I LOVE the new direction.

[Misha]

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.

It was MEEE, I was the turkey all along :P ... oops I mean THM Hehe

Anyways ... Agreed, main thing is still need tweaks and more content, but as Yoshi said... things will be alot faster now with 1.18 out, foundation is set :P Funny thing about mp management too, once 1.19 is out we get to cast cure in passive mode Which could possibly mean a in battle refresh tick while we heal^^ Hopefully that'll tone down all the negativity alone about mage nerfs :P