The Battle Regimen LOVE thread

[Rydin]

I love battle regimen...

Why are they so great?
1. Because you can do insane amounts of damage compared to not doing them.
2. A BR's success hinges on party planning, communication and execution. They are very tactical in nature

How do they increase damage?
When stacking weaponskills of different classes, each successful WS adds a bonus damage modifier to the next WS. Ending with tier 2 magic gives you a serious burst of magicaliciousness!!!!! As if that weren't enough... 2 regular melee attacks stacked together lowers a MOB's physical def and 2 normal magic attacks lower the MOBs M.Def.... which further increases the damage the entire party does

Isn't that similar to a skill chain from FFXI?
It is, the big difference being skill chains were more open so you had to time your moves, but there was a greater chance someone would do something unwanted in the middle of the SC. With BR, I can do a regimen with 2 other people in the party and the rest can continue doing their own thing without affecting the BR. (Obviously that is not ideal, however, seeing how BR is most effective if everyone is taking part)

OK, so BR is less open than SC, how?
Because BR's are queued in a section until someone activates the BR. People who have an ability Queued are said to be in a battle regimen.

Sounds easy, but is it really?
Yes...
Keyboard: Hold shift+# (where #= the number of the ability you want to use in BR)
Gamepad: Move to the ability on the action bar and press the emote page button on the gamepad
Mouse: Click the pink symbol on the far left of the action bar, then click the ability you want to use
Macro: example of BR macro here http://lodestone.finalfantasyxiv.com.../battle02.html

How do you start the BR once people are queued up?
"G" on keyboard, menu button on gamepad, click the icon again or use a macro from the aforementioned BR MACRO help page on the lodestone

If no one starts it, will it start automatically or is everyone in LIMBO?
Great question... and technically both of those things will happen. When in BR, you can't do anything else, which happens to be the biggest criticism against BR. There is a timer, however, under the Queued up abilities, in the form of a bar. When the bar reaches zero, the BR will execute.

So are BR's just perfect?
Not even close.
There are, in fact, 3 things that can be done to make BR the crowning achievement of FFXIV's battle system. In fact, in future games down the line, people would be asking why there is nothing like BR's included in the game?

Before I get into that, these are ideas from, not just my own mind, but my LS and also many threads on here. These ideas truly come from the community.

[SIZE="5"]BR Fixes[/SIZE]
1. The biggest issue is that you get "Locked in" to a BR and you are in limbo.
Many people think the Stamina should be put aside for when the BR is initiated, but that isn't really feasible and if you think about it, that's babies.
Talk about hand holding... BR shouldn't be easy... because the reward is pretty nice...
People talk about "Don't make the game too easy" but wouldn't that do just that?

I suggest a much lower timer on BR. thats right, you have 2 seconds after each WS or ability is put in to put the next one or the BR executes, instead of the super long timer that is on now... Or even put a timer on the whole thing. So the BR executes exactly 5 seconds after the first command is locked into it.

This adds a level of tension to the game, a level of difficulty.... Get your BRs in before its too late. Now people have to plan, and players aren't stuck in limbo forever. Players in turn, learn how to communicate better

2. Regimen status effects are non-existent
This one has been discussed before and I've always felt this way. Make the choice of weaponskills matter more. If you use 3 x 3000tp weaponskills, then a big huge thing happens
You can borrow from Skill chains and chrono trigger here.
Regimen of Anarchy: Riot Blade + Chaos Thrust = a brand new weaponskill that does insane damage.
Regimen of Torture: Fire II + Water II sets the MOB on fire and then puts it out with a fierce shot of H2O
Even throw buffs in there. Regimen of Mighty Guard: Protect II + Shell II = 5% more damage reduction from each
How about this, Regimen of Wildfire: "Burn II + Fire II + WS" then the weaponskills has a fire damage bonus added to its regular damage
The combinations can be (And should be) almost limitless...

3. Other than a pinkish circle, BR's don't look any different
This actually ties in to point 2. Take "Burn II + Fire II + WS" and make the flame animation last longer, and make the weaponskill have some flame animation also.
There should be new unique FX and animations for each successful combination

and there you have it... that's your battle overhaul right there
Auto-attack plus Battle regimen 2.0
Tie that in with the new battle animations and FX they have planed and you have a winner. You'd spend hundreds of hours battling just to learn and then see all of the different regimen...

In this post I've listed
Regimen of Anarchy: Riot Blade + Chaos Thrust
Regimen of Torture: Fire II + Water II
Regimen of Mighty Guard: Protect II + Shell II
Regimen of Wildfire: Burn II + Fire II + WS

Let me hear yours.. Help SE and create and name a battle regimen combo