The Big Update???

[Radav]

Ok what's your guys' opinions on this new stuff. I have to say it's cool but some of the stuff I had high hopes for kind of disappointed me.

The obvious things that I find are totally awesome are:

ENM quests/battlefields. These sound like alot of fun. No xp loss from death, ability to gain a whole levels worth of xp! Plus items can be gained! This is awesome.

New Area no need to continue here. I'll be posting pics of the new hopefully very soon! This is the thing I'm most excited about.

Finally Tavnazia has a set of quests. My guess is we'll see alot of quests pop up here much like the other cities. Maybe one or two series of quests as well. This should be cool.

Anytime new items or armor are added that's cool. Can't wait to see what the new NM drops are from the new area.

The so-so or disappointing things I found were:

The changes to the fishing system. Sounds like my "good" way of making gil has been nerfed to hell. Fish have been cut NPC wise. They made the Lu Shang rod perform like an average rod except when fishing legendary fish which are not all that useful for making gil. Oh well I'll find another way to make gil. (I always have.)

The "new" merit point abilities. These things are ok I guess. If your a summoner getting 75++ you're able to make yourself extremely strong. Other stuff though is cool but for Bard I'm disappointed. I was hoping for something new to use but all I can do is make Minuet stronger or Lullaby cast more often.

Anyway I'm excited to explore the new stuff and finally get a chance to be exploring things where the information is not already widely available. Look for Radav's Guide to Al'Tieau coming to a website/forum near you!

[Zymurgy]

www.mirc.com

/server irc.gamesurge.net

/join #ffonline

that's for you radav. and whoever else wants to join. we should talk about what we will do today :P (hint hint ENMs)

[Radav]

Ok sooooooooooooooo I can't install MIrc on my computer here at work is there any other way for me to get connected to that server by a java client. I can't figure out how to do it.

[Zymurgy]

http://www.jpilot.com/products/jirc/

try that

[Brisko]

The update was a huge waste, and incredibly fucking stupid. Shields are worthless now. I'm pissed.

[Radav]

Oh I was wondering about the Shield thing. Does it make Paladin a better or worse tank???

The only thing I like so far about the update is Fishing. Definitely more fun. Everything else from what I've seen is just a tease. If this next update is not huge containing real new areas, some major armor upgrades etc. I'm not sure how much longer SE can expect people to keep playing. They make it sound like there is alot of new missions and stuff. I think there is 2. That's it??!?!?

Anyway... NO one has an excuse for not coming to Dynamis Lord Fight #2 this Sunday. There is no content that was released that can hold you from doing this.

[Wrish]

I know one of Square's goals is to cut down on that gil NPCs introduce, because it causes all the inflation. Can't you auction the fish using mules in other towns though? It seems people are readily consuming sushi and other fish-type foods, and income from that doesn't affect inflation at all. Anyhow, I've always considered fishing to be more of a part time income, something that easily fills up spare time by making it productive.

I like the merit system a lot now - it now goes to more extremes. Merits are like levelling, except you don't get rewarded with generic levels but decide on what specific aspects you want to improve on. So when the system becomes more accomodating toward those with several jobs, I'm always glad. (If someone were to ask me what I'd put on bard, I'd guess a few points in MP+, a lot of singing or instrument skill [whichever makes minuets stronger, elegies more accurate, etc.], and some madrigal/minuet boosts because those are the most important spells that a bard can now boost.)

The new items seem a little bland, so I won't comment much. Most of the improvements are with melee characters/tanks, although there is some eye-popping mage or all-jobs gear, just not a lot (and none to help BLM, heh). A few pieces have substantial effects, so I'm anticipating difficult challenges to gain those few items.

As for the shield adjustments, shield skill and shield type now play important roles, and at the same time it's easier to skill up. PLDs have been telling me shield skill kicks in quite often (1/4 hits?) and has tremendous damage reduction potential (>50% when it kicks in) - they've only started to level shield again, but I am guessing in the near future that earth staff won't be so important for tanks.

[Radav]

Oh I have mules in every city that are in charge of selling various things for me. The way fishing works is so much more fun. I think you will see prices of most fish drop from what they were since more people will be fishing now. Which is good for all you sushi eaters out there. I fished for 3 hours so far. My results were about what I would expect. I made more fishing in SSG then I used to catching as many or more fish per hour then before the patch. I spent an hour fishing in Qufim today trying to hook fish that are from 65-90+. My lack of skill really showed through here I could not reel in anything. I know I got bites from at least 10 Gigant Squid and could only reel in 2 of them both small in size. The BIG ones gave a message like: You know for sure your not skilled enough to reel this in. I could only get these ones to about 50% stamina. Anyway its fun I'm glad they did it and hopefully we won't see any fishbotters.

The new items don't look that great at all. Nothing special from what I saw. Maybe a few items that look really nice but the rest of the stuff is bleh.
I'm curious to see how Zumi tanks mobs now with this new shield thing.

[Cybaster]

I heard the shield becomes better because the ratio of blocking and damage reduction is better than the last one

[Cyrus]

I personally like the shield update. I was leveling bst today and the rate was noticably improved and dmg taken was lessened quite a bit. It was funny to take a critical for 17 dmg.

[Anakron]

I don't think too many people have actual date regarding damage reduction due to a shield in the previous system (though I know a few did parse after they knew about this upcoming change), so not too many conclusive comparisons have been made. However, many people with lose "experiments" have said that the damage reduction (50-75%) triggers quite often and reduces more damage than the estimated 1 or 2 blocks per battle in most exp parties before. Considering the fact that most PLDs have very low shield skill now, shield blocks will be occuring more often than they are now after they exp or skill up some on it, so damage reduction will certainly increase. Overall, it seems most PLDs like the new system better.

[tangia]

reading the finished patch info , with all new armors and items. Im VERRRRRRYYYY disapointed amd as far as i can tell there are no new gods to be faught in altulia just NMs that drop weird organs so you can do a quest tavnazia. gives me little reason to meander on threw the COP missions.

[Zumi]

I noticed i got hit but the mob was doing like 60-100 damage, but one time i took like 30 damage but i think the shield thing took effect. I would really have to see in a exp party to see how this really works. I would like to see it in a EXP party.

As for new gods, i don't think they are added yet or anything. The god nm in the old sky weren't added when it was first open either. Since there wasn't new god nm type armor or weapons in this patch. SE may release that in April or something just to drag it out. SE already announced that April would have another big patch. I seen the map for both the new areas on some website and they are fairly big. Something has to be there.

Merit kind of a drag i mean maybe I would have to exp like 400k exp just to make my character like it would be at 76.

I would still help you finish the missions Tangia, I know Naiku and Serb want to do them as well. I keep asking when people would want to do them.

[Anakron]

http://hometown.aol.com/skewlsout/altaeiu.jpg
Even if that isn't exactly a "god," it still looks mighty interesting. :p

[Shizune]

i went thre earlier i didn't take any pics. It's a flying mob that aggros you from the sky, it marks as ipmossible to gauge. if you run away from it for a bit it will lose aggro. we tried fighting it today with a few people but we lacked damage dealers so we just gave it lol only dmg dealers were 2 thf and 1 blm >.>

[Zumi]

I was there with Shizune we tryed fighting that thing. He kind of had too much evasion for a PLD to even hit it at a good rate, I don't think i even got 100 tp once. Oh yea it had crazy regen too so he kept getting all his hp back.

[Brisko]

My shield skill is 107, and my parrying is 158; before the update I'd block maybe 1 in 8-9 attacks with my shield and 1 in 5-6 I'd parry. Now I hardly 'block' at all with my shield and take the same damage or very very slightly less. I have noticed more parrying now though, maybe 1 in 4. It still doesn't make up for ruining my shield usage.

[Zumi]

With that shield thing the damage you take and how often it activates has to do with the skill. At level 75 I think you can get 276 skill. Now you probably have to skill it up like you would a weapon that would leting your self take hits by the right level monsters.

[Brisko]

Bah, at level 75 the right level mobs would probably kill me in a few swipes if I purposely let them hit me. According to Mystery Tour, bst shield caps at 200 at 75 and parrying at 225. Ugh that's way too much skill up.

[Wrish]

Bah, at level 75 the right level mobs would probably kill me in a few swipes if I purposely let them hit me. According to Mystery Tour, bst shield caps at 200 at 75 and parrying at 225. Ugh that's way too much skill up.
BSTs are not that weak at tanking. At 75 you'd need a level 61 mob to cap that shield skill and a level 66 mob to cap parrying. But if you keep evading, those two skills won't rise, so you'd probably go after close to decent challenge.

Keep in mind, though, that most 75 BSTs only tank for short periods using BST/NIN, which probably means you're shieldless and only need to worry about parry, if anything.

Before this patch, it was very helpful when trying to level parry/shield to decrease raw evasion and increase total agility.

[Zymurgy]

That NM does De-equipga, it's kinda funny. And it doesn't drop ANYTHING. we killed it once and it dropped an organ, but other than that, nothing.

[Shizune]

the organs are for the elemental belt/necklace quests. for example, if you get lightning belt or neck, lightning's ring effect on thundersday will be permanent as long as you have it equipped. it's good for smn and blm AF2 set too

[Ricardon]

I still have a long way to go to get to the new area, but we are working on it, Chapter 5 and pushing. The area is uncapped right? Not lvl capped like most all of the CoP missions/areas? Are there lots of random mobs like this, and things to farm, or is it pretty quiet? Hurry up and go get some more screenies!! ^^