3.2 PvP: Feast Game Mode Discussion Thread.

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Originally Posted by Nalien

I'm almost tempted to throw away some HP, though I think I'd lose a few points in primary stats points going for Slaying accessories (with better secondaries) over Fending ones... Short of subjecting myself to torture Diadem, I don't think there are any particularly nice Fending accessories for PvP...

I really do wish they'd sort out PvP gear though... Either make it the best or remove the need to gear for PvP entirely... I want to PvP, not grind various pieces of PvE for an ideal piece of gear... I'll grind PvP for gear if I have to, wont be too pleased about the potential imbalance that causes between novices and veterans, nor the potential extra burden on my inventory, but at least it would make gearing simpler...

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pink gear secondaries zero themselves out besides the main stats, so definitely don't waste your time on diadem

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Originally Posted by SaveTheSunF1R3x

Honestly I've seen the top 25 people derp more than the lower tier people. There's maybe 5 people on the top 100 that I can legitimately say are carrying their matches. This is all coming from primal btw.

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What Daimera is talking about, assumingly, is people in The Feast Light Party que, high ranked players take in lower ranked players to increase the points they gain for each win. When you're a full team of silvers/golds you get ridiculously miniscule rating points, like 1s or 2s, for each win. But when you have say 1 or 2 silvers and the rest unranked or bronze, you get more points.

In essence, higher ranked players are carrying low/unranked players to bronze-ish to get more points for themselves. Basically abusing the system is what I'd like to categorise it as.

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Originally Posted by kisada

pink gear secondaries zero themselves out besides the main stats, so definitely don't waste your time on diadem

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this was fixed when the feast came out

So I was wondering, gripes about balance/gear/matchmaking/etc. aside, are we going to have any promotional events for the Feast seasons? Like a double reward weekend or something like that? We seem to have the Community Reps jumping in for Culling Time occasionally (psst, it would be fun if beating them was worth more!), but some other events would be interesting... Doubt double rating would go down well, but I wouldn't even mind double Wolf Marks, considering how nice they are for GC seals (and we're getting new ranks 3.3, so hey, those have a purpose again) or Desynthesis...

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Originally Posted by Astryoneus

What Daimera is talking about, assumingly, is people in The Feast Light Party que, high ranked players take in lower ranked players to increase the points they gain for each win. When you're a full team of silvers/golds you get ridiculously miniscule rating points, like 1s or 2s, for each win. But when you have say 1 or 2 silvers and the rest unranked or bronze, you get more points.

In essence, higher ranked players are carrying low/unranked players to bronze-ish to get more points for themselves. Basically abusing the system is what I'd like to categorise it as.

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exactly and they are doing this again... *looks at the frog, looks up and down*

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Originally Posted by Astryoneus

What Daimera is talking about, assumingly, is people in The Feast Light Party que, high ranked players take in lower ranked players to increase the points they gain for each win. When you're a full team of silvers/golds you get ridiculously miniscule rating points, like 1s or 2s, for each win. But when you have say 1 or 2 silvers and the rest unranked or bronze, you get more points.

In essence, higher ranked players are carrying low/unranked players to bronze-ish to get more points for themselves. Basically abusing the system is what I'd like to categorise it as.

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Ah, alrighty. I honestly didn't even know this was a thing.

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Originally Posted by SaveTheSunF1R3x

Ah, alrighty. I honestly didn't even know this was a thing.

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That's probably because it's not. I mean, it's a thing, sure, but it's not really a big thing. Your party ranking and your individual rank level up separately from one another, so even if you exploit the system by bringing in a bronze player to your party matches it does absolutely nothing for your individual rank. You're still exploiting the system and boosting your party ranking, but in regards to your actual individual rank (the only one which can potentially reward you) it makes no difference. You wouldn't even notice this kind of thing happening unless you play a lot of party matches.

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Originally Posted by Februs

That's probably because it's not. I mean, it's a thing, sure, but it's not really a big thing. Your party ranking and your individual rank level up separately from one another, so even if you exploit the system by bringing in a bronze player to your party matches it does absolutely nothing for your individual rank. You're still exploiting the system and boosting your party ranking, but in regards to your actual individual rank (the only one which can potentially reward you) it makes no difference. You wouldn't even notice this kind of thing happening unless you play a lot of party matches.

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Februs did you miss the message before 3.26 where they announced that Rank 4v4 (Light Party) is getting rewards?

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Originally Posted by TetsuyaHikari

Until you have some concrete evidence to back up these claims, I'll direct you to the nearest wall so you can continue to argue until you're blue in the face. Hard to believe so many people in this thread alone apparently have all the "answers", yet nobody in-game knows them, heh. That alone makes this raise a red flag, but I'll leave it at that though since I'm done with the matter.

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Want evidence? Here:
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/f...0fea71e128.pnghttp://i240.photobucket.com/albums/f...3a3a1a5445.png
and here:
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/f...637fe730f8.pnghttp://i240.photobucket.com/albums/f...09cf76b817.png
The first two pictures show unsynced stats and the second two show i150 8v8 PvP synced stats.

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Originally Posted by SaveTheSunF1R3x

Ah, alrighty. I honestly didn't even know this was a thing.

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Yes it is, at least at Chaos. If you take a look at the rankings you can see who is abusing the system. I'm sorry for you Thana and your team that you get beaten in points with that methode.

And yeah, good morning Februs, they changed that, and we notice that because we play party matches most of the time, because solo, uhm no thanks...

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Originally Posted by Februs

That's probably because it's not...

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Maybe you can talk for the NA servers and data centers, but it's a thing on Chaos. Whether if it's big or not is irrelevant, it's a thing and it's not fair/respectful towards the people who play the mode fair and square. Also what is irrelevant is whether if you notice it or not, if it happens nonetheless.

I don't know what you mean by "making no difference" in regards to your individual rank. It does. If you get 10 points each win when doing that VS a team full of silvers/golds getting 1 point for each win against an unranked team. You're passing others and competing for the first place without actually competing with anyone decent. There's no party ranking anyway, everyone has their individual rank so I don't quite understand what you mean by saying "boosting your party rank".

The few "top" players on Chaos are doing this and getting way ahead in points without actually working for it by exploiting.

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Originally Posted by Ultimatecalibur

Februs did you miss the message before 3.26 where they announced that Rank 4v4 (Light Party) is getting rewards?

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No ... but I think I may have mis-read it. To be honest, I kinda trimmed over that bit, because getting a party together for PvP on Diabolos had been like pulling teeth in the past, and my log time has been so low recently that it's not much of a consideration for me. I was under the impression that this was still in the works. I did not realize that it was already active.

In one way it's good ... but in another way it's kind of bad that it's already being exploited ...

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Originally Posted by Astryoneus

I don't know what you mean by "making no difference" in regards to your individual rank.

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Nope. I made a mistake. I wasn't aware that the Party Ranking rewards were already active. I thought that was still coming. That said, I am still under the impression that your solo rank and party rank are distinct ... because that's what it says on all of the official Feast sites.

What I meant about individual rank vs party rank was this:

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Each person will be given an individual rating and a four-person party rating, which will fluctuate independently of one another.

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That's taken straight from the 3.2 patch notes and has identical wording on the Feast Loadstone page.. Even the official rankings page shows divides ranks by solo vs party. Has this changed as well? Because, if so, they need to update their official loadstone page to reflect that change.

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Originally Posted by Februs

NWhat I meant about individual rank vs party rank was this: That's taken straight from the 3.2 patch notes and has identical wording on the Feast Loadstone page.. Even the official rankings page shows divides ranks by solo vs party. Has this changed as well? Because, if so, they need to update their official loadstone page to reflect that change.

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You're not understanding how party rankings work. Everyone on the party rankings has an individual rank.

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Originally Posted by xxczx

You're not understanding how party rankings work. Everyone on the party rankings has an individual rank.

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Yeah, I get that. It's not like you always have to play with the exact same party, so everyone's rank has to be individual, but isn't your individual ranking within the party matches distinct from your individual ranking within solo matches?

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Originally Posted by Februs

Yeah, I get that. It's not like you always have to play with the exact same party, so everyone's rank has to be individual, but isn't your individual ranking within the party matches distinct from your individual ranking within solo matches?

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Yes but nobody here has said your party rank effects your solo rank.

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Originally Posted by xxczx

Yes but nobody here has said your party rank effects your solo rank.

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It was a misunderstanding between me and Astryoneus. I had said that that match fixing in Matched Party queue does not effect your individual rank, by which I meant a player's solo-queue ranking. Astryoneus misunderstood me and responded with:

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Originally Posted by Astryoneus

I don't know what you mean by "making no difference" in regards to your individual rank. It does.

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I'm sure, now, that he/she was referring to a player's individual ranking within the matched-party leader boards, but, at the time, I was confused and thought that he/she meant that matched-party results somehow effected your solo-queue ranking. I was reading "individual" to mean "solo-queue." Like I said, it was just a misunderstanding.

I do find it interesting that any exploitation that is occurring hasn't had a very obvious result on the leader boards, though. I'm sure it seems obvious as Rudolf's nose to the people who have actually seen it in action, but the overall rankings don't really show it off. Despite the impressive number of matches being played and the winning percentages of the top players (I've seen upwards of 90%), the player rankings are still low. Last I checked, the highest players I saw were still in the gold tier of the rankings. If people are bolstering their winning points by bringing in bronze players, then I'm kind of surprised that no one has made platinum yet.

http://eu.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodest...lo_party=party
Chaos Data Center, 1st place 1253 points.

His team?
8th (838), 9th (760) and below.

Let's not forget the person who deleted his character to reset his rank then asked Square to bring back his character. They stop queuing when they know other good teams are queuing too :)

dunno If GM's are still monitoring this but here some musings regarding the melee dps, I play ranged and healers, but melee is really my area of expertise so I'll really just talk about that

When the tank changes were originally implemented, I read some long time pvp tank talking about how he was quitting due to the damage/vit changes and how shallow playing tank is in pvp is with his offensive power nerfed.

I really feel that how he put that is exactly how I feel playing ninja/drg in the feast. But monk is the one DPS that doesn't feel quite as shallow, it feels fleshed out and interesting.

Now that we're constantly being exposed to long drawn out fights, I think it highlights how shallow the pvp gameplay of a CLASS can be from a melee's perspective in the feast.

For dragoon, oh sure, the opening burst is intricate and how I go about applying it while being focused is far from shallow and usually exciting, but once the burst is down, gameplay is stifled. You're just going through your simple rotation and hitting cooldowns when they come up, or delaying them to match them up for a bigger burst. Of course there is nuances and little things you can do here and there with ff/elusive/fetter/skewer/weapon throw etc, but any utility is on an extremely long cooldown. Of course there is large deviations in combat itself, and how that goes down is far from shallow, but what I'm talking about here, is the combat of the class specifically. As I said, this makes gameplay for the class feel quite shallow. Outside of feint, there is very little options for you to deviate in anyway from your usual skills. Then even your defensive cooldowns are very lackluster. FF can be nice for dodging the occasional big melee hit and keen flurry is "okay" for mitigation over time from a non magica hitl, but overall they are underwhelming. You have no protection vs anything magical, your defensive cooldowns are mostly going to make very little difference. Basically you just heal yourself, heavy your target if its up, and run around or away... and thats basically it. I'm used to playing PVP where classes actually have defensive skills that are actually do something worthwhile. Without them, the defensive side of combat is again, very shallow.

Now regarding monk. Monk feels very different, while dragoon is super shallow, monk feels fleshed out and much more alive. It's got so many tools and clutch skills that are truly gamechanging.
I'll just list a few of these as there seems to be very little talk regarding how the melee actually play.

Axe kick: GOD TIER skill. 6 second AOE pacification??? This is just stupidly strong. Defensively it basically means you can save anyone or at the very least, make people blow purifies. It's crazy powerful as a defensive skill alone. Then the offensive utility on top, tornado kick into axe kick... so good.

One ilm punch: Again, godly. You can strip the most powerful skills in the game...with no cooldown? Combined with perfect balance and somersault this skill gives you a reliable means to to take nearly everything a player has.
This makes you so, so strong defensively, consistently. It's a gamechanger that is available so frequently.

arm of the destroyer. That extra utility can be so clutch, the ability to silence if you need it (though every rotation cycle) can stop a sure kill fire 4, or stop that final cure 2 going off. Even more pressure, throw in perfect balance....

Meditation/The forbidden Chakra. This is just beautiful in pvp. Anytime there is a lull, anytime you are outside of range, anytime you are being kited, anytime you need to set up a burst, you can use this to build up a godly OGCD skill. I love this skill so much.

Tornado kick. The OPTION to blow your stacks for burst is just beautiful in pvp, combined with axe kick and PB, another thing that makes monk so wonderfully fleshed out.

Form Shift: Just a little thing, but the ability to save your GL 3 or hit your desired stance when out of range is amazing. It's just another little thing that that makes this class great to play in pvp.

Mantra. yeah other melee can cross class it, but without the trait it's nothing in comparison. This is again, another clutch skill that can game change.

PB: The utility and options this and and sommersault/tornado kick give you is just perfect.

Fists of earth. It actually works vs magic! This is the type of skill which I said other dps lacked earlier, a defensive cooldown that actually makes a difference. Except it's not a cooldown, it's a stance. This skill is unbelievably good. Makes you very tanky, can comfortably survive LB's. Makes picking up medals much safer. Really an insanely powerful skill.

Fists of wind: Just more utility, sprint down, need to get away, close distance? It's there if you need it.


Somersault: Everyone was complaining about how this was an unnecessary buff, and I'd agree the damage was unneeded, but lowering the cooldown to allow you that deviation in your usual play for some real utility, is a very welcome change. The problem is, it's too strong because the other melee lack anything comparable and they aren't quite as well rounded as monk.



All of these things add up to make a beautiful pvp class that avoids feeling stagnant, while the others suffer from it. When monk burst is down, you always have those extra options that allow you flexibility in your gameplay, be it defensive, offensive or just pressure. Monk has an answer to basically everything in it's gameplay and that makes its so much fun to play.

Monk 3.0 is really a step in the right direction for pvp, a fleshed out class that has real flexibility and options. The only problem is, is that all of this is ontop of monk having outsanding dps and burst, and then all that utility.
Currently it makes monk god tier, but I really don't want to see it's utility suffer. It's the other classes that need to be brought up to it's level in this regard. Ninja is a obviously better with the mudras, but outside of 2 utility mudras it really feels really boring with it's 1/2/3 play, dots are situational in pvp and it's burst is on such a long cooldown, it's quite a lackluster experience compared to monk in the feast imo. FL is different though as ninja is really more of an variable terrain sort of dps, thats really where it shines.


Dragon plays very well and it is my favourite class, but there is quite a few problems, and that lack of utility is really starting to feel weird to me now considering the changes to the other meeles.
I think Dragons niche was supposed to be the unkiteable DPS... yeah they lack much deviation in their gameplay, but they have the tools to stick to you and just tear you up. And that makes perfect sense.
The thing with that is though, ninja is now far better at staying on your ass than Drg. The change to ground targeting macros makes shukuchi a much more efficient means of gap closing, then overwhelms cooldown was reduced, ontop of that they were given fetterward which was their biggest weakness, then last but not least the 20 second coodown binds and aoe eavy. If that was dragoons niche, it seems very odd that ninja is now better at staying in/getting in.

Problem with DRG is that spineshatter has a stun and you really want to avoid hitting DR's on stun in pvp, which makes DFD your reliable gapcloser...except its on a 2 min cooldown? I don't get this. Elusive is obviously a great get away skill, and great for removing snares/slows. But if you were about to fetter as you're bursting but got snared, you are better off purifying that then elusive... elusive goes so far so you basically just kite yourself. It can be a gapcloser, but again, 180 seconds cooldown? Then there is the problem with Jump. It's huge damage and great for bursting, obviously this is a great damage skill. But using it on a non stunned target just means you created a kiting situation for your opponent, as the animation lock means you can't move for awhile, your opponent will gain distance.

There is these odd discrepancies between the melee now and some glaring flaws. Monk is just simply too good all round, and if it is to stay at that level power, I'd like to see the other melee and tanks get as much attention as monk has to really flesh them out. Ninja is actually great atm, but the fetterward was a bizarre change to me... so I really don't even know in what direction that class is supposed to be going, especially considering they are really more a FL type class. I fear that rather than just nerfing some potencies on monk or cooldowns, they'll hit them in a way that will take away from how well they play overall, and thats something that really needs to be avoided. As monk is the melee that really is properly fleshed out (how many times have I said fleshed out?) and plays beautifully.

In general I feel you should either add some more PVP actions, tack on some pvp traits to abilities, or just outright switch around some skills potencies and cooldowns for pvp in general and flesh the classes out more for pvp.

agree. mnk is the prime example of how you should add a vibrancy and robustness to a pvp class.

You know, Monk has always bugged me... Off the top of my head, it's the only Job with PvP skills that actually tie in to its PvE skills, getting Greased Lightning III and Perfect Balance out of PvP skills... Where is that sort of tie in for other Jobs? I think a prime example is Ninjas Ill Wind. Axe Kick grants Greased Lightning III? Why doesn't Ill Wind grant Huton? Why even stop there, having PvP skills grant PvE effects is one thing, but why not have PvE mechanics adjust PvP skills? Ill Wind is essentially just AoE Jugulate, yet does it function the same way? No, your current Venom doesn't determine whether it's an AoE Silence or AoE Stun, it's only ever an AoE Silence...

They could do a lot more interesting things with PvP skills, yet they kinda just half did it for Monk and gave up... Doesn't help that so many PvP skills are shared across several Jobs I suppose, but I'd love to see more unique PvP skills that actually share a dynamic with the rest of a Jobs skill set... You know what I'd love? If Dark Arts Carnal Chill actually froze enemies, that switches it from effectively mitigation, to an additional Stun and it lets us get more use out of skills like Salted Earth...

Everybody and their grandfather plays Monk now its the latest flavor of the month. While I would never say no to buffs for me on DRG I dont really feel disadvantaged when compared to Monk and NIN aside from the fact that as a DRG I now have unquestionably the WORST mobility out of all melee dps, and therefore am much much more susceptible to being held down and having my dps slowed down via CC.

I think DRG should have the Elusive Jump CD shortened. It's just on too long of a CD to be considered useful and very rarely does backflipping in the opposite direction help you achieve your goal. It's mainly for escaping an LB/Bind but on a 3 minute cooldown? It can only be used twice in the Feast at the very most. I think it's a missed opportunity having it on such a long cooldown, especially as DRG has the worst mobility by far.

Can we change SCH's dinky knockback skill to something more substantial? It's really dumb how SCH have so few tools to make themselves live under heavy focus. WHMs have fluid aura, sleep, and Sacred Prism. AST have lightspeed and celestial opposition. SCH have... nothing. You use attunement then eat dirt.

I would be happy attaching a 5s slow + heavy to anyone hit by it or a 2s stun. It's on such a long cooldown for maybe ~1s of breathing room before they use a gap closer. Absolutely garbage skill. The only real use it has is knocking people off the spawn point.

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Originally Posted by Ricebowl

Can we change SCH's dinky knockback skill to something more substantial? It's really dumb how SCH have so few tools to make themselves live under heavy focus. WHMs have fluid aura, sleep, and Sacred Prism. AST have lightspeed and celestial opposition. SCH have... nothing. You use attunement then eat dirt.

I would be happy attaching a 5s slow + heavy to anyone hit by it or a 2s stun. It's on such a long cooldown for maybe ~1s of breathing room before they use a gap closer. Absolutely garbage skill. The only real use it has is knocking people off the spawn point.

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we did have a slow until smn took it away from us :D

Hey guys -- working on my first 60 (getting the xpac today!), and super new to the game. I'm coming from WoW (don't hate me!), and a couple friends and I are looking to level a PVP toon after I finish working on my PLD. Are there any posts/sites that talk about compositions that synergize well? Looking for what to level next, and most importantly, looking to put together a really strong group as we level.

In that same vein, I feel like SMN has been nerfed to the ground, with other pseudo-nerfs added like purify CD reduction and Warden's Paeon adding insult to injury. SMN has PVP abilities with very long cooldowns (BLM gets Phantom Dart down to 90sec, SMN Wither down to 180sec), and it's non-damaging PVP ability, Misty Veil feels lackluster (it reduces the targets range, best use is probably on an enemy healer).

If Wither stripped more buffs or was on a shorter CD, that would be good (our burst is not what it once was, and Wither is close range). Misty Veil is not nearly as useful as Nightwing (BLM's instant AoE sleep, same timer/reduction as Misty Veil), a strong range reduction would make it scarier (you can still remove it with Esuna/Leeches/etc which bothers me, you can sleep someone with Sleep, bait purify, then sleep with Nightwing), or some other buff a la Summoner in Blade and Soul (RIP) where they put up a ground AoE cloud that protects from ranged attacks that you can convert to do damage. That honestly would be really cool, even if only to block ranged attacks for a short duration.

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Originally Posted by Tyrandius

Hey guys -- working on my first 60 (getting the xpac today!), and super new to the game. I'm coming from WoW (don't hate me!), and a couple friends and I are looking to level a PVP toon after I finish working on my PLD. Are there any posts/sites that talk about compositions that synergize well? Looking for what to level next, and most importantly, looking to put together a really strong group as we level.

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You're already doing it lol. Party composition in Feast is 1 Tank, 1 Healer, 1 melee dps and 1 ranged dps. If you are planning on playing the tank in the party, then you're already well on your way to having one leveled.

Pld is, by FAR, more useful in PvP than it is in PvE, and it has good synergy with most party compositions. That said, it takes a bit more attention to detail to play well, because it's CC is so vast. You have to really juggle Dps support/healer support and enemy healer suppression, which takes a lot of practice. you'll be low on the dps, but very high on party defense and support. So you'll want to really learn how to use your stuns effectively (timed well and using maximum duration), as well as what party support moves are best used in what circumstances.

The other viable tanking option is War. They're more on the line for Dps support, as they have a very flexible and powerful burst. In terms of single target lock-down and healer harassment, they can work some wonders (especially when paired with a slashing Dps such as Ninja), but their party defense and friendly healer support is lacking in comparison to Pld.

The only Tank that most people wouldn't recommend is Dark Knight. It has a very good burst, but it's harder to use effectively than War's. It also lacks party support in any capacity. Short of debuffing the enemy Dps, Drk tends to fall behind in how well it can support the team.

As for the rest of the team, most party compositions work pretty well together regardless of what jobs are in the line up. Some do work a little better together than others, but it falls to personal skill and job knowledge to make the most of your team.

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Originally Posted by itsoni

I think DRG should have the Elusive Jump CD shortened.

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Agreed. Even in PvE, the cooldown is obnoxiously long for it's effect. It's hardly used, so there's really not much harm in shortening it's timer.

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Originally Posted by Ricebowl

Can we change SCH's dinky knockback skill to something more substantial? It's really dumb how SCH have so few tools to make themselves live under heavy focus. WHMs have fluid aura, sleep, and Sacred Prism. AST have lightspeed and celestial opposition. SCH have... nothing. You use attunement then eat dirt.

I would be happy attaching a 5s slow + heavy to anyone hit by it or a 2s stun. It's on such a long cooldown for maybe ~1s of breathing room before they use a gap closer. Absolutely garbage skill. The only real use it has is knocking people off the spawn point.

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Give us WHM'S healy puddle. I feel so underpowered as SCH. It works great in 8v8 but the class can't support 4v4 so well. :/

Producer and Director Yoshi-P here. As always, I’d like to thank you all for your continued feedback regarding the Feast. We’re already looking ahead to Season Two and carefully considering what adjustments we might make to job balance based on your valuable contributions.

Today I’d like to formally address four recent topics of discussion. While this post will be quite long, we hope that you’ll take the time to read it in its entirety.

■The Use of Third-Party Tools for Tracking Buffs and Debuffs■

Recently there has been some debate regarding the use of certain third-party tools during PvP matches. These tools have been used to view detailed information about opponents, generate audio notifications when certain actions are triggered, and provide other data in windows separate from those of the FFXIV UI. The development team is well aware of this situation and is currently weighing various options.

As prohibiting the use of third-party tools can lead some to confusion (”Are chat programs prohibited?” “What falls within the definition of “third-party tool?”), I should state that our policy is to not place excessive restrictions on our players; we simply do not want you to use devices or software which are in violation of the terms of service.

However, we do not condone the use of tools which provide an advantage in PvP by obtaining information, such as player position and buff/debuff status, by parsing packet data and utilizing it in the manner described above. Therefore, to discourage the use of such tools, we are considering using a different encryption protocol for PvP packets.

We understand that even should we change encryption protocols with every patch, third-party developers will continue to update their tools. Nevertheless, by using separate protocols for PvP and PvE, and by frequently updating protocols, we hope to prevent the use of these tools during a season. We are currently carefully evaluating the feasibility of this approach—how often we might need to update encryption protocols, as well as what precise methods we might employ. While it may be some time before we are able to implement any changes, we ask for your understanding and patience.

And to those of you who are using tools which afford you an unfair advantage in PvP, I would ask that you refrain from doing so.

■Abusive Language and Harassment During and After Matches■

We have been receiving numerous reports of players using abusive language during and after PvP matches. This is a problem we intend to address strongly.

As a gamer, I know that in competitive situations, emotions run high. However, that is no excuse for abusive language. Harassing party members will not make them play better, and it will not improve your win rate.

I understand that you may find it frustrating to be matched with lower ranked players who possess different motivations and skill sets, and I realize that such frustrations may fuel your desire to lash out at others. Later in this post, I will talk about some steps we will be taking to improve matchmaking, which I hope will go some way towards addressing this issue.

Make no mistake: abusive language is harassment. So before you press enter, I urge you to step back, take a deep breath, and think about how your message might be received, and whether or not there might be a better way to express it.

Be advised that all reports of abusive language and harassment will be investigated, and disciplinary action will be taken where appropriate.

That being said, we are also aware that the intent behind text-based communication is not always clear, and that some statements may be misinterpreted. Rest assured that our GMs will take care to evaluate whether or not the statements in question are in violation of our guidelines.

Depending on the severity and frequency of confirmed violations, players may be subject to account suspension or termination. We appreciate your cooperation and understanding.

■Ranked Matchmaking Ranges■

Currently, when players participate in a ranked PvP match, they may face opponents within a range of three tiers (bronze, silver, and gold only, for example). While we would ideally like all matches to take place between players in a single tier, we are still studying data in order to strike a balance between matchmaking speed and range. However, we are also well aware that there is a significant barrier for players participating in ranked matches for the first time, as they can be paired with much more experienced players with whom they struggle to coordinate.

To address this issue, we are considering splitting players into two groups: Unranked – Bronze (possibly Silver), and all higher tiers. We are also continuing to look into ways we might improve our matchmaking algorithms to reduce the skill disparity between players.

These changes are being considered based on observations of Season One matchmaking, and may be implemented for the start of Season Two.

Should you have any comments or suggestions regarding this issue, we invite you to submit them.

■Job Balance■

As mentioned in previous posts, should we determine that certain jobs or abilities are too strong or too weak, we may make adjustments, even in the middle of a season, if we deem it absolutely necessary. That being said, we will do our utmost to postpone significant system changes until the start of the subsequent season.

At this time, we are planning to make several adjustments, in particular to strengthen both dark knight and ninja in PvP, with patch 3.3. These adjustments are still being tested internally, and so we ask that you please wait a little longer.

In the meantime, we hope you continue to enjoy the Feast!

Thanks yoshi, you tell those mean pvp players to watch their mouths! <3

Come on Yoshi.

If you banned parsers there wouldn't be groups of people going "oh no what about Teamspeak?!"

Other than that it all sounds good, in theory at least. Less abuse and less cheating is always a good thing. As well as the much needed Dark Knight buff!

I dare not get excited about Dark Knight adjustments again... The Tar Pit and Carnal Chill changes were nice, but they did nothing to address the real problem with Dark Knight, at this point I'd really just hope for Manadraw instead of Enliven and/or a reduction in the cost of Dark Arts... MP management is the key to playing Dark Knight well in Feast, it's the difference between being an absolutely terrible waste of a slot, and being OK...

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Originally Posted by MrPresident

Come on Yoshi.

If you banned parsers there wouldn't be groups of people going "oh no what about Teamspeak?!"

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If you actually read the message, he is saying that they will be using different encryption for PvP to make parsers not work in PvP but still work in PvE.

and I'm not sure what you're getting at with Teamspeak, must be pretty good solo Qs you're doing when the team is on Teamspeak.

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Originally Posted by Nalien

I dare not get excited about Dark Knight adjustments again... The Tar Pit and Carnal Chill changes were nice, but they did nothing to address the real problem with Dark Knight, at this point I'd really just hope for Manadraw instead of Enliven and/or a reduction in the cost of Dark Arts... MP management is the key to playing Dark Knight well in Feast, it's the difference between being an absolutely terrible waste of a slot, and being OK...

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Totally. Though, at least they are continuing to make adjustments instead of sticking to the typical corporate nonsense of "it's working as intended." That's good. It's also good to see that they're still listening to the feedback. I wasn't expecting any responses to player harassment and third party tools; so, that's a pleasant surprise as well.

That said, I still see no remarks about PvP gear and the Wolf Mark system. SE, can we PLEASE get some dev feedback on this? I don't think we're asking for a lot when we ask for an actual purpose for Wolf Marks. You update your PvE vendors almost every patch and have added a gear mender to Wolves Den Pier (thanks for that, by the way). Surely it can't be too difficult to make Wolf Marks meaningful and useful.

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Originally Posted by Naoki_Yoshida

■Ranked Matchmaking Ranges■
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Should you have any comments or suggestions regarding this issue, we invite you to submit them.

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Why not have this matchmaking based off rating, not tier? Tier can be fine for issuing rewards and a general glance at someones rank. But because tiers can have overlapping rating points, it's not the best indication of where someone currently is, comparatively speaking.

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Originally Posted by Naoki_Yoshida

■Job Balance■
At this time, we are planning to make several adjustments, in particular to strengthen both dark knight and ninja in PvP, with patch 3.3. These adjustments are still being tested internally, and so we ask that you please wait a little longer.

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I was going to wait until the end of the season, but I figure nows a good time for some feedback. There's been quite the statement on healers, regarding our inability to really affect the battle as it's all on the DPS burst. However, if you feel that healing in general is as it should be, I'd suggest looking at Scholar at the very least. It seems to be the least appropriate for The Feast. The shields take longer to cast than AST, the regens not at on-demand as WHM or AST, and the general cure potency overall is lesser than WHM, especially considering WHMs pvp skills. Once your Lustrates are used up, unless you're willing to disperse your faerie you've got a tactical disadvantage comparatively speaking top the other healer types. And then without your faerie you've got no recovery from low HP Attunement use.

I'm trying my best to continue the rank climb as Scholar but I can feel the real pressure from the limitations of the job. I struggle between rationalizing it as my own skill or a fundamental issue with Scholar in PvP. As I see it, Scholar is an amazing supporting healer for PvP, not the best main healer. I have never felt the pressure in other level 60 pvp modes, but this was because I've usually had a co-healer to keep the HP flowing properly. Scholar excels at quick spot heals, but time after time again I end up in deadlock matches when the DPS cannot land a kill for some reason or another, and it's obvious the two with the proper mindset are the opposing healers. It's not until I see 5 (or more!) Culling Time stacks, it's to the point where I cannot out-heal the opposing healer if it's a WHM or an AST. Normally I wouldn't make such generalized statements, but it's happened on multiple occasions to me, including both high and low ranked DPS comrades.

When I look up at what I just wrote out, it comes off as more of a rant than anything perhaps. But I hope you accept the feedback one way or another.

And what are You going to do about the people on Aether light party leaderboard? people are purposely boosting by playing with unranked teammates to get more points for beating new players instead of the alloted 1 point/game. They know what they are doing and they are gaming the system on purpose. Very remiscent of win trading as you never see them queueing at any sort of reasonable time :/

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Originally Posted by Naoki_Yoshida

■Job Balance■

At this time, we are planning to make several adjustments, in particular to strengthen both dark knight and ninja in PvP, with patch 3.3. These adjustments are still being tested internally, and so we ask that you please wait a little longer.[/INDENT]

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In what version of FFXIV is Ninja so bad at melee that they need even more buffs? The only melee better atm is monk. DRG is easily the worst melee of the bunch with its very noticeably inferior mobility compared to the other 2 melee, its glaring lack of defensive cooldowns or tools (ala Axe kick, Shade shift, Fists of Earth, and enhanced movement speed (fists of wind/poison toggle)) and its general lack of utility when compared to Ninja and Monk (who can bind, hide with medals, strip buffs, silence lock whms to secure kills in instances etc). Only thing DRG has going for it atm is the fact that MCH is so feared (and brd to a lesser extent) and therefore we work well with them for the purpose of being a disembowel and litany bi**ch. Yet I dont see any DRG's crying nearly as much as these phantom Ninjas who these repeated buffs are trying to appease.

The Dark Knight buffs though I look forward to as they have been needed badly for a long long time. Atm there isnt any DRK main among the top 100 on primal that I know of, giving testament to how much of a liability that job is over the other 2 tanks.

I appreciate Yoshi and his team taking the time to provide some feedback regarding the Feast. It's nice to feel heard when there are quite a few glaring issues with the matchmaking as it is now. It's frustrating that there are definitely things that need to be tweaked, but I do have to say that... for the first truly competitive PvP 'season', it's not bad!

That said... regarding Yoshi's comment about possibly having two 'groups' for matchmaking purposes. Right now, there seems to be a real 'wall' for people trying to progress beyond Silver. They might get up to their Gold qualifier and be denied several times, all due to being matched with Unranked or low Bronze players with very little experience in the arena. And should they get to Gold, there is always the possibility to derank due to being matched with lower tiered players (considering you can't derank from Bronze, it's not much better than someone who is Unranked). If the two groups are assigned as he mentioned, Unranked/Bronze/Silver and Gold/Platinum/Diamond, I fear this will not help with the hurdle that has been created for the Silver players trying to reach Gold. If anything, it may make the situation worse... because they will always have the possibility of being matched with Unranked/Bronze (rather than Gold/Platinum, as is currently possible).

If there were even rank distribution across most ranks, I would suggest the following groups:
Unranked/Bronze
Silver/Gold
Platinum/Diamond

But... the obvious problem here is that there are waaaaay less Platinum/Diamond players than any other tier. Their queue would take forever and a day.

To alleviate the issue I described above (of silver people having a hard time making it to gold), perhaps Silver could be split into two unofficial tiers (for matchmaking purposes).

Therefor, we'd have...

Unranked/Bronze/Low Silver
High Silver/Gold/Platinum/Diamond

Obviously, the game would attempt to match Gold/Platinum/Diamond before pulling in a high silver, but it might make the odds a bit better for someone attempting to reach gold.

Alternatively, perhaps the 'High Silver' would only be pulled into the upper tier IF they are currently working on their Gold qualifier. In my mind, I feel like it makes sense that you should have to play against people in the tier you are trying to reach to qualify for that tier, right? :S

Anyone else have any thoughts on this?