Gladiator

[Ratatapa]

Right


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[Raytheon]

That's pretty cool, actually. Sorry to keep pestering you, but how advantageous is it to start off in the starting city that has the guild for the class you plan on playing? I want to start in Limsa Lominsa, which I believe is where the Gladiator guild is anyway? Does this matter in the long run, and if there are any advantages, what are they?

Thanks.

[darkepyon]

Gladiator guild's in Ul'dah, last I checked. I believe you're thinking marauder.

[Raytheon]

Oops, my bad! Well, if I wanted to play GLD, is starting in Limsa Lominsa going to screw me over for not having the GLD guild nearby?

[Raytheon]

PS, BLU ftw.

[aru]

Ok so repeating what I asked another time since we got more Info

Since dealing DMG seems important in this game for hate STR is a must

Dex is kinda useless exept for Criticals hit

Vit is Important for HP and DEF
MND is important for Magic DEF and MP (for some TP moves)

So I was planning going



VIT > STR > MND > DEX

as for Resist planning to keep them all even for Resists

Anyone object or sees it another way?

This is more or less how I'm going to be going early on, but I think it's going to be more complicated than your breakdown suggests.

But it really depends on what you're going to be doing not only with your gladiator build but also with your other classes, even beyond just combat classes. We might find that a GLD with THM abilities and spells is highly effective so you'll need to throw some PIE and INT into the mix at the expense of DEX and STR. We might find that fishing is super lucrative and pump stats to benefit that at the expense of tanking stats. Maybe you want to also level lancer so your GLD will have more STR and DEX than you might like. I really don't think that there is going to be as strong a cookie-cutter feel to stats as we might initially expect.

It's also going to depend on how much magic and what magic enemies are going to be using against us. If some of the really tough fights pretty much require a gladiator and those fights are heavy on the magic then MND would certainly become a much higher priority as well as focusing on the corresponding elemental affinities. We may also uncover that certain abilities/spells will benefit our survivability more with increased affinities, for example with a focus on lightening we might find that the stun duration on shockspikes lasts 10% longer. So there's still going to be a lot of testing, discovery and tweaking as we gain understanding of the game.

According to the description, Gladiators can choose not to use shields to focus on their sword hand. Does anyone know if dual wield is a possible unlock for Gladiators?

That's a possibility, although it was not mentioned or shown in beta. It's also possible that GLDs may use two handed swords to go fully offensive. It's tough to speculate when the beta build could have potentially held so much back for retail release.

[Yoli]

Well, if I wanted to play GLD, is starting in Limsa Lominsa going to screw me over for not having the GLD guild nearby?

You'd be ruined, and the mechanics SE has put in place would grind your character into the ground until you gave up and quit the game, or made a new character in Ul Dah.

... Apart from that, you'll be just fine. Be aware that you'll want to go to the gladiators guild at various points. But that's far from undoable. You can take the ferry and then walk there from limsa lominsa. It's a bit of long walk, but you can do it just fine if you have some time to kill. Alternatively, you can use up your anima to teleport to Ul Dah in the future. Anima's still precious, since it doesn't regen quickly, but if you're conservative w/ it its a quick way to get from point a to b. Travel will, if anything, speed up. I expect both chocobos and airships will make an appearance at some point, and will assist in getting around. Don't get hung up about picking the city with your guild in it if there's another you'd much rather be in. You'll have a better time doing the majority of your stuff in an area of the game you enjoy, rather than one that lets you get to your main classes guild a bit more easily.

[Ratatapa]

Not worth it to start in a town just for aguild

[Raytheon]

You'd be ruined, and the mechanics SE has put in place would grind your character into the ground until you gave up and quit the game, or made a new character in Ul Dah.

I honestly can't tell if you're being serious lol. If so, that sucks. If I only need to go to the GLD guild every now and then for stuff here and there, that's not such a big deal. But if it's a place you're going to hit once or twice a day, that's probably going to change the job I want to play.

More time having fun, less time traveling. I won't miss that about XI at all.

--------------
Thanks for answering my dual wield question.

[Yoli]

The first sentence wasn't serious. You'll be fine. The rest was.

[Raytheon]

lol kool thanks.

So, how many times do you guys think we'll hear Russel Crowe quotes?

"Are you not entertained?!"

[solracht]

Posted this in the old random thread, but it didn't really get any responses and it wasn't really the place to post it.

Am I the only one dissapointed with shields? Blocking doesn't seem to scale well against higher level mobs (the difference between blocking and not blocking gets smaller and smaller). Don't get me wrong, the damage reduction is still good, but I can't feel impressed because of how much stamina we're using to keep guard up all the time.

Then there are the TP moves: Blocking does nothing against TP moves, and using guard past certain point of the fight feels like gambling with your stamina, as your shield arm could go down without blocking a single hit. Aegis Boon has only been reliable for me before the mob starts using TP moves for this reason.

Maybe I'm not looking at the big picture or I just sucked or missed something during the betas, which is why I'm asking here. Anyone else feel like I do?


EDIT:

From the lodestone: http://lodestone.finalfantasyxiv.com...escreen01.html

For certain classes, a secondary stamina gauge will appear when a shield is equipped in the off hand. All shield-related commands will make use of this gauge.
The stamina gauges of the main hand and off hand are entirely independent of one another.
Should a character have a shield equipped in their off hand, two stamina gauges will be displayed simultaneously.

There go my shield complaints. All the shortcomings shield has are acceptable now because guarding doesn't stop you from using other abilities. Happy tanking pals.

[aru]

I'm a bit dissatisfied with the shields as well for various reasons. I cannot comment on how well the damage reduction and rate is against higher level mobs as I was not able to party but if it's really as bad as you are making it out to be that seems like it will need to be adjusted. I also dislike that there is no chance to block a TP move or ranged attack. I could understand not being able to block magic-based moves at all, but you should always have at least a chance at the physical.

What you didn't mention that bothers me is gladiators not starting out with a shield. It really feels like other classes have a bit of an advantage early on since GLD's survivability is so closely tied to having a shield. This is compounded by the fact that shield skill increases so damn slowly that starting out without one is a serious setback, not to mention the financial setbacks of having to buy one as well.
Additionally, constantly having to put up Guard is an annoyance. While I think it's ok that you need to keep putting it up, I just wish the base duration was a bit longer, maybe 20-30 more seconds even if it meant proportionally increasing its stamina cost. It really feels like more of a chore than it should especially considering it is a core skill to the class.

[solracht]

If Shields get their own stamina bar then I don't think the current situation is bad at all. Like I mentioned, it's not that the damage reduction is horrible later on, it just didn't feel worth it with the old costs. Before I'd have to choose between doing damage or eating the next couple hits for a bit less damage. There's no choosing anymore. You can do damage and use all the abilities you want, and you're always going to have damage reduction against normal hits. Maybe it's only 10% or 20%, but it's always going to be there.

If Guard is going to be, as far as main hand stamina goes, free, then I don't think it has to be perfect. It's not competing with Sword skills anymore, you won't feel cheated by using Guard right before the mob uses a TP move.

[Lucavi]

Would be nice for shields to have their own stamina bar, and for blocks and abilities to drain the bar, but that won't happen.

[solracht]

Would be nice for shields to have their own stamina bar, and for blocks and abilities to drain the bar, but that won't happen.

It did, according to the lodestone, which is why I edited my complaint post: http://lodestone.finalfantasyxiv.com...escreen01.html

[Lucavi]

Orly?! Ah, I see it right down at the bottom there. Interesting! Kuro and I were talking about that during OB. Nice to see that change!

Edit: I wonder what this means for shield duration and for the duration-increasing trait? WIth the shield having its own stamina gauge, theoretically the second duration should switch to a stamina duration, and that shield trait should simply lengthen the stamina bar to allow for your shield to be active longer. I hope it works that way so I don't have to press the shield button so many times.

I also hope that you'll be able to remove the "permanent" buttons, like the shield and throw icons, when you switch jobs.

[solracht]

It sounds like it's just an extra bar for shield actions only. We'll still have to press the Guard button often (less often with the trait), unfortunately.

[Lucavi]

Does that mean the bar constantly drains while the shield is up or only for blocks? Eh, I guess I'll find out soon enough.

[solracht]

I think you might be looking too much into it. Before, using guard used up a portion of your stamina bar. Now, using guard will use up a portion of the shield stamina bar, leaving your main bar untouched.

Don't think they changed anything beyond that, unless they're just not saying it. It's basically the way it was in the alpha, but with the stamina system instead of the queue system.