Abyssea Update

[Elphy]

Remove the "Ex" tag from seals. Problem solved.
EDIT: Also, make the "???" reappear for force-pop nms one minute after the nm spawns, not after it dies. This will fix the annoying issue of waiting for slow parties.

SE made the statement that the reason things like seals, +2 items and empy items are "ex" is to prevent rmt from farming these items for sale which would likely prevent players from being able to reliably farm themselves. Think of how bad it would be if we had to compete with RMT over these drops...

[Demon6324236]

Are we really having a conversation about making abyssea easier? Really?

Easier, no, more accessible to your average new player who can not get anyone to help because everyone has already finished their seals for the most part, yes.

[Elphy]

Are we really having a conversation about making abyssea easier? Really?

Abyssea is easy yes, but now that the new zone smell has worn off farming aby for drops for those of us who still need (esp empy drops) is nothing but an uber tedious time sync. Farming some of these nm solo is not fun and since the playerbase DEMANDS you have an e/r/m to get into any other form of endgame those of us stuck soloing some of these nm are really frustrated. First you have to solo farm your seals, then your +2, then your empy drops. Its a long and tedious time sync that makes the game horrid and has caused alot of ppl I know to unsubscribe and move on to other games.

If the spirit of cooperation was still there for these things it would not be such an issue, but like I said previously, you cannot even pay ppl to farm these drops for you anymore, much less get them to do it out of kindness or cooperation. Hell even +2 items isnt a draw since many of these nm dont reliably drop any +2 items.

If you cannot do any endgame before spending weeks upon weeks soloing in aby (provided you have stones) the game becomes dull and boring and you end up spending your night in Skyrim or Tyria instead.

[Ziyyigo-Tipyigo]

Are we really having a conversation about making abyssea easier? Really?

Maybe I'm just speaking for myself, but making "Abyssea" easier overall? No. The difficulty/hassle/whatever necessary to get zone clears, empyrean weapons, and I'd even say +2 armor seems appropriate. What is inappropriate is the difficulty/hassle/whatever of getting seals for +1 armor. The stats on the stuff is the bare minimum needed for acceptability nowadays, effectively requiring newer players to put their Vana'diel lives on hold while they do this grind work, no matter how they got to 80+.

And just to say this again, because it needs to be: Leveling different jobs past 49 should never be a requirement for JSE. If the specific job is not adequate/useful/desirable in obtaining job-specific equipment, something is very broken.

[detlef]

At this point in the game, seals are more annoying than they should be. Abyssea may be viewed as easy-mode (hey, just shout and find 3 other people with exactly the right proc jobs and who need the other 3 seals you don't want), but at this point most people who have been around for a year or more have all the seals they want. I don't see any harm in making it a little easier by increasing quest rewards and/or NM drop rates.

[RichLester]

What SE could do is move all the seals from NMs onto normal mobs in Abyssea & increase the rate of all +2 items by allowing all NM pops to drop them. Certain groups of seals can drop from certain types of mobs like DRG +1 seals (all kinds) drop from puks & dragons.

When everyone moves over to Audlin, Abyssea may become the new Aht Urhgan (does anyone remember how busy Aht Urhgan used to be?) or more likely the new Campaign with only pockets of a few people running around & it will become increasingly difficult to do anything in Abyssea (certainly no worm parties).

[Suph]

Oh no, Abyssea NM are pretty easy, but when you just need 1 more Navarch seal, and Amarok went on dropping 4 Creed seals or 2 Creed 1 Goetia 1 Charis, or whatever combination 8 times in a row.... just felt like i wasted my and my friend's time proccing yellow.... Especially compared to Bennu who coughed up 11 coins of ardors after 4 kills...

[Concerned4FFxi]

If by proper, you are meaning proc jobs, then really stop right there. You don't need to proc to get seal drops, granted it helps but you'll get the drops eventually. Part of the game is job leveling.

I understand your frustration, and it can be slow going especially when you feel you aren't killing mobs fast enough, but the problem is the players themselves, not abyssea per se.

I have to disagree here, i'm sorry. SE locked in only a few jobs that can proc, thereby eliminating other jobs from easy rewards. At the time, xp was plentiful because everyone was leveling, so people didnt mind leveling jobs for proc alone.

Now, people gerenally are not leveling, and abyssea is old.

Therefore, xp is harder and seals are harder. Please don't defend a broke system like abyssea were only a few jobs matter...

[Caketime]

I've been working on seals since Abyssea came out, still haven't finished collecting everything I need. I go out three to five times a week and hunt various NMs with my singular constant companion, sometimes we get lucky and score a bunch, other times we'll come back with 1 or 2 seals that either of us actually needed. Kill speed and procs aren't an issue, the real issue is needing one more seal and the NM what drops it refuses to drop just one, often despite it being the NM with the highest drop potential for that seal.

We went to finish my Savant hands about a week ago, needed one seal, ended up killing Koghatu with procs 8 times before he dropped the one seal I needed. In that time I also managed to get 12 RDM and 9 BLM hands seals, and both were at 0 before we fought this guy. It pretty much ruined my entire evening, because after that we killed Bukhis a few times and he was bleeding stones and cards all over the place, 5 people managed to complete +2 pieces from 0/6 items after the evening was finished. The amount of time and effort that goes into seals is absolutely ridiculous when you compare it to the ease of farming +2 gear. SE needs to cut out the bottlenecking strategy and expand the availability of seals already, at this point it's just a time sink and a major source of aggravation for many players.

[Rustic]

I've been working on seals since Abyssea came out, still haven't finished collecting everything I need. I go out three to five times a week and hunt various NMs with my singular constant companion, sometimes we get lucky and score a bunch, other times we'll come back with 1 or 2 seals that either of us actually needed. Kill speed and procs aren't an issue, the real issue is needing one more seal and the NM what drops it refuses to drop just one, often despite it being the NM with the highest drop potential for that seal.

What would help is some kind of exchange system, even if it was at a vastly inferior rate.

If you could exchange similar seals at a 5:1 ratio or so, problem fixed. It's about time for Abyssea to get simpler in that regard anyway- Adoulin is just around the corner.