Geomancer and Rune Fencer Artifact Equipment

[Ziyyigo-Tipyigo]

Finding characters that are stuck at rank 6

No. No level 99 character is "stuck" at rank 6. There are rank missions that a level 99 character may legitimately have a hang-up on, but none of them are at rank 6. Level 99 characters wearing nothing more than starter gear can solo rank 6 missions, especially if they are played by a player who has a realistic chance of low-manning Abyssea/Voidwatch/etc. content.

There is no "stuck," there is only "chose not to."

also doesn't prove anything when two-boxing is such a regular thing in the game now.

First, thank you for arguing my point: a level 99 doesn't need help from their alternate character to do rank 6 missions.

But secondly, a player who cared about following mission storylines would create their second character in a different city, to have a chance to play through that city's storyline without the headaches of changing their first's allegiance.

You're trying to argue for the statistical significance of players who (1) are interested in seeing new storyline, but (2) not interested enough to use their second character to do so, and further (3) created a second character to help with content (4) with the specific exception of content related to their first's rank missions, all the while (5) not being annoyed that Signet lasts hours longer on one than the other.

Really?

They could also be RMT.

Because Dynamis currency is such a big money-maker these days? So much so that they're going to waste the time (i.e. billable hours) to get to rank 6, time that could be spent doing far more profitable activities than Dynamis?

There's any number of reasons a character might be rank 6 but you're making a mistake conflating them all with people that don't give a shit about the story.

Yes, there are many reasons a level 99 player is rank 6, but only one that could be statistically significant. You're not even trying to argue that they all "just happen" to be doing their rank 6 missions at that very moment, which is a far greater likelihood than what you're trying to argue.

There's also plenty of players that don't have REMs or Top-End Gear that spam enter through their cutscenes (I know a couple of them myself).

Yes, and they too would likely be level 99 and parked at rank 6, for the very reason I stated: they just don't care.

And of those players you know who exhibit that behavior, how many of them bothered with artifact equipment, rather than skipping right on through to gear they can purchase with cruor in Visions of Abyssea?

FYI, ilevel 105 implies something about as hard as Skirmish (Refer here).

We're talking about the developers that still make all new players solo Maat capped at level 70, and you're talking to someone who clawed their way through CoP before the level caps there were removed. If "bluster through it at double the intended level" isn't an option, I have every confidence that the developers can find a way to make this content eye-gougingly difficult/annoying/whatever to a level 99.

The main storyline missions from almost all the expansions still require more than one person to complete (Depending on your job), as well.

So the people who can hold their own in Skirmish aren't able to solo 4 Jack Cardians?

I didn't "/sea all rank 6-9," I searched exclusively for rank 6. Maybe they're squeamish about trying "Leaute's Last Wishes" and 1000 Needles solo (or even dualboxed, in your scenario), but give me an Onion Sword and I'll have Flat Blade.

[Kincard]

I didn't use the word "stuck" in the literal "they're stuck at rank 6 because they suck" sense, but continue putting words in my mouth if you think that'll make you look better.

First, thank you for arguing my point: a level 99 doesn't need help from their alternate character to do rank 6 missions.

But secondly, a player who cared about following mission storylines would create their second character in a different city, to have a chance to play through that city's storyline without the headaches of changing their first's allegiance.

I just love how you constantly cherry pick situations where things look implausible when all I'm trying to say is that you're conflating people within group A into group B because of said cherry picking. Most people who multibox leave their boxes at rank 6 because they're not interested in seeing the same story twice. I don't know what "headache" you're talking about when you're talking about switching allegiance, it's been long since they removed both the loss of Conquest Points and Outpost Warps.

not being annoyed that Signet lasts hours longer on one than the other.

Most people don't play for over 7 hours straight, which is the minimum amount your Signet Lasts when you're rank 6.

Because Dynamis currency is such a big money-maker these days?

Still makin' 1.5~2 mil a day off Dynamis Currency here. Well, assuming I'd sell it. That's off bills, and assuming I sell them all for 5k each (They're going back up since SE mentioned how they're going to un-suck RMEs). I assume RMTs do ADL by now.

Yes, and they too would likely be level 99 and parked at rank 6, for the very reason I stated: they just don't care.

And of those players you know who exhibit that behavior, how many of them bothered with artifact equipment, rather than skipping right on through to gear they can purchase with cruor in Visions of Abyssea?

Actually, plenty of said players get Artifact Gear simply because it looks cool. They couldn't care less about the story. Some of them like having stuff done and don't care much about the story at all- they're just looking to have fun doing battlefields and stuff.

I'm taking issue with your attitude that's basically "man, those people with great gear that only care about grinding sure don't care about story like all us high-class people that take our time reading do!" If you want complain about them making an event inaccessible to people with limited playtime talk about that instead of spouting so much nonsense.

So the people who can hold their own in Skirmish aren't able to solo 4 Jack Cardians?

Cherry picking again I see. I'm sure you were one of the few people that was good enough to solo Lilith Ascendant but that's still excluding a great majority of the playerbase, including the people you're arguing for that probably have very few jobs leveled and don't have the resources to solo said missions.

(or even dualboxed, in your scenario)

wtf are you even talking about, I think you're getting confused. If your whole stance is that story content should be do-able solo then any example of a mission where you almost always need more than one person disproves what you're getting so worked up about.

[Ziyyigo-Tipyigo]

Most people who multibox leave their boxes at rank 6 because they're not interested in seeing the same story twice. I don't know what "headache" you're talking about when you're talking about switching allegiance

It still takes more effort than simply picking a different allegiance for a second character you're making anyway. Even if you choose an allegiance at random, that's still a 2/3 chance of picking one different from your first. And if they're truly that averse to "seeing the same story twice," rank 6 is exactly the wrong place to stop, as rank 6 is where the three nations truly start to diverge.

And even if they do pick the same allegiance for their second character, why would you make a second character and then not use it to help complete your first's missions?

Most people don't play for over 7 hours straight

The clock on Signet/etc. stops when you log off. Someone who plays only an hour a day will still notice the great disparity in Signet duration.

Still makin' 1.5~2 mil a day off Dynamis Currency here. Well, assuming I'd sell it. That's off bills, and assuming I sell them all for 5k each (They're going back up since SE mentioned how they're going to un-suck RMEs).

Pet jobs can make similar (if not better) money off of drops from Walk of Echoes, which has far less of a mission prerequisite to participate in. And that's assuming that they're not just flat-out selling power-leveling services for gil. Dynamis is not the optimal gil-making event it once was.

Cherry picking again I see.

It's not "cherry-picking," it's "staying on topic." The subject at hand is rank 6. The only place (and the only need) to fight four Jack Cardians is a Windurst rank 6 mission. After that, there's four level ~60 Yagudo, a hike up Castle Oztroja, and then you stop showing up in the results of "/sea all rank 6."

There are exactly six (6) rank 6 missions in FFXI (and no, "Lilith Ascendant" is not one of them). Name one of them that a level 99 character can't solo. Any job (or lack thereof), any gear (or lack thereof).

wtf are you even talking about

I pointed out to what I feel to be compelling evidence that a sizable portion of players are interested in endgame content to the exclusion of storyline/content. You tried to argue that what I was actually seeing was strong evidence of rampant dualboxing. If someone is interested in reaching San d'Oria rank 7 or beyond, having a second character to share 1000 Needles with will make the first of their two rank 6 missions that much less intimidating.

One moment, you're arguing that rank 7+ can be soloed, so that there's no reason to bring a second character through those same missions. Then you turn around and say it can't be soloed, in which case the second character would need to progress through the same high ranks just to have access to the battlefield for (e.g.) "Saintly Invitation."

[Kincard]

I'm noticing that you have a bad habit of confusing one group of players with another group of players. The group of players that leave their characters at rank 6 and the group of players that are apparently so casual that can't complete Skirmish and somehow were able to clear the story missions that basically require groups to be able to complete are not the same people by your own admission. Why are you confusing these two groups?

You seem to be forgetting that your initial complaint is some nonsense about how people that collect gear and people that enjoy the story don't have an overlap, when in fact there's lots and lots of players (I'd dare say the majority of them) that enjoy both. You go on to say that because of this the AF should not be designed with ilevel105 in mind because the new quests won't please anyone. I counter by saying that not only is ilevel105 actually a pretty low difficulty setting (Your counter of "they suck at game design anyway" is a conversation ender because you can apply that even if the quest was designed for a far lower level- the BLU AF3 Soulflayer was ridiculously difficult at the 75 cap for example, very few 75s could solo that thing), but that even in the past story content has been largely group based- that has absolutely nothing to do with characters staying at rank 6 because obviously the players that enjoy story are beyond that rank and obviously have completed those group activities to get the story they like so much. That level 99 characters can easily clear rank 6 has so little to do with that fact that I can't believe I even have to explain this.

tl;dr quit putting words in other peoples' mouths and try to grasp the overall point that is being made.

[Okipuit]

Does this mean that RUN and GEO won't get Relic armor and Empyreal armor?

In the next version update, only geomancer and rune fencer artifact armor will be added.

As Camate mentioned previously, this gear is for level 99 (item level 105), so while the term artifact is used, you can consider that it will be more powerful than that of the level 50-60 artifact for other jobs.

We'll keep you posted on information about other equipment for these jobs as it becomes available!

[Ziyyigo-Tipyigo]

I'm noticing that you have a bad habit of confusing one group of players with another group of players. The group of players that leave their characters at rank 6 and the group of players that are apparently so casual that can't complete Skirmish and somehow were able to clear the story missions that basically require groups to be able to complete are not the same people by your own admission. Why are you confusing these two groups?

Because you're trying to argue they're the same group of people. I'm trying to point out the absurdity of your claim that a player that is able to figure out which end of their weapon to hold in a Skirmish has any real reason to not reach rank 7+ other than "don't want to." Any level 99 job, any nation, any gear, can reach rank 7 without joining a single party, ever.

You seem to be forgetting that your initial complaint is some nonsense about how people that collect gear and people that enjoy the story don't have an overlap, when in fact there's lots and lots of players (I'd dare say the majority of them) that enjoy both.

My argument is that the overlap isn't significant. 1/6 of the level 99 characters are showing the most blatant (but not the only possible) evidence of caring about endgame exclusively. All you've offered is attempts to discredit this with suggestions of highly implausible scenarios.

You go on to say that because of this the AF should not be designed with ilevel105 in mind because the new quests won't please anyone.

No, I'm quite sure that the people who obtain the rewards of the level 99 quests will be pleased with the equipment (depending on stats) and/or the challenge to obtain that equipment. But the people who finish this content are more likely (not all, but more likely) to be the kinds of people who skip storyline content, which has historically been a major part of Artifact quests (and nowadays about the only reason to pick up the quests for many jobs). They got their fight and their gear, they don't care one way or the other if they were shown Adoulin backstory in the process, or simply had a Magian Moogle drop a star on their head.

The players who are not up to completing a level 99 challenge (for any reason) are most likely not paying $12.95/mo because they love beating their head against a brick wall; the most likely reason for them to still be interested in FFXI is collecting bits of lore, making them the ones most likely to be interested in the storyline of these JSE quests. But because they're not up to the task of completing the challenge (for any reason), this bit of lore will be inaccessible to them, just as the storyline around building a Mythic weapon is out of reach for most of us.

I counter by saying that not only is ilevel105 actually a pretty low difficulty setting

"Pretty low" is a relative qualifier that gets tossed around often in these forums. For example, go over to the PLD forums and you'll see plenty of people posting "Anybody can get an Aegis or an Ochain," and then of course start tacking on plenty of caveats like "If they level BST first" or "If they have a decent group supporting them" or any number of such backpedals, where "anybody" stops actually meaning anybody. So can anybody do Skirmish, even if they have no gear higher than level 75 (e.g. NQ relic armor)?

(Your counter of "they suck at game design anyway" is a conversation ender because you can apply that even if the quest was designed for a far lower level- the BLU AF3 Soulflayer was ridiculously difficult at the 75 cap for example, very few 75s could solo that thing),

Today, if you reach 99 in job X, you can solo your Artifact quests as job X, full stop. WAR99 with an Onion Sword, DRK99 with a Chaosbringer, whatever. This is because you are level 99 doing level ~60 content. But I doubt a RUN99 rockin' a Sowilo Claymore will get very far in the level 99 content he'll be expected to face. The threat of making Artifact content level 99 for these new jobs is a step backwards to the days of not being able to solo Artifact quests.

This is S-E saying that RUN and GEO are endgame-only jobs. If you're a bit behind the curve (for any reason), you can only get the full story for 20 out of 22 jobs. Abyssea marked a separation between access to story and the need for skill/gear. This news about the new jobs marks a reversal.

[Glamdring]

In the next version update, only geomancer and rune fencer artifact armor will be added.

As Camate mentioned previously, this gear is for level 99 (item level 105), so while the term artifact is used, you can consider that it will be more powerful than that of the level 50-60 artifact for other jobs.

We'll keep you posted on information about other equipment for these jobs as it becomes available!

could you at least find out if it includes an AF weapon? BEFORE I waste gil buying 37 flame geodes and 6 Ifritites? I don't mind farming but with their drop rates and my available playing time that's 4 real world weeks of farming and, um... no thanks.

[Zhronne]

I'm enjoying SoA a lot, but despite the gameplay balancement we're (slowly) getting which is awesome, can't say I'm happy with the direction they're going.

Making all old content useless, now making lv99 AFs etc. They're all consequences of a different approach to the game.
An approach which I understand and partially justify, but I can't really say I thoroughfully like it.
If I were asked to say what I would have dreamed for FFXI, it definitely wouldn't be something like the current situation.

[Kincard]

clip

Are you seriously comparing something completable with pretty reasonable gear (Skirmish) to stuff like Mythic Weapons or building an Aegis/Ochain? (Both of which involve months of farming)

Try bringing up an example that isn't hyperbole and maybe I'll take you seriously. Even assuming it will take 6 people to beat the NM won't prove a damn thing when there's a lot of story content that was originally designed with 6 people in mind. Again, if you just want to demand they make it soloable, I don't really even care either way, just stop making this ridiculous assumption that the story content and group play have ever been kept in two separate rooms with this game outside of "please bring me 5 rarab gonads" types of quests.

[Rosalie]

In the next version update, only geomancer and rune fencer artifact armor will be added.

As Camate mentioned previously, this gear is for level 99 (item level 105), so while the term artifact is used, you can consider that it will be more powerful than that of the level 50-60 artifact for other jobs.

We'll keep you posted on information about other equipment for these jobs as it becomes available!

What about artifact +1 items from Limbus? Will those be added as well?