All Worlds Maintenance (Sep. 16)

[ronin sparthos]

So Meleeburn B2 is ok but AV Krakenburn is not OK.

Hm...

[Aselin]

It could be something not even related to AV or KClubs or Dynamis.

The one issue that has come up since the update was having random R0s in places I never had them-- Monastic Cavern, Crawler's Nest, Riverne B01, Boneyard Gully, Port San d'Oria even.

I thought it was my ISP or computer, or even my router, but they all work fine.

I highly doubt it's Dynamis. We got 6 AF2 drops in Xarcabard last night-- BLU, PUP, BST, WAR, SMN, and RDM. Another LS, my friend's LS, got 20 AF2s in Beaucedine.

Six drops is good. Hell! That's the best drops we've gotten in two-plus years in Dynamis-Xarcabard alone.

I doubt it would be an AV nerf. Prophets-NiN killed AV in exactly 23 seconds on Bismarck. Great job to them. If they want to nerf AV and KClub DRKs, SE better fucking tell us how to kill it the normal way-- if there is one.

I don't know about issues with Salvage or Nyzul Isle WS or weapons as of late. I don't know if there is even an issue with scaled-down armors and other gears for "level sync" either. They seem to be working fine to my knowledge.

[Zosi]

I don't understand why people are always crying about the game being balanced. The reason I see that there are mobs that have pop windows of over 1 hour is to create imbalance to the game. I don't think SE intends for every character to play the game the same way and have the same items. They wouldn't want everyone running around with a relic cuz then there's nothing to really play the game for. People need to stop crying about others getting items when they themselves don't have the capacity to get em.

Nice straw man. Nobody's demanding that all jobs be the same. We're asking that jobs that share similar characteristics have similar potential. Obviously, play styles will be different, players will have different levels of skill, and nobody wants to change that. However, it's not unreasonable to expect that the jobs themselves should be balanced so as to not give a huge advantage to one over another.

For comparison, what's happening now with AV and KC DRKs is the same that used to happen with every HNM with BLMs. BLMs simply did more damage, more efficiently, with less hassle and gear requirements. Wonder of wonders, SE realized that that was kinda unfair, and we got a ton of melee boosts, and nowadays both manaburning and meleeburning (read: normal melees, not necessarily zerg DRKs only) are both accepted strategies. Except for AV, where the only practical source of damage is zerg DRKs, in a more extreme way than BLMs ever had. That's not whining, that's fucking imbalance.

[Zosi]

So Meleeburn B2 is ok but AV Krakenburn is not OK.

Hm...

Meleeburn B2 is OK because it's not tied to one badly balanced ability. You can take DRKs, DRGs, SAMs, MNKs, WARs, all kinds of different jobs in and win fine. You can also do the manaburn strategy that we do, there's plenty of variations and alternatives to suit pretty much any skilled LS out there.

AV is DRKs with multi-hit 1h weapons. Period. Anything else is alliance-filler. Don't have K.clubs/M.krises/Ridills? Go home and let the "better" LSs play.

[Ahlah]

SE basically try to avoid gameplays that only favours one particular job:

Arrowburn - RNG
Manaburn - BLM

Most LS meleeburn Bv2 with a mixture of DD jobs and usually only 1-2 KC DRKs are recruited. It's considered ok since any member with a decent melee job can take part in such fight.

[Yugl]

They may actually be listening to the responses and making AV doable without needing Soul Club DRKs. Then again, when they don't announce what they're "fixing" it usually turns out to be quite negative for the player base.

[Belgaer]

One of the reasons for the maintenance is to gimp the whole Level Sync Astral Flow abusing. Basically, you get a Lv.75 outside the party to pull like 60 mobs, then your group of Lv.10-20 SMNs just Astral Flows the lot of them. You can get up to probably 20k EXP in the course of about 2 minutes (with pull time).

Oh, hey, cool. I just ruined a huge secret. Go me! >:D

[ronin sparthos]

Meleeburn B2 is OK because it's not tied to one badly balanced ability. You can take DRKs, DRGs, SAMs, MNKs, WARs, all kinds of different jobs in and win fine. You can also do the manaburn strategy that we do, there's plenty of variations and alternatives to suit pretty much any skilled LS out there.

AV is DRKs with multi-hit 1h weapons. Period. Anything else is alliance-filler. Don't have K.clubs/M.krises/Ridills? Go home and let the "better" LSs play.

The balls been in SEs court multiple times and every time they play into the same traps that lead to these situations in which they make things more difficult than it should be.

I find it very hard to believe that SE did not forsee kclubbing as a potential strategy that the tired and annoyed playerbase would try. To basically let this fly then take it away without changing AV or dropping a major hint would be completely rediculous and add to my suspicion that AV is not meant to be killed and is just around to string people along for monthly fees.

They've had B2 as a perfect example of what players will do to clear content as fast as possible with the least amount of risk so there is no way the developers didnt know that dropping AVs HP was not going to lead to zerg attempts on this notorious monster.

IMO, zerg is a zerg regardless of the jobs in the party so if they feel that this was not what they wanted - they should have made him immune to the DRK strat off the bat or dropped a major hint through something within the game.

Really if SE nerfs AV without an explanation, it will simply be because some developer got butthurt about something they knew was coming.

[Tyrath]

You people that think if AV zerg is nerfed is because of 1 job being used to much make me laugh.

You know this is about the fact that AV is being consistently beaten, period.

[Priran]

One of the reasons for the maintenance is to gimp the whole Level Sync Astral Flow abusing. Basically, you get a Lv.75 outside the party to pull like 60 mobs, then your group of Lv.10-20 SMNs just Astral Flows the lot of them. You can get up to probably 20k EXP in the course of about 2 minutes (with pull time).

Oh, hey, cool. I just ruined a huge secret. Go me! >:D

a. why wouldn't you be able to do this without level sync
b. 10k/hour who cares

[Ruiner]

a. why wouldn't you be able to do this without level sync
b. 10k/hour who cares

A. Because without Level Sync you would have to actually BE a level 10-20 SMN for this to work B. Sure it's shitty EXP/hour but to be able to walk in, get 20k EXP, walk out and do other shit for two hours is still incredibly nice C. How else are SMN gonna get EXP?

[Afrohatch]

Then:
WAAAAAH WE CANT KILL AV AND ITS BEEN 4 YEARS WHY CANT WE KILL IT PLEASE FIX IT

Now:
WAAAAAH OTHERS CAN KILL AV BUT I CANT PLEASE FIX IT SO NO ONE CAN AGAIN

Holy shit, you people begging for it to be buffed/un-nerfed need to shut the fuck up, seriously. MY LS right now isn't in a state to kill it atm either, we lack the zerg DRKs, but god damn, after this long, it's nice to see AV dying finally, who cares how it's done. AV popping is 100%. The actual strategy WILL be found out for it, it's just a matter of time, since there are alot more opportunites to mess around with it now.

Nerf-huggers:
If Dynamis Lord had an alternate strategy, that involves taking more time, but you can lock oblivion smash, dynamic implosion, and Y&Y summoning, would you do it? Or would you keep doing it the old fashioned way, CS stunning it and zerging? I, myself, prefer doing the zerg version of Bahamut V2 instead of the manaburn one, because in my opinion it leaves a lot less room for error, as long as your rdm/drk knows what he/she is doing.

If you can kill it, who gives a shit HOW you do it, just kill it.

[Belgaer]

Even at 75, SMNs have a hard time getting into 10k+ per hour parties very often, so it's great for them. Especially since they could just go back to the mire and solo between 2hour recasts or campaign. But like it was said earlier, a Lv.10 SMN can do it and instantly ding Lv.15, or even all the way to 20. So much for SMNs going through Valkurm. XD

[Reapz]

I have a baaaaaaaaaaaaaaad feeling about this

[Belgaer]

Things to be fixed in maintenance:

"-Drop rate calculations of Dynamis items were incorrect. You will now be shocked when any AF drops.
-Absolute Virtue was no longer impossible to kill. SquareEnix has decided we don't care if we get bad publicity.
-Summoner Astral Flow will no longer be the Summoner two hour ability. All summons will also be removed. The new two hour ability will be "Summon Carbuncle."
-Bard is not powerful enough, so we gave it a song that gives those in range "Endeath" effect.
-Puppetmaster was overpowered. All decent gear recently introduced has been removed. Lolpup.
-Kraken Club will now only hit 1-2 times occasionally. Blue Mage still cannot use it.
-Weapon Skill points needed to unlock Nyzul Weapon Skills without a Runic Key was incorrect. You will now need 5,000,000 points.
-On second thought, we're just removing relic drops from Dynamis entirely.
-GMs will no longer be available. We decided, since they do nothing for anyone, we would can them all. Complain in Aht Urhgan /shouts instead.
-300,000 random accounts will be banned to make it sound like we're cracking down on RMT.

Have a nice day!"

[Mizango]

I have a baaaaaaaaaaaaaaad feeling about this

Yep.

Random, spur of the moment maintenance is never a good thing.

[Hitoru]

Hey, maybe they'll instance dynamis zones so people can stop trying to steal a Xarc every freakin' day another shell goes to enter.

Pipe dreams are wonderful.

[Guppy]

For comparison, what's happening now with AV and KC DRKs is the same that used to happen with every HNM with BLMs. BLMs simply did more damage, more efficiently, with less hassle and gear requirements. Wonder of wonders, SE realized that that was kinda unfair, and we got a ton of melee boosts, and nowadays both manaburning and meleeburning (read: normal melees, not necessarily zerg DRKs only) are both accepted strategies.

Don't forget... not only did we (we = not including mages) get a ton of boosts, we also got the nuking nerf that kicks in when too many spells land in a short period of time, plus SE started designing a number of mob features to prevent Manaburning as well (such as rapid sleep/stun resistance buildups). Many players don't even remember the Manaburn nerfs until reminded of it -- that's how acquiescent BLMs have been compared to the melee community.

Remember when SE removed the elemental camp in sea, because BLMs were getting huge XP chains and all the melees complained? Fast forward, and now we've got buffed melees and squishy ToAU mobs capable of being burned just as fast -- so I assume to be "fair" we'll be getting our sea camps back, yes?

[BRP]

http://www.ffxiah.com/player.php?id=163469

Is this the same Draken from Midgardsormr?

[evilpaul]

They fixed losing your pets every time the designated syncee lvls. You lose your pets because of their initial lvl when you get synced, unless you are not syncing below your pets current lvl. If you sync a pup and he calls his pet, even after unsyncing he can be synced again to that lvl (or when someone lvls up), without losing his automaton. You will only lose higher lvl pets if you try to call them before getting synced.

I do not see this as a problem. The problem was losing them every single time your syncee lvl'd in dunes, which was every 15-20 minutes. Just don't call them out before you get synced.

A little anecdote for you...

I was level 34, party leader Level Synch'd me to 32 (<3 making good use of my PCC) killing my pet. Activate wears down in ~10 minutes I call my Automaton out and the level 32 guy d/c's. Level sync wears off 30 seconds later. Party leader Level Syncs to the other level 32 guy killing my pet again. I drop party and leave very pissed off.