[suggestion] Bring back skillchains/magic bursts

[Alcide]

So, I've been doing BR a lot more in parties after I hit 40+ (to speed up kill speed). We basically have just been throwing any WS in and closing with the elemental weakness of the mob we are fighting.

All these posts about how you're doing it wrong if you're just throwing any random skills in make me wonder if there are specific WS that work better together (like SC in XI). Is that the case? Does someone have a good guide to this information? Is there any indication if you have done a good combination of skills vs. a lackluster one (other than the damage number you see at the end)?

Generally on Gladiator I just use Luminous Spire to lower magic defense on the mob (assuming that it will help the damage of the nuke that closes the BR). I also try to go first in the BR if I can because GLA does less damage than DD jobs.

You won't find any guide, because every LS is pretty jealous of their tactics, also because SE gave really few hints about BR, you just have to grab some friends and test while grinding

[moatcarp]

You won't find any guide, because every LS is pretty jealous of their tactics, also because SE gave really few hints about BR, you just have to grab some friends and test while grinding

Maybe that's why so many people in the thread think BR are crap then. In XI everyone used printed out WS charts to know which abilities to use.

[MysteryG]

I'll admit, BR's are something I don't properly understand just yet, so please refrain from flaming the bejezus out of me.

I really really enjoyed skillchains in FFXI. I think this is mostly because it took some real planning and timing to properly execute, and you couldn't always just mash together whatever abilities you had. From what I've seen so far with the current getup is that this just isn't as rewarding or fun to execute. I don't want an automated system because I like being engaged in the timing and execution of a fight. As a reminder, these are just my perceptions after a few months of playing.

[Kimahri]

Yeah. I don't mind BR just wish it was more engaging than picking my ability and waiting. I do not see how you, Alcide, are basically saying, "Well. If you're good enough, you don't have to wait." over the problem everyone is facing over being locked out until the BR is completed. What about those who aren't, "Good enough?" I don't see a problem with an auto-attack feature implemented back while you wait for the BR. To tell you the truth, I completely hate the action bar....It doesn't seem like a FF game in my book.....More like WoW or Aion and etc.

Again this is not a post about bashing BR, just something that'll hopefully make EVERYONE enjoy it rather than a simple few who test it for hours upon hours.

[Steggun]

You have no clue of what you're talking about. Period.

Just like everyone else on this thread that can't realize that there already is a SC and MB system hidden in the BR system (that's pretty funny) you're just too lazy to find it out.

BR are symplified SC in terms of executions, but they're much more powerful and open to possibilities and they require an amazing team work if you want them to work at his best. Just because you can perform it throwing in any skill that comes to your mind it doesn't mean it's the way it's supposed to be done.

Omg all of my posts end up in the same way... don't blame the devs if you're choosing to play in the dumbest way.


EDIT: I forgot the locking out part, that's the best thing! You have to be quick coz your comrades are waiting for you, if someone makes a mistake all of the group has to wait for him to get back, how can you say there's no teamwork?? I can understand that it's hard to get a fast BR in a random leveling party, but since they can be executed from 2 to 8 people I can't see where's the problem: big BR for the endgame with a well trained party and small BR for random parties, both of them are working fine.

I never denied that BR are more powerful than SC/MB, I'm all for keeping that aspect. But what you consider teamwork I consider a flaw, and a serious one at that.

You can shut your eyes and cover your ears and keep telling yourself that BR are perfectly fine the way they are. But in my opinion they are not, and it's obvious that I am not alone.

Just because BR can cause massive damage and debuffs does not mean the system is flawless. The end results of the BR system are great, but the steps leading up to that result are not.

[Kimahri]

I never denied that BR are more powerful than SC/MB, I'm all for keeping that aspect. But what you consider teamwork I consider a flaw, and a serious one at that.

You can shut your eyes and cover your ears and keep telling yourself that BR are perfectly fine the way they are. But in my opinion they are not, and it's obvious that I am not alone.

Just because BR can cause massive damage and debuffs does not mean the system is flawless. The end results of the BR system are great, but the steps leading up to that result are not.

Couldn't of said it better myself......Why is it that everyone posting in favor of doing nothing is basically acting like the Little Rascals when it comes to talking about bringing girls in the clubhouse? "NO NO NO NO NO! THEY'RE GIRLY!!!"

We're trying to make it MORE ENJOYABLE for the rest of the population. Not the 3% that spend their lonely hours finding different and better methods of the BR combinations......

[CanteJondo]

BR definitely have the potential to be better and achieve more than skillchains/magic bursts. Against NM's they really shine. You can be using BR's constantly for a much easier fight.

If they are still considering auto-attack, it might be a big improvement to be able to stick on auto-attack whilst your WS is stacked in a BR.

Also, as a mage I'd love the ability to throw a cure out when in a BR too

[Alcide]

And how is an auto attack helping? You still woudln't be able to do anything, it would be just a dot... really challenging :O big improvement.

We're trying to make it MORE ENJOYABLE for the rest of the population. Not the 3% that spend their lonely hours finding different and better methods of the BR combinations......

o.O is that what I said? REALLY?? Do you really think someone would find BR great because of this???
What I meant is that SE didn't give any valuable info about BR, so we have a system with a great versatility and a great potential but we don't know what's the best way to use it, SO we have to make tests and find out how they're working. I didn't mean it is something good, they MUST give us more info (though I had a great time testing, but it's just because of my ls mates).

For instance, one thing I love about BR and about the fact that you have to wait for the others in order to perform your action is that it makes different strategies valuable for different occasions, in exemple you want the "WS buff" BR to be performed by everyone during NM fights to deal massive demage and in this occasions it won't take too much time since every member of the party should be trained on what he has to do; on leves or while grinding you don't want everyone to join the BR, you would wait too much time and it wouldn't be worth it, it's much better to have continuous "def down" and "TP debuff" BR of 2-3 people going on during the whole fight.

And I'm not saying they are perfect the way they are now, I agree sometimes it takes way too much time to perform a well working BR, so maybe lowering the number of partecipants from 8 to 6 would help; also I'd love to see different types of BR, maybe with elemental affinity like SC, and a combo-like system would be something amazing (though I think would be pretty difficult to develop in a mmo) but still I love the core of the system and I think it's much better then SC.

I honestly think that if SE gave us a tutorial, a guide or just more infos on how BR is working people would love them, the main issue of this system is the total lack of communication.

[DeadRiser]

if it was perfect, my friend, everyone would use it.

The fact that almost no one uses the system is a clear signal of the fact that it's not perfect, isn't it?

R1-40 there is no point in using them, battles don't last long enough.. mostly just to use as added damage

[jmp]

The point here is that SE didn't explain how BRs work. It is true, those are mostly trash till r40 (tho def down is a good friend), but it doesn't mean they have no point. In ff11 grind party we used to have fights that could last 1 minute against tough mobs. We don't get this here, fights usually last some seconds and there is no way skillchains are going to be useful. If you miss the old skillchains it is not because those aren't in game, because the battle regimens are the same thing. Ok, there is no animation, but skills in br get boosted in damage. Against a NM they make the difference. Obviously I'm not giving away more things I know about this (Alcide will in time, I'm sure), but there is way more than just queuing skills for an added damage. Search unofficial forums and you will find out many things. If you are on Lindblum come and watch Delirium or Fairytale taking down a NM, there is much you can understand. We discovered pretty much all we know by ourselves, doing experiments and it is the same exact way people found out skillchains in ff11. And it's not that we are too selfish to give out informations. SE can, but didn't until now. Remember Absolute Virtue. They want us to find out how things work.

Just a hint. We call every BR on teamspeak. People must be ready to enter. Leader calls, let's assume 1 second for each person to enter (sometimes less) and you get your BR full in 8 seconds.

Bribe me...