I LOVE the new direction.

[MeowyWowie]

keep in mind, without complaining, this patch would have never happened.

It's different when it's the vast majority complaining, as opposed to just a few people that are very vocal about whatever bothers them.

[Raze]

look at the character of these people who love the patch

they're melee

And look at the people who complain.

They've got like 1,000 posts and nothing worthwhile to say.

[Rhomagus]

While I was initially upset with the changes, I didn't really play enough to really get a feel for it. Auto-attack takes a little getting used to after not using it for so long but thankfully, which I didn't think would happen, it did fix one of my biggest pet peeves about Battle Regimens.

You still auto attack while in Battle Regimen mode. I'm happy that's been fixed.

Also, at first I though the pace was going to be ridiculously slow, and it was, if you're solo. If you're in a light party though, which I just got out of one, it's just as fast as it was before. At first I was duoing Truffle Hogs and Evil Eyes with another Lancer in Mor Dhona. We each put Speed Surge and Life Surge on respectively. Was getting about 100 hp back per swing. Combined that with the Foresight + Fracture, Leg Sweep, Moonrise II, and Twisting Vice, the mobs would never get a TP move in, and if they did I'd just use Diversion and make them miss.

Then two other people showed up. A THM and a PUG and we just absolutely decimated everything within our level. Ended up getting all the Aetherial Nodes and Camps in Mor Dhona and just had a roaming party.

That was another thing I was worried about. I thought with auto attack and the high MP costs that we'd have to resort to a Camp style party ala FFXI, but that was not the case. With me tanking on Lancer, Life Surge II, Speed Surge II from my fellow Lancer, Foresight and Diversion for Defense, and Second Wind we never had to stop. We were killing things so fast the THM rarely needed to heal us and she was really on top of her MP management make liberal use of Siphon MP and her 10 minute MP refresh ability.

All in all I'm beginning to like the changes. The nerf in SP takes a little getting used to but it'll be nice after today not having to deal with fatigue tomorrow. It's my weekend so I can put as much time in as I want without having to worry about fatigue.

I think once people begin to realize that...
1.) The best SP/hr has shifted form leves to grinding.
2.) Melee's need to think more defensively
3.) Mages actually have to use Siphon MP and their 10 minute MP regen ability

... they may welcome the changes.

So far I've noticed that I'm just as busy as I was pre 1.18 despite not having to spam a basic attack. It's also a bit easier to pull off those context sensitive weapon skills like Fracture and Featherfoot. I'm actually taking advantage of the abilities available to me while before I would mainly just spam the basic attack, Battle Regimen for Defense Down, then Battle Regimen in a weapon skill trio for massive damage. That was pretty much it across all damage dealing classes.

Unfortunately I can't give a first hand opinion about the Conjurer change as I haven't played on my Conjurer yet, but the THM in my party was doing just fine. Never had to stop at all really, I don't see why a Conjurer couldn't as well.

One things for sure, this patch completely tipped what the game used to be upside down. You have to play very differently than you did before but I can honestly say, despite being pretty upset about the changes initially, I actually had quite a bit of fun today, which is saying something. We're far from this game asking for a fee though, but I'd say with some more content (especially missions), some no nonsense uncontroversial fixes, (like better linkshell administration options and chocobos and airships), and a couple redesigns of some key areas (Black Shroud) the future of this game, at least from a fan perspective, is looking better.

Unfortunately I don't know if these changes will really pull in new players. The solo experience seems to have been dampened significantly and that might be a turn off for some. That's actually the first thing I noticed. Despite having access to the armoury I felt almost helpless solo, but as soon as I got just one other person involved things started to change drastically, and a Light party seemed very decent enough to get a good SP session going.

[Ruri]

I played Solo, Duo, Party; Behest, Leves, Grinds. NM's, the Rank 25 and 45 Dungeon.
I did a lot of Quests, Grand Companies. Everything with 4 different classes and i simply love it.
The battles are so much fun now. The additions to the world are all lovely done. The camps, the new dungeon, the new music.
Simply everything was a huge step in the right direction.

I never had so much fun playing this game.

Although there are many things to be worked on, its finally turning into quite a good game. Give it a few more patches and I'll be glad to pay monthly for it.

[Tremain]

look at the character of these people who love the patch

they're melee

Nope, I'm a mage and crafter.

[Rubicon]

keep in mind, without complaining, this patch would have never happened.

Agreed but give credit where credit is due, the dev team did a good job and this is the beginning of balancing. Mages will get balanced too, so the CONs and THMs should stop whining so much. It's all part of the balancing act for better things to come.

[Verecund]

Unfortunately I can't share this enthusiasm regarding combat... I was expecting for more to be added in addition to just auto-attack. Combat is very static, and I feel like I spend more time waiting than I do actually making decisions and playing.

[Deceptistar]

when im playing my archer its pretty fun. The patch doesnt affect me as much, if at all, i guess i just go with the flow on melee.
Being on my THM is another story tho. Theres a whole lotta frustation when your forced to increase mage count just to save mp usage and what not. lotta forehand thinking just to conserve that single drop of mp....

[Payadopa]

keep in mind, without complaining, this patch would have never happened.

While this is true, there's a difference between constructive criticism and so called trolling.

[danny52844]

Agreed.

Hopefully SE can see through the crap on the forums lately and recognize that the complainers only seem to be the majority because they're the most vocal. In fact, the opposite is true. The majority is having fun in game, not crying on the forums. I have yet to meet someone in game that doesn't like the patch.

rule of thumb for every 1 compliant thiers 8 who dont say anything