A Word to the FFXI Development Team

[Sagesama]

Hello Everyone,

First let me start off by saying in no way is this a flame of any kind toward any job & or person(s) in FFXI. I just decided to write a letter to SE's Suggestion area of Service & Support, of which I am about to post, as I was told to do by the GM. This letter simply conveys my own thoughts & opinions about an aspect of the Monk job class. Feeling that my thoughts, and most likely the thoughts of every Monk regarding this matter, would not be heard by the development team loudly enough because they may think it is just the sole opinion of one Monk, I have decided to post this letter on every major FFXI venue so that people may read it and see that my cause for writing it is just and that a change does need to be made. So that SE can see this just isn't the opinion of one Monk, but EVERY Monk.

If you are in unison with what I have to say in the following letter, please post that you agree with the opinions stated therein so that maybe SE will take the necessary measures to make things right. Without further delay, here is my letter & thank you for your time:

To Whom It May Concern,

I myself, as well as many other Monks across all servers, enjoy this job immensely on a daily basis. The job is very balanced and useful in a variety of situations. The Monk job class can do just about anything as effectively as any other "melee" or "damage-dealer" job can do. This statement is true in all areas of a typical "melee" job EXCEPT when it comes to skilling up defensive combat skills. It is in this area that the Monk falls behind any other job.

Most jobs have defensive combat skills such as: Evasion, Parrying, and Shield Skills. These combat skills are available to most jobs across FFXI, depending on the job a person is currently on, and like most skills can be brought to their respective cap or limit within a short period of time.

The Monk job, along with the Puppetmaster if you wish to consider it also, happens to have a defensive combat skill limited to its "Hand-to-Hand" class of melee. This unique defensive combat skill happens to be called "Guard". This combat skill decreases the amount of damage that the player takes from a hit when it activates. It is a great defensive combat skill and even though it is a skill you can level in time much like the other skills, to get Guard anywhere near its respective LV75 cap takes immense amounts of time for Monks like myself and I'm sure many others across all servers.

Though Guard can be leveled to its cap given time, it surpasses all other skills in FFXI in terms of being heavily time consuming when one looks at the hours a day one Monk (or Puppetmaster) might spend trying to even get one level in Guard skill only to not even be halfway toward that one skill level.

I myself (and I'm sure I speak for Monk's and Puppermaster's across all servers seeking to one day cap this skill) am quite frustrated that no matter how much effort and time I put into leveling Guard and no matter how many times I sit there and watch this combat skill activate, knowing that Im at the right place to be getting skill ups, the skill ups themselves arent given nearly as liberally as they are in something such as Parrying skill. One Monk may get a .1 or a .2 yes, but that can be after spending hours upon hours fighting hordes and hordes of the correct monsters, only after watching Guard activate again and again with no skill ups, to finally get that .1 or .2 hours later.

On the other hand, even though other combat skills can take a while to level like Guard, things like parrying can be leveled through shadows such Blink or Utsusemi. Or the skills themselves come easily and quickly able to cap. Guard on the other hand, in order to activate cant use Blink or Utsusemi and has to bypass character evasion & counter for it to even trigger, has skill ups that come few and far between. While other combat skills, or any job skill in general, are easily and liberally given those precious .1's, .2's, ETC, Guard skill itself is not. It is because Guard skill is so much harder to get skill up's on, that Monk's across all servers wishing to even cap this skill must walk a very hard path while other jobs walk the easy path given a much much shorter period of time.

Therefore, I(and I think I speak for every Monk and Puppetmaster) would like the development team to consider reworking how Guard skill up's are given, adding an ability like Guardstance that would incrase the activation rate of Guard while penalizing things such as: Attack, Agility, Counter, or whatever it might be. Or just plain increasing the rate at which one would get skill ups from guard activating. One might think to themselves: "Well, Monk & Puppetmaster are given a ton of "+ Guard Skill" equipment, I don't see what the problem is." If that is one person's logic, then they clearly don't see the problem. Summoner has a ton of "+ Summoning Magic" equipment, and before the development team revamped how players would get Summoning Magic skill, much to their dismay they would sit for hours upon hours in places like Rolanberry Field’s getting .1’s & .2’s. As such, no matter how much “+ Guard Skill” gear one Monk (Or Puppetmaster) might have, the rate at which one gets skill up’s is far less than that of other combat skills and is much like how getting Summoning Magic skill up’s used to be. Why should any Monk not be on the same equal ground as any other job? Having to spend sometimes literally years to cap Guard while other jobs cap their skills in not even 1/8th the time. Skilling up something on this game shouldn’t take years, and it is with this thought in mind I want my opinion about Guard skill ups being reworked (and I’m sure its every other Monk’s opinion too) to be heard loud & clear. Its time for you to do something good for the Monk job class for once, and that time is now!


Sincerely,

Shinigami
Tarutaru Monk of Remora

[jimbobsonofgod]

I thought salvage chariot tanking solved this issue ?

[Zosi]

I thought salvage chariot tanking solved this issue ?

If you tank chariots and get hit enough for it to be a viable source of guard skillups, your Salvage group is fucked and should recruit MNKs who can actually blink tank.

[Jeny]

If you tank chariots and get hit enough for it to be a viable source of guard skillups, your Salvage group is fucked and should recruit MNKs who can actually blink tank.

^ This.

Couple hits from a Chariot = Dead MNK.

[Zosi]

^ This.

Couple hits from a Chariot = Dead MNK.

To elaborate even more, for the rest of Salvage, I generally use the following formulas:

Weaker than an Archaic Gear = Counterstance + Dodge
Equal or stronger than an Archaic Gear = Counterstance + Dodge + Utsusemi

Basically, yeah, if you're main MNK in Salvage, you'll take more hits than if you, say, stayed in your Mog House instead. But you're constantly doing your best to minimize the number of hits you take, which kinda goes against what you have to do when skilling up guard.

If you actually want guard skillups, the classic course of action has been to grab a RDM (or SCH, I suppose) that can Phalanx you, round up a horde of MNK mobs, and let them beat on you while you're engaged to something out of range. Even doing that, it takes a long-ass time and the benefits of capping aren't a huge difference like, say, capping shield or evasion compared to having it at skill level 80, which by personal experience is about where a 75MNK that levels in modern parties ends up.

That said, I highly doubt the devs will either read this or care, so while I agree with the OP's sentiments, I don't really see much of a point in posting this, sadly. =/ It's something people have been bitching about for years, without even an acknowledgment from SE, as far as I know.

[Ruiner]

OP: QQ

[Jeny]

To elaborate even more, for the rest of Salvage, I generally use the following formulas:

Weaker than an Archaic Gear = Counterstance + Dodge
Equal or stronger than an Archaic Gear = Counterstance + Dodge + Utsusemi

Basically, yeah, if you're main MNK in Salvage, you'll take more hits than if you, say, stayed in your Mog House instead. But you're constantly doing your best to minimize the number of hits you take, which kinda goes against what you have to do when skilling up guard.

If you actually want guard skillups, the classic course of action has been to grab a RDM (or SCH, I suppose) that can Phalanx you, round up a horde of MNK mobs, and let them beat on you while you're engaged to something out of range. Even doing that, it takes a long-ass time and the benefits of capping aren't a huge difference like, say, capping shield or evasion compared to having it at skill level 80, which by personal experience is about where a 75MNK that levels in modern parties ends up.

That said, I highly doubt the devs will either read this or care, so while I agree with the OP's sentiments, I don't really see much of a point in posting this, sadly. =/ It's something people have been bitching about for years, without even an acknowledgment from SE, as far as I know.

<3 Cleo. Doing Bv2 at the moment didn't have time to type. ;p

[Weeks]

You lost me when you said that this problem is unique to MNKs and Guard. I've been active in endgame since March 2005, have gone NIN to about 90% of events over that time, and am still sitting on 260 Parrying skill.

[jimbobsonofgod]

MNK/DNC
?

[Ayvaen]

"and like most skills can be brought to their respective cap or limit within a short period of time."

I started by leveling my warrior to 37. Then I leveled DRK and SAM to 37ish as well. Then I leveled PLD from 1-75, Ninja 1-75, and finally SAM 1-75 (practically tanking towards the end since I pre-merited many important SAM stats such as Great Katana via my NIN). My SAM has been 75 now for a little over 2 years. I regularly tank mobs in XP parties, Salvage, and even Dynamis on my Samurai for shits and giggles, I like tanking stuff on SAM.

My parrying skill is currently 268.6ish; 4 years after I started leveling jobs which hold hate for length periods of time and constantly skilling it up. Parrying is not easy to skillup.

[LD]

You lost me when you said that this problem is unique to MNKs and Guard. I've been active in endgame since March 2005, have gone NIN to about 90% of events over that time, and am still sitting on 260 Parrying skill.

Considering Parrying procs before Utsu consumption and NIN's are pretty much always tanking, that's a good point. However, due to Guard's proc conditions, it arguably needs even more help in the skill-up department.

Evasion can skill-up without you actually evading anything, Parrying and Guard only skill-up on a proc. That could be a very simple fix.


While I agree the OP is a little myopic, Guard does need a lot of work.

[Almalexia]

Why are you skilling up guard?

[Kongolo]

first of all skilling shield for none pld is so much hard, second skilling parying is no diffrant than guarding (some what easyer for SAMs)

anyways no need for looong letter or anything just follow wat teh PUP do fo skilling

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MP5rA_xZKWU

thx elmer