Yeah I could do with slightly less RNG in goal but other than that, I have loved it
Besides the auras, what other RNG is there in Gaol?
You know exactly what it's moves are and how to counter/evade them. You know exactly when it's going to SP, spawn an add, how to dismantle the aura, even a rough estimate of WHEN it will aura. You know how the hate rules operate for the boss + add. You have all of the proven and workable strategies laid out. There is ONE element of RNG with the auras (2 if you consider Ngai or Xevioso's possible OHKO move), and maybe only 1-2 of them is truly run-ending for something like Bumba/Ongo V25 getting macc or mab down. After a few years of Gaol being out, it's not nearly as frustrating and RNG as it once was, since 99% has been figured out already. You just have to plan for it now.
Why not perfect? The drop rates that were so *** atrocious that probably the biggest exploit in the games history had to be discovered to made the drop rate “not terrible”.
Exploit aside, last time I made Gastraphetes, it took 5 days because I had 2 runs where I didn't get the cell to unlock the f'ing range slot /eyeroll
Yeah I could do with slightly less RNG in goal but other than that, I have loved it
Besides the auras, what other RNG is there in Gaol?
You know exactly what it's moves are and how to counter/evade them. You know exactly when it's going to SP, spawn an add, how to dismantle the aura, even a rough estimate of WHEN it will aura. You know how the hate rules operate for the boss + add. You have all of the proven and workable strategies laid out. There is ONE element of RNG with the auras (2 if you consider Ngai or Xevioso's possible OHKO move), and maybe only 1-2 of them is truly run-ending for something like Bumba/Ongo V25 getting macc or mab down. After a few years of Gaol being out, it's not nearly as frustrating and RNG as it once was, since 99% has been figured out already. You just have to plan for it now.
^^ This, but also: even the Ngai/Xevioso OHKOs aren't truly OHKO if you're playing and gearing properly for them. Nobody in those fights has ever been OHKO'd where we didn't find a reason we *** up and caused it.
If you gear, plan, and play properly, Gaol fights are straight up never decided by RNG. Except Bumba V25. Anyone who says they lost a fight to RNG is making excuses for their poor planning, gearing, or play.
I've definitely been OHKOed by Xevioso more times than I care to remember. I checked my log every time to make sure Carol and Scherzo werent dispeled on my tank and I didnt notice.
Independent of the armor being useful or not. SE can go suck a fat one and choke on it for bringing back time and lottery spawns.
I'm going to disagree. It was fun making an alliance last night for the Raaz NM. The NM pops quite often and we got to chat with people I never would have.
~20min timers on the pop NMs and the window on Lotto NMs seems to be 20 min as well.
Bring back 21-24 hour HNMs that drop actually good ***and I might even come back to the game.
Independent of the armor being useful or not. SE can go suck a fat one and choke on it for bringing back time and lottery spawns.
I'm going to disagree. It was fun making an alliance last night for the Raaz NM. The NM pops quite often and we got to chat with people I never would have.
~20min timers on the pop NMs and the window on Lotto NMs seems to be 20 min as well.
Bring back 21-24 hour HNMs that drop actually good ***and I might even come back to the game.
Yeah, everyone loves waking up at 3am to stand still for 3 hours doing nothing, for a chance to have an item drop that everyone in your alliance wants. Peak FFXI, we need more of that.
Everything will be based on mid-tier catch up gear:
Ambu+2
AF+4 (kill an Omen mid-boss is a very low bar to get access to +3 every job, Limbus isnt difficult either)
Relic+2 (Enter dynamis on job, I think 100 kills is a bit higher of a bar to do solo, hence stopping at +2)
Emp+2 (I dont think 10k muffins and a sapphire is that high of a bar)
Anything from pre-Selb HTMB's
UNM loot, including augment
Escha loot (is this too high of a bar?)
Ruwa set (WAR / PLD / DRK / SAM / DRG)
No multi atk, but hands have STP, and the set has a whole has better DT compared to the previous two. This one might not be absolute dogshit bridge gear.
TP (mostly looking from DPS standpoint, not explicit DT unless noted):
Head: Flamma Zucchetto exists. Unless you're desperate for that 6 DT, Flamma absolutely demolishes this for TPing. Applies to all 5 jobs. Sulev comes with STP+10 DT-6, SAM can use Emp+2.
Body: Not much of a TP piece here. Flamma has a healthy StoreTP +9. If the DT is crucial:
WAR DRK DRG: I'd use this over Sulevia, it has a bit better defensive stats and similar offensive stats, but that comes down to if the effort camping Raaz is worth when you could be doing more productive things.
PLD: Emp+2 Relic+2 and AF+4 are all better options.
SAM: Emp+2, even AF+4 if the acc and meva stats are more important
DRG: Emp+2 or AF+4 would be better than Flamma, but again if the DT is cruical, its pretty close with Sulevia.
Hands: These beat Flamma out the gate (unless the Crit matters). They also have the same DT as Sulevia as well. PLD would be better served in Emp+2 for tanky gear. DRK in Emp+2 for acc/DT (my theory is if you're fighting something that you need to turtle up that bad, you likely need some acc in there). SAM prob better to TP in AF+4 if the DT isnt important. DRG might be better served in Emp+2 if the DT is that important.
Legs: Flamma has StoreTP+8, Sulev has DT-6 TA+3, Sam can wear Tate or Emp+2, These lose I'm out.
Feet: These have high-ish MEVA, and the resist ailments could be useful, depending on target. Having said that, from a DPS standpoint, Flamma has DA+6 STP+6 and similar/better stats across the board, so its just a matter if that DT+4 comes into play: WAR Emp+2, PLD doesnt have any standout DT pieces but AF boots might be worth it for the MP conversion, DRK SAM dont have any standout DT pieces either, DRG Emp+2
WS:
Body: WAR AF+4. PLD this. DRK AF+4. SAM likely this, I doubt the extra TP from Relic+2 augment is worth it. DRG likely this, but Emp+2 in the running if the PDL comes into play.
Legs: Does the PDL potentially come into play? WAR: no (Emp+2 has better, not to mention fencer if one-handing), PLD: unlikely even without any WSD pieces, DRK: maybe better than Relic+2 WSD+5, SAM: no, AF+4 WSD+12, DRG: no, AF+4 WSD+12
Final tally:
head: certified ***
Body: good WS piece for PLD SAM DRG.
Hands: actually very good bridge gear.
Legs: certified ***
Feet: Probably not worth the effort. The decent meva and resist ailment might be good, but that would be come monumental luck for that to make or break an event.
I don’t expect them to make deep and fun events ever again. The best and most interesting and flavorful event they ever made imo was the original salvage. Between the cells, the branching paths you had to choose between, the nm spawn conditions and the uniqueness of each of the 4 wings flavor, it was a fantastic event that you could tell the devs put a lot of thought behind.
We haven’t had interesting end game in a long time. Escha is the most interesting of anything post rhapsodies imo. Oddy sortie and limbus are all very hollow, with oddly probably being the best of those options. Event design nowadays is just throw a bunch of trash mobs in a pile and tell players to have at thee, with the odd nm here and there. It’s something to do with friends to spend time with people you like, but the content itself isn’t terribly interesting.
yet you're still paying them
have you considered voting with your wallet?
R30 gear is the BiS most of the time, therefor V25 unlocks are mandatory.
Having v25 access is kinda mandatory for RP purposes. Just for RP, having T1 V25 access suffices. From personal experience.
v25 clears are not. The bump from R25 to R30 is not that significant. There is nothing in the game you will be walled on by not having R30.
Case in point, majority are on Nyame R25 yet have cleared every content in the game including the "hard" master trials that need you to get lucky on the 1hrs and be uber buffed going in. Oh yeah and "skill", ie being able to kite effectively.
People don't like gimmicks, and they don't like mechanics. Everyone *** up a storm when a mob dispels, terrorizes, amnesias, kills them, etc. so mechanics are largely seen as frustrating and annoying. Half the people playing the game use addons to stop knockback.
I can't speak for everyone but I'm OK with gimmicks if they operate within the game mechanics and don't get altered, exceptioned or shoehorned to only allow a specific approach and I don't like gimmicks that don't have a proper counter.
While Meva occasionally helps once you're struck with terror, amnesia, muddle, encumbrance... you can just wait and hope you survive.
I don't advocate for ankor but I still don't like the knockback mechanic, in particular if knockback reduction gear is so scarce and they refuse to fix the bug where knockback reduction gear gets useless unless everyone wears it.
A good example of altering the rules is imho Triboulex, light damage reduces setting the stage damage but only some light damage, En-light doesn't count, sorry PLD.
But even if I think gimmicks have a place I also understand when people look for a workaround (not a cheat) to speed things up when the gimmick slows things down, annoys everyone and is expected to be repeated every day for half a year.
The best and most interesting and flavorful event they ever made imo was the original salvage.
Ewwwww!
No but seriously, Salvage was GLORIOUS. Despite being a noob at the time, with no means to get money, no useful jobs either etc, I worked very very very hard to complete my Usukane Set (took me ~1 year of pretty regular runs?).
Salvage was great. In hindsight I'd say a few paths/nms/drops were a bit off and should've been rebalanced, and also the cells handling was annoying inventory-wise but IN GENERAL it was such a great, vast, intense, fantastic event.
Salvage II never felt as good as the original if you ask me. Is it just me? Am I being biased and idolizing the original one?
I think despite many flaws, a few boring choices and things I don't agree with, I'd dare to say Gaol fights V25 are also some of the best (and most challenging too!) content FFXI ever saw in its entire history.
Also I'd dare to say there's potential in Sortie as well, in hindsight many of those potentiality didn't play out well and there's way too much walking to keep it interesting after a long time of daily runs (the daily cap and the fact runs last 1hrs is also another bad thing in the long run) but despite all the hate it may get I think Sortie wasn't really all that bad?
"Revamping" it making it even better without giving Primes for free would take like 1 day of work on their end, it's sad they won't ever do those small fixes.
Salvage I is great, required thoughtful strategy and execution and was fun to progress as you unlocked stuff. Inventory management could be annoying and drop rates (and God forbid if you wanted to farm alex from it).
Salvage 1 is much better than 2.
I like gaol a lot in principle as it also requires careful strategy, I think the problems are just finding a friends with the balance of segs/jobs/playtime.
Sortie is actually nice in that you can play it so many ways solo/lowman/full party, you can treat it like segs, hunt easy NM, do random objectives that don't require fighting, do hard NM. Its actually pretty good event for getting empy+3, you can mix it up and it feels fresh. I think the issue is the tedium chasing a prime and wanting the most optimized path to do so.
Original limbus made you think strategically about which chest to open too, would be nice if there was some aspect of that in the new limbus (maybe open a chest in the lobby that gives a grace style buff until you zone, could be double units, double xp, remove DT from enemies (not sure how this would work in parties), autowarp to next floor when you get your temp item, get snk/invis/mazurka after resting a tic) of course the issue is players would likely pick the same thing 90% of the time, so there's not much choice.
Besides the auras, what other RNG is there in Gaol?
Auras and WC SP resets.
The T1/T2's are not worth mentioning.
Of the T3's, Shark/Bee/Dinosaur aren't so bad with auras though getting Mdef down / Meva down will likely result in a loss due to some DD getting one shoted. It's random so they could pull a win out, or they could get bodied 10s after Aura happens. Tree/Tiger are DPS races and become pretty much unwinnable if you get attack down under 40%. Similar with Ongo only with MAcc down / MAtk down auras. Bumba makes this even worse as not only do you have to not have MAcc / MAtk down auras but also must get a 5 or 6 on Wild Card. There is a technique to mitigate the first Aura, but the second one is a binary check.
No amount of effort, hope, dreams or the power of friendship is going to get past these checks.
It's those RNG checks combined with no SJ that makes Gaol fights unpleasant. Just allowing SJ's would open up multiple new strategies and possibilities for approaching the content.
This will be the final update as everything as been found, armor with an asterisk* have 2 NMs that it can drop from. I got my revenge on Ironhide matamata, took 1hr to spawn + whatever the guy before me waited.
~Timed spawn NMs~ Chests last 3min, Respawns 15min after chest despawns
Of the T3's, Shark/Bee/Dinosaur aren't so bad with auras though getting Mdef down / Meva down will likely result in a loss due to some DD getting one shoted. It's random so they could pull a win out, or they could get bodied 10s after Aura happens. Tree/Tiger are DPS races and become pretty much unwinnable if you get attack down under 40%. Similar with Ongo only with MAcc down / MAtk down auras. Bumba makes this even worse as not only do you have to not have MAcc / MAtk down auras but also must get a 5 or 6 on Wild Card. There is a technique to mitigate the first Aura, but the second one is a binary check.
No amount of effort, hope, dreams or the power of friendship is going to get past these checks.
No amount of effort, hopes, and dreams will get past those checks, except if I post videos of all these wins with "the bad auras", you'll claim that we just got lucky or some ***.
You can beat every single boss with every single aura, except (probably) Bumba's second aura. All this nonsense about instant death with XYZ aura or can't beat the DPS check with ABC aura is cope.
It can be a bit more challenging with a bad aura than a good aura, but the aura never instantly losses you a run, unless your plan/gear/positioning/etc suck, in which case those things lost you the run, not the aura.
Possible PSA, not sure if it's already been mentioned
I don't have any personal experience, but I've heard about it from multiple people now so it bears mentioning. There are reports of players not receiving their loot from the treasure box. I assume what is happening is that they are being interrupted during the animation of the chest opening and it skips the event (think of trying to use the elevator in limbus while a mob is attacking you).
The first report was similar to the example, but the second person didn't know exactly what happened. It's also possible that buffs will also interrupt the event so take care to avoid this. You don't want to be the guy who ruined it for someone in your group.
I'm gonna be honest, I dont want to do this because theres so much to cover from so many angles, so I'll just try my best to *** what pieces are good bridge gear.
Head: Enmity-9 is a very healthy chunk of Enmity- for most of these jobs. Unfortunately, theres nothing else on top of it to require the enmity-9. If you want to be a melee mage, Blistering Sallet+1 is all jobs
Body: For most of these jobs, this would probably be a great WS piece based on alternatives to what is available. BLU gets AF+4, BRD gets Rel+2 with 5 less WSD but better stats all around (and a shitton of attack, and it also has a defensive PDT-6). Unfortunately, these are also two of the three melee capable jobs on this list lol
Hands: WHM RDM BRD SCH all have Gende+1 for better FC, BLM SMN BLU (Pinga?) GEO can all make use of this Fast Cast.
Legs: Just gonna look at it as nuking pants, WHM BRD SMN dont nuke, theyre out (I get they can, its not part of their role, not doing extra stuff). BLM RDM GEO: Ea slops have one less MBB, 7 more MBBII, same INT, 4 less macc, 6 more MAB. BLU has AF+4 with MBB+10 and Burst Affinity+16, I'm not sure if the lack of MAB on AF+4 is covered by the BurstAffinity+16 bonus though. SCH could make use of these but Emp+2 has better INT MACC MAB MDMG, Jhakri has better INT MAB.
Feet: CP+10 is a lot for most jobs listed. Kayakaus exists though for WHM RDM BRD SCH with the same CP+10 and better stats. But for the remaining jobs, this is a healthy chunk of CP+ available to them.
As far as being used as a TP set, most of these jobs do have alternatives that are better.
Tally:
Head = ***
Body = Potentially useful for melee mage that dont have any other WSD options
Hands: solid FC option for an all-in-one bridge gear.
Legs: ***
Feet: useful for certain jobs that lack CP+ boots.
(WHM / BLM / RDM / BRD / SMN / BLU / SCH / GEO)
The set-autorefresh might not be so good. I only have two pieces so its either 1 MP/tick per piece with a minimum of 2 pieces (1-2-3-4-5), or its 2MP/tick per piece with a minimum of 2 pieces starting at 0 (0-2-4-6-8). I'd lean to the former. 5MP/tick for the full set isnt that great considering whats available in other slots:
Head: SMN has Emp+2 or AF+4 with Ref+3, Rdm has Rel+2 with Ref+2, BLU has Rawhide Mask with Ref+1. WHM BLM BRD GEO have nothing. I left out SCH because they do have Sublimation hats.
Body: Every job has multiple options that range from anywhere between Ref+2 up to Ref+4
Hands: SMN has Asteria, GEO has Rel+2
Legs: WHM BLM BRD SMN SCH GEO all have Assiduity, BLU has Rawhide Legs (augment)
Feet: SMN has Baayami
Most jobs that absolutely rely on MP have better options to hit 6+mp/tick without collecting this set and leaving other slots for better DT options when idle.
ima be real, they giving us pure dogshit lately, new players have a billion other options in gear to work for, the people waiting around months for something more of an upgrade are just sitting around with our *** in our hands in hope, there is nothing being added to bridge the gap for jobs that arent the meta.
Whoever is making the decisions there is definitely doing some ***tier deciding.
These NMs are way more popular than they should be though. Ive seen entire alliances come for the lotto pops.
(it is freeplay week though, so grain of salt)
Tally:
Head = ***
Body = Potentially useful for melee mage that dont have any other WSD options
Hands: solid FC option for an all-in-one bridge gear.
Legs: ***
Feet: useful for certain jobs that lack CP+ boots.
I think it's fair to call the entire set ***. BLU is already going to prioritize body and the rest of the jobs don't really benefit all that much. Head and legs suck, which leaves the hands and feet... which are beaten by escha and SR, take your pick.
It makes sense that everything is *** until it gets reforged.
