FFXI Job Direction?? Dev Team, Please Respond.

[Seriha]

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

I'm sorry, but if you think meaningful RDM melee will spell the end of FFXI (It's not all about damage, if you've been paying attention to any ideas floating around), that's your problem. Bad players will be bad players regardless of what happens, but to be so vehemently against adding potentially useful tools for the good players to make them that much better just has me scratching my head as it conflicts with that sense of skill and efficiency you're trying to impose of the caster-only role. We're otherwise conveying added risk should yield added reward, not more party hassles just to get people angry because someone somewhere was doinitrong.

So, while you might think Cure V a good addition, the conflict of opinion here is that it's only further homogenizing the mage jobs instead of diversifying them and giving them all reasons to stand out. At current, a 99 RDM/WHM and a 99 SCH/RDM aren't going to be all that different. And in the game's current climate, neither job are particularly a first choice. Just as we can't hope blindly for good updates toward a job, we can't hope blindly for content that would make either relevant again. Neither job are solely healers. Cure V will undoubtedly push both in that direction with no strong hope of dabbling in their other aspects since both will have haste, refresh, status cures, enfeebles, and a big cure. Exit Abyssea and a RDM won't be aggressively healing while throwing out nukes. MP just doesn't support it. SCH conflicts through Arts use, as well. RDM's simple distinction from SCH should be the frontline aspect, as SCHs are the ones stuck with the historically lesser damage staves, a diminished club proficiency compared to WHM, and no native skills or traits to imply they should be swinging much, whereas RDM at least gets Composure and Enspells with Refresh and Convert arguably conceptualized so they don't have to rest between fights, thus losing TP in the old days. We, the players, unfortunately perverted that intent into brute force healing.

[Soundwave]

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)

1.) I would like to see this due to the fact that its hard when your in a jam I hate to have to use spirits to attempt to get the mob off me, I would much rather have what you say sounds good to me.

2.) Not a fix to summoner but defiantly should of been done a long long time ago.

[Ravenmore]

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.

Refresh 2 is still better then /rdm refresh. Not to mention they can keep refresh 2 on them self for 9mins with little effort getting the gear needed for it. Way it is now relic brds are more lol then rdms. Those people I would feel sorry for but for the most part they were given it to begin with.

[Supersun]

Sure, refresh 2 is more powerful then refresh, but ultimately it only adds 3(4) more MP tick as opposed to inviting a Brd which will add 9.

I'd feel MUCH safer in the hands of a Whm+Brd at 99 with both of them having 12 MP/tick then Whm+Rdm with 6 (unless something changes)

The issue with Brd is more that for NMs killing speed isn't that large of an issue anymore since the majority of the fight you are trying to proc anyway, and for exp they aren't required anymore and even with a Brd it only affects 1/3 of the alliance unlike a Rdm that can Dia III and give all 18 people a +17.6% attack bonus.

[Dallas]

1.) I would like to see this due to the fact that its hard when your in a jam I hate to have to use spirits to attempt to get the mob off me, I would much rather have what you say sounds good to me.

2.) Not a fix to summoner but defiantly should of been done a long long time ago.

#2 is a fix in the sense that SE acknowledged years ago that there needed to be a job that specialized in staff.

[Ravenmore]

Sure, refresh 2 is more powerful then refresh, but ultimately it only adds 3(4) more MP tick as opposed to inviting a Brd which will add 9.

I'd feel MUCH safer in the hands of a Whm+Brd at 99 with both of them having 12 MP/tick then Whm+Rdm with 6 (unless something changes)

The issue with Brd is more that for NMs killing speed isn't that large of an issue anymore since the majority of the fight you are trying to proc anyway, and for exp they aren't required anymore and even with a Brd it only affects 1/3 of the alliance unlike a Rdm that can Dia III and give all 18 people a +17.6% attack bonus.

Why wouldn't you take both ? Were are you only getting 6 tic refresh from, highy douht the the whm and rdm would have no refresh gear. Out side of abyssea taking the bare min is not as effective.

Again relic brd are now no longer have a free passs to get everything they want.

[Supersun]

I wasn't including refresh gear since most of it is fairly universal now and all 3 of those jobs can more or less equip the same amount of pieces.

and why WOULD you take both. If you ever needed THAT much healing you'd probably just use pets to tank it anyway like what people are doing with Voidwatch NMs.

Not to mention that instead of Whm + Brd + Rdm you could go Whm + Whm +Brd. You lose 3(4) MP/tick, but still keep 12ish minimum, and you lose the T2 enfeebles but still keep the T1 versions (that aren't very far behind anyway unless saboteured). For those minor losses though you get the healing power of another white mage.

Really, people are overplaying Refresh 2 thinking that once we leave abyssea Rdm will be SE's gift to the world.

+3 MP/tick was big when most mages had +0 MP/tick and no natural way to recover MP.

+3 MP/tick isn't anywhere near as impressive with other mages already having at least +6 MP/tick and a full MP bar every 10 mins especially when Brd can give +9.

(Also I'm assuming you are talking about Relic Bards being lol because of Crooner's Cithara. Though just to throw out the lvl 90 version adds +3 to all songs. That would give +13 MP/tick which is a lot. Not necessarily worth a relic weapon though still a lot. I'd think a 90 G horn would beat the pink harp still though I could be wrong.

Or are you talking about Brds being lol because of abyssea and not needing MP regeneration from other jobs and killing speed not being the biggest of issues. )

[Soundwave]

#2 is a fix in the sense that SE acknowledged years ago that there needed to be a job that specialized in staff.

I dunno...to me it just seems like icing on the cake noting ground breaking.

"SE: Oh here you go summoners here is your cake enjoy."

[Eeek]

I'm sorry, but if you think meaningful RDM melee will spell the end of FFXI (It's not all about damage, if you've been paying attention to any ideas floating around), that's your problem. Bad players will be bad players regardless of what happens, but to be so vehemently against adding potentially useful tools for the good players to make them that much better just has me scratching my head as it conflicts with that sense of skill and efficiency you're trying to impose of the caster-only role. We're otherwise conveying added risk should yield added reward, not more party hassles just to get people angry because someone somewhere was doinitrong.

I dislike all the melee talk specifically because it encourages the Devs to place emphasis on RDM's unquestionably worst aspect instead of augmenting the things that RDM does well and what RDM's are generally expected to do. Melee should be a hobby on the side, not the core aspect of the job. I don't want SE to ignore what actually makes RDM good in favor of melee adjustments that ultimately won't matter because it's insane to give RDM the capacity to DD as well as the specialized DDs.

Melee RDMs often get hassled because they A) pull out their swords at the wrong time, and B) are generally not geared well enough to be effective. Someone on BG make a good point a few weeks ago: if in a pickup group doing something easy (like a +1 seal NM), and a RDM pulled out an Almace and high-end melee gear, would that bother you? I thought about, and yeah, I doubt I'd mind a RDM meleeing in that situation provided the group isn't debuffed to hell and dying. It's gotta be better than a full pink melee-thing, and I appreciate someone who can think and put real effort into their gear, macros, and playstyle.

So, while you might think Cure V a good addition ...

I never said such a thing. I said:

I do think Cure5 will happen by 99.

I said nothing about Cure5 being a "good addition." I merely said that I thought it would happen.

At current, a 99 RDM/WHM and a 99 SCH/RDM aren't going to be all that different. And in the game's current climate, neither job are particularly a first choice.

Thankfully, I don't think RDM and SCH will be too similar come 99 (I also think RDM should be /SCH, not /WHM). I think RDM will skew more towards support and enfeebling while SCH will be better at nuking and crowd control (AoE Gravity on a pack of mobs is a thing of beauty, as one example).

Exit Abyssea and a RDM won't be aggressively healing while throwing out nukes. MP just doesn't support it.

I've found out, by accident, that RDM's MP supply will still be fine while healing aggressively and nuking. I've done it by accident a few times in Abyssea after infusing Merciless Matriarch instead of Minikin Monstrosity. With a 7MP/tick Refresh2 (applied with Composure, obviously) and an additional 4MP/tick in my idle set, I didn't need to make any adjustments to my playstyle. I did have to use Convert 2 or 3 times over the course of a few hours, but I didn't come remotely close to riding the timer. I honestly thought I'd have more MP issues than I actually did.

SCH conflicts through Arts use, as well. RDM's simple distinction from SCH should be the frontline aspect ...

As I previously mentioned, I believe RDM's distinctions should be in the support and enfeebling departments as well as the capacity to cast a wide range of spells without the need, like SCH, to switch arts and use charges (although this does affect RDM/SCH to an extent). SCH's better capacity for crowd control and nuking is what differentiates it from RDM in my opinion. SCH's functional limitations by arts and charges are the limiting factor which pulls it back from 'overpowered' territory. It's not as speedy and flexible as RDM and needs much more forethought.

I've never been fully comfortable using stances in FFXI as I don't like the limitations that usually come with them. This is why I don't want to level SCH, and it's why I'll likely struggle somewhat to adjust to RDM/SCH when I eventually finish leveling that subjob to 49.

We, the players, unfortunately perverted that intent into brute force healing.

And I believe players did this because RDM frankly isn't very good at melee but is a very good mage.

[Malamasala]

I dunno...to me it just seems like icing on the cake noting ground breaking.

"SE: Oh here you go summoners here is your cake enjoy."

I see it is one of those "should have been in the game from the start" parts. Like dual wield for THF. Except seeing how SE went with THF, I guess SMN will get Staff Mastery at 95.

SE just keeps ignoring SMN for what it is.

Avatars should be used primarly. Too bad they have too long recast on Rages, so you have to swap to something else between.
Swapping to spirits doesn't help, because they are too random. Better swap to something else.
Next up is staff, your last resort as a Summoner... and that sucks terribly as well.
Leaving you the backup choice of casting cures from your /WHM sub.

Either they fix staff melee, spirits, or BPs. We can't keep going as the job who has 3 options that all sucks so we turn to our subjob spell selection.