New Jobs info released

[Pebe]

It was said that Geomancer would be getting its own line of spells named -ra a while back. If you look at the seekers of adulin website at the cardinal cast section I think we see one being cast. Perhaps Thundra.

[Merton9999]

Wow, nice new info. Thanks for the link Alhanelem.

I'm liking GEO even more now. My favorite aspect of SCH is that I don't just cast spells. Every cast is accompanied by a trade-off customization process. I feared with GEO that it would just be cyclical buffs and debuffs with position thrown in. Adding all these job abilities in the mix that affect luopans is promising for the overall thought process of the job.

I agree about the -ra not being a typo. It was mentioned and speculated upon during Vanafest. Some people thought it would be a new nuking line (Blizzara, etc.), some mentioned existing AOE bar spells. My personal hope is that it's both. After the first 40 levels of SCH consisting mainly of watching spells I already knew show up in the magic list as I leveled up, I hope GEO nuking spells will be new, even if not unique to them. I also hope GEO will finally be the job that gets the dual element bar spells that have been in the dats forever.

[Demon6324236]

I don't see that as an error in terms of incorrect information, it's just written poorly in description. The author stated "black magic spikes" as one category instead of listing out Blaze, Ice, Shock and possibly Dread. And instead of categorizing the same with white magic buffs, the author listed them out, possibly to focus on the odd fact that they have Divine Magic's Flash and regenerative spells, Regen and Refresh.

Sorry that was a reading error on my part, thought it said Black Magic spells. In either case its fairly weird that they put white magic then a single set of black magic spells then more white magic. In either case, I have to admit this job seems more and more annoying to RDM as a replacement... I mean, enspells, refresh, phalanx, magic defense tanking(RDMs old job before Aegis PLD was common)...

[Merton9999]

I tried to get the topic title changed to be a little more clear but my request was apparently misunderstood by the moderator.

Anyway, Rwolf is right, they did mention a new line of ele magic for Geomancer.

The article pointed out that geomancer has a reputation for sucking in the series. Is that really accurate? It was good in Tactics (the article mentions this as a sole exception) and it was also good in Tactics A2. I don't really know about any other games though.

I love Geomancer in Tactics. That game is the reason I always wanted the job added to XI. V's implementation was comical, imo. It was an interesting concept but in practice I never found much use for it. You can probably count mog in VI as a geomancer as well. Some of his dances were powerful but the random aspect made me hate using him.

If there's anything I'm relieved about in this implementation of GEO it's the lack of random effects and effects based on terrain. I'd much rather position be used - it still fits the theme of location but it's something I can control. I wouldn't mind spell acquisition based on travel/terrain though.

[Tennotsukai]

I don't see that as an error in terms of incorrect information, it's just written poorly in description. The author stated "black magic spikes" as one category instead of listing out Blaze, Ice, Shock and possibly Dread. And instead of categorizing the same with white magic buffs, the author listed them out, possibly to focus on the odd fact that they have Divine Magic's Flash and regenerative spells, Regen and Refresh.

-ra line isn't an error. They stated they were adding a new line of elemental magic back when Geomancer was announced. (i.e. Fira, Blizzara, Thundara). No idea if they are Geomancer specific or any other details.

Good info, I really hope Dread Spikes will be given to RNF. Just one spell to benefit them against physical attacks.

[Seyomeyo]

I'm a little bit confused about what the author of that article is saying geomancers get when he says they get elemental spells up to tier IV and the -ra line of spells. Does he mean -ga or -ja perhaps? Because the only spells with the -ra suffix in the game are whm's barspells.... and maybe kaustra...

It's been stated already that GEO will get its own line of -ra elemental magic

[wildsprite]

thanks Alhanelemthat was a good article, I'm really looking forward to GEO and RNF is looking interesting enough to make me curious about it

[SpankWustler]

The two new jobs sound like a lot of fun. In particular, I'm excited about Rune Fencer's ability to shield others from elemental damage and Geomancer's job abilities that fine-tune the performance of Luopans and even blow them up for damage.

I notice a couple of things that sound really uncomfortable for them, though. Well, other than current absence of difficult monsters that attack with only one magical element and the current presence of Area of Effect Everything when fighting a difficult monster. Those are more FFXI-wide than job-specific.

Anyways, time to complain like somebody's great-uncle with a fear of the future and a full colostomy bag!

Rune Enchantment has a five-second cooldown and can stack several times, which gives the class some of the flavor of the Dancer when you consider that you can consume your stacked runes for an overall effect.

Job-ability delay, which the Development Bros have never even acknowledged thus far, is going to be a big problem for Rune Fencer. Between using Runes and casting, Rune Fencer has the potential to spend half its existence slogging through delay periods.

I worry that because of this delay Rune Fencer will turn out much like Dancer, which performs best in groups when played as an Anointed Monk of the Order of the Poking Dagger. Rather than being played like a Rune Fencer with a heap of unique abilities, job ability delay may force Rune Fencer to be played much like a Warrior with only the very strongest abilities being used when necessary.

Indicolure spells give the character a buff that extends out around the player, affecting all enemies or allies within the area of effect.

With the initial information from Vanafest, it sounded like these buffs could be centered on any player but there hasn't been any mention of that recently. If these can only be stuck on the Geomancer, that's going to make Indicolure melee buffs and Indicolure enfeebling effects really annoying to maintain.

Mages in FFXI are oddly more durable than melee overall, and may become even tougher if the defense update makes defense food relevant and no powerful mage food is added. Still, there's the matter of casting interruption and status ailments if a mage has to idle amongst the melee. Oh, oh, the status ailments Geomancer will know!

Enfeebling through Indicolure, in particular, seems suspect. You want to use an Indicolure effect to paralyze a monster? It will show you the true meaning of paralysis as all your Geomancer job abilities are lost to the void of "...is paralyzed." The monster might even put up an Amnesia or Silence aura if you don't get the message right away!

[Zhronne]

I'm also very curious how high their elemental resists will go.

I assumed it would just grant them immunity to spells of that element, which means debuffs too.
You can stack it several times, maybe it's complete immunity (like Fool's drink) when you have the max amount of stacks?

Potentially too powerful, depends on how easy/fast it is to swap the elemental thing and keep it up.

[Merton9999]

If these can only be stuck on the Geomancer, that's going to make Indocolure melee buffs and Indocolure enfeebling effects really annoying to maintain.

I've been concerned with this since Vanafest, but I'm a little more hopeful now. We'll have both Indicolure and Geocolure to choose from, with Geocolure based on Luopans that can be put anywhere. If auras and mass AOEs continue to be a problem, I assume it's the Geocolure spells we'll use for buffing the front line or enfeebling the mob, while we hang in the back with Indicolure around us. The article says one of each can be maintained.

That may mean that certain enfeebles and enhancements will be impossible for battles with the more smelly NMs, depending on what is put into each category. Hopefully what we're left with will still be worth it and not limit the job to the exact same two effects for every such battle. I really don't want another two-song-only situation.

I'm hoping the article is right though, and that SE will be changing the game in more ways than one. The whole front-line + back-line organization is getting old ... well ... got old years ago. I'd love to see battle mechanics changed to allow mages closer to the mob. I hope GEO and RUN allow this instead of descending further down the path that has only gotten much worse lately.