Remove or decrease race penalties

[Motenten]

Honestly, the 5 races SHOULD have strong and weak points, that's the way of any MMORPG.

Strong and weak points, yes, but you can still have those differences without being quite so extreme. Taru's current HP pretty much completely removes their ability to participate in Legion as a melee. Galka MP on drk and pld can make their casting ability horribly hindered unless they merit it.

It's quite possible to shift some of these extremely low stats up a bit without changing the general order of racial strengths, while at the same time making it more feasible to use these jobs in a comfortable way.

On the Str/Dex/etc stats, there's some minor annoyances in the differences that I think could be toned down slightly, but overall they don't need much, if any, change.

Adding unique racial buffs, as tyrantsyn suggests, brings out a huge rebalancing problem, and I don't think that is a viable tack to take right now. Certainly not something I'd suggest for this game, though it would be interesting if you were designing a new game from the ground up.

[solidous]

HP is a huge problem, and really the only one that truly matters. My main job is drk, being a taru not only hurts my damage but limits the way I could play the game. My favorite food is carbonara.... and not for the store tp. I am reluctant to use diabolic eye because why lower my already low hp, I rather miss and live than get one shot by anything over 1100 damage. which is not that hard with last resort and berserk up. If closing the hp gap is not possible then please allow for a race change.
I pay if that is what it will take. I don't usually post but its looks like Dev's are finally listening. (Please listen) Akihiko Matsui!

[FrankReynolds]

All MMORPGs have different races, each with their strong point and weak point. FFXI is no different.

That's why we want it changed. I'm not really sure why you think being like every other MMO is a selling point.

This has been around since the game came out, and I'm sure everybody knew this and chose the race accordingly based on what they like most.

No video game start screen should ever feature a selection process that will haunt you for upwards of a decade and no, everyone did not pick appropriately. Why the hell would a person who just picked this game up know enough about the game to determine that the choice of race they made at start up is going to be good for the next ten years? Have you played this game? It's huge and it changes continuously. If you happen to be on a race that is good for your job of choice then you got lucky.

Honestly, the 5 races SHOULD have strong and weak points, that's the way of any MMORPG. ... Why pick the one thing that's been around for 10 years that makes the most sense, and the people have already dealt with? /rant /thread.

Because this is lame and it's always been lame. I don't need my imaginary midget character to actually be handicapped. This is a video game. In here you can be 2 feet tall, carry a 200 pound axe and smash deities with your thoughts.


And for the record: I don't care what topic you are discussing or who you are discussing it with. If your answer to any problem, ever is "if you want that then you should go spend weeks/months/years re-gearing / re-leveling a new character..." then you are wrong. Plain and simple. Wanna know the fastest way to make a person give up FFXI forever? Tell them to start over. Some people will do it. Most will not.

[Dantedmc]

If people are so worried about keeping variety, why not keep stats separate from the physical appearance of each race. For example I want to be a taru. I like the way it looks, but the lack of hp is truly detrimental. Why can't I just be a taru with galka stats? Just change the race benefits to a different name and allow us to chose our race separately from stat bonuses.

[TheTrueMarth]

That's why we want it changed. I'm not really sure why you think being like every other MMO is a selling point.

Because if every race had the same stats, we might as well be playing an MMO were all characters are Hume. Delete Taru, delete Galka, delete Elvaan and Mithra. The whole point behind different races is to have different options, not just cosmetics. That's one thing MMOs have in common for good reason.

No video game start screen should ever feature a selection process that will haunt you for upwards of a decade and no, everyone did not pick appropriately. Why the hell would a person who just picked this game up know enough about the game to determine that the choice of race they made at start up is going to be good for the next ten years? Have you played this game? It's huge and it changes continuously. If you happen to be on a race that is good for your job of choice then you got lucky.

I've been playing the game since NA relese. I picked Hume M solely on the fact the stats were balanced. I knew Elvaan had more STR, I knew Galka had more HP/VIT, I knew Taru had more MP/INT. I knew Mithra had more DEX/AGI. I picked Hume for the stats. It's not unheard of for someone to actually study before making a decision. I've never once regretted Hume or wanted to change.

And for the record: I don't care what topic you are discussing or who you are discussing it with. If your answer to any problem, ever is "if you want that then you should go spend weeks/months/years re-gearing / re-leveling a new character..." then you are wrong. Plain and simple. Wanna know the fastest way to make a person give up FFXI forever? Tell them to start over. Some people will do it. Most will not.

If people are going to complain and beg "Papa SE" over the smallest things like this, maybe MMOs aren't for these people. There are more and far bigger things to deal with other than "My Taru can only do 3100 damage when an Elvaan can do 3300". You find ways to deal with it and cope or you don't.

[saevel]

Wow you have an army of Taru's demanding more HP and to a lessor degree more STR but not willing to balance that out with other stats.

I'd prefer an overall increase in HP not making Taru's have as nearly as much HP as everyone else while still maintaining their INT and MP advantage.

[Raistlinratt]

Please please please give this serious consideration! I picked my tarutaru race almost 10 years ago? I am a main DD and i'm very good at it. However, the penalties to taru HP are very harsh and almost unplayable in some content where you are 10x more likely to die instantly than elvaan or galka. Could the dev team give serious thought to

1: reducing racial penalties, your race shouldn't make or break your chances of winning something. It's more of a cosmetic choice, slight penalties are fine.

2: Giving us an option to purchase "Race Change". I think this would be pretty easy to impliment and I would be more than happy to pay gil or crysta to enact it.


I love playing this game and being in the top tier of damage dealers. I hate the fact that I can't do anything to survive sometimes in mul legion. elvaan getting 300+ more HP on same job vs job is pretty broken when the monsters are hitting for 500-1200 (yes I have hybrid sets with cap haste/most PDT you can get - usually around 34%).

This game has changed a lot since I made my decision to be TaruTaru, and i'm penalized heavily for it. Max MP is nowhere near as crucial as Max HP these days. Please give this careful consideration!!!

[Camiie]

Eh, I don't see what would be so horrible about there being more stat balance between the races. Heck, it wouldn't bother me a bit if everyone had the same base stats to be quite honest. I'd rather race be purely a cosmetic choice and have zero affect on game play.

[FrankReynolds]

Because if every race had the same stats, we might as well be playing an MMO were all characters are Hume. Delete Taru, delete Galka, delete Elvaan and Mithra. The whole point behind different races is to have different options, not just cosmetics. That's one thing MMOs have in common for good reason.

You're sorely mistaken if you think that people won't choose different races anyways despite them all having the same stats. Some people just think tarus are cute. Some guys wanna look tough on galka. Some guys wanna roleplay on a mithra. There are already genders, hair types sizes etc. Why doesn't any of that bother you? It's fine for an Elvaan to be stronger than a taru because they are bigger right? But why isn't the large Taru stronger than the small model? Doesn't seem fair to me. I say make them all equal. There are plenty of jobs to try. You won't suffer an identity crisis. I promise.

I've been playing the game since NA relese. I picked Hume M solely on the fact the stats were balanced. I knew Elvaan had more STR, I knew Galka had more HP/VIT, I knew Taru had more MP/INT. I knew Mithra had more DEX/AGI. I picked Hume for the stats. It's not unheard of for someone to actually study before making a decision. I've never once regretted Hume or wanted to change.

Good for you. I'm glad that the stats you wanted also happened to be on the character model that you like. For other people the two things don't always line up. I picked Hume for the same reasons as you. Unfortunately I actually like galkas better, but couldn't choose one because I wanted to play a mage class. Not fun.

Studying for 20 years isn't going to change the fact that people who prefer the taru model will have to choose between shitty melee stats and shitty looks. I could understand having varying stats if we were able to change our races like we change jobs, or even if we could only change them once in a while. But knowing that people have been stuck with these choices for years on end makes that whole stat difference more of a nuisance than a perk.

If people are going to complain and beg "Papa SE" over the smallest things like this, maybe MMOs aren't for these people. There are more and far bigger things to deal with other than "My Taru can only do 3100 damage when an Elvaan can do 3300". You find ways to deal with it and cope or you don't.

Perhaps the same could be said of you. I don't think you get to decide who MMOs are for and Who they aren't for. People who play this MMO want to be able to play whatever race they want without it impacting their ability to play the game. Maybe you need to cope with that (although I'm not really sure why you are against this other than to be a nay sayer out of principal) or just don't play?

If they put this into effect, you are still free to gimp your stats through gear if you really miss that lower stat feeling. People who want higher stats cannot easily do that. People should be better at this game because they are better at the game.

And for the record: This game is almost entirely about doing 3300 damage instead of 3100. You wouldn't have stats at all if it wasn't.

[Byrth]

To anyone who thinks the 11 STR difference between Tarus and other races doesn't matter, make a WS set on an Elvaan using only NQ pieces and then make it again on a Taru using enough HQ pieces to even it out (if you can, which is unlikely). Then calculate the difference in price between the sets. That racial difference is worth millions of gil.

Still, I care less about the STR difference than the HP difference. It's annoying being denied the ability to participate in content because my HP is too low.