Thursday, June 17, 2010

And here come the job adjustments...

They basically wrapped up the update info today (at least the non-ninjanerfs...) with job adjustments, mostly for the 76-80 crowd. Now, I don't play every job, so I don't have expertise in them all, but it sounds like everybody gets at least one.

Info taken from the official site.

Abilities and some comments:

Restraint (WAR 77) Increases your weaponskill power with each attack, but disables critical hits.

Risk-reward. Problem is, you better be able to consistently hit to get to a weaponskill against the L80s of the world.

Perfect Counter (MNK 79) Next attack within 30 seconds gets countered.

And with a 60 second recast, you can see that up quite a bit, I think.
Mana Wall (BLM 76) Allows damage to be taken with MP.

Oof. Rendering the Black Mage all but useless, I fear, with one good hit. One hit and there you go with your mega-magic.

Despoil (THF 77) Steal + Status Effect

Nice! Same delay as Steal (5 minutes), but now they make it MORE useful.

Divine Emblem (PLD 78) Increases next divine spell's accuracy and increases emnity.

Hate mechanics always help PLD.

Nether Void (DRK 78) Enhances Absorb-??? spell.

Still trying to figure out the point of the Absorb-statistic stuff -- the enhancement better be quite nice.

Double Shot (RNG 79)

Pretty much self explanatory.

Sengikori (SAM 77) Bonus to chains and bursts with next weapon skill.

Sengikori and Sekkanoki??? SICK!

Futae (NIN 77) Double the tools for more damage.

Never have been a fan of the Ninjitsu elemental spells.

Spirit Jump (DRG 77 -- 90 s) Jump + suppressed Emnity. Additional effect if Wyvern is present.

Nice. A third Jump to gain TP with for my DRG, and I won't grab so much hate with it!! :)

Blood Pact: Holy Mist (SMN 76) Light elemental damage. (Probably Carbuncle)
Lunar Bay (SMN 78) Darkness. (Not sure on this one)
Night Terror (SMN 80) Darkness. (Probably Diabolos)

Yeah yeah... Not like that many SMN 75s didn't commit TOS violations to get there. (I didn't say they all did...) Useless like Holy, frankly.

Bolter's Roll (COR 76) Enhanced movement speed. (to party members in AoE)

Something most players want, but might be of more limited use than some other COR rolls.

Caster's Roll (COR 79) Enhanced "Fast Cast". (ditto)

This, however, could be of quite some use to casters, especially the higher up you go.

Tactical Switch (PUP 79) Master TP <-> Puppet TP

That's got some nice possibilities.

Presto (DNC 77 -- can always be up) Enhances next step effect and grants an additional finishing move.

OH HELL YES!!! Not just the extra effect enhancement, but now it's 2 step hits to get 5 finishers than 3 for DNC 77+ main.

Divine Waltz II (DNC 78)

Self explanatory -- and ABOUT DAMNED TIME!

Climactic Flourish (DNC 80) Allows you to perform critical hits. Expends finishing move.

What is this? Limited Mighty Strikes?? Next hit you do after a Climactic is automatically critical??

Libra (SCH 76) Examines the current emnity level.

Of all individual players in the combat, or just the SCH?? Kinda semi-useless if the latter.

Some other changes:

-- Six new BST Jug Pets, probably at least 80 cap.

-- Sekkanoki is going from SAM 60 to SAM 40.

Wow. That's going to be interesting. DNC 80/SAM becomes a possible play.

-- DRG Spirit Link now will give the Dragoon half the wyvern's TP!!

WOW!!! That's huge!

-- The bonus on a COR roll of 11 is that the effect will be increased to ten minutes.

This was what they were probably talking about at VanaFest to increase the gambling aspect of CORs.

-- DNCs can now Cure Waltz non-party members.

Part II of "IT'S ABOUT DAMNED TIME!!" Lengendary and Dreamer may want me to come DNC more often again.

-- DNCs to get Dual Wield at 20, with increasing job traits as levels go up.

Sounds to me like DNCs might be the big winners here of this round of adjustments. I won't complain about that!!

Restrictions on support jobs for abilities:

-- WHM and NIN won't be available at all. (No Yonin, Innin, or Afflatus)

-- Shadowbind gets an accuracy penalty.

-- SCH Accession and Manifestation will triple the casting time for /SCH.

New job traits:

(I have to be careful on some of these -- the way they listed them might make it confusing as to which jobs get which traits...)

Critical Attack Bonus (WAR, THF 78; DNC 80)

Critical Attack Defense (PLD 79, BRD 80)

Tactical Parry (NIN, DNC 77): Grants TP upon a successful Parry.

Tactical Guard (MNK 77, PUP 80): Grants TP upon a successful Guard.

Shield Defense Bonus (WAR 80, PLD 77)

Stout Servant (BST, PUP 78): Reduces damage taken by pet.

True Shot (RNG 78): If from an "appropriate distance", increased damage by ranged attack.

Blood Boon (SMN 60): Decreases (sometimes) the MP costs of Blood Pacts of non-Astral Flow abilities.

Skillchain Bonus (DNC 45, SAM 78)

But why DNC 45 if SAM (the King of the Skillchains) has to wait to 78 to get the bonus on SC damage?

Fencer (WAR 45, BST 80): Increases critical hit rate and adds a bonus to weaponskills, but must only be wielding with the main hand.

Conserve TP (DRG 45, DNC 77, RNG 80): Occasional reduction in TP cost of weaponskills.

YEOWCH!!!

Occult Acumen (DRK 45, SCH 78): TP bonus when doing damage with dark or elemental spells.

Magic Burst Bonus (BLM 45, SCH 79, NIN 80)

Divine Benizen (WHM 50): Speeds up any status recovery magic (Esuna, Erase, etc.), and grants a bonus to emnity reduction.

Resist Amnesia (BST, PUP 15; COR 30)

New Spells:

Baramnesia and Baramnesra.

Protect V, Shell V, Cure VI.

Stone V, Water V

Aspir II for DRK

Foe Requiem VII, Army's Paeon VI, Knight's Minne V

Aisha: Ichi (effect currently unknown).

PLD gets Phalanx and Shell IV

RDM gets Regen II

DRK gets Stone and Water III

RDM gets Stone and Water IV

(All past 75)

and more BLU spells.

Monday can't come fast enough!!!

3 comments:

Evilpaul said...

Thinking about it more I suspect the "Allows Criticals" Flourish makes it so WS like Dancing Edge can crit without Sneak Attack.

Volkai | Alex said...

I've organized all the new stuff by job ( http://j.mp/9HU1Zb ) and subjob ( http://j.mp/d0aj89 ), so if you want a more organized look at the exact same info (I never claimed it to be original research ^^;) then those links might help you out.

Volkai | Alex said...

My thoughts--

Restraint: It will be useful for mobs where your WS damage matters more than your DPS. This is a slightly worse option than it would have been if we hadn't also gotten Critical Attack Bonus this update. However, your concern about hitting consistently isn't one I would worry about much -- many WARs have a lot of Acc+ gear.



Mana Wall: This looks more like a panic button to me. Here's how I see it in use--
Taru BLM (HP300/600 MP1000/1300) just took 300 damage, hits Mana Wall, starts casting Escape.
Monster hits Taru BLM 2 times while he's casting Escape. 400 damage each time.
Taru BLM (HP300/600 MP200/1300) casts Escape. Nobody dies.

WIthout Mana Wall, that would've been a really short escape attempt. Its use is going to be very niche, but it will be a good panic button. And remember, a BLM with 0MP is still better than a KO'd BLM because they won't have reduced Max MP and exploded recast timers for five minutes.



Nether Void: If it works on Absorb-Acc or Absorb-TP, everyone's going to be happy. Absorb-Acc makes Paladins die a little bit less! Also, partial resistances suck. (The point of Absorb spells is that you get a Buff for the DRK and a Debuff for the mob all in one go. When a DRK acting out of self-interest via Absorb-STR makes the tank take less damage, it's win-win. DRK maintains its obsessively-aggressive theme while also benefiting the group.)



Sengikori: Makes up for /sam at 80 giving everyone Sekkanoki, even one-hander jobs.



Spirit Jump: Looks like this one is similar to High Jump, but affects enmity in a different way. Interesting. Also: FINALLY Dragoon gets something after level 50 other than merits. About bloody time!



Tactical Switch: This is going to combine with /rdm at 80 to devastating effect, allowing a PUP/rdm with full HP and critical MP to force an Automaton to critical HP and then feeding it TP enough to immediately turn that into a potent Magic Mortar.



Climactic Flourish: Limited Mighty Strikes? Probably more like Limited Sneak Attack. With it eating your Finishing Moves and NOT providing any bonus to accuracy (much less a guaranteed hit) it seems balanced to me.



Libra: If this is useful, brokenly powerful, or brokenly useless will depend entirely on how it is implemented.



Sekkanoki: It's worth pointing out that Sekkanoki, unlike Hasso/Seigan, does not care if you use a one-handed weapon.



True Shot: In case any Ranger hasn't gotten the message, THE DEVS DO NOT WANT YOU MELEEING. This time they're trying to get the message across with more carrot, instead of the stick.



Skillchain Bonus: The reason DNC gets it at 45 and SAM at 70-something is because this means you can get Skillchain Bonus at level 90 with /dnc, and /sam doesn't grant it at all (it would probably make /sam overpowered.)



Job traits at low levels:
WAR45 - Fencer
BLM45 - Magic Burst Bonus
DRK45 - Occult Acumen
DRG45 - Conserve TP
DNC45 - Skillchain Bonus

These are traits that /war /blm /drk /drg and /dnc will be offering at the level 90 cap when it shows up in either September or December. They might shake up the subjob scene a bit. I could definitely see Fencer luring some people away from Dual Wield.

Just think, for a moment, about a SAM90/drg34 with Conserve TP on top of everything else a SAM gets.