Dev Tracker: Discussion (Old)

[Byrthnoth]

Nope. Like most other traits, it becomes less sensible to stack Conserve MP the more of it you have. Also, a 100% Conserve MP proc rate only reduces spell costs by 25%.

[Fwahm]

Nope. Like most other traits, it becomes less sensible to stack Conserve MP the more of it you have. Also, a 100% Conserve MP proc rate only reduces spell costs by 25%.

And yet, there isn't much else other than Fast Cast you can gear for to improve Luopon casts.

At least, until Handbell/Geomancy skill comes out on equipment.

[Slycer]

Nope. Like most other traits, it becomes less sensible to stack Conserve MP the more of it you have. Also, a 100% Conserve MP proc rate only reduces spell costs by 25%.

You're suggesting there's a diminishing return by stacking Conserve MP which isn't true, so I'm not really sure what you're saying. Also, it's closer to 28% than 25%. +1 Conserve MP = +1% proc chance = average 0.28125% more saved MP, all the way from 0 to 100, whether you have none or 99.

For GEO spells, until they add Geomancy/Handbell skill gear, it definitely makes sense to stack Conserve MP and Fast Cast. Cast Geo-Frailty or Torpor a couple of times and get your Luopan wiped away and you're already out of MP, you'll wish you had that extra 28%. Geo spells are incredibly inefficient with MP if your Luopan is taking damage regularly.

That being said, stacking more Conserve MP traits is a shitty way to fix this. They should just reduce the MP cost of Geocolure.

[Siatdiat]

I deactivated both my accounts when expansion came out because I found it very disappointing. I keep on coming here every week or 2 to see if anything interesting has come up, and its really disappointing to realize how little has changed and how slow SE is at making actual content or adjusting content. Does this sound accurate or am I missing some great shit in game that people are not talking about online? Because it seems to me that SE is back to making simpleminded spam/farm content that people are expected to just grind on forever while waiting for the next tier of superficial bullshit to wade through, all the while steering the game away from group oriented gameplay towards solo/dual boxable content. Shit feels like an epic troll from SE, after they spent so long sticking to their guns, and now have totally caved and let the game become a pile of steaming diarrhea.

[Seha]

Delve is pretty much all that people do and it's alli content...so..uh?

[CoreyX]

I like the casting time reduction for Indi and Geo spells. With a 2 second cast time, fast cast is barely needed, which gives you more room to leave on max MP gear/conserve MP crap for the first couple of spells without losing shittons of MP by swapping to crappy thrown-together fast cast crap.

Not that the -ra nukes are particularly useful, but the increase in conserve MP, coupled with their increased damage and 3 second casting time from the update, will make them at least somewhat more useable. And fun in abyssea at least (while leveling in worm parties I was blowing myself up on every worm in sight, at some point there were 8 worms around me which I killed with a couple of -ra spells, I put myself in the center and they all died lol. Due to their positioning it would have been impossible to hit them all with a regular -ga.) Gold box farming may be good on GEO when you consider they can easily amber (native cataclysm!) and then just go around exploding on everything to one-shot entire groups almost instantly (3 second nuke with fast cast gear and elemental celerity and dark arts or fast cast from /RDM = pretty damn fast!)

[Tarage]

Siatdiat... I think you have no idea how this content works.

[Rhiannon2]

I deactivated both my accounts when expansion came out because I found it very disappointing. I keep on coming here every week or 2 to see if anything interesting has come up, and its really disappointing to realize how little has changed and how slow SE is at making actual content or adjusting content. Does this sound accurate or am I missing some great shit in game that people are not talking about online? Because it seems to me that SE is back to making simpleminded spam/farm content that people are expected to just grind on forever while waiting for the next tier of superficial bullshit to wade through, all the while steering the game away from group oriented gameplay towards solo/dual boxable content. Shit feels like an epic troll from SE, after they spent so long sticking to their guns, and now have totally caved and let the game become a pile of steaming diarrhea.

Eh? The bolded statement has actually not been true for several years. They have been steering the game back toward group-oriented play since the waning days of Abyssea. As to grinding and spam/farm, I suppose you can put Delve into that category but people seem a lot happier with it because it's a point system instead of the Random Number Generator.

[Toth]

I like the casting time reduction for Indi and Geo spells. With a 2 second cast time, fast cast is barely needed, which gives you more room to leave on max MP gear/conserve MP crap for the first couple of spells without losing shittons of MP by swapping to crappy thrown-together fast cast crap.

Not that the -ra nukes are particularly useful, but the increase in conserve MP, coupled with their increased damage and 3 second casting time from the update, will make them at least somewhat more useable. And fun in abyssea at least (while leveling in worm parties I was blowing myself up on every worm in sight, at some point there were 8 worms around me which I killed with a couple of -ra spells, I put myself in the center and they all died lol. Due to their positioning it would have been impossible to hit them all with a regular -ga.) Gold box farming may be good on GEO when you consider they can easily amber (native cataclysm!) and then just go around exploding on everything to one-shot entire groups almost instantly (3 second nuke with fast cast gear and elemental celerity and dark arts or fast cast from /RDM = pretty damn fast!)

Good stuff. I just wish ra spells had more practical purposes for GEOs in a party.

[dasva]

What isn't spam/grind in the end lol? Missions?

[fantasticdan]

'Grinding' difficult NMs isn't really the same thing as mindlessly grinding nothing but trash mobs in delve/reives thou, and unless you're in a one of the handful of LS capable of doing delve nakaals, you're probably not doing much of anything beyond the latter in SoA right now.

[Malithar]

What isn't spam/grind in the end lol? Missions?

This. MMO's are not for you if you feel that an expansion, a rewarding battle content update, and another major content update in possibly as little as 2-3 weeks, all within a period of 3 months, is too slow of a schedule for content updates for you. Nevermind your extremely inaccurate portrayal of the current direction SE is taking the game. Stick to your single player games.

[dasva]

'Grinding' difficult NMs isn't really the same thing as mindlessly grinding nothing but trash mobs in delve/reives thou, and unless you're in a one of the handful of LS capable of doing delve nakaals, you're probably not doing much of anything beyond the latter in SoA right now.

Meh just feels different. But guess I feel different since most the time for me it's /equip Ochain afk/waltz the time away lol. So sure if I love or hate that shield. I am definitely hating taru hp more and more each day

[Yugl]

You're suggesting there's a diminishing return by stacking Conserve MP which isn't true, so I'm not really sure what you're saying. Also, it's closer to 28% than 25%. +1 Conserve MP = +1% proc chance = average 0.28125% more saved MP, all the way from 0 to 100, whether you have none or 99.

Remember that this is about comparing the gain.

If your proc rate is 25% and you jump to 50%, you've doubled the proc rate. If you take that same amount (25%) and add that to 50%, you've only increased the proc rate by half of your current rate.

[Siatdiat]

This. MMO's are not for you if you feel that an expansion, a rewarding battle content update, and another major content update in possibly as little as 2-3 weeks, all within a period of 3 months, is too slow of a schedule for content updates for you. Nevermind your extremely inaccurate portrayal of the current direction SE is taking the game. Stick to your single player games.

This must be the only mmo you have ever played if you seriously mean this tripe. It is cute when people get snarky 'cuz I dissed their game though. Also what exactly does the bolded mean, makes absolutely no sense. Proof read before you post especially when planning to be a dousche.

The art of a good MMO is making the grind not feel like a grind. It is also possible to make content with more depth and complexity than the crap this expansion has brought. None of the things I have loved about ffxi in the past are present so far in this expansion. Can anyone seriously tell me so far that the story for this expansion is better than the wizard did it bullshit of abyssea? I am not seeing it. I was so pumped up after hearing about the expansion, and after paying 30 bucks or w/e it was for pretty much a steaming loaf, I had no interest in tossing money at a game I had no interest logging into.

Ultimately, I am sure having a very low standard makes this expansion easier to digest, but I like to keep my standards high and not accept cheap bullshit. It is very apparent at this point that ffxi dev team consists of 3 programmers, matsui, and an unpaid intern.

[Kaisha]

Bold part is referring to the shit that was delayed from launch because not enough devs working on the damn thing.

[Yugl]

For the bold, he's saying that the update will arrive within 2-3 weeks and he's including that among other adjustments SE has made. He's then saying these adjustments have occurred within a 3 month span.

The storyline is lacking, but that has more to do with "Not much known about the storyline" than "Terrible storyline." If we look at similar segments of other storylines, the current isn't much worse than others.

Cities: Was there even a storyline until chapter 2/3?
ToAU: A prince playing dress-up and talking to birds until they begin the Black Cutter CSs
Wings: Cait Sith and Mean Girls

Zilart missions picked up from R5 city missions
CoP is picks up the pieces of both

[Jeryhn]

I deactivated both my accounts when expansion came out because I found it very disappointing. I keep on coming here every week or 2 to see if anything interesting has come up, and its really disappointing to realize how little has changed and how slow SE is at making actual content or adjusting content. Does this sound accurate or am I missing some great shit in game that people are not talking about online? Because it seems to me that SE is back to making simpleminded spam/farm content that people are expected to just grind on forever while waiting for the next tier of superficial bullshit to wade through, all the while steering the game away from group oriented gameplay towards solo/dual boxable content. Shit feels like an epic troll from SE, after they spent so long sticking to their guns, and now have totally caved and let the game become a pile of steaming diarrhea.

I'm... not sure what's you're getting at here. Let's look at everything in Adoulin:

- Reives: Definitely not soloable or dual-boxable. Maybe Ceizak will be after the next update, though I wouldn't count on it.
- Skirmish: Requires 3-6 people, Assault-style event. You can get a useful weapon here to tide you over til you get Delve stuff.
- Delve: 18-man alliance farm for plasm or NM kills. Boss monsters probably the closest thing we've had to real HNM-level content since the Abyssea era.

If you don't like the idea of grinding plasm, good thing all the NMs drop gear and airlixirs then? lol
What exactly are you even looking for?

[Kincard]

The storyline is lacking, but that has more to do with "Not much known about the storyline" than "Terrible storyline."

That in itself is a pretty big problem when the launch of an expansion contains basically a single cutscene that had any actual relevance and it's been almost 3 months since anything has been added to that.

[Siatdiat]

That in itself is a pretty big problem when the launch of an expansion contains basically a single cutscene that had any actual relevance and it's been almost 3 months since anything has been added to that.

Right before expansion came out they called over the guy who was writing the plot/storyline to see what his progress was. When he didn't come they went to his desk and realized he had been dead for 6 weeks, and that all his notes were written in his own secret short hand. Right now there are massive development costs going into paying a code breaker to figure it out.