Thanks for the great info, Nel! (I wonder why Square's NA / EU PR & Marketing Team don't make it a priority to release this type of information in English to the rest of the world? Seriously, getting more interesting info (like this JP Interview) will only HELP build excitement for the game.)

Some thoughts:

* Yaksha is the equivalent of Darklight, it's ilvl 170, then there are the esoteric gears, Alexander normal and hard gear.

Does that mean that the Yaksha (i170) gear is just the "baseline", and that Esoteric, Alexander Normal / Hard gear is even higher iLevel?! We're already at i130. A jump to i170 is already large, and if Alexander HM is even higher... we're getting into WOW-style Numbers Bloat. Ugh.


* Heavensward expects Healers to DPS. They increased the offensive power of the WHM, not because they want them to be real DPS but because they first didn't expect the players to have the healers DPS in coil, they were surprised to see the top parties do that and they changed their plan. When they do the new raid they now takes healer dps into consideration, that will be a major difference between alexander normal and hard, in the normal mode dps check they don't take into account the healers' damages.

This one makes sense, but is also surprising in some ways. Of course the more hardcore raiders will be doing everything they can to finish fights faster. But I guess now Yoshi P is expecting / requiring all Healers to DPS to beat Alexander HM. Not sure how I feel about this.


* There will be a lot of gear so you will have a lot of choice for glamour.
This is kinda sad. I wish Yoshi P and the Dev Team would've instead had a lot of gear that was USEFUL (Horizontal Progression) so you can choose what play style fits you best. I'm glad for more Visual Styles, but it would be better if they all had USEFULNESS as well (same higher iLevel, different, unique Stats / Enhancements on them (e.g., "Enhances Rampart" or "Counterattack +1%")).


* According to the medias, the world is much more dangerous, they tried a FATE and were crushed.
This could be pretty awesome! Can't wait to see what the open world is like. It might engender more players on the same server to help each other out while sneaking / exploring / traveling the world.

Thanks.