0 fTP to more hits means less damage than if it's not applied to more hits. Damage decreases with the propogation, not increases.

Something they keep saying is that we can enhance the new WSs with gear. What does that even mean?

There are magian weapon skills that (at certain stages) increase damage of specific weaponskills, so it stands to reason that they'll be adding more gear that enhances specific weaponskills rather than just boosting the stat values that we use to enhance our damage.

[Greatguardian]

That's correct. The fTP carry-over is a nerf for all WS with <=0.8 fTP. It could only be a buff for a WS with >0.8 fTP because Gorget/Belt fTP bonuses carry over on all of the WS whose fTP carries over into multiple hits.

[Alhanelem]

That's correct. The fTP carry-over is a nerf for all WS with <=0.8 fTP. It could only be a buff for a WS with >0.8 fTP because Gorget/Belt fTP bonuses carry over on all of the WS whose fTP carries over into multiple hits.

Shocking, that means I actually did understand something correctly for once.

I suppose technically they might introduce more fTP-boosting gear, which essentially means that any such gear is more effective on these new WS than on the ones that came before it.

[Selzak]

So I cancelled my ID for the month because of finals, and it's getting harder and harder to bring myself to reactivate it.

Honestly, I think SE has just become devoid of creativity. Since Enix, it's been going downhill and I guess they're just at the bottom of the pit now. I won't even get started with SE games as a whole (FFXIV especially), but in FFXI it's gone from lacking the creativity to solve problems and balance jobs:

DRKs found a way to take advantage of their 2-hour on end-game content? Hmm...well just make HNMs resist Souleater. That'll "fix" it.

There's a RDM soloing a few HNMs? Hmm...well just make mobs resist enfeebles. That'll "fix"it.

The jobs aren't balanced now and some jobs are just flat-out useless? Hmm...well let's just pick a few and focus on them so everyone will play what we want them to. Samurais are cool, right?

To the point that our limit break quests are poop jokes and end game "content" is a mixture of fetch quests and pseudorandom number generators...that all take place in copy/pasted versions of old zones.

[Darkvalkyr]

Square Enix is making me want to chew some rat poison right now.

Actually, this is so bad it's not worth it.

[Alerith]

...someone please, PLEASE correct me if I'm wrong but...

Did they try to justify Requiescat being shit for Paladin because Paladin has Atonement?

SERIOUSLY?!

When was the last time Atonement was even remotely useful? 75 cap with Joyeuse?

[Babekeke]

All that I get from this is that you are supposed to choose these weaponskills as the 'next best thing' for jobs that don't get the current best WS.
If you only use sword on PLD, don't bother meriting requiescat, if you only use club on WHM, don't bother meriting Realm Razor. However, Realm Razor on PLD will be pretty good now, especially since Moepapa Mace has more base damage than even 95 Almace or Excalibur. Very good option for vs Bones/Pots etc.

[Kalilla]

All that I get from this is that you are supposed to choose these weaponskills as the 'next best thing' for jobs that don't get the current best WS.
If you only use sword on PLD, don't bother meriting requiescat, if you only use club on WHM, don't bother meriting Realm Razor. However, Realm Razor on PLD will be pretty good now, especially since Moepapa Mace has more base damage than even 95 Almace or Excalibur. Very good option for vs Bones/Pots etc.

No other job had any right to fuck with what WHM had to itself, we don't even get to melee in main content unless it's for a quick proc.

It's complete bullshit that they are giving jobs a 7 hit club ws regardless if it is as good as hexa or not. That bullshit pisses me off and to add to that they made it so WHM wouldn't benefit from meriting it. It is a complete slap in the face and a fuck you to all melee whm's.

Anyone remember those job previews years ago of them saying they promise that they will find a way to bring whm's to the front lines?

Fucking lazy. Another job isn't a fucking solution, it is completely twisted around so they do the exact opposite and ignore WHM melee.

Yes I'm jealous, 10% jealous, 80% angry as hell, 5% confused as to why SE thinks this is a good idea and why they think this way, 5% not surprised.

[Economizer]

Anyone remember those job previews years ago of them saying they promise that they will find a way to bring whm's to the front lines?

Fucking lazy. Another job isn't a fucking solution, it is completely twisted around so they do the exact opposite and ignore WHM melee.

I pretty much gave up on being able to melee during party content back when Abyssea came out and we had this situation:

• Standing close to a mob will get you killed by AoE spam.
• More then two people hitting a mob will kill many groups from TP spam.

Short of White Mage's Magic Defense Bonus trait, there isn't really much that protects them at the front lines, and even then mobs that spam magical AoE still do huge numbers against White Mages, or even just spam physical damage AoE. And even then, TP feed is about the number one killer of groups these days, so groups that might even want to allow a White Mage to hit things is further disuaded.

On top of all this, being in a decent melee set that is also good for healing in isn't as much as a possibility as it was at 75 cap, because you are expected to cap out Cure Potency and few people even consider the benefit of haste on recast timers. Pulling out decent damage dealing clubs pretty much cuts you down 25% cure potency from not holding either a staff or a pair of cure potency clubs, which is also a major blow to being a competent healer while doing any amount of damage worth feeding TP for.

I could go on, but the deck is stacked hard against White Mages meleeing things down short of fighting groups of weaker mobs, and even then, it still is pretty hard to compete with others even when you are only there for Shellra, barspells and the occasional cure. At least when there is a Red Mage melee, it has tier 2 enspells that enfeeble the mob a tiny bit, and you know how well regarded that spell line was...

I suppose we should just be happy they are thinking about our melee side at all, and that we're still on the best clubs in the game. I can somewhat respect their reasoning even if it wasn't the best solution, but it kinda sucks just to get another sidegrade. Shoot, even look at the White Mage only gloves (level 98) that are on the test server. They are pretty much a merger of the AF1+1 gloves and NQ Blessed gloves. Basically, disappointing... they could have at least made them replace the HQ Blessed gloves too.

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For the overworked Moogle who is reading this right now, I'll say this. I can respect wanting to maintain balance, but when gear that have twenty-eight levels on other gear is slightly worse then the gear you get twenty-eight levels before it just so you can carry one piece of gear instead of two, there is a problem.

On the weapon skills, I don't mind even the current changes we're being told so much as long as we're not limited to only being able to merit 15 points between 14 merits. Please don't limit the merits we can allocate to them in any way - this alone would do a lot since they seem to be "situational" compared to existing weapon skills. Beyond that, please promise us more weapon skills in the future (or at very least a quest to upgrade the old ones we have), I understand they may take a long time, but I think it would do much to put many of us more at ease.

Hey, and as a secret between us, I'll give each one of you a Kupo Nut if you can quitely fly to the servers and secretly buff Hexa Strike without the dev team finding out.