R/M/E 99 to 119 upgrade info and findings

[Monchat]

go solo your matamata with your whm mule, takes 7 mn. Eft and raptor chappuli scorpion orobon (and others) take 5 minute with 2 DD 1 BRD.

[Kincard]

We've largely eased the difficulty for obtaining the Walk of Echoes weapons and for unlocking their special weapon skills. Please understand that this is not the beginning phase for the easing of difficulty for creating relic, mythic, and empyrean weapons.

lol
goddamn
i don't know if this means what i think it means, but if your goal is to retain your existing subscribers then continuously introducing new trials where we collect 300 NM items while making the parts we've already finished take 10 byne bills to finish is probably only going to be frustrating. I'm sure it'll make those people freshly joining FFXI incredibly happy that the initial stages will be easier now though, because we all know XI gets a lot of those.

[Sapphires]

Well lets be honest here, with my server pop at 1200ish during JP prime, and like 400-500ish at other times, only the JP forums exploding over the difficulty are going to carry any weight.
People that fishbot or 6box are the only ones that are going to pay 500k+ per upgrade piece or dont find the task at hand difficult.

I don't find it unreasonable to pay maybe 100k per piece, but right now the droprate depending on the activity you do is on par with VW riftcinder so people want 1M which is crazy.

I think SE fails to see that if it was made a bit more reasonable, more people would come back and play longer and think about upgrading multiple RMEs with the new trial if the supply was much higher.
Right now the initial impression is so bad that people dont want to come back or have to swallow the bitter pill that they have to pick only 1 weapon to take through this new upgrade because its so costly from a time/gil standpoint.

[detlef]

Well lets be honest here, with my server pop at 1200ish during JP prime, and like 400-500ish at other times, only the JP forums exploding over the difficulty are going to carry any weight.
People that fishbot or 6box are the only ones that are going to pay 500k+ per upgrade piece or dont find the task at hand difficult.

I don't find it unreasonable to pay maybe 100k per piece, but right now the droprate depending on the activity you do is on par with VW riftcinder so people want 1M which is crazy.

I think SE fails to see that if it was made a bit more reasonable, more people would come back and play longer and think about upgrading multiple RMEs with the new trial if the supply was much higher.
Right now the initial impression is so bad that people dont want to come back or have to swallow the bitter pill that they have to pick only 1 weapon to take through this new upgrade because its so costly from a time/gil standpoint.

Yeah, I'm looking at 600 Beitetsu. That's quite a bit, even looking at it as a long term goal. 1m per item is far more than what a reasonable person would pay, but right now that is probably the appropriate price from the sellers' perspective based on how difficult they are to obtain. Hopefully something gives a little bit because RME upgraders will probably not pay that, and sellers are going to have a hard time lowering the price because they are still pretty challenging to obtain.

I posted in the WKR feedback thread that I would like to see the drop rate increased slightly such that WKRs can be sustained even after players cap out on gear. Something is also going to have to be done with Sacred Kindred's Crests so that people can participate in the new battlefields. Upgraded AF shouldn't be significantly more difficult to obtain than Yorcia Skirmish gear, so hopefully that gets adjusted too.

In the mean time, it's comforting to know that even Valefor, the most red-headed of all the servers, can now tackle WKR like champs. I'm hoping that the server will finally get slightly better so that there are more successful pickup Delve shouts and more items are introduced to the market.

[Byrth]

I got 6 Beitetsu last night:
* 3 came from 7 Matamata - I joined a shout group and we 4-manned it.
* 2 were direct drops from 5x Wildskeeper Reives
* 1 I got by trading a boulder for a Beitetsu

At 2% per night, it would take me less than 2 months to complete Terpsichore to 119 even without buying any, without an LS, etc. Wait until people give the BCs a shot this weekend. Very hard mode won't be beatable by everyone, but it guarantees a Case + Single. They will really start to flow soon.

I bet I finish Terpsichore to 119 in two weeks.

[Zumi]

On my server prices seem to be
Relic 250k each
Empyrean 150k
Mythic 100k

Due to the fact a lot more people have 99 relics, empyrean and mythics are far less in comparison.

[FaeQueenCory]

Upgraded AF shouldn't be significantly more difficult to obtain than Yorcia Skirmish gear, so hopefully that gets adjusted too.

From your lips to God's Ear.

Does everyone one know the ONE simple... intern-level "fix" that would make ppl actually be able to do the AF1 upgrade in a timely fashion?

That's right!

Add the stupid seals to the trade table.
-_-

*see update*
"oh good. hope they fixed the mythic and seal shenanigans"
*they fixed the mythic*
-_- "where is my seal trade"

Though I'm not sure if everyone has seen the message yet... BUUUUT apparently.... Matsui knows that 300 BS item grind.... is too much BS...
And from his words...
No one is allowed to make 119 REMs.
Don't do it.
If no one makes any...
Then that 300 will severely drop...
Just like the 5k alexandrite.

(only mildly joking.... you crazies who have the time and drive... make your 119 REMs... but it's really nice to know that the number most likely will probably be dropping... *100 or 50 plz*)

[MarkovChain]

It seems that pluton and boulder have a higher droprate than beiretsu. Mdk and me have farmed ~120 plutons, 120 boulders but I think less than 40 beiretsu. We only do raptor/mata/eft though, might be the reason. It would be logical to not flood the market with beirtsu as there are very little mythics around.

[FaeQueenCory]

A quest storyline for each job. With three AF's dropping from completing quests, a moderately difficult pop NM battle for one AF item, and a super-hard bcnm for the last AF slot item (head or body).

TBH theres no way I'm doing the AF1 upgrades anyway if they plan to upgrade relic and empyrean armors later. I really love the set bonuses on my AF3+2 sets and the jobspecific bonuses on my augmented relic+2 sets. Imo SE should have done AF3 upgrade first, and done so after SOA was released. <That way> I could have just upgraded my af3+2 and used it in Seekers, instead of farming 50 sets of self-destructing bayld armors ("This armor set will self-destruct in one week!") that become obsolete before I've even had time to equip the damn things. And ugly ass Skirmish armors which you may have noticed are copies of Battle Trophy "Spry Armor Set" which was the ugliest armor ever and then replicated in skirmish.

Its BS that we have to grind lots of bcnm for these armors when they are supposed to be artifact ie. storyline related with historical significance relating to knowledge passed down from the NPC's who are masters of that specific job. This grinding number system is ok for some things but not for AF. Imho. And it just widens the gulf between the atmospheric and interesting jobspecific RPG storylines style of FFXI pre Aby/Soa and the thing we have now which is basically building by numbers.

It's hard to tell exactly... cause... Japanese=contextual hell...
But it could be that Matsui intends to have it so that the Artifact, Relic, and Empyrean sets all can be upgraded through 119....
Or maybe he meant that the Empy (AF3) will be the upgrade to 119...
Or maybe just the Af1 will go up to 119...

Translating Japanese is the devil.
So I can't say you shouldn't give up hope or not...
But for at least some of the jobs... some of the 109AF1 is hella good. (Namely thinking of SMN, but PUP is also really good too... and DNC... Fa~bu~lo~us!!)

Though I have to disagree about the AF3 being upgraded first....
I think that RUN and GEO AF1 should have just been an AF4 and we never have had to deal with iLvifying the three existing AFs...
So that RUN and GEO got their AF4 first because Abyssea and 99 and all that... and then the other jobs get their AF4s while RUN and GEO get their AF1-3.

On the other hand... Dear Lord that SMN horn...
And I don't mind the idea of all the JSE sets being all 119 and mix and matchy...
Sure I am horribly terrified at what Empy armor is gonna look like due to the whole set bonus gimmick it has...
They might even drop that for static bonuses/effects...
The design is really good on this 109AF1...
But I completely see where you are coming from.

[Dragoy]

While I agree, that it would be nice to have some actual quests again (that sure takes me back in time), upgrading the Artifact armour to level 74 (+1) didn't have a real quest to it either, so keeping that in mind, I'm not too fussy about it being just a fetch quest this time around (could of course be better).

What I find strange is how they made them 109 now, if they were already planning on taking them up to 119. That is odd. I would have imagined the Relic and Empyrean armour to be around there, or higher.

I am actually eager, burning from the want of making the new versions of the original sets, but the Sacred Kindred's Crests are blocking the way; it's simply difficult (takes too much time) to get to even try one's mite on the battlefields. So yes, this part needs to be addressed, I feel, and I'm not even talking about the weapons (I have some Empyreans, perhaps a Relic at some point, and friends of mine have several, so there is that, too, but I'm giving it time).

I'm tempted to say, add copies of the chapters from Rem's Tale to other content, such as Campaign, but I guess that would make it too... easy... <ahem>, so I would suggest adding more ways to access the battlefields. Add the crests to something like Campaign (though the reward system there is begging for an overhaul before anything, but what about Allied Notes?).

It often seemed like it was more easy to implement new things than re-shaping the old, which I understand from a programmer's point of view; especially when it's something like FINAL FANTASY XI Online, it might be easier to put them into new things, such as the “Eminence Records” (new content only mentioned on the Japanese side so far some week(s) or so ago), what ever that may be (it looks like we should find out come December). I doubt the name is referring to a record company, so it'll probably be something like Through the Archives or something completely different!


Anyblue, what was I talking about?

Nothing!