Suggestions: Quality of Life Stuff and other suggestions

[Raka]

What we want from iLv Aegis and perhaps Ochain are enough shield skill and DEF added to the shields to not sit at a floored block rate of 5~13% using Aegis. You can sit here and tell me all about RUN having a lower MDT cap than an Aegis PLD all you like, but at the end of the day: I still see them take much less damage than a PLD using full PDT/MDT/DT equipment and they do more damage, as well as offering a debuff on the target to lower their resistance to a specific element for their SMN and/or mages to go crazy.

We've all heard SquareEnix's original reason for not allowing upgrades to Aegis and Ochain before and that was when the Weapons got the upgrades and not the Shields/Instruments, but now the times are changing again and we are seeing Lv135 content and likely higher soon I am sure.

Not asking for anything insane, just DEF and Shield Skill to adapt to the current end game. That's it.

Making these changes won't change the fact that a career PLD will need/want to get both shields in the long run either.

[machini]

All the shouts I see for people wanting COR lately are for people wanting them to do Death Penalty, and to bring Corsair's Roll. And, unless I'm mistaken, it's entirely possible for a BRD to have five songs currently.

And as for GEO, a GEO can have, at best, three effects ongoing, while a JSE Harp BRD can have 18/+ effects ongoing on the same six people and doesn't even have to put themselves into harm's way to do so. A BRD is capable of putting out buffs that are just as good, if not better, than GEO and COR buffs, and not only more of them at once, but mix and match them throughout an entire party. Keeping up more the four different rolls on a COR is a nightmare, since it requires the active cooperation of your party to shuffle around so they don't get their rolls knocked off, and you're subject to busts. BRD can't miss a note and lose the ability to sing for five minutes. BRD can also change their buffs to single target to pick out an individual in a crowd, and can reapply a buff onto a party member who's lost it even if they themselves haven't.

And as for specifically CP party shouts, there's exactly two things that COR brings to a CP party, and one of them is something no one else can bring: Corsair's Roll. The fact that COR has a +%exp buff means absolutely nothing in the grand scheme of things, because no one brings a COR with them to Sinister Reign to apply Corsair's Roll. It is a level 5 Phantom Roll which only suddenly became relevant again due to Capacity Points. You might as well include snappy dress sense as a reason why people should bring COR to a party.

As someone who plays Corsair when I'm not playing Dancer, Corsair is the most incredibly frustrating thing I have ever done in this game. It's worse than herding cats. Not only do I have to depend on the Dice Gods to not screw me over, but I actively require the help of my party members to enable me to do my buffing. "Come over here, don't come over here, don't follow me, etc, etc" are all things I have to actively explain to people when I'm trying to put out more than two rolls. And putting out more than two rolls means I'm going to be spending a lot of time buffing. It's not uncommon for me to be constantly rolling dice and never getting to actually shoot anything when I'm playing Corsair, simply because in the time it takes me to position myself and/or my party for 4 rolls enough time has passed on the first batch to have to start getting ready to reroll.

A BRD, on the other hand, without using any SPs, can apply 3 different songs to themselves and five of their closest friends in the space of roughly 90 seconds, and then stand around and pick their nose for another 90 seconds before they have to start reapplying them. Or even less time, if they're not applying 15 individual songs. They can hit everyone with Double March and then just apply single target buffs to specific party members, like Ballad or Prelude or Madrigal.

[machini]

What we want from iLv Aegis and perhaps Ochain are enough shield skill and DEF added to the shields to not sit at a floored block rate of 5~13% using Aegis. You can sit here and tell me all about RUN having a lower MDT cap than an Aegis PLD all you like, but at the end of the day: I still see them take much less damage than a PLD using full PDT/MDT/DT equipment and they do more damage, as well as offering a debuff on the target to lower their resistance to a specific element for their SMN and/or mages to go crazy.

We've all heard SquareEnix's original reason for not allowing upgrades to Aegis and Ochain before and that was when the Weapons got the upgrades and not the Shields/Instruments, but now the times are changing again and we are seeing Lv135 content and likely higher soon I am sure.

Not asking for anything insane, just DEF and Shield Skill to adapt to the current end game. That's it.

Making these changes won't change the fact that a career PLD will need/want to get both shields in the long run either.

You don't wear Aegis for the block rate. You don't wear Ochain for the defense. The point of the shields is the MDT on Aegis, and the Damage to MP Conversion on Ochain. Those two shields are already insanely overpowered and are still completely fulfilling their purposes despite not being item level.

All that I, and presumably, Squeenix, see when people ask for Aegis and Ochain buffs is "Do these people not understand how incredibly overpowered to the point that they actually create problems in design encounter these items are? And they want them buffed?"

[Raka]

You don't wear Aegis for the block rate. You don't wear Ochain for the defense. The point of the shields is the MDT on Aegis, and the Damage to MP Conversion on Ochain. Those two shields are already insanely overpowered and are still completely fulfilling their purposes despite not being item level.

All that I, and presumably, Squeenix, see when people ask for Aegis and Ochain buffs is "Do these people not understand how incredibly overpowered to the point that they actually create problems in design encounter these items are? And they want them buffed?"

You are missing the point I am trying to make, and I keep thinking to myself: "You might understand where I am coming from if you were a PLD that had both shields."
When you see someone ask for iLv Aegis, you immediately go to the extreme thinking we want full time immunity to either Physical or Magical damage.

No, what we want is to keep up with content.

A RUN can take less overall damage than a PLD using either shield and capped DT gear.
A RUN can deal more damage than a PLD.
A RUN can offer a supportive debuff to enhance their mages damage for a specific element.

I think anybody would be satisfied right now if Aegis at the very least was sitting on 40% block rate or even just 30% for the current 135 content. Beats sitting at 5~13% and it isn't ridiculous either.
Personally, I wouldn't really know what to give an Ochain honestly. Though I would imagine more Defense if anything.

Now as for your theory that people want an Aegis for MDT...well, yeah. It's kind of self explanatory, but it doesn't mean we shouldn't be able to block only 5 times out of 100... Now the use of Ochain for it's "Damage coverted to MP"? You got to be joking. The entire point of Ochain was it's reliably high block rate.
I am using Aegis majority of the time with a spell interruption rate down set and I never find myself hurting for MP. I just find myself taking too much unwanted physical damage when the RUN I tank along-side with is taking very little...
Mind you, I do use capped Damage Reduction gear. So I don't think RUN is going anywhere even if SquareEnix added the iLv Aegis.

It would just make it less of a problem for PLD to keep up with RUN.

But hey, that's my opinion...I am sure though quite a few people out there feel the same.

[OmnysValefor]

You don't wear Aegis for the block rate. You don't wear Ochain for the defense. The point of the shields is the MDT on Aegis, and the Damage to MP Conversion on Ochain. Those two shields are already insanely overpowered and are still completely fulfilling their purposes despite not being item level.

You discredit yourself by citing Ochain's MP conversion.

Ochain's MP conversion is very very awesome but LOL. I don't wear Ochain for the MP conversion. I wear it because I expect it to block. Yeah, an Ochain paladin can't use their MP fast enough but to be honest, keeping MP with Aegis isn't that hard. I lowman content all the time (with trusts) where I'm not always getting MP support and I get by.

Do I want them to take MP-Conversion off Ochain? No. Would I have built Ochain if it was never there? Certainly.

When iLVL hit and some people were crying for ilvl shields, instruments, I was one of the many to say that they're simply not needed, but now they are--especially in Aegis' case. It's pretty bad when you expect the thing not to block.

[Aeron]

Right now the progression path of Ochain is just wonky. There is no real reason to take Ochain past 90 and that is a flaw in the design in the shield. Like it or not shields and instruments are part of the R/E system and by that extension deserve to be the same ilvl as the other ones when they get upgraded.

[OmnysValefor]

First, as an Ochain 90, I agree completely. 99 Ochain is a waste of gil unless you've just run out of things to buy.

But also, there only needs to be ilvl upgrades for shields now, because shields actually need them. At Delve release, there was nothing in game that touched Ochain and Aegis at what they do best, so yeah, there was no need.

PLDs aren't asking for shield love because they want to spend gil, or because "it's not fair everyone else gets them". PLDs are asking because shields actually need it.

I don't know about instruments. The love bard needs is more in the spells department than the equipment department.

[Aeron]

First, as an Ochain 90, I agree completely. 99 Ochain is a waste of gil unless you've just run out of things to buy.

But also, there only needs to be ilvl upgrades for shields now, because shields actually need them. At Delve release, there was nothing in game that touched Ochain and Aegis at what they do best, so yeah, there was no need.

PLDs aren't asking for shield love because they want to spend gil, or because "it's not fair everyone else gets them". PLDs are asking because shields actually need it.

I don't know about instruments. The love bard needs is more in the spells department than the equipment department.

For me its kind of more about completion if that makes sense. I do have ochain at 99 and it being a empyrean weapon and not being upgraded feels incomplete in a way. I get why some ppl think that the shields are overpowered but I also think that this is a misconception. Aegis's block rate is 11% without reprisal on 126 mobs worse on 135. For me personally I don't use Ochain in the higher tiered content mostly because if I have to maintain reprisal to increase the block rate I might as well use priwen because it negates more dmg total with reprisal up. Ppl don't realize that Ochain really isnt as good as it once was and they hear garbage like oh well if Ochain were to be ilvl it would be 150 which is totally false and think that it doesn't need a boost when it really does. Ill agree aegis doesn't need like an upgrade to the mdt, however they can add something to the next upgrade to make it worth wild and not be game breaking.

[Aeron]

You are missing the point I am trying to make, and I keep thinking to myself: "You might understand where I am coming from if you were a PLD that had both shields."
When you see someone ask for iLv Aegis, you immediately go to the extreme thinking we want full time immunity to either Physical or Magical damage.

No, what we want is to keep up with content.

A RUN can take less overall damage than a PLD using either shield and capped DT gear.
A RUN can deal more damage than a PLD.
A RUN can offer a supportive debuff to enhance their mages damage for a specific element.

I think anybody would be satisfied right now if Aegis at the very least was sitting on 40% block rate or even just 30% for the current 135 content. Beats sitting at 5~13% and it isn't ridiculous either.
Personally, I wouldn't really know what to give an Ochain honestly. Though I would imagine more Defense if anything.

Now as for your theory that people want an Aegis for MDT...well, yeah. It's kind of self explanatory, but it doesn't mean we shouldn't be able to block only 5 times out of 100... Now the use of Ochain for it's "Damage coverted to MP"? You got to be joking. The entire point of Ochain was it's reliably high block rate.
I am using Aegis majority of the time with a spell interruption rate down set and I never find myself hurting for MP. I just find myself taking too much unwanted physical damage when the RUN I tank along-side with is taking very little...
Mind you, I do use capped Damage Reduction gear. So I don't think RUN is going anywhere even if SquareEnix added the iLv Aegis.

It would just make it less of a problem for PLD to keep up with RUN.

But hey, that's my opinion...I am sure though quite a few people out there feel the same.

I think that right there is very fair if that is all they did, id like to see more done maybe a new effect on the status effect resistance side but over all fair. If only for the completionist in me to see it at 119.

[OmnysValefor]

For me its kind of more about completion if that makes sense. I do have ochain at 99 and it being a empyrean weapon and not being upgraded feels incomplete in a way. I get why some ppl think that the shields are overpowered but I also think that this is a misconception. Aegis's block rate is 11% without reprisal on 126 mobs worse on 135. For me personally I don't use Ochain in the higher tiered content mostly because if I have to maintain reprisal to increase the block rate I might as well use priwen because it negates more dmg total with reprisal up. Ppl don't realize that Ochain really isnt as good as it once was and they hear garbage like oh well if Ochain were to be ilvl it would be 150 which is totally false and think that it doesn't need a boost when it really does. Ill agree aegis doesn't need like an upgrade to the mdt, however they can add something to the next upgrade to make it worth wild and not be game breaking.

Oh, it makes sense, but the sad truth really is--and I know you acknowledge this as well (just on shields alone), your Ochain 99 isn't going to get you through anything my 90 won't. However, having come back recently, I have a lot of gear for a lot of jobs to buy/improve and a few vit and more dmg->mp is low low on that priority list.

Besides blocking, the upgrade I'd like to see on Aegis is all debuffs on you lasting %-shorter duration. IE. It's a magic-natured enhancement to the magic shield, without impeding on RUN's territory. As we all know, RUN puts aegis in a weird spot. Aegis needs to be a magic shield without being a rune fencer on your arm, so I don't want to see something like magic evasion on it. (I'd love it if it were there, but I feel like it's asking too much).