Battle Adjustments (08/23/2007) (BST, PUP, COR adjustments)

[Kylen]

In meripo, Light Shot is really more reliable than any spell/song a mage can cast. I've landed 530+ Light Shots in a row on g.colibri without a resist (since I started counting).

As for the few BRD whiners... I LOL'ed. Anyone who knows the the averaged returns on rolls (which have been known for some time for every roll that matters, see this spreadsheet) knows that COR rolls, on average, are mediocre at best. Of the three best rolls (Fighter's, Rogue's, Chaos) two of them require stepchild jobs in order to compete with a BRD's rolls. Chaos without DRK averages out to less than Minuet III, Rogue's without THF is barely better than that. Even Fighter's with WAR (avg'd: 2A+13.6%) starts losing to March II when the target is stacking haste. COR deserved this update.

P.S. As a side note, where can I pick up my princess tiara?

Spider-Dan is right. With no DRK, your average Chaos Roll is going to be around an 8% attack boost, which is far less than single Minuet. An average Figher's Roll with a WAR in the party is just about on par with single March purely in terms of the boost to attacks per round assuming no Haste spell or gear, but as soon as you start stacking on other forms of Haste, March pulls way ahead. In short, BRD melee buffs currently blow COR's out of the water; the only place where COR has equal to or greater standing than BRD's is in all-BLM or SMN parties.

Don't base your comparisons of BRD and COR based on the bonus that COR gives with XI roll. XI already gave a more powerful buff than most equivalent BRD rolls before this update, but landing on XI is still pretty rare, even with Snake Eye and Fold.

[Not Kuno]

BST Aern have Xzomit and Euvhi pets, explain that.

man do i ever not pay attention in Sea, i have never noticed anything but Euvhi pets.

Pots, Yovra and Aerns should be the only things not charmable.

Ghrahs should be charmable in Bird and Spider form, that would be so cool.

Its the outside bsts with Xzomit pets because Euvhis werent released until they had the inside zones done (the inside ones have Euvhis).

THE MORE YOU KNOW

[Midnitelouie]

As a career BRD, I've honestly been hoping for a COR boost or slight BRD nerf for a long time. I welcome anything that might take some pressure off of my favorite job and lower the demand, because it really pisses me off that pretty much anyone with a functional brain stem and two fingers is instantly worshiped because they can cast Ballad and stick Elegy on Tiamat after spamming it constantly for 5 minutes. The only people who really have to worry are the retards who leveled BRD because they weren't good enough at any other jobs to get into an HNMLS and the princess idiots who get off on turning down anything except perfect merit parties. The rest of us don't mind the bar being raised, because it just further highlights that we actually have a clue how to play our job.

I must admit this is my one fear about the COR changes as a 75 COR...

I can just see a tidal wave of assclowns rising through the ranks...just because COR became the "hot new job".

As for the rest? Pure win. (Well, except for increasing the range of the Phantom Rolls...there's times I have been cursing the range of some of the rolls as it is...but I'll take more gear choices over the spartan list currently any day.)

[Sho]

As a career BRD, I've honestly been hoping for a COR boost or slight BRD nerf for a long time. I welcome anything that might take some pressure off of my favorite job and lower the demand, because it really pisses me off that pretty much anyone with a functional brain stem and two fingers is instantly worshiped because they can cast Ballad and stick Elegy on Tiamat after spamming it constantly for 5 minutes. The only people who really have to worry are the retards who leveled BRD because they weren't good enough at any other jobs to get into an HNMLS and the princess idiots who get off on turning down anything except perfect merit parties. The rest of us don't mind the bar being raised, because it just further highlights that we actually have a clue how to play our job.

I must admit this is my one fear about the COR changes as a 75 COR...

I can just see a tidal wave of assclowns rising through the ranks...just because COR became the "hot new job".

As for the rest? Pure win. (Well, except for increasing the range of the Phantom Rolls...there's times I have been cursing the range of some of the rolls as it is...but I'll take more gear choices over the spartan list currently any day.)

I'm sure COR can never achieve a status of "hot new job"-- if that was the case, BRDs would be around everywhere in droves.

[DragonCloud64]

Heh the update looks really promising, i cant wait to try out the new heads and abilities and see what kind of damage i can pump out. But the auto being able to cure other PT members is going to add a ton of versatility, since MP isn't that much of a problem.

[KainMinter]

Awesome. Two of my jobs getting substantial buffs. :3

This is going to make BST a shitton easier to take up to 35. Wish I had this update back when I leveled it.

[Khamsin]

skill caps at 250, if they make the cap say, 260 after the update, will my skill be at 270? Thanks for clearning this up.

Your skill won't go up, but the cap will. Instead of a blue number, it'll be gray. You'll have to skill it up some more.

Stay in the back line mother fuckers (the masters, not the automatons) .

So, PUPs with Usukane, speed belts, etc. should stay on the back line and do what?

As a BST...wow. That just killed most if not all of the challenge of the solo portion of the job.

You mean the tediousness of solo portion of the job?

[Kaslo]

It appears as if this update is trying to encourage more people to take up COR and PUP, as both jobs have such a small population. It's great to see COR buffed so now it can be the fantastic support +DD it was meant to be (trade-off being that it can't cure people of course XD). Too early to tell on PUP but if the healing head makes the maton a reliable party healer, PUP can gain a welcome status as a party choice as a solid main healer, doubling a PUP's opportunities to contribute to a party. As for the nuking head, it probably will not give us more spells (increased skill cap will though) but force the maton to nuke exclusievely, perhaps with innate MAB and magic accuracy bonuses (YES PLEASElol). Honestly, all PUP really need now is improvement of the VE for tanking purposes (ie being able to cure the maton, increasing enmity generation) to truly be a desired, multi-facated job for any party need.

Well seeing as the Mage Head (RED) currently acts like a RDM, enfeebles, light nukes (Tier 3 highest) and light Cures. It could be reasonable to think the White head could act like a WHM (tier 5 cure maybe >.> and curagas) and the Black head could act like a BLM (Tier 4 nukes, maybe -gas or AM)

[solsovly]

I really thought this was a joke update when I saw BST adjustments. In regards to staying pets for regen, it may allow some old camps by dragging pets, this will be limited by how fast the healing is by stay. If its like an unclaimed mob regen, it will be very nice. If its anything other than that, it will not open up old camps again as most pets have around 2-3k hp. This will also help farming some drops (it's a shame spider webs are near worthless now). The stay command will however benefit jugpets either way, especially the more expensive ones.

The no xp penalty was something that was needed a long time ago and makes sense. I'm glad its in place, it's going to really help BST's xping to 75 and also /BST immensely. There are only a handful of camps with charmables I can think of at 75 near merit camps, none near the most popular ones like Colibri, Mamools.

The camps with charmables within a reasonable distance are: Ule Range, some dc bats somewhat close, trolls (eruca and leeches), mamook (crabs?), Mire (low dc sheep/bird). Some of these are a stretch to drag as well. There is also the issue of uncharming(finally justifying the +charm gear I carry around), having to recharm midparty and the potential danger of that, losing TP with apollos etc. But overall still a boost from carrie, if you can manage to find a pet.

The patch doesn't address a lot of the problems I have with the job. Inside of sky, sea and most instanced zones still lack charmables.

The job defining ability of Beastmasters is rendered completely useless in the majority of the game. It makes no sense to designate the same mob family as charmable in one instance and not charmable in another. For instance the worms in assault are not charmable. Certain assault puks are charmable, but not charmable in another instance (nyzul, salvage). Nyzul in particular is depressing with the amount of "charmable" mobs not actually being charmable. BCNM's are also fairly unusual in terms of what is charmable and not. Mandragoras, rabbits (that's it?) are charmable but most are not. edit: forgot about the birds of a feather one.

There is also the issue of certain mobs that in my opinion should be charmable but are not. In terms of humanoid, sentient beings, why are mandragora charmble but Sea mobs are not? Why is something like a scorpion charmable, but other large mobs are not (hippos, goobbues, roses).

Though I'm thankful for increasing the jugpet duration, I really don't understand why it even exists in the first place. In addition it doesnt address the problem of jugpets. Cost, rarity, and most importantly usefulness. Arguably the best jugpet to 65 is funguar, which is vendor purchasable. This makes almost every single "capped" jugpet under 65 relatively useless (outside of having limited fun). The ones that are uncapped suffer from the original problems above in terms of rarity and price(except maybe carrie and homonculus).

This buff is nice, but I hope its the first of many to address the issues of my favorite job. To the BST who is leaking about hard mode, shut up.

[FinalJustice]

The blm head HAS to cast tier 4 nukes, and atleast AM, otherwise, whats the point..

[Spider-Dan]

I'm sure COR can never achieve a status of "hot new job"-- if that was the case, BRDs would be around everywhere in droves.

/sea all BRD

Either that, or your sarcasm injector needs a bigger needle.

[ringthree]

Just reading the Fold information again, and the translation which appears to be at least a little bit different. Perhaps they mean that Fold will now remove the weakest roll instead of the last roll?

[Ryko]

I'm sure COR can never achieve a status of "hot new job"-- if that was the case, BRDs would be around everywhere in droves.

/sea all BRD

52 on, there are more WARs from 38-75 than there are brds 1-75 on the server, granted a lot more bards will be motivated to go anon.

[Sho]

I'm sure COR can never achieve a status of "hot new job"-- if that was the case, BRDs would be around everywhere in droves.

/sea all BRD

/sea all BRD = 45

/sea all COR = 6

/sea all BLU = 72 (for comparison)

Well, we shall see wut happens.

Being that alot of BRD (and COR) are probably anon due to it still being slightly JP time, 45 BRDs is not alot.

Edit: (just went down to 40 BRDs, btw >_>)

[Jkun]

I'm sure COR can never achieve a status of "hot new job"-- if that was the case, BRDs would be around everywhere in droves.

/sea all BRD

/sea all BRD = 45

/sea all COR = 6

/sea all BLU = 72 (for comparison)

Well, we shall see wut happens.

Being that alot of BRD (and COR) are probably anon due to it still being slightly JP time, 45 BRDs is not alot.

Edit: (just went down to 40 BRDs, btw >_>)

I remember when it was just me and a JP who were 75 PUP this time last year. You could shit on anyone's face about the job and they would believe you and respect you.

Well maybe not respect...since...PUP...but...yeah.

Good times.

[OctavoGilgamesh]

In regards to staying pets for regen, it may allow some old camps by dragging pets, this will be limited by how fast the healing is by stay. If its like an unclaimed mob regen, it will be very nice. If its anything other than that, it will not open up old camps again as most pets have around 2-3k hp.

This is the part many of you guys complaining missed. I am waiting on how strong the regen is before bitching. I honestly cannot see the regen being less than the normal 10%/10 sec passive mob regen. If it is less, well the upgraded 'Stay' doesn't do shit and the complaints will be warranted.

[Isiolia]

Spider-Dan is right. With no DRK, your average Chaos Roll is going to be around an 8% attack boost, which is far less than single Minuet. An average Figher's Roll with a WAR in the party is just about on par with single March purely in terms of the boost to attacks per round assuming no Haste spell or gear, but as soon as you start stacking on other forms of Haste, March pulls way ahead. In short, BRD melee buffs currently blow COR's out of the water; the only place where COR has equal to or greater standing than BRD's is in all-BLM or SMN parties.

Don't base your comparisons of BRD and COR based on the bonus that COR gives with XI roll. XI already gave a more powerful buff than most equivalent BRD rolls before this update, but landing on XI is still pretty rare, even with Snake Eye and Fold.

I'm not saying that -some- boost to buffs wasn't in order.

It's more that the way I read it, it's saying that the lower end of the spectrum will be equal to BRD songs, and at the upper end on par with Soul Voice buffs.
If it was something like, lower end at 80% effectiveness, average on par, and upper end at 120% or so, then it'd be different.

As for "princess status" or whatever...I've been 75 BRD for all of one week. I leveled it in a less than optimal static of LS members, and have mostly continued to buffer merit in friend/LS parties.
It's more that I'm looking at it coming from playing RDM since I started the game, basically at PC release. BRD is simply very niche, and very limited in what it does sans-subjob (which is relatively moot as COR can go /WHM to the same effectiveness). I don't see why a hybrid DD/buffer should have better buffs than a job that is -only- a buffer.

[Midnitelouie]

I'm sure COR can never achieve a status of "hot new job"-- if that was the case, BRDs would be around everywhere in droves.

True...but with this? The level of BRD will probably remain constant or decrease, with the increase in the COR population being those who are hurrying to get to 75 COR for increased invites.

Thus, somewhat like the comments of wife on occasion, "Ah. They leveled Bard to get the invites...it's obvious they have no clue as to what they're doing..."

(And no...that wasn't stated to invite comments of BRD elite-ism. There's a HUGE difference between BRDs that I've partied with. That one group that is the "I have BRD to get invites" and the "I love BRD and want to excel at it"...)

[Tomino]

Fold 3/3
Snake Eye 2/3
Loaded Deck 1/3

* Fold change seems will affect it removing Bust! effects first; right now the ability removes the last roll used.

[Bakthi]

I can't wait for a massive influx of people leveling COR/WHM because "bullets are too expensive" :/ I love the thought of higher damage ammo, although I hope it's not a severe letdown like the Corsair's Bullet (tiny damage boost, low availability). Cost isn't a huge concern for me; I think that getting TP with Joyeuse for Slug Shot is the way to go, so since hitting 70, I don't really use bullets up very quickly.

Phantom Roll extending gear should have been in the game already; in fact, it should have been on our AF. They could have put it on the pants, or something. Hopefully, SE will be sane and it will be something we can just macro in while rolling (and not, like, a dagger). Assuming that this gear only adjusts range, one could also use it or not depending on whether you want to hit a lot of people, or just hit some mages with their backs to a wall and miss other people.

I'm quite excited about the buff potency increase. I'm one of those people who actually does like to play BRD, and went to the trouble of getting all the Ex gear I could, meriting wind/singing and tier 1/2, etc. But I like my other jobs too, especially COR, and it would be great if COR could step out from under BRD's shadow a bit for end-game stuff.

The BST changes are not things that would have been my highest priority, but are welcome. They will help out /BST, which I use a lot, not having access to a 75 mage with which to PL my lowbie jobs. They may re-enable some old camps, like using blood balls in Boyahda or camping the zone at Bos[tab]. They may eventually lower the price/raise the availability of some of the nicer 75 jugs.