New 2-hour Abilities

[Insaniac]

Still, amazing news. If this was at the behest of Mr. Matsui, he's shown that he knows when to hold them and when to fold them, and there wasn't a much worse hand to fold than the grand majority of these new Two-hours. The inevitable delay in implementation will be well worth the wait, I feel.

Agreed. My false hope meter is back to full. 15/20 of them seem more like 5 minute JAs than 2 hours so I will gladly wait a few extra weeks.

[Theytak]

1. New SP ability and existing SP ability recast timer separation
As we previously explained, the new SP abilities we designed based on the idea that the recast timer would be shared with the existing SP abilities and players would use them accordingly. While the effects and usages have been compared to the existing SP abilities and consideration has been given so that they are balanced, we will be completely separating the two and changing the concept so that each ability can be used separately.

We will be making them so they are complete abilities on their own and do not need to be constrained to using one or the other.

Thank you. This is wonderful news. The one thing I'm curious about, though, is that the rest of your post leaves it somewhat unclear; while their timers will be separated, is it safe to assume the effects themselves won't be able to be used simultaneously? By this I mean, for example, a warrior activating both mighty strikes and the new ability and having both effects active at the same time. I would assume each would either overwrite, or preferably, block the use of the other until the duration of the first is complete, or perhaps you intend to allow this, which case, I have no real problem with it. Even if you're undecided on this, it would be nice to know which option you're leaning towards.

2. Recast time reduction
Originally the idea for SP abilities was to have players use them one time for specific content or battle situations and to use it wisely. When considering the current battle tempo and the average time for content these days, we feel that it would be beneficial to make the recast 1 hour with the ability to reduce it a minimum of 30 minutes via merit points. With this, the idea of “2-hour abilities” will changed when we explore the effects.

This is also wonderful news, but another matter of clarity, are you referring to the recast timer for both existing and new 2hours, or only the new ones? The clarity here also extends to the merits (ie: reducing both new and old to 1 hour, but only allowing the new abilities to be reduced to 30 minutes)

3. New SP ability effects revamp
Based on the changes stated above, we will be looking into the effects for the new SP abilities once again.

This does not mean only time related adjustments will be made. If deemed necessary we will be completely revamping the effect from the ground up.

Please, please, please, do not reduce the effects of any ability unless it is absolutely necessary. The majority of the existing 2hours would would not warrant a reduction in strength even with a 30 minute recast time, or still warrant a significant increase in strength. Many of the current 2hours have had their usefulness greatly reduced due to the level cap increase (ex: Familiar, Benediction), or were simply not strong enough (ex: Overdrive) or inherently flawed (ex: Eagle Eye Shot... Why in the world should a 1-time-use 2 Hour recast ability miss?) to begin with. At most, if you have to reduce any of the abilities, I think the only acceptable targets would be the ones with very long durations; Soul Voice, Astral Flow, Familiar, and Tabula Rasa, and the only acceptable change would be a small reduction in duration. No one would be happy about this change, but if done reasonably, I think most of us would prefer this over any real changes to the effects of the stronger 2hours. PLEASE do not go in with the mindset that "we'll need to weaken them if we reduce the timer" go in thinking "Let's reduce the timer without reducing the effects at all initially, and if it turns out that this is too strong, then we can look at reducing the effects."

4. Existing SP ability effects revamp
We will be looking into revamping existing SP ability effects based on the two points below.

- Adjustments to effects to coincide with recast shortening
- Balance adjustments to coincide with the new SP ability effects revamp

Even with the existing SP abilities there is a division between those that have good uses and those that do not depending on the job. Ultimately our aim is to make it so that by putting together the effects of the two SP abilities every job can have a boon. With that said, we will be revamping the existing SP abilities so that balance is not thrown off when incorporating usage of the new SP abilities.

As a general direction we will be raising all of the abilities so that they become useful. However, we believe that we will have no choice but add the lowering of effects of Perfect Defense and Embrava to our scope of adjustments.

I'm hesitantly optimistic, based on the fact that this post exists for me to respond to at all. As for Perfect Defense and Embrava, please consider something important about those abilities; Perfect Defense is the only bloodpact that makes Astral Flow worthwhile right now, and Embrava is the only thing that gets sch's invited to anything in the first place. You can't weaken these two abilities without strengthening the rest of their respective abilities. If you weaken PD, the other astral flow abilities will need to see their potency greatly increased, and smn would probably need a bit more love. If you weaken embrava, not so much tabula rasa, but the sch job as a whole will need some serious gains to continue being invited by other players. In fact, in my own opinion, bettering the entire smn and sch jobs at the cost of reducing the potency of Perfect Defense and Embrava seems like the ideal result.

With all of these changes, the previously planned implementation date for the new SP abilities as shown on the roadmap will be significantly pushed back. I apologize deeply for making you all wait, but we took a lot of time to decide the above so that we could deliver something that everyone enjoys and matches the current game.

We are currently working on preparing a revised roadmap to be released. We expect this to take a little bit of time, but please hang in there.

Honestly, I'm happy that it's been delayed. I was seriously worried that the new 2hours would get rushed and added to the live server after being barely tweaked and never touched again.

[Daniel_Hatcher]

No I don't think that's the point of this change and these JAs don't just make the events mentioned easier. They are what make them possible so you would go from seeing shouts for schs and smns to seeing no shouts at all.

Your argument is completely illogical. Shortening the timer doesn't affect the power of the abilities at all. If they increased duration or effect it would make them stronger. All a 30 minute timer would mean is no resets required after Nyzul and Legion runs and resets as pointed out by Raksha are easy and plentiful.

ADL will always split he will split while stunned too. There's no getting around it or the linked TP moves his clones do right after splitting because he is still immune to all damage and stun effects.

Unless they removed them, or nerfed them to like 1 Regain, 5% Haste and 10 Regen that isn't going to happen.

They were overpowered before, reducing the timer to 30 minutes though will just show how over-powered they are.

COR 2hr - Random, not worth relying on.
MMM - Requires everyone to have said runes etc.... Not likely.
Resheph - Fine!
besieged - Random as hell when it happens.
ISL chests - Unless you have a party in Abyssea, I sincerely doubt people will go build up lights and far them after EACH nyzul isle/event.
Limbus Chests - Yeah, not happening.

So in all you have MMM, COR and Reseph as probabilities with only two being a guarantee.

[Insaniac]

You're still being illogical. The only 30min+ event that exists currently and doesn't have either constant 2hr resets or a ??? to lock your 2 hour on is dynamis currency farming and I will admit a dynamis with ~50 minutes of embrava would be nice and yield more currency but it's far from "SEVERELY BROKEN!!". I would be more worried about beastmasters with full time familiar in dynamis though =P. All other events would be unaffected.

[Kincard]

MMM - Requires everyone to have said runes etc.... Not likely.

You have no idea how MMM works, do you?

[Selindrile]

Unless they removed them, or nerfed them to like 1 Regain, 5% Haste and 10 Regen that isn't going to happen.

They were overpowered before, reducing the timer to 30 minutes though will just show how over-powered they are.

COR 2hr - Random, not worth relying on.
MMM - Requires everyone to have said runes etc.... Not likely.
Resheph - Fine!
besieged - Random as hell when it happens.
ISL chests - Unless you have a party in Abyssea, I sincerely doubt people will go build up lights and far them after EACH nyzul isle/event.
Limbus Chests - Yeah, not happening.

So in all you have MMM, COR and Reseph as probabilities with only two being a guarantee.

Cor 2hr - That's why you see shouts offering a reward, you do that until you find someone who sets your parties 2hr.
MMM - It requires 1 person to have said runes, also the party can copy that tabula as many times as they want, and there's pretty much always already one up to copy at Duplidox anyway.
Resheph/Awahondo - 1 Pop, no waiting, that's what we always do before Provenance Watcher.
ISL Chests - You just go ask a party that's already got lights (pay them) for an isl chest, they're usually pretty happy, besides, not like it takes long to build azure, just go to anywhere where there's 100% x 16 azure mobs.
Limbus Chests - Point is, SCH/Smn already get multi 2hrs there, though this old content is so easy to lowman now nobody cares about balancing it, it's cake without any 2hrs.

[Daniel_Hatcher]

Cor 2hr - That's why you see shouts offering a reward, you do that until you find someone who sets your parties 2hr.
MMM - It requires 1 person to have said runes, also the party can copy that tabula as many times as they want, and there's pretty much always already one up to copy at Duplidox anyway.
Resheph/Awahondo - 1 Pop, no waiting, that's what we always do before Provenance Watcher.
ISL Chests - You just go ask a party that's already got lights (pay them) for an isl chest, they're usually pretty happy, besides, not like it takes long to build azure, just go to anywhere where there's 100% x 16 azure mobs.
Limbus Chests - Point is, SCH/Smn already get multi 2hrs there, though this old content is so easy to lowman now nobody cares about balancing it, it's cake without any 2hrs.

MMM If only, Phoenix never has any. Though I'll be honest, forgot you could copy them.

I agreed with Reseph ... as for others, meh!

Like I said, EMBRAVA was OVER-POWERED before. Regardless the means, I'm just glad it's being nerfed, same with PD, though to a lesser level.

People don't want it nerfed the same reason they hated moving away from Abyssea.

[MarkovChain]

That's not entirely true. I've seen it killed with EA/Scherzo but it took an entire alliance and it wasn't pretty.

No it's impossible w/e you invent. It can hit the I kill you button anytime.

For instance dynamis rupture : very large aoe kcnock back high damage, instant casting aga3 and 4 and all aoe debuff( sleepga, silencga, breakga) which he spams. Oblivion smash puts your ally at half HP, and it's likely to chain it with an aga spell, so if it does it you are likely dead, if not, you have silence,bind, paralyze on. When he split, he does rupture or oblivion which kills everyone regardless.

I've seen ADL instant wipe us even with PD on. When it quadruple splits (<20% hp), it does a synch dynamis implosionx4, each doing 600 dmg while PD is up, his aga 4 1k with shellraV etc.

[Raksha]

No it's impossible w/e you invent.

wanna bet 5 marrows?

[Monchat]

probably doable with a full party of SMNs doing a stunlock rotation with shock squall, but risky as a single dynamis implosion will end the fight.