FFXI Job Direction?? Dev Team, Please Respond.

[Soundwave]

Regardless, I think the road map for jobs would be really good right about now to stop all speculation....and allow people to comment on things that are going to happen so the dev team can actually make informed decisions based off what we say.

One thing is for sure....a lot of people been asking adjustments for summoner...I'd be really disappointed if SE does not listen to the people.

[Ravenmore]

I'm sure we will get a road map soon. Them even saying it in the minor update notes is a big step in the right direction. Couple of years ago we were lucky to get hints at vanfest and update notes week or 2 before the update.

What imm'm really wondering about is how they going to let us use the test server, is it going to be log on anytime we want to, random invites or sever invites so on. If we can use gear that we have on our char so we can get a realisc view of how the content will play out for your avg player not going though on GM god mode like how they show off for community sites.

[Soundwave]

Guessing the Job road map will come a bit before August, I hope to see it by July and not just before the August update.

I'm somewhat scared of this road map, I really wonder if they have even considered anything we have said about any jobs or will it be...."here you go enjoy we are sure you will like it."

[Ravenmore]

They listen some what holding final judgment till I see what knid of damage boost pld jas get, and if they used any of the ideas for cover mention on here. Might not have to wait and see if they listen to us.

[Soundwave]

._./\._. Time for foood!

[Return1]

I think you got that backwards. What SMN does, is exactly like in past FFs. We just deal damage. What we complain about is that all other parts of the job is not working. I can't debuff, because it isn't worthwhile. I can't buff, because they are all useless. I can't heal, because the recast is too long. I can't give out refresh, because I need to assault my pet to build TP for nukes. And spirits are not even worth mentioning.

Earthen Armor and Hastega are amazing buffs. You don't have to build tp to nuke, you just do it to do more damage, so you have to choose between enhanced damage or more magical/refresh support. A lot of the buffs can be used and give decent effects. Enspells and ATK+ are decent DD bonuses, not BRD or COR powerful mind you, but still better than sitting there whining about how useless you are. You also don't have to only use refresh favor. You could use MAB favor, etc.

While it is nice, my Earthen Armors have never saved anyone. Either it is on, and they never get any high damage TP move, or it wears off and they get hit right after. And it can't be denied that spending 120 MP over and over again on something that "may" help is a complete disaster in game design. You could as well make RR last 5 minutes, and have all mages constantly re-applying RR "incase I die".

It's called knowing your situation. A lot of the new mobs have dangerous moves that can one shot you. This trend will only continue outside of abyssea. Some mobs have the ability to hit you with weakness, making their normal melee hits likely to kill you, unless you got EA+Scherzo. EA + Scherzo is a massive boost to things with powerful AoEs as well. Meteor is suddenly easy to handle, Astral Flow is made into a joke, and any tp move that doesn't inflict death is survivable, even if it's an AoE like Citadel Buster.

I'd agree with you if SE changed Earthen Armor to 15 min duration. Until then you are just sponging MP while playing the lottery that your tank should end up 1-shot suddenly. I might be insane, but I don't think it should cost you 2000 MP to save a tank from death. Look at BRD, it pays ZERO MP for the same thing, which is vastly superior in support.

Wrong.

BRD's Scherzo is free, but only half as strong. It also takes up one of 2 spells a BRD can put up, halving any Refresh or Offensive bonus they can give. That's a horrible argument you're trying to use against EA. Also, all of these new fights are 30 minutes long, and with a decent EA duration, it caps you at 1200mp cost, even less if you have the 450 summoning magic build putting you at 3:30 duration. On top of that, it doesn't have to be a hit that would one shot you, but a hit that would put you in danger of being killed immediately afterwards.

You can play classic SMN just fine though, because if all you do is 70BP it over and over, the blood boon and elemental siphon will let you keep going far longer than any other BLM. But I doubt anyone has complained about the damage output of SMN. It is everything else, spirits, wards, low level rage pacts, perpetuation, mana cede, etc. that needs adjustments. Paying 100 MP for 100 more damage is just ridiculous. I'm not touching mana cede unless I'm in Abyssea these days.

No one's saying those aren't valid points. I however prefer to look at the upside to summoner currently. SMN is the only job capable of high Physical or Magical damage bursts at will. SMN has the best of the emergency prevention tools, which stacks to become greatly enhanced with BRD's song. SMN lends itself well to zerg fights. SMN can offr mild support enhancements. SMN can offer crowd control through despawning adds or in emergencies can attempt a sleepga.

Sure there's room for improement, but that goes for every job. SMN is in a really good place right now.

[Supersun]

Only in abyssea does rdm lose out to other jobs just subing whm. Outside of abyssea rdm and whm are still the best healers to have in your tank party. Cure 6 cost to much MP when outside of abyssea you tank should never need that kind of single cure power though out the fight. Also with out a rdm and refresh 2 good luck with mp.

This is half true. There are certainly much better refreshers then Red mage due to most other types of refresh stacking with whm's via /rdm.

And while certainly Red Mages are in fact better healers now, at 99 all the other refreshers will receive a huge buff to their healing when they receive Cure 4 with refresh and convert.

99Brd/Rdm is looking to be a stupidly powerful job with +35% haste, +12 MP/tick refresh, Cure 4, Convert, +80% slow (at least between Brd + Whm). Rdm will not likely be able to compete with this unless they receive some powerful new enfeebles to make up the lack of stackable refresh and less then White Mage powered healing.

[Soundwave]

Page two, no no no!

[Dallas]

Sure there's room for improement, but that goes for every job. SMN is in a really good place right now.

I'm glad there are other people happy with the job. SMN could use 2 things:

1) Some sort of pet: enmity tool not attached to BP: Rage. SMN can't do much outside the scope of "one BP every 45 seconds" without serious risk of dying. Good gear doesn't fix the problem.

2) Staff mastery. SMN is the only job that melees exclusively with staff. If SE is ever going to make a job master of this weapon, SMN deserves it. Throw in some simple staff stances just for fun: 1) that turns every hit into a cross between Spirit Taker and Aspir Samba (low %age damage converted to MP, but also works on undead) 2) that turns every hit into a cross between Drain Samba and Stoneskin (low %age of damage restores stoneskin)

[Eeek]

Meanwhile, your head's still up your butt if you think Empyreans or even WoE WS are standard.

For some DD jobs, yes, they absolutely are standard. The weapsonskills are just that good. I can understand folks who don't want to pursue a full Empyrean, but the WoE Empyreans are a reasonable and powerful option that are simple to complete on any schedule with or without assistance from friends. Every DD who takes their DD jobs even somewhat-seriously, and does not own a Relic/Empyrean, should have a WoE Empyrean or be working on one provided the weapon grants them a top-tier WS. Some of the weaponskills are not worth the effort.

So, by admitting you didn't level the job the old way, you've pretty much confessed no first-hand experience on the actual issues myself and others have brought up over the years. Hint: This isn't a problem that just materializes at 90.

Do we really need to drag out the 'players have to level their jobs in 4k/hour crab parties to be a good player' argument? Smart, dedicated players will play well, and poor players will be poor. Always.

And I like how I have no first-hand experience with RDM's issues despite being around the job for years, studying the job, gearing the job, and playing it extensively in the field. Anyways, most good players are well aware of the capabilities of jobs they do not have leveled. It's a part learning the game.

I've never meleed on my RDM in a group setting because I'm fully conscious of RDM's abilities and what contributions are needed from me for the group to be successful (it's as simple as looking at the party/ally list). Playing RDM feels like playing a God on the battlefield, and that's without /SCH (I don't enjoy leveling, but it's at 30 now and I will force it to 49 somehow ; ; ). RDM isn't primarily a one-trick pony like WHM or BLM - RDM can do damn near everything I'd want to do as a mage in the field. I absolutely love RDM's ability to switch on-the-fly between defensive/supportive play and offensive play, and I can make all sorts of subtle adjustments to play that vary from mob to mob and from area to area.

If I wanted to melee, I would have leveled an actual melee. While I did build a RDM melee set before taking a break (<3 summertime), I only intend to use it for fun in solo play. I don't care to put in the necessary effort to make RDM an effective melee in group play. If I ever make an Empyrean, it'll be a Twashtar without question.

I mean, I guess we could look forward to the job map, but that's not really any different than the years we sat around before that hoping for fixes and changes.

RDM's been an incredibly powerful job for years, so I can understand SE's hesitation in tweaking it too much. Something does need to happen in the next 6 months or so, though. It's easy to assume that the Devs will somehow boost RDM's enfeebling capabilities, but as happened with Break, they seem hesitant. I do think Cure5 will happen by 99.

I'm not sure what else the Devs would be willing to do. They could adjust RDM-casted enfeebles to be inherently more accurate on mobs/NMs that are highly resistant or outright immune to certain enfeebles, but that could break solo RDM. I'm afraid we'll mainly see additional tiers of spells as happened with Refresh 2. I wouldn't be surprised to see spells like Para3/Slow3/Phalanx3 show up in the next-tier merit system after level 99.

without running away for support or poisoning it with your sour attitude, maybe you might actually teach me something.

I'm fully aware that you don't care about my opinions simply because they're different than yours. That's understandable and incredibly common as has been demonstrated through psychological research. I write more for others than for you. I don't know why RDMs across all FFXI RDM Forums are so strangely obsessed with RDM melee while most RDMs I've encountered and spoken with in-game over the years don't care much about it. I write for myself and those who don't want the job so fundamentally adjusted as to cripple it.

I write because these official forums are probably the among biggest threats to FFXI in its history.