In the new producer announcement, Mr. Fujito commented that we can pose questions to him about the future of FINAL FANTASY XI and he will try to address what he can in a future Freshly Picked Vana'diel or FFXI Digest. I have a few questions that I would like to ask.
1: Will the new Master Trials be used as a sort of "limit break" for master levels to allow us to take them past the current cap of 50?
2: With the increase in subjob level from master levels, will we see them rise to the level of 99? With a level 99 subjob, the freedom of job selection really opens up new possibilities for strategy in tackling different events.
3: With the addition of Empyrean +3 armor, we have a nice boost to our jobs; however we are lacking in some of the job specific enhancements from the artifact and relic pieces. Macroing in the Artifact or Relic pieces causes us to lose the defensive properties of the Empyrean. It also makes some of the older pieces quite useless. You mentioned that you elected to downscale the scope of the Development team; so I don't know if what I am about to ask is something too big to handle or just a small copy and past on a set of armor.
I would like to see a way to merge Artifact, Relic, and Empyrean +3 sets. My suggestion to do this is as follows:
Required items needed to trade to the NPC: Artifact+3,Relic+3,Empyrean+3 pieces and 500 job points of the job you wish to merge the armor piece for. You are then given a choice of Artifact or Empyrean set bonus or Relic augment. Then choose which piece it will be modeled after.
If you take the highest stats currently available on each piece and add the job specific bonuses; the resulting piece would not be much higher then what is currently available and not effect game balance too much. The name of the piece will change, depending on which set bonus or relic augment you chose, to facilitate storage on a storage slip. This allows for you to choose which piece you want to use, depending on the content you want to do, and keeps current content alive for a long time.
I will give an example of ninja:
Head
DEF:131 HP+71 STR+33 DEX+41 VIT+33 AGI+34 INT+32 MND+32 CHR+32
Accuracy+61 Attack+62 Ranged Accuracy+61 Magic Accuracy+61
Evasion+89 Magic Evasion+119 "Magic Atk. Bonus"+61 "Magic Def. Bonus"+7
Parrying skill+20 Ninjutsu Skill+17 Haste+10% "Subtle Blow"+9 "Dual Wield"+7
Ninjutsu damage+21 Weapon skill damage +10% Damage Taken-10%
Innin: "Double Attack"+13%
Augment: "Enhances Yonin and Innin Effect"
Body
DEF:163 HP+98 STR+40 DEX+47 VIT+36 AGI+43 INT+36 MND+34 CHR+34
Accuracy+64 Attack+87 Ranged Accuracy+64 Ranged Attack+79
Magic Accuracy+64 Evasion+95 Magic Evasion+129 "Magic Def. Bonus"+10
Haste+4% "Dual Wield"+10 "Subtle Blow"+9 Critical Hit Rate+8%
"Migawari"+16 Damage Taken-13% "Utsusemi" spellcasting time-14%
"Daken"+10 Physical damage: "Shock Spikes" effect
Set: Increases Accuracy, Ranged Accuracy, and Magic Accuracy
Hands
DEF:121 HP+57 STR+30 DEX+55 VIT+40 AGI+26 INT+27 MND+40 CHR+27
Accuracy+62 Attack+79 Ranged Accuracy+62 Ranged Attack+48
Magic Accuracy+62 Evasion+79 Magic Evasion+103 "Magic Def. Bonus"+6
Throwing Skill+14 Haste+5% "Subtle Blow"+9 Magic burst damage+15
"Futae"+28 Elemental ninjutsu damage+18% "Daken"+10
"Ninja tool expertise"+38
Set: Increases Accuracy, Ranged Accuracy, and Magic Accuracy
Legs
DEF:143 HP+82 STR+44 VIT+27 AGI+36 INT+45 MND+27 CHR+21
Accuracy+63 Attack+64 Ranged Accuracy+63 Magic Accuracy+63
Evasion+87 Magic Evasion+135 "Magic Def. Bonus"+9 Katana skill+33
Haste+8% "Subtle Blow"+9 "Store TP"+6 "Dual Wield"+10
Weapon skill damage +10% Damage Taken-12% "Yonin": "Counter"+18
Set: Increases Accuracy, Ranged Accuracy, and Magic Accuracy
Feet
DEF:103 HP+45 STR+28 DEX+39 VIT+25 AGI+54 INT+20 MND+22 CHR+40
Accuracy+60 Attack+76 Ranged Accuracy+60 Magic Accuracy+60
Evasion+120 Magic Evasion+135 "Magic Atk. Bonus"+23 "Magic Def. Bonus"+9
Ninjutsu Skill+23 Haste+5% Enmity+8 Magic burst damage+10
"Critical Parry"+26 "Utsusemi"+1 Weapon skill damage+12%
Dusk to dawn: Movement speed+25%
Augment: "Increases Ninjutsu Magic Accuracy and Magic Attack Bonus"