When i was your age...

… we had to to set up skill chains and magic bursts. TAs were necessary. We had to walk, 500 yalms to camp. In the snow. With no shoes.

God I really feel old when it comes to this game. So many concepts have become a thing of the past or soooo rarely used. 25k/h or gtfo! Hell, I remember when 10k/h was godly. Jobs like Sam were among the LOL, now so over powered that when the updates roll around they are the first thing people bitch about. Fire Crystals use to be income… now they just pay for your warp to WG.

But Night! Things change.

No shit. In the short 8 years this game has been out. FF has really seen it all. Jobs becoming stronger, weaker, then stronger again. Economy fluxing. Play styles changed more then you change your underwear.

Playing for as long as I have, you tend to get sent in your “ways”. Like I’m currently leveling Pld (yes, I'm leveling another damn job). Now, when one thinks of a Paladin, one thinks brick wall that can cure. Even though that is still true, because of how play style has changed, Plds gear their play style toward more of the “DD” side of things.

Some jobs don’t even use their main weapon. Sam’s like to use Polearm, I’ve heard Nin’s using Daggers, Mnks with Staffs. Now yes, I know thats all very situational. Bird Meripos, Pots, etc. Nothing is wrong with that, just takes an older player like myself a minute to get their mind around that.

Personally, I love a lot of the new play styles. But I think we’ve gotten to use to the soft and squishy of ToAU, and forgotten what real party dynamics are. I’m not surprised when I’m in an End Game shell and someone doesn’t know what a MB is, or how to do a SC. All we want PT wise is fast, fast and easy. If the PT isn’t doing 10k/k exp, outside of a meripo, the PT is doing it wrong. And the fact that the FFXI community has classified most of the jobs as useless, doesn’t help things.

I really do miss the days of planning out SCs and MBs to make the mob drop before Voke timer was up. Where mobs posed a real threat.

With SE dropping the lvl cap 99 on us. My hopes is that they force us to go back to that old skool way of PTing. But with 45k+ tnls, if it’s not more of the same ToAU crap, too many people will bitch, whine and moan that it takes to long to lvl. Personally I would rather slower EXP for more engaging fights. Something that requires me to pay attention and be 3 steps ahead.

But unfortunately, no matter how much SE fucks up this game. I can’t leave. FFXI has been too unique to quit. Most other, if not all other, MMORPGs out there are “twitch” style game play where you just spam out all your skill and spells. FFXI has been something I have not seen in a game outside of older single player RPGs.

FFXI in my honest opinion, did it right. Does it have the 9000 billion member that WoW has. No. Never will. Cuz FFXI is not an action game. It, in its base, is a Real Time Strategy. Yes, it can be mindless. But really requires thinking and planning.

I will be here till the end. As the last /servmes pops up telling me to /logout cuz the servers are shutting down forever. I’ll be sitting at the waters edge in Purgonorgo Isle, next Dark, reminiscing about the good times, the bad times, and everything in-between.

But until then…

No update this week, the web was out all weekend, thanks comcast. Along with lack of inspiration, means I have not been writing this week. Sad Kitty may have one soon.

Yay for technical difficulties!

My FF Wish List…Part I

Changes are coming. Level cap is increasing, changes will be made to jobs and merits, but are they are going to be the changes that we really want? Are they going to be things that we can actually use or is it going to be yet another form of Curaga that is that pretty much useless? I greet every promise of job update with great trepidation. For every good update like Composure there is shit like nerfing Modus Veritas. So I present to you my wish list. The things that I whisper into that Goblin dresses as Santa in Rolanberry Fields every year and have yet to get. I have been good, really I have.

Part I Job Adjustments.

Red Mage: The job near and dear to my heart. Being a jack of trades there are several ways to augment the job without the fear of “overpowering it” Face it every job is overpowered if played right.

1. Refresh II: At level 99 we better get Refresh II. 5MP/tick with a 5minute Duration.

2. More enhancing magic: Haste II, Regen II better Phalanx. Anything, Red Mages have the highest enhancing magic in the game and all we have to show for it is shitty EnSpell IIs that really aren’t up to snuff.

3. Improved Combat ratings: I am not saying A+, but I would like to see A or A- for Sword and Dagger. Red Mage Tanking is popular(and fun), so even increases in Evasion and Parrying would nice. I know that everyone knows that lucky RDM, (read: me) who Parries and Evades things that a RDM should never have a chance against but it would be night to have to rely on more than that the gracious blessings of Altana.

4. More Options for Enhancing Convert: Red Mage Mythic is a nice idea, but not the easiest item in the world to obtain. I would like to see a few more options for enhancing convert. Especially with the level cap increase allowing access to convert as a support job.

White Mage: To be perfectly honest, I hate this job. I hate this job for the same reason you rarely play Red Mage in EXP/Merit Parties: IT BORES THE FUCK OUT OF ME! With that being said it is still the best main healing job in game. White Mage does not need much, just a few tweaks to help in back in the top slot of healing jobs.

1. Enmity Reduction Ability: Cast Cure IV, I dare you, go ahead I’ll wait… Now that you are weakened you understand that once you cast Cure IV you have just screamed “I’VE BEEN BAD, SPANK ME!!!” in a room full of Dominatrix’s. There is a need for WHM to be able to shed or reduce enmity when casting cure spells. Even incorporating this into Afflatus Solace/Misery would be nice. Also it would make them a touch more useful.

2. Regen Potency: I love Regen. Effective use of Regen meant I leveling my WHM without Refresh most of the time. Even with merits and Relic Body there is still much that can be done to augment this highly powerful spell. I would like to see more items that have Regen Potency much like Cure Potency works.

3. I had a third one I swear…

Paladin: The following is stated as opinion only. I am not a PLD, nor do I play one on TV. I am however a friend to many PLD and President of the Elvaan Paladin Stalkers group. /drool. In my never humble opinion Paladins are the only true Tanks in the game. Yes a lot of jobs can tank, but PLD is one that was built for it. With all that being said, we need to do something to get them top place back in the Tank ranks.

1. Flash II: Shorter Recast timer and greater enmity accrual. Flash is truly a Paladins best friend, this would just elevate it to BFF status.

2. Auto Refresh II: When you ask someone why they don’t want a Paladin in a EXP/Merit party their first gripe in always, “they need MP and ruin chain” Giving PLDs and Auto-Refresh II would increase their overall sustainability.

3. Cover 2.0: This one actually comes from Sad Kitty. Make Cover a hard 30 second duration, lower recast to 1 minutes and remove the position requirement, by making it all damage is diverted to the Paladin.

Dancer: Dancer is Bard –1, White Mage –1 Red Mage –1 and Thief –1 all rolled into one semi-useable package. I must say, I like the idea of dancer but they are overall useless outside of a sub-job for those campaign happy players who don’t natively have MP. When looking over the DNC job abilities and traits their short list of “Dances” limits just how usable they can be. I mean even in the Crystal War era they were too busy dancing on tables in San d’Oria, wait those girls are underage they are not table dancing they are participating in a distance learning program to further their education. Down to the nitty gritty, what can make a dancer useful?

1. Auto-Regain: I would say give them meditate but then league of SAMs would be beating down my mog house door pissing and moaning about how meditate is an ancient Samurai secret, but a 1TP/tic Auto-Regain similar to the Auto-Regen/Refresh job trait that other jobs get would make it do a Dancer could actually pretend to deal damage.

2. Rapture Jig: Essentially Meditate Jig. It would be something that the DNC could only use on themselves that would give them a Refresh style ability. Note that I am not stating to give them both Auto-Regain and a Regain Dance, but laying out options that could be implemented.

3. Useful Dances: I am not sure how to sum this one up, but when I look over what the DNC does get it makes me sad. Three Enfeebles, a half-voke, lolgravity, and a Stun that will only proc if you have already blown TP on 5/5 Stutter Step and have saved up enough finishing moves so that you can use it. This is why we never see DNCs in endgame.

Okay, that is a enough for now. I think that I have given my fair readers enough reading to do. This is only part one of my list, but do not expect to see every job listed here. There are many jobs that people believe will need updates, but sadly I will disagree. Take my beloved Samurai, even Slasher kitty who shares a wonderful long-term relationship with SAM see no real improvements needed. The only thing I would say for SAM is to ungimp Overwhelm. Until next time I am off to lay waste to hordes of something that needs to die.

To Be Continued…