Opinions for Job Adjustments

[ronin sparthos]

3rd Song slot for Bards, only for bar-spellish songs and carols.

[Lucavi]

Stackable effects when multiple bards sing the same song at the same time. Everyone knows Melody and Harmony sound better than just Melody OR Harmony alone.

Hell, lets just get a party of 4 bards in each alliance doing a barbershop quartet -- that'll pump everyone up!

[fndragon]

Hell, lets just get a party of 4 bards in each alliance doing a barbershop quartet -- that'll pump everyone up!

I'll settle for different audio cues for each song. 75 levels of the same bloody melody - every 75 bard knows by now to play with sound disabled.

And while we're on the subject: Trumpets, Guitars, Drums. Mix it up a little. Hell, throw in a Theremin and just confuse 99% of the FFXI audience. (You're doing what with your hands now?)

[Isiolia]

3rd Song slot for Bards, only for bar-spellish songs and carols.

Would be nice, yeah. I'd maybe extend it to Paeons as well.

[ronin sparthos]

Drums or Guitars arent a bad idea, the issue of one-song for everything is a PS2/360 memory limitation im sure.

Bards dont really need a 'stackable effect' since an individual bard is already arguably a very broken tool when used correctly. More instruments, a 3rd slot for those 'useless' bar-spells/carols, maybe some more offensive options for Bard and BRD would be pretty set.

Bards main issue is the lack of use for 90% of its total spell-set.

[The Q]

Yeah mages outside of RDM need some way to gain MP back on their own w/o resting. That or make resting back not take for-fucking-ever.

I'm gonna go ahead and say in b4 someone goes all to shit over that hurting RDM.

[ronin sparthos]

Other mages having a way to regain MP isnt going to hurt RDM nevertheless the other two refresh jobs: COR and BRD.

BLM being able to regain -some- MP via a sucessful Magic Burst and WHM being able to cast spells using a JA via HP wouldnt be 'broken' either.

[The Q]

Other mages having a way to regain MP isnt going to hurt RDM nevertheless the other two refresh jobs: COR and BRD.

BLM being able to regain -some- MP via a sucessful Magic Burst and WHM being able to cast spells using a JA via HP wouldnt be 'broken' either.

Of course. I completely agree.

There's always gonna be THOSE GUYS though.

[Khamsin]

Drums or Guitars arent a bad idea, the issue of one-song for everything is a PS2/360 memory limitation im sure.

Bards dont really need a 'stackable effect' since an individual bard is already arguably a very broken tool when used correctly. More instruments, a 3rd slot for those 'useless' bar-spells/carols, maybe some more offensive options for Bard and BRD would be pretty set.

Bards main issue is the lack of use for 90% of its total spell-set.

Drums would be a bad idea because they'd need to add a percussion skill to make it work.

Guitars and saxophones would fit better within the existing system.

[ronin sparthos]

As much as i would like to see a taru playing a sax with shades on those brass instruments just seem too 'advanced' for FFXI - yeah i know the game has guns but still >.>;

Guitar of some sort, Violin-family or a hand trumpet (made of something like bone) would fit the mood of the game.

.....or a harmonica.

[Ohemgee]

Benediction should restore MP

[ronin sparthos]

or both HP and MP but that wouldnt help WHM much in the long run~

[Isiolia]

Yeah mages outside of RDM need some way to gain MP back on their own w/o resting. That or make resting back not take for-fucking-ever.

I'm gonna go ahead and say in b4 someone goes all to shit over that hurting RDM.

Main thing I'd say is that if other mages get strong standing Refresh/MP regeneration, RDM should get it too, to some degree. If it's something more comparable to Convert as a JA, then RDM already has it (though of course, might be appropriate to give RDM some other new toys in that case).

"Hurting" RDM in the sense of not needing Refresh...meh...it's always more MP.

[ronin sparthos]

If all 'pure' mages (WHM BLM SCH BLU) had some way of passively restoring MP (Auto-Refreshes) then the battery classes would have one less thing to worry about and could actually get to do something else in that stead - not to mention it'd help smooth out looking for parties (hey guys we cant party, no refresher.) Now how exactly is too much native refresh? In this day and age of fast pace-exping, MPbased classes are hard pressed to beat out someone thats just meleeing damage-wise so it'd be a balancing issue to work out.

2MP/tic base for WHM/BLM/SMN/SCH/BLU? Leaving Hybrids with 1MP/tic and DNC with 1-2TP/tic?
MP return on Chain Affinity SCs and standard MBs?


It'd be a stretch for FFXI, some would say its broken - but hey, rampant meleeburns arent 'broken'? Mages are lacking in being able to keep up with even gimp melees in exp and thats just a crying shame. Many mage classes dont even nuke anymore because getting back the MP is a bitch and they end up healing all party - even black mages >.> You wouldnt kill out the need for refresh... but refresh is such a crutch in this game its not even funny sometimes.

[Priran]

you can't just cover all mages with the blanket statement of "the problem here is that their MP regen isn't high enough".

BLM is clunky at best on anything that isn't stronger than your average merit mob.
WHM can be replaced by a number of ersatz healers.
SCH has nothing unique that is useful.

BLU might benefit from MP regen, but making its melee damage less horrible could do wonders.

[The Q]

I really like the sound of MP gain on Magic Burst. Skillchaining in general needs some work and enhancing. SE has recognized it. I hope they do something decent and not completely pointless and boneheaded with any enhancements they give to it.

It wouldn't really help WHM though.

[ronin sparthos]

you can't just cover all mages with the blanket statement of "the problem here is that their MP regen isn't high enough".

BLM is clunky at best on anything that isn't stronger than your average merit mob.
WHM can be replaced by a number of ersatz healers.
SCH has nothing unique that is useful.

BLU might benefit from MP regen, but making its melee damage less horrible could do wonders.

Blus melee skill isnt that horrendous, its A- skill in sword isnt bad for a pure-mage class in FFXI at all and compared to the other new jobs its the only job they decided to actually give good skill in the main weapon with. (COR and DNC are both B skill in weaps, PUP is C+, SCH has C- weaps) Many people forget BLU is a pure mage class, its melee class is respectable for such.

MP regen is a huge problem in the game that causes alot of the problems with mage classes in general, im not going to say its the cause of all problems in the game but RDMs are chosen in parties because they are the least of a burden MP-wise in a PT, BLU are a melee that need a refresh so they arent 'ideal' at all, BLM is a great damage dealer but the DoT is just not there not to mention spells cost alot of MP and being outta MP means your a burden, WHM is the best healer but again because of a lack of refresh your screwed versus a RDM simply because your SOL getting MP back to do what you do best. SCH is just a job that SE doesnt know what to do with yet, it seems to be going down the path of BLM - it could nuke but no one needs that because spells are simply shit versus merit/exp mobs.

There are so many ways to give mages back some MP and by doing so justifying making the game 'harder' in terms of monsters and exp gained for beating them, its 2008 - the mechanics of refresh are simply outdated sadly and it's come to the fact that every mage needs it in large-supply simply to keep up with melees. maybe SE can finally balance out the EXP/Merit scene. It'd be a step in the right direction to actually making the game balanced again, i could go into the mechanations of how pathetically weak ToAU mobs are vs WotG mobs but thats another story.

WHM, BLM, BLU, SMN, SCH - 1-2MP/tic base refresh. (for those jobs that dont have, +more refresh options)
DNC - 2TP/tic regain (DNC is a 'healer' yet if it cant gain TP on a mob its completely SOL, some passive room to work with would be nice.)

Its 2008 SE, the age of resting mid-exp is dead and rolling over in its grave and balanced 'exp' has watered down to 5 melee and a rdm, 4 melee, brd/brd, brd/cor or manaburn blm/sch parties - fix it

[Charismatic]

Many people forget BLU is a pure mage class

I don't think Square-Enix agrees with you. You know?

[Eratosthenes]

It's probably way too late for this, but I think BLU should be changed to cast blue magic by TP, kinda like how DNCs work.

[Priran]

Blus melee skill isnt that horrendous, its A- skill in sword isnt bad for a pure-mage class in FFXI at all and compared to the other new jobs its the only job they decided to actually give good skill in the main weapon with. (COR and DNC are both B skill in weaps, PUP is C+, SCH has C- weaps) Many people forget BLU is a pure mage class, its melee class is respectable for such.

A- sword wouldn't be bad if BLU could pile on attack and equip amazing swords, which it can't. Considering BLU is generally invited as a damage dealer, giving it enough sword damage to cover its lack of sustainable output via spells would do wonders for making it wanted for something other than Cannonball on a handful of HNMs.

MP regen is a huge problem in the game that causes alot of the problems with mage classes in general, im not going to say its the cause of all problems in the game but RDMs are chosen in parties because they are the least of a burden MP-wise in a PT, BLU are a melee that need a refresh so they arent 'ideal' at all, BLM is a great damage dealer but the DoT is just not there not to mention spells cost alot of MP and being outta MP means your a burden, WHM is the best healer but again because of a lack of refresh your screwed versus a RDM simply because your SOL getting MP back to do what you do best. SCH is just a job that SE doesnt know what to do with yet, it seems to be going down the path of BLM - it could nuke but no one needs that because spells are simply shit versus merit/exp mobs.

Giving MP regen to WHM wouldn't make them less replaceable by a RDM, it would make them better at the things they're sought out for. RDM could still cover sufficiently for a WHM in the department of healing while also providing buffs and debuffs a WHM either doesn't have or couldn't do effectively. MP regen wouldn't solve BLM's problem of being hate magnets with often needlessly large spikes of damage. SCH can not buff melee attacks and can only buff a given weather effect on a single person without a stratagem.