Expansions, Updates, SOMETHING?!Follow

I can regard both arguments without saying you're taking a side.



At the time of Parse, Starfox had 4 merits in both Sword and Dagger, a full 5 Merits in STR, and some unbelievable gear. While one could argue a Rdm can make due working their way up, but with as much stigma working against them, a RDM would have to do so pretty much on their own.

That and there is a matter of a performance gap between 50 and 70 that really does present itself as a road-block for most front-line Red Mages. An update, while perhaps not 'needed' in the strict sense of the mechanics, would do a lot to alleviate not only the long-stagnant feel of the job class, but regard this issue as well.

IMO it doesn't have to be much of a boost, just enough to get some of us past the curve between 'suck' and acceptable without obsession-level dedication. (if only in effort to lessen the number of poor front line rdms.)



The line in which I said read up was intended to regard questions like this, but I'll review:

Melees were Meat builders with cheap food, Starfox uses Bream Sushi. Ninja was in tanking mode more than focusing on offense, therefore his damage output was hampered by both feather tickle and snatch-steal.

Edit: Laugh, The above is MY party with him. I'm sorry. That camp stated in the parse isn't a Colobri Camp, it's a Mamool Ja camp. Things like Snatch Steal and Feather Tickle simply weren't an issue.

But I agree, anyone can fake a Parse. Just like anyone can fake a screen shot. This is why I don't blame Darknei for calling it out. But right now doing a Front Line RDM can be done, but it's damned hard and can use a bit of ease-of-play lovin here. After all, just because Samurai could self-skillchain without 2hr before Sekkanoki, doesn't mean they shouldn't have received it.

If this becomes a matter of 'sides' I agree with the side that says "Overpower it, then tweak it when it becomes acceptable." That's the best way to break a stigma.




Edited, Feb 22nd 2009 2:27am by Hyrist

Sometimes you belittle, sometimes you support, you're a hard poster to read, Seriha.

Just note that the parse Starfox posted was a Mamool Ja Camp, as in for inside Mamook itself. That's not a bird camp by any means or advantages. The trade off for the fancy spikes and hate control are the utilities he listed in that exact same post, which, to me, speaks of better than what even a 'leetgear' thief can offer. However, that is just personal opinion. I do agree that it requires a lot to be as effective as Starfox is, as he represents the near-peak of the performance, not the average.



There's a lot of negativity when taking the actual player base in account here. Most I've met in game usually are willing to give it a shot, with a few annoying exceptions that tend to scream louder than most.

As far as the issue of redundancy, it's really NOT an issue when you factor in raw damage. "Well these two jobs have the same buff and they can't buff the group twice over" is a moot argument when everything shares the same bottom line, which is damage done to monster and EXP/HR. It doesn't matter how you get there as long as you get there.

So in that respect, I'm agreeing with lolGaxe in that there is a very serious player element problem here. Not just with the RDM itself but with the stigmas that regard it in general. I've said it multiple times that people need to get over the idea that they need 4 DD buffs on them at all times to preform well as a group. That stems from the 'epeen damage' aspect of melee jobs IMO.

There's no way to really assist the buff cycle without condoning putting 3 roles on one job full time at the same time. It's been said but stands to be emphasized that buffing RDM's mage side any further won't really help RDM get to the front lines, in fact it will likely make sure they see it even more rarely.

If you're going to give a job unique buff that works for melees and separates itself from white magic redundancy, give it to White Mage. As far as Red Mage in the Hybrid spot goes, that comes with an acceptance that you are no longer in the 'main' role of anything. You are there to be a generalist and to fill gaps in player performance through various means, not maintain a full refresh/regen/haste cycle. (though it's likley not beyond the capabilities of a front line Rdm to maintain a haste cycle with a Scholar present, due to lack of healing necessity. However even then that requires the SCH to keep on his toes with certain debuffs.)

Still, all this is just considering current mechanics. As far as what SE will do for RDM? Reports have said it's something to aid them offensively. I doubt any aid to RDM's buff cycle is coming.

I'm tricky on the issue because I've been trying really hard to work out something that'd everybody would like on both sides. Of course, there's always someone that'll pervert it one way or another with inane bastardizations, but I'm usually speaking through a combination of my own experiences (As a first job RDM, then all my other jobs) and that of others (Be it them playing with the terrible melee RDMs or being outright against it because Avesta soloed something).

I'd like something unique and meaningful to come out of it, but you always see the repeat stuff like "Double Cast" or people who think some Hasso/Seigan Melee/MACC thing would be a good idea. The first does **** for melee. The second would just have people telling us to keep the MACC side up and stay in the back anyway. Wanting something unique stems from other factors like not wanting to rip off DNC with some kind of Samba or TP conversion when our already crappy WS will just get sluffed off even more.

At its best, whatever we get should integrate MP so main healing isn't an option when we're being more melee-centric. Emergency cures? Sure. I don't mind using Magic Fruit on my BLU. I keep it set practically all of the time. However, it's not there to be the only spell I use. Tricky part, though, is whatever we get being good enough for people to think twice for reasons of either support or damage when looking for that party member. The former there's plenty of. The latter there IS redundancy when it comes to WHM. There is no Spell Haste stacking. There is no Slow I and II from different sources offering something better than Elegy alone.

While I personally love a good WHM as someone that despises main healing on RDM, I'm not dense enough to think one or the other with a BRD and/or COR would typically do less for the party than just the two of 'em. WHM did get something sweet with Mystic Boon, though. I've been saying that ever since numbers started coming in on the WS with Hexa still around for times when MP isn't needed. For now, while throwing a pimped melee WHM and RDM together may be the exception to the above, that's almost like dividing by zero in the FFXI universe. Day I ever got a party like that with mechanics as they are now, I'd go buy a lottery ticket.

Then again, maybe Fairy just blows for letting people experiment.

Very disturbing. :\ Most of us expected a preview of what is to come (like they have done in the past). I just want to see where they're going with this game. :P

I bet the new paid scenario and next FF MMO has affected the progress of the patch.

great, they threw them in the basement.

Oh good, Milton has company. Hope they don't touch his stapler.

I still want them to raise the h2h cap on pup and to fix the throwing skill since we have nothing to throw.

If they can delay it because they just too busy doing other stuff and moving. Can we delay our payment because its just not a good time right now?

He got rated into sub-default hell almost instantly, but there's a little bit of sarcastic truth there. We, as the customers, are paying these people and regular updates are a part of that package. We are within our rights to want to know what our money is getting us. I'm not talking about witholding monthy payments or quitting or any other silly threats of that manner, but frankly SE has a **** poor communication standard with its playerbase and the casual attitude of just taking it lying down among the playerbase is amazing to me. Would you be sympathetic about paying your monthy dues if the servers were down for a whole month? Three weeks? Two? Where's the cutoff point? It must exist and it seems the average is much more leinancy than I'd be willing to give them.

I'd be much more cross with them if the game actually NEEDED updates. There's a lot of things I'd like to see added, changed, and improved, but if they were to suddenly announce tomorrow that they were ceasing updates entirely... I'd still have years of entertainment left.

The game's had years of updates, and there's a huge amount of stuff to do in it. Most players have already done most of it, but... I really can't say that SE's not provided a lot of content for what we've paid for.

New stuff would be NICE, don't get me wrong, and we'll eventually run out of content unless they add more, but... A late update, even a SEVERELY late update, won't really hurt my enjoyment of the game.

I guess for me, so long as the game is running, I'll be happy. It's not as though the update will actually fix any of the problems the game has anyway - those are systemic issues that could only be fixed through a complete redesigning of the game. The most the update could do is add a few new diversions and maybe fix Summoner.

Pretty sure Swarm(Believe that's what your talking about) was some fanfest only thing, not an actual game feature(Like MMM).

I think. That was the impression I got from the various fanfest posts at the time at least.

Did seem kind of fun from the screens I saw, but I've heard nothing more about it.

On the update thing: I really want to know what's going to happen as well. It could be the crappiest update ever, but I just want to know SOMETHING. Haven't been able to play this month at all, and was really hoping to come back to something new, no matter what it is, or whether or not it actually had something to do with what I enjoy in the game(Could be another Sam update for all I care).

It just feels odd to have no information at all at this point. I had thought the "Expansions" were being completed by an entirely different team, so that shouldn't have an impact on actual game content.