New Updates to the Test Server on FFXI

[Andromeda]

There are some new adjustments and additions announced for implementation on the test server for FFXI. Those on the test server can already try these out as they have been added as of Oct 26th. Many of the updates come to the jobs themselves with new abilities and adjustments. There are some additions to Salvage Battlefield as well. To clearly layout the changes I will put the information in quotes directly from the FFXI forums. You can see the forum postings at this link. Testing in Progress

The first part is on the new job abilities. Not all jobs received them, but the ones that did are outlined here.

• New special job abilities will be introduced.
  * These special abilities will not share the same recast time as previous ones.
  * The recast time will be decreased from two hours to one.
  * The abilities displayed with a gray background have not been included in the October 26 test server update.

Job	Ability Name	Effect
Warrior	WAR SP 2	Grants a 100% chance of activating Double Attack.
Monk	-	-
White Mage	Asylum	Grants a powerful resistance to enfeebling magic and Dispel.
Black Mage	Subtle Sorcery	Decreases enmity generated by magic and increases magic accuracy.
Red Mage	-	-
Thief	-	-
Paladin	-	-
Dark Knight	Soul Enslavement	Auto-attacks absorb target's TP.
Beastmaster	-	-
Bard	-	-
Ranger	-	-
Samurai	Yaegasumi	Evades all special attacks that deal physical or magic damage. Enhances the potency of your next weapon skill every time you evade a special attack.
Ninja	-	-
Dragoon	-	-
Summoner	Astral Conduit	Eliminates recast times for Blood Pacts and fully restores MP upon activation.
Blue Mage	Unbridled Wisdom	Allows unlimited casting of blue magic spells that use Unbridled Learning. Additionally, Unbridled Learning will have no recast time.
Corsair	-	-
Puppetmaster	Heady Artifice	Allows automatons to use a special ability that varies by head. Harlequin Head: Mighty Strikes Valoredge Head: Invisible Sharpshot Head: Eagle Eye Shot Stormwaker Head: Chainspell Soulsoother Head: Benediction (will only affect the automaton and members of its master's party) Spiritreaver Head: Manafont
Dancer	Grand Pas	Gives five finishing moves, resets flourish recast timers, and eliminates the cost of finishing moves. Effect ends either when its duration expires or is used three times.
Scholar	Caper Emissarius	Transfers the whole party's enmity to a party member of your choice.

* Abilities implemented on the test server have provisional names, help text, and graphical effects. Actual effects of these abilities may be changed or adjusted.

The second is about the Salvage Battlefield.

This battlefield expansion is aimed at seasoned adventurers and many of the rules are based on those of previous Salvage content. The method by which Pathos of Alzadaal restrictions can be removed, however, has been modified.

Differences from Previous Salvage Content

• Entry is restricted to adventurers level 96 and above.
• Pathos of Alzadaal restrictions may no longer be removed by imbued items, but by the following methods:
  
  • Defeating certain monsters in specified areas will randomly remove a Pathos of Alzadaal restriction from participants.
  • Examining the Runic Lamps within each remnant will allow players to remove restrictions of their choice.
    
    * Runic Lamps will be available near remnant entrances and teleport exits.
    
    * The chance for removing restrictions, and which monsters' defeat are capable of removing restrictions, are still under development.

Test Server Settings

• Participants may enter battlefields alone.
• Remnants Permits will not be required for entry.
• No time restrictions will be placed on battlefield reentry.
• Only the Zhaylom and Arrapago Remnants are available for entry at present.
• The placement and strength of enemies, as well as items obtainable, may differ from the release version.
• Boss enemies are still under development, and will be replaced with substitute enemies.
• Notorious monsters that only spawn under certain conditions will not be introduced.

The third focuses on the Bard adjustments which change some single target songs to multi target and increase the cast time accordingly. The other is about the job ability Pianissimo.

• The following bard songs have been changed from affecting a single target party member to affecting all party members in an area of effect centered on the caster, and their casting time has been changed from four to eight seconds.
  
  Enchanting Etude / Spirited Etude / Learned Etude / Quick Etude /
  Vivacious Etude / Dextrous Etude / Sinewy Etude / Bewitching Etude /
  Logical Etude / Sage Etude / Swift Etude / Vital Etude /
  Uncanny Etude / Herculean Etude / Hunter’s Prelude / Archer’s Prelude /
  Foe Sirvente / Adventurer’s Dirge
• The job ability “Pianissimo” will undergo the following adjustments.
  
  • An additional effect that halves the casting time of the next song will be added.
  • The level at which this ability is learned will be decreased from forty-five to twenty.

The last is about the abilities Perfect Defense and Tabula Rasa with changes to them and the systems that they impact.

The job abilities below have been adjusted in the following ways:

• Summoner
  
  • Alexander's Perfect Defense
    
    • Effect duration will be reduced from ninety seconds to thirty seconds plus an additional second for every twenty points of one's summoning magic skill. For example, with a summoning magic skill value of 600, the ability's effect duration would be a maximum of sixty seconds (the base thirty seconds plus thirty more seconds for one's skill value).
  
  
• Scholar
  
  • Embrava (castable only while Tabula Rasa is in effect)
    
    • Effect duration will be reduced from five minutes to ninety seconds.
    • Haste potency will increase by 1% for every twenty points of one's enhancing magic skill instead of for every fifteen points. Therefore, an enhancing magic skill value of 500 will increase the potency of haste by a maximum of 25%
    • Embrava will grant the effect of Refresh instead of Regain. The value of the effect, however, will remain the same.

Modifications will be made to the following battle systems to accommodate the above job ability adjustments.

• Nyzul Isle Uncharted Area Survey

  Astraria in Possession Before Implementation		Astraria in Possession After Implementation
  0～4	→	0
  5～9	→	1
  10～14	→	2
  15～19	→	3
  20～24	→	4
  25	→	5

  • The number of astraria needed to exchange for equipment has been lowered from twenty-five to five.
    *The number of astraria already in one's possession will be divided by five, with the remainder disregarded.
  
  
• Legion
  
  • Enemies' HP will be reduced by ten percent.
  
  
• Einherjar
  
  • The enemy Odin that appears in Odin's Chamber II will have its HP reduced by ten to fifteen percent.

[Fluffy]

The Embrava nerf is going to hit really hard, and the new SCH SP is practically useless in the current state of the game. In general, nobody cares about enmity anymore. Oh well, at least Tabula Rasa is still amazing.

Still, Embrava is the most overpowered spell/ability in the entire game. I knew it was going to be nerfed from the moment they released it. I'm amazed it took them so long. Even after the nerf, it probably will still be the most overpowered.

Perfect Defense isn't as bad as was expected. Got its duration cut almost in half, but it's still really good. Plus, SMN's new SP is amazing.

[Andromeda]

No one cares about enmity? In general or in specific situations? Because that is quite a bit of change from things. I guess things have changed a lot since I've left.

[Fluffy]

There may be a few situations in which people care about enmity, but I'd say in general the game comes down to two situations:

Trash mobs: they're going to die in seconds. Enmity doesn't matter.

Really strong enemies: You're probably going to try to zerg it down. Everyone will probably have Perfect Defense active (-95% damage), as well as Embrava (regen). Might have Regen IV/V on top of that.

For the situations in between, and this is where the new SP might be a tiny bit useful, everyone will probably reach the enmity cap very quickly. Resetting everyone's enmity (and applying it to the tank) would probably give you a minute or less before everyone hits the cap again.

There might be hope, though. I've heard they're supposedly reworking how enmity works, especially when it comes to PLD. I can't cite the source and haven't heard specifics, though. I just saw some people say it on the forums.

The problem is that now that we're at level 99 and have really powerful weapons and spells, we can very quickly reach the enmity cap (10,000 CE + 10,000 VE = 20,000 Total Enmity cap). As a simplified example, it only takes about 9000 damage to reach the cap. My spells tend to do somewhere around 2000-3000 damage on normal enemies.

The second part of the ability (transfer it to another party member) is mostly pointless. If they've been active in the battle, they're probably at the enmity cap by the time you're using this ability, because you're probably using it because so is everyone else.

[LocoColt04]

Unless they raise the enmity cap - that would give reason for reworking enmity and adding these new abilities.

[Andromeda]

Yeah, FFXI was probably never designed for a lvl 99 game, considering how long it took them to actually increase it. It was designed around the lv50-75 game. So it sounds like the new level cap is breaking some unforeseen areas of the game that the designers didn't really plan for. Still it seems a little strange that they would actually have a cap, or at least not have a really high one. But the Perfect Defense sounds a little broken if it is negating 95% of all damage someone receives. Is still any thrill in the fights if things are that high?

[LocoColt04]

Dark Knight also looks to be more relevant again... absorb TP with basic attacks? Sounds like a delightful ability. If only it were a trait... (nah, too broken)

[Fluffy]

The players were actually quite worried about Perfect Defense getting nerfed. Most of the high-end content actually relies on it just for it to be consistently beatable. That concern is even noted in those notes up there, the reduction of the HP of some enemies.

I personally haven't done any of that stuff, I just don't want to go back to the days of playing on a LS's schedule. But from what I've heard, they're really strong enemies. And now with the nerf, PD won't last as long. Currently that it lasts 90 seconds, after 45 seconds the -95% starts to decay. With the change, assuming they aren't changing more about it, it'll start to decay somewhere around 25-30 seconds in. That should make things a little more interesting.

I do hope they'll at least raise the enmity cap. It's way too low.