[dev1007]Voidwatch Emerges

[ronin sparthos]

So looking at this over, I got a few conclusions:

Oh SE, why tie another event to noob zones -_-, there are like a hundred better (unused) places to run something like this.

Looks like Gilgamesh will be the top tier mob in KRT and not Ranguemont Pass, bummer. The zone will continue to be useless outside some GoV being put there.

Direct teleportation to Voidwatch battlefields along with teleportation to Abyssea being home city based coming along with an AH merge means Port Jeuno is going to thin out. This make hurt people trying to make shout parties however.

Weakness !! being back is a boon and a curse. I really hope they change up what procs what because many jobs are basically useless in Abyssea because of this system. Chi Blast being a proc im hoping is just a demonstration or something cause that would be beyond suck.

I like the idea of being able to buff your lootpools through trading certain ascents but CP and IS? Oh man, what a pain it is to get those.

Biggest question of all: What is the cooldown on this event and are you limited to 6 people minimum to initiate the battle?

[Gwynplaine]

My main issues:
Minimum 6 people
Only 3 paths, and probably not instanced. This is going to suck, regardless, because if it's worth anything it will be crowded as fuck.

It's definately not instanced. They said there's 3 different rifts in each zone I think, so 3 parties can fight each zones Op at once. That would be the same as a regular old school BC with only 3 free rooms to use.

I'm annoyed that they're basically making you re-do the entire Abyssea advancement system again for another game system. Basically it sounds like we have to unlock single atmas one-by-one, and regain abyssites all over again. Maybe just make us do the entire first through 10th original nation missions and name them "smissions" and call that new content.

[ronin sparthos]

Honestly Im sorta glad its 6minimum. Lowmanning is fine and all but really SE... make some fucking 6man content.

In an online game, its a joke for people to be able to 2man the newest "premium" content. Besides, the idea they seem to be running with is teaming up anyway since loot is personalized and you buff your own loot through ascent items.

[Karbuncle]

I'm kinda happy this system isn't just "Get item from NPC" > "Go kill NM" > "Rince repeat". As long as the Atmas/Abyssites are too broken, and aren't painfully retarded to get, it doesn't seem that bad. We don't know if the Atma will be RAZED RUINS+3 or if it'll be weaker minor buffs.

Feel like we should wait this out, see how they address it. They always "Flare up" the wording, the "buffs" could be nothing more than ~+20 to all stats or something equally low. Plus it looks like you can customize/improve the "Atma" of these things.

I really hope they don't "Easy-a-fy" it, but at the same time, Theres no brews, so its not like noob groups will have the "Ace in the hole" Save anymore.

[Spira]

I think this is very interesting..
its pretty much a new system that attempts to bring the unique points that made Abyssea a success out into the other parts of Vana'diel.

My thoughts.

18 battlefields/NMs - 3 paths and it seems there will might be options on the first and thirds tier. pretty nice for a system based on what we know.
They mention stages but dont mention of how tier upgrading is done, so maybe it's 100% on clearing previous ones... Also, Stratum Abyssite only need to be obtained once, so upgrading must be done in a different method. Hopefully much better than the current abyssite upgrading system.
They do say Ops are assigned based on progress, so you probably can't pick once you're set down a path or something.

Participation requires are kinda strange.
Lv75 and key items, ok. No mules to make up 6 characters then.
Adventurer's Certificate, in other words, rank 3. probably a lore thing
Affiliation with Allied Forces, probably means you have to have signed on in WotG.
All easy requirements but weird when they're all required together.. Also makes you wonder how they'll work the lore around this thing.

Multiple voidwatch officers is kinda good. Not PUG conducive, but distributes players to 6 other towns. Good imo, provided you don't have to go to specific cities to attempt certain paths after obtaining all 3 Stratum Abyssite.

Planar Rifts. I like this. Each battlefield can be fought at 3 different spots within a zone. Minimizes traffic and the need to queue for battles.
And they even have a teleport service. Players are so spoilt these days.

Individual spoils. Really likes this, and it also makes a lot more sense considering everyone expends voidstones for the same battle. The ability to increase different aspects of the spoils is also a rather clever system.

5 different ways of acquiring aspects. Personally doesn't matter to me if you need 1 specific kind of point system for a type of aspect since most people actually have a huge stash of this shit, don't necessarily have to / want to use aspects and can be cheap and just try to stagger the NM.

Seems like there are 5 staggers now. I hope, and am pretty sure that the list of things that stagger will be entirely different for the Voidwatch system.

Atmacite - yay atma for the real world. Instead of having a barrage of Atma, it seems they'll just come in some specific builds and you can buff em up with Cruor. Has huge potential imo.

Periapt is probably real world abyssites just for Voidwatch. Kinda interesting too I suppose.

Overall, a very well planned system that was clearly meant to usher in a very wide system of content.

we already know 5 out of the 18 monster types they'll use. It seems like they'll be bringing most of the mobs that were unique to Abyssea out to Vana'diel. Also, from the looks of it, we'll get 3 new monster models out of this system for this update. Time to plan a chart XD

[drwaffles]

Honestly Im sorta glad its 6minimum. Lowmanning is fine and all but really SE... make some fucking 6man content.

In an online game, its a joke for people to be able to 2man the newest "premium" content. Besides, the idea they seem to be running with is teaming up anyway since loot is personalized and you buff your own loot through ascent items.

Making content that requires six people is one thing - forcing a six-person entry requirement is stupid and I thought the fact that they finally changes Salvage's entry requirement indicated that they had come to understand this. If these Atmacite and Periapts wind up being anywhere near as powerful as their counterparts inside Abyssea then I guarantee you're not going to need six people to beat these mobs.

[Appie]

Honestly Im sorta glad its 6minimum. Lowmanning is fine and all but really SE... make some fucking 6man content.

Considering they mention that people who don't have a voidwatch stone can still join the battle for exp and cruor (seriously SE, cruor ok, but EXP? lol) I expect alot of mules (much like entry mules used in Salv) incoming once people built up new abyssites and atmas. Of course this depends on the difficulty of the fight, but since people are going to be without atmas at first they can't make it too hard, at least not in the first 1 or 2 tiers of battles.

Forcing 6 minimum solves nothing, it will be bypassed like in Salv.

edit: beaten XD

[Spira]

Participation Requirements
Level 75 or above.

^

[Khiinroye]

People have lv 75+ mules, though there's no reason to not have the mule flagged as well and get their own stuff from the box.

On a related note, I think the fact that everyone gets their own loot pool in the box is an interesting take on loot distribution; even if someone can't get that one drop from their chest, its the same as if they couldn't get the drop in a group lootpool.

[Spira]

well, considering everyone gets their own loot, it makes more sense to just grab someone else who doesn't have enough for 6 (or find a pick up group) and kill the NM. If you have your aspect in place, then you don't have to worry if the other person isn't competent with staggering at all, as its his own loss. And drops aren't shared so you can all aim for the same thing anyway.

[Not Kuno]

Am I the only one that read this update and didn't have a brain hemorrhage? I think it's ok. Although I can't remember where you get an Adventurer's Certificate from.

[drwaffles]

Edit: Oops.

[Spira]

Am I the only one that read this update and didn't have a brain hemorrhage? I think it's ok. Although I can't remember where you get an Adventurer's Certificate from.

nah.. not just you..

its from clearing M2-3 aka rank 3 dragon mission

[Dooom]

Am I the only one that read this update and didn't have a brain hemorrhage? I think it's ok. Although I can't remember where you get an Adventurer's Certificate from.

99% sure you get it after finishing nation mission 2-3, once all three nations acknowledge you as an "official adventurer".

Individual spoils. Really likes this, and it also makes a lot more sense considering everyone expends voidstones for the same battle. The ability to increase different aspects of the spoils is also a rather clever system.

Nice in theory, but in practice I hope it doesn't end up as shitty as WoE individual chests. Shall wait and see. There's a lot to take in and I'm not feeling very coherent today - in fact, "wait and see" is how i feel about all these announcements SE makes now, as what sounds awesome can end up shitty and vice versa.

[drwaffles]

well, considering everyone gets their own loot, it makes more sense to just grab someone else who doesn't have enough for 6 (or find a pick up group) and kill the NM. If you have your aspect in place, then you don't have to worry if the other person isn't competent with staggering at all, as its his own loss. And drops aren't shared so you can all aim for the same thing anyway.

Personally I'd rather not have a useless randomer leeching off my effort just because I need a certain number of bodies in order to initiate the fight. Minimum 6-man requirement serves absolutely no purpose.

[Spira]

lets hope the fights are ridiculously hard then

[Rocl]

I mean honestly this has the potential to be amazing or terrible, much like everything else ever released. I mean, I certainly remember the immense bitching when Abyssea was released, as others have stated ad nauseam, and I remember the joy of uh... actually... I don't remember people looking forward to something after more was announced? I want to say VNMs were hyped but quickly shown shitty, but it's not often I think of the XI community welcoming a new event.

[Rocl]

What I'm trying to say is, I'm clearly going to run through it all once for the new Atma we'll get for the HNM titles.

[Lyall]

Personally I'd rather not have a useless randomer leeching off my effort just because I need a certain number of bodies in order to initiate the fight. Minimum 6-man requirement serves absolutely no purpose.

Except lights and chests are independent, so the only thing they gain by leeching a spot is a shitty loot pool and some cruor. I don't think it's so bad.

[Appie]

Participation Requirements
Level 75 or above.

^

Yes, I can read, when I mention mules, I of course mean lv75+ mules, seriously, who doesn't have these nowadays? I used to have 3 other accounts active, all with wotg, nothing special nowadays. Salv mules had the same requirement iirc, that was never an issue either. Minimums are dumb and SE should know better after lowering it for Salv. Fat chance in hell that the first tier is hard without it resulting in a bitchfest from the playerbase, Einherjar style.