VanaFest 2012: Celebrating A Decade Of FFXI

This chiptune stuff is pretty catchy.

People have been yelling loudly for years on many different changes for jobs (SMN being one of the biggest)

The development team seemed to listen during abyssea, but have taken a step back since then.

From the sound of it, they took a problem that heavily relied on a singular job to create a solution (refresh), and eliminated it by propositioning an entire medium of content where it eliminated that singular demand, and with it, everything the job stood for. Now if the devs are smart enough to still incorporate function within a similar medium without creating dependency or elimination of purpose, then everyone can be happy.

So, anyone record that 8bit FFXI thing? I'm interested in seeing it.

Japanese stream is back up, music time!

Kumi Tanioka is the artist

Was really hoping Matsuko would show up to cosplay as Botulus Rex :(

I'm actually feeling giddy. I can't help but absolutely swoon over live FF music. It's like a new found passion/hobby.

I love the piano, so much...

What bugs me about RDMs complaining is this:


Not that it is their fault but when you hear the first one for years straight you can't help but feel a little bit of satisfaction.

SCH started off as a brilliant sub and a less than stellar main. After they added more spells with Addendum B/W, the job became passable and though some circles adopted the idea that a well-greased SCH could outdo BLMs the job never really took off and remained in flux as "not WHM/BLM/RDM" for a good while.

Abyssea happened and SCH went right to the recycle bin that most of the not-proccing jobs did. Only with Embrava/Kaustra and Cure potency fixes did we see an uptick in SCH popularity and even with those fixes the class is riding nigh entirely on its 2hr when put besides BLM and WHM which have benefit greatly from their improvements since Abyssea.


RDM had already been on the skids as the job veered away from SEs vision and towards a solo class that was doing things not originally intended. The nerfs to enfeebles, destruction of tank tools (hate from spells) and subsequent existence of SCH boxed RDM into a place where it simply lacked the room to grow. BLU/DNC took away avenues of progression on the melee front, SE openly eliminated the tank front, SCH encroaches on the mage front and now GEO has eliminated the support front.

By the time Abyssea rolled out and wiped out refresh, the damage to the class had already been done but RDM has been subject to nothing less than a slow crawl to oblivion since the original height of the job back when it rivaled PLD as a tank, enfeebles meant a ***and Avesta was the RDM messiah.

It will be interesting to see how GEO exists besides COR and BRD as this class relies on totems that are subject to being AOE'd which is extremely common in today's endgame. If the class cannot maintain buffs because the totems keep getting blown up by AOEs and the class cannot do anything to prevent a loss of buffs, the job could get itself into trouble akin to BST and PUP in endgame events.

Hopefully these totems have a wide cone that can be increased or decreased and tools are available to either make putting up totems quick and painless or sturdy enough to soak some damage.

Maybe no one knows how to play RDM correctly...

i think it was more the call for time restrictions that did rdm in. After that what was it, 72hr Pandy Warden? They didnt see a way to make mobs stronger without the need of temp items. and they made temps replenishable to boot so no need for refresh or rdm

Incoming Keanu reeves meme.

The Community Team gathered a lot of the cosplayers at the booth for a huge group picture! Elmer took the photo!

rdm is still relevant in the fact that VW no longer locks your merits into having all spells for procs. Now you can para2 slow2 5/5 again or dia 3 if you so choose and use it outside of VW/aby. New content will see a ton of strong mobs and I'm thinking a good para/slow build will be extremely useful.

Oh man I love Ronfaure <3 always one of my favorite zones and songs.

See, last time I said SCH only had its 2hr to really rely on, I got yelled at and was told SCH was great when it came out, lol.

and yeah, RDM was a great tank when it had hate tools. RDM just slowly and surly got things nerfed so bad to where its at now. Used to be one of the most powerful then got turned to nothing.

Which is why they gave GEO para and slow.

Abyssea was just mindless catering to the general public, as good for what it as worth, despite making the game easy mode for a while.

While it looks like they don't listen, they've actually incorporated a good deal of things that players have asked for from every region. They skip out on certain things because of "balancing" problems it always seems.

SMN is just a hard job to work with over all-- they can't have gigantic summons due to server load problems, so they always try to get medium/small sized avatars (which is why Odin/Alex are insta summon -> release like previous FFs).

geo para/slow will stack with others... They said all the geo abilities don't count as spell/song/roll, so why would the debuffs be different? Not to mention they aren't going to be the potency of merited spells. come on now.

Abyssea gave some jobs a huge boost and destroyed a lot of jobs at the same time. Since then we have seen them rebuild each one of those destroyed jobs in some way, (while bringing the boosted jobs back down to earth) SCH being the prime example with embrava and SMN with perfect defense. We all know this. They scream balance so much and the funny thing is they actually are trying.

The exception is RDM, the minor boosts that they tried to give RDM were pretty much a joke (loltemper) and have done nothing to counter the many nerfs. Its not sought after, its not needed for anything, and its now been kicked again, unbelievably.

See that's the main issue. They have always made HNMS immune or extremely resistant to slow and/or para and other spells. Maybe if they don't make new HNMs, etc like that, RDM will be good again in that set up.

But there are only so many slots to go around, and will have to wait to see if a geomancer would be worth bringing over a BRD, COR etc.

RDM is in bad shape with or without a new job being added. I think most people are upset with the fact that their job is still broken and a new job is being added because I don't see how geomancer is hurting RDM anyway.

If Geo can do the job adequately, why waste a slot. We also know nothing about GEO's merits.

Yeah, if Geo can para and slow, why bring a RDM to stack with them when you could bring another support job to give more haste, attack, etc?

Thus GEO/RDM? Perhaps they are attempting to make RDM at least subjob worth or... RDM/GEO... who knows the benefits until we know what traits and abilities are at what lvls.

This piano music... eargasm.

if sch dnc were any indication we wont see those till 2015 xD

Gigantic Mandragora readies Dream Flower.
Ark Angel M falls asleep!
Puppetmaster falls asleep!
Monk falls asleep!
Blue Mage falls asleep!
Camate falls asleep!
Thief falls asleep!
Bastokan Citizen falls asleep!
Lehko Habhoka falls asleep!

*sways* \o\ /o/ \o\