Scholar and Dancer Info from the Fanfest
- Thread starter Nekio
- Start date
Fayevalentine
Bebop Passenger
Interesting
Ehon
(Z_z)
Both jobs... are this odd combination of corsair, bard, red mage, and, now with this information, damage.
From the SquareEnix development room:
"Hey, what should we make the new jobs be able to do?"
"Dunno"
"Oh, let's just let them kinda do everything, but not real well.. but well enough people will play them... but not well enough that not everyone will play them.."
"Yeah, that sounds great... Galka in ballarina footies and Tarutarus with books twice their size"
From the SquareEnix development room:
"Hey, what should we make the new jobs be able to do?"
"Dunno"
"Oh, let's just let them kinda do everything, but not real well.. but well enough people will play them... but not well enough that not everyone will play them.."
"Yeah, that sounds great... Galka in ballarina footies and Tarutarus with books twice their size"
Haha:bfg:
Magos
Shantotto Fanboy
http://www.1up.com/do/previewPage?pager.offset=0&cId=3164429
And for the lulz....
It's time to go back to Vana'diel, people. Reactivate those accounts, level your subs, whatever. Ending nearly a year's worth of suspense and anticipation, 1UP got the world's first hands-on play session with Square Enix's latest Final Fantasy XI expansion, Wings of the Goddess, at their 2007 Fan Festival in Anaheim, California (home to, among other things, Disneyland)last night. The expansion, which ships next Tuesday (although servers don't go live until Wednesday, so calm yourselves), features a slew of new balance adjustments to many of the existing job classes, while adding two new support-class jobs: Scholar (abbreviation: SCH) and Dancer (abbreviation: DNC). While various announcements regarding Scholar and Dancer have been made on Square Enix's PlayOnline website, the full rundown of their job abilities have never been made public, until now.
Time to hit the books. Scholar revealed!
Let's discuss Scholar first. An interesting combination of both White Mage and Black Mage abilities, and quite different than the Red Mage (to newcomers, a Red Mage is often viewed as a hybrid of WHM and BLM, with its own unique abilities and spells), the Scholar is able to switch -- on the fly -- between the two disciplines, enhancing the abilities of the main discipline at the expense of the effectiveness of the other. This won't likely be an issue, since you can switch between Light Arts and Dark Arts at will (the names of the two disciplines) depending on what spells you need to cast, but this is better explained by breaking down each ability.
Tabula Rasa -- This is the Scholar's 2-hour move, and is coincidentally named the same as Richard Garriot's latest MMO for NCSoft. Tabula Rasa optimizes both white and black magic capabilities, while allowing charge-free stratagem use.
Light Arts -- Switching to this Scholarly discipline enhances divine magic, enhancing magic, and healing magic spells.
Dark Arts -- Switching to this Scholarly discipline enhances enfeebling, elemental, and dark magic spells.
Stratagems -- These are methods of improving the efficiency and effectiveness of magic. Like the two Arts, there are two types of Stratagems, as expected, Light and Dark. Within the Dark Stratagems menu lies four job abilities. We'll list what each one does. The Light Stratagems were not unlocked on our character, so we cannot reveal what they are at this time.
* Dark Stratagem -- Parsimony: Reduces the MP cost of the next BLM spell to 50%. So basically it's a user-activated Conserve MP move.
* Dark Stratagem -- Alacrity: Reduces the casting time of the next BLM spell to 50%. This is less like a Fast Cast and more like a Ranger's Rapid Shot, proportionate of course to the original casting time of the BLM spell used. But where this might come in especially handy is in emergency situations where Escape is needed, or in casting a nuke with a long cast time. Since it's unclear whether Scholars can wield any ancient magic (Freeze, Quake, etc.) this may not be a super-huge factor, but can be handy nonetheless.
* Dark Stratagem -- Ebullience: Enhances the potency of the next BLM spell cast. This is essentially Elemental Seal renamed for Scholars, although it's unclear whether a SCH/BLM could stack Ebullience and Elemental Seal for a major nuke of enfeeble (it's unlikely). Applicable to enfeebling, elemental, and dark magic, this will be a very useful ability to have around.
* Dark Stratagem -- Manifestation: This ability is particularly interesting as the official description states "Extends the effect of the next BLM spell at an MP cost three times the normal cost, and a cast time of twice the normal length." By extend it means it turns the next BLM spell into an area-of-effect "ga" spell. This provides further suggestion that ancient magic spells are not among those available to Scholars, as a Freeze-ga II spell would put BLMs (and most HNMs) out of business.
The development team told us that Scholar was also designed to be a very effective support job, and since the job will also receive its own unique spells, we'd expect a significant spell or job trait to kick in around level 35-37 if it's to be used as a support ability. Other tidbits about the Scholar is that the one we played was using a staff, but does not have any special proficiency with the weapon, meaning there are no weaponskills unique to Scholars (nor are there any quested weapon skills exclusive to Scholars).
Dirty dancing? Dancing in the dark? Private dancer? You decide.
The Dancer was designed -- and this comes from the mouths of the job class director, Mitsutoshi Gondai -- to be a front-line healer. Anyone who would debate this probably hasn't heard that the gross majority of the Dancer's moves require TP, but not as much as you probably thought. If you didn't know, you might have thought that for every major spell a Dancer uses in its support role, a 100% TP (or more) might be needed. That's not the case. Some moves (usually Tier I versions of DNC spells) require as little as 10TP to activate, while more powerful versions of these moves (like a Bard's II, III, IV songs) require greater amounts of TP. Some moves, though, don't cost any TP whatsoever, making them free. But Dancer abilities are organized by styles, like Sambas, Waltzes, Jigs and Steps, each with their own inherent abilities, like a Red Mage's spells, which are grouped into enhancing magic, enfeebling magic, etc. Let's take a look at what makes Dancers so fleet of foot.
Trance -- This is the Dancer's 2-hour move, and lowers the TP cost of dances, and reduces the number of 'steps' needed to zero.
Sambas -- These dances imbue melee attacks with special enhancements. Here we will list the Samba moves and their effects.
* Drain Samba: (TP cost, 10) Casts Drain Daze on the enemy. All party members engaged in battle drains the enemy's HP. Drain Samba II costs 25TP.
* Aspir Samba: (TP cost, 10) Casts Aspir Daze on the enemy. All party members engaged in battle drains the enemy's MP. Aspir Samba II costs 25TP.
* Haste Samba: (TP cost, 35) Casts Haste Daze on the enemy. All party members engaged in battle gain Haste. There is not tier II version of this spell.
Waltzes -- These dance moves cute and remove ailments from party members. Here we will list the Waltz moves and their effects.
* Curing Waltz: (TP cost, 20) Restore a party member's HP. Curing Waltz II costs 35TP. Curing Waltz III costs 50TP.
* Healing Waltz: (TP cost, 20) Removes one magic-induced ailment from a party member. This is most similar to the White Mage spell, Erase, but since it's specific to a 'magic-induced ailment,' probably won't remove physically-inflicted enfeebles, like Slow. There is no tier II version of this dance.
* Divine Waltz: (TP cost, 40) This Waltz heals party members HP, essentially a Curaga spell. It is unknown how much enmity using any of these curative oves generates.
Jigs -- These dances enhances your own abilities. Here we will list the Jigs dances and their effects.
* Spectral Jig: (TP cost, 0) Allows you to evade detection by enemies that detect by either sight or sound. Essentially this casts both Sneak and Invisible on yourself, at zero MP or TP cost. Unlikely to be effective in avoiding detection by mobs with True Sight, however.
* Chocobo Jig: (TP cost, 0) Increases the Dancer's movement speed (as in running, not attacking). When questioned about the actual speed increase, Mitsutoshi Gondai informed us that Chocobo Jig has the same speed effect (on the player alone) as Chocobo Mazurka, and not Raptor Mazurka as we originally suspected.
Steps -- These dances enfeeble enemies while granting access to 'finishing moves.' Here we will list the Steps and their effects.
* Quickstep: (TP cost, 10) Lowers target's evasion. If successful, you will earn a finishing move.
* Box Step: (TP cost, 10) Lowers target's defense. If successful, you will earn a finishing move.
* Stutter Step: (TP cost, 10) Lower target's magic resistance. If successful, you will earn a finishing move.
Flourishes -- There are two tiers to the Flourish category. These are powerful dance steps that can only be used after earning 'finishing moves,' which are basically function -- on a small scale -- like TP. You connect with a particular dance move, you earn a finishing move. Spend your finishing moves on Flourishes. Here we will list the various tier I Flourishes and their effects.
* Animated Flourish: Provokes the target. Requires at least one finishing move.
* Desperate Flourish: Weighs down a target with a low success rate. Requires at least one finishing move.
* Violent Flourish: Stuns the target. Requires at least one finishing move.
Flourish II -- Here we will list the various tier II Flourishes and their effects.
* Reverse Flourish: Converts remaining moves into TP. Requires at least one finishing move.
* Building Flourish: Enhances the potency of the next weapon skill. Requires at least one finishing move.
* Wild Flourish: Readies the target for a skillchain. Requires at least two finishing move. How this flourish 'readies' the target is unknown, but could mean many things, like it stuns the target to prevent it from moving, binds it, lowers its elemental resistance, adds a non-DOT Dia effect, lowering its defense (although that is achieved already via two separate 'steps').
The Dancer's weapon proficiency lies with the dagger, which is appropriate since these weapons have the lowest delay, making for relatively quick TP build-up, especially if a Ninja sub isn't used (in favor of, say, a White Mage sub). As the Dancer's moves don't use any MP to cast -- by design -- the dev team sees this as a solution to the number of dwindling healers, since a good majority of the players out there have by now leveled WHM to at least 37 for support job purposes. Now low-level parties in the Valkurm Dunes (or in the Wings of the Goddess expansion) that can't find a WHM can just invite a Dancer, who will change the dynamic of leveling parties significantly. Instead of the usual melee up front while the WHM lingers in the back setup, now a party of six damage dealers can all be fighting at once, Dancer right in the thick of things, keeping Curaga-like moves activating when necessary.
Time to hit the books. Scholar revealed!
Let's discuss Scholar first. An interesting combination of both White Mage and Black Mage abilities, and quite different than the Red Mage (to newcomers, a Red Mage is often viewed as a hybrid of WHM and BLM, with its own unique abilities and spells), the Scholar is able to switch -- on the fly -- between the two disciplines, enhancing the abilities of the main discipline at the expense of the effectiveness of the other. This won't likely be an issue, since you can switch between Light Arts and Dark Arts at will (the names of the two disciplines) depending on what spells you need to cast, but this is better explained by breaking down each ability.
Tabula Rasa -- This is the Scholar's 2-hour move, and is coincidentally named the same as Richard Garriot's latest MMO for NCSoft. Tabula Rasa optimizes both white and black magic capabilities, while allowing charge-free stratagem use.
Light Arts -- Switching to this Scholarly discipline enhances divine magic, enhancing magic, and healing magic spells.
Dark Arts -- Switching to this Scholarly discipline enhances enfeebling, elemental, and dark magic spells.
Stratagems -- These are methods of improving the efficiency and effectiveness of magic. Like the two Arts, there are two types of Stratagems, as expected, Light and Dark. Within the Dark Stratagems menu lies four job abilities. We'll list what each one does. The Light Stratagems were not unlocked on our character, so we cannot reveal what they are at this time.
* Dark Stratagem -- Parsimony: Reduces the MP cost of the next BLM spell to 50%. So basically it's a user-activated Conserve MP move.
* Dark Stratagem -- Alacrity: Reduces the casting time of the next BLM spell to 50%. This is less like a Fast Cast and more like a Ranger's Rapid Shot, proportionate of course to the original casting time of the BLM spell used. But where this might come in especially handy is in emergency situations where Escape is needed, or in casting a nuke with a long cast time. Since it's unclear whether Scholars can wield any ancient magic (Freeze, Quake, etc.) this may not be a super-huge factor, but can be handy nonetheless.
* Dark Stratagem -- Ebullience: Enhances the potency of the next BLM spell cast. This is essentially Elemental Seal renamed for Scholars, although it's unclear whether a SCH/BLM could stack Ebullience and Elemental Seal for a major nuke of enfeeble (it's unlikely). Applicable to enfeebling, elemental, and dark magic, this will be a very useful ability to have around.
* Dark Stratagem -- Manifestation: This ability is particularly interesting as the official description states "Extends the effect of the next BLM spell at an MP cost three times the normal cost, and a cast time of twice the normal length." By extend it means it turns the next BLM spell into an area-of-effect "ga" spell. This provides further suggestion that ancient magic spells are not among those available to Scholars, as a Freeze-ga II spell would put BLMs (and most HNMs) out of business.
The development team told us that Scholar was also designed to be a very effective support job, and since the job will also receive its own unique spells, we'd expect a significant spell or job trait to kick in around level 35-37 if it's to be used as a support ability. Other tidbits about the Scholar is that the one we played was using a staff, but does not have any special proficiency with the weapon, meaning there are no weaponskills unique to Scholars (nor are there any quested weapon skills exclusive to Scholars).
Dirty dancing? Dancing in the dark? Private dancer? You decide.
The Dancer was designed -- and this comes from the mouths of the job class director, Mitsutoshi Gondai -- to be a front-line healer. Anyone who would debate this probably hasn't heard that the gross majority of the Dancer's moves require TP, but not as much as you probably thought. If you didn't know, you might have thought that for every major spell a Dancer uses in its support role, a 100% TP (or more) might be needed. That's not the case. Some moves (usually Tier I versions of DNC spells) require as little as 10TP to activate, while more powerful versions of these moves (like a Bard's II, III, IV songs) require greater amounts of TP. Some moves, though, don't cost any TP whatsoever, making them free. But Dancer abilities are organized by styles, like Sambas, Waltzes, Jigs and Steps, each with their own inherent abilities, like a Red Mage's spells, which are grouped into enhancing magic, enfeebling magic, etc. Let's take a look at what makes Dancers so fleet of foot.
Trance -- This is the Dancer's 2-hour move, and lowers the TP cost of dances, and reduces the number of 'steps' needed to zero.
Sambas -- These dances imbue melee attacks with special enhancements. Here we will list the Samba moves and their effects.
* Drain Samba: (TP cost, 10) Casts Drain Daze on the enemy. All party members engaged in battle drains the enemy's HP. Drain Samba II costs 25TP.
* Aspir Samba: (TP cost, 10) Casts Aspir Daze on the enemy. All party members engaged in battle drains the enemy's MP. Aspir Samba II costs 25TP.
* Haste Samba: (TP cost, 35) Casts Haste Daze on the enemy. All party members engaged in battle gain Haste. There is not tier II version of this spell.
Waltzes -- These dance moves cute and remove ailments from party members. Here we will list the Waltz moves and their effects.
* Curing Waltz: (TP cost, 20) Restore a party member's HP. Curing Waltz II costs 35TP. Curing Waltz III costs 50TP.
* Healing Waltz: (TP cost, 20) Removes one magic-induced ailment from a party member. This is most similar to the White Mage spell, Erase, but since it's specific to a 'magic-induced ailment,' probably won't remove physically-inflicted enfeebles, like Slow. There is no tier II version of this dance.
* Divine Waltz: (TP cost, 40) This Waltz heals party members HP, essentially a Curaga spell. It is unknown how much enmity using any of these curative oves generates.
Jigs -- These dances enhances your own abilities. Here we will list the Jigs dances and their effects.
* Spectral Jig: (TP cost, 0) Allows you to evade detection by enemies that detect by either sight or sound. Essentially this casts both Sneak and Invisible on yourself, at zero MP or TP cost. Unlikely to be effective in avoiding detection by mobs with True Sight, however.
* Chocobo Jig: (TP cost, 0) Increases the Dancer's movement speed (as in running, not attacking). When questioned about the actual speed increase, Mitsutoshi Gondai informed us that Chocobo Jig has the same speed effect (on the player alone) as Chocobo Mazurka, and not Raptor Mazurka as we originally suspected.
Steps -- These dances enfeeble enemies while granting access to 'finishing moves.' Here we will list the Steps and their effects.
* Quickstep: (TP cost, 10) Lowers target's evasion. If successful, you will earn a finishing move.
* Box Step: (TP cost, 10) Lowers target's defense. If successful, you will earn a finishing move.
* Stutter Step: (TP cost, 10) Lower target's magic resistance. If successful, you will earn a finishing move.
Flourishes -- There are two tiers to the Flourish category. These are powerful dance steps that can only be used after earning 'finishing moves,' which are basically function -- on a small scale -- like TP. You connect with a particular dance move, you earn a finishing move. Spend your finishing moves on Flourishes. Here we will list the various tier I Flourishes and their effects.
* Animated Flourish: Provokes the target. Requires at least one finishing move.
* Desperate Flourish: Weighs down a target with a low success rate. Requires at least one finishing move.
* Violent Flourish: Stuns the target. Requires at least one finishing move.
Flourish II -- Here we will list the various tier II Flourishes and their effects.
* Reverse Flourish: Converts remaining moves into TP. Requires at least one finishing move.
* Building Flourish: Enhances the potency of the next weapon skill. Requires at least one finishing move.
* Wild Flourish: Readies the target for a skillchain. Requires at least two finishing move. How this flourish 'readies' the target is unknown, but could mean many things, like it stuns the target to prevent it from moving, binds it, lowers its elemental resistance, adds a non-DOT Dia effect, lowering its defense (although that is achieved already via two separate 'steps').
The Dancer's weapon proficiency lies with the dagger, which is appropriate since these weapons have the lowest delay, making for relatively quick TP build-up, especially if a Ninja sub isn't used (in favor of, say, a White Mage sub). As the Dancer's moves don't use any MP to cast -- by design -- the dev team sees this as a solution to the number of dwindling healers, since a good majority of the players out there have by now leveled WHM to at least 37 for support job purposes. Now low-level parties in the Valkurm Dunes (or in the Wings of the Goddess expansion) that can't find a WHM can just invite a Dancer, who will change the dynamic of leveling parties significantly. Instead of the usual melee up front while the WHM lingers in the back setup, now a party of six damage dealers can all be fighting at once, Dancer right in the thick of things, keeping Curaga-like moves activating when necessary.
1UP: One of the big concerns in the FFXI community -- and I don't know if you plan to announce anything to this effect -- but it's nice to have all these support jobs, but what we really are beginning to run out of are tanks. Sure you can make do with a lot of other, non-Paladin, non-Ninja jobs with a WAR sub if you want, but they're not really optimal as tanks...yet. How do you plan to address the tank shortage?
MG: I had to ask if it's OK to say this, but while there won't be a new job, we're going to make a major adjustment to an existing job so that it can be more of a tank type job. For now it's just one job. However, for example, during a battle with a NM or HNM battle, this job type might not be the best choice, or a complete tank type, but in most cases it will be effective as a tank.
MG: I had to ask if it's OK to say this, but while there won't be a new job, we're going to make a major adjustment to an existing job so that it can be more of a tank type job. For now it's just one job. However, for example, during a battle with a NM or HNM battle, this job type might not be the best choice, or a complete tank type, but in most cases it will be effective as a tank.
And for the lulz....
1UP: Speaking of balance adjustments, do you plan to make any tweaks to the recently-tweaked 2-handed weapon damage? Certain jobs combinations, like SAM/THF are insane with the damage at the moment. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but the damage is eye-opening.
MG: We'll be adjusting that with the upcoming patch that launches with
<DL class=postprofile id=profile801150><DD class=pm-icon> </DD></DL>MG: We'll be adjusting that with the upcoming patch that launches with
Varda
Clothcraft Cat
Exactly what went through my mind too....
Pussenboots
R.I.P.
So could you get a bunch of Dancers and some Darks and do Drain Samba? Be like a Soul Eater/BW without the use of BW?
Ehon
(Z_z)
WTF.. there are lazy RDMs in the backfield? Though, this is an odd statement. Out of all the original mages (so BLU is the exception), RDMs had the highest chance out in the front lines with our En-spells, Phalanx, and ability to use swords for damage and daggers to get MP back with Energy Drain.
Though, in reality, with RDMs playing the enfeeb, refresh, healer roll on melee burn groups and keeping the chains flowing, they'd have to change something drastic to make it worthwhile to be up meleeing when we could be nuking or resting to get MP back to keep the chain going.
All I know... I want that sweet Rose weaponskill in the trailer.
In either case, interesting information on both classes... both sound crazy complicated with almost a heirarchy of commands per ability. Fun!
I think that was the mob's skill... watch again.
Ehon
(Z_z)
It's around 1:25 in the movie where they're demonstrating all the weaponskills; if you put the movie into slow motion, the RDM on the left side draws back and the rose appears above his head from his sword and then surrounds and hits the mob.. 1:27 is the best shot.
See attached photo.
Attachments
Fayevalentine
Bebop Passenger
again?
Araius
Fatty Pirate
I've considered it before so..I'm...considering it again. Poorly worded. Still no serious plans unless S-E goes crazy and lets BLU use Excalibur.
