Macc No longer displayed?

[Karah]

From the very first minute SoA went live it was obvious as far as I could see with the immediate adjustments to reive and the fact that almost nothing went unchanged.

Maybe some people just slower to catch on though...

Really though, this hidden MACC stat isn't going to fly. But, the sad truth is we're going to complain, and continue to complain (about this and 50 other things that're retarded) and our disgust will continue to go unanswered.

[Okipuit]

Hello,

Following yesterday’s post on magic accuracy, Producer Akihiko Matsui would like to explain about the new magic accuracy skill + system.

Matsui here.

I’d like to explain about the concept of the “magic accuracy skill +” that was implemented in the October version update.

• This is not the existing “magic accuracy +” stat, it is a new system
  Prior to the version update, we had added “magic accuracy +” to weapons individually so that players could deal with the high magic evasion of high level monsters.
  
  However, considering the situation of jobs such as red mage, dark knight, ninja, and blue mage who equip weapons other than clubs and staves, there was a necessity to add magic accuracy to just about every weapon, and this removed one of the possible stat slots on weapons.
  
  Also, as we had to give consideration for having two weapons when dual wielding, the amount of magic accuracy given to one-handed weapons would have to be limited making it inconvenient to dual wield, so we decided to adopt the “magic accuracy skill +” system that would be applied to only main hand weapons, much like the “combat skill +” stat.

• Magic accuracy skill + for jobs whose mainly use ranged weapons
  Similar to dual wield, we’d have to give consideration for how magic accuracy is applied to the both the ranged weapon and the main hand weapon as well as making it easy to understand like other jobs, and we decided to apply this to main hand weapons only.
  
  However, since abilities and weaponskills associated with ranged weapons can only be used when they are equipped, we would like to explore whether we can implement the below:
  
  • Main weapons’ weaponskills and magic granted from support jobs reference main weapons’ magic accuracy skill +
  • Wildfire and other ranged weapon elemental weaponskills reference ranged weapons’ magic accuracy skill +

• Standardized settings for magic accuracy skill + on equipment
  We will not be setting values on a per weapon basis; instead we will be adding a standardized amount of magic accuracy skill + depending on the weapon type and item level. (There is a possibility in the future that we introduce weapons with special characteristics that deviate from the standard.)
  
  Fundamentally, clubs and staves which are predominantly backline job weapons will have higher value of magic accuracy skill +. Also, within the same weapon types, the more magic focused staves as opposed to poles used for attacking will receive a somewhat higher amount of magical accuracy skill +.
  
  Furthermore, considering that it is possible to equip a sub-weapon when using a club, we will be giving a slightly higher value of magic accuracy skill + to staves. (This will be only a very slight difference)
  
  Please consider this adjustment one that preserves the magic-centric aspects of clubs and staves, while making it possible to utilize magic when you equip swords and two-handed swords.

I apologize for the inconvenience as this stat is not listed on the item help text currently.
Comparing frontline weapon types to backline weapon types, there is a disparity of roughly 1-3 item levels, but essentially we’ve added a higher amount of magic accuracy skill + to higher item level weapons, so please use item levels as a reference for this in the meantime as we prepare for the November version update.

[Kavik]

With the new augment text box thingy... please just put on the weapons what the weapon does! It would be REALLY lovely so that like spells, the weapon/armor etc would say what the latent effect does. All hidden stats (like the ones on ele staves) and especially chatoyant staff where it says "Iridescence" ( i can't tell you how many people have asked me this exact question "What does that do anyway?") Hidden stats are lame. Additional effects under certain conditions without those conditions being listed anywhere but on the internet... are lame. Please change them so we can just SEE what we're getting. For example... 'occasionally deals light elemental damage' on a weapon... huh? *goes and beats a ton of stuff to death with the weapon, no light dmg procs* *looks to internet* 'occasionally deals light elemental damage' IF 'it's the 3rd tuesday of the month under a full moons and it's darksday' no THANK YOU!

Obviously this applies to the new stuff with magic acc skill + and all things going forward. Hidden stats and 'testing' them with so many variables is the dumps. Do not make any 'hidden' stats, if it's 1 magic acc skill of, SHOW IT.

[detlef]

Think back to when the gave us a teaser of what updated Excalibur/Almace/Burtgang would look like. They didn't have weapon skill+ which just goes to show how hastily conceived and implemented the whole item level concept is. It's actually quite frightening to think about.

I can't help but wonder how the dev team didn't see these issues coming when they introduced the whole item level concept. When you put all the stats into the gear instead of the character, of course you're going to have issues like this. Now we have to deal with all these fixes that are necessarily because the original item level idea was so shaky in the first place.

[Malthar]

Producer Akihiko Matsui, why are you shouting at us?

[FaeQueenCory]

I understood the concept of the "Macc skill +"...
It's basically as if you had +X in that magic skill. (namely thinking about magic skills like Elemental or Summoning where your Macc is determined from the skill)

My problem with that is that it's a modification of a modification of a modification.... there's a LOT of translating to do between skill level and Macc. (for smn, I just 1/2 and + summoning skill because when you're at cap, that's roughly what it'll be.... kinda. It's good enough to evaluate gear with +10 and +6 skill and determine what that loss of Acc/Macc is worth the other effects of the gear.)

While I can understand the desire to uniformly have + "fake" combat skill and + "fake" magic skill...
I really think either just condensing the help text to + "offensive acc" and drop the skill reference...
Or to have the simple +Macc...
My problem is with the intuitive comparisons between gear.
Which will give me more Macc: a 119 dagger? or a 113 staff? If it was just a 1:1 ratio to the "fake" skill... the dagger should give more by a lot.
But it's not. It's not even like a uniform 1:x ratio... the x is dependant on the type of weapon so it's 1:y(1) where y is an undisclosed modifier for the weapon type.
If it was uniform.... we could just condense the "fake" skill stat on iLv weapons to an "offensive acc" or "Macc/acc" stat.
But if I understand everything correctly... that would require the +Macc to be equal to the + "fake" skill...
But it doesn't...

Basically: too much maths for eyeballing.

[Rubeus]

I for one would just like to say "Thank You!" to Matsui-san. When you said "from now on, I'm going to be explaining things and why we could/couldn't do something" I don't really think many (jaded and/or forum) players really took it very seriously, given the way this MMO by-and-large expects you to figure it out on your own and through testing. So, thank you for being forthright. Please keep up the good work!

Also, in the future, it would be nice if things were more standardized; it's somewhat annoying to be searching on ffxiah for a piece of gear that gives "magic attack bonus" vs "magic atk. bns." or "haste +5%" vs "haste 5%." There are a LOT of items in this game that don't often follow the same naming scheme.

But aside from that minor suggestion, it's really nice to see new unique stats.

[Zohno]

it's really nice to see new unique stats.

They are nice when have meaning, not as a workaround for poorly thought features :/
Anyway, try this for stats http://ffxiarmory.com/. I still gotta fix some stats of the recent changed weapons, but for the rest I tried to merge the similar ones together.

[Rwolf]

The chaos that is item leveling. Abolish it for a new system?
My continued opinion is that this whole item level process is just creating chaos and tying up valuable development time. Keeping lots of fixes and promises of new content, spells, summons, traits, items, etc. left on the backburner for years.

Sometimes just realizing something doesn't work and scrapping it is better than going full throttle with it. Multiple small expansions to merit categories and unlocking additional merit categories via Seekers of Adoulin content (much like genkai) would avoid all of this. Adding a rank while being checked/searched to denote while Level 99, this is their "true level".

Experience points would not be irrelevant to veteran players. You would have the ability to make new weapons and armor without this balance act of making all jobs "level up" and most of all, it would make relevant again all the 99 gear that just before Delve was released, relevant again. That is my optimum opinion that would make this game relevant and more playable again and would not diminish past accomplishments with easy to obtain gear. An RPGs roots are all about being proud of your accomplishments, feeling that sense of victory of completing something worked arduously on.

With that needing to be said:

Continuing with item leveling: Clarity and simplification
At the least, we need to make items easier to understand from day 1 of release. If the intent is main hand only to prevent Dual Wield being the only optimum choice (which I agree on), then just put everything affected by it followed by "Main hand:" Example:

Iztaasu +1
(Sword) All Races
DMG:97 Delay:236 Parrying skill +162
Current Hand: Sword skill +162
Main hand: Magic acc. +126
Lv. 99 RDM/PLD/BLU
<insert augments>

In regard to ranged weapon jobs. I think there just needs to be a check on the quantity which having the most magic accuracy taking priority.

Example:
Hgafircian +1
(Marksmanship) All Races
DMG:95 Delay:660 Marksmanship skill +162
≥ Main Hand: Magic accuracy + ???

By just putting a greater than or equal to sign. It's clear that any of the stats here will only conflict with the main hand if it is equal or higher. This should remedy using Quick Draw / Elemental Ranged WS and allow using weapons that aren't item level to further enhance attacks without the large disparity in magic accuracy.

What happened to ranged enhancing main weapons?
Slightly off subject, I'm actually sad to see the discontinuement of weapons that are built solely for assisting ranged attacks. (Carabineer Dagger, Vulcan Staff, Mekki Shakki, Fransisca, Kriegsbeil, etc.) I would like to see some more optimal ranged attack centered main weapons that are item leveled.

Edited suggestion: Saying Main hand is very confusing.

[Fynlar]

Continuing with item leveling: Clarity and simplification
At the least, we need to make items easier to understand from day 1 of release. If the intent is main hand only to prevent Dual Wield being the only optimum choice (which I agree on), then just put everything affected by it followed by "Main hand:" Example:

Iztaasu +1
(Sword) All Races
DMG:97 Delay:236 Parrying skill +162
Main Hand: Sword skill +162 Magic acc. +126
Lv. 99 RDM/PLD/BLU
<insert augments>

Minor gripe: it doesn't just work in the main hand only. It works just fine in the off hand, just that it works for THAT weapon only.

The intent wasn't to discourage Dual Wield, it was to make it so that you can't wield two of those things and have sword skill +324 or whatever it would be.