/panic motion

A host of job adjustments and additions are in the pipes for the upcoming version update, including formidable new abilities for ninjas. Other jobs, too, are scheduled to benefit from myriad adjustments to magic and abilities. In this, the first part in the job adjustment series of articles, we cast the spotlight on ninjas, Vana’diel’s agents of stealth and deception.

New Job Abilities

Accomplished in both offense and defense, the art of ninjutsu has over the years proven to be a favorite among adventurers across the land. Now, with the addition of the following two new abilities, ninjas can further enhance either their efficiency in offense or aptitude in defense as befits the situation.

- Yonin (Lv.40 Ability Delay: 5 min. Duration: 5 min.)
Increases enmity and enhances “ninja tool expertise” effect, but impairs accuracy. Grants a bonus to evasion and critical hit rate when in front of target.

- Innin (Lv.40 Ability Delay: 5 min. Duration: 5 min.)
Reduces enmity and impairs evasion. Grants a bonus to accuracy, critical hit rate, and ninjutsu damage when striking target from behind.

- Yonin
Strengthens one’s ability to fend off blows from the enemy.
While in effect, Yonin increases enmity and enhances the effect of “ninja tool expertise” in exchange for reduced accuracy. Further bonuses are granted to evasion and critical hit rate when engaging your target from the front.
The potency of the above effects gradually decreases over time.

- Innin
Strengthens one’s ability to deal damage to the enemy.
While in effect, Innin lowers enmity in exchange for reduced evasion. Further bonuses are granted to accuracy, critical hit rate, and ninjutsu damage when striking your target from behind.
As with Yonin, the potency of the above effects gradually decreases over time.

*Notes
The effects of both Yonin and Innin are mutually exclusive. Activating one while the other is in effect will result in the nullification of the one originally in effect.
Yonin and Innin have a shared ability delay. For example, a ninja who uses Yonin must wait for five minutes to elapse before either ability becomes usable again.

In implementing these new abilities, the development team has taken into consideration character positioning during party play and many other factors. To ensure a smooth gaming experience for all, testing and adjustments will be carried out to the fullest extent that time permits.

Mijin Gakure

Up until now, ninjas who were revived after using the job ability “Mijin Gakure” would find themselves alive and standing, but in a weakened state. The July version update will see self-sacrificing ninjas restored to battle-ready fitness with a generous 50% of HP in the tank.

In light of the above changes, the latent effect granted by the ninja mythic weapon will also be adjusted. In place of the effect whereby users of Mijin Gakure are spared being revived in a weakened state, a special new effect will be introduced that will activate after using Mijin Gakure.

Other magic and job abilities scheduled to be on the receiving end of improvements will be introduced in the very near future, so stay tuned!

Good morning everyone. We’ve got a lot of stuff to go over today, so we’re going to cut right to the heart of things… or is that stab? I don’t know, long as it’s from behind I guess it doesn’t matter either way does it?

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First off, if you follow me on Twitter I’m sure you know by now, but my Thief finally dinged 75 last night. Thanks to a few generous experience parties, along with a copious amount of campaigning, I’m finally in possession of my 5th level 75 job. Frankly speaking, this has been one of the most fun jobs to level in a long time. Maybe it’s just because it’s a break from all the mage oriented jobs that I’ve done in the past. Or maybe it’s just downright fun to stab something in the back for massive damage. Either way, it’s been one hell of a fun ride for 75.

Now that I’ve gotten 75 Thief, what have I learned from the experience? Here are a few little tips I can give to the aspiring thieves out there that may want to take up the ways of the cloak & dagger:

1) Hide: Honestly, I don’t see why Thieves don’t use this potent tool more often. First off, hide is the perfect “get out of jail free” card when it comes to dealing with sight agro mobs. Get into a bad spot against a couple Yagudo? Just pop hide and run like hell, and you live to fight another day. Second, hide lets you setup Sneak Attack from any position, not just from behind. Want to really cement hate on the tank? Sneak attack, trick attack, hide, and then weapon skill will do the trick.

2) Accomplice & Collaborator: Remember my fellow Rouges, you may not be a tank yourself, but it is part of your job to make sure the tank can do his. Got friends who like to get over-aggressive? Pop one of those two abilities you have and give your tank a chance to get control back. If the tank’s in trouble, hell, steal some hate for a bit and give him the chance to recover. Remember, you’ve got the best evasion in the game, and most likely shadows to back it up, use it!

3) Marksmanship & Evasion: I know, it’s a complete pain in the ass to level, but trust me it is worth it in the long run. You’ll want to focus on these especially if you’re planning on soloing, because they will save your ass time and time again.

4) Pet Peeves: Now I’m not sure if this applies so much to other races, but if you’re a tank, don’t stand back 4 feet away from the mob where we little folk can’t even reach, let alone trick attack you. Please move up a bit and make us all happy. Also, tanks who decide to play dance dance revolution while tanking. I don’t want to see your hottest moves! I want you to hold still while I do my job! I can’t begin to count how many trick attacks I’ve missed because of either of these scenarios. =(

So, now that we’ve reached the gold standard, what now? For the time being I’m going to hit the merit parties hard and finish off some long overdue merits. Need to least cap dagger and evasion merits, and then start working on the Thief specific merits, especially feint & triple attack rate. After that, we’ll see what’s needed within the LS from that point.

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Meanwhile, thievery isn’t the only thing going on in the realm of Vana’diel. Thursday night, Cloak & Dagger finally got back to the business of ripping Proto-Ultima a structurally superfluous new behind. Despite having a good amount of new folks in the shell, we executed the fight flawlessly. Even without me on Black Mage, not one dissipation got off during the whole fight & we pretty much ran the table and downed the Temenos boss in just over 30 minutes. Would have been less, but PU decided to have a fire sale on physical shields.

Drop wise, got ourselves a new pair of Nashira Gages for Traviswho, and a pair of Nashira Crackows for Krilton. A huge round of congratulations to everyone for the awesome victory!

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Dynamis wise, we ran through San d’Oria Saturday night. Really was more of a farming run than anything else since we all had the win. Relic drops kinda sucked with only 2x Monk Gloves and Scholar Gloves dropping. No luck with Red Mage dropping, and only having called Scholar as my sub lot I didn’t get them, but it’s still one step closer. Money wise however we finally hit pay dirt with a pair of silverpieces dropping. After glass cost and all, we’re looking around 3 million split amongst 13 people. Pretty good payday if you ask me. =D

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That’s about everything for this week. Though I do have a couple final announcements to make as well. First off, since the new job I’ll be working has me working mornings, me attending our late night Limbus is going to take a hit. While I’m still going to try to make runs when I can, I can’t 100% promise that I can be there night in and night out. I’m confident though that the LS will continue to thrive even if I’m not always there. Also, working mornings does free up a bit more time for me for other events, so I’m going to be looking to expand to some additional in-game events. We’ll see how that goes in the upcoming days and weeks to come.

Until next time everyone, stay safe out there, and as always…

You stay classy Vana’diel!

Alrighty, so I’ve been looking over the teaser site for the upcoming mini-expansion, in particular the new head pieces. Once again, we’ve got a virtual plethora of choices to make amongst the various augments available. As a career Black Mage, I have to take a close look at all the possible outcomes and see if it’s going to be a viable choice to add to the collection.

To begin with, we’ve got the base piece itself. The Selenian Cap comes with MP +20 and Conserve MP +3, a stat that is rarely seen on a headpiece. As with the body from ACP, the head also allows you to pick from 2 different augments.

When it comes to selecting gear for my jobs, I look at a few factors beforehand. First, does the item fill a specialized roll or can it be used for more than one setup? I look for flexibility whenever possible in selecting gear. Items like Goliard Chapeau, which sees use in both my stoneskin and resting sets are a good example. If an item fills a specialized or singular purpose, it really needs to be superior to any other piece that can be used for it. Second, can the item be used across multiple jobs? When you start getting to 3 or more jobs worth of gear, you really need to be picky about what’s going to take up precious inventory space.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at a few of the infinite possibilities

Nuking Gear: Currently my setup swaps between either Sorcerer’s Petasos for high resist mobs & Wizard’s Petasos +1 for more squishy opponents. For high resist mobs, even with both magic accuracy augments your still giving up at least 5 elemental magic skill overall, not to mention the enmity reduction that goes with it. No good on the high resist portion of my setup.

For the more squishy variety mobs, there are a couple good choices for augments. Here we can choose from the following:

- INT +4, Magic Accuracy +2
- Magic Accuracy +3, MP recovered while healing +3
- Magic Atk. Bonus +2, HP recovered while healing +3
- Magic Crit. Hit Rate +10%, Enmity -4

When you look at what’s available, you can see why the choices are so tough to make at times. Do you go for the full on accuracy and reap the benefits of the MP recovery while healing? Or do you go full blaster mode and hit the magic attack/magic critical route? Given what we have here, and what we already have at our disposal, either path is very tempting.

Enfeebling & Dark Magic Gear: Right now I’m using Nashira Turban for enfeebling spells as well as dark magic (+5 magic accuracy, -5 enmity, -10% spell interruption rate, and +2% haste). With both magic accuracy augments from above, you’d have an INT +4, Magic Accuracy +5, MP recovered while healing +3, Conserve MP +3, and MP +20 piece. Add to the fact you’d have a piece that’s usable across multiple jobs such as Red Mage, Scholar, and Bard, you’ve got one very viable choice. Also, the +3 MP recovered while healing is practically unmatched.

Elemental Debuff: As before, another piece where the cap would make a great addition. Since I already have the required INT to max out debuffs, the loss of 1 point of INT and the enmity of the Wizard’s Petasos +1 isn’t a huge sacrifice to make.

Stoneskin: No particular use here, I’ll stick with Goliard Chapeau for this.

Resting: For Black Mage, MP recovered while healing +3 is unmatched by any item currently available in the game. The only other piece that matches it is the Mirror Tiara which is Red Mage & Bard specific. Another win-win scenario for the Cap.

The final result, Kimi’s going to have a nice little Selenian Cap filled with magic accuracy & more in the not too distant future. And yes, it also looks half-decent on a Taru as well. =D