Refresh II

[Yellow Mage]

Re: Refresh II

IMHO, I really doubt S-E will/should buff RDM's melee damage. Imagine if RDM has A rank sword/dagger skill rating, that means 6 x RDM party setup is possible, which is very broken.

P.S. : RDM is already very powerful right now. Other jobs in the game has *holes* in it, RDM has the least.

That's the problem with Red Mage right now: it's far too powerful in the magic department, so nothing's being done in the melee department. What a quandary.

Further complicating things is the fact S-E can't very well take spells out of the game, knowing that some Red Mage somewhere put his effort in to getting it, no matter how sucky/broken it is/can become.

So, I suppose like S-E said, adding spells seems to be the best option to put us to the frontline. Adding spells to Red Mage, though, I'm not so sure of.

I have always viewed Scholar as a potential solution to this Red Mage problem. All of the melee-minded Red Mages have been told to this point "Blue Mage is that way. ->" Turnabout is fair play, though, so I figure if we give some toys to Scholar, we can point back at the backline onry Red Mages and say "<- Scholar is that way." Screw Pteryx's "means and extremes" distinction: to me, flavor-wise, a Scholar is a Red Mage who gave up his sword for some more cool magey stuff.

First point to be made: not Convert. Sole reason: tell me any two jobs which share the same Job Ability. (I know they share Traits, but my point is with the Abilities.) But, maybe they could get something similar. Maybe some higher-level strategems that substitute HP for MP on a spell (for Light Arts, give it a Paladin-like honor of sacrifice sort of name; for Dark Arts, make it a Dark Knight-like ritual of consumption sort of deal), but those alone won't be good enough. Maybe since their more studious and precise, give them an ability which lets them cut their current HP in half to earn that amount in MP, and give it a cool-sounding Latin name like Modus Vivendi (Method of Life).

Second point: Refresh. . . . Umm, why not? If AoE Refresh (or "Refreshra," as Coinspinner so cleverly put it to avoid a strangling from BBQ and I) is your primary concern, then simply don't make it work with Accession, like with Re/Raise. If being subbable is your secondary concern, then just don't do that either.

Red Mage now has every excuse to receive boosts to melee, either indirectly through giving our Enspells the ability to "En-Staff," and/or giving us Abilities like Doublecast (subbable, please), and/or giving us Traits that allow simultaneous spell-casting and sword-fighting ( "Shaped Strikes?" ), and/or directly through giving us higher combat skills than B, and/or maybe a DD Ability/Trait (I'm out of creativity/time at this point ). Keep in mind I listed every option I could think of: I totally do not expect to receive all of that at all.

[TheGrandMom]

Re: Refresh II

This is no reason to throw in the towel. "Oh shit, Monks are getting 100% tp back from using Asuran Fists. But if we fix this TP problem, something else will come up."

I like to know that they're trying to make my experience feel more balanced, and less monotonous. I have $15/month that pays for this privilege.

Monks getting 100% tp back was a flaw in the game. It was not meant to be that way and was fixed. Rdms being main healers isn't a flaw....its a player base situation. People want the most exp in the shortest amount of time with the least amount of effort. This isn't a flaw, this is an attitude and until the attitude changes the issue will remain. Why should SE change something that isn't flawed to appease a small % of people? I pay $31/month to have the privilege of playing FFXI and I enjoy my rdm just the way it is, thank you very much. There are other jobs in the game if I get frustrated/bored with it. Thats one of the reasons I keep playing.

[ItazuraNhomango]

Re: Refresh II

That's the problem with Red Mage right now: it's far too powerful in the magic department, so nothing's being done in the melee department. What a quandary.

Red Mage now has every excuse to receive boosts to melee

Not that I agree with your assertions, but your basic logic for the entire post is that because RDM is too powerful in magic, so it should receive boosts to melee? Is that so it can be too powerful in melee as well?

* * *

RDMs do not melee much in normal exp parties because it spends so much time casting, melee'ing becomes a counterproductive distraction. Otherwise, it would be logical to add a little supplemental damage.

The major flaw with the idea of making other mages do our work is that if they do that, why not just replace the RDM with a dedicated melee DD instead? It's what happened to BLMs for not doing top tier damage battle after battle--their backup healing, enfeebs, stun, and crowd control capability obviously wasn't enough to keep them on the party's good side.

* * *

Reading the description is nice; cereal marketed at children apparently can be a part of a nutritious breakfast. Reading the ingredients list is even better; you'd see that the good stuff is diluted with fillers like sugar and not-exactly-good-for-you material like food coloring. The description says healthy, the ingredients reveals it to be junk food.

The content of RDM--the melee skills, spell list, job traits, job ability, and the gears we have access to--says we're great mage and so-so at melee. Instead of complaining about the lacking in melee and the time to use those skills in exp parties, why not:
- Make better use out of our top skills instead of obsessing over our mediocre ones.
- Create "abnormal" exp parties so you get to do what you want.
- Stop thinking exp party is the whole of FFXI.
- Go solo.

Want a real cereal instead of junk food? Cook some oat meal and cream wheat. Want a melee-mage? Then, it's a good thing Blue Mage is a lot fun.

* * *

I want some oat meal now. This is all your fault, YM.

[Murphie]

Re: Refresh II

Steel cut onry.

[Wise Donkey]

Re: Refresh II

Reading the description is nice; cereal marketed at children apparently can be a part of a nutritious breakfast. Reading the ingredients list is even better; you'd see that the good stuff is diluted with fillers like sugar and not-exactly-good-for-you material like food coloring. The description says healthy, the ingredients reveals it to be junk food.

But it has vitamins and minerals... Kids need their Niacin!

[Murphie]

Re: Refresh II

Not to derail further, but I've noticed a lot of kids cereal commercials now say "Part of a delicious breakfast" instead of "nutritious." I guess people were noticing.

[TheGrandMom]

Re: Refresh II

Those high calorie, sugar filled cereals don't make it past my front door! My grandkids would be bouncing off the walls after a bowl of that garbage! I buy a health food cereal that is sweetened with honey and is like a granola. Sticks to your ribs and has lots of good fiber............and yes it does taste good too!

[ItazuraNhomango]

Re: Refresh II

Honey is mostly just expensive sugar. ._. Heck, the bee keepers feed the bees sugar to between jobs or during cold weather.

I've never noticed kids bouncing off the walls more because of sweets; just about any food gives them energy to do that, if they are happy or excited. (Unless you overstuff them, then they become lethargic.)

* * *

Still craving oat meal...

[TheGrandMom]

Re: Refresh II

Oh trust me, sugar does insane things to children in the right amounts. When my son-in-law drops off my grandson and says "Oh we just came from Chuck E. Cheese so he's eaten." I always say "I suppose he had soda too?" and of course he says yes. That kid comes into the house an entirely different person. After a couple hours of "detox" he settles down.

There is a difference between processed sugar and natural sugar in honey. We also only use organic honey where bee keepers do not feed sugar to the bees. Also the cereal is not loaded with honey, just a touch for some sweetness for the kids. It's a bit harder to get kids to eat healthy so sometimes you have to make concessions. LOL

[ItazuraNhomango]

Re: Refresh II

There is a difference between processed sugar and natural sugar in honey.

There is, but probably not in the way you think of it.

Honey - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Honey is a mixture of sugars and other compounds. With respect to carbohydrates, honey is mainly fructose (about 38.5%) and glucose (about 31.0%), making it similar to the synthetically produced inverted sugar syrup which is approximately 47% fructose, 47% glucose and 5% sucrose. Honey's remaining carbohydrates include maltose, sucrose, and other complex carbohydrates.

"Corn syrup", specifically the "High Fructose Corn Syrup" variety commonly used in soft drinks, contains both glucose and fructose--HFCS 55 is "approximately 55% fructose and 45% glucose". (Sucrose is another simple sugar; a component of glucose, if you will.)

As you can see, honey and HFCS is more alike than different chemically. Those who tout health benefits of "natural sugar" from honey are the victim of the "health food" industry's propaganda campaigns. (Not that honey is somehow bad for health in moderate quantities. It has both advantages and disadvantages over more processed sweeteners--just not enough of a difference to make it radically different from the empty calories from HFCS.)

The main problem with sugar in American society is the extra calories it gives on top of the fatty, high starch, over-sized portion we get from meals. A secondary concern is the amount of fructose we are getting, which some suspect we may not have evolved the ability to handle in the quantity we are consuming currently.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Refresh II

You guys just had to remind me of all this crap. Damn diet. I haven't eaten out in almost five weeks now. HFCS is in just about everything. If I do any sodas now, it has to be down with pure cane sugar.

but its mostly just Kool-Aid, Juice, Tea and Water. I'm not even allowed to have milk. Damn food allergies.

Is the topic far enough off-track yet?

[Jei]

Re: Refresh II

Hmmmm self-only refresh hmmmmm.....

I wouldn't want to sit in town searching for parties for weeks without a single invites... Trust me, Rdm's life without refresh to advertise ourselves really sucks. So bad.

[arkaine23]

Re: Refresh II

Something SE did to encourage more casting by DRKs is to reduce cast times of absorbs by 1/2. Didn't really work, but there is less drawback to casting the spells if they take less of your swing time away. A simple change like that could help RDM a lot.

Some others...

A 5 minute duration buff that provides self-only Subtle Blow. Conversely a self-only Store TP boosting spell could be nice, provided one is configured for a decent weaponskill like Evisceration or Vorpal Blade.

Anything which boosts damage either magical such as enspell or physical via direct boosting of str, attack, acc or speed increase.

[TheGrandMom]

Re: Refresh II

There is, but probably not in the way you think of it.

Honey - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
....blah, blah, blah...

Hence why I used the term PROCESSED sugar. Organic honey is more healthy for you than processed sugar. Honey contains at least 15 nutrients whereas sugar has none. Honey is an aid to digestion when taken in the raw state due to its enzyme content while sugar interferes with digestion. Honey enters the bloodstream slowly, 2 calories per minute. Sugar enters quickly at 10 calories per minute, causing blood sugars to fluctuate rapidly and wildly. Sugar causes calcium leakage from bones, contributing to osteoporosis while honey does not.

If you'd like to talk about honey and sugar in another thread, please feel free but I won't comment anymore in this one. Everyone has their own beliefs and I'll stick to mine. I may be a grandmother but when I'm out in public with my 27 yr old daughter people think that I am her sister. I guess some of my eating habits actually might be doing something right. LOL

[Vyuru]

Re: Refresh II

>.>

Everyone has their own beliefs and I'll stick to mine. I may be a grandmother but when I'm out in public with my 27 yr old daughter people think that I am her sister.

Pics or it didn't happen

I got it!
Whm +30% Cure Potency Trait at 40

Weren't you one of the ones who said that Whm get enough Cure Potency+ stuff already when I mentioned this ages ago? (although my idea was lvl 20 Cure Potency +10%, lvl 40 Cure Potency +15%-20%)

I think the best idea here though is to make tougher mobs more worthwhile to go after, and maybe toss subbed Utsusemi a minor nerf as well.

It's a tough thing though, because this IS all player mentality. Everyone only looks at Utsusemi for avoiding damage, when in some cases it's really not the best choice. For example, I was in a TP burn recently. Party setup was, Rdm, Blu, 2x War/nin, Drk/sam, Drg/sam. Both warriors started with Gaxe, and one switched to Axe+Sword. The Drk/Sam and I (Drg/Sam) were probably taking less damage than the two warriors (Drk used Dread Spikes + Seigan/TE quite nicely, I used Super Jump/Seigan/TE) In addition to that, we were able to SC quite nicely since we gained TP at roughly the same rate (she was using Gsword)

I would make the arguement that if both of the warriors had gone war/sam, then they could have easily bounced hate around for seigan+TE, although nothing really stopping them from both going /nin and bouncing hate around either, and due to meditate and store TP could have done alot more WS, resulting in mobs being killed faster.

To be fair, there were a couple of times that since they were war/nin it probably saved them, but frankly that was a poor party, and there were many things that happened that just, should not have happened.

However I was amused that when the party broke up since people were force DCing to leave it that the party leader was insisting that the replacements come /nin, and that's just no, that's the easy crappy n00b way out. Build a proper party that works together and have the people come with subjobs that support their main job's role and you will be amazed at how much less healing needs to be done.

However since it's the player mentality right now to /nin zerg it, that's not gonna happen. And I suspect that even if SE were to make tougher mobs more worthwhile to exp on, that few people would go and exp on them.

With the changes to Signet it's already much easier to exp in the old RoZ/CoP areas with semi TP burn setups, but you don't see people going out and doing it.