August 23rd Interview

[Aodh]

Not-so-hardcore players deserve not-so-hardcore gear.

There's a difference between not trying and not getting claim. Sitting in the pit at Aery with over 100 other players for a 21-24h repop only to be outclaimed by someone who has a claim-bot is a flawed system. There were times when Fafnir and Nidhogg would be up for hours of even days before people would attempt, same with Tiamat. Now they're claimed before they're even drawn on most computers and consoles.

It's a flaw when it gets to the extent that you have to cheat to even have the chance at anything.

All that being said, they should have the "almost-as-good" gear as well as making the "the-good-gear" available to people who put in the effort. A lot of people have mentioned it for a while that the KS99 kings should drop whatever their counterparts drop including Abj's. Then it's not about whoever cheats, it's about if you can kill and then you have a chance at a random drop.

[Shadida]

Or they could be really uninventive, and have the new HNMs drop the old abj/items from the 3 kings.

No objections here.

- Shadida

[Veli]

Not-so-hardcore players deserve not-so-hardcore gear.

There's a difference between not trying and not getting claim. Sitting in the pit at Aery with over 100 other players for a 21-24h repop only to be outclaimed by someone who has a claim-bot is a flawed system. There were times when Fafnir and Nidhogg would be up for hours of even days before people would attempt, same with Tiamat. Now they're claimed before they're even drawn on most computers and consoles.

It's a flaw when it gets to the extent that you have to cheat to even have the chance at anything.

All that being said, they should have the "almost-as-good" gear as well as making the "the-good-gear" available to people who put in the effort. A lot of people have mentioned it for a while that the KS99 kings should drop whatever their counterparts drop including Abj's. Then it's not about whoever cheats, it's about if you can kill and then you have a chance at a random drop.

I agree. I dont think it should be almost as good it should be the same gear lol. If they wanna be bitches about it they can make the abjs have the drop rate of unsho or something. I think the bahamut v2 bcnm is how new bcnms should be for abjs. Do some isbcnms(that cost alot of IS) get a orb that pops like fafnir or something kill get another orb that leads to nid. I think that would be better than having 200 people stand around for some bs claim. 21-24 hour pops were cool like 2-3 years ago but now there are just too many level 75 players for this crap.

[Sci]

There's been plenty of times where I've been drawn in by Ultima without having hate during Citadel Buster.

Ultima's hate becomes very interesting at low HP. Basically the most recent action can always pull hate. I've seen a PLD run in, provoke, flash, and invincible Ultima and pull it across the room. Then a BLM reraised on the other half of the room, and Ultima strolled over and killed the BLM. And no, not Holy II, an actual melee attack.

And since we're making up silly requests. Lets make Nidhogg the thunder wyrm, and let him cast Thundaga III. and give him enstun. Oh, and if darters aggroed, that would be more interesting too. (Insert comment about there actually being darters in the pit) Toss some IT elementals in the pit, and like a dozen around KB I guess. There ya go, kings just like CoP wyrms, no wyrm fight is complete without plenty of adds afterall.

[Byrd]

There's been plenty of times where I've been drawn in by Ultima without having hate during Citadel Buster.

Ultima's hate becomes very interesting at low HP. Basically the most recent action can always pull hate. I've seen a PLD run in, provoke, flash, and invincible Ultima and pull it across the room. Then a BLM reraised on the other half of the room, and Ultima strolled over and killed the BLM. And no, not Holy II, an actual melee attack.

I've used Chainspell - Stun on Ultima at very low health and didn't have hate after it was done. Not sure how that works exactly.

And since we're making up silly requests. Lets make Nidhogg the thunder wyrm, and let him cast Thundaga III. and give him enstun. Oh, and if darters aggroed, that would be more interesting too. (Insert comment about there actually being darters in the pit) Toss some IT elementals in the pit, and like a dozen around KB I guess. There ya go, kings just like CoP wyrms, no wyrm fight is complete without plenty of adds afterall.

There's an NM for a quest in Castle Zvahl that actually casts Escape on whoever he's fighting. You could easily make Nidhogg (or any HNM, really) far more challenging by just periodically have him cast Warp II (pref. unstunnable) on whoever has hate. I'd love to see the expression on the faces of the first LS that ran into this.

[Septimus]

And since we're making up silly requests. Lets make Nidhogg the thunder wyrm, and let him cast Thundaga III. and give him enstun. Oh, and if darters aggroed, that would be more interesting too. (Insert comment about there actually being darters in the pit) Toss some IT elementals in the pit, and like a dozen around KB I guess. There ya go, kings just like CoP wyrms, no wyrm fight is complete without plenty of adds afterall.

There's an NM for a quest in Castle Zvahl that actually casts Escape on whoever he's fighting. You could easily make Nidhogg (or any HNM, really) far more challenging by just periodically have him cast Warp II (pref. unstunnable) on whoever has hate. I'd love to see the expression on the faces of the first LS that ran into this.

Boy, it would be awesome to be the next in line for an abjuration or piece of armor and wind up having to run 20+ minutes back to the zone that you are fighting the mob while your loot auto-distributes to someone else. I think that is too cruel even for the CoP team.

[BRP]

Kings should be trashed for the system I've said a million times

Beastmen King/ect/ENM/ect gets you rare/ex orb

Trade orb to the area they pop, now a BC. You fight harder version of PH(which is really the HQ), a bit harder than what sky gives you, though more gimmicky(behemoth being resistant to magic for one, save earth and becomer faster as his HP drops. Adamantoise ). These would be impossible to mana/meleeburn. Their drops, plus some better new ones. Fafnir's abjuration split among them. 60-70% change of dropping the progressing orb. This fight is on a 21 hour timer.

Trade next orb to same area. Fight a very hard battle, imagine a flee speed Behemoth that summons IT thunder elementals, ect. Nidhogg summoning a very-low-health wyrmling(loldrg) immune to magic everytime he Hurricane Wings, ect. Aspid giving a Alliance wiping Drown DoT while in his shell(50-100 damage a tick, can't be erased), which he can only be knocked out of when he is SC and MBed. Unique and hard stuff, even the best alliance can wipe if a moron screws it up for them and its not something a LS out of sky can do. Give them high enough Evasion so you need to not suck to hit them. Give them enough magic resistance so you need to not suck to not be resisted. Of course not manaburn/meleeburnable like above. All have very good drop. KB could drop Longinus(or whatever, the Spear of Destiny) would be the Ridil of spears. Maybe a Adaman Breastplate(however lets make it Damage Reduction-10% and Magic Damage+5%) for Aspid. Also for Aspid, a OMGMELEE shield that would be very sex on THF/BST/WAR(lawl ;o)/ect, a "Adaman Sipar". Ridil would probably be more fitting in the uber nidhogg's pool, screw mythology. Pretty much abjuration + 3-4 unique rare/ex drops. 5 day reenter timer.

What this does:
-Any skillful LS can kill "NQ" kings for fafnir abjurations, decent rare/ex armor, and "fun". Even a social LS could do
-The amount of times you fight them in a week is dependant on how deticated you are. How many HNMs you camp, how many ENMs/KSNMs you do, ect. The vast amount of HNMs that will pop makes it impossible to camp them all(especially in the first 3-7 days). The hardcore LS that is probably getting most of the orbs can also easily have two groups to use all of them in up within 5 days and such.
-Fafnir gets to fly into the Aery.
-Outside the obvious, no more drama/ect, you can now pick when you want to fight NQs and HQs. Your LS fame will be decided on how good you are, not how well you bot.
-New drops for a whole new fight is a good thing. Could be a good place to introduce gear that ups other jobs the way Ridil and Blackbelt up WAR and MNK.

Make Wyrms harder and more unique(how about Rangers getting 150% bonus when shooting at them in the air, and them being able to cast IV -aga spells while in the air), Hydra(2hand weapon WS closing cuts off their head only, needs a certain amount of fire/ice damage to be down to keep the head off or otherwise it will respawn in a second). Give Wyrms way more drops and give Hydra and Cerberus item synths better stats and give them more synths.

[Khamsin]

heres a thought. they could always retire old HNM's then replace them with new HNM's that have new gear similar to the old but with a twist. for example SE wants to encourage wars to sub something besides nin and use great axe.why not just make a set comparable to adaman/armada with its stats tied to a latent that only activates if they are not subbing nin and/or equiped with a great axe.

Or make a ridill great axe.

And no, Fortitude axe is not a ridill great axe. It's fun to play with, I have one. But look at the DMG/Delay of Ridill. Even without 2-3 attacks, its got good stats. Have a great axe with 2-3 attacks and DMG:89 Delay:480 drop off a 21-24 NQ version of a new king HNM, and there's a real ridill great axe. Then boost Raging Rush so it compares to Rampage, and you might see some WARs using great axes instead.

However most will continue to go WAR/NIN and use ridill because while even with that great axe, a ridill will be better. The ridill can attack 2-3 times on one hand, and you still get to have an offhand weapon. With that great axe, you attack 2-3 times then wait 480 delay to do it again with no offhand stats or dual wield bonus.

[Confucion]

heres a thought. they could always retire old HNM's then replace them with new HNM's that have new gear similar to the old but with a twist. for example SE wants to encourage wars to sub something besides nin and use great axe.why not just make a set comparable to adaman/armada with its stats tied to a latent that only activates if they are not subbing nin and/or equiped with a great axe.

Or make a ridill great axe.

And no, Fortitude axe is not a ridill great axe. It's fun to play with, I have one. But look at the DMG/Delay of Ridill. Even without 2-3 attacks, its got good stats. Have a great axe with 2-3 attacks and DMG:89 Delay:480 drop off a 21-24 NQ version of a new king HNM, and there's a real ridill great axe. Then boost Raging Rush so it compares to Rampage, and you might see some WARs using great axes instead.

However most will continue to go WAR/NIN and use ridill because while even with that great axe, a ridill will be better. The ridill can attack 2-3 times on one hand, and you still get to have an offhand weapon. With that great axe, you attack 2-3 times then wait 480 delay to do it again with no offhand stats or dual wield bonus.

That's exactly the point though. They could have done something like that in comparison to several weapons and pieces of gear, and not make Zilart gear obsolete. When people say upgrade on M Body and E body, I don't think anyone expects a 25 STR 25 DEX 40 Att 40 Acc -5 Eva body piece, and I think that's what SE is hearing when we way we want something better off of something harder.

So their version of that is Sniper ring +2 and Speed Belt +2 dropping off of AV. Makes sense right, but in a really fucked up, Stephan Urquel kindof way.

[DoliantheBard]

Just give bard the flee speed mazurka again. That's all I want.

[Byrd]

Boy, it would be awesome to be the next in line for an abjuration or piece of armor and wind up having to run 20+ minutes back to the zone that you are fighting the mob while your loot auto-distributes to someone else. I think that is too cruel even for the CoP team.

Ok, yeah, good point. You're right. I just liked the newness of a mob casting Escape on me, and thought it would make a new and interesting twist. Even just casting Escape would be annoying enough, but would only cast momentary inconvenience, and wouldn't endanger the loot pool. Although in Aery, Escape takes one to Sanctuary of Zi'tah. Hmmm. Give it to KB, head back to BD entrance or Aspid in Valley of Sorrows.

Better yet, just give it to a newer mob that people won't be trying to claim steal off you when the third tank in 3 min to get Escaped loses hate.

Oh well, I tried.

[Lockecole]

All joking aside, difficulty should mirror quality of drops, the end. Chiv. Chain is awesome, correct? Then Hydra should drop something even better. Not the other way around. I think you should be able to agree with that. Even if it's just a Chiv. Chain +1...it's still better, it still means I put more effort/skill/organization into an event (Assault is like a 9-5 job, put in your time and you get your paycheck, its hardly challenging), so I should be rewarded accordingly. SE wants to get away from RMT, then why not make all of the enviable items on mobs gilfarmers will never be able to touch?

Difficulty cannot mirror quality of drops. After people figure out how to easily beat a NM, which is a matter of a few short weeks, the difficulty is gone. With enough digging for information anyone can easily find out winning strageties for every monster in FFXI, therefore difficulty is a moot point, the end. What don't we know how to beat easily besides AV and stuff that you sometimes just get screwed on (DL, that popped NM that runs back and eats the soup)? With the amount of information sharing difficulty of the monster isn't much of an issue, it's simply a question of the player's skill and the persistence to get claim and learn from mistakes.

What's debatable is reward for the effort/skill/organization. Let's face it: HNM fights are predictable, many people know how the monsters act. Assaults are predictable, we know pretty much what to do. Both have the element of random screwage and enough danger to have you fail. Just like a linkshell gathers for the daily 3 hour king window so do people for daily assault runs. As for the skill factor, how is killing the same turtle you've killed for 3 years more of an accomplishment than a tough Assault? It's predictable, you've killed it hundereds of times already. Compare this with Assault, it's much much more unpredictable (hasn't been out long, we don't know all the ins and outs) and that's where skill plays a greater role because we must improvise more.

I have much more respect for people who are trailblazers in Assault and Limbus than the people who kill the same mob over and over for years. Assault/Limbus and god/king both take the effort of showing up, the skill to achive victory and the organization to keep people coming back and winning.

"RMT never be able to touch", you're a funny man.

Sorry to resurrect this from page 2, but if you think anyone who can do an assault, is also able to kill Hydra, Cerberus, Bahamut v2, 3 Kings, 3 New Beastmen Kings, etc etc...you're crazy. I don't know if you're either A)Not in any HNMLS that can kill anything worthwhile or B)In an HNMLS that is so good, that your view of how difficult some of these HNMs are is distorted.

3 LSes tops have kill Bahamut 2 on our server, 2 LSes have killed Hydra. Dozens and dozens wipe to Cerberus daily if we dont claim, and I'd laugh to see people try the new Beastmen mobs, without any concept of how to deal with adds. You can say they both take the same amount of effort, but until EVERYONE is killing Bahamut v2, your point is merely hypothetical. Because Bahamut 2 IS exactly what all of you ask for, hard instanced fighting, not based off of any competative claiming....and yet .05% of most servers population can even come close to killing him. So please, don't give the generic gamer that much credit....cause it just makes you look stupid when they prove you wrong.

[Everlasting]

Sorry to resurrect this from page 2, but if you think anyone who can do an assault, is also able to kill Hydra, Cerberus, Bahamut v2, 3 Kings, 3 New Beastmen Kings, etc etc...you're crazy. I don't know if you're either A)Not in any HNMLS that can kill anything worthwhile or B)In an HNMLS that is so good, that your view of how difficult some of these HNMs are is distorted.

3 LSes tops have kill Bahamut 2 on our server, 2 LSes have killed Hydra. Dozens and dozens wipe to Cerberus daily if we dont claim, and I'd laugh to see people try the new Beastmen mobs, without any concept of how to deal with adds. You can say they both take the same amount of effort, but until EVERYONE is killing Bahamut v2, your point is merely hypothetical. Because Bahamut 2 IS exactly what all of you ask for, hard instanced fighting, not based off of any competative claiming....and yet .05% of most servers population can even come close to killing him. So please, don't give the generic gamer that much credit....cause it just makes you look stupid when they prove you wrong.

Bahmut v2 is completely different from kings and gods, I never said anything about it. It is a very challenging fight and only the best will win. Cerb and Hydra are new and their strategies are not 100% nailed down yet unlike kings and gods.

What I am talking about is new HNM vs old. For old ones we know the strategy, for new ones we don't, thus more people wipe. Do you understand, you get that, see what I'm saying?

I challenge you to find another example besides v2, Cerb and Hydra. Those are all new and unperfected, unlike gods and kings.

[Ayaz]

I'm actually incredibly surprised by a lot of peoples priorities as far as things that need fixing. I hear a lot of cries for changes to the way some of the best drops in the game are obtained but I don't see too much complaining about what is truly ruining FFXI: RMT.

Has everyone noticed the massive influx of new RMT on each server? By my math we have roughly 120 or so "confirmed" RMT on shiva. This number is probably lower than it should be because I don't take into account shitty NA players who craft and RMT their gil and I just can't find them all no matter how hard I try. Does anyone not see the damage this new wave of RMT can cause when coupled with the existing groups?

When was the last time anyone you knew claimed Serket, Pallas, or Sozu? Ever try to farm tree cuttings for a modest profit? The RMT still camp sky like noones business and these 55 or so new farmers will cause several things to probably happen.

1. They will farm mobs in nearly every zone, making millions of gil and interfering with peoples XP/ legitimate farming.

2. Almost every money NM/HNM will be unclaimable or nearly so due to hordes of RMT botting them.

3. The influx of gil to RMT websites will cause the price of gil to plummet. This will in turn encourage the kiddies with moms credit cards to go on a buying spree resulting in the ridiculous inflation we saw months ago.

4. RMT will start camping kings and selling the drops to legit players. Ive heard this has already happened on other servers and the RMT are getting smarter. On shiva the new waves even have people lvling smn (sup tiamatlol).

Myself and half of my LS have already said flatout that the first time RMT claims and kills a king on our server without SE doing anything about it, we're done. This is the one issue I would love to see brought up when an interview is conducted.

[Lordender]

You could tell SE to go watch every serket, King Artho, Simurgh, Ulli, behemoth, Roc pop and just see the gilsellers warping ontop of those mobs all the way across the screen and they still wouldn't do jack fucking shit. If you can't ban them on being suspected gilsellers then ban them for fucking warping ontop of shit because they all do it.

Hands down, RMT is the biggest problem FFXI has right now.

[Veli]

I'm actually incredibly surprised by a lot of peoples priorities as far as things that need fixing. I hear a lot of cries for changes to the way some of the best drops in the game are obtained but I don't see too much complaining about what is truly ruining FFXI: RMT.

Has everyone noticed the massive influx of new RMT on each server? By my math we have roughly 120 or so "confirmed" RMT on shiva. This number is probably lower than it should be because I don't take into account shitty NA players who craft and RMT their gil and I just can't find them all no matter how hard I try. Does anyone not see the damage this new wave of RMT can cause when coupled with the existing groups?

When was the last time anyone you knew claimed Serket, Pallas, or Sozu? Ever try to farm tree cuttings for a modest profit? The RMT still camp sky like noones business and these 55 or so new farmers will cause several things to probably happen.

1. They will farm mobs in nearly every zone, making millions of gil and interfering with peoples XP/ legitimate farming.

2. Almost every money NM/HNM will be unclaimable or nearly so due to hordes of RMT botting them.

3. The influx of gil to RMT websites will cause the price of gil to plummet. This will in turn encourage the kiddies with moms credit cards to go on a buying spree resulting in the ridiculous inflation we saw months ago.

4. RMT will start camping kings and selling the drops to legit players. Ive heard this has already happened on other servers and the RMT are getting smarter. On shiva the new waves even have people lvling smn (sup tiamatlol).

Myself and half of my LS have already said flatout that the first time RMT claims and kills a king on our server without SE doing anything about it, we're done. This is the one issue I would love to see brought up when an interview is conducted.

RMT just kill shit that nobody else wants to kill. Leave them alone

[Ayaz]

Yeah but what happens when someone in your almighty 100 member HNM LS wants a pair of striders? Are you gonna break down and buy them from the RMT since it's fucking impossible to claim simmy? That would be pretty shitty.

[BRP]

Its not as impossible as people make it sound, at least not on my server.

btw, owning the GS is so much fucking fun. They got ulli claim and we weren't going to stand for that. What makes it worse that they were killing it with Bio. I called a GM, but after 30 minutes, nothing and Ulli was at like 85%.

So we found their WHM didn't have blockaid on so, the BRD got some hate and mazuka'd like crazy, he then ran ulli back to entrance(er opposite room of the portal pad) of the room(somehow avoiding all aggro). The gil sellers followed, their main tank(PLD) got aggro and died. So did their WHM and BLM, leaving a BST and another BLM. We got claim when it running back to the portal pad and killed. They said "GM Call" and "Your mother" and such(wasn't the first time we've stolen from them). Anyway, 30 minutes after, I get an automated message from a GM basically saying their power was done lol.

[Khamsin]

RMT just kill shit that nobody else wants to kill. Leave them alone

Are you saying nobody else wants to kill ulli, mee deggi, hoo mjuu, quu domi, serket, roc, king arthro, etc?

Then why have I heard so many complaints from people trying to camp against them to the point where they just give up and buy it?

Until I see RMT focusing on Tumbling Truffle and Jormungand, you don't have a valid point.

[aurik]

RMT just kill shit that nobody else wants to kill. Leave them alone

Are you saying nobody else wants to kill ulli, mee deggi, hoo mjuu, quu domi, serket, roc, king arthro, etc?

Then why have I heard so many complaints from people trying to camp against them to the point where they just give up and buy it?

Until I see RMT focusing on Tumbling Truffle and Jormungand, you don't have a valid point.

Tumbling Truffle's a fucking whore, never drops :X