Feb. Update - When and What

[safer]

salvage interest has pick up a bit in my linkshell, and the people involved are pretty supporting and understanding of the mistakes i've made >_>

its alot of trial and error, xp loss, points wasted, time wasted etc... but the people who attend with me dont care about all that stuff and just wanna do it for fun, D;

[BRP]

I'm not putting too much thought into it... but that + ridil(which is a weapon, so meh) + speed pants seem to be the best of Zilart. I think it is the other way around. Salvage gear made my eyes pop out when I first saw it.

[SassiAsura]

BRP what is that signature of yours from?

[Uzor]

If they do plan on making the game better with it, it would explain why Salvage gear is *almost* as good as Zilart gear ( generally speaking ), but not quite above it ( with a few exceptions ).

Wha-what?

The NIN and WAR legs - almost as good as Byakko's Haidate. The WAR body, almost as good as E. Body.

WAR head, NIN/SAM/MNK body, RNG/THF feet = win.

Not to mention Morrigan Body blows Dalmatica and Crimson Scale Mail out of the water... Morrigan Body is like Dalmatica and Crimson Scale Mail combined, with 2 INT and MND and without the HP/MP bonus >.>

The whole Morrigan set is just pure awesomness for RDM, and for BLM if the magic attack bonus from a full set is good. Marduk is kind of "meh" though =/

[Zilong]

Don't get me wrong because I love salvage. However, as mine and countless other lses have seen, the random cell drop rate at the start is a real killer if the wrong cells drop at the wrong time. It is a poorly designed artifical challenge that can create way too much frustration, especially with the 2k assault point fee and the high degree of uncertainity in certain zones. When you look at it, Dynamis and Limbus are more straightforward but still require solid strategies to master. Salvage seems to be based more on luck than strategy.

Salvage really lacks consistency to make it more skill oriented.

You'd end up with too much of one type at one cell on one run, and too little of it on the next, and most of the time, it can be a huge difference between winning or dying on the second floor or so.

Need to toss in some sort of consistency, at least on the vital cells like magic/ability/subjob/weapons.

[Toth]

NIN/SAM/MNK/PUP

Fixed :D

(Hey, a man can dream)

[epigram]

Well hopefully they finally give bst a boost.

I'm sorry but besides beast affinity there are no merits more useless than the other group 2 beast groups (I would fully merit throwing before them).

It would also be nice to have a pet that could pull off LDL type damage but not cost 100k for 10-15min.

BST gear is fine, but maybe a boost on damage or decrease in dealy of Tabar class bst only axes would be nice (Similar to what they did with thief).

I would also like to see skadi gear look less absolutely retarded. The first male elf in full skadi should be taken back to the woods and shot... It's like dragon subligar all over again >.>;

[Isiolia]

BST could really use a full revamp of the jug pet system IMO.

Charmable pets are fine as they are, since if you have an EM pet it's gonna more than make up for lower melee prowess.

Jug pets I think should be at least partially controllable as to what TP moves they use. I think they could also make the job a ton more interesting by giving the BST bonuses based on the pet called, possibly something that could be shared to the party as well.

Obviously, removing the pointless caps on jugs and making them far more available would be nice too. Plus perhaps a way to directly buff them the way SMN and DRG gear does for their pets.

[ringthree]

Only commenting on things I would dispute.

2. Opening up a 'sky/sea' of ToA. They started the trend before so they'd probably continue it.

There are no map dat's for this, so I doubt it, I don't know any time they have added map dat's that wasn't on an expansion disc.

Like Limbus was added BUT it has no maps. But all of the assault areas have maps already.

Speculation:

Given the current resources available left in ToA, S-E has very left to work with in terms of a new 'end-game region'. If we are to speak of equivalents, Zilart had Tu'Lia and Promathia had Lumoria.
There aren't really any extra areas left for them to make an entirely new region, but they might be able to play around with what they've got.

I highly doubt that the 4 remnant areas were originally meant to be for Salvage but they'd converted it into that.. And since Alzadaal is still shrouded in much mystery in the mission story, theres a good chance a later part of the story will unlock access to a deeper part of Aldazaal.. and from the fact that it's the only region left in the ToA expansion where there are zones yet to be used or are underused, theres also a good chance Alzadaal will become the sky/sea of ToA.

My hypothesis.

Nyzul Isle was originally meant to be a staging point for assault but it's not been used, so instead of using it for future assault, they're going to convert it into a new zone. (they did the exact 'opposite' of this for Limbus. They converted lower promy and ou'phat obelisk for it)

If you look here http://www.ffxi-atlas.com/maps/nyzul-isle/general/at the Nyzul Isle map, there are lotsa places where they could stuff in new mobs that drop trigger items and the like, and places where theres room to put a ??? or whatever it is needed to pop the NMs. (Its not particularly expansive but would look pretty good imo... the last map would make for a nice, albeit small place for a showdown with a strong NM :D imo)

But it wouldn't seem right to bunch everything into 1 zone alone, so they could get trigger items to drop in Nyzul, and then place ???s in Aldazaal as well (esp in those weird empty rooms near the Remnants) so that people can play with NMs in there - in this way introducing a tier system.
(eg. various triggers in nyzul > 4 popped tier 1 in aldazaal undersea > 2 popped tier 2 in nyzul > super nm in nyzul last map )

In addition to this, theres a very convenient staging point that lets people gain access to the region and if this is once again a repeat of trends, both Sky/Sea are now extremely accessible zones once you meet the requirements - especially if you consider that Teleports are the most basic system of getting around anywhere in Vana'diel and staging points are the system in place for the Near East.

I don't know why im so interested in this happening, i just want them to make the popped NM structure for ToA happen soon.. as well as new monster types and the finale for ToA story. they need more mission BCs..

I disagree, the fact that assaults drop tons, I mean metric shit tons of potions and ethers seem to indicate to me that they knew they were going to do Salvage and not only that but that they knew what Salvage was going to be about since the expansion was released. Also the distribution of the gear and the quality of the gear in Salvage and the thought that was put into that gear to make it balanced proves that it wasn't just something thrown together like Limbus. The complicated nature of salvage and the interesting way that all of the NM's are spawned speaks to the amount of time that went into Salvage. Limbus is just recycled zones from the areas that were supposed to be at the end of CoP storyline but was chopped short for some reason.

[Xeno]

lolScythe upgrade? If they do that I might come back >.>

[Therin]

I personally think Salvage is almost perfect.

The only change I'd like to see is scaled drop rates depending on the number of people you had. (i.e. the more people you have, the more cells each mob drops)

This way you could take more people and not gimp yourself on time.

As for the system of Salvage itself, it's VERY strategic (MUCH more than Limbus, about the same as Dynamis, at least the upper tier zones and CoP ones) because you have to pick and choose exactly what to do.

It isn't like you can go in with 18-36 people and clear the entire zone, like you can do in all of the city Dynamis zones (and almost in Xarcabard, with the exception of a few pulls). You actually have to be on your toes the entire time and know what to pull before you ever go inside if you want to get the most out of your time.

Also - the upgrading system is perfect. The gear is FAR too strong to simply drop from mobs (most of it destroys AF2, for instance), yet it's not strong enough to warrant a full upgrading system similar to relic weapons.

It'll take people a lot of time and work to get the items, but with good coordination it's not really that hard.

In fact, if you went to Salvage every day, planned out your runs and farmed specifically for certain items, you could have a fully upgraded Ares body or Usukane legs (I use these examples because they are the only two pieces that all 3 drops from have been discovered) in about a week. That's two runs to get cards, two runs to use the cards, and one run at LBC, assuming he drops the right items. Five runs = five days.

And even if LBC didn't drop the right item, you could just go back a few times, the other two pieces are 100% drop off of their respective NMs.

[Khamsin]

NIN/SAM/MNK/PUP

Fixed :D

(Hey, a man can dream)

I'm lotting usukane set just for my PUP lol.

[Jeryhn]

I disagree, the fact that assaults drop tons, I mean metric shit tons of potions and ethers seem to indicate to me that they knew they were going to do Salvage and not only that but that they knew what Salvage was going to be about since the expansion was released.

I tend to agree. I thought at first that all the Potioning meant that there were going to be more CoP-style missions where success depended on supplies, but at the same time the missions were all retardedly easy and more reminiscient of RoZ missions than CoP.

Now that you look at things in hindsight, Salvage and Assault seem to complement each other perfectly, and it really does seem like it was all planned ahead of time and intentionally put into practice so that the people who were interested in Assault right off the bat reaped some good rewards by being able to participate in Salvage immediately and figure things out in the same way they did with Assault, while the people who were originally turned off by Assault now saw a lucrative reason to do it (much like how people finally started doing CoP missions when the Rings were released).

Honestly, the only things that have left me disappointed with this expansion are the Mission BCs (I'm a big quest/mission junkie) and the fact that Cell (and some armor) drops in Salvage seem somewhat retarded. That and the fact that the Conquest/Signet system blows ass and hasn't yet been addressed, but I'm sure we all know the reason why is to promote ToAU at the moment.

[Septimus]

The only thing about Salvage that really annoys me are the cell drops.

They need to smarten up the system so that, for example, if everyone in your group has belts unlocked, it stops dropping cells to unlock belts and instead drops cells to unlock other slots. That would make Salvage a lot better.

[TsingTao]

I expect they'll tweak Salvage a bit. I also expect some more Assault ranks and ToAU missions (hopefully a bunch so it warps up the story).

I'd dearly love some more Merits added to Melee and Magic. Don't need to up the caps, just give us 6 & 4 more and people will be much better off.

I dream about SE letting us call our NPCs in ToAU areas, but I don't expect it will ever happen. It's too bad too, I like my little buddy.

RE Cells: Wouldn't it be nice if you got generic unlock cells that you could use as you see fit? A ton of flexibility in how you spend them depending on who you bring that way, and still some strategy required. Spam too many on a few people (or wrong people) early leads to later disaster....but you're not hosed by default for lack of a specific type.

Probably been said already, probably too big a pain to code that way, would sure be nice though. Could balance the drop #s based on how many parties enter the zone.

[Isiolia]

It'd probably work for them to add cells to the chests based on number of people in the zone.

[TsingTao]

I was thinking more along the lines of how they scale Garrison based on the number of parties in the alliance. Scale the # of mobs that spawn on the first floor for 1/2/3 parties, have them all drop a set number of Generic Cells, and you can rather easily scale the challenge. Kill as many as you need to feel ready to progress your group onward.

Spawn enough mobs so that people can have fun and be at least semi useful should you just rush to the Boss. Leave enough things locked even on a full clear so that you're not fully powered up unless you work hard on the way to the Mega Boss, but not so random that you'll have people still totally gimped 45min in to the event.

They'd need to do a whole little special interface that lets you pick what gets unlocked with a generic type cell, but it wouldn't be too bad (assuming people aren't horribly lazy). Steal the basic UI expandable menus if you want, make root categories and expand from there. Unlock Weapons >> Main, Sub, Ranged, Ammo or Unlock Stats: STR, DEX, CON, AGI, INT, WIS, CHR, HP, MP come to mind as examples.

[Terrance]

The whole Morrigan set is just pure awesomness for RDM, and for BLM if the magic attack bonus from a full set is good. Marduk is kind of "meh" though =/

The only good peice of Morrigan for RDM who have dalmatica is the feet. You'll still be swapping the robe for mahatma/crimson/errant or AF1 on casts. The only reason you'd have it on would be for the refresh or for nuking. Saying it "blows crimson and dalmatica out of the water" is just wrong.

And so far salvage is exceedingly boring. Mages have a lot of time that they really can't do much. Melee are basically just grinding away at endless XP mobs without getting XP. All the while you have to constantly mess with your treasure pool. No thanks.

[Iresire]

And so far salvage is exceedingly boring. Mages have a lot of time that they really can't do much. Melee are basically just grinding away at endless XP mobs without getting XP. All the while you have to constantly mess with your treasure pool. No thanks.

Yeah, so far the only thing Salvage has done has made consider the portable games that are available so I won't be entirely bored during a Salvage run.

Like many things in this game, Salvage is only a tweak or two from being amazing. I don't entirely mind the drop rate on the gear, but, as a BLM, I do mind not being able to do anything (due to never getting magic unlock) anywhere from 50% to 100% of the run.

Also, constantly dealing with the loot in the people is annoying.

So far, my impression is that Bhaflau Remnants is the "most tolerable" one. My LS is still trying to clear LBC, so, we haven't tried many other Remnants other than Bhaflau. We did, however, have a nightmarish attempt at Arrapago Remnants to get a card. We got no cells whatsoever from several qutrub and lamia, for the win.~ So, I'm a bit wary of other remnant areas.

[BRP]

I'd like it if they gave you like a random 3 or 5 cells in the beginning to get you started. Everyone being naked/helpless for like 20 minutes kind of hurts the fun after the first or second time. Having someone who can use a weapon, someone who can cast a spell, and someone who can use abilities would really speed that part up.