New 1up (Milkman) Interview

[Amastacia]

Ninjas really like to whine about 7 skill points don't they

No, more that SE really thinks "avoiding damage" is how NIN holds hate.

Last time I partied with a full-on Eva NIN while leveling SAM, they did a great job of avoiding damage because I had hate 5 seconds into every fight.

On the long list of things I'm irritated about in regards to NIN, A- combat skills are nearly falling off the bottom because of how little I care.

OK, so, full on Eva NIN doesn't work. Neither does full Def PLD. NIN should be harder, because it does more damage than PLD and, when done right on most mobs while exping, requires far less MP.

Right, but not enough damage to hold hate off good DDs.

Even PLD struggles a bit, but much, much less than NIN does.

I've had a number of random pickup XP parties getting close to 10k/hr with PLD tanks and no MP problems whatsoever, don't give me that old wheeze.

I've had more MP problems with most NIN tanks because they can't hold hate well enough to prevent/reduce much squishier DDs getting their shit packed in.

There's a bit of a problem when you have to be a top-notch NIN to match a passably decent PLD. I don't mind it being a little harder, but when people only invite NIN to tank, it'd better be effective at it, and it's unreasonable to expect the average player to be good enough or well-geared enough to actually hold hate off even moderately competent DDs.

[fantasticdan]

Ninjas really like to whine about 7 skill points don't they

No, more that SE really thinks "avoiding damage" is how NIN holds hate.

Last time I partied with a full-on Eva NIN while leveling SAM, they did a great job of avoiding damage because I had hate 5 seconds into every fight.

On the long list of things I'm irritated about in regards to NIN, A- combat skills are nearly falling off the bottom because of how little I care.

OK, so, full on Eva NIN doesn't work. Neither does full Def PLD. NIN should be harder, because it does more damage than PLD and, when done right on most mobs while exping, requires far less MP.

You know what holds hate much better than either, does a shit ton of damage, and avoids more damage than a defensive geared pld in exp? Sam with seigan. Past 35, I wouldn't invite either a nin or a pld to exp anymore if I could help it.

[BRP]

This whole NIN thing is being exaggerated. Yeah, I could see how tanking in exp needs a boost, but the main reason it "died" because people found it better to just zerg. You can't zerg and tank at the same time. I really hope that is not what people are trying to say here(because that is what a lot of people do want).

SMN needs more utility than damage. They can already do a lot of damage. If they boosted all the current buffing BPs and then added one new (useful) utility BP for the old 6... well that would be much more useful than one or two new avatars.

[Indalecia]

As much as I bitch about wanting a new avatar, I'll take a fix to the job anyday. However, I know its SE and I know its never EVER happening.
Its the only job that SE refuses to overpower, even by accident.

[Antithesis]

This interview =

It really pisses me off at the amount of stupidity alot of the people that interview SE have. With the exception of a couple of of interviews, almost all of them are total crap (mostly being SE's fault for beating around the bush and dodging questions.) Also it seems to me that alot of these people that interview SE are like scared of asking them real questions or smart remarks. Sure I know its an interview but be a little more aggresive with your questions. Your one person representing an entier population of people playing the same game, try asking the asking the dam questions and be a little more aggresive so you get the dam answer or at least partialy >.>;

Also the one question I have always wanted to see someone ask in an interview to SE is something like this:

Interviewer: One question I would like to ask is if some of the developnment team goes to public Final Fantasy XI Forums like Blue Gartr and read player information and posts?

Seriously if SE would read a little of BG maybe they would get the picture.

Here's my one request; For the next interview with SE lets send someone to interview them like Lordwafik or something. Thats should get some questions out of them.

[Gere]

Also the one question I have always wanted to see someone ask in an interview to SE is something like this:

Interviewer: One question I would like to ask is if some of the developnment team goes to public Final Fantasy XI Forums like Blue Gartr and read player information and posts?

That's been asked before, they said that they do.

[Tarage]

Oh yeah... keep baiting us SMNs along with these promised 'avatars'... We're so gullible...

-Tarage

[Antithesis]

Really? And the explicity said BG? O.o

[SephYuyX]

Yes, there is an FFXI team member (atleast one that I know of) signed up on the boards too. Sono gave him some special privleges or something.

[Gere]

From alla's summit report:

Matt Hilton averages about 5 hours per day reading forums on all of the premier sites, and even non-premier sites. He restricts himself from posting for reasons already mentioned, and also to prevent the notion of –any- site favoritism that might or might not develop if he happens to post on any one particular site more often than another. I mentioned to him that it was much preferred if he would at least log in so that we see when he’s viewing the site, so that the player base could be at ease. He’s going to make an effort to try and be more active on the premier site forums, from what he mentioned to us. He definitely takes passion with the game and wants the player base to be happy. While he can’t really plop into every thread just to say “we’ll check it out”, I’m sure you all will be seeing more of him in the future, whether it’s via lurking or actual posts.

Also
http://www.bluegartr.com/forum/member ... le&u=19403

[Aldaris]

Hopefully with all this being said SMN’s will get the versatility to be more involved in battles that can make a difference instead of strictly only being able to DD.

The slowga, Lunar Roar, Hastega etc all the Blood Pacts that are rarely used, nobody seems to care for them. Most Blood Pacts are all on other jobs that can just do them better which makes the summoners not versatile in its own way.

[Plow]

This whole NIN thing is being exaggerated. Yeah, I could see how tanking in exp needs a boost, but the main reason it "died" because people found it better to just zerg. You can't zerg and tank at the same time. I really hope that is not what people are trying to say here(because that is what a lot of people do want).

Why can't I zerg and tank at the same time as NIN? I can do it fine as war, hell i can do it as DRK/SAM. Even PLD/NIN can swap gear and start every fight with a Cure4, and do the same to cast it again at will. What's a nin going to do, spam elemental wheel like we're level 30 in 2004?

There's also the fact that they seem to have completely forgotten that you can't tank by avoiding damage when they made it so that avoiding damage loses hate...

SMN needs more utility than damage. They can already do a lot of damage. If they boosted all the current buffing BPs and then added one new (useful) utility BP for the old 6... well that would be much more useful than one or two new avatars.

ITT: BRP Says completely mindless things about things he doesn't understand in the least.

ROFL I need more utility? I can blinkga, hastega, hate free CuragaIII, do some damage, have my avatar absorb some hits, have a sleepga that's basically 100% on anything that's not immune or IT++, stoneskinga, phalanxga, the best blm buff in the game, an incredibly strong paralyzega, slowga, should I keep going or do you realize how ridiculous that statement was now?

As a summoner I am the most versatile class in the game, I have a bigger variety of options than even scholar and rdm, pretty much the 2 most desired jobs in the game. I'm still the least desired job in the game, and it's more utility I need?


I'm going to be pissed if they actually fall for statements like that and give us some stupid crap like refreshga.




edit- language in case se actually paying any attention or something >.>






edit again cuz I suppose if I'm going to tear down someone's comments I should add my own


NIN accuracy is a pain in the ass, and we all know there simply isn't enough room to merit combat skills for 20 different jobs. If 7 acc/att is going to be "gamebreaking,' well hell that just makes me want it even more lol. Nin was good for merits a couple years ago, it's pretty much old loldrg level at this point. I don't have the best gear for my nin, but I don't have any better gear for my war either, and my drk is pretty laughable, both put my nin to shame.

As far as tanking, mmmmmmmmmmmmmm nin/drk is good enough I suppose. Wouldn't mind to see some kind of "Increases threat produced by all actions by x%" ability to make em better on smaller stuff like faf that they can reasonably melee with war sub. Hell, that could possibly even be yet another warrior ability lol...




For summoner we just need our avatars to be dramatically more accurate and for their normal melee to be either faster or dramatically stronger. Laugh all you will but I could easily maintain an avatar at current costs indefinitely in merits with sam sub using accuracy gear, sushi, spirit taker, a refresh and a single targeted ballad, while using 70 pacts every time they're up and ward pacts at will.

In the end, however, I'd be lucky to do 1/3 the dmg of a good melee, because while they're swinging once a second for 100 dmg a swing my avatar is swinging once every 4 seconds for 50 dmg a swing.

[Chupunpupun]

They need to give nin a trait that unnerfs utsu so NIN main can actually avoid damage that /NIN would take. For the ones that don't know what I'm talking about: AOEs WS use to be blinkable with 1 shadow till they nerfed it and made it the way it is today, take damage and remove shadow.

[Ansems]

It feels that there wont be a good update like the last for a long time.

[BRP]

I know SMN has utility BPs, I'm saying they don't have enough. A lot of their current BPs are plenty nice, I never said they weren't. But you have to count how many bad utility BPs there are. And it's not like its very easy to access any of those at once. It's really hard to imagine why you'd pick a SMN over a SCH for anything but spike damage. All and all, they would profit a lot of more with being able to fill a BRD or COR spot(even poorly) than another pretty toy.

[Byrd]

Also
memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=19403

Joined: Wed Oct 03, 2007 12:53 pm
Last visited: Wed Oct 24, 2007 7:55 pm

[Priran]

The SMN bit was very interesting to me, an Avatar whose focus isn't its BPs...Possibly Aura based? An automatic AOE-effect? Really like to see how that works and I hope it shuts all the SMNs up. ;x

I took it more as meaning a summon you would leave out and let melee, with possibly a few pacts heavily influenced by TP.

[Sunrider]

Where does that leave all the previous avatars, that a SMN might actually want to use? Why not adjust abilities and stats of pre-existing avatars in addition to introducing new ones?

Seems pretty lame to finally get good use out of avatars at the expense of practical variety; basically trading one brand of suck for another.

I do not see any "good" summoner ever abandoning old avatars for new ones, more so using them all to make the most out of their job.

Everything is used out of practical variety, otherwise we'll all be playing the same job. Versatility is what makes jobs like SCH, and RDM win the game. The more versatile you can become the better you are at overcoming more situational instances.

It is your opinion that summoner currently sucks; we can all agree to meet the demands of the current game environment it needs a fix, but a lot of people would disagree with you as far as saying the job flat out sucks.

I don't think SMN sucks at all. I think the job is great at 75, with a lot of potential before then. That said, I certainly wouldn't play it either. My passion for it isn't strong enough to endure the job as it currently plays.

What I was criticizing was the utility avatars offer. Currently, it's rather lacking. Introducing one or two new avatar with utility that eclipses the others will effectively replace them, and any good SMN would shelve the less useful avatars for the more useful ones. Instead of simply introducing new avatars whose situational efficacy outdoes the previous, why not improve the efficacy of the current avatars, in addition to introducing new ones?

[LD]

The SMN bit was very interesting to me, an Avatar whose focus isn't its BPs...Possibly Aura based? An automatic AOE-effect? Really like to see how that works and I hope it shuts all the SMNs up. ;x

I took it more as meaning a summon you would leave out and let melee, with possibly a few pacts heavily influenced by TP.

As long as it shuts SMNs up. ~_~;

Whatever they do, I'm sure the point is to have an avatar that stays out all the time. That's what I took from what they said. While an avatar with good DOT (and maybe a lower prep) is an obvious tack, there are other ways of accomplishing that goal, so I may as well speculate on the more abstract possibilities. There are no aura-type abilities that I know of (adult wamoura might have a passive MP slip, but I can't remember.) I'd like to see that and an avatar would be a good vehicle for it.

[Priran]

Mantelets have an "aura", if you insist on calling it that, of Regen/Refresh/Regain.