Thread: 1.18 Compliment Sandwich

I'm seeing a lot of complaints about 1.18, amidst some posts of unrestrained joy. Rather than focus all on one or the other, how about we steal an idea from Stewie from Family Guy? Here, you post one thing you liked about the patch, and one thing you didn't like. I know that isn't really a sandwich, but I wanted to use that title so people would get what I was talking about.

However, I request that for the stuff you didn't like, be constructive rather than whining. For instance, I think some classes being nerfed is a justifiable concern, but rather than yell that the game is RUINED FOREVER maybe you could have a suggestion on how to fix it without simply rolling back changes? Because of this, however, my list (at least) will look dominated by the criticisms, but that's just because there's less to be said about things I liked.

Here's my list so far, keeping in mind I haven't done either of the dungeons yet.

More quests make the leveling process faster and less boring for me, as someone who mostly levels solo. I used to tolerate grind parties in FFXI, but that time of my life has passed. I will no longer play a game that forces me to spend hours killing the same enemies, without context, in a party that took so long to put together you feel like you can't leave without spending 3+ hours there.

Quests are still kind of a nightmare to actually find. The popups on the minimaps help, but as NPCs are sprawled all over the city it's quite easy to miss a few and waste a lot of time (and anima) going back and forth. In the future, I think it'd be nice for them to centralize the actual client list for these quests, so you can make sure you don't miss any quests. I do not mean getting all quests from a single NPC like leves, but rather have something like the task board for normal quests so you can see where there are new quest givers, then you can walk to them and get the quests normally. This seems like the best practical solution for having most quests based in the sprawling, open capital cities.

Leves seem to give better, more appropriate rewards now. I personally like how the leves give a skill bonus for quest completion rather than just boosting individual kills, but your mileage may vary. It makes more sense from a balance perspective, though.

Leves also seem to give less overall SP. They may give more in groups, but as I mentioned before I like to restrict groups to doing real content rather than getting levels, as leveling groups drag on forever and I don't have a ton of time to spend on this game grinding.

The Grand Companies sell some gear, give some kind of context to the quests, and look to have lots of room for progression with future patches.

Honestly so far I really like them, the only problem I have is that they try to trick you into buying a potion, so after you complete the first couple of quests you're 5 seals short of a body armor. Bummer!

Auto-attack has made the game a bit more thoughtful, with less mindless button spamming and more tactical usage of skills. I also feel like I can use my controller for actual fights now.

Archers don't get an auto-shot. Also, it seems a little awkward right now to engage and switch between targets, but that can be worked on.

I'm actually enjoying playing the game rather than thinking of it as an obligation for the first time in 9 months. I often couldn't get myself to play for long stretches simply because I was so tired of the repetition, and the crafting got real old real fast unlike some other MMOs I could name. This is the first patch that has actually made the game considerably more enjoyable for me, and it's shown me that the foundation is finally getting in place for more rapid content delivery in the future.

Healing seems to have gotten a serious nerf, and I know from a similar change in WoW that when that happens, people will always blame the tank or healer first. In future patches I'd like to see responsibility spread more to the DD/DPS/whatever you want to call them, so more people would be willing to tank and heal without getting abuse every time a fight doesn't go perfectly. Healers are also quite hard to come by, especially good ones, so I hope both the devs and players go easy on them ^^;.

Unfortunately I can't comment on the dungeons yet as I haven't played them, but I have heard in other threads that there's already some strong class favoritism in the new dungeons towards ranged classes, and any bias like that is a bad thing. In any case, please, feel free to add your own comments.

This was a fun read =) and I agree with a lot of the points you brought up, both good and bad. Despite telling myself this many times before, it really does feel that this patch is the foundation for them truly turning things around in the upcoming months.

Originally Posted by miqokini

That's quite the sammich. I also have yet to try the dungeons, but I'm hearing good things from people on my server. ^^

I agree with most of what you said, especially the fact that people need to stop acting like this has ruined everything and instead realize what they hate now will probably get fixed soon.

I have a tendency to write essays instead of proper forum posts. I think the length of this one is justified in this case, right? In any case, I'm glad someone agrees with me on some of these points ^^.

And yes, like you said, any big imbalances will likely be fixed in the next patch--they are overhauling the combat system after all, they're not going to get it perfect on the first try. Balancing is an art, not a science, after all...well, an art with lots of numbers involved but still.

Originally Posted by miqokini

That's quite the sammich. I also have yet to try the dungeons, but I'm hearing good things from people on my server. ^^

I agree with most of what you said, especially the fact that people need to stop acting like this has ruined everything and instead realize what they hate now will probably get fixed soon.

I'm sorry if this is off topic but your signature looks like you are carrying a metal d*ldo...
Looking good otherwise.