How Would You Balance The Jobs?

Let's make a job that specializes in Weapon Skill frequency, but also give them the strongest weapon skill in the game, and a free +20% WS damage trait, and a JA that gives them 250-300% TP when properly geared, and a JA that lets them use a WS for only 100% TP but at the power of 300% TP, and a TP move that increase their WS TP by 150%, and also +25% double attack on top of what they get from /WAR as long as they keep up a JA with a short recast/long duration. Also I was thinking, they should also swing again when they miss, but the 're-swing' should give them even more TP and more acc! Also this job should get ludicrous bonus damage for skillchains. Hell let's let them specialize in ranged damage and allow them to equip 2 relics simultaneously. Also I'm not sure if this is overkill, but maybe most of their weapon skills should get massive attack bonuses, oh and an ability to evade damage/counter. Screw it, let's give them A parrying and B evasion and the unique ability to wear both of the best armor types- heavy plate AND far eastern sets.

leaving out a lot of other tools that SAM gets, but you get the picture -_-

Seriously, SAM is a little too perfect. It's like you don't need any other DD for anything if there's SAMs available. They can just fudo endlessly off eachother for ludicrous light SC damage. Some jobs can WS for higher base damage than SAM but that's irrelevant when SAMs are pushing out 12-30k lights.

If I could balance this game, I would nerf the hell out of Samurai. They have the strongest WS and best WS frequency? Fine, but they have to become glass cannons. Because in any game, high damage= low defense. Think Akuma from SF. I would take them off heavy plate armor first of all, chainmail/scale is the best they get and far eastern armor. Heavy Armor stays WAR/PLD/DRG/DRK/BST. We can't use Usukane, so they shouldn't get heavy armor. Fudo and Shoha would get a big nerf. Let SAMs produce their damage from skillchains, not weapon skills. Weapon Skill damage is all jobs like DRK and WAR have, but they marginalize those jobs by letting SAM have stronger weapon skills and better WS potential. Overwhelm should be nerfed to 1% per upgrade, 20% from a merit is ridiculous, I don't care if it's directionally dependent, it's a trait that adds thousands of damage to their WS for no reason.

I would make Hagakure/Sengokiri all 5min recasts. Hassozanshin is annoyinh as hell, you guys already sub /WAR and now you get an extra 15% DA trait on top of that. I would remove it, you get a huge enough bonus from SAM Main Hasso with your empy and reforged , no reason that hasso should also give you a crapload of DA(and +42 STR, i would remove that job point category and give you guys subtle blow w/ hasso). Also meditate needs to be scaled back, it can already give SAM close to 300% with current gear and now that new mantle that extends duration for 3 ticks.

So thus far:
Fudo/Shoha->Reduced fTP by 25%
Remove attack bonus from all SAM WS except Gekko.
Hassozanshin=Removed
Hasso job Point +STR->+Subtle Blow
Sengokiri/Hagakure->5min
Overwhelm 20% -> 5% but remove direction requirement
Wide armor selection->Remove them from Heavy plate sets
Meditate->Impose a cap on max# of ticks so that no more than 200% TP can be obtained.

I'm sure I'm missing a lot of other nerfs that I could think of for making SAM a balanced damage dealer. Currently, unlike most other DDs, SAM really has no flaws. They have high damage, moderate defenses. Compared to DRK which has piss-poor defense and moderate damage capabilities(DRK's raw WS damage and WS frequency will never compare to Fudo spam'd back to back for Light SCs for 15k+, Resolution doesn't chain into itself like Fudo does.)

Seriously, SAM is a little too perfect.

Pre-fudo last year, when it was on emp only, Shoha was still ludicrously strong as a WS and it has an attack bonus. Remember, SAM is a DD job that can sub /WAR freely and get +attack from Berserk. Dragoon was married to /SAM because we don't have Store TP or native attack speed stances like SAM or DRK mains do. Therefore DRG missed out on Berserk. Not only did SE not give us an attack bonus WS, they gave us attack penalty weapon skills. Did they compensate by giving us anything else in the meantime? Not until very recently at least.

SAM has accuracy in that when they miss, they have 50-60% chance to swing again with 34 accuracy attached to it.

I wouldn't say SAM has weak att or acc at all because SAM's premier subjob has been /WAR for a while and /WAR covers those bases quite nicely.

If we're talking balance, you have to define balance based on other jobs that fill the same role, in the case physical close range damage.

SAM did not really have gaping holes in their gameplay that other damage dealers had. To compare SAM's problems with THF/DNC/DRG/PUP problems is folly, those jobs have huge flaws as damage dealers. The only 'flaw' i could even think of with SAM is lack of an AoE with their main weapon and that their WS are mostly 1hit so they miss more often compared to multihits which technically can still get partial hits when they 'miss'.


For example, to put it in perspective. DRK is categorized as SE as being your typical glass cannon. High att/low def, high enmity JAs, Souleater takes your HP etc. DRK has all of these gaping tradeoffs for their JAs and yet all of the benefits they gain from -20% defense, HP reduced per hit, high enmity, all of it still doesn't push them ahead of a SAM, which has NONE of those tradeoffs from their JAs. Where's the risk/reward with SAM? DRK has so many risks with using LR/Souleater and yet they are more prone to dying using it for not much increase in damage. SAM can WS away and deal incredible damage and yet not sacrifice any HP or defense to do so.

Actually it has, if you're fighting a mob that can full time amnesia or can't use WS at all, then SAM would be inferior to others.

That hurts WAR, DRG and DRK also as Amnesia locks out their potent JA's. MNK is the other broken DD job, but that's been the case for ages and was semi balanced by the rest being within the same general bracket for damage. SAM just flat out beats everything else by such a large margin it's comical.

Love the weak derail drama of omg SAM. How about you bring every Job up to snuff like SAM and MNK.

Love the weak derail drama of omg SAM. How about you bring every Job up to snuff like SAM and MNK.

SE loves the party line "Well you have job flexibility, make it so." If content is too easy with ultra buffed Jobs then simply Low man more often, or change it up and try, OMG wait for it, Diffrent things just for the hell of it.

I have seen so many MMOs start off better then they end up after "Balancing" due to whiners who cry about other Jobs that can beat them.

Players don't Like the nerf bat, they like it even less than easy mode. Easy Mode is much easier to fix then white wash nerfs.

Make sub Jobs way more buffed and you will solve 85% of the balance issues.

HELL BUFF the crap out of SAM make them able to take on lvl 99 content at level 49, and simply allow these buffs to carry over in full effect when subbed.

Boom fixed. no more /sadpandas and #slit wrist from the crying crew.

While I don't feel a person should be forced to level every Job and gear etc I do feel it is not unreasable to require every Job to be leveled to 49 if a player wants to consider themselves elite.


But hey what do I know, I mean a system that has been in the game and under utilized should just continue to be ignored and under utilized.

Heck make SATA 5 sec recast and no positional requirement with a 20TP tp return for each use all attainable by lvl 49 when subbed.

Give Dnc a trait that grants +20% QA and +50 str when dual weilding daggers by lvl 49. (Thf n Dncs would rejoice and still not be omg broken)

Make it so that Nin gets an trait which allows their emnity their enmnity to raise above the hate ceiling when shadows are lost. Then give them a trait which maintans at least 1 shadow when AOE is used on them. ALL atainable by lvl 49.

You get the idea? I can go on all day its easy, actually simple even from a coding aspect, won't effect PS2 limitations, won't force countless People to go and lvl "FoTM" jobs in order to not get a "X job Onry."

if you need all of that to win, go play ffxiv, it's better suited to your difficulty level

Really what weakness or tradeoff does SAM have to manage that's unique to SAM? Their accuracy is not the highest but also not the lowest(aggressor/hasso). Their attack is not the highest but not the lowest(berserk/warcry/ws with attack boosts). Everything else is either best or second best.

I can go on all day its easy

Please don't, your ideas are awful.

I don't have newer parse for WAR DRG and DRK atm(since I haven't pt with them forever) so I can't be very sure, but one of the yorcia parse I had shows that 85% of SAM's came from WS, only 15% were from white dmg. I don't recall WAR DRK's WS dmg plays such an important role in total output according to some very old parse.

I don't believe that's right... Namely because I *just* did a Ra'Kaznar run with two SAMs (set up was RUN, BRD, WHM, RDM -he was a returning player and it's all he has at the moment-, and SAMx2).
And the parse was SAM1: 35% white damage 8% SC and SAM2: 15% white idr% SC and my RUN with 14.5% white (which is funny to me).
So it doesn't seem that the majority of damage is from SC (35% vs 8% of total damage dealt)...
But that's just one event and one experience.
Basically: don't underestimate fulltime 80% delay reduction and increased hitrate from Hasso and Zanshin and their effects on DPS.

BLU is one of those jobs that is borderline OP. Not from a pure DPS point of view but from a total game mechanics POV. Tons of utility, potent self heals, potent defense / offensive buffs while having high physical and magic damage. Aoe sleeps, debuffs and a highly configurable load out system. Its only drawback is how complex it is to play and understand. To realize its potential the player needs to know the mechanics of FFXI really well. A good BLU is godly, a poor BLU is an embarrassment, not much room in between.

So SE has to be extremely careful with buffs lesr it break something.

And that's balance. BLUs potential is stifled by the limits of the player to understand its mechanics and the mechanics of the event. It's also a job that scares people off because it has so many moving parts.

While SAM gives up everything by mashing your Fudo macro until ***falls over, BLU requires a ton of different sets, understanding what spells do, preparing for the situations with your loadouts beforehand and utilizing that versatility.

Complicated jobs should be highly rewarding where simple jobs should be middling/average. Good players get to be 'OP' and bad players wear MP gear and look like idiots.

That's why SAMs OP. It's not difficult to understand yet it's so effective for seemingly no reason. What SAM should be is an average DD that excels when skillchains are involved but that's been abandoned for SMASH ALL THE THINGS which should be WAR or DRKs niche.

You make it sound like there is no difference between a skilled SAM and a non-skilled one. With identical gear, one that actually knows what they are doing will blow the other away. Knowing when to properly use SC, abilities, and certain WS's, albeit easier than a BLU, can still be difficult and taxing.

While its worlds simpler than BLU, its more than just a TP and WS macro.

Also, I've not been keeping up with Corsair lately but it's fallen to the bottom of the buffer pile amidst the massive Geomancer boosts, the prevalence of dispels and 3 song BRD being commonplace.

Anyone care to give me a refresher on where the jobs going and what it needs to keep up in the support arms race?

It's just really disheartening to see a Tsurumaru outparse my Ryunno DRG by like 15-20%(WS+SC dmg).