I like battle regimens!

I have been in a party the last few nights with 2 other people. We are 44-45 Pug, LNC, Con.

I have always ignored battle regimens because they were clunky at launch and everyone said they sucked. Most people only use them on NMs. Anyway, we started dinking around with them and trying them out, and I friggen love them!

We start with Heavy Strike->Light Thrust->Spirit Dart. This gives lower physical defense and magic defense. Then we all do some dmg buffs and heal if necessary, then we do Follow Through->Twisting Vice->Thunder II. Each attack buffs the next attack and they all increase in damage. The first attack hits for ~400 the next hits for about ~900 the nuke hits for ~2000-2500. After that, just a bit of clean up 1-2 more attacks and mob is dead. Sometime they die right away. This is on efts 5-10 ranks above us worth ~350 sp.

I'm not saying its a perfect system, the Con has died 2 times when the melee were in BR mode and couldn't voke/taunt. Although that is frustrating, it is avoidable by preparing properly (pulling back to avoid agro, and being healed before starting). Also on shorter fights, there is too much down time, so it really is only worth while on tougher mobs.

The system also works well with duo, but seems to really shine with 3 people. Anyway, just want to say that everyone who hates the system give it a try first, its a pretty great feeling taking down a mob like that in 20 seconds.

I think a good compromise would be a system like ffxi skill chains that slightly boost damage for shorter fights, but keep the BR for tougher fights with larger parties.

I like regiment too, but some effects are kinda sloppy. They need some boost or different effects

Brs are great when working with a PT that is communicating, and on the ball.
The system could use a little work, especially when in that "waiting mode" People have suggested that once you cue up a skill it takes that amount of your stam bar like a "reserve". You are able to continue to attack until the other members catch up.
It also wouldn't hurt to dress it up a little, make a successful BR flashy.

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Originally Posted by Sparker

...I have always ignored battle regimens because they were clunky at launch and everyone said they sucked. Most people only use them on NMs. Anyway, we started dinking around with them and trying them out, and I friggen love them!...

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Same exact thing happened with me. I messed with them when they were added initially and they were pretty awful then never touched them again until grinding through the mid-high 40s. Now I really like the system. I think it could use some work though (flashy graphics, more unique effects, more impact of which skills chain with which skills).

It's possible there is more complexity to it that I am just not aware of. If that is the case a good article on lodestone should help clear it up.

I think an extended battle queue would work really well with regimen. I haven't actually done them because they were hard to pull off at first, but it's the wait time that really killed them.

If there was an extended queue we could put in a few commands to execute, then quickly select the regimen. Rather then us waiting for everyone to finish selecting we should be able to continue inputing commands. When we feel that everyone is done, or when the signal is given to go, the starter could then just start the regimen and ta da! No waiting.

I think it would be super cool if that when someone picked a regimen the icon of the attack they chose appeared over their head briefly. This would be an indicator to the rest of the party what people are choosing without even the need of communication. Not saying we don't need to communicate, but with individual indicators, we just wouldn't need to.

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Originally Posted by ESAR

I think it would be super cool if that when someone picked a regimen the icon of the attack they chose appeared over their head briefly. This would be an indicator to the rest of the party what people are choosing without even the need of communication. Not saying we don't need to communicate, but with individual indicators, we just wouldn't need to.

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Doesn't it show what actions people picked already near the stamina bar? or did they take that out since Dec?

I understand what people are saying about BRs and that it sucks to wait for others to input commands but arn't BRs powerfull enough already? without the lost damage from waiting for people to finish BRs, I think that pushes BRs further into the relm of absurdity for damage. I know we want to reward people for playing together, but this proposition makes the BR system easier and more effective. Grated it also might make it more fun to use since you don't have to wait in queue for others to do their actions, but I am not convinced that makig the system faster and more powerfull AND easier is the answer.

If they did make these proposed changes such as queuing of abilties and set aside stam for them, then I sugest possibly adding a timed element to the actions. If player two is no longer stoping player 1 from doing any actions in the BR you can now give him an advantage for waiting exactly 2-3 seconds or w/e similer to SCs to increase the damage/effectivness of the BR. If you wanted to make it even mor einvolved, say player one starts the BR and adds his action, then player two adds his action 2-3 seconds latter and player three adds his command 3 seconds latter and the leader closes the BR. Now the BR will commence with player 1 using his skill automatically as soon as the BR closes, then player 2 has two seconds, to try to buff himself to boost the damage for his BR ability and so on for player 3.

This type of system adds a timed aspect to the system which adds a level of complexity which I think BRs need, and it also makes it more fun IMO. Since the actions are taking place inside the BR system they can't be interupted which solves some peoples beef with SCs in XI, and it means that if your timing is off, that debuff your looking for will still be applied, but thoes that have better timing will get more damage from their abilities, and it allows for more precise buffing for your BR action.

granted this only works if they add the queue and allow actions to flow after your command has been entered.

This type of system might cause some issues with 8 man BRs though cause the 8th person will have 20ish seconds from teh time of opening the BR to his turn to place an action, this might get annoying. Granted he will be able to do actions during that time, but I can see some people complaining about being in BR mode for 20 seconds even though they would be allowed to move/attack, but this could be interesting.

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Originally Posted by Linnear

Doesn't it show what actions people picked already near the stamina bar? or did they take that out since Dec?

I understand what people are saying about BRs and that it sucks to wait for others to input commands but arn't BRs powerfull enough already? without the lost damage from waiting for people to finish BRs, I think that pushes BRs further into the relm of absurdity for damage. I know we want to reward people for playing together, but this proposition makes the BR system easier and more effective. Grated it also might make it more fun to use since you don't have to wait in queue for others to do their actions, but I am not convinced that makig the system faster and more powerfull AND easier is the answer.

If they did make these proposed changes such as queuing of abilties and set aside stam for them, then I sugest possibly adding a timed element to the actions. If player two is no longer stoping player 1 from doing any actions in the BR you can now give him an advantage for waiting exactly 2-3 seconds or w/e similer to SCs to increase the damage/effectivness of the BR. If you wanted to make it even mor einvolved, say player one starts the BR and adds his action, then player two adds his action 2-3 seconds latter and player three adds his command 3 seconds latter and the leader closes the BR. Now the BR will commence with player 1 using his skill automatically as soon as the BR closes, then player 2 has two seconds, to try to buff himself to boost the damage for his BR ability and so on for player 3.

This type of system adds a timed aspect to the system which adds a level of complexity which I think BRs need, and it also makes it more fun IMO. Since the actions are taking place inside the BR system they can't be interupted which solves some peoples beef with SCs in XI, and it means that if your timing is off, that debuff your looking for will still be applied, but thoes that have better timing will get more damage from their abilities, and it allows for more precise buffing for your BR action.

granted this only works if they add the queue and allow actions to flow after your command has been entered.

This type of system might cause some issues with 8 man BRs though cause the 8th person will have 20ish seconds from teh time of opening the BR to his turn to place an action, this might get annoying. Granted he will be able to do actions during that time, but I can see some people complaining about being in BR mode for 20 seconds even though they would be allowed to move/attack, but this could be interesting.

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Yeah I really haven't got too much into them I didn't notice the symbols they're probably still there. I'd love to see them appear above peoples heads, as if they're calling out to me what they choose without needing to actually tell me or having me take my eyes off of battle.

I say take your eyes off battle because there's alot of that, there's alot of looking at these little meters and bars that I think with the technology they've presented can get past that.

I want to see in battle when fighting enemies name, health and status icons included in the names display that way I feel apart of battle rather then looking at some bar.
And I'd like to see these Icons appear above players heads.

As for the spacing out of attacks this can go two ways,
I thought yeah we could do that, but I think they're meant to combine as big attacks on specific parts of the body which is why they're executed all at once. Spacing them out could cause problems in the way of efficiency. With people focused on attacks being executed before them rather then battle they might be inclined to wait for others to attack and do nothing.

I also had an idea about having them execute automatically but take place next in the queue, this might work.

So the order is player 1 then 2 then 3 then 4.

1 starts and picks attack, then 2,3 and 4.
1 executes regimen.
His action sets for next in the battle queue.
It executes.
2 gets his regimen put next in his queue.
It executes
and so on.

Could either do the above or this..

battle regimen starts (after being selected by 1)
Each action is set to go of next in each participating members battle queue.

I like the first though, it'll go off in the proper order (if that's relevant like FFXI)

The stacked attacks show up over the stamina bar. That makes more sense to me than having to look at everyone's head to see what they are doing, especially when the mages aren't even on the screen sometimes.

I should also point out that the party I was in was on vent. I tried doing it with another party out of vent and gave up after a few minutes. As I alluded in the OP, I think a separate system would be nice to have for pick-up groups when you can't be in vent and/or don't have the experience/flow of a LS or static group.

BR's are also good for when you are low on stamina. Stamina will regen while you wait for people to join the regime. Good damage increase even if you don't get an added effect. BR's are a lot better than the old 'Magic Burst' system, but many don't realize it (or just don't like change)

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Originally Posted by Reika

BR's are also good for when you are low on stamina. Stamina will regen while you wait for people to join the regime. Good damage increase even if you don't get an added effect. BR's are a lot better than the old 'Magic Burst' system, but many don't realize it (or just don't like change)

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Why are BRs so much better than SCs? Personally I don't think the BR system in it's current state is better than SCs, I think they CAN be better but not in their current rendition. They are too slow, untimed and I feel like all I am doing is hitting a button when someone say, hey you hit this thing as soon as possible. If you think the current BR system is better, mind letting us know why?

The BR system may not have the Bursts of magic that SC had, but each weapon skill or spell in the regime does extra damage. also, there is a system of debilitating effects on the enemy if the WS and Spells are set in the proper order and number, Such as lowering the targets defense, Decreasing targets magic defense, increasing total damage to the target, and even Maintaining skill effectiveness for skills used on other classes.

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Originally Posted by Reika

The BR system may not have the Bursts of magic that SC had, but each weapon skill or spell in the regime does extra damage. also, there is a system of debilitating effects on the enemy if the WS and Spells are set in the proper order and number, Such as lowering the targets defense, Decreasing targets magic defense, increasing total damage to the target, and even Maintaining skill effectiveness for skills used on other classes.

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I will admite I like the debilitation status on the mob after BRs, as far as game mechanics go I think this is better than the SCs. Scs only lowered magic resistance while BRs can do a lot more depending on BR used. I also like that casters can be implemented in the BRs instead of ust finishing them off and seems more interactice somehow

What I don't like about it is the lose of timed actions, If they can somehow implement timed actions back in the BR system like mentioned before I think I would enjoy them more.