Battle Adjustments (05/28/2008)

[buttson]

fuck you SE for not expanding combat merits a bit more.

[Crisco]

hax

orz, maybe i'd have to settle for lvl4 Q_Q

I'm definitely going for 5/5 Bio3. 2:30 @ 8hp/tick is hot. @4 merits, to match bio2 duration, it's an additional 240 dmg. Granted it takes 2-3 more pieces of gear (or /SCH) for RDM to reach 8/tick, I still think it's worth it.

*edit* To everyone saying 3min Bio3...last I checked, 30sec @ 5 merits = 2:30.

[Xanthe]

5:00 Deep Breathing will be pretty goddamn awesome.

Fixed. And that's if you forgo any merits in Strafe and Empathy.

Personally I'll recap Angon and put the remaining points in Strafe, so:
Angon 5/5
Strafe 3/3
Empathy 2/2

[Gwynplaine]

For shmucks like me without the best enhancing equip, phalanx 2 is now better than 1 then. It's only 2 tiers better, but the added minute it lasts would help offset double the mp cost. Plus I'd use it in other events anyways to keep the tanks... well, the Samurai's, alive.

[chapstick]

hax

orz, maybe i'd have to settle for lvl4 Q_Q

I'm definitely going for 5/5 Bio3. 2:30 @ 8hp/tick is hot. @4 merits, to match bio2 duration, it's an additional 240 dmg. Granted it takes 2-3 more pieces of gear (or /SCH) for RDM to reach 8/tick, I still think it's worth it.

*edit* To everyone saying 3min Bio3...last I checked, 30sec @ 5 merits = 2:30.

yup, 5 merits should be 2m30s total. 30s first unlock, then 4x30 for the rest.

[Gwynplaine]

The first merit is 2 minutes default right? So 4 minutes total.

[chapstick]

Nope, it starts out at 30 seconds with only unlocking it (if you're talking about Bio III).

[Kerberoz]

fuck you SE for not expanding combat merits a bit more.

I wouldn't assume that. Wasn't the last all-around merit cap increase implemented at the same time as tier 2 merits? They don't announce every detail in spoilers.

Now... 5 burst 1 flood 1 tornado 1 freeze... do I unlock worthless flare/quake, or boost freeze to lvl 3... choices...

[Bardlet]

Right after I finally finished capping BRD merits too. ;-; Ah well, new /ja is win, looking forward to it.

Meriting down Feint gonna be win. <3

Just needs to add 8 more Magic Merits (like they added extra to combat a couple updates ago) so I can stop waffling on whether or not I want to finish Singing/Wind merits or ditch them and go Enfeebling/Elemental (for my RDM and eventual BLM+SCH).

[Kaylia]

Was said many time, but holy shit, some of those thing are going to be broken if there is no cap.

[aurik]

5 penance 3 invigorate 1 formless 1 mantra not much of an improvement for monk, I guess fulltime penance with 2 monks is cool though. Not that keen on kickerstance, but we'll see what the actual mechanics are. Nice to finally get a change of any sort.

I'm more interested in the merits for sam, 5 overwhelm woo.

[Norellicus]

Haven't read anything but the OP.

@Paladins. If you can't tap your foot or keep a beat in your head, all HNMs, when debuffed, attack at pretty much a standard 4 beat pace, 1 2 3 swing 1 2 3 swing, if you can't keep track of that, quit FFXI.

And then on top of that, if you can't 1 2 3 click 1 2 3 ni COUNT TO MOTHER FUCKING 3, please, quit this game.

Dumbing it down so the fucking crappy JP shells who tank everything in +2 shield skill with 4 Aegis per shell (it's the only way they get things done) can get by with continuing to never change gear for ANYTHING is retarded.

Learning to count your own shadows and pre-cast ichi should be in the motherfucking Paladin Job Quest, this update is bullshit, and I for one am PISSED about seeing every 'Joe AdamanSabatons' walk around with capped, or near capped shield rate.

There should be penalties for sucking, or being retarded. Wiping to a mob thusfar has been that penalty, if you make Paladins into walking invincible machines you take away the learning curve. Is it nice I can probably now have capped shield rate against AV? No, I don't fucking care, I had capped shield proc-rate before this update.

SE needs to stop fucking reading off of alla's 'HOW DO I GET ICHI UP I DONT GET IT?!!?!?!?' boards and tend to some matters of importance, I seriously will never see the justification for this, you don't even need haste gear, marches and haste spell will pretty much cap you ffs, you can tank in 5/5 valor or 5/5 adaman with buffs and get the same god-damn effect as long as you precast.

I'm pissed.

Pissed.

I think your ire is misdirected friend; SE themselves have said several times that they're trying to get Paladins away from the /NIN sub when they can help it, so they're buffing them in any way they can to help that (though so far they have yet to really address the fact that it's the damage intake that is the issue, not so much the threat output;; ).

I see where you're going and don't necessarily disagree, but be cool yo 8)

[RKenshin]

I don't know why people think differently but a DRK equivalent of Aggressor is pretty amazing for non-relic (and even those with relic), as in most situations you're not going to be capped on acc. And well it's just a fact that if you're not capped, then adding accuracy helps a lot. It doesn't matter if you're normally at 80% or 90% before it.

5:00 Deep Breathing will be pretty goddamn awesome.

Fixed. And that's if you forgo any merits in Strafe and Empathy.

Personally I'll recap Angon and put the remaining points in Strafe, so:
Angon 5/5
Strafe 3/3
Empathy 2/2

Any reason for capping Angon?

Honestly I can't think of a single situation for me where anything I Angon will live for almost 2 minutes, much less even like 30 seconds. I left it at 2/3 for that reason (which is probably where it will stay). At best I might throw in one more for just the full 1 minute, but past that seems silly. Might be good on like Cerb or Khim, but yeah I'm not usually DRG there so I guess it just applies for me.

Not that the other options are all too good though anyway... But I'll probably end up going like 3/5 Angon, 5/5 Empathy, and I guess 2/5 Deep Breathing.

[Redness]

<3 Slow II 5/5

No really.

My other jobs... lol.

[Septimus]

If ya do the math a nekkid SCH with Light Arts active can only get 23.6 damage reduced from Phalanx 1.

A nekkid RDM with level 5 Phalanx 2 will have 26.24 damage reduced.

Yeah, it's not AoE, but lvl 5 Phalanx 2 will last 4 minutes now as well. Being -28 damage (the same as regular Phalanx) with 301 Enhancing Magic makes it better than NQ now for casting on yourself.

If I'm wrong by all means someone correct me.

Phalanx at 300 skill blocks 28 damage per hit with a three minute duration for 21 MP.

Phalanx II at 300 skill and 5 merits blocks 28 damage per hit with a four minute duration for 42 MP.

You get an extra minute duration, but at double the cost. Not to mention that you can get to 320 Enhancing skill (256 base, 16 from 8 merits, Warlock's Tights(+1) +15, Duelist's Gloves(+1) +15, Enhancing Torque +7, Merciful Cape +5, Augmenting Earring +3, Glamor Jupon +3) for 30 damage reduction.

[Raen Ryong]

How can SE be so fucking stupid? SAM DOES NOT NEED MORE BUFFING.

Look, it's a really hard concept to grasp. The job is already overpowered, and when you add buffs to overpowered, guess what happens? Oh yeah, EVEN MORE OVERPOWERED. Challenging logic there, I know.

And wtf@the hugely unnecessary PLD boost. PLD is/was strong enough ALREADY. As Sath said, we don't need some retarded full valordins or adamandins coming along and tanking almost as well as proper paladins. Spoilers: Paladin was already strong ENOUGH.

Diabolic Eye isn't -that- exciting. We get an Aggressor which, in exp, reduces our survivability (use it vs mamools, and enjoy Firespit?) or in the other situation we may need acc, on HNM etc, it weakens Souleater -- the main component of our damage on those mobs. Desperate Blows 25%? Quite nice, but with the haste cap of 80%, not much of a boost at all. Compared to 25% Overwhelm this is disgusting.

Glad to see SE wants to buff SAM to the heavens even more. How very unpredictable.

[Ryko]

Lol you people act like the game isn't getting to the point where they want everyone to be overpowered because theyre running out of ideas.

[ronin sparthos]

So im assuming these buffs across all jobs are the veiled incentive to kill harder shit for merits?

[Ryko]

Or kill the same old shit faster/more easily.

[Seigfried Of Pandy]

How can SE be so fucking stupid? SAM DOES NOT NEED MORE BUFFING.

Look, it's a really hard concept to grasp. The job is already overpowered, and when you add buffs to overpowered, guess what happens? Oh yeah, EVEN MORE OVERPOWERED. Challenging logic there, I know.

And wtf@the hugely unnecessary PLD boost. PLD is/was strong enough ALREADY. As Sath said, we don't need some retarded full valordins or adamandins coming along and tanking almost as well as proper paladins. Spoilers: Paladin was already strong ENOUGH.

Diabolic Eye isn't -that- exciting. We get an Aggressor which, in exp, reduces our survivability (use it vs mamools, and enjoy Firespit?) or in the other situation we may need acc, on HNM etc, it weakens Souleater -- the main component of our damage on those mobs. Desperate Blows 25%? Quite nice, but with the haste cap of 80%, not much of a boost at all. Compared to 25% Overwhelm this is disgusting.

Glad to see SE wants to buff SAM to the heavens even more. How very unpredictable.

What the fuck, they are raising the group 2 merit limit, which yes boosts every job including sam. Did you honestly expect SE to raise the group 2 limit for every job except SAM. Save your out of control whiny bitch fit for something worth freaking the fuck out for.