To the devs: Why won't you nerf Geomancer?

[Zeargi]

Detrimental is Geo existing in it's current state.

You nerf things because it's easier to nerf 1 thing than to buff multiple, and POWER CREEP IS BAD. It's especially important to nerf things when they're completely out of control(like geo) and literally break the game in half. If a job 1 shot every boss in the game, would your solution be to buff every DD job to 1 shot bosses? No? Exactly.

This extreme aversion to nerfing things that(rightfully) need to be nerfed has to stop.

Power Creeping isn't what's going on here. They changed GEO way back when, a few months after it came out for certain spells. In all points, BRD and GEO work exactly the same with the division of their overall skills make the potential of what they can do. An under-skilled/Under-geared GEO isn't going to make those numbers happen. BRD needs to have new songs that effect those areas that it doesn't cover. It's been a while since I've played BRD, but as I recall off the top of my head they get: Nocturne (Addle) and Elegy (Slow) which are the only ones to directly impact there stats. While getting Requiem (DoT) and Lullaby (Sleep) as other debuffs. There needs to be a Magic DMG/MEVA (Frazzle)/EVA (Distract)/ACC Down Songs. Likewise, RDM need more spells to cover the other slots it's not getting. Plus both need the means to land those things more consistently. The major resist for NMs is the reason GEO is so loved. The Mobs resist normal spells, so the that is what needs to be addressed. Not GEO, you're not solving the problem, you're only making it worse.

[Shiyo]

Plus both need the means to land those things more consistently. The major resist for NMs is the reason GEO is so loved. The Mobs resist normal spells, so the that is what needs to be addressed. Not GEO, you're not solving the problem, you're only making it worse.

Mobs having such obscene magic evasion to the point where 95% of your spell book is rendered pointless to use is really annoying.
I'm not sure why they think it's good to have that, it adds zero depth and just makes it less fun to play as 95% of your tools simply don't function. No debuffs in the game are so overpowered that if they landed 100% of the time they'd make the game a joke or enemies worthless. Hilariously enough, the debuffs that ARE overpowered CANNOT be resisted(geo spells).

I want debuffs to have 100% land rate on anything with a moderate amount of magical accuracy gear and for jobs like NIN to not have problems getting unresisted nukes with a moderate amount of macc gear for their nuke set.

Insane magic evasion values for mobs needs to go away and never come back, it adds nothing to the games combat, it simply takes away a lot of ways to play and viable strategies and reduces your job(s) to basically mashing your WS button over and over in a lot of cases, or for something like a RDM rendered completely worthless or a cure/buff bot.

Boring.

edit:

I think I should make a thread purely about this subject, honestly.

[Elexia]

If you nerf geo then there's 3 viable jobs for support instead of one ;/(geo bard cor)
At 75 cap there was 2(cor bard)
Nerfing geo to the ground balances the support jobs.

There's multiple support jobs now. You nerf Geo to being useless, you essentially removed a job out of play. No one will go: "Well..now that Geo is worthelss...I guess...we'll take BRD and COR." The whole reason people shy away from BRD/COR depending on slot availablity is because they haven't been updated to the current game design, BRD in particular.


Nerfing Geomancer doesn't change that. You just succeeded in getting a job you hate nerfed. That's it lol. The game won't suddenly change, balance will not be restored.

At 75 cap you had BRD and COR, during Abyssea (80-95) you had no use for BRD/COR because Atmas and temp items pretty much made them largely useless. They had niche uses, sure, but you could definitely do all of the content without them. Heroes big baddies were subjective though.

I don't care about a JOB ROLE being a mandatory slot, but geo isn't a role

Geomancer is a support job. It's role is support. It can also nuke, similar to how SCH can heal and nuke as well.

Right now geo fills a mandatory role in a party that ONLY geo can do

It fills the exact same role as a healer or tank in an MMORPG. You want a Tank and Healer and Support. There's no such thing as a "geo" role or you have to dig deeper through the years and say:

"PLD role"
"Whm role"
"Sam role"
"Brd role"
"Cor role"

etc. Your logic is all over the place. Geo has unique buffs and debuffs. Cor has unique buffs and enhances certain debuffs though quickdraw, which makes it unique over BRD.

The only problem here is BRD and COR needs retooling a bit. COR can and has always been able to deal decent damage along with being able to support, so it is indeed better off than BRD, but BRD has always struggled since post WoTG because, well the game continued to move up but BRD and COR's buffs were never changed to matched - even more so with ilvl calculations now. This is a big part of why GEO shines because it's designed for the new gameplay.

[Jin_Uzuki]

Or you could just buff BRD, who is badly designed for modern endgame anyway and needs a rework.

COR is a fine place because other than powerful buffs, it can actually do some pretty good damage even on high level content with Leden Salute (Something GEO can't absolutely do) Plus a lot of people even prefer to take 2 supports anyway.

I guess we'll need to nerf WHM since "healer spot" is pretty much "WHM spot" for any high level content.

(Last part is a joke, do not nerf WHM)

[Jin_Uzuki]

You need to buff 1 job, Bard. Who should get a buff because it's not properly updated to deal with modern FFXI endgame anyway.

[OmnysValefor]

You need to buff 1 job, Bard. Who should get a buff because it's not properly updated to deal with modern FFXI endgame anyway.

This is the answer in its entirety.

When bard came out, it was the only spell haste besides the white magic spell.

It offered the only accuracy boost buff other than what jobs brought (edit:and food)

The attack boost that Minuets offered, while always static, was larger in relation to 75-era attack values than it is today. A google image search was the best I could come up with. I did search for "ws sets" because that gave me more equipment panel results than "equipment screen" or anything like it.

Very well geared DD sporting WS sets that weren't half of what my PLD tanks in (str and attack numbers, specifically)

In an era when haste on a piece of gear was "neat", bard's haste songs (closest thing cor has/had is delay reduction, which is not as good before magic-haste cap) were amazing.

You can say Bard was never game breaking but it absolutely was. Madrigals, Marches, Ballads, and more, were the reason people did everything from win top-end fights to get 30k exp (!) an hour. The truth is, nerfing GEO "to the ground" isn't going to fix Bard's problems. There was a reason that alliances had 3 bards, and it wasn't so each party got one.

The job needs a mechanic overhaul, a little bit of love towards dispel interaction with songs, and some interesting songs baseline to the job. The songs are only bland by today's standards.

[Shiyo]

Won't fix anything. Instead of geo + geo(vex/attumement or caster set ups) and geo + cor(melee/pet set ups) being viable, you'll have geo + cor(melee/pet set ups), geo + brd(melee set ups) and geo + geo(when you need vex/attunement or caster set ups).

Geo is still it's own party slot. The job needs to be nerfed to the ground.

[Elexia]

Won't fix anything. Instead of geo + geo(vex/attumement or caster set ups) and geo + cor(melee/pet set ups) being viable, you'll have geo + cor(melee/pet set ups), geo + brd(melee set ups) and geo + geo(when you need vex/attunement or caster set ups).

Geo is still it's own party slot. The job needs to be nerfed to the ground.

Hating on a job because your server has very few available doesn't fix anything.

Buffing BRD, however, fixes more than trying to nerf a job. Geo has the support party slot. If you actually played FFXI, you know, longer than the past year you'd know BRD and COR were pretty "mandatory slots" just as well.

[Mithlas]

What kind of nerfs do you have in mind? Besides just overall "nerf to the ground."

Lower bubble values? Resistable bubbles? Shorter bubble life? Removal of specific bubbles? I'm genuinely curious.

If they do end up nerfing GEO, how will that help any other jobs rise to the occasion? Elexia makes a very valid point: other support jobs are just not developed to meet the current meta. They have not scaled well at all with the way the game has been developing.

[Urthdigger]

We should just reduce the 22 jobs we have now to just four. Geomancer, a singular tank job, one healer, and a DPS class.

That would fix everything.