Beta 3 impressions and general discussion

[miokomioko]

Which is why Archer's 2nd job should probably be focused on ranged debuffing/crowd-control (heavy/sleep/aoe bind/etc.), emphasizing its role of supporting a party from afar, as opposed to supporting a party by singing in the middle of it.

With the mini/boss mechanics we've seen so far, having someone that can inhibit adds/minions from a great distance before they release more adds, explode the arena, overwhelm your party, etc., will be quite useful.

[Reve]

which is why Archer's 2nd job should probably be focused on ranged debuffing/crowd-control (heavy/sleep/aoe bind/etc.), emphasizing its focus on supporting a party from afar, as opposed to supporting a party by singing in the middle of it.

Gun Mage

http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__...ie_Gunmage.jpg

[Tokitoki]

which is why Archer's 2nd job should probably be focused on ranged debuffing/crowd-control (heavy/sleep/aoe bind/etc.), emphasizing its focus on supporting a party from afar, as opposed to supporting a party by singing in the middle of it.

I think you could do this and just not reduce damage by 20% and have a solid Job. Managing 4/5 debuffs while rotating your damaging skills should, I think, keep the DPS contribution significant enough, but not overpower the tank or other straight DDs. Depends on how S-E works it though.

[Lucavi]

If they make a ranged, instant damage heavy DPS class then the game might as well call itself fucked and let everyone know with honesty.

Could make Ranger a pet class akin to FFV or something like WoW hunter or GW2 Ranger with a damage split between pet and Ranger.

I'd personally like to see the return of the OP AOE healing + esuna Nightingale and the distracting counter-reset Tree Squirrel.

[LD]

At this point addressing ARC is the bigger deal since that's the actual problem. If you curb the damage ARC already has through a job, that just discourages playing the job if you want to do damage, and you do. DDing is literally the only thing ARC will be doing until it becomes eligible to quest a job. It might get as bad as wanting to go ARC for Job content. Except for AOEing, what is the offensive benefit of BRD for the ARC? Paeon is a wash due to the damage decrease.

Taking out the "Increase Action damage" traits would probably do it. Unlike the other physical DDs, that damage boost is free and has a 100% uptime. I wonder why it doesn't fuck up THM/BLM, though...

[Raldo]

Well, at this point I can only hope that the "Damage calculations will drastically change in Phase 4" (or whatever it says) addresses this.

[Voyage1970]

Taking out the "Increase Action damage" traits would probably do it. Unlike the other physical DDs, that damage boost is free and has a 100% uptime. I wonder why it doesn't fuck up THM/BLM, though...

I always assumed those traits just meant increasing Auto Attack damage. Since "Base Action" to me sounds like how Yoshida wanted Auto Attack to be viewed as. When you have no TP so you can't use your weapon skills, you have some other form of attack to fall back on, hence the base action you would do when all others are unavailable.

Addendum: The more I think about it the more I just think the enmity issues with Archer might just be a bug. I really can't see how Archer is generating more hate than say Lancer or Pugilist when Lancer and Pugilist have higher potency weapon skills, and can increase their own damage through self buffs with almost full up time like Heavy Thrust, Twin Snakes, Greased Lightning, etc.

[Raldo]

I always assumed those traits just meant increasing Auto Attack damage. Since "Base Action" to me sounds like how Yoshida wanted Auto Attack to be viewed as. When you have no TP so you can't use your weapon skills, you have some other form of attack to fall back on, hence the base action you would do when all others are unavailable.

That would make the two instances of the trait on CNJ very puzzling, since no one ever auto-attacks with CNJ (you'd have to actually manually turn it on, if you wanted to do that, and since the damage is physical, it's utterly worthless). I'm quite positive they mean "actions" in the sense that any skill is an "action", and that the "base" part is referring to the "base damage" (i.e. potency) number.

If I had to guess, I'd say the trait probably increases everything but auto-attack damage and DoT damage, but it might even affect those too.

[Tokitoki]

I wonder why it doesn't fuck up THM/BLM, though...

Different enmity calculations between melee abilities and magic? I know healing has a decimal enmity modifier close to .5.

[Churchill]

If people can't see why instant damage high dps ranged class break the game (in game with a rooted tank and sliding) then I don't know what to say. Asking for one to do even more damage is like a Warrior in GW2 asking for HB to be buffed.

Anything without AoE is a huge drawback, so yes that is one of the things Bard offers and Rain of Death also has a debuff.

It's already to the point that 6xBRD, Tank, WHM parties will probably exist for non-dungeon content just due to the ease of the class, maybe even for dungeon content for the same reasons + added benefits from Bard. It isn't even the dreaded "elitists" - this community when doing public content looks for the lowest common denominator and cheeses to it because it's all the majority of people playing this game can accommodate. Ifrit Hard was retardedly slow using BLM, Moogle was dumb with Bards (though at the time, Archer was better as it was for Darkhold). BLM wasn't even close to the best way to do Garuda but it was easier. Seriously, if you had tried this with all MNK's for the BLM spots and told them not to be bad, every time she jumps it's like a Miser's worth of deeps. That fight is perfect for MNK's burst in 1.0 - of course, ignoring the super cheese skip 67% of the fight methods.

[Galkaeater]

pet

[Charismatic]

Addendum: The more I think about it the more I just think the enmity issues with Archer might just be a bug. I really can't see how Archer is generating more hate than say Lancer or Pugilist when Lancer and Pugilist have higher potency weapon skills, and can increase their own damage through self buffs with almost full up time like Heavy Thrust, Twin Snakes, Greased Lightning, etc.

moar attacks off the GCD = moar DEEPS

[Okan]

River of Blood and Bloodletter have a possibility to be nasty. I wouldn't be surprised to see Square change River back to critical DoT damage to reset BL otherwise it'll be a spam fest.

[Elcura]

River of Blood and Bloodletter have a possibility to be nasty. I wouldn't be surprised to see Square change River back to critical DoT damage to reset BL otherwise it'll be a spam fest.

Hasn't it always been based off DoT Crit?

[Rocl]

Hasn't it always been based off DoT Crit?

Currently I see

Grants a 20% chance that damage over time inflicted by Venomous Bite or Windbite will reset the Bloodletter recast timer.

which implies a noncrit should work

[Okan]

Hasn't it always been based off DoT Crit?

At the moment it's just a chance off a tick and it counts for both Venomous Bite and Windbite so you essentially have 2 chances per tick. Granted, not many people were able to experience it due to the cap being 35 and it being a level 36 trait. I expect we'll get a lot more clarification during phase 4. One thing to note is that both Windbite and Venomous Bite list critical hit as the cause for reset on XIVDB. From my experience, it did not reset on criticals at all prior to River of Blood at 36. What I mean is it's not like Archer gets a double dip on Bloodletter resets.

[Godsleftsock]

Currently I see

which implies a noncrit should work

Deals wind damage with a potency of 60.


Additional Effect: Wind damage over time
Potency: 40
Duration: 18s

Additional Effect: When damage over time is critical, there is a 20% chance Bloodletter recast time will reset

I see the skills and the trait say different things lol

[Godsleftsock]

At the moment it's just a chance off a tick and it counts for both Venomous Bite and Windbite so you essentially have 2 chances per tick. Granted, not many people were able to experience it due to the cap being 35 and it being a level 36 trait. I expect we'll get a lot more clarification during phase 4. One thing to note is that both Windbite and Venomous Bite list critical hit as the cause for reset on XIVDB. From my experience, it did not reset on criticals at all prior to River of Blood at 36. What I mean is it's not like Archer gets a double dip on Bloodletter resets.

it adds that additional effect once you learn river of blood

[Adajer]

I have no problem with Archer becoming Bard but it's kind of lame that there's no Ranger option.

Musketeer bro. Its coming, when everyone least expects it.....

[Rocl]

Deals wind damage with a potency of 60.
Additional Effect: When damage over time is critical, there is a 20% chance Bloodletter recast time will reset

I see the skills and the trait say different things lol

I was actually about to post the same thing but I thought Okan's post clarified; but yeah, the trait and ability tooltips are contradicting each other.