Premier Site Summit Wrap-Up (04/04/2007)

[aurik]

You guys went with shitty monks. The monks I went with, we all brought stacks of eye drops and had the accuracy to hit blinded with meat anyway.

KRT was hands-down the best pre-toau merit location until people figured out that you can burn in uleguerand range.

[Septimus]

You guys went with shitty monks. The monks I went with, we all brought stacks of eye drops and had the accuracy to hit blinded with meat anyway.

KRT was hands-down the best pre-toau merit location until people figured out that you can burn in uleguerand range.

I went with shitty bards as well. I had one that flee hacked, but still didn't bother to cast Ballad on the mages, and still died somehow...

Plus MNKs are pure MP sponges... >_>

[aurik]

You guys went with shitty monks. The monks I went with, we all brought stacks of eye drops and had the accuracy to hit blinded with meat anyway.

KRT was hands-down the best pre-toau merit location until people figured out that you can burn in uleguerand range.

I went with shitty bards as well. I had one that flee hacked, but still didn't bother to cast Ballad on the mages, and still died somehow...

Plus MNKs are pure MP sponges... >_>

I appreciate the fact that as a support mage you don't want to be casting spells, especially not curative ones. Though, we never had problems going convert to convert without running out of MP. But, party with shitty people and you'll have shitty parties.

[Nagamaki]

Blindna in KRT helped but wasn't mandatory, it dropped your acc a bit while using Hedgehog Pie, if you used sushi they you could just ignore blind but you really don't need that much acc to hit anything in there so that was a waste to begin with. Shadow Claw from dogs is a stronger form of blind and was always worth getting rid of, but Black Cloud really doesn't have a strong effect.

You could chain the whole map with 5 ppl (2 MNKs and the usual mage set) as long as the MNKs were reasonably well geared, so its pretty obvious losing a few points of acc with 3 MNKs wasn't going to slow you down much.

KRT was definitely faster xp than Decos and pretty close to a good Uleguerand setup, although the gaps between those camps was minimal compared to ToAU camps.

A melee burn setup on Eo'aerns was actually pretty solid xp too, by pre-ToAU standards.

[Elesirdur]

Speaking of XP/Meripo activities, has SE even put any thought into how the XP bonus in ToAU creates mass overcrowding at 75? As someone mentioned, FFXI's getting to be a pretty top-heavy game and with more and more people getting multiple 75s the onus is on them to merit out not one, but multiple jobs. Yes the signet improvements are great for sub-40 leveling, but it's not really done anything to draw people away from the crowded ToAU zones for meriting. I guess what frustrates me the most about xp'ing in ToAU is not the crowds (hi2u Ulli camp circa 2004), but the that SE made those "easy" mobs so goddamn irritating to fight. I'm talking about Snatch Morsel, Amneisa, Silencega, annoying crap the likes you would normally find on a NM. I know they designed these squishy mobs to have at least some difficult aspect to them but jeebus, did they have to make it so freaking irritating?

I guess I'm just bitching because after so long I would hope that SE would stop enjoying nut-shotting their playerbase with artificial difficulty and give them what they want after so many years of paid service. Or maybe I'm still bummed that lolPLD invites aren't all that easy even in ToAU - I can do 12k/hr, I swear!



Addendum: I did want to add that I have noticed that BG's Adv. Player Discussion section has really stagnated lately. With that in mind, the Newbie Player section has become a good resource for questioning and information and seems to be far more active than the grognards going at it in their 50+ page threads over in the Adv. section.

[Italax]

Blindna in KRT helped but wasn't mandatory, it dropped your acc a bit while using Hedgehog Pie, if you used sushi they you could just ignore blind but you really don't need that much acc to hit anything in there so that was a waste to begin with. Shadow Claw from dogs is a stronger form of blind and was always worth getting rid of, but Black Cloud really doesn't have a strong effect.

I only ever had one KRT party where all the Monks were well-equipped enough to have a decent hit rate with Blind up. God I hated the recast timer on Blind in there, I hated it so much, especially since none of the other 5 party members seemed to realise it's recast time was long as fuck for a -na spell. I always seemed to end up hasting the monks on my own too, the Red Mage just seemed to be there to be a refresh bitch...

[aurik]

Speaking of XP/Meripo activities, has SE even put any thought into how the XP bonus in ToAU creates mass overcrowding at 75? As someone mentioned, FFXI's getting to be a pretty top-heavy game and with more and more people getting multiple 75s the onus is on them to merit out not one, but multiple jobs. Yes the signet improvements are great for sub-40 leveling, but it's not really done anything to draw people away from the crowded ToAU zones for meriting. I guess what frustrates me the most about xp'ing in ToAU is not the crowds (hi2u Ulli camp circa 2004), but the that SE made those "easy" mobs so goddamn irritating to fight. I'm talking about Snatch Morsel, Amneisa, Silencega, annoying crap the likes you would normally find on a NM. I know they designed these squishy mobs to have at least some difficult aspect to them but jeebus, did they have to make it so freaking irritating?

I guess I'm just bitching because after so long I would hope that SE would stop enjoying nut-shotting their playerbase with artificial difficulty and give them what they want after so many years of paid service. Or maybe I'm still bummed that lolPLD invites aren't all that easy even in ToAU - I can do 12k/hr, I swear!

You're complaining that they have made fast-repop-easy-kill merit camps that have "annoying" tp moves? I guess you won't be satisfied until you can sit in your mog house and press the "earn merit" button. Go play progress quest and stop bitching.

[aurik]

Blindna in KRT helped but wasn't mandatory, it dropped your acc a bit while using Hedgehog Pie, if you used sushi they you could just ignore blind but you really don't need that much acc to hit anything in there so that was a waste to begin with. Shadow Claw from dogs is a stronger form of blind and was always worth getting rid of, but Black Cloud really doesn't have a strong effect.

I only ever had one KRT party where all the Monks were well-equipped enough to have a decent hit rate with Blind up. God I hated the recast timer on Blind in there, I hated it so much, especially since none of the other 5 party members seemed to realise it's recast time was long as fuck for a -na spell. I always seemed to end up hasting the monks on my own too, the Red Mage just seemed to be there to be a refresh bitch...

Party with shitty people, and you'll have a shitty parties.

[Elesirdur]

Speaking of XP/Meripo activities, has SE even put any thought into how the XP bonus in ToAU creates mass overcrowding at 75? As someone mentioned, FFXI's getting to be a pretty top-heavy game and with more and more people getting multiple 75s the onus is on them to merit out not one, but multiple jobs. Yes the signet improvements are great for sub-40 leveling, but it's not really done anything to draw people away from the crowded ToAU zones for meriting. I guess what frustrates me the most about xp'ing in ToAU is not the crowds (hi2u Ulli camp circa 2004), but the that SE made those "easy" mobs so goddamn irritating to fight. I'm talking about Snatch Morsel, Amneisa, Silencega, annoying crap the likes you would normally find on a NM. I know they designed these squishy mobs to have at least some difficult aspect to them but jeebus, did they have to make it so freaking irritating?

I guess I'm just bitching because after so long I would hope that SE would stop enjoying nut-shotting their playerbase with artificial difficulty and give them what they want after so many years of paid service. Or maybe I'm still bummed that lolPLD invites aren't all that easy even in ToAU - I can do 12k/hr, I swear!

You're complaining that they have made fast-repop-easy-kill merit camps that have "annoying" tp moves? I guess you won't be satisfied until you can sit in your mog house and press the "earn merit" button. Go play progress quest and stop bitching.

I guess that post did come out pretty whiney. I was more or less commenting that the ToAU mobs seem to not be difficult per se, but be annoying - not necessarily what I would call good game design. Frankly, I enjoy leveling off challenging mobs; Ulegarand range was fun for that. But then again, without momentary agitation from silly mob moves I would probably fall asleep meriting in ToAU.

[aurik]

They didn't remove Uleguerand from the game you know. I was up there a while ago meritting and it was fabulous and fabulously empty. Hate crowds? Go to an old-school camp.

[Septimus]

Addendum: I did want to add that I have noticed that BG's Adv. Player Discussion section has really stagnated lately. With that in mind, the Newbie Player section has become a good resource for questioning and information and seems to be far more active than the grognards going at it in their 50+ page threads over in the Adv. section.

We may have been a little... zealous about what threads belong in what sections.

[Mifaco]

ToAU may have upped the ante as far as fucking annoying TP moves go, but Amnesiaga, Snatch Morsel, and Silencega is preferable to being raped in the face by Condemnation or Hell Slash

[Ryany]

I once had a KRT party where I would always be dead out of mana on white mage after chain5. I couldn’t get more than 2 ticks of rest in without someone dropping to red. I kept asking the party why the hell they were taking damage so fast compared to other parties. It turned out the bard was not using elegy.

On a side note, blindna was one of the reasons I never wanted to play whm there. It got annoying really fast when you would have 3 monks that have never played white mage all expecting to get blindna 3 seconds after blinded as if there wasn’t a recast or cast time. Getting some rest ticks in was what kept mana up to keep long chains going and sometimes a few ticks of rest was more important than a blindna against a T dog that they wouldn’t have any problem keeping the chain going against anyway.

[Septimus]

ToAU may have upped the ante as far as fucking annoying TP moves go, but Amnesiaga, Snatch Morsel, and Silencega is preferable to being raped in the face by Condemnation or Hell Slash

Meanwhile, at the Square-Enix headquarters located in a hollowed-out undersea volcano...

Dev 1: This new mob is a Tarus.
Dev 2: Boy, it looks scary. Is it aggressive to sight or sound.
Dev 1: We were thinking of making them aggressive to sight and sound, like Ahriman.

CoP Director Beelzebub enters the room.

Beelzebub: What kind of weapon skills does it have?
Dev 1: Well, we have one that removes shadows, another that is an AoE defense down, and a line of sight flash and slow move.
Beelzebub: I think you need to CoP up those TP moves.
Dev 1: How about instead of line of sight flash and slow, we make it stun?
Beelzebub: More CoP!
Dev 1: Umm... Line of sight terror and curse?
Beelzebub: MORE CoP!!
Dev 1: Line of sight doom?!
Beelzebub: MAXIMUM CoP!!!
Dev 1: Line of sight doom that is nearly impossible to remove with cursna?
Beelzebub: Excellent. How else can we increase the CoP of this mob?
Dev 2: We can make it true sight.
Beelzebub: Fantastic. That is a truly horribly mob for a truly horribly expansion.

[Italax]

Blindna in KRT helped but wasn't mandatory, it dropped your acc a bit while using Hedgehog Pie, if you used sushi they you could just ignore blind but you really don't need that much acc to hit anything in there so that was a waste to begin with. Shadow Claw from dogs is a stronger form of blind and was always worth getting rid of, but Black Cloud really doesn't have a strong effect.

I only ever had one KRT party where all the Monks were well-equipped enough to have a decent hit rate with Blind up. God I hated the recast timer on Blind in there, I hated it so much, especially since none of the other 5 party members seemed to realise it's recast time was long as fuck for a -na spell. I always seemed to end up hasting the monks on my own too, the Red Mage just seemed to be there to be a refresh bitch...

Party with shitty people, and you'll have a shitty parties.

KRT pick-up parties were never a good idea really :/

[ashke]

ToAU may have upped the ante as far as fucking annoying TP moves go, but Amnesiaga, Snatch Morsel, and Silencega is preferable to being raped in the face by Condemnation or Hell Slash

Meanwhile, at the Square-Enix headquarters located in a hollowed-out undersea volcano...

Dev 1: This new mob is a Tarus.
Dev 2: Boy, it looks scary. Is it aggressive to sight or sound.
Dev 1: We were thinking of making them aggressive to sight and sound, like Ahriman.

CoP Director Beelzebub enters the room.

Beelzebub: What kind of weapon skills does it have?
Dev 1: Well, we have one that removes shadows, another that is an AoE defense down, and a line of sight flash and slow move.
Beelzebub: I think you need to CoP up those TP moves.
Dev 1: How about instead of line of sight flash and slow, we make it stun?
Beelzebub: More CoP!
Dev 1: Umm... Line of sight terror and curse?
Beelzebub: MORE CoP!!
Dev 1: Line of sight doom?!
Beelzebub: MAXIMUM CoP!!!
Dev 1: Line of sight doom that is nearly impossible to remove with cursna?
Beelzebub: Excellent. How else can we increase the CoP of this mob?
Dev 2: We can make it true sight.
Beelzebub: Fantastic. That is a truly horribly mob for a truly horribly expansion.

So true, rofl.

To add onto it, though ~~~

Beelzebub: Now stick it at the beginning and end of every path on the way to a Dragon that drops tradeskill items and a stick. And in case that doesn't draw players, let's put an ENM there.
Dev 2: Wow
Beelzebub: And make them have to go through the entire zone to fall down an entire glacier past an outcropping that looks like pancake boobs to get the key item.
Dev 1: That's just evil
Beelzebub: And make that ENM vs. two of those mobs.

[Toth]

Speaking of XP/Meripo activities, has SE even put any thought into how the XP bonus in ToAU creates mass overcrowding at 75?

They claim this was the idea, to get 75s out of the middle lands and into ToA for meritting. The crowding was by design...

[Raineer]

Chiming in late but i loved going /WHM as RDM and being able to contribute to status cures etc...

So my favorite use of chainspell was easily curaga2 if something has really hit the fan, a little better than bene since I can obviously stay alive for a good deal of hits with stoneskin/blink.

[Septimus]

Chiming in late but i loved going /WHM as RDM and being able to contribute to status cures etc...

So my favorite use of chainspell was easily curaga2 if something has really hit the fan, a little better than bene since I can obviously stay alive for a good deal of hits with stoneskin/blink.

Hmm... You loved going RDM/WHM, but then you quit. Coincidence?

I think not.

[Elesirdur]

Speaking of XP/Meripo activities, has SE even put any thought into how the XP bonus in ToAU creates mass overcrowding at 75?

They claim this was the idea, to get 75s out of the middle lands and into ToA for meritting. The crowding was by design...

I guess they want North Americans and European players to know what it feels like to be crammed into a subway with 503x10e^48 other passengers. Maybe next update they'll require a peripheral that reads explicit loli hentai next to you on the train then touches you inappropriately when you try and shut the game down.