Interesting. Tell me more about what your MNK and SMN were doing on JoL. Did this MNK just boost + Chi Blast 50% of the game? There's a ton of NMs in the 75 era where a MNK couldn't contribute in any meaningful way. What's he doing on Tiamat? Did your SMN actually contribute meaningful magic bursts on this stuff? What was he doing on Kirin? How helpful was a SMN for Dynamis Lord pre-Alexander? What role did a SMN fulfill for merit parties?
If you're curious I can answer most of these regarding SMN, though in many cases it's about as lackluster as you think.
JoL: Not much in the early days. I'm having trouble remembering if I ever went SMN to JoL. I want to say Thundersparking the adds, but back then Thunderspark wasn't comparable to BLM AOEs so it wouldn't have contributed much beyond paralyzing them all. Same with magic bursts. Likely just wasted space in the form of "ok we have our key players, we still have 2 party slots, I guess we can add the SMN."
Tiamat: Main DPS source actually. Pred Claws (Nether Blast when airborne). I suspect you were aware of this one and targeting MNK with this question but I wanted to include it anyway because YAY SMN WAS USEFUL!
Kirin: Aerial Armor the PLDs as they kite. This was actually more helpful than it sounds, because Kirin's nukes could really mess up a PLD back then. Nobody had Aegis. Usually if a PLD was getting nuked at a turning point they could run past instead of going around, and avoid getting hit, but sometimes that wasn't possible like if he started casting as they approached that far pillar that's near two walls. They always ate at least a few nukes and Aerial Armor was good at blocking most of the single target ones. I actually did this a fair bit because we had an abundance of WHMs which was my only other job, and boy was I glad when Diabolos came out and I was able to do more than this.
Dynamis Lord: Absolutely worthless. One, maybe two Pred Claws before Chainspell wore off and he flattened the alliance(s). If you had multiple Chainspells, maybe could count on a third Pred Claws. On the bright side, you had no shortage of space in Dynamis back then, so there wasn't a reason not to bring someone if SMN was their only job. They may not contribute much, but they would be there. Also Earthen Armor could maybe sometimes let people survive a tad longer, but in practice, not really, especially since the SMN wouldn't be in a party that mattered.
Merit parties: What are those? Find me a level sync and I'll show you Korroloka Tunnel. Edit: Oops I forgot level sync wasn't around back then. In that case, I'll amend it to: "What are those? The things I got when bombs/snolls murdered my Carbuncle with self destruct?" Otherwise they got merits by being the healer.
You know what an alliance for Fafnir looked like?
PLD PLD WHM BRD RDM
SAM BRD WHM
BRD BLM BLM BLM BLM RDM
If you're the third RDM to show up, go *** yourself. If you're playing DRG, DRK, WAR, are the second SAM to show up, go *** yourself.
This is not even remotely true. I have never brought a BLM to a fafnir fight. We used THF, WAR, DRK. Other LSs at the time had totally different strat than ours. No content were filled with THFs but at least 1 THF was present in almost every single content back then (except for exp pt..lol).
Early Fafhogg you most certainly brought a BLM or 3. Those 50 damage AAs and 800 WSs weren't cutting it.
Pfft, you gotta bust out that SAWS action to close a SC for them to burst on. Course you'll pull hate and kill everyone, but it was glorious!
The hume brd and taru cor that just got done carrying their samurai-only friend buyer (there are no friends in this game, just leech buyers) because using support jobs are beneath them and they could only muster 4k Shoha's
(I couldnt find a Naegling action shot and I was too lazy to break my dressups and lockstyles so I used the icon)
Description: Haste III provides the unique Haste effect which brings your attack speed to the maximum rate. If you like MNK, PUP, DNC, THF or NIN, please note Martial arts and dual wield traits will still reduce your TP per hit when Haste III is active, enjoy.
Description: Haste III provides the unique Haste effect which brings your attack speed to the maximum rate. If you like MNK, PUP, DNC, THF or NIN, please note Martial arts and dual wield traits will still reduce your TP per hit when Haste III is active, enjoy.
This is a very sound idea, as it accomplishes 2 things..
1. Brings rdm back as a replacement buffer, almost (but not quite) as useful as the brd.
2. Opens up brd for more interesting song combos rather then always requiring March/March (for crying out loud.).
Exit quote: "hey do you have marsyas? I'm not sure I'll be able to find a rdm." That's some versatility right there.
Exit quote: "hey do you have marsyas? I'm not sure I'll be able to find a rdm." That's some versatility right there.
HMarch is still the second best Minuet in the game plus adds acc/racc, so it would still be a requirement for any serious BRD even if it gave 0% haste.
2. Opens up brd for more interesting song combos rather then always requiring March/March (for crying out loud.).
March/March isn't always/often required.
-SV HMarch can cover magic haste with haste 1
-Any time you have Haste 2, HMarch caps without another March
-Mighty Guard will also cap haste with Haste and HMarch
-Entrusted indi-Haste will cap haste without an extra March
-Embrava will cap haste with HMarch
Granted you won't always have any/all of these, but there are a TON of ways to cap haste as a BRD without a second March song, and they're fairly common, especially in the current endgame content that BRD does. We bring a RDM to Sortie and Dynamis [D], and have SV and a person with Haste 1 or Haste 2 to pretty much every Odyssey boss. A lot of groups run SCH in their segs, so you have SV and Embrava to cover haste needs for most/all of that run as well. I very rarely cast 2 marches on BRD.
YMMV depending on the content though. I guess if your primary use of BRD is your botted singer BRD capping your haste for 16 hours of EP "farming" then yeah, March/March is probably very common for you.
Diaga III or Dia/Bio IV would be more my speed as RDM. Innundation increasing the m.acc of bursts. You know, fun things. Flash or Stun would also be appreciated. Regen III...
Others already have Hastega II. Holding onto it tightly at the expense of others seems foolish. It certainly doesn't stop COR/BRD/GEO from being a lock, and you either need/want a RDM or you don't; so sharing Haste 2 shouldn't be some terrible affront so long as we get anything useful in return.
Aby day rdms toolkit wasnt near as good as most debuffs didnt land as mobs were either immune, heavily resistant or it didnt matter as players were so busted on atmas/curor buffs that the only thing you needed was capped haste
Distract/frazzle 3 can get rdm a slot and its got far more in its kit beyond that, if haste 2 is all you think rdm normally brings idk what to tell ya, its a great tool but far from its only tool
Thought exercise, I honestly only want buffs not nerfs at this point
Just spitballin', but...
WHM gets Haste II (SCH too under Addendum)
Change Indi-Haste to lv 59
Give BLU's Diffusion the Majesty treatment
BST pets get some moves with indi-like aura effects
NIN party buff ninjutsu (Hayai: Ichi?)
No whats left for rdm?
In modern content? RDM's there for Distract and Frazzle, mostly. High potency Para/Slow and Bind/Gravity shenanigans can be clutch in fights where they are relevant, also.
Having Haste II gives the BRD a free song slot to play with, but there are so many other options for capping haste that it's rarely the reason you'd want to bring RDM over another option for that party spot.
I don't think any or even all of my suggestions would be enough to change the BRD/COR/Healer meta, but having more options for support isn't a bad thing.
Haste III would give 45% magic haste. Haste IV would give 60% magic haste. The unpaid intern they got to program Time Mage was never informed that magic haste caps at 43.75%. Two years later, word will finally get to Fujito, and they'll add a unique trait to Time Mage that allows their enhancing magic to exceed the cap. With no resources to test their change, the update is going to launch in a state where half of the game is broken because of a weird domino effect in the code. Time Mage is suddenly made the best tank, healer, damage-dealer, and support all at once. A year later, they discover the fix and slap a really big band-aid fix on it. Everyone who leveled Time Mage thinking it was going to be broken forever is disappointed, and a bunch of people quit in protest.
Famitsu is doing a FFXI show, 1st guest is Fujito, this Saturday evening (JST). Please look forward to it.
wait so something big might happen?
Is it Connected to that weird Long patch we had not so long ago or no?
Doubt anything big will come of it. Maybe some lore tidbits?
The “owner” of the show is Famitsu and not Square so don’t think they’d announce anything big, in my opinion.
"In this program, we will explain the Vana'diel topics of the month based on the contents of version updates and campaigns. Furthermore, we will deliver content that will be of interest to both current and former players, such as a corner looking back on the story of "FFXI".
The first guest is producer and director Fujito. We will talk about the past and future of "FFXI", which will celebrate its 22nd anniversary in May 2024."