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Time to re-gear those Samurais, boys.

Until they address the evasion that some of these bosses have, how amnesia can shutdown melee but rarely have an effect on mages (unless it's wide enough to hit scholars), and all the baggage melee bring with them, a buff to 2h means little.

It's deserved, but I don't see it changing the strategy for hard content (for your group).

Edit: People might say that bosses where melee aren't any/much danger are boring or too easy, and that's true but that's half the reason people bring scholars--they aren't in any/much danger (and can idle in -DT gear at no penalty to their performance).

Accuracy is a bigger issue than danger in the hard fights. We literally cannot get enough accuracy, regardless of the danger involved. And there is a lot of content where melee thrive, like pretty much anything under CL135. I'm not exactly sure what they intend to change, adjustments could really be anything.

I think a lot of people would be surprised at how easy it is to keep melee alive and swinging (missing) on the most dangerous enemies just from Vex+Attunement, EA+Scherzo, DT sets, walking away from DoT auras, whatever.

Yeah, you nailed it part of it. For some reason, meeting the m.acc checks is a lot easier than meeting the acc checks. Part of this has to do with the difference in misses vs partial resists so that even if your group doesn't have mages capable of comfortable meeting the m.acc check on hard content (for your group), you can still whittle away at the boss's hp.

Also, how many of us have laughed as we watched the carnage of a potent helix eating away at some respectable bosses' hp.


Oh sure, Vex/Attune is <3. So you can bring a geo and 2 melee and protect the melee (the tank usually doesn't need it) or you can bring a geo and scholars/black mages and buff the Death squad.

I really thought they were on to something finally (that people had been screaming at them) with Sulevia's but this month's set proves that to just be a coincidence. Melee need a viable option to be able to swing/hit the boss and survive the boss.

Swinging and missing (a lot) is no fun. Mages don't really have to put up with that. Idle in -DT, and swap for the portions of a second that you're actually casting. On top of that, you're usually safe from dangerous AOEs.

There are simple fights where melee oriented strategies just make the whole thing worse.

On top of that, it's time we get a -na for Amnesia. Preferably something that cures the ailment and provides short-term protection (15s? 30s?) against it being reapplied.

It isn't the same game as it was in 2008. In 08, mages didn't have such abundant refresh (since they're casting many of the same spells as they were back then), there wasn't Myrkr, and Occult Acumen, a third tier of aspir coupled with all this fc/haste gear, /rdm having convert and refresh). The trade-off back then was that your BLMs couldn't just chain big nukes because their MP would not survive. If you brought only mages, you were gonna be ballading and waiting a lot. Melee had the strength of being steady and consistent damage.

Melee start empty and build up, mages start full and empty out. The problem in the balance now is that mages stay full.

Short of potent resistance to magic damage (which is also a stupid and lazy mechanic), I never feel like melee are preferable.

Even a boss like Delores whose super-mysterious mechanic was clearly designed to make melee favorable is super easy to pound through (have mages in melee range, and they still survive more readily than the melee).

Was addressing how some people think defense is a bigger problem than accuracy, despite the abundance of simple options that actually work.

Aye, and the problem is that melee need both in order to function.

It's no different than how many melee (particularly heavy DD-war/drk/bst/sam/drg who get to dip into pld gears) can PDTcap and MDT softcap (at least) but won't be hitting anything.

Adversely, they can gear for offense and (at least on less-evasive content) carve the boss right up, for as long as they survive.

But that's an important difference. PDT/MDT/DT have caps. You aim for 50% because anything past it has 0 effect. Accuracy has no numerical cap the next line of bosses may require 2000 acc if SE is in the mood. (I know that "hit rate" has a cap)

The real question to ask is what the hell are they adjusting?

The first thing that comes to mind is changing STR and DEX back to being 1:1 for acc and attack, and that ***would be absurd.

The other thing is potentially increasing the hit rate cap for 2hd. 97% could maybe be a thing?

The thing I feel that is least likely is adjusting the ftp of certain WS. I think they would be reluctant to do this at this stage, but I suppose it's not an impossibility. If they do this, I hole they include H2H, because they have the worst WS options of any real DD weapon right now.

That's not how you spell Rune Fencer

I think this is the real issue with the magic/melee unbalance in today's endgame. Its often a choice between a 6-man magic set up, of a 10-11-12-man melee set up with all the extra support that is required to make sure that melees can both hit their target and survive. And since everyone is interested in the fastest and most efficient way to farm up their content, everyone shifts towards magic set ups.

I kinda disagree about the ƒTP adjustment not being the second most likely adjustment (acc cap is obvs what it 99% likely what is happening).
It doesn't seem too out of line to me to make adjustments to those WSs like they did with the 1h update.

And worry not! They've always considered H2H a part of the 2handed category.
So that'll be adjusted too... Assuming any ƒTP changes happen. (I'm expecting at least a couple. Just to buff some WSs up to the level other WSs enjoy.)

No they haven't.

Oh snap that's a good point. Epeolatry rune tank/good dd hybrid

That's not how you spell Lionheart.

My money is on drk with their 9999 hp.

That's not how you spell 2 handed Burtgang.

Oh right, this isn't Dark Souls, I can't do that.

Epeolatry is obviously vastly superior as a tanking weapon, but OA3 on a 2hand weapon means it gains relatively little from Temper. Lionheart on the other hand is free to reap the full benefits thereof (especially stacked with Embolden), putting it well ahead of Epeolatry in a DD context given how well the weapon already supports Resolution spam.

They should power up BRD and increase the WSD for the main WS the DD's use. That would maybe get them into higher tier content instead of MBing but who cares if a DD is a little more powerful for mid tier content where BLU is excelling atm (tons complaining about BLU but nobody even whispers about how GEO is basically REQUIRED for fights.)

Like how the "adjustment to Summoner abilities" had summoners anxious/excited all month.

"The amount of HP absorbed by Dread Spikes is affected by Dark Magic Skill. You're welcome two-handers."

owutthehell, it's you! lol.

Against my better judgement I'm gonna post this about accuracy. I wish people would stop repeating this too because it also isn't true about accuracy. Not if you use the right support and actually gear up your job more than bleh level. Before the Abjuration +1 were even upgraded, me and others on this forum have calculated you can achieve over 2100 accuracy (counting evasion downs) with pretty much any melee DD. That's enough to hit anything.

With max vorseals and food thf can be standing in at least 1550 accuracy before buffs, and that is a conservative statement I know you can get more. Is it easy to get that level of acc? no. My thf is just over 1420 and it's an accomplishment, I'm missing some vorseals too, I don't have HQ abjurations, or the best of the best augments but one day I want to. I feel like people saying the acc requirements are impossible are either ignorant and repeating what others say, or don't want it to be true because putting the effort in is too much work to them and they'd rather SE makes it easier by saying it's impossible and I don't agree with either of those. Some like the way things are now with mage setups and that's fine, I don't have a problem if that's your view.

With buffs you can get over 2100 accuracy, and that's for melee DD, and without the new bard song, and using distract 3 instead of cycling Feint, and not including collaborator or steps or other things at the disposal of groups needing to improve accuracy, and not including ranger either, who mine with food is 1544 accuracy in reisenjima right now and I've heard of some that can achieve over 1650, and that's before any evasion downs, sharpshot, or accuracy buffs of which there is a ton many of which stack or even using relic bow which has a ridiculous 125 ranged acc attached to it. People need to stop saying acc is such a huge problem. Can you walk up and hit hard stuff in your mediocre gear without support? No. You're not supposed to. Can you walk up and hit it with great gear and no support? Not the hardest stuff, you're not supposed to. Can you be in your omg dps TP sets with support? Sometimes. But not the hardest stuff, you're not supposed to.

EA + Scherzo solve survivability a whm can't fix, the kind that you are dead before they can do anything about it. Vex + attune is only if you want to make their life easier on removing enfeebles or it has ones you can't remove or you'd rather sacrifice both GEO buffs for just survivability. It has never been that it can't be done, it's always been that it's easier to use something else. Finding WHM able to take care of healing DDs when that is mujch harder than healing one tank and many can't do that well, is a task. A good mythic whm can and does take care of multiple DD just fine though, and if you EA + Scherzo you don't need DT sets leaving you much more free to have more acc and damage gear that you're going to need for some of this stuff. Dispels, doom, death and charm will still remain threats, but everything else would just be something to slow your dmg down. I'm not saying it's easy, I'm saying it's possible and the people that say it isn't are annoying in saying it's because of accuracy issues because that's flat out wrong too. It seems the only reasons ppl don't want to use EA + Scherzo is they think bard is dead which, it's not, anyone with an aeonic knows how important bard is for some of those fights. Or they don't want to bring a SMN, which if you don't know the other things smn can aid a DD party with you should educate yourself, and worst case, the BRD and SMN both have very long duration buffs and can rotate in every 5 mins or so for SMN and every 9 mins for the bard. None of this even looks at other options either, like how much RUN can up the survivability of the front line especially against magic damage. The point is, no one is trying, and not many will because I think most of them just believe it when everyone repeats the acc requirements are impossible or something. That and it IS easier to do manaburn. It's less risky, it takes less attention, and it takes less focus at least from the WHM perspective.

Lets list all the stackable ways you could maximize acc and evasion down:
Idris GEO Bolster precision and torpor: +200
Feint Cycle: average +125, but will list distract III instead for average +100
Steps: +44
SV Honor March bard with two Etude: +254 + 48 acc from dex
Idris Geo Bolster DEX: +67 acc from dex

Grand total support acc: 713, and I'm probably missing something. Before you say yah but idris geo and best brd using 1 hours... I'll remind you the content you're commenting on uses both those things already.

1550 acc THF + 713 support acc = 2,263 accuracy
1650 acc Ranger + 135 Relic + 70 sharpshot + 713 support acc = 2,568

Keep in mind this is in reisenjima and max acc boost from vorseals including dex is 101, and also food, which is another 100 acc. Obtaining 1350 acc without food or vorseals or buffs doesn't seem impossible now does it? It's not.

Now the highest reported evasion in the game I know of is 2100, so why they hell are people saying there's not enough accuracy? Just seems like they aren't trying to fix the problem, they want a scape goat. I'm fine with people using mana burns, I love them and benefited greatly from them. Just... if you're saying why you are using something, it pays to be accurate (oh look a mini joke) in saying why that is. Mana burns are less risky, they are safer, I know them better, I like mages, Magic bursts are easier to coordinate, the job list is shorter, etc... I mean there's a lot of reasons to use mana burns people don't have to make up ones. DD is viable in end game just most ppl don't want to push it to that level. Someone eventually will though it's a matter of time mostly, I like all strategies and if a LS leader tells me hey, we're using this, I ask how can I be helpful because I don't want to be a *** and make leading harder because leading is hard. My only reason for this post is, I like to know what's actually possible. I hope it's helpful to someone.

Edit: I forgot to mention vorseal buffs are doubled with the right blessing in effect, boost-dex, and hunter's roll so even more reason it is true. I also listed Idris GEO's contribution if they dont' bolster, bolster they provide 400 total acc contribution (200 through precision and 200 through torpor evasion down).

tl;dr You can so hit things if you really want to, and reasons with supportive examples and ranting.

I agree completely about not caring if DD are a little OP in content they outgear. They're presently underpowered in content they're geared for

I also think people pretty openly admit GEO dominates bard and corsair where they overlap. The problem is that SE is sometimes deaf and sometimes replies to properly-powered jobs by nerfing them rather than buffing the jobs that need it. NQ GEO is where NQ BRD and NQ COR should be. Same for HQ GEO. Bard also needs a reworking to some extent. (Fire Carol vs Vex/Attune, tough choice!)

You mean we would have to use more than 6 people? *** that.

On top of that, in a game where keeping a consistent group together is a pain, it's a painful thing to pug a melee that doesn't have the necessary clears.

Yes, you can hit things if you have the best possible gear on both the DDs and the buffers, but you hardly need that for a magic burst setup. When bolster wears on MB set ups, you just do a bit less damage. What are you supposed to do when you lose >200 accuracy from losing Bolster on Torpor/Precision/Dex? Assuming you're just at the cap, or even 100 over the cap, you've now effectively floored your hit rate. This has yet to even address the issue with mobs dealing damage and status debuffs, accounting for another 1-2 GEOs.

To summarize, you need:

3 GEOs (Frail, Torpor, Vex, Wilt, Dex, Precision) Baseline (+1 GEO for another DD pt)

1 COR Per PT
1 BRD
1 WHM per PT.

There is a bit of a problem when you need 9/18 of your alliance to be "support" (and 2hr'd!) just to be able to use 4-6 DD (2-3 per pt). For reference, you can get away with 3 GEOs (even 2 tbh) with an 18 man MB setup. This supports 6-10 BLM as well depending on how many buffers ou want to use

Another Asura wonder thinking you can't bring more then 6 people to the new nms!

Lmao Asura has the least intellectual player base

why do you post with two different accounts consecutively almost every time? weirdo

Except for all of that support needed, you'll eventually need way more than the 6 person party that SE is now designing content for?

The scaled HP, in my eyes, is a consequence and a penalty for wanting to add more players into the mix. Therefore, it becomes impractical to have a full alliance just to support a few DD.