Community Whinging

What is wrong with the Final Fantasy Community? Maybe it is just the need to complain or the mistaken belief that you have some divine right to have the universe revolve around you and the overinflated ego you carry around with you but there are times I really don't understand the reactions of the online contingency. Specifically those who post on the forums.

Such a vile and vituperative outpouring of reaction regarding the effect of the Mythic weapons, the fixing of the Salvage glitches, general tweakings of the game, updates, content. It never ceases to amaze me just how indignantly unjustified people can be when SE start twiddling with the game.

I am not sitting on a high horse here, changes implemented by SE have had devastating effects on my linkshell. The adjustments to zone aggro let the RMT into sky and their domination of Ullikummi virtually destroyed my ls till they "fixed" it with the (ultimately) diorite solution. I do not however, sit there white knuckled and pale-faced plotting the downfall of SE (an entity) or any of the designers who work tirelessly on the game. It all strikes me as a knee-jerk reaction whereby a temper tantrum gets thrown and all the toys get thrown out of the pram.

All this speculation specifically arises from our very first completed Mythic weapon by an NA gentleman who goes by the name Jackyl from Garuda. Who has successfully completed the Burtgang sword for PLD. He started a thread on the Blue Garter forums showing his preliminary testing results from the weapon and its Aftermath effects.

Burtgang
DMG: 46 Delay: 265 Enmity +10
Physical damage taken -10%
Reduces Enmity decrease when
taking Physical damage. "Atonement"
Aftermath: Increases Acc/Atk.
Occasionally attacks twice
Lv. 75 PLD

Now, just taking a look at the basic weapon ignoring any of the aftermath effects, it looks like a good weapon for a Paladin. It could potentially replace the Earth Staff for damage reduction if you were keen on a sword and shield build, it could easily replace the Macuahuitl +1 (and look better unless running around wearing a rusted chainsaw blade appeals to you) with much better enmity and enmity effects. It has a high base damage, for all you meleeing, non-tanking, damage dealing Paladins out there (You know who you are!).

It's the aftermath effects that everyone is mainly interested in though. Jackyl does detail it out in his post, but just as a recap.

• The Aftermath effect lasts 60/90/120 seconds for Lv. 1/2/3 respectively.


• Level 1 (100% TP) is an acccuracy bonus.


• Level 2 (200% TP) is an attack bonus.


• Level 3 (300% TP) is a double attack bonus.


• The bonus for each level is unique and does not stack or combine.


• You can progress from Lv. 1 to Lv. 2 and from Lv2. to Lv. 3 by using the Mythic weapon skill with enough TP for the next level. (100% TP> Aftermath 1>200% TP>Aftermath 2>300% TP>Aftermath 3)


• You can refresh/overwrite the Lv. 1 Aftermath but you cannot do the same with Lv. 2 or Lv. 3.


• Weapon Skill Damage remains the same.

In this particular case, the Paladin is using Atonement so the damage is based off his enmity levels and not the usual modifiers. This is never going to be a perfect or definitive test for anything OTHER than the weapon in question, the Burtgang. Complaining about how it will affect any other weapon other than in the most basic of fashion (such as how long the effects last and at what levels they kick in) seems nothing more than an excercise in bitter futility.

Personally, I rather like the whole concept. SE have always maintained the position that they were not going to make the Mythic weapons any stronger than the Relic ones, as well as hinting at the prospect of going back and tweaking the Relic weapons to improve the performance (Go go taking the AGI modifier off Gungnir please! It really doesn't make any sense...) This definately confirms that position and gives you a weapon with some interesting effects.

To sit and complain that it doesn't do all three at the same time just seems more than a little ridiculous, SE are not about to go around destroying the balance of the game that they spend a long time trying to maintain. This is an inventive and refreshing take on a system that has been the same since they started doing this many moons ago.

In the spirit of good will, Versus has in the past helped out other linkshells or players who don't have the man power or an end game ls to achieve what they need to do end game. Ranging from doing Optical Hat runs for people to lending out our man power for Omega runs. It isn't loaded with provisos. Generally I am willing to do it if we know the person well and they don't have an end game linkshell, I don't demand they join Versus not everyone wants to get into the whole cycle of doing things at end game.

The deal I have with Omega runs is slightly different but only because I do ask my members to pay to get into the fight, we have in the past just gone out to help other linkshells such as BrandNameClamato who needed the extra bodies just to defeat the robot. I like the spirit of co-operation and communication. In this instance I set up a deal with Celestria from Rakuen. They frequently do low man Apollyon runs for chips and af crafting materials and by low man I mean looooow. Unfortunately that means you can collect chips but with all the will in the world you probably aren't going to kill Omega with the 2 of you. Has Avesta even tried? LoL

Through random chatting, we agreed to a mutually beneficial setup between Rakuen and Versus. We pop their Omega sets, they get a priority on 1 piece of their choice and a 50/50 random on the body with a member of my ls IF it drops (and that is a big if). Plus a random on the extra chips that drop against myself. We get the rest of the drops to share out in the ls. It has worked out pretty well so far, although Blaize definately had more luck with his choices of drops than Celestria has so far sadly but we will keep trying till they drop for her.

Omega is definately one of those fights that people can be entirely too casual about. When done well it is extremely easy, if you are sloppy it will destroy you. People take certain content for granted because it has been around for such a long time, relatively speaking. "Oh it is only Omega, it's CoP, pfft" It is interesting to watch such dismissive attitudes. It MIGHT be older content, but it doesn't stop the gear being heavily used still by the jobs that can wear it. Byakko is positively ancient and people still want the haidate because there is so little to replace it, even Usukane isn't always a better upgrade depending on the job or gear combination.

It also doesn't change the fact that being old doesn't always mean it is just easy or should be dismissed. There may be more complex fights, different challenges and new ways to deal with the newer content in the game, however if you don't go into some of these older fights with a bit of respect and attention you are going to get your rear severely spanked. Everyone knowing how to kill something doesn't always equal everyone being able to kill something. Skill is not the same as knowledge, it is the application of knowledge to an effective end.

I still love the design of this creature. He is such fun to look at, Ultima is much uglier and skeletal, Omega seems so much more graceful and elegant in my mind less a blunt instrument and more a finely crafted machine of death and destruction. This fight was a little rough to start with but we were working with a few unfamiliar members to our ls so you have to allow a bit of leeway for adjustments and things settled down quickly enough.

While things were not working out well for Celestria, I did finally get the last piece of Homam I have wanted for my Dragoon. I have been running around in Dusk Gloves for this slot in the mean time and never really felt the urge to lot these over people who didn't have dusk gloves, that struck me as a shade unreasonable. When they went free lot however I was ALL over them! Of course Ninjafox was SOO bad and knew I wouldn't go for them if anyone else did so deliberately played me so that I would lot. BAH! LoL *huggles for Foxy* I much prefer these over the Dusk for Dragoon because I like doing things /WHM thus making the MP on them far more useful than the ATK from the Dusk piece. PLUS! Yay I can run around at normal speed again without having to switch gear. Only a few more pieces needed for my Dragoon now before I can consider him "complete" for the time being.

On the topic of hands, Zebra Zachary finally put out for Izman and Quigglypus in Salvage. Ramaparts are so frustratingly random, that was one of the good pieces of news to emerge from the fan fest, the fact that the development team are looking into tweaking those and the Silver Seas Remnants drop rate. There seems to be three stages of ramparts. The ones that just don't spawn, if by 50% they haven't popped they seem very unlikely to want to pop, the ones that spawn dead nm's, ie they don't drop anything at all. Then the ramparts that spawn NM's that drop like crazy. This puts Izman at 3/5 on Ares, with the mask, body and hands piece, and Quiggly on 4/5 with the mask, hands, feet and body. Legs of course being the bane of Izman, one day! One day!!!.