If SE let me change jobs, this is how I would do it...

[Kailea]

Re: If SE let me change jobs, this is how I would do it...

its fun to make these treads some times, but this is SE's game and they know how to balance their own game. Balanceing a mmorpg is alot harder then you think.

[Legal Fish]

Re: If SE let me change jobs, this is how I would do it...

I'm not quite sure what you're saying here. You're implying that a weapon skill that adds an enfeeble (like paralyze from Blade:Retsu) doesn't have it's effect scale with tp? They do... though admittedly not well (like tp is for all WSs, really).

Hmm? Not quite sure what you mean either... Most enfeebling WSes TP modifiers(as in damage) don't go up with TP. They stay at a static 1.00. This changes that.

-War wouldn't need B- Archery

This is to make Aggressive Aim, a currently useless Merit Ability, popular. Also, to put some revival into woodworking synths.

WAR doesn't need a direct improvement.

I'm not sure what the point is in increasing dread spikes casting time/recast to 6 minutes. This just makes recasts more horrendous if you don't disable Hasso in time. I can't find the duration of Dread Spikes, actually. Is it currently 1 minute or 3 minutes? I do believe if it isn't already, it should be upped to 3 minutes. Maybe even the same duration for Drain 2.

Dread Spikes atm is 3-minute recast, 3-minute duration. Why this needs to be extended is because 3 minutes is sort of a short time. You'd have to want to get aggro to make much use of it. Casting it while having aggro wouldn't be very effective.

En-spells for pld/drk would be fun, but ultimately useless. As such, I can't very well say I'd be happy that S-E devoted their devs' time to developing something that'll be ultimately useless.

Enlight is to really give more of a point to a PLD's Divine Skill. These won't be really useless, just not very great. Will only assist in DoT in exp and be a nice plus when soloing.

My DRG friend already outparses me non-stop.

Pre-60 or post-60? Anyway, the haste isn't that strong pre-60... mostly just keeping up against /DRG... post-60 is becomes quite strong, where they did need it most.

its fun to make these treads some times, but this is SE's game and they know how to balance their own game. Balanceing a mmorpg is alot harder then you think.

Oh... uh... okay... thank you.

[Yellow Mage]

Re: If SE let me change jobs, this is how I would do it...

You know what really upsets me? DRKs, 2-Handed weapon specialists, are proposed to be given a B- Shield Skill, but RDMs are only given E?

RDMs are going to be using Shields far more than any DRK would, and, plus, DRK is supposed to be anti-defense for superb-attack in the first place, right?

And if WARs are getting a B- Shield Skill, then at least let RDMs have C, or even C-! I would rather not be on the same Shield-user level as a Thief, and especially not a Samurai, who is also a perferer of the 2-Handed weaponry and shouldn't have a native Shield Skill in the first place, either.

Even a D would be superb, realistically, if at least Parry was brought up to the same level.



What would really help the current game scenario get over the stereotypical RDM Melee would be some "Elemental Melee" weapons that RDM had a Native skill in, which really only offers a choice of Swords, Daggers, or Clubs. These would be wieldable at the same level as the Elemental Staves (51), and do similar things, and while not as potent as the Staves themselves, they would still provide a laudible Elemental bonus, plus an incentive to Melee.

Just for example, I'll use a "Dark Club." It would have a DMG of roughly 20, and a Delay of roughly 250. The +1 to all the stats and the perma-Endark will remain the same, as would the Light Resistance (maybe a lesser one), but instead of +10 hMP, it would have, say "Subtle Blow +2." The Hidden Effects would be along the lines of "+8% to Dark Spells, -8% to Light Spells, -12% Charm Success, -1.6% Perpetuation for Dark Avatars, and +1.6% for Light Avatars."

Basically, it would be a Dark Staff at 4/5 potency for the sake of Melee use. And while the Melee is quite more possible with this weapon, a weapon swap (or loss of TP" wouldn't be needed to switch to Melee mode. Subtle Blow will hopefully not only alleviate the fears of "feable poking giving TP to the Mob," but Subtle Blow actually reduces TP from damaging spells as well, which is another benefit to ensure the Magknight retains both parts to his title.

Of course, remember that the Dark Club was just a rough example, and if there existed a flaw with such a weapon, don't go up in flames over it.

[Legal Fish]

Re: If SE let me change jobs, this is how I would do it...

Of course, remember that the Dark Club was just a rough example, and if there existed a flaw with such a weapon, don't go up in flames over it.

I avoided talking about adding new items because that's a can of worms. Amood and H2H weapon types are the only exception.

Regarding Shield, DRK getting a higher skill is simply to justify the access to Kite/Tower Shield access to them. Would a DRK use it over Scythe/Greatsword? No, that isn't the reason for it. It's to create a potential use, even if players ignore it.

On the other hand, RDM are getting skill to justify being able to equip much weaker shields Buckler/Round, not exactly tanking material, just a little boost(and since you need less skill for the proc rate).

I won't get into "items" like I said... but rather than high shield skill, I'd think RDMs would prefer more stat based shields. Not only for RDMs, but for all jobs who can use shields, as a way to make the loss of dual wield less painful to THF/BST/WAR/BLU/ect. I think the best route would be to use enchantment items.

For example:

Round Shield + whatever
"Something" Shield
Enchantment: MP+20 INT+2 MND+2

and so on for wooden shields... but for some other shields, you'd have melee based:

"Something" Shield
Enchantment: STR+1 Attack+3 Accuracy+3

And of course, there could be defensive shield enchantments for PLD(and whoever else feels like using them in that manner).

I imagine it would peek at a Shield, over level 60-65, that RDM, PLD, and BLU have access to which gives an "Auto-Refresh".

Anyway, I hope you understand where I was going with with shields. WAR also gets an enhancement because apparently people would like to tank with them sometimes.

[Yellow Mage]

Re: If SE let me change jobs, this is how I would do it...

BLUs have a bunch of Shields, yet no Native Shield Skill. You're even suggesting more for them, without giving them a Shield Skill of thier own! If anything, BLU would need a Native Shield Skill for all the various Bucklers and such that they have long before DRK gets even an F merely for thier access to Tower Shields.

Or we could leave them both Shield Skill-less, just as it is now . . .



Though I do get what you're saying on the topic, except, would the "Enchantments" be actual Enchantments, like a Reraise Gorget, or would they just be regular stat bonuses?

[Legal Fish]

Re: If SE let me change jobs, this is how I would do it...

Though I do get what you're saying on the topic, except, would the "Enchantments" be actual Enchantments, like a Reraise Gorget, or would they just be regular stat bonuses?

What do you mean exactly? It would work like stuff like Mighty Ring or High Breath Mantle.

BLUs have a bunch of Shields, yet no Native Shield Skill.

Another oversight.

[Yellow Mage]

Re: If SE let me change jobs, this is how I would do it...

Oh, then I don't think that Enchantment items are the way to go at all. Really, what's the point of having to give an item temporary enchantment bonuses when you can just put the stats on there permanently? As in, the "Magic Something Shield" would just have base stat bonuses of MP+20 and so on, while the "Physical Something Shield" naturally boosts STR by 1 and so on.

And if you consider BLUs not having a Shield Skill but plenty of Shields an oversight, does that mean you'd say the same thing for DRKs? Despite the fact that they -clearly- aren't meant to use those Shields? If anything's the oversight, it's making those tower shields equippable by DRKs in the first place.

[Legal Fish]

Re: If SE let me change jobs, this is how I would do it...

I didn't give BLU shield skill, that's the oversight.

Enchantments are much better for crafters... there isn't much at all a shield market for woodworkers or smithers(and I think one or two synths for alchemy and goldsmithing) to make money off of.

[Lmnop]

Re: If SE let me change jobs, this is how I would do it...

RDM don't have staff skill because the only staves they can equip are "all jobs."

I believe the same is true for BLU's shields?

DRK shouldn't have a good shield skill, it's true. But RDM really shouldn't either. As is, RDM is E and WAR is D. War owns provoke. Rdm do not.

Balanceing a mmorpg is alot harder then you think.

I really hate to sound mean. But you have no idea how I think or just how much I comprehend.

[LilithAngel]

Re: If SE let me change jobs, this is how I would do it...

RDM don't have staff skill because the only staves they can equip are "all jobs."

I believe the same is true for BLU's shields?

Not so much. BLU has access to shields that are actually tagged for them, such as Astral Aspis, Genbu's Shield, Tortoise Shield, Acheron Shield, and perhaps a few others. Not a whole lot, but it's still more access to shields than what RDM get with staves.

Giving DRG Auto-Haste would make up for the fact that as a 2-hander job, we're severely limited as far as how much Haste gear we have access to (not to mention what gear we *can* get, is usually given to other jobs first ). In the frame of reference of this particular FF, I've always envisioned SE's goal for DRG was to make a quick, fast, hard-hitting striker that can move in, get past a target's defenses (piercing weapon, Angon), lay the hurt (powerful 2-handed weapon), and get out of harm's way quickly (Jumps- both damaging and aggro-shedding), leaving the target with little recourse with which to retaliate. A very mobile and hard to pin down heavy DD (much like the RL historical Dragoons were).

[Sevv]

Re: If SE let me change jobs, this is how I would do it...

Only commenting on the drg changes:

Auto-Haste: Great

Tho High Jump air time would suck: there is a reason super jump isn't used a lot no tp and you lose tp while in the air. 6 sec hang time would hurt drg more then it would benefit the job.

[Yellow Mage]

Re: If SE let me change jobs, this is how I would do it...

DRK shouldn't have a good shield skill, it's true. But RDM really shouldn't either. As is, RDM is E and WAR is D. War owns provoke. Rdm do not.

Just a nit-picky thing, but RDMs current Shield skill is actually F, not E .

[Karinya]

Re: If SE let me change jobs, this is how I would do it...

Hmm? Not quite sure what you mean either... Most enfeebling WSes TP modifiers(as in damage) don't go up with TP. They stay at a static 1.00. This changes that.

Why? They're already getting a stronger special effect. Getting more damage too seems excessive. If you want a damage WS, you know where to find it.

Dread Spikes atm is 3-minute recast, 3-minute duration. Why this needs to be extended is because 3 minutes is sort of a short time. You'd have to want to get aggro to make much use of it. Casting it while having aggro wouldn't be very effective.

I think that's intentional. It's not a fire-and-forget spell. If you do want to get aggro after casting it, that's not exactly hard for a DRK to do, anyway. Or maybe you're casting it because you're planning to do something that you know will get you aggro whether you want it or not.

Enlight is to really give more of a point to a PLD's Divine Skill. These won't be really useless, just not very great. Will only assist in DoT in exp and be a nice plus when soloing.

I think making Flash's accuracy reduction stronger with increased Divine skill would be a better way of making it more useful. High level mobs often hit through Flash because the acc reduction just isn't enough to make a big difference to a 300 acc vs. 300 eva roll.

Although it would be kind of neat if enlight did about the same damage as regular enspells, but that damage caused double or triple normal enmity instead of 0 enmity...

Pre-60 or post-60? Anyway, the haste isn't that strong pre-60... mostly just keeping up against /DRG... post-60 is becomes quite strong, where they did need it most.

/DRG isn't really much of a factor. Very few jobs really want to give up the benefits of other subs for it (e.g. /war, /nin, /thf, /sam). Anyway, main DRG don't really need more damage. If not for their hate shedding abilities they'd be stealing hate off DRKs and MNKs no problem.

Overall I think you're trying to change things just to change things, without any clear idea of why a change is necessary. I'd lower perp costs a little (so SMN can use their pets more, which is probably what the class was intended to be), maybe nerf multihit weapons and WS a bit or buff the damage of some neglected 2h weapons and WS, make Utsusemi more dependent on ninjutsu skill, and that's about it.

Except that if I actually worked at SE, I wouldn't start by changing jobs, because the main balance problem facing the game isn't any particular job anyway. It's the whole dynamics of high level exp and fighting monsters that have the relative power of low Ts, but check VT and give exp accordingly. Once players are encouraged to fight mobs that are actually dangerous, WHM and BLM get their roles back, tanking becomes lifesaving instead of a complete joke, enfeebling is actually worthwhile, in short the whole dynamic and balance of high level exp returns to the RoZ-CoP era. (I'd keep the specific changes and improvements made since then, but the overall trend of massacring the helpless for maximum exp has got to go.)