More DRG Refinements?!??

SE Released this blurb today...

The impending version update will usher in the second stage of the level cap increase, bringing players' maximum attainable level from 80 to 85!

To provide a fitting challenge to players who achieve these newfound heights of power, we will be adjusting monster level and placement in certain Treasures of Aht Urhgan areas to create daunting new battlegrounds.

A host of new abilities, job traits, and spells will also be added for the newly-unlocked levels. Needless to say, these will be designed to provide players with exciting new possibilities while preserving game balance as they achieve even higher levels in the future.

New Job Abilities

- White Mage: An ability offering increased resistance against status ailments.
- Red Mage: An ability that enhances the potency of enfeebling magic.
- Bard: An ability that prevents songs cast on oneself from being overwritten.
- Beastmaster: A new pet command.
- Dragoon: A new jump.
- Summoner: New blood pacts.
- Corsair: New phantom rolls
- Dancer: A new step.

New Job Traits

- Monk: Skillchain Bonus
- White Mage: Shield Def. Bonus
- Red Mage: Mag. Burst Bonus
- Thief: Dual Wield
- Dark Knight: Crit. Atk. Bonus
- Bard: Fencer
- Ninja: Skillchain Bonus
- Corsair: True Shot
- Puppetmaster: Crit. Def. Bonus

New Spells

- Enhancement spells that increase the attributes of party members
- Magic spells to manage enmity levels
- A song that reduces damage taken by party members
- New ninjutsu
- New blue magic spells

These new abilities will be covered in further detail in future articles, so keep watching this space!

Naturally, the part that stood out to me was:

- Dragoon: A new jump.

After what they did with Spirit Jump in regards to it's shared Jump timer, I'm going to approach this with a bit of trepidation. The picture given doesn't really offer any clues.

It begs the question though...

Does SE really think DRG needs more refinements? As it stands, it's only real weak point is it's inability to control the wyvern the same way a BST, PUP, or SMN would control their pets. It's already one of the more powerful soloing jobs in the game. It's not going to win spike damage awards for zergs, but it's typically going to hold it's own.

The addition of Spirit Link modifications, Spirit Jump's bonus TP and Sekkanoki (from SAM sub) have essentially turned this job into a bit of a WS monster. While that's not unlike most jobs that typically sub SAM now, it's set apart by it's ability to shed hate. Which means the DRG is typically alive longer than anyone else.

The number of JAs a DRG/SAM has is already ridiculous. A quick run down:

Spirit Surge
Call Wyvern
Jump
High Jump
Spirit Jump
Super Jump
Spirit Link
Hasso
Seigan
Third Eye
Meditate
Sekkanoki
Ancient Circle
Warding Circle
Deep Breathing
Angon

That would be 16 JA's worth of timers to keep track of. Not complaining, but rather pointing out DRG is already very flexible and potent. While a WAR has the same number, almost every one of their JA's are oriented towards offense. Same with DRK. Now SE is adding another Jump and I really have no idea what it could be. While I suspect it's going to be something along the lines of Lancer, it really wouldn't surprise me if SE just added a 5th jump that shared the timer with High Jump. If this is the case, then it seems rather obvious what 2 of the "super merits" will be once they introduce them. Spirit Jump and "New" Jump timer reductions.

Adding another offensive Jump JA that gives TP on it's own timer will simply break DRG. Not that I would mind being broken in a good way, it just doesn't mesh with their whole "game balance" schtick.

Other Teaser Thoughts

Red Mage

RDM appears to get the shaft again. Magic Burst Bonus? Do people actually do skillchains anymore? Are RDMs actually used a lot for nuking? What's the point of this if the only time RDMs generally nuke is when they're soloing? Seems like it's just a bone to throw to them.

Add that to the fact that Bard is getting Fencer natively and WHM is getting Shield Def. Bonus natively and it just makes you scratch your head quite a bit at what SE's idea of RDM actually is now. That's not to say RDM isn't a strong job and a lot of other support jobs have caught up with or even surpassed RDM's abilities, but it just seems to me SE really has no idea what role they want this job to fulfill.

RDM has generally been a bit of a jack-of-all-trades. It was basically a SCH before SCH existed in this game. It could bounce back and forth between main healer or nuker with ease and solo (albeit very slowly) things no other job could even sniff. In a number of situations, you could even utilize them to tank.

However, with the enmity adjustments to the spells RDMs most commonly used to hold hate, RDM tanking isn't what it used to be. WHM has apparently become the darling mage to SE and has received god knows how many boosts and adjustments over the past couple years. The addition of SCH pretty much gave RDM a rival in terms of efficiency, but SCH has the ability to AoE buffs, mini-convert and has access to higher tiers of nukes. RDM seems to have just become the Enfeeble King while all the other support jobs around it continually receive boosts or spells (via leveling) that made RDM unique.

Again, it doesn't mean RDM is completely useless. I won't turn my nose up at all to them. Depending what they do with that "Ability that enhances the potency of enfeebling magic" they teased, they could be on their way to making a comeback. As Kaelis pointed out to me earlier, if that new JA allows an enfeeble to exceed the cap, it's game on, but as it stands, he can hit the slow cap on monsters with just one merit in Slow II and the use of gear, so that JA is essentially useless. Couple that with the fact that on most stuff that matters, targets are immune to most enfeebles anyway.

I suspect it's all but inevitable that RDM will eventually get Raise 2 and Cure V, both of which will go a long way towards boosting their main healing efficiency again. There's also the blurb in there about "Enhancement spells that increase the attributes of party members". RDM is the current king of Enhancing Magic from a skill standpoint, so hopefully that means they'll be seeing these spells in their repertoire. There's speculation said spells are going to be Brave and Faith, which would be huge, but if that's the case, those spells sound a lot more SCH-oriented than RDM oriented. Especially when you consider most of RDMs "enhancing magic" is related to self-only spells and SE specifically states "of party members".

Time will tell though...

Thief

Thief getting native Dual-Wield is huge. I believe this means they will become a much larger force in terms of offense. Obviously depends what level of DW they actually get natively, cause if SE just gives them DW1, expect lots of QQing and no change whatsoever to their current habits.

Ninja

This is another job in sore need of attention. It's basically become PUP in terms of usefulness. Actually, it's probably behind PUP in terms of usefulness now. They're getting...JT: Skillchain bonus and "New ninjutsu". Three questions spring to mind:

Who does skillchains anymore?

Is "ninjutsu" singular or plural?

Does SE know no one knows if "ninjutsu" is singular or plural and is just being vague?

I hope they get some of the :San spells they've been needing. Utsusemi: San wouldn't be game breaking given most critters people fight have a wide variety of AoE moves at their disposal. With the -PDT katanas in the Magian Trials and the creation of the Versa set (which does nothing in terms of haste...), it seems SE is starting to pave the way a bit to give NIN the ability to survive a little easier. Tactical Parry was a bit of a step in the right direction and Aisha: Ichi seems like a good way to help extend survivability (if it lands).

I may just be a little biased or looking at this from a glass half-full perspective though...

Give them some Enmity ninjutsu, Utsusemi: San and then watch 'em work SE.

Bard

Just when you think Bards hated SE enough...

Along comes "A song that reduces damage taken by party members".

Will that be potent enough to justify losing march, madrigal or minuet? Guess that depends on what you're fighting. In BRD-swap situations, I can see one minuet or a madrigal being given up to have this song placed on. Einherjar comes to mind against foes like King Behemoth. Zergs against guys like Briareus might find this song very useful too. This is definitely something worth watching and testing.

Bard getting the Fencer job trait seems kind of pointless. I don't know of many Bards that actually go out and solo. However, given that Bard has access to a ton of good WS gear, maybe this is a good way for them to blow off some steam over having to change to bard in the first place. Not that they have any real good ratings in weapons aside from the B- in Dagger...

Lolmeleebrd...

Dark Knight

Getting the job trait "Crit. Atk. Bonus". Really? DRKs needed this? Ok...thanks I guess?

(Note to self: Pray third eye isn't a bitch).

Enmity Spell

So which job(s) is getting that? When they say manage, do they mean multiple spells? One that increases enmity and one that decreases it? How much fun could I have by casting a spell that increases enmity on someone? >:D

Obviously, that's only if that spell can be cast on other people. I doubt it's going to be related to Ninjutsu since SE went out of their way to give that it's own blurb. But...

...what if it's a level 42(?) RDM spell? Does this make PLD/RDM much more viable as a tank? Hell, does that put NIN/RDM back in the tank discussion? Speculative at this point, yes, but rather fun to think about.

Conclusion

Nothing real exciting here for now. I would imagine once more details emerge, we'll know just how much of an impact these changes will have. Jury's going to stay out on the new jump for DRG until I actually see a better description of it as well as a lot of the other stuff here.

One thing for certain though: Massive RDM and NIN QQ'ing will be coming.