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[omlet]

Yep, same exact thing with our group which runs with a Monk. How is a SCH with 4M groups? Since I'm always WHM, I don't ever see it. I know they're amazing to run shotgun healer in an 8M.

Pretty awesome. One pretty significant awesome thing is they can park their fairy right by the dragon and if they have to run from pinkline the tank still gets heals (dragon hits like a truck so that's important). Run I did the other night I tanked for some people in FC and we wiped on dragon because WHM got pinkline 3x in a row and I was out of cooldowns (including invincible) by the 3rd one. With a SCH that wipe probably wouldn't have happened. And maybe the WHM just wasn't paying attention but that entire run I was hovering at half HP on my PLD on like every pull and even died on some trash pulls (that we normally faceroll in my other group) because I got no heals. Never have that problem with the SCH.

Only downside we've noticed on SCH (and SMN) is that sometimes pets will take off across the map to attack or heal things when you don't want them to, potentially attracting more enemies.

Uhm didn't check the stats but a Vanya (even HQ) should be worse than AF+1.

It definitely is lol... AF+1 is i90, it's like a full 10 stat points ahead of DL/HQi70 on primary stats. One does not "skip" AF2/AF+1 (however you want to call it) for HQ i70 crafted.

 

[Arksy]

Is soloing as a tank now mind numbingly boring now that there's no real cross-job skills like there used to be?

 

[Tarazet]

Yep, same exact thing with our group which runs with a Monk. How is a SCH with 4M groups? Since I'm always WHM, I don't ever see it. I know they're amazing to run shotgun healer in an 8M.

SCH is almost mandatory for 4 man groups, because the fairy increases everyone's DPS by a large amount. I ran with the same group on AK twice in a row last night, and only swapped the healer because our WHM needed to do it. On the last boss, with the SCH we were able to down the boss before the 4th gargoyle. With the WHM we had to kill the last gargoyle and still had a ways to go at that point.

 

[Victrix]

Is soloing as a tank now mind numbingly boring now that there's no real cross-job skills like there used to be?

Warrior was fine (level as Marauder solo anyway with plenty of slots for dps cooldowns)

No idea about Paladin though, haven't leveled one to cap yet

 

[xelios]

Been having connection issues for the first time today. Lag in input and now disconnected from the server but still in the server.

 

[ROBOKITTYZILLA]

Speaking of video cards, I managed to fix my NVIDIA GTX 670 issue with black screens, driver crashes, and system lock ups. I underclocked the GPU -40MHz from 1067MHz to 1027MHz using NVIDIA Inspector. The NVIDIA Inspector client does not need to be running and with the latest version you can setup a scheduled task from within the client to automatically apply the settings at system startup.

I'm leaning towards the problem being some type of voltage issue. It's possible that I could leave the clocks alone and just increase the voltage to compensate, but I'd rather not introduce more heat into the system. It's a minor tweak with negligible losses. I can still run at a consistent 60 FPS, so I'm happy.

I hope this helps someone else. I'm glad to finally put this issue to rest.

 

[Mature]

Pretty awesome. One pretty significant awesome thing is they can park their fairy right by the dragon and if they have to run from pinkline the tank still gets heals (dragon hits like a truck so that's important). Run I did the other night I tanked for some people in FC and we wiped on dragon because WHM got pinkline 3x in a row and I was out of cooldowns (including invincible) by the 3rd one. With a SCH that wipe probably wouldn't have happened. And maybe the WHM just wasn't paying attention but that entire run I was hovering at half HP on my PLD on like every pull and even died on some trash pulls (that we normally faceroll in my other group) because I got no heals. Never have that problem with the SCH.

Only downside we've noticed on SCH (and SMN) is that sometimes pets will take off across the map to attack or heal things when you don't want them to, potentially attracting more enemies.

Ah, yeah, I've done some 8M stuff where the SCH will park the fairy next to me, so that I don't have to worry about residual damage from instant AOEs or other unavoidable attacks that hurt me, and can focus on healing the tank. I really love that job, haha. I'll probably level one just in-case I plan on doing some 8M thing and there's another WHM. I'd like to maintain that dichotomy whenever possible.

SCH is almost mandatory for 4 man groups, because the fairy increases everyone's DPS by a large amount. I ran with the same group on AK twice in a row last night, and only swapped the healer because our WHM needed to do it. On the last boss, with the SCH we were able to down the boss before the 4th gargoyle. With the WHM we had to kill the last gargoyle and still had a ways to go at that point.

Oh, whoa. I guess for this too.

 

[squall211]

When do you need to start worrying about what gear you use? Can you just rely upon sidequest/story quest/class quest gear until you hit 50? Or do you need to pay more attention to your gear before that?

 

[Ferr986]

Damn, people dont even want to try HM Ifrit if theres no BLM or SMN.

 

[Victrix]

When do you need to start worrying about what gear you use? Can you just rely upon sidequest/story quest/class quest gear until you hit 50? Or do you need to pay more attention to your gear before that?

You can level to 50 and do something like 95% of the content purely on quest gear. You don't need any gear from any dungeons to finish the story.

Post story you can do all the unlocked dungeons immediately. HM Ifrit is largely an execution check, HM Garuda similar, though you may need some additional durability to survive aoe (more still if you're tanking it).

HM Titan is the first place where there's a serious hard gear check, and Coil beyond it obviously.

Ironically Materia is sort of pointless right now too, because the high end farmed gear has no slots on it, and using M4s on it would be prohibitively expensive.

Anyway, long story short: Relax, level up, enjoy the sights.

 

[Relaxed Muscle]

Is soloing as a tank now mind numbingly boring now that there's no real cross-job skills like there used to be?

Is not very fun in the case of GLD/PLD, I can tell you that.

One of the reasons I'd rather did dungeons than FATES when leveling PLD.

From what I leveled of MRD is a bit more fun.

 

[Shouta]

No, that IS factored in. A given critical hit % affects your overall damage by some % amount depending on the damage of critical hits. If you deal +100% damage criticals, 1% crit is worth 1% more overall damage (not taking into account special abilities that trigger off crits).

I believe the base crit damage in XIV is 150%, so it winds up being .05% more damage per % point of critical hit chance (which is not the same as a point of +critical hit rate, each point obviously doesn't give you +1% crit).

In cases where critical hit damage is scaled by another stat, that simply affects the scaling of +critical hit rate in turn.

Anyway I'm just retreading what he already mathed out there. The short version is easy to remember. If you want to dig into the innards even more, go here:

http://valk.dancing-mad.com/?page_id=179/#DamageMechanics

Interesting. I'll have to take a closer look at it later.

If it is the case primary stat > all. S-E gonna have to do some adjusting, if you ask me. Way too boring when you there's only one way to get equivalent damage.

 

[Relaxed Muscle]

Damn, people dont even want to try HM Ifrit if theres no BLM or SMN.

Yep, the worst is you can do it perfectly without either of those 2 jobs. But ppl just want the easy way.

 

[SleazyC]

Uhm didn't check the stats but a Vanya (even HQ) should be worse than AF+1.

I have no idea how getting the mats would translate to on a non-legacy. For instance, I just bought HQ Rose Gold Nuggets for about 5k. The Potash is obviously the worst part, but outside of that it was fine.


It is. Even if you were to triple/quad meld PIE or something it still wouldn't be worth it. Not to mention the gains in DEF and MDEF.

It definitely is lol... AF+1 is i90, it's like a full 10 stat points ahead of DL/HQi70 on primary stats. One does not "skip" AF2/AF+1 (however you want to call it) for HQ i70 crafted.

Considering ilvl90 gear drops in Coil I'd say a valid path to being geared to run Coil without having to grind myth tomes is crafted gear. Especially if you value certain secondary stats over the ones on AF+1 (don't want spell speed, do want more piety and crit).

Once you get into Coil you can replace crafted ilvl70 with Allaghan pieces. It seems to be the way a lot of non-legacy hardcore raiding FC's are going. Likely won't be viable on new servers though.

 

[Victrix]

Interesting. I'll have to take a closer look at it later.

If it is the case primary stat > all. S-E gonna have to do some adjusting, if you ask me. Way too boring when you there's only one way to get equivalent damage.

Kinda, the basics are simple, but there will be some specific cases involved - if you have an ability that operates off crit, crit will have slightly higher weighting for you, there may be instances where skill or spell speed actually have meaningful break points that affect overall healing throughput or dps or threat generation (which is actually a thing in this game).

In general, yes, right now higher ilvl=better gear, but that's mostly because the overall spectrum of equipment we're looking at is pretty small - there's not a ton of level 50 content/raids/dungeons etc, so it makes sense there are relatively few decisions to be made.

Beyond that, speaking for my personal preference, I have no real problems with 'new better piece is better for the majority of players' for two major reasons:

1) Gear as a trap for new players is awful. People whine about SE 'giving away AF' (ignoring that its inferior to intro level 50 armor, and then only BETTER if you work for it again), but I'm happy that every single class in the game gets a class appropriate set of gear with the right stats on it.

Even with the easy quest/storyline giveaways, new players at 50 will often still have woefully outdated jewelry. I've seen people in HM primals wearing level 20-30 white stuff (one of the reasons they're adding ilvl checks to fights like that).

2) Gear is mathematically solvable. askmrrobot.com for WoW removes any interesting gear decisions anyway. Could you maybe, possibly optimize your gear slightly better than that website does for you? Maybe, by some tiny % amount. Otherwise it's literally plug in character and spec, pull up list of gear to equip to do maximal healing/dps/mitigation.

The equipping process isn't particularly interesting in mmos for a variety of reasons unfortunately.

 

[dramatis]

It's discouraging to learn that the highest level gear that can be crafted requires you do the highest level combat, and even if you craft the bloody things they're inferior to the gear obtained from combat-oriented means.

There's really no reason to be high level crafter other than materia melding. As for being a high level gatherer? No idea.

 

[rocketskates]

anyone else stoked on the ending scene after the credits???

 

[Shouta]

Kinda, the basics are simple, but there will be some specific cases involved - if you have an ability that operates off crit, crit will have slightly higher weighting for you, there may be instances where skill or spell speed actually have meaningful break points that affect overall healing throughput or dps or threat generation (which is actually a thing in this game).

In general, yes, right now higher ilvl=better gear, but that's mostly because the overall spectrum of equipment we're looking at is pretty small - there's not a ton of level 50 content/raids/dungeons etc, so it makes sense there are relatively few decisions to be made.

Beyond that, speaking for my personal preference, I have no real problems with 'new better piece is better for the majority of players' for two major reasons:

1) Gear as a trap for new players is awful. People whine about SE 'giving away AF' (ignoring that its inferior to intro level 50 armor, and then only BETTER if you work for it again), but I'm happy that every single class in the game gets a class appropriate set of gear with the right stats on it.

Even with the easy quest/storyline giveaways, new players at 50 will often still have woefully outdated jewelry. I've seen people in HM primals wearing level 20-30 white stuff (one of the reasons they're adding ilvl checks to fights like that).

2) Gear is mathematically solvable. askmrrobot.com for WoW removes any interesting gear decisions anyway. Could you maybe, possibly optimize your gear slightly better than that website does for you? Maybe, by some tiny % amount. Otherwise it's literally plug in character and spec, pull up list of gear to equip to do maximal healing/dps/mitigation.

The equipping process isn't particularly interesting in mmos for a variety of reasons unfortunately.

Well, i generally prefer the ability to choose how I get damage up to par. Crit chance was typically one method of that and the other being haste, instead of pumping a specific stat the full way. It's that kind of ability that makes me happy in an MMO. XI did it ok enough (though with problems still).

I hope that as this game gets older, that this trend doesn't hold though. boiling it down so much makes the game more boring to me. The general goal should be X overall damage, how you gear for it should be up to you, IMO. lol

 

[StMeph]

1) Gear as a trap for new players is awful. People whine about SE 'giving away AF' (ignoring that its inferior to intro level 50 armor, and then only BETTER if you work for it again), but I'm happy that every single class in the game gets a class appropriate set of gear with the right stats on it.

Even with the easy quest/storyline giveaways, new players at 50 will often still have woefully outdated jewelry. I've seen people in HM primals wearing level 20-30 white stuff (one of the reasons they're adding ilvl checks to fights like that).

Not sure how this is a trap. Trap suggests being able to gear incorrectly; right now, it's pretty difficult to gear incorrectly. People not upgrading and keeping up with the level of content is not a trap.

2) Gear is mathematically solvable. askmrrobot.com for WoW removes any interesting gear decisions anyway. Could you maybe, possibly optimize your gear slightly better than that website does for you? Maybe, by some tiny % amount. Otherwise it's literally plug in character and spec, pull up list of gear to equip to do maximal healing/dps/mitigation.

The equipping process isn't particularly interesting in mmos for a variety of reasons unfortunately.

FFXI was somewhat different in that regard.

It wasn't that there weren't optimal items for every slot, but that there could be several items to hunt for in each slot, even for a max-level character, as gear-swapping macros meant that some items' unique abilities continued being useful at higher levels even if the item's other stats were no longer (or were never) good. So it was still solved, but there was much more stuff to hunt. The chase was broadened and extended, if you wanted to be perfectly min/maxed.

 

[DrROBschiz]

It's discouraging to learn that the highest level gear that can be crafted requires you do the highest level combat, and even if you craft the bloody things they're inferior to the gear obtained from combat-oriented means.

There's really no reason to be high level crafter other than materia melding. As for being a high level gatherer? No idea.

This is extremely disappointing considering how much I am enjoying crafting/gathering

I hope this changes in future expansions/updates

 

[Victrix]

Well, i generally prefer the ability to choose how I get damage up to par. Crit chance was typically one method of that and the other being haste, instead of pumping a specific stat the full way. It's that kind of ability that makes me happy in an MMO. XI did it ok enough (though with problems still).

I hope that as this game gets older, that this trend doesn't hold though. boiling it down so much makes the game more boring to me. The general goal should be X overall damage, how you gear for it should be up to you, IMO. lol

Yeah, I wouldn't be too surprised if they added enough options later on that you can at least choose whichever method appeals to you more, even if you still end up at the same general place dps wise.

In WoW I was often too lazy to regem/enchant/retransmute all my gear when I switched between two dps specs, but the difference was pretty minimal even though the 'optimal' setup favored crit on one and haste on the other.

At the end of the day if the bad thing is dead on the ground, how you got there is irrelevant.

Incidently this is also why gear in mmos in general doesn't excite me. This is NOT a single player rpg where you get some god weapon and suddenly you're hilariously over powered compared to everything you encounter - the designers have set every dps to be at a certain point, and you can hit that point with excellent play, but you're not going to find some super secret piece of Diablo 3 rng loot that propels you ahead of every other class X in the game.

Social and design issues both prevent that from happening, and at the end of the day, gear solely exists as a time locked barrier to progressing on certain content depending on your skill level - the better the players in your group, the less total ilvl you need to conquer a given boss/raid/etc.

And yes, I realize boiling it down to that level takes some of the magic away Them's the breaks. I still enjoy cool looking gear as much as anyone, so if anything, I ironically care more about silly cosmetic stuff than I do about mathematically superior equipment that gives me +1% dps, despite being fairly hardcore in terms of my level of system geekery.

Bring on cosmetic armor!

 

[Tarazet]

Well, i generally prefer the ability to choose how I get damage up to par. Crit chance was typically one method of that and the other being haste, instead of pumping a specific stat the full way. It's that kind of ability that makes me happy in an MMO. XI did it ok enough (though with problems still).

I hope that as this game gets older, that this trend doesn't hold though. boiling it down so much makes the game more boring to me. The general goal should be X overall damage, how you gear for it should be up to you, IMO. lol

I like that XIV makes it simple. Weapon damage is first and foremost, then your main stat. If you run into stat caps when trying to meld main-stat materia onto your gear, then make sure you have enough Accuracy. After that the secondaries seem to be fairly close to one another for most classes.

 

[Mature]

This is extremely disappointing considering how much I am enjoying crafting/gathering

I hope this changes in future expansions/updates

I can't imagine it remaining the same.

 

[omlet]

It's discouraging to learn that the highest level gear that can be crafted requires you do the highest level combat, and even if you craft the bloody things they're inferior to the gear obtained from combat-oriented means.

There's really no reason to be high level crafter other than materia melding. As for being a high level gatherer? No idea.

Except that this is completely wrong. i70 crafted gear requires you to do content that you can easily farm in AF gear, which is i50-55. i70 crafted gear that is HQ is superior to darklight and NQ is, for most jobs, on par after some cheap melds (not so much for tanks due to the difference in Defense stat on NQ).

Lot of people seem to miss or ignore the fact that Coil is not in the game right now as an everyman's endgame. By the time it is (after Crystal Tower is released), I'm sure higher level crafted recipes will be out. That is to say, claiming that i70 isn't worth it because i90 exists is like saying someone's an idiot for renting an apartment when houses exists. One step at a time, yo. Now, that said, i70 crafted accessories are a tough sale when DL cost so little (so are things like vanya pants, darksteel gloves, etc. that cost not 9x1125 but 18x or even 27x), but HQ crafted i70 is across the board better in stats than darklight when you consider materia. That's not even up for debate. What is up for debate is which, if any, are better enough for you, personally, to bother with, and even a crafting enthusiast like me answers "no, not right now" for some gear slots.

 

[Victrix]

Not sure how this is a trap. Trap suggests being able to gear incorrectly; right now, it's pretty difficult to gear incorrectly. People not upgrading and keeping up with the level of content is not a trap.

You're misinterpreting, it's not a trap, I'm saying I like it this way, MMOs that don't 'freely' hand out appropriate equipment end up with hilariously poorly geared players at cap.

This game does hand out equipment freely and you still get people who don't keep their gear up to date.

Can you imagine how bad it would be if the quests didn't give statistically appropriate equipment and there were 5+ viable options in each slot at any given level range on the marketplace?

Anyone remember tanks in leather or cloth around WoW launch? Or all the wildly inappropriately statted equipment so sometimes the best dps piece for a mail wearer might actually be leather?

I'm totally ok with some complexity (and attendant personal customization) being removed if the benefit is a smoother experience for everyone who plays the game overall.

Hell, WoW even tacitly admitted that the complexity of their gear was an issue over time, gradually trimming back the number of stats to consider, and improving the overall quality of equipment given out 'automatically' as you level, plus the class/role appropriate loot dropped specifically for you in LFR.

 

[DrROBschiz]

You're misinterpreting, it's not a trap, I'm saying I like it this way, MMOs that don't 'freely' hand out appropriate equipment end up with hilariously poorly geared players at cap.

This game does hand out equipment freely and you still get people who don't keep their gear up to date.

Can you imagine how bad it would be if the quests didn't give statistically appropriate equipment and there were 5+ viable options in each slot at any given level range on the marketplace?

Anyone remember tanks in leather or cloth around WoW launch? Or all the wildly inappropriately statted equipment so sometimes the best dps piece for a mail wearer might actually be leather?

I'm totally ok with some complexity (and attendant personal customization) being removed if the benefit is a smoother experience for everyone who plays the game overall.

Hell, WoW even tacitly admitted that the complexity of their gear was an issue over time, gradually trimming back the number of stats to consider, and improving the overall quality of equipment given out 'automatically' as you level, plus the class/role appropriate loot dropped specifically for you in LFR.

I wish customization was king

If only an MMO could do something akin to what dark souls did with gear. Where your options are only limited by your skill and cunning.

Is that even possible. I always get shut down with the "this is not a single player game" argument and it HAS to have these boring setups and systems in place.

 

[-tetsuo-]

Ughh haven't had a chance to play in like a week

 

[omlet]

Anyone remember tanks in leather or cloth around WoW launch? Or all the wildly inappropriately statted equipment so sometimes the best dps piece for a mail wearer might actually be leather?

Oh, man, do I ever.... haha...

 

[Victrix]

I wish customization was king

If only an MMO could do something akin to what dark souls did with gear. Where your options are only limited by your skill and cunning.

Is that even possible. I always get shut down with the "this is not a single player game" argument and it HAS to have these boring setups and systems in place.

We're starting to go way off topic for the thread, but I'll bite

Yes, they could. But we'd have to move away from tab-target global cooldown combat and more towards Tera or GW2 action-style combat, where stuff like attack range, animation times, combos, movement, and so on can become a part of the overall picture

WoW and FFXIV and many other mmos have 'solvable' classes and gear because the influence they have on overall damage is handled entirely in a behind the scenes, mathy sort of way.

In a game that has more action elements, and you're comparing two swords that have similar dps, but one is fast and agile, and the other is heavy and sluggish, suddenly you have a real choice to make. One might suit a particular fight, or one might suit your personal preference, but despite having similar stats, they'd have different uses and feels.

In a game where a sword is a collection of numbers that affects the damage you do when you push a button, not so much.

It's absolutely possible, but it's also a very different sort of game.

 

[StMeph]

You're misinterpreting, it's not a trap, I'm saying I like it this way, MMOs that don't 'freely' hand out appropriate equipment end up with hilariously poorly geared players at cap.

This game does hand out equipment freely and you still get people who don't keep their gear up to date.

Can you imagine how bad it would be if the quests didn't give statistically appropriate equipment and there were 5+ viable options in each slot at any given level range on the marketplace?

Anyone remember tanks in leather or cloth around WoW launch? Or all the wildly inappropriately statted equipment so sometimes the best dps piece for a mail wearer might actually be leather?

I'm totally ok with some complexity (and attendant personal customization) being removed if the benefit is a smoother experience for everyone who plays the game overall.

Hell, WoW even tacitly admitted that the complexity of their gear was an issue over time, gradually trimming back the number of stats to consider, and improving the overall quality of equipment given out 'automatically' as you level, plus the class/role appropriate loot dropped specifically for you in LFR.

Apologies, as I did misunderstand, then.

I agree with what you're saying, but only grudgingly. I had originally written out a much longer response, but I think I will bite my tongue. Nothing against you, as I do agree with the sentiment, but the rationale behind developers doing so burns me to no end.

Still, XIV doesn't save everyone, at least not until 50. Because FATEs are so efficient, people can skip huge chunks of levels without any new gear, and AF saves them from being doomed to wear level 20 items at max level.

 

[T.O.P]

Log in, spend 2 hours trying to find a pty for AK farming, go Castrum out of desperation for tombstones, log off, repeat


Jesus

 

[DarknessTear]

All I do these days is beg for Titan HM, no luck, jump around in Mor Dhona boredly and then go offline. Sometimes I do AK runs but the monotony is grating on my nerves.

 

[DrROBschiz]

We're starting to go way off topic for the thread, but I'll bite

Yes, they could. But we'd have to move away from tab-target global cooldown combat and more towards Tera or GW2 action-style combat, where stuff like attack range, animation times, combos, movement, and so on can become a part of the overall picture

WoW and FFXIV and many other mmos have 'solvable' classes and gear because the influence they have on overall damage is handled entirely in a behind the scenes, mathy sort of way.

In a game that has more action elements, and you're comparing two swords that have similar dps, but one is fast and agile, and the other is heavy and sluggish, suddenly you have a real choice to make. One might suit a particular fight, or one might suit your personal preference, but despite having similar stats, they'd have different uses and feels.

In a game where a sword is a collection of numbers that affects the damage you do when you push a button, not so much.

It's absolutely possible, but it's also a very different sort of game.

Fuck you are a brilliant poster

I am glad that you instantly understood where i was going with that

I'm going to have to think hard on this one but I feel like it could be done in a compelling way. That said it almost seems like the low level stuff in FFXIV is far more interesting.

At 25 I am able to craft high lvl gear, mix up and combo a bunch of skills and have some crazy battles and punch above my weight with superior strategy

Brings me back to the great feelings I got from FFT where my wit and strategy took precedence over following Tiered systems and gear guidelines laid out by other players....

I miss experimentation and discovery. Its half the fun of RPG with this level of options at your disposal. I guess the downside is that its always solvable/breakable and in a social game of this nature people will always gravitate to breaking the game instead of digging deeper into all the possible options and gameplay styles

 

[daveo42]

Log in, spend 2 hours trying to find a pty for AK farming, go Castrum out of desperation for tombstones, log off, repeat


Jesus

All I do these days is beg for Titan HM, no luck, jump around in Mor Dhona boredly and then go offline. Sometimes I do AK runs but the monotony is grating on my nerves.

Sounds like it's either time to move on to another class/job or start up crafting or gathering profession.

I've found experiencing dungeons as a different class/job has been refreshing thus far. Even though I have two caster jobs unlocked (WHM and BLM), I love the difference they have and their place in the group.

 

[Zerokku]

So unlike WoW where I can put my pet on autopilot for just about any class that has them, I obviously can't do that here. What should I be doing to control my pet as a SMN?

 

[Victrix]

Apologies, as I did misunderstand, then.

I agree with what you're saying, but only grudgingly. I had originally written out a much longer response, but I think I will bite my tongue. Nothing against you, as I do agree with the sentiment, but the rationale behind developers doing so burns me to no end.

Still, XIV doesn't save everyone, at least not until 50. Because FATEs are so efficient, people can skip huge chunks of levels without any new gear, and AF saves them from being doomed to wear level 20 items at max level.

For what it's worth I also find the thought of a difficult, complex, challenging mmo with interesting and unique decisions to be made at every step of character development and gearing to be very appealing (where yes, you can fuck your character over if you're not paying attention to what you're doing).

But I don't think that a mainstream big budget mmo is going to be the place that we'll see that sort of design ethos.

It's simply not as marketable, and not as appealing to as many people.

Another thing too - I actually think you could create a relatively complex game if it was explained carefully, but I'm not even sure if that's true - look at XIV. This game has Guildhests and dungeons that train you in everything you need to know about party combat. It has EXCELLENT tutorial tips that explain all kinds of useful features.

But people don't use them, don't read them, and don't want to learn.

And by and large, I don't blame them - at the end of the day it's a game, and you should be playing a game to relax and have fun, and for a lot of people, that means logging in, bashing some monsters, laughing at a falafel, and logging out.

It does not mean poring over spreadsheets and webpage databases to determine the optimal character/gear/ability rotation, enmity mechanics and other fidgety shit. That stuff is fun for some players, utter anathema to a lot of others.

You know what I miss though? Something there's no good reason we couldn't have more of?

Interesting procs on weapons. Stop hiding them behind seven layers of raid bullshit if they exist at all in any tiny, limited number. Weapons and armor that do unique things, even if they're just flashy and cosmetic are so much more awesome than 'yay, I got the ilvl 90 axe, it's more stats than my ilvl 80 axe'.

 

[pitbull]

Yeah, Garuda was always an execution check but it's nice to have gear to give you some room.

TBH, as long as you're update gear wise to around i50-i60 and have the appropriate weapon for the encounter, it's ultimately on how clean your skills are, I think. A handful of stat points seems to generate damage linearly, as someone has pointed out, where as damage seems to work as a better multiplier or whatever.

Monk damage gets pretty gross with a proper rotation up though. Keeping Fracture, ToD, and Demolish up consistently then inserting Impulse Drive when I can does a LOT of damage.

This is completely shocking and I'm going to look like a total noob, This looks like a complete dot rotation and using lnc attack skills. Does impulse drive do anything other than 100 potency if behind (or some close number).

My rotation goes
dragonk, twin snakes, snap p
boot s, true s, snap p
boot s, true s or twin s, demolish or ToD depending on how much health the mob has

then repeat

 

[Jrpgfanatic]

Does impulse drive do anything other than 100 potency if behind (or some close number).

Isn't it 180 from behind?

 

[Relaxed Muscle]

This is completely shocking and I'm going to look like a total noob, This looks like a complete dot rotation and using lnc attack skills. Does impulse drive do anything other than 100 potency if behind (or some close number).

My rotation goes
dragonk, twin snakes, snap p
boot s, true s, snap p
boot s, true s or twin s, demolish or ToD depending on how much health the mob has

then repeat

180 for behind vs 100.

 

[studyguy]

Whole FC turned into lalafells for a day with the phial of fantasia.
Turned into a Roe as a joke. Makes me feel like I don't know where my hitbox is being so large.

Everyone swapped back with the second fantasia from the sub.

 

[pitbull]

Isn't it 180 from behind?

Could be but bootshine is 130 and auto crit
true strike is 150 and increases crit% by 5%

I'm just really confused by him using those abilities, and GOD did it take me a long time to self learn and get the muscle memory for the combos I already do. lol

 

[WolvenOne]

Whole FC turned into lalafells for a day with the phial of fantasia.
Turned into a Roe as a joke. Makes me feel like I don't know where my hitbox is being so large.

Everyone swapped back with the second fantasia from the sub.

Do the Phial's have an expiration date? I don't really plan on changing my character around, but I'd like to keep the option open.

 

[tiggerkiddo]

I'm gonna have to give SCH a shot once I unlock the job, pretty close to unlocking it and SMN.

 

[Shouta]

This is completely shocking and I'm going to look like a total noob, This looks like a complete dot rotation and using lnc attack skills. Does impulse drive do anything other than 100 potency if behind (or some close number).

My rotation goes
dragonk, twin snakes, snap p
boot s, true s, snap p
boot s, true s or twin s, demolish or ToD depending on how much health the mob has

then repeat

My current rotation is simply

Bootshine -> Twin Dragons -> Demolish
Dragon Kick -> True Strike -> Snap Punch

You can mix and match a bit. Sometimes I'll Dragon Kick, -> Twin Dragons -> Snap Punch. I've mapped it to 1-3 and I get the other set with control.

I drop my DOTs in-between going back and forth here typically.

So a full rotation would look like

Boot Shine -> Twin Dragons -> Demolish -> Touch of Death -> Dragon Kick -> True Strike -> Snap Punch -> Fracture -> Bootshine -> Twin Dragons -> Demolish -> whatever.

I insert Impulse Drive when I can because it's a 180 Potency attack from behind which lets it do very high damage, especially on crit. Greased lightning is 12 seconds after the initial stage so you have room to insert random things as you go. For reference, the DOTs are high potency attacks spread over time. So they actually should be adding to your DOT in the long run. Let me look them up quick.

 

[StMeph]

I don't think that a mainstream big budget mmo is going to be the place that we'll see that sort of design ethos.

It's simply not as marketable, and not as appealing to as many people.

Another thing too - I actually think you could create a relatively complex game if it was explained carefully, but I'm not even sure if that's true - look at XIV. This game has Guildhests and dungeons that train you in everything you need to know about party combat. It has EXCELLENT tutorial tips that explain all kinds of useful features.

But people don't use them, don't read them, and don't want to learn.

And by and large, I don't blame them - at the end of the day it's a game, and you should be playing a game to relax and have fun, and for a lot of people, that means logging in, bashing some monsters, laughing at a falafel, and logging out.

It does not mean poring over spreadsheets and webpage databases to determine the optimal character/gear/ability rotation, enmity mechanics and other fidgety shit. That stuff is fun for some players, utter anathema to a lot of others.

This is why big MMOs are accused of chasing the WoW dollars in the same way that other game devs are chasing CoD dollars. The potential market is clearly there, and publishers want a piece of it. XI's greatest virtue was that it was willing to stay small-but-profitable, without making major concessions or radical changes to make it appealing to everyone.

Could a new ultra-hard game be made in today's environment? I think it's possible, and maybe even profitably, but the risk relative to the *potential* payoff is too low for most to try and find out.

You know what I miss though? Something there's no good reason we couldn't have more of?

Interesting procs on weapons. Stop hiding them behind seven layers of raid bullshit if they exist at all in any tiny, limited number. Weapons and armor that do unique things, even if they're just flashy and cosmetic are so much more awesome than 'yay, I got the ilvl 90 axe, it's more stats than my ilvl 80 axe'.

This is what makes Relic+1 and AF+1 so disappointing to me.

All you need to get them is grind some more tomes. And then you just get slightly beefier stats. I can agree with maybe giving away Relic and AF in an egalitarian gesture to everyone for making it to 50, and having that be the feather in one's cap before moving on to other classes or any non-raid content, but +1s are just kind of sad.

 

[omlet]

Could be but bootshine is 130 and auto crit
true strike is 150 and increases crit% by 5%

I'm just really confused by him using those abilities, and GOD did it take me a long time to self learn and get the muscle memory for the combos I already do. lol

If you have Inner Release active for the extra crit rate, a 180 potency crit from behind is nice. Otherwise not much reason to risk losing the free crit from bootshine IMO.

 

[Riposte]

They're so understated, bordering on boring
The same retextured models used over and over again
interesting ones like afs become obsolete within hours
craft afs I like, esp since they can be dyed

There seems to be way more varieties to weapons

Couldn't disagree more, although variety obviously could be improved. I really hope they don't go down the path of other MMOs trying to please people who dislike sensible armor.

 

[Augemitbutter]

You can mix NQ and HQ mats. Just click on the hq material in the recipe UI to add/remove nq/hq.

that helps, thanks.

 

[Alucrid]

~970 full thrust followed up by a 900 jump, so tasty

 

[pitbull]

My current rotation is simply

Bootshine -> Twin Dragons -> Demolish
Dragon Kick -> True Strike -> Snap Punch

You can mix and match a bit. Sometimes I'll Dragon Kick, -> Twin Dragons -> Snap Punch. I've mapped it to 1-3 and I get the other set with control.

I drop my DOTs in-between going back and forth here typically.

So a full rotation would look like

Boot Shine -> Twin Dragons -> Demolish -> Touch of Death -> Dragon Kick -> True Strike -> Snap Punch -> Fracture -> Bootshine -> Twin Dragons -> Demolish -> whatever.

I insert Impulse Drive when I can because it's a 180 Potency attack from behind which lets it do very high damage, especially on crit. Greased lightning is 12 seconds after the initial stage so you have room to insert random things as you go. For reference, the DOTs are high potency attacks spread over time. So they actually should be adding to your DOT in the long run. Let me look them up quick.

I throw dots before i have to switch targets or run like crazy (which se has decided is every fight) and I guess I dont see the point in wasting a gcd on fracture but impulse d with internal release seems nice....... and fracture is showing not even share able to a monk tho...