Level Cap Update Information, Discussion.

As previously announced at VanaFest 2010, the impending version update will usher in the first stage of the long-awaited level cap increase! What factors led to this monumental decision? What implications will it have for adventurers? Today, we would like to take the opportunity to address pressing questions and concerns about the latest major evolution to hit Vana'diel.

Q: What inspired the decision to increase the level cap?

A: With the cap set at level 75 for quite some time now, a wide variety of monsters, equipment, and game content has been introduced over the years for players who had reached this limit. With such content having been fleshed out to the development team's satisfaction, it was deemed that the time was right to usher in the sort of new challenges that could only come with the ability to achieve higher levels.

Q: What changes can we expect to see after the cap is lifted?

A: Beginning with the upcoming version update, the level cap will be gradually increased to an eventual maximum of 99, with new job abilities, magic spells, weapon skills, and equipment to be made available at these higher levels. These additions, as well as refinements to existing abilities and spells, will focus on preserving and strengthening the unique roles that each main job serves, while increasing the tactical options available to each support job. Needless to say, new game content will also be introduced that will demand every onz of adventurers' newfound might.



Q: What specific changes will be implemented in the coming version update?

A: The level cap will be raised to 80, and new abilities, magic, weapon skills and equipment for players up to this level will be added. Level restrictions placed on certain areas will also be removed, creating additional high-level battlegrounds for players to explore. The level cap increase will also result in a number of existing skills becoming newly available to support jobs, with a few exceptions and adjustments to preserve balance and ensure that main jobs do not see their thunder stolen.

Unusable by Support Jobs
- The white magic job abilities "Afflatus: Misery" and "Afflatus: Solace", and the ninja job abilities Yonin and Innin will not be available to support jobs.
Usable by Support Jobs, with Altered Effects
- The ranger job ability Shadowbind will be subject to an accuracy check, with a miss generating no effect.
- The scholar job abilities Accession and Manifestation will triple (rather than double) recast time for the spells used.

No yonin/inin. Not lv'ing nin sub any further until it comes to the point where I actually lose stats (which I should be fine from 38 rather than 40). Maybe next update.

Stun-ga for drk is a pretty nice addition seriously...

I like the "triple mp cost" over double on /sch accession honestly, because it still gives sch some clout in exp parties...no mention of any nerf to reverse flourish on /dnc yet (I think thats 40) and no mention of if Sekkanoki is being lowered to 40 yet...

Can't wait to convert on sch/rdm lol

Interesting to see the mini nerf to /sch. I like it, it doesn't take the use away from the main job, but still makes /sch a viable situational sub.

I wonder. Does that mean Convert will remain a 1:1 ratio? Then again, this is SE. "Release a little at a time." Lol

Reverse flourish is already nerfed. You hardly gain any tp for your work. You only get 1 finishing move on /dnc, so to get 60 tp, you need to spend 50. I guess you get some free enfeebles and 10 tp >.>

well basically reverse is gonna let you "Store TP" in a way, to SC much easier when soloing on /dnc I guess (atleast thats the way I saw /dnc reverse flourish working out)

See I was discussing this with a friend, as a tp tool it's not great... but just for general playing if you're hitting steps on the mob just to simply enfeeble it, it's nice to have the TP return as an added bonus.

I see it as an added bonus to steps, rather than the entire reason to step.

Actually, I take it back. You actually lose TP, not gain TP on /dnc w/ reverse flourish. yea good for self SC I suppose, but less WS' over all. You gain 10 tp from 5 finishing moves than what you expended, but you get JA delay of 2 seconds for each of the 5 steps and you get more than 10 tp in that melee hit you didn't do due to your new delay

whm/sch Hastega might actually happen now, kickass. And lol at innin/yonin, thats lame.

Yeah, it will definitely be interesting. Triple recast doesn't mean much if you can hit your whole party with the spell. ^^
I think Rdm/sch will be a very popular combo in meriting/exping now.

All i know is i gotta get sch to 40 and jump on BLM80/SCH40 and try and manifest a Thundaga III to do THUNDAGAGA!!! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!

I wonder if /cor will have appeal now due to evoker's roll and QD being available to some mages.

I could actually see BRD/COR in a mage party being an incredibly potent force. even w/o a Gjallahorn.

Lady ThundaGAGA? lol ok i know that was lame and corny....also they didn't specific if refresh/haste were exemptions to accession or not (though they didn't say Raise was either and that most certainly is....)

A shame they won't be able to enhance their own debuffs since the instrument will take place over ranged weapons of any kind. But now we have dual refresh tools ^^

Unless rdm gets haste 2 otw to 80, I can see sch being the mage of choice for most events due to hastega and more stratagems to use other AOE effects like en spells.

Seeing as /sch you're still going to only have 2 stratagems @ 99, sch has just gained a whole more utility.

But if all goes well for rdm, they will have refresh-ga...

Refresh is 41, so we have a while to wait on seeing if that will be available for use with rdm sub. Haste will only be available this update with whm sub. I'm sure it will be usable, but the effect probably won't last as long. it will probably be about as effective as garuda haste, but hey, when you;re a job that is subbing whm for solo ( especially drg!) haste is haste is haste, and we love it ^^.

Refresh II (|Can I have it?|)
D:
In any case, this is a huge change and, if anything, I think it will be fun to experiment with all the new viable combinations.

why on earth would the spell itself be dumbed down for a sub? I mean some JAs ya...but what spell is actually less potent on a sub that you know of? I don't know of any myself so plz enlighten me (only mage i have to 75 is sch)

Yonin/Innin and Afflatus isn't exactly news. Nice to finally see it confirmed outside of the Vanafest video, though.

I didn't think Shadowbind would be so broken that it would warrant nerfing, but I don't have any serious complaints. I imagine it will use ranged accuracy to calculate the accuracy check, so it really just practically limits it to certain main jobs. That's fine by me.

As for the /SCH info... It only says triple recast penalty for Accession and Manifestation, nothing about triple MP penalty (not that I'd put it past them). That said, for accession this isn't too much of an issue. I have a 12 second recast on Haste; a 36 second recast for Accession Haste seems like a good deal to me, especially with a three minute duration.

On the other hand, RDM/SCH isn't going to offer much utility in the way of Manifestation. I was hoping that we'd still be able to switch over and cover *** with some Manifestation Sleep and Sleep II, but it's looking like that isn't really going to be worth the abusive recast penalty.

As far as SCH overtaking RDM as the sub of choice? I doubt it. Square Enix has already talked about a more potent refresh. I expect that we'll see RDM get a 5MP/tick Refresh II and BRD get a 3MP/tick Ballad III (Ballad III + Ballad II maintaining parity with Refresh II). Haste II is possible, but I doubt it.

All in all, nothing too shocking. Carry on.

refreshga..... <3

I'm actually interested in what they're going to do with h2h. If the formula goes as is now, mnk is going to become even moreso of a heavy hitter than it is now.

For those of you who did not know,



Do not have the same damage rating.

You'll note how destroyers say DMG+18 and the dagger just says DMG 18

This is because you have DMG w/ bare fists and the DMG+ from a h2h weapon adds onto that.

Your base DMG that the 18 gets added to is based directly on your h2h skill. ((h2h skill x .11)+3)round down. When the skill caps raise, mnk is going to get even more base damage before looking at the weapon.

My earlier thought at a solution would be to lower the DMG+ on h2h weapons growth as compared to other weapons, but looking at magian trails, it doesn't seem that is the intention (as Spharai can get DMG+6, which is right up there with the other weapons).

Another thought is they could change how h2h base DMG is calculated, but this would be really HELP I AM TRAPPED IN 2006 PLEASE SEND A TIME MACHINE. Anyone 75 or lower would be penalized because if they change it to match what we have now at 75 or slow the growth of the pattern we already have, we're gonna be weakened for 75 and below. Basically, here, if they go this route, we get weakened and as we approach lv 80 we gain back the DMG we already had before the update, but lost.

you can combat a major portion of your recast penalty by just doubling up your stratagems though... manifestion + alacrity should take a vast majority of the penalty off while still giving you 1/2 cast time

Accession and Celerity could easily make up for it as well. Though, the only down side, there go your 2 Strat. Charges as /SCH. Oh well, still very nice to have.

Veg, check your PMs when you get a minute.

Pretty sure you need to have a gun equipped to u, but since quickdraw cor can't use any xbows or bows, we'll have to see when the update hits, but I doubt it being able to be done without the gun.

Also, refreshga will be *** boss in a party of rune chopper war/sams

Bummer, was gonna say RDM has significantly more solo capacity if they let em use a bow with QD. But yeah, we'll have to see.

I got part 2, never got a part 1