Letter from the Producer LIVE Part XXVII

[BaneTheBrawler]

I like the idea of making parry affect block rate, as well as parry, and then make Blocking (but NOT parrying) apply to magic attacks. That would actually give Paladin an edge. One that is sorely needed.


but they won't because "omg balance" as if they actually have anything resembling balance.

[LinktheDeme]

I like the idea of making parry affect block rate, as well as parry, and then make Blocking (but NOT parrying) apply to magic attacks. That would actually give Paladin an edge. One that is sorely needed.


but they won't because "omg balance" as if they actually have anything resembling balance.

that's not fair, all classes would need the option to wield a shield if this was to be fair.

[Niiro]

Shields working on magic damage but not parries might have been a good idea before Sheltron and the increased number of high level tower shields, but with those things it would be a bit overpowered.

It would basically be giving PLD an oGCD Inner Beast every 30s.

[Yukari]

What's the issue with making parries + shields also work on magic in that case? Not a tank so I have no idea about ramifications.

[Niiro]

Because in terms of tank balance you wind up back where you started really.

Also you have to make tank busters hit a lot harder for them to threaten PLDs at all and you kind of dick over DRKs who have no 100% parry skill, so you can actually fuck the tank balance in the other direction too.

[Taint]

It will all come full circle:

Spoiler: show

The character types are:
◾Warrior (Fighter) — A specialist in heavy weapons and armor who can withstand tremendous amounts of punishment. Can become the Knight later in the game, who is able to use the most powerful weapons and some White Magic spells.
◾Monk (Black Belt) — A martial arts expert who is best left fighting empty-handed, but may also wield nunchaku, and the most basic of staves. Does tremendous amounts of damage in combat, but cannot wear heavy armor. Can become the Master later in the game. In the original Famicom/NES version a high level, barehanded Master who is unencumbered by armor, can do more damage in a single attack than any other character type; a party of four Masters can defeat the final boss in less than two full rounds. A rather weak class in the beginning, but the player never has to buy much equipment for him.
◾Thief — A high evasion/accuracy finesse fighter with very limited weapon and armor selection, but greater agility and luck (ability to escape from combat). However, the ability to flee is bugged in versions before the Origins release. Later in the game, the Thief can be upgraded to the Ninja class. Ninja can use almost every weapon and most armor, and can use many Black Magic spells.
◾White Mage — A specialist in White Magic. Not a good fighter, but can use hammers for physical attacks and is focused on supporting the team with healing and enhancing spells for an advantageous edge to victory of the battle. Can be upgraded into a White Wizard, which allows the character to use the most powerful White Magic spells in the game.
◾Black Mage — A specialist in powerful Black Magic, but is physically frail in other areas. Becomes the Black Wizard later on. Black Wizard is the only character who can cast Flare (NUKE in the original North American localization), one of the two damaging spells that retain full effectiveness against Chaos (the White Wizard can cast Holy, the other spell, but it is less powerful than Flare).
◾Red Mage — A jack-of-all-trades character, able to use most but not all of both White and Black Magic, and possessing fighting abilities similar to but not quite as good as the Fighter. Becomes the Red Wizard later in the game.

Well RDM might be a bit too much.

[Alisha]

Its not like they aren't rebalancing the tanks anyway. They should do something to the stat, I was just spitballing ideas.

I think what he is suggesting is a fair tradeoff if they don't increase pld dps. then I look at a job like scholar that has no tradeoff for all the things they can do because theres no content that can expose their healing weaknesses.

[BaneTheBrawler]

that's not fair, all classes would need the option to wield a shield if this was to be fair.

wut

also they keep saying paladin is supposed to be "the mitigation tank" and that would make it the mitigation tank. i see no problem with this. it's still ass dps, ass utility, and ass gameplay.

[Spider-Dan]

I think what he is suggesting is a fair tradeoff if they don't increase pld dps. then I look at a job like scholar that has no tradeoff for all the things they can do because theres no content that can expose their healing weaknesses.

All healers should be overpowered, from a role population standpoint. Only SCH is currently tuned correctly.

You need a carrot to entice people to play healer.

[BaneTheBrawler]

All mechanics are healer mechanics.

[LinktheDeme]

wut

It was a joke ._.

[BaneTheBrawler]

o ok

[Sho]

I'm guessing the VIT buff/STR nerf will simply be a recalculation for the left side of gear. They'll find some way to make the left side 50/50 STR/VIT and right side will be 100 VIT.

[Spider-Dan]

I think you guys are WAY overthinking this.

You know how NIN uses DEX for melee damage instead of STR?
Replace "DEX for melee damage" with "VIT for melee damage" on all tanks.
Problem solved.

[Silenka]

All healers should be overpowered, from a role population standpoint. Only SCH is currently tuned correctly.

You need a carrot to entice people to play healer.

Not so. Healers are by far the dominant role on my server, to the point where it is nearly impossible to get into a PF group as healer unless you're starting it. Same thing with Diadem groups when they were popular - healer filled up fastest 90% of the time. It may be different on other servers, but I swear healers went from "just about enough" to "WAY too many" since about a month after HW released. I'm not sure what caused it - there still aren't that many AST on my server just from what I could tell - but man are the healers everywhere. Noticeably.

[Alisha]

what caused it is people cant do the 1500 dps so they go healer probally most of them scholar considering the amount of negativity ive seen from bandwagon scholars.

[Lyall]

I think you guys are WAY overthinking this.

You know how NIN uses DEX for melee damage instead of STR?
Replace "DEX for melee damage" with "VIT for melee damage" on all tanks.
Problem solved.

Probably this.

[KCem]

I think you guys are WAY overthinking this.

You know how NIN uses DEX for melee damage instead of STR?
Replace "DEX for melee damage" with "VIT for melee damage" on all tanks.
Problem solved.

Except they've essentially already said this won't be the case. Str and vit will both play a role. Str less so than vit.

A simple switch to vit only would be great honestly.

[Taint]

what caused it is people cant do the 1500 dps so they go healer probally most of them scholar considering the amount of negativity ive seen from bandwagon scholars.

^ This is the reason.

Keep up max DPS is a greater pain now, especially with new content. (Hit blood of the dragon, boss goes untargetable. etc) Healing is much more free flowing. You can also AFK heal stuff like Diadem or just sit there and spam Medica.

DPS healers requires max attention but you can zzz through most content on a healer if you are just topping people off.

[Sho]

I think you guys are WAY overthinking this.

You know how NIN uses DEX for melee damage instead of STR?
Replace "DEX for melee damage" with "VIT for melee damage" on all tanks.
Problem solved.

It won't be this, as they have already mentioned. I think their main problem is that they don't want to remove STR from left side gear for whatever reason, so they will still make it somewhat meaningful. It may not be a 50/50 split, but it will be some sort of split. We can be sure that the main stat will be VIT everywhere else regardless.