VanaFest 2010 Wrap-Up (Via Elmer & Zam)

[Revitozu]

Gdi. : < 5 months of not playing, and still reading

"What else, but new Blue Magic!" The Job is expected to receive more spells and more Traits from the combination of said spells being equipped.

gets me all giddy inside. D:

[Gwynplaine]

Overall, there will be no adjustments to existing NMs or large-scale battle content. Matsui feels it will be beneficial for players to be able to complete such content with smaller numbers.

What I hoped to hear.

[Baelorn]

Actually hes right.... halfway.

The challenge does keep most casuals from ever attempting content, the upper-crust HNMLS' were just one obstacle.

By moving the old-timers onto new content in Abyssia, the idea is you give smaller the groups the chance to fight things they would never had got the chance to.

HNMs haven't been challenging for years and most people know this. You ask any event/casual endgame LS why they don't do HNMs and the answer will almost always be that the majority of their members don't want to compete against bots.

And there's no guarantee that Abyssea will draw current HNM shells away from old content. As long as HNM shells can find buyers for the items that drop from old HNMs they will continue to camp them. This is FFXI's biggest endgame problem. SE doesn't know how to phase out old content so that people move on and give others a chance to do it. The majority of people doing HNM today are the same ones who have been doing it for the last 2+ years.

[LD]

I really was on the fence about a lot of this stuff, but if MNK & BLU really are getting these changes, then I'm definitely on board with this.

[Rocl]

HNMs haven't been challenging for years and most people know this. You ask any event/casual endgame LS why they don't do HNMs and the answer will almost always be that the majority of their members don't want to compete against bots.

And there's no guarantee that Abyssea will draw current HNM shells away from old content. As long as HNM shells can find buyers for the items that drop from old HNMs they will continue to camp them. This is FFXI's biggest endgame problem. SE doesn't know how to phase out old content so that people move on and give others a chance to do it. The majority of people doing HNM today are the same ones who have been doing it for the last 2+ years.

Why would you camp something to sell an item people are going to use for a couple of levels and toss? Camping Fafnir to sell N.Head/Ridill/Nidhogg drops will be like camping Mysticmaker to sell Moldavite!

If Abyssea drops gear for 75+, chances are HNM shells will move there because their drops will undoubtedly be worth more money to sell. (And, I would hope would be better in general) If anything, this SE's attempt at phasing out old content so people can move on and give others a chance to do it.

I DONT UNDERSTAND YOUR PROBLEM SON

I really was on the fence about a lot of this stuff, but if MNK & BLU really are getting these changes, then I'm definitely on board with this.

Whenever the job known as Blue Mage is "adjusted" it just means "more spells & trait combos." I don't see how this is a major new, groundbreaking job update, dudette. Unless you're talking about them maybe adding Dual Wield, in which case that would just make me all confused inside honestly. What the devil would I sub on Blue Mage? I cannot even imagine!

Blue Mage getting new spells is like status quo for job adjustments, shit like Composure, Sekkanokki, SCH overhaul, those are real job adjustments! OK well the first two are just new abilities, but they change some aspects of the job

[Baelorn]

Why would you camp something to sell an item people are going to use for a couple of levels and toss? Camping Fafnir to sell N.Head/Ridill/Nidhogg drops will be like camping Mysticmaker to sell Moldavite!

Like I've said in every other thread when people try to make this point, gear in FFXI is rarely made obsolete by level. Even if N.Head/Ridill/Nidhogg drops are no longer "good" at X level you will be able to combine them with other items via Magian quest. This may actually increase the demand for those items unless you can "clear" them to try different combinations.

Unless they are made completely obsolete, which is nothing but unsupported speculation, people will camp them.

[dejet]

it seems like a lot and I mean a LOT of HNMs are going to be added in the coming year. Even if faf drops good items, the new ones are going to be worth the time(we hope).

Linkshells that are large already have to pick what they want to camp, no one linkshell runs the show on most servers. The added number of HNMs will make it hard for a LS to just run all over everyone. Add in that groups of 6 can now take down most HNMs and that adds up to people getting shit done.

The new HNMs will be owned by the strong LS's and the lesser HNMs(like the roc and KA's of the past) will still be camped. This will not change, hell I even see some HNM ls's camp KA for their members how is this any different?

[Rocl]

gear in FFXI is rarely made obsolete by level.

Thinking to myself, I am picturing what jobs of mine use gear 20 levels under 75. Here is the list of gear that I use that are level 55 or lower, excluding CoP ring because its unfair to count a CoP ring at 75 as a lv30 item:

Every Elemental Staff
Moldavite Earring
Raptor Strap +1
Elemental Earring
Enfeebling Earring
Dark Earring
Glamor Jupon
Baron's Slops [result of me being lazy and not getting Yigit]
Eris Earring +1
Mermaid Ring
Resentment Cape
Peacock Charm
Swift Belt
Sorcerer's Ring
Sniper's Ring
Eurytos' Bow
Trooper's Ring
Balrahn's Ring

OK I'm sure there are more, but I don't feel like going through the rest of my inventory--but aside from not including some pieces of Artifact Armor, most gear finds an eventual point where it is replaced. I bet 90% of the gear you use on any job is Level 65+, and even more probably 70+. The biggest exception I can think of that isn't 65+ is Haubergeon +1.

(Then again, as you can see from my gear I tend to be focused away from melees, so feel free to point out something amazing to the contrary)

That's roughly 18 pieces of gear, something like 25 if you count each staff individually.

I mean do they obsolete gear currently? No, but most of the gear you use at 55 you don't use at 75. And that level gap is smaller than the one between 75 and 99.

What I'm trying to say is: "Gear is rarely made obsolete by level" is kind of silly, especially considering I'm sure a lot of the stuff I listed that I personally use could be upgraded to something better (and higher level).

[LD]

Whenever the job known as Blue Mage is "adjusted" it just means "more spells & trait combos." I don't see how this is a major new, groundbreaking job update, dudette. Unless you're talking about them maybe adding Dual Wield, in which case that would just make me all confused inside honestly. What the devil would I sub on Blue Mage? I cannot even imagine!

Blue Mage getting new spells is like status quo for job adjustments, shit like Composure, Sekkanokki, SCH overhaul, those are real job adjustments! OK well the first two are just new abilities, but they change some aspects of the job

Yeah, cuz the update immediately after TOA's didn't happen. Even if you mean to say it USUALLY means new spells, so what? It doesn't need to be ground-breaking, it's an FF with a blue mage and there are enemy skills that aren't out yet that could be released. That makes me happy. If you're saying they would do that anyway, well the 30+ spell backlog in the data says to me that they could, not they they always will. IIRC, the last BLU dump was made up of completely original spells.

Good job finding something wrong with an innocuous statement though. I really didn't see that one coming.

[Rocl]

Yes, adding Chakrhams was a gamechanging job adjustment. I don't consider catching the job up to the old ones (Limit Break, Artifact Quests, ENM) a job adjustment. That does nothing in regards to changing how the job is played really, I mean the only thing that had any impact for the majority of Blue Mages was the macroing of AF Body to cast in. I'd say puppetmaster got more of a job adjustment there by gaining access to new WS.

I mean your post makes it seem like you weren't expecting Blue Mages to get new spells and traits on the road to 99. That would be one of the dumbest things I have ever heard of, and I have heard a lot of dumb things since the vanafest news was announced. I mean don't get me wrong, I'm all for new spells, but it's not like its front page news. EXTRA EXTRA BLUE MAGES WILL LEARN MORE SPELLS THE FURTHER THEIR LEVEL INCREASES EXTRY EXTRY READ ALL ABOUT IT

I mean I wasn't actually berating you in the previous post, I was just genuinely surprised someone would be seemingly shocked at the revelation that Blue Mages would get more spells. Now if they got more Job Abilities, Natural Job Traits, or something that'd be a more shocking revelation, no?

Also I don't know what you mean by completely original spells. Spells that were previously unknown because those mobs weren't in the game? (Ruszor & Gargouille) Or spells that have traits or abilities that were otherwise unobtainable? (Physical Spell + Paralysis, Attack Boost, Fast Cast Trait) There are few spells who share the same function already in the Blue Mage's repertoire.

Of course I may be belligerent now, but I wasn't attempting to be earlier.

[Kaslo]

Whenever the job known as Blue Mage is "adjusted" it just means "more spells & trait combos." I don't see how this is a major new, groundbreaking job update, dudette. Unless you're talking about them maybe adding Dual Wield, in which case that would just make me all confused inside honestly. What the devil would I sub on Blue Mage? I cannot even imagine!

...Rocl you know better... you don't sub Ninja for Dual Wield

[Rocl]

...Rocl you know better... you don't sub Ninja for Dual Wield

I know. The exclamation was supposed to point out that little bit was facetious but apparently I've inherited a signal scrambling vagina today

(Nevertheless, I wonder if the inclusion of natural Dual Wield might change cannonball sets?)

[Mayareira]

Walk of Echoes is taking way too long :/

Still, very good news overall I should say.

aaaand....I'm back :<

lol, bored with the grind of eternity already?

[Hookah]

I think everyone is kind of missing the big picture here.

I've been wondering for a while now how SE was going to manage dwindling population for a while now, especially since they announced a new MMO. Obviously they're expecting to take a hit from 14's release, even though they're planning on running them concurrently. Once that launches the bulk of their attention is going to be that, maybe throwing XI a bone here and there for a bit, but it's not going to last forever.

As the population inevitably falls down to a point where the servers will be condensed further, doing events that require a large number of people may become hard to do, simply because there won't be enough people around at a given time that are willing to get together and go kill a fafnir.

So what were they gonna do? Let it go and let a seriously large portion of their content go to complete waste?

They could have adjusted the monsters as they went along, but that would have been complicated, and require more man-power than they would probably have wanted to devote to it.

Or they could do this. Raise the lvl cap, release new "end game" areas, and enjoy a small bump in popularity from all the old people that are coming back to play around for a bit until 14 is released.

Sure it may be a little preemptive, the population isn't anywhere near that low yet, and may not be for a while. But, in the long run it really makes perfect sense; extending the life of their current MMO before they fully devote their attention to their new one.

[Baelorn]

To make current king gear obsolete we're talking about obscenely high stat numbers per slot(STR/DEX/INT/etc), more than 1MP/tic Refresh on a mage body, more than 20 acc on a melee body, multi-attack weapons with high base dmg for the same jobs that can use them now, -DT ring that offers more than -10%, more places to get the high demand synth materials, etc.. It's not impossible but it is unlikely that SE can replace all of the gear in a way that will make current HNM shells move on to new content(which they've failed at for the last ~5? years).

And like I said before the current gear can be upgraded via Magian Moogle according to SE. They'll need to make it so that:

1. Upgraded stats can be redistributed/cleared
2. It isn't just easier to drop the upgraded item and then get new base items to upgrade.

Otherwise they'll only increase demand for popular base items.

I'm less than optimistic about the chances of current HNM shells moving on to new content.

[Elmer the Pointy]

Just wanted to make two tweaks in response to questions I've received:

1) The Ranger ability would use up 2 arrows *or* 2 bullets for double damage while active. Makes it sound like a stance (Hasso/Seigan , remains in effect instead of being one use).

2) Dual Wield on Blue Mage would be a native Job Trait so BLUs would have more freedom in selecting support jobs.

[Fawkes]

I hope the Magian's Trials lets me put haste accuracy and attack on my Nomad Cap.

[NynJa]

Dynamis will still be done unless a new method for obtaining currency gets released.

Hopefully SE will impose a minimum character limit so lv99's dont go solo farming.

[Karbuncle]

Hopefully SE will impose a minimum character limit so lv99's dont go solo farming.

Or fully instanced Dynamis so every can solo farm =o!

I'd like that but if they dont do that level capping it so every zone isnt taken cause of Solo/Duo/Single party groups farming would be nice too :\

Edit: Also wow BG is running super super super slow and shit won't load x.x;

[jimbobsonofgod]

Unless you're talking about them maybe adding Dual Wield, in which case that would just make me all confused inside honestly. What the devil would I sub on Blue Mage? I cannot even imagine!

/rdm /sam

if those ninja's work with spells then nin still.