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The horrible, horrible derail of the battle system tweak announcement thread got me to thinking: we need someplace to soapbox our pet job adjustments. Similar derails happen in other threads too, after all. I propose that we bring those inevitable rants here rather than horning in on other threads.
I'll go first.
WAR: WAR tanking will never happen so long as WAR tanks are murder on chains to heal. Contrary to SE's apparent belief, holding hate is not and has never been WAR's problem as a tank; survival is. That being said, you lose something essential to WAR if it's capable of being truly self-sufficient as a tank like PLD and NIN are.
Thus, my proposal is this: give WAR at post-sub levels, or MNK at a low level (remember WAR/MNK tanking?), a new job trait that increases the amount of HP they gain from heals and the regen rate from regenerative spells active on them -- perhaps by 25%. They'll still rely on outside help for healing, but a smart mage would spend considerably less MP healing a WAR (or WAR/MNK) than they would anyone else.
There is, however, one issue with this idea: more HP healed means more enmity generated by the heal. To counteract this as well as shore up WAR's only weakness in holding hate, WAR could also be given a job ability that causes heals targetted at them to generate somewhat less Enmity, say 75% of normal. It could be on a two-to-three-minute timer and last 30 seconds.
MNK: MNK is pretty good as a main job, IMO. Where it falls short most is as a subjob. I don't have a lot of ideas on this front aside from the 25%-more-healing trait mentioned above, however -- which would nicely complement MNK's high HP but low Def.
THF: Some of the best things one could do for THF are pretty indirect. First, make some better light DD gear (which would also help RDMs melee where that's appropriate, NINs hold hate through damage, DNCs DD as the community seems to have decided they ought to, and so on). Next, add {Enmity} to the auto-translate function so people have a clue what THF is aside from a light DDer. (This would also help in other ways.) Third, redo the entire Dagger weaponskill list with THF and Sneak Attack in mind, not RDM and magical ability. (I can dream, can't I?)
There are, however, some things that could be done directly to THF to help it. One would be to make Trick Attack more effective -- say, a +20 Enmity bonus on the attack (which, if executed properly, would mean even more of a hate spike for the target). Another would be to give THF a Chain Closing Potency trait that bumps up the damage and accuracy of the skillchain effect of any chain they close -- say, +15% damage/+4 Acc at level 10, and +5%/+2 every 20 levels thereafter. This would increase the benefit of cooperating with a THF while also giving a THF a limited ability to adapt to parties that Just Will Not Cooperate ("screw it, I'll just close chains opportunistically"). One could even make this ability increase the damage or accuracy of a magic burst off of the resulting skillchain or make such a bursted spell generate less enmity.
BLM: BLM's real problem is largely a community issue. That being said, BLM nukes and skillchain damage alike could be helped by one simple adjustment -- make resists less powerful. As it is, by my understanding, the best case scenario on a resist is half damage. Change it so that the best case scenario is 3/4 damage, and make the 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, etc. tiers of resist come after that. This would make both nuking and skillchaining more worthwhile -- and what do you get when you combine the two?
This would have the side-effect of nerfing Barelement spells, however, though this could be fixed by making Barelements also reduce overall damage of the element by a small percentage.
WHM: As it stands, SCH can now use AoE -na spells better than WHM can. For the supposed premier healer in the game, this is absolutely ridiculous. SE should change Divine Veil from a job trait that gives Divine Seal a second function to a seperate JA on at most a five-minute timer -- maybe even three-minute. That way, AoE status healing would be possible on a regular basis and wouldn't come at the expense of sacrificing one of the WHM's few tools for MP efficiency.
Since RDM's and SMN's selling points for the healer role are their MP but to duplicate the same benefit for WHM would make the jobs run together too much, I feel that WHM should have its benefit-per-MP-spent improved at post-sub levels. Cure Potency traits would be a start. I used to also think that Regen II and Regen III's casting times should be shortened to 3.5 and 3 seconds respectively to encourage their use (remember the way Ni spells used to be?), but SCH gaining Regen II has complicated this; I don't know whether it's still a good idea to take this approach.
RDM: OK, so enfeebling accuracy starts acting screwy at the top? RDM's nukes aren't worth the MP spent on them? Swapping out staves for a sword makes your spell accuracy go down the tubes? There's a simple, appropriate solution to all three problems: give RDM Magic Accuracy Bonus traits. This could even make RDM more attractive as a subjob.
If SE truly wants RDM to be "used more as magical swordsmen", though, they need to do more than just make our buff cycle even longer; they have to make it so that for us, spellcasting and sword-swinging can be done at the same time. Give us a job trait, nice and subbable to make it catch the eye of those BLUs and DRKs too. Standing back and using staves would still mean better spells, but if we're extra-accurate elven bladesinger-alikes, then us stepping out front instead wouldn't be such a ridiculous notion in the right situation.
Another way us meleeing could be made situationally useful would be to give us Enstatus spells roughly as accurate as our normal enfeebles. While this may sound bizzare, consider this: What would be a better way of sticking Silence on Kirin -- spending time and MP over and over again from the back lines until it finally lands, or spending time and MP once and daggerburning Kirin until it sticks? The latter would certainly be faster, more MP-efficient, and would leave the RDM freer to react to problems. Basically, balance things such that Enstatuses are a better idea on magic-resistant mobs than the regular spells are. The ability to enfeeble colibri by this method is also a plus.
BRD:
Lmnop makes a very good point. BRD is simply a powerhouse. No other job can enable meleeburn the way a BRD does. Perhaps a minor nerf is in order -- say, separating BRD's buff and debuff effectiveness into two modes that are on timers, similar to SCH or SAM. If balanced well, this would only hinder the renew-one-buff-Elegy-and-Lullaby-new-mob-repeat cycle that characterizes BRD meleeburn pulling, and merely require a reworking of strategies around the timers in other situations.
BST: SE's done a lot for BST lately. This is probably a good time to leave well enough alone.
DRK: DRK's "problem" at this point is meleeburn. When that imbalance is fixed, DRK will be just fine IMO. If not, well, we'll see what happens when the time comes.
PLD: PLD's primary "problem", too, is meleeburn. Solve the meleeburn problem and parties with PLD tanks are sure to follow. That being said, PLD would certainly benefit from more ways to deal with magic. Rampart's revision was a step in the right direction, but a properly-balanced Runic ability would round out PLD's ability to deal with magical attacks well. Perhaps a three-minute timer, duration 30 seconds or until discharged, causes next spell directed to a party member to be redirected to the PLD, MP recovered according to level of resistance (so a completely resisted Slow would give back 12 MP, a 1/4 damage Fire III would give back 84 MP, etc.). Of course, doing it that way would mean that a PLD would be wise to swap in elemental resist gear when using Runic...
While I've heard of issues with Def eventually having diminishing returns, I play PLD in entirely the wrong style to be able to comment.
RNG: In addition to Velocity Shot, perhaps RNG could be given another stance, which does not stack with Velocity Shot, that lowers the RNG's Enmity generation from ranged attacks significantly. Nothing sucks more than having a mob run after the RNG every freaking time they use a weaponskill -- from anyone's perspective.
DRG: SE's suggested changes seem like a great improvement -- particularly if they make a point to make the wyvern's resistance to magical attacks very strong. Also give the wyvern a slight resistance to Dragon Killer, so they aren't totally paralyzed by imps.
NIN: OK, I can see why NIN doesn't get Jubaku: Ni, but what's wrong with Dokumori: Ni? BLMs and RDMs get Poison II, after all, and BLUs get all kinds of powerful poison spells. Also, Ni jutsus should only be quite that fast to cast for a NIN main; make it so that Tonko: Ni and Utsusemi: Ni take 3 seconds to cast when subbed, not 1.5. That'd at least be a compromise.
SAM: Hasso could use juuust a tiiiny nerf in light of the 2H changes. Say, make the STR bonus from Hasso equal to only 1/10 level, rounded down, instead of 1/7. Seigan could use a boost too -- say, a 25% greater Parrying rate, and the number of guaranteed anticipations increased to two per Third Eye.
SMN: Summoner should not use its MP primarily for its subjob. Summoner's Ward pacts should always be worth the cost. Avatar melee should not be a complete joke. Summoner should at least remotely live up to its in-game reputation as a DDer. Therefore, I propose several changes.
Blood Pact: Rage should be subdivided into physical and magical pacts, allowing a good SMN to cooperate with a melee to skillchain and burst that chain. The effectiveness of most magical attack pacts should be increased, with the possible exceptions of Meteorite, Nether Blast, and the Astral Flows. These changes would make SMN a good DD.
Avatar melee should have its power increased through the addition of Enelement damage of the avatar's element. This damage should be equal to 1/10 of the SMN's Summoning Magic skill, rounded down, and can be affected by the day and weather. Avatar melee should also be made more accurate by having their accuracy be calculated as though the SMN's summoning skill were the avatar's weapon's skill.
Blood Pact: Ward should have its dud spells fixed -- reduce Whispering Wind's cost to perhaps 89 MP, increase the duration and effectiveness of the likes of Rolling Thunder and Frost Armor, and so on. Leave the perennially effective ones like Aerial Armor alone.
It would be neat to add incentive to experiment with other subjobs as well. One of my favorite ideas for that is to allow avatars to gain job traits from the SMN's current sub. Want your avatar to melee better without completely abandoning MP? Sub DRK.
BLU: BLU's key problem, much like DRK's and PLD's, is meleeburn. Beyond that, the only thing really holding BLU back that I can see is its I-don'-wanna-play-support players -- though a self-regen and more of a variety of nukes to self-burst wouldn't hurt.
COR: The Quick Draw charges thing is nice and all, but what COR really needs is a level 1 gun. And preferably more bullets.
PUP: PUP's biggest "problem" is that it doesn't do one thing -- it does what the party needs it to become. To the average FFXI player, that's inconceivable; I blame small search comments. That being said, it could stand to do some of the things it does better, especially choosing the right tier of Cure for the job.
DNC: The timers and costs on high-level Waltzes are murder on DNC's high-level healing ability. Does SE ever actually playtest jobs past Dunes levels? Curing Waltz is fine at 20% TP and 6 seconds, but make II 30% and 7 seconds, III 40% and 8 seconds, and IV 50% and 9 seconds. Also give DNC Reraise Waltz, Divine Waltz II, and Dispelling Flourish. The aforementioned light DDer gear would help here too.
SCH: Give SCH one more subbable Strategem pair, perhaps in the 15-20 range, which halves the Enmity generated by the next white/black spell cast. This gives the job, and more importantly subjob, a more obvious team player benefit.
Lower the Cure spell gain levels: Cure at 4, Cure II at 15, Cure III at 28, Cure IV at 52. Gaining Cures later than RDM is fine, but if they're supposed to be considered for healing at all, they should learn Cures earlier than a bloody Paladin. Especially Cure II.
Rename the current *helix spells to *helix II spells, and make a subbable first-tier set. These would have about a fifth to a tenth of the damage per tick and only about three-quarters the duration and still wouldn't stack, but it would say to people, "hey, SCHs do DoT", give people something semi-uniquely Scholarish as a subbable spell, and make the weather spells actually directly useful to SCH at the levels they gain them, since those have a dramatic effect on Helix effectiveness.
Give Scholar its own unique subbable defensive spells that require a little more thought to use than Blink and Stoneskin -- spells that are damage-type-specific, or change the nature of the danger into something easier to handle (such as turning spike damage into DoT divided over ten ticks). /WHM and /RDM would remain superior defensively, but if applied intelligently /SCH at least wouldn't be helpless.
I'll go first.
WAR: WAR tanking will never happen so long as WAR tanks are murder on chains to heal. Contrary to SE's apparent belief, holding hate is not and has never been WAR's problem as a tank; survival is. That being said, you lose something essential to WAR if it's capable of being truly self-sufficient as a tank like PLD and NIN are.
Thus, my proposal is this: give WAR at post-sub levels, or MNK at a low level (remember WAR/MNK tanking?), a new job trait that increases the amount of HP they gain from heals and the regen rate from regenerative spells active on them -- perhaps by 25%. They'll still rely on outside help for healing, but a smart mage would spend considerably less MP healing a WAR (or WAR/MNK) than they would anyone else.
There is, however, one issue with this idea: more HP healed means more enmity generated by the heal. To counteract this as well as shore up WAR's only weakness in holding hate, WAR could also be given a job ability that causes heals targetted at them to generate somewhat less Enmity, say 75% of normal. It could be on a two-to-three-minute timer and last 30 seconds.
MNK: MNK is pretty good as a main job, IMO. Where it falls short most is as a subjob. I don't have a lot of ideas on this front aside from the 25%-more-healing trait mentioned above, however -- which would nicely complement MNK's high HP but low Def.
THF: Some of the best things one could do for THF are pretty indirect. First, make some better light DD gear (which would also help RDMs melee where that's appropriate, NINs hold hate through damage, DNCs DD as the community seems to have decided they ought to, and so on). Next, add {Enmity} to the auto-translate function so people have a clue what THF is aside from a light DDer. (This would also help in other ways.) Third, redo the entire Dagger weaponskill list with THF and Sneak Attack in mind, not RDM and magical ability. (I can dream, can't I?)
There are, however, some things that could be done directly to THF to help it. One would be to make Trick Attack more effective -- say, a +20 Enmity bonus on the attack (which, if executed properly, would mean even more of a hate spike for the target). Another would be to give THF a Chain Closing Potency trait that bumps up the damage and accuracy of the skillchain effect of any chain they close -- say, +15% damage/+4 Acc at level 10, and +5%/+2 every 20 levels thereafter. This would increase the benefit of cooperating with a THF while also giving a THF a limited ability to adapt to parties that Just Will Not Cooperate ("screw it, I'll just close chains opportunistically"). One could even make this ability increase the damage or accuracy of a magic burst off of the resulting skillchain or make such a bursted spell generate less enmity.
BLM: BLM's real problem is largely a community issue. That being said, BLM nukes and skillchain damage alike could be helped by one simple adjustment -- make resists less powerful. As it is, by my understanding, the best case scenario on a resist is half damage. Change it so that the best case scenario is 3/4 damage, and make the 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, etc. tiers of resist come after that. This would make both nuking and skillchaining more worthwhile -- and what do you get when you combine the two?
This would have the side-effect of nerfing Barelement spells, however, though this could be fixed by making Barelements also reduce overall damage of the element by a small percentage.WHM: As it stands, SCH can now use AoE -na spells better than WHM can. For the supposed premier healer in the game, this is absolutely ridiculous. SE should change Divine Veil from a job trait that gives Divine Seal a second function to a seperate JA on at most a five-minute timer -- maybe even three-minute. That way, AoE status healing would be possible on a regular basis and wouldn't come at the expense of sacrificing one of the WHM's few tools for MP efficiency.
Since RDM's and SMN's selling points for the healer role are their MP but to duplicate the same benefit for WHM would make the jobs run together too much, I feel that WHM should have its benefit-per-MP-spent improved at post-sub levels. Cure Potency traits would be a start. I used to also think that Regen II and Regen III's casting times should be shortened to 3.5 and 3 seconds respectively to encourage their use (remember the way Ni spells used to be?), but SCH gaining Regen II has complicated this; I don't know whether it's still a good idea to take this approach.
RDM: OK, so enfeebling accuracy starts acting screwy at the top? RDM's nukes aren't worth the MP spent on them? Swapping out staves for a sword makes your spell accuracy go down the tubes? There's a simple, appropriate solution to all three problems: give RDM Magic Accuracy Bonus traits. This could even make RDM more attractive as a subjob.
If SE truly wants RDM to be "used more as magical swordsmen", though, they need to do more than just make our buff cycle even longer; they have to make it so that for us, spellcasting and sword-swinging can be done at the same time. Give us a job trait, nice and subbable to make it catch the eye of those BLUs and DRKs too. Standing back and using staves would still mean better spells, but if we're extra-accurate elven bladesinger-alikes, then us stepping out front instead wouldn't be such a ridiculous notion in the right situation.
Another way us meleeing could be made situationally useful would be to give us Enstatus spells roughly as accurate as our normal enfeebles. While this may sound bizzare, consider this: What would be a better way of sticking Silence on Kirin -- spending time and MP over and over again from the back lines until it finally lands, or spending time and MP once and daggerburning Kirin until it sticks? The latter would certainly be faster, more MP-efficient, and would leave the RDM freer to react to problems. Basically, balance things such that Enstatuses are a better idea on magic-resistant mobs than the regular spells are. The ability to enfeeble colibri by this method is also a plus.
BRD:
Originally posted by Lmnop
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BST: SE's done a lot for BST lately. This is probably a good time to leave well enough alone.
DRK: DRK's "problem" at this point is meleeburn. When that imbalance is fixed, DRK will be just fine IMO. If not, well, we'll see what happens when the time comes.
PLD: PLD's primary "problem", too, is meleeburn. Solve the meleeburn problem and parties with PLD tanks are sure to follow. That being said, PLD would certainly benefit from more ways to deal with magic. Rampart's revision was a step in the right direction, but a properly-balanced Runic ability would round out PLD's ability to deal with magical attacks well. Perhaps a three-minute timer, duration 30 seconds or until discharged, causes next spell directed to a party member to be redirected to the PLD, MP recovered according to level of resistance (so a completely resisted Slow would give back 12 MP, a 1/4 damage Fire III would give back 84 MP, etc.). Of course, doing it that way would mean that a PLD would be wise to swap in elemental resist gear when using Runic...
While I've heard of issues with Def eventually having diminishing returns, I play PLD in entirely the wrong style to be able to comment.
RNG: In addition to Velocity Shot, perhaps RNG could be given another stance, which does not stack with Velocity Shot, that lowers the RNG's Enmity generation from ranged attacks significantly. Nothing sucks more than having a mob run after the RNG every freaking time they use a weaponskill -- from anyone's perspective.
DRG: SE's suggested changes seem like a great improvement -- particularly if they make a point to make the wyvern's resistance to magical attacks very strong. Also give the wyvern a slight resistance to Dragon Killer, so they aren't totally paralyzed by imps.
NIN: OK, I can see why NIN doesn't get Jubaku: Ni, but what's wrong with Dokumori: Ni? BLMs and RDMs get Poison II, after all, and BLUs get all kinds of powerful poison spells. Also, Ni jutsus should only be quite that fast to cast for a NIN main; make it so that Tonko: Ni and Utsusemi: Ni take 3 seconds to cast when subbed, not 1.5. That'd at least be a compromise.
SAM: Hasso could use juuust a tiiiny nerf in light of the 2H changes. Say, make the STR bonus from Hasso equal to only 1/10 level, rounded down, instead of 1/7. Seigan could use a boost too -- say, a 25% greater Parrying rate, and the number of guaranteed anticipations increased to two per Third Eye.
SMN: Summoner should not use its MP primarily for its subjob. Summoner's Ward pacts should always be worth the cost. Avatar melee should not be a complete joke. Summoner should at least remotely live up to its in-game reputation as a DDer. Therefore, I propose several changes.
Blood Pact: Rage should be subdivided into physical and magical pacts, allowing a good SMN to cooperate with a melee to skillchain and burst that chain. The effectiveness of most magical attack pacts should be increased, with the possible exceptions of Meteorite, Nether Blast, and the Astral Flows. These changes would make SMN a good DD.
Avatar melee should have its power increased through the addition of Enelement damage of the avatar's element. This damage should be equal to 1/10 of the SMN's Summoning Magic skill, rounded down, and can be affected by the day and weather. Avatar melee should also be made more accurate by having their accuracy be calculated as though the SMN's summoning skill were the avatar's weapon's skill.
Blood Pact: Ward should have its dud spells fixed -- reduce Whispering Wind's cost to perhaps 89 MP, increase the duration and effectiveness of the likes of Rolling Thunder and Frost Armor, and so on. Leave the perennially effective ones like Aerial Armor alone.
It would be neat to add incentive to experiment with other subjobs as well. One of my favorite ideas for that is to allow avatars to gain job traits from the SMN's current sub. Want your avatar to melee better without completely abandoning MP? Sub DRK.
BLU: BLU's key problem, much like DRK's and PLD's, is meleeburn. Beyond that, the only thing really holding BLU back that I can see is its I-don'-wanna-play-support players -- though a self-regen and more of a variety of nukes to self-burst wouldn't hurt.
COR: The Quick Draw charges thing is nice and all, but what COR really needs is a level 1 gun. And preferably more bullets.
PUP: PUP's biggest "problem" is that it doesn't do one thing -- it does what the party needs it to become. To the average FFXI player, that's inconceivable; I blame small search comments. That being said, it could stand to do some of the things it does better, especially choosing the right tier of Cure for the job.
DNC: The timers and costs on high-level Waltzes are murder on DNC's high-level healing ability. Does SE ever actually playtest jobs past Dunes levels? Curing Waltz is fine at 20% TP and 6 seconds, but make II 30% and 7 seconds, III 40% and 8 seconds, and IV 50% and 9 seconds. Also give DNC Reraise Waltz, Divine Waltz II, and Dispelling Flourish. The aforementioned light DDer gear would help here too.
SCH: Give SCH one more subbable Strategem pair, perhaps in the 15-20 range, which halves the Enmity generated by the next white/black spell cast. This gives the job, and more importantly subjob, a more obvious team player benefit.
Lower the Cure spell gain levels: Cure at 4, Cure II at 15, Cure III at 28, Cure IV at 52. Gaining Cures later than RDM is fine, but if they're supposed to be considered for healing at all, they should learn Cures earlier than a bloody Paladin. Especially Cure II.
Rename the current *helix spells to *helix II spells, and make a subbable first-tier set. These would have about a fifth to a tenth of the damage per tick and only about three-quarters the duration and still wouldn't stack, but it would say to people, "hey, SCHs do DoT", give people something semi-uniquely Scholarish as a subbable spell, and make the weather spells actually directly useful to SCH at the levels they gain them, since those have a dramatic effect on Helix effectiveness.
Give Scholar its own unique subbable defensive spells that require a little more thought to use than Blink and Stoneskin -- spells that are damage-type-specific, or change the nature of the danger into something easier to handle (such as turning spike damage into DoT divided over ten ticks). /WHM and /RDM would remain superior defensively, but if applied intelligently /SCH at least wouldn't be helpless.
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