Abyssean Black BeltFollow

I definitely feel your pain having to get the black belt items (i've been trying to camp the NQ HNMs for a while now myself). I don't think it'd be a good idea to add them to abyssea mobs though because it'd ruin the exclusivity of the item.

I think a better idea would be to reduce the number of kindred seals required to enter the KS99 battles. This would make the items a little easier to get without making it lolabyssea easy.

You can solo the NQ HNM now. There's no need to get massive groups out there.

It's not very diffirent from having to camp the Brown Belt items, just with double or triple the wait. They're nearly always up too.

All around, the Black Belt is just SO FREAKIN' GOOD !!, that its hard to have much sympathy.

maybe, but being the best gear possible, in a slot with nothing else even close, AND being better than any gear in any slot for ALL other melee jobs....

Would I trade bullwhip for BB clone ? absolutely ! would Most melee trade almost any piece of gear in ANY slot for BB stats ? yup !!

My son is a main Monk & I helped him get BB... and its still better than E-body, Shadow Breastplate, Ares body etc
(and cost less to get) and it doesnt require you to sacrifice another good pice to wear it.

Hopefully OP gets his soon & when he does, he might enjoy it even more for the difficulty to obtain and never needing another piece for that slot (or having to macro waist in & out)

Helps WS... helps DPS... helps casting /nin etc etc as a matter of fact, I believe the only Monk it doesnt OP is the Chi blaster... which is pretty dead.

I, personally, am a WAR who has earned Byakkos Hydate many times... and still dont have it. Thank god AF3 is so well designed, that I no longer NEED it

lol, on Asura they are ALWAYS down.

I had ToD on Behemoth a while back and showed up to try to claim it, and there were at least 10-15 people there.

As an owner of a Black Belt who got it through a combination of camping HNM and KS99, I think your idea is great. It certainly wouldn't offend me to see it made more available.

If they did it to relics why not to BB?

Edited, Jan 19th 2011 5:40am by Lobivopis

Why would I be talking about relic armor?



Edited, Jan 19th 2011 5:51am by Lobivopis

They made them obsolete.

Didn't read the last couple posts huh?

Want to bet?

Tantra Hand/Head/Legs say hi.

24% haste brown belt build using gear you would want to use anyway says hi.

All blackbelt is now is an epeen piece letting you stretch for that last ~1.4% haste without using inconvenient slots and -damage builds. (ie you dont even need it to cap haste at ALL)

Is it good? Yes. Is it going to change the life of a mnk forever? hell no. Mnk got buffed like everything else post 75. The ONLY way to get anywhere near 25% haste (let alone 25.xx%) at 75 was with black belt. You now have MULTIPLE haste gloves that are actually pretty good to pick up the slack, not to mention still have the old/new feet options and even a new body option if you REALLY need that last 1.XX%.

Black belt is badass, but it is overhyped real bad these days because it used to be the foundation of a great mnk because gear was far more limited. This isnt the case anymore, but BB is still treated with the reverence as if it was.

YOU DONT EVEN NEED A BB anymore to cap haste. Its good. Its not THAT good anymore.

In short:
A) It is not as game changing as it once was because new gear picks up the haste slack easily
B) It is still FAR easier to get than it ever was. NMs are soloable. KS99s are even easier to kill at lv 90. If you want to farm KS you can kill the same level mobs for KS farming as we did at 75, but do it with lv 90 power. KS=easy to farm.

Side note: Mnks complaining that other jobs have it 'easy' is laughable when Mnk+Whm can kill ANYTHING IN ABYSSEA. Crikey. This is worse than sams bitching that they dont get to use 'easy to get' twilight belt when they still have hasso and the easiest damn empyream in the game you can finish 80/85 trials in 2-3 days. Cry moar.

That Dring is still the best and hard to get. My thf thinks my heca sub+1 is still pretty dang hawt and its not easier to get. (Insert sea torque) is still pretty nice and a pain to get. My homam feet are still great for my thf and the best wyvern hp boot in the game. Should it be easier to get just because new stuff is?

I personally dont see any reason for "old" content to be made easier just because a buncha new stuff came out that is overall easier/faster and has better rewards. Why should we not keep the FEW gems of yesteryear around?

I dont see why it is that old content must be made easier because new content is easier especially when there are tons of new options to circumvent the old gear. (my heca+1 sub is still the 'best' but tumbler trunks are REALLY good and stupidly easy to get alternative for example).

I think SE is playing a great hand to a very delicate situation. There are the old vets that worked their asses off for YEARS for gear and are proud of those badges of honor. There are also those that thought the effort/reward system was rediculous (and rightly so) because its a game that required obscene time investment to really excel at. Now anyone can get pimped out for a fraction of the effort in abyssea at lv 90. The made a great many people happy with this approach, but they have left a few 'badges of honor' from the old world for the old hardcore players (BB, Heca sub+1, Drings, and a handful of other obscenely rare items) that have retained their value. Sure Drings are still the BEST but you can still get 6% rings from abyssea. Sure heca sub+1 is great, but tumblers arent shabby. Novio/Moldy is sure nice, but hecates/modly works too, but that still leaves novio/hecate for that +1-ness. Sure BB is great, but Brown+New gear holds up pretty darn good.

Kudos to SE for walking a very fine line between opposing player types and doing a very respectable job of throwing a bone to everyone while still making the game more accessable. I really think the way they have done this transition is excellent because they DID leave a few gems in there.

Its not that I think BB isnt worth getting or anything like that, but it is intentionally left alone for a specific (and small) minority while allowing the majority to carry on happily with more accessable gear. And, as with all old content now, it IS easier to get simply because we are more powerful than before. AV is easier. KS99s are easier. HNMs are MORE lowman-able than ever etc. It may not be 'as easy' as some would like, but it is intentionally left that way for a reason. SE actually does seem to be getting a lot more sense lately in dealing with its constituents in FFXI and i commend them for the way they are bringing about change without obsoleting EVERYTHING from the last decade.

Edited, Feb 16th 2011 6:37pm by Banalaty

Or it could be that it is supposed to be Behe<Turtle<Faffy for a tiered ease of acquisition. The consistency arguement is one I have LONG given up on because it just isnt possible to do. Those mobs/KS99s are not designed based on what a mnk can do. They are based on what a group is designed to do. What is easy for one job is impossible for another.

Then of course there are simply 'not fair' across the board. My twashtar glavoid>Itza trials are WAAAY harder and time consuming (both obtaining pops and killing the mobs) than lolCarrabosse>Fish trials (yes im bitter). Why should skadi body have luck based weather-depopping BS mobs just to get a 'chance' to pop the NM off the rampart for a 'chance' at the drop? Why is drakesbane so much better than tachi rana when they take the same effort to get? Why does rng have to pay through the nose to deal the same damage as (insert melee job). Why do melees have to pay gil for RR when mages get it for free? Why are (insert job) +1 seals/+2 Trinkets off (insert mob) thats so hard when (insert job)'s are so easy!

There a bajillions of inequities in effort/reward. Perhaps I am just jaded, but I have come to expect it and accept it. No one can balance a game (or anything) as complex as this so everyone gets to slide down rainbows of justice and equality together holding hands.

Its rude to basically say "STFU and get over it" but at this point in the game, you have an 'option' to still be an excellent (insert job) without having (insert 1-2 specific pieces of gear). If second best just isnt good enough, then we gotta bite the bullet and do whatever PITA trials we have to do. Its just relative. If we make (insert task) easier, there will STILL be a thread just like this one complaining its to hard. Its always 'rediculous' to someone. So the question is, at what point is it easy enough? I personally accept things the way they are for the most part so it doesnt really bug me. But, to me, difficulty is relative based on each person.

Its just a philosophical difference. How much is to much? How much is to little? If the best atk food in the game cost 1 million each, would some people still buy it? yeah. Would people bitch about it and say its not fair? yup. If the price was dropped to 500k, is that "enough"? Does it NEED to be 5k and accessable to EVERYONE? How much is to much? How accessable should gear/items be? Should every mnk regardless of playtime/effort be able to get a BB? Most? A rare few?

It boils down to: what is the right answer to the question of accessibility in a game?

And thus why I just accept things as they are for the most part. I do what is within my means and dont worry to much about what isnt. Makes life so much easier.

It's not a matter of making it easier. Put the mats on Rani, Pantokrator, and Raja for all I care, with the same 15% drop rate. It's a matter of there being no reason to do kings or KS99's if you aren't a monk. There is NO reason to camp (outside the 3 D. Rings a year that drop) if you are not a monk anymore. That means no buying the mats. You either have to claim at 4 a.m. or you have to convince a handful of other people to spend two weeks farming up kindred seals to do a fight they will gain nothing from.


Every single piece of DD gear from the 75 cap has been antequated. Black belt should be in the same boat. But if they aren't going to make something better then they should allow people to obtain it without skipping work or handcuffing friends for a 10% chance of getting 1/3rd of the items for it.


Not a matter of difficulty. A matter of using new and better content rather than outdated and boring content.

And how much of that did you get before the cap increase? My bet would be all of it. You would be singing a different tune if you were forced to 2 box camp kings because nobody wanted to do boring stuff anymore with antiquated gear.

Stuff you listed like brutal and boxers is from beating level 50 cap missions with a level 90 job so not relevant. Listing /ra items for thf to compare with a black belt? Ridiculous. Evasion sets and Thf+ gear? Come on.... Homam legs aren't outdated? Really? There aren't new legs with 5 haste and a 4% crit bonus on top of a set bonus?

You are arguing top of the line items should be difficult to get and use delta earring as an example? Really?

This 'exhaustive list' is really just thf+, eva, and /ra items sprinkled in with a couple of good situational pieces of DD gear. And considering that thf is mega specialized on gear it stands to reason that a handful of pieces are still used depending on whether or not you stack or don't stack sa/ta etc. Rest assured all of this gear will go the way of homam pants.

So your solution is to remove the ONLY reason to kill those monsters at ALL?

Fact: Nobody wants to kill Fistule x50 for Rngs to get their empy weapon with NO worthwhile drops of any kind. Should we move those drops to raja too? See what i did thar?

Does a monster/event need to have stuff for everyone? Does everything need a carrot to 'get people to help'? If thats the case there are bigger fish to fry than black belt trials.

I also like how you mention camping 21-24 hour NMs for premier gear sucks and point out the 'easy' gear on my list, but ignore something like hecatomb subligar that is flatly the best non-TP legs in the game for thf and drops of NIDHOGG. Way to be selective. Your best TP belt is off some hnms (best by adding 1.XX% haste over Brown. THAT IS SMALL). My best WS legs are rare drop off an HQ HNM. Fair enough? Oh you can get yours off KS99s? I can get mine off Odin. Still even? You can still 'get by' with brown and ONE piece of less-than-ideal haste gear. I can 'get by' with tumblers or something. Its not as good, but its WAY easier to get and passable. Still even?

I get it. BB is annoying to get. It is off of mobs that are largely ignored. And? Its about as popular to get help for as fistule is for a rng trying to get help. Mnks are not some shat upon job that cant get anything done all by their lonesome like its a pup lfp 3 years ago.

Thats how this game works. You help other people do stuff with no direct gain to yourself and they return the favor for something they need. You always have the option to just merc anything in this game if you flash enough gil because you cant pull together the manpower to do something yourself.

Everything at lv 75 is now EASIER to get because we are stronger. Everything. If that isnt 'easy enough' then I dont know what to tell you. I just dont really have a lot of sympathy about something being 'too hard' when it JUST got a LOT easier than it ever was. You can SOLO 2/3ds of a BB right now on mnk. There are still mercing and KS99s. How much easier does that need to be?

This is all over getting 1.XX% more haste in 'convenient' slots. It really isnt that big of a deal to miss out on just like no thf should be crying foul they cant get heca sub easily when they can waltz to the AH and grab tumblers.