What's your pet peeve in FFXI?

[Taskmage]

Re: What's your pet peeve in FFXI?

Only if you had all the facts (or good approximations of them.) The facts being the exact potency of Slow, the probability distribution of Paralyze II proc rates, the average number of swings the mob does per attack round, the average damage per swing, and frequency of spell casting, the frequency with which the mob casts a spell that actually matters, and the average damage per spell.

And just the probability of paralyze procing is hard enough to determine. Say I gave you a data set that looked like

this

Proc
Swing
Proc
Proc
Swing
Swing
Swing
Proc
Swing
Swing
Swing
Proc
Proc
Proc
Proc
Swing
Swing
Proc
Proc
Swing
Proc
Swing
Proc
Swing
Swing
Swing
Swing
Swing
Swing
Swing

That's 12 procs out of 30, so you might think this data represents a paralyze with a 40% proc rate, but I happen to know the proc rate of this hypothetical para was 50% because I got the data by flipping a coin 30 times and writing Proc for every tails and Swing for every heads. A very large amount of data and thus a very large amount of time spent getting stabbed in the face are required to get a reasonably good estimate of the strength of para and that's just for one data point. If you wanted to account for mnd difference or skill or staff you'd need a similarly large data set for those 7 combinations and then you'd want some intermediate data points to make sure you hadn't passed any caps or inflection points and so on ...

Compare to Slow II or Bio III where you can just ballista someone and check the slip damage or ask them about their recast timers to get a data point instantly. This is why nobody really knows how good Paralyze is down to a figure.

[Armando]

Re: What's your pet peeve in FFXI?

I remember such an exhaustive study done on Alla. It was so heavy on the statistics I couldn't follow it.

Of course SE could just tell us these things. Am I the only one that thinks it's retarded that they release what is essentially a purely number-driven game and don't tell you anything about the game's mechanics?

[cidbahamut]

Re: What's your pet peeve in FFXI?

The lack of math for Paralyze kinda puts me off from dropping serious points into it.

[Taskmage]

Re: What's your pet peeve in FFXI?

Yup, you linked it in the Potency of Enfeebling Magic thread in the rdm forum. Ran across it a little earlier looking for data. It only covers Para I unfortunately, but maybe it's worth linking again: Enfeebling Test: Complete! :: Final Fantasy XI :: ZAM

---------- Post added at 09:46 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:26 PM ----------

The lack of math for Paralyze kinda puts me off from dropping serious points into it.

The excessively arcane nature of most of the game's systems kinda puts me off from using them.

[Takelli]

Re: What's your pet peeve in FFXI?

Why not just put points into both, and use them both? ;>.>

[cidbahamut]

Re: What's your pet peeve in FFXI?

Why not just put points into both, and use them both? ;>.>

It's more a question of how many points since I can't just max all my Group 2 spells.

[Taskmage]

Re: What's your pet peeve in FFXI?

Can't you max 3 after the next change to merit points or is that just wishful thinking on my part?

[Armando]

Re: What's your pet peeve in FFXI?

The lack of math for Paralyze kinda puts me off from dropping serious points into it.

This sort of thing can be handled with a different approach. Instead of meticulously simulating some Paralyze II scenario with too many assumptions, we could instead work out what Paralyze proc rate would be needed to perform better than Slow II, which is much easier to calculate. Sometimes that can give pretty clear answers (e.g. "Yeah, Paralyze II definitely can't proc that much.") If you can't say decisively that Para II is worse, then they're at least similar enough to consider using it.

Looking at Slow and Slow II, their potency depends a lot on the MND difference between you and the mob, reaching the cap at +75 MND. What sort of MND difference would you expect these days what with all these Atmas and crazy level 90 mobs and whatnot? The difference between Slow I and II is 8.79% when your MND is equal to the mob's, and 5.86% when you cap at +75 MND.

Also: bear in mind that no matter what your MND is, 5 merits Slow II is only 3.9% more potent than 1 merit Slow II. Each merit beyond the first adds 0.98% Slow. Seems to me that just unlocking Slow II is good enough and the extra points aren't a very good investment.

[KingOfZeal]

Re: What's your pet peeve in FFXI?

Can't you max 3 after the next change to merit points or is that just wishful thinking on my part?

Not job specific ones, the merit adjustments only affect the general (common) groups, like stats and skills. Group 1 and 2 job-specific are still capped as they have been.


Still interested to see what this 'new merit system' I remember hearing a bit about for 99 will be like. I don't think I saw it mentioned on the roadmap they laid out...

[Aksannyi]

Re: What's your pet peeve in FFXI?

If it makes any difference, I had max Slow II and Dia III and I absolutely loved them both. Dia III was very useful on HNMs.

And in terms of SE not telling us anything, I found it funny when I was reading the WoW forums a while ago that someone was like, "Why do you guys at Blizzard keep giving us numbers for everything? It doesn't have to be all about the numbers, and it would cut down on elitism." I actually pointed out how SE has kept FFXI players in the dark on so much of that shit and it didn't stop elitism at all. It just created a base of people who tested everything and crunched the numbers themselves. If you think obsessive MMO players won't find out all their numbers themselves, then you don't know obsessive MMO players. It was just funny to me. As someone who played a game for years where the devs told us fucksquat about anything, it was a refreshing thing to see my exact numbers right in my character info screen.

[Mhurron]

Re: What's your pet peeve in FFXI?

Also: bear in mind that no matter what your MND is, 5 merits Slow II is only 3.9% more potent than 1 merit Slow II. Each merit beyond the first adds 0.98% Slow. Seems to me that just unlocking Slow II is good enough and the extra points aren't a very good investment.

I believe its the 2 MACC for Slow II not the potency change that make more then 1 upgrade into Slow II worthwhile.

[cidbahamut]

Re: What's your pet peeve in FFXI?

Dark Knights.

I swear to god, every last one on my server is fucking retarded.

"oh, let's put our weaponskill name in a party macro"

"let's make pictures for our soul eater macro"

"let's not cast any spells even though we're in the red and could easily heal ourselves with Drain"

"Let's dress in stupid gear that looks shiny but does nothing for us"

I lost it in a party tonight and ripped into a guy a lot worse than is customary for me. It was very cathartic and I think I'm going to make a habit of it because god damn are these people fucking stupid.

[cidbahamut]

Re: What's your pet peeve in FFXI?

I'm the only mage on my server who knows how to cast Haste.

[Satori]

Re: What's your pet peeve in FFXI?

My peeve is weather trials again.
Seriously there should be restrictions on who can update the entries because it seems any retard can.

My trials <-( 2 of them ) require earth weather, One will accept earthday also. Then one trial is any mobs x ammount and the other lizards.
So lacking any initiative I go to wiki for help on where would be best and it reccomends attohwa chasm.
So I spent fri-sun checking my trial log for the almanac part about weatehr. There was no mention of it anywhere being dusty.
The one that required any mob I did in altepa on manticore and Roc "lobsters" lol but after reading wiki I decided to go to attowha because I could do 2 trials at once because one axe is always on the previous trial.
Damn bsts with their pet invincibility
To make matters worse I have made a rod for my own back being decided on 6 trial axes as it is and thats just for pet battling alone. 2x Eva - 2x Mdb - 2x Pdt it seems a bit overkill but I feel it covers all bases for the enemies I will face.
My final pet peeve is not knowing what axes to use for myself when battling.
I'm tempted for a Farsha mainly because it's the only "Relic" type / show off axe I'll be able to get due to no dyna or nyzul.
FInally I'm lost on what to offhand once again magian axes appeal to me but I'm not sure what to choose.

Store Tp +16 / Dmg +22 Occ atk x2 / Occ atk x2-4 / Dmg +33 Dbl atk +10.
I really wish I could bend my head around the numbers to this game maybe it would make things simpler. But I've seen some of the formulas and even just a glance makes my brain /shutdown.

[Romyro]

Re: What's your pet peeve in FFXI?

I hear ya bud. I have 3 ToM axes completed, 3 more that i'm working on and 3 other non-ToM axes I use here and theret.

Earth trails aren’t too bad. I got both of my PDT axes completed before the weather update (at least as completed as they could be). Here’s some suggestions though if you need them

Trial 1 – Crabs in any weather
----Hit Vunk. Lots of weather there (non-abyssea area)

Trial 2 – Bees
-----Level sync in pashmallow during weather or Wasps in Crawlers Nest [s] (lots of rain in both areas)

Trial 3 – Any Earth D/W
------Skeletons in Eld Nec. Lots of earth weather there

Trial 4 – Lizards Earth D/W
------ I did Cape Terr on earhday (pre-abyssea), but now I’d suggest Abyssea – Kon lizards.

Trial 5 – Amorph Earth D/W
------Leeches in Mt Z. (lots of earth weather), but now Abyssea LTP/Attowa/Ule on earthday

Trial 6 – Bombs Earth D/W
-------Halvung (lots of earth weather), or Abyssea – Vun on earthday

Trial 7 – Arcane Earth D/W
------- Same as above. Or even Weapons in Ro’Mave on earthday

Trial 8 – Skeletons Earth D/W
-------in Eld Nec.

Trial 9 – Aquans Earth D/W
-------Crabs/Pugils in Mt Z

Trial 10 – Geodes
--------Should have 15 geodes by now.

Store Tp +16 / Dmg +22 Occ atk x2 / Occ atk x2-4 / Dmg +33 Dbl atk +10.
I really wish I could bend my head around the numbers to this game maybe it would make things simpler. But I've seen some of the formulas and even just a glance makes my brain /shutdown.

I’m certainly no expert on DDing axes so take my info with a grain of salt…but from what I read around about weapons in general. It goes…

Emph > WoE > DA+10 > OAx

But I’ve also heard Primal Rend is better then the Emph WS. If Emph and WoE are out of the question, I would do either DA+10 if you’re more of a rampage fan or maybe a Magian MAB axe if you’re more of a Primal Rend fan.

I personally don’t do much DDing as a Bst…I find my Pup does way more damage. I have the DA+10 h2h for pup and I LOVE it. if I didn’t need to rely on my –PDT/MDB axes so much, I’d probably do a DA+10 axe.