Shocked at the reduction in mage damage, quadruple mp cost, and lowered resources

[Neptune]

I have to say one thing I really enjoyed in this game was playing my Conjurer. The Nature's Fury ability, which lets you use aoe on your auto attack to burn up levequest targets was really fun.

I've soloed a few of the mid-tier NMs and it was hard to cure myself through the fights. I would run out of mp mid battle and have to sleep the NM and go into passive mode so I could regain my mp. And that's after I had siphon MP'd them to 0 mp.

I also really enjoyed curing in this game because in FFXI it was not fun playing the game of whack a mole, hitting targets with single cast cure spells.

But now with patch 1.18 I'm going to be having a lot less fun with my gametime.

-Nature's Fury recast time means I can only use my aoe attack twice a minute.
-Cure 3 MP cost has been quadrupled from 36 MP to 130, meaning I have less than 7 cures to use when soloing an NM. Some of these NMs hit for around 500 HP, meaning you would need one Cure 3 for every hit just about. Now, I doubt I'll be able to continue going on adventures by myself since I simply won't be able to cure myself through the damage.
-Since aoe has been removed from cures I'll now have to leave some of my abilities behind so I can assign Curaga spells to my action bar, and since 7 heals take priority over any kind of damage, I guess I'm playing a healer all of a sudden and I can forget about being a caster damage dealer
-Siphon MP no longer aoe means I have less resources to work with and improvise with out in the field

I must conclude it is no longer as fun playing my class, and it is not going to be possible to enjoy the same kinds of activities I did before patch 1.18. On top of that, even though I picked Conjurer for the elemental magic ability, I now am going to have no role other than healer in parties since I can do no more than 7 cures with my MP. Prior to patch 1.18 I could afford to throw out 7 cures and still use my other abilities but now I will be focused on healing, which means I won't be playing very much. That is not something I enjoy.

Well, how do you feel if you're a magic user? Did this change impact your playstyle or your enjoyment of your class?

[Rau]

Yeah, I can see my self being challenged, instead of just sitting back and aoe curing every 10 seconds.

[Seirra_Lanzce]

it wasn't mean to solo ma pretty.... .

[Sav]

I imagine they want to make a lot of the NMs non-soloable. Otherwise, what's so notorious about them?

[Ayerc]

I'm not upset, I've been waiting for some changes to bring more challenge to the game. Soloing NMs seemed to cheapen gameplay.

And you can still play Mage DD, just get another CON in party to play healer, while you nuke.

[Wobi]

Looks like people might actually have to invest in MND to up that available MP

[Neptune]

I imagine they want to make a lot of the NMs non-soloable. Otherwise, what's so notorious about them?

The NMs are very much non-soloable. The fun comes in finding a creative way to solo them. In FFXI, that was RDM/NIN for a long time. Thinking outside the box and figuring things out. That was my forte.

[darkstarpoet1]

yes, i am quite upset with the ignorance of this update with regards to the way both mages were just made to be less fun to play. i mean why would anyone play a game to have fun anyways?

[Neptune]

yes, i am quite upset with the ignorance of this update with regards to the way both mages were just made to be less fun to play. i mean why would anyone play a game to have fun anyways?

yeah I agree I'm not in it to work. If I'm going to work I damn well am gonna be paid for my time. It's a good thing Dark Souls is coming out in a few months.

[Altano]

The NMs are very much non-soloable. The fun comes in finding a creative way to solo them. In FFXI, that was RDM/NIN for a long time. Thinking outside the box and figuring things out. That was my forte.

RDM/NIN was hardly creative or "outside-the-box" thinking. Hmmm, what happens if I use the same strategy as a blink-tank post-37 while at the same time melee/DoT/nuking and using convert + refresh + haste + pro/shell + every other buff on the planet? That was as straightfoward as possible. I spent every one of my 8 years as a mage in XI and hated it in this game and refused to play it past rank 20 up until (possibly) now because it was stupidly easy. Thankfully SE is adding a challenge to being a skilled mage. About damn time in my opinion.