Conjurer

Role: The support role who can change his role in battle from attacker to defender to healer based on the situation. For those who like to be in control.

Abilities:

• Profoundity – Casting time increases but so does the power of your next spell.
• Trance Chant – No matter what, your next spell casting will not be interrupted.
• Spiritbind – You root yourself in exchange for decreasing MP costs per spell.
• Roaming Soul – You can cast while walking.
• Purge – Alter an enemy’s essence, making their elemental affinity neutral. (Effectually if used on a Fire mob for example, that would remove the mob’s fire resistances and such).

Spells:

• Fire – an AoE fire attack.
• Cure – an AoE cure spell.
• Protect – an AoE spell that increases the physical defense of your party members.
• Shock Spikes – A thunder elemental spell that surrounds you and will attack and paralyze the enemy if you are attacked.
• Frost – a DoT AoE ice spell.

Developers: This is a sorcerer with elemental magic. This class has to look at the situation a party is in and adapt to a changing environment.  They also have to have a good understanding of the elements in play. They have attack magic, defensive magic, recovery magic, etc.  They can cast a wide range of spells so they can be an attacker for a party or in a support role.  I think we can call them an active almighty class you can look forward to.  I think one special feature of this class is the AoE magic they can cast.  The area is a circle of effect drawn around the player. By the way, all of the actions you do in battle go towards building your TP. That includes spell casting. That means we have power TP moves for Conjurers as well.

Spooner: There are hopefully other healer type classes out there but it’s nice to see that they’re simplifying the whole process somewhat. It feels like the big emphasis in FFXIV combat is multiple mobs at once so lots of AOE to a degree. AOE damage, AOE heals, AOE affected by terrain and position.

Thaumaturge

Role: The party’s strategist that controls everything in the field through status-changing magic. For those who like to plan out their battles.

Abilities:

• Blood Pact – Sacrifice some of your HP to make your spells more powerful.
• Punishing Barbs – Sends back a percentage of damage you receive to the enemy.
• Dark Seal – Increase magical accuracy.
• Initiation – Temporarily transfer some of your buffs to a target ally.
• Paradigm Shift – Decreased attacking distance in exchange for a wider area of effect for spells.

Spells:

• Drain – AoE HP leech attack.
• Gravity – AoE attack that slows the movement speed of enemies.
• Sacrifice – Transfer some of your HP to one of your party members.
• Siphon TP – Suck TP from enemies.
• Absorb ACC – Suck an enemy’s accuracy and increase your own.

Developers: The Thaumaturge has a lot of status changing spells at their disposal.  Their AoE is also fan shaped and they have many strong attacks.  Compared to the Conjurer, they are more effective when they get closer to the enemy. Basically, the Thaumaturge has been given strong damaging attack spells.  However, there is also a risk to using them so you have to look for the right balance.  We’ll listen to players’ feedback about this class and make adjustments in the future. The Thaumaturge can take and absorb different things from the enemy.  They can also stack many spells.  They will have to read the flow of battle and decide when is the best time to cast things.

Spooner: I don’t know what to make of this class. It seems to have some incredible debuffs and really solid group utility. It’s almost like some sort of bastardization of the Warlock from WoW mixed in with a bunch of other classes. It apparently can fear, mass snare, drain life, transfer its own health to a player, transfer buffs to another player. This is going to be a really strategic and interesting class.

There is some information on the Blacksmith and Miner as well as a little on the others but I’ll include them into a different post when more details become available.

First off there are a few things that need to set straight. As it stands the Hellion can be a really fun unit and a useful unit to devastate overreaching enemy expansions. It’s relatively cheap to build and can be spawned in double time with the aid of a Reactor add-on. Against all workers, Protoss T1 units, and especially Zerglings and Hydralisks the unit shines and can cause some real damage. In the late game it’s nice to be able to send 4 or 5 of these units to an enemy outpost while my Barracks and Starport are busy trying to bulk up on Marines, Marauders, and air support – the harassment they dish out isn’t on par with pre-nerf reapers but it’s still something.

The main issue with the unit is it has some pretty big shoes to fill. Here are a list of setbacks that I don’t believe are part of the game balance.

• 90 HP is rather pathetic for an armored vehicle and the armor is non-existent unless you upgrade.
• The unit fires at max range inherently and the AI needs to be changed. The Flamethrower is an iconic weapon that deals splash damage and only really shines if the Hellion is at point blank fighting rows of enemies. The way the AI paths and reacts makes this insanely hard to pull off.
• Weapon damage has no bonus against biological units, which confuses me because it’s fire damage. Perhaps a DOT effect or enveloping the +10 dmg to Light upgrade into the unit as standard.
• It serves a very minor niche in the game and doesn’t accomplish anything that two Marines or an investment in Reapers can’t trump.

So how do we fill the gap?

• As sad as it feels, scrapping the unit and bringing back our Goliath walker would pretty much satisfy any Terran player for a long while.  Well at least, it should – but players complain an awful lot. But the Goliath left a big hole that unfortunately the awesome THOR mech has not bee able to fill. It’s walking speed is terribly slow, the supply cost of 6 doesn’t allow you to build more than a few, and the fact that it’s locked away behind a Tech Lab and Armory make it all but impossible to build in the mid-early game. It doesn’t help that the unit it so massive in size that an enemy with half a brain cell can micro his units to focus fire on the THOR and destroy it rather quickly. From personal experience, I’ve killed two THORs before with a single bunker full of Marines and Marauders (upgraded bunker capacity) and a cloaked Banshee before my Supply Depot and Barracks wall-in fell.

• Give the unit the ability to house a mini-bunker instead of it’s weapon upgrade in the Tech Lab allowing you 2 storage in the Hellion. The Engineering Bay’s upgrade of Neosteel Frames could give another 2 storage would still apply. This would fit the kit of the Terran race perfectly since they’ve always been about adaptation, innovation, and mobility. They lack the numbers of Zerg and the power of Protoss so the only way to survive has been to change up combat on the fly. A Hellion with 4 Marines in the back would be amazing for backing up any army especially with the dire lack of good AA on the Terran faction.

• Don’t do anything dramatic but simply give the unit more armor, add a Vespene Gas cost to it, and allow the turret on top to rotate and fire while the unit is moving. This technology is not lost on the developers at all since the Protoss Void Ray air unit can fire constantly as it moves.

The Hellion by itself really feels out of place with all the Terran units and their predecessors in Starcraft 1. Robot mechs fit the Terran kit perfectly, especially the Viking which is conceptually a really cool unit. The Hellion really just feels like a weak waste of 100 minerals and a building that could otherwise be pushing out Siege Tanks. I understand that the Marauder is a must since the Firebat is gone in multiplayer (still around in single thank Metzen) and I wouldn’t even see a major use for it in multiplayer, but something has to be done about the little space buggy that can’t.

Now to a certain degree I can understand balancing issues and the fact that Blizzard’s matchmaking system needs a few tweaks and a much bigger player base to pull opponents from because as it stands now you have about as much a chance to face an equal enemy player as you do somebody ranked infinitely higher than yourself. But the game is far from broken and with a few minor tweaks, you can find yourself on the delivering end of the ass beating.

Scout and Counter

You can have to learn to properly scout. The game of StarCraft has become more like action chess than anything else. As soon as you can afford to pull a worker away from your mineral line (typically around 11 supply being used) send them out to find the enemy base and to more importantly see what he is building. Use some foresight. If you see vespene gathering early then you can estimate they’re going to tech fast and rush later.

If you see the Terran building a tech lab onto the barracks expect some marauders and reapers so guard your mineral line from the harass and don’t bother making armored units (roaches, stalkers, marauders, most vehicles) because they’ll be destroyed. If he’s making a factory right away don’t expect it to make vehicles, the factory is a gateway to the starport. Building a factory with a tech-lab then lifting off the factory and replacing it with the newly finished starport means the player can build banshees and research cloak extremely fast. Cloaked banshees account for a vast majority of my wins because players rarely make anti-air units and detectors that early in the game.

If you see the Protoss player with 2x Gateways before the cybernetics core than maybe you’re in for a zealot rush (with the use of chrono-boost to build them faster). If you see a quick build of cybernetics core with a robotics facility expect early colossus rush (counter with heavy marauder mass, air units, hydralisks or banelings) or immortals (counter with zerglings and marines en mass). If you see a stargate then get ready for voidrays very early. A rush of immortals and stalkers with about 9 zealots upgraded with Charge are really hard to stop at your choke. The immortals deal impressive damage, the zealots are like zerglings on steroids, and the stalkers typically wipe out any air threat to the force since they’ll be typically ignored in favor of the other two units. A high-templar with psi storm thrown into that mix and it’s a fucking devastating army especially against zerg. Dark templars are downright horrible to fight early in the game. Terran have shit for detection and the DT can dish out a lot of damage in the meantime.

If the zerg player builds a roach warren expect that rush and counter with stalkers or marauders or anything that flies. If you see a nydus canal then watch for the worm spawn behind your workers. Spire? Get some anti-air for the mutalisk threat. Zerg can stay dormant for a long time during a match. You may never get hit with a rush and end up with a small standing army because you’re busy teching up. Zerg players with the queen’s inject larva ability can get a massive army in a matter of seconds. Zerglings become banelings which burrow and become land mines that destroy damn near any ground unit with deadly efficiency for the cost. Roaches that move while burrowed are almost invincible. Infestors now with full energy can churn out a temporary army of infested marines and blow the shit out of your units. The zerg are a big shock/awe exploding race with an answer to almost anything and with current Nydus mechanics, you can be assured that the worm infiltration into your base will almost always spell GG. Its not often players keep a bunch of units scattered inside their own base.

Pressure, Harass, Rush

It’s not a cheap tactic, it’s strategic and it works a lot of the time. Be aggressive! When you get attacked if you win, shore up with whatever you’re currently building and then send them out ASAP to the enemy base. Chances are they won’t have much to fight back with and even if they do you’re keeping them of the defensive and not letting them take control of the map. Map control, that is having units and buildings out on the map to your benefit either gathering resources or providing vision, is essential to winning every game. Keep up the pressure you always want to have some little group of units out and about squashing any expansions and guarding the high-yeild minerals.

Harassment is part of the game. Get used to it. Reapers are in the game for a reason so are Stalkers and cracklings (speed upgrade zerglings). More than half of the matches I’ve been in were won not because my army was dead, but because my economy was. If the player has no main base (Command Center, Hatchery, Nexus) at all and no workers to build a new one, it’s over. There’s very little that can be done at that point to recover. It may be cheap to rebuild a bunch of lost drones/probes/SCVs but it takes time and it means you get the advantage. A lot of players will just give up at that point too. Remember you’re playing against another living person. The game is also psychological in this respect. A machine will fight to the end. A player will often times panic, get emotional, get angry, nerd rage and quit. Keep your cool no matter what and try to use that against your enemy. When you lose, do it with dignity and watch the replay, see how you lost.

Rushing is something a lot of players hate but it too is part of the game. Get over it and move on. Rushing keeps the game exciting, like multiple action scenes before the big climax. Rushing is an all or nothing strategy, odds are if you survive an enemy rush or they fucked up scouting and rushed the wrong type of unit, you can win extremely quickly by sending your forces into what you will soon realize is a skeleton main base with little to no expansion. The matches that are the most fun are the ones that last past this point. It keeps the adrenaline pumping and opens a lot more opportunity for skill and micro managing units to overtake the rock-paper=scissor type of gameplay synonymous with RTS games.

High Tinker Gelbin Mekkatorque: The Liberation of Gnomeregan

Gelbin Mekkatorque is known as much for his technical brilliance as he is for his just leadership of the gnomes. In addition to being elected high tinker, the most prominent rank in gnomish society, Gelbin proved himself to be an inventor without equal by leading the construction of the Deeprun Tram, which links Stormwind and Ironforge. Yet all of the high tinker’s achievements have been overshadowed by one catastrophic event that occurred under his rule: the fall of Gnomeregan.

Around the time of the Third War, an ancient menace known as the troggs surfaced in Gnomeregan from the depths of Azeroth. This barbaric race, thought to have been unintentionally released during the Uldaman excavation, crushed the gnomes’ defenses and became entrenched in the lower sections of the city. Gelbin, for all his genius, was at a loss for a way to eradicate the savage invaders until his chief advisor, Mekgineer Sicco Thermaplugg, proposed that they inundate Gnomeregan with toxic radiation.

Confident in Thermaplugg’s radical plan, Mekkatorque gave the order to irradiate the city. This bold move worked at first: toxic radiation spread throughout Gnomeregan and momentarily stopped the troggs’ incursion. Soon, however, it was evident that the radiation was killing gnomes as well as troggs. In the end, nearly eighty percent of the gnomish race died, and many of those who survived were mutated into deranged leper gnomes. To add to the tragedy, the troggs then resumed their assault on the city.

Mekkatorque and the healthy survivors evacuated Gnomeregan and were taken in by the dwarves of neighboring Ironforge, but Thermaplugg disappeared. The high tinker later learned troubling news that his former advisor had seized control of the toxic gnomish city and instated himself as its twisted overlord. Much to Mekkatorque’s shock, he also discovered that Thermaplugg had secretly desired the office of high tinker and might have been previously aware of or even complicit in the trogg invasion.

The immense loss of life at Gnomeregan weighed heavy on Mekkatorque’s shoulders, and in his fury he ordered the death of Thermaplugg. A band of heroes took up the mission and returned with a tale of victory, but after analyzing the claim, Mekkatorque realized that the mechanized overlord defeated in the depths of the city was likely nothing more than a cleverly engineered facsimile of Thermaplugg.

Aware that defeating his nemesis would require a more robust approach, Mekkatorque labored over strategies to retake his city. His tireless brainstorming recently paid off with Operation: Gnomeregan, a brilliant multi-phased assault plan to liberate the gnomish capital and bring the real Thermaplugg to justice. With the operation set to begin, resourceful gnomes such as “Doc” Cogspin, Captain Tread Sparknozzle, and Drill Sergeant Steamcrank have been overseeing preparations and fine-tuning new technology that will be vital to the offensive.

Meanwhile, Mekkatorque has begun rounding up all able-bodied gnomes to join in the attack, and his call to arms has also been heard by other members of the Alliance. The gnomes’ techno-savvy has been vital in past conflicts, and many Alliance heroes are likely to join the offensive to recapture the extraordinary inventions within the fallen city. For Mekkatorque, however, his plan goes beyond just reacquiring lost technology. The retaking of Gnomeregan will determine his legacy in history, either as the high tinker who lost the gnomes’ beloved capital, or the one who reestablished it as the center of innovation on Azeroth.

Operation: Gnomeregan is now.

Vol’jin: The Glory of the Darkspears

Most of Azeroth’s savage trolls are infamous for their extreme hatred of other races, but the Darkspear tribe and its leader, Vol’jin, are an exception. Over the years, the Darkspears have proven to be invaluable members of the Horde. Vol’jin in particular is known to offer strategic advice to Warchief Thrall on a regular basis, and the cunning troll played a role in retaking the Undercity after it was overthrown by the rebel forces of Varimathras and Putress.

Yet for all of the tribe’s accomplishments, the Darkspears are still plagued by a tragic history of exile. Long ago they were driven from Stranglethorn Vale’s mainland by the more powerful trolls of the Gurubashi empire and then settled on a remote island. The Darkspears later sought refuge with the Horde when their isle was destroyed by a mysterious sea witch, and Thrall granted the trolls new lands on the Echo Isles off the coast of Durotar. Aside from a brief exodus when Daelin Proudmoore’s fleet arrived to hunt down orcs, the Darkspears enjoyed relative stability until one of their own, Zalazane, drove his brethren from their latest home.

The witch doctor Zalazane had been one of the tribe’s leading mystical instructors when he was inexplicably driven to insanity by the powers under his control. Utilizing dark magic, he enslaved many of his fellow tribespeople and amassed an army of mindless Darkspear trolls. Fearing that all of his tribe would come under Zalazane’s sway, Vol’jin ordered the remaining free Darkspears to abandon the Echo Isles.

Vol’jin’s Darkspears settled in nearby Sen’jin Village, which they have since used as a staging point to attack Zalazane. Over the years, members of the Horde looking to test their worth have braved the Echo Isles to confront Zalazane, and many of them even returned victorious with his severed head. These victories, however, proved to be nothing more than an illusion created by the twisted witch doctor’s dark magic. Days after these trophies were taken to Sen’jin Village, they reverted to their true forms: painted rocks and coconuts adorned with wooden tusks, or even the heads of Zalazane’s enslaved trolls.

Despite these setbacks and his preoccupation with advising Thrall on Horde-related matters, Vol’jin has spent considerable time formulating a strategy to recapture the Echo Isles. Now he believes that the time to strike at Zalazane has come. As the Darkspear leader and his close allies Vanira and Champion Uru’zin await approval of their plan from the ancestral spirits, they have begun rounding up new troll recruits and staging reconnaissance missions to learn about Zalazane’s minions.

Yet Vol’jin’s trolls are short on forces, and the enslaved Darkspears on the Echo Isles outnumber them. The Darkspears are well-known for being among Azeroth’s bravest combatants, however, and fortunately many non-trolls have expressed interest in assisting Vol’jin, perhaps hoping that restoring the Echo Isles will eventually bolster the Horde’s strength.

Vol’jin is also aware of the strategic importance that a Darkspear homeland offers his allies, but he is motivated by more personal reasons. Zalazane’s betrayal was an affront against Vol’jin’s dream of a better life for his tribe, a destiny that his late father, Sen’jin, envisioned years ago. Only by retaking the Echo Isles will Vol’jin be able to honor his father and at long last secure a permanent homeland for the long-exiled Darkspear tribe.

What vidya game enemy scares the balls off you? Metaphorical balls if I actually have any women reading this site still. Facehuggers? Zombies? Be specific.

We didn’t know much about the different disciplines, their roles, their specifics and such; but that’s all changed now as a lot of info was released in the latest big update to the official sites. Here are all the disciplines we know of in detail:

Gladiator

Role: Tank. Defender of the weak and defeater of the strong. He is the party’s greatest defense. For all-around players.

Abilities:

• Roaring Sword – Waving the tip of your blade to get the enemy’s attention.
• Cover – Protect the party members behind you by taking damage instead of them.
• Rampart – Using your sword to increase your defense (raises physical and magical defenses).
• Precision – Lowers evasion and increases accuracy.
• Aegis Boon – When guarding with your shield, any damage taken heals your HP instead.

Weapon Skills:

• Phalanx – Anger the enemy by attacking after guarding with a shield.
• Red Lotus – A swinging fire elemental attack on the enemy.
• Shield Bash – Hit the enemy with a shield and prevent them from casting a spell.
• Spinning Stroke – Attack the enemy.  Damage increases if the enemy is not attacking you.
• Circle Slash – AoE weapon skill.

Developers: This is a class that can really excel at defense.  They can equip a wide range of defensive equipment and even large shields!  They will be called upon to protect party members by drawing the enemy attack towards themselves. As a class that excels with a shield, the Gladiator is like a “defender” job that is good at absorbing damage. Gladitor is offense and defense rolled into one — a class that is good at taking hits and dishing out the damage.  Because of its versatility, I see it becoming a popular class. One can choose between making slicing attacks or piercing attacks or guarding and that lets them employ some strategy towards giving their strikes the maximum effect. You could say this is a class with an abundance of fighting styles.

Spooner: Its obvious this is the main-tank player in the game. It’s really incredible to see that they have the ability to convert blocked damage into health which lends a lot to the ability to solo. The class revolves almost entirely around having a good sword and a strong shield and with some shields having more offensive characteristics I can see this being a really fun class to play.

Lancer

Role: A physical fighter who attacks from a distance, the lancer must have the power to make decisions based on the situation. The party’s last line of defense. For the tactical player.

Abilities:

• Inspire – Use your TP to place a debuff on the target. Party members receive TP for attacking the target.
• Ferocity – You lose HP but your next attack will give greater damage.
• Fighting Spirit – You lose HP but you gain TP.
• Collusion – Attack the enemy from behind another party member while the enemy is focused on that party member.
• Life Surge – Decrease enemy evasion while sucking away their HP.

Weapon Skills:

• Overrun – If you attack while the enemy isn’t aware of you, you can land a series of high speed successive attacks and increase your TP.
• Feint – If you use right after an enemy has evaded your attack, your next attack will surely hit and deal piercing damage.
• Leg Sweeper – AoE attack where you target the legs of your enemies and prevent them from moving.  Cannot be used on aerial targets.
• Moonrise – Increase attack power, deal slashing damage, and suppress the target’s ability to gain TP.
• Skewer – Attack all enemies between you and your target.  Movement for land-based enemies will become slower.

Developers: This class uses the long range of their polearms to attack from a relatively safe distance.  They also have a number of special attacks that can confuse an enemy or bind them. Since they are back farther than other front line party members, they have a wider view of what’s going on around them.  If the back line is in a jam, they are probably the class that is best able to quickly get over to help them. Lancers are really affected by the distance between them and their target.  They will have to make adjustments to where they stand and constantly think about the location of their target, their party members, and themselves.  This class requires somebody who moves tactically. This person has to think about many things, not just about what they know about the enemy.

Spooner: This is about as close to a Dragoon as we’re going to get for FFXIV. The DRG was my class in FFXI and I have a certain affinity/obsession with the class and the entire dynamic of wielding a massive lance in full armor leaping about like a maniac ripping shit apart. With essentially and AOE root/snare, great debuffs and group buffs, and a lot of tactical positioning; it’s not very novice friendly and I can get behind that. This is going to be your aggro manager and the guy that beefs up the TP meter for the group.

Pugilist

Role: The front-line brawler. The pugilist needs to think on his feet to control his stances. He’s the party’s jump-into-the-fray role. Made for people who don’t sweat the small stuff.

Abilities:

• Mocking Provoke – Gain the attention of the enemy by whistling at them.
• Blind Side – Increase attack power by half of your Dexterity when you attack from behind the enemy.
• Chakra – Use TP to regain HP.
• Steal – Steal things from the enemy. Chance of success increased with Stealth.
• Featherfoot – Increase evasion by a large amount for one shot.

Weapon Skills:

• Jarring Strike – Attack a target’s joints stunning them and dealing blunt damage. Increases threat and can only be executed after a successful evade.
• Victimize – Deal slashing damage to the target and increasing your critical hit rate for every enfeebling effect on the target.
• Haymaker – Deal massive blunt damage to a target after evading an attack.
• Shoulder Tackle – Charge at an enemy and deal heavy blunt damage.
• Seismic Shock – An earth elemental based damage to all enemies between you and the target. Ignores flying enemies.

Developers: They have a very short attack range and their defense isn’t very high.  However, they are tricky fighters who can tease the enemy with their wide range of abilities.  They also can change between different stances which means they can change their fighting style in accordance to the enemy or party makeup. Stance will make a huge difference.  Players will have to think on their feet, taking the flow of the battle into account when choosing whether to go offensive or defensive. If you continue to use the same stance, the number of things you can do while in that stance will increase.  While you can change your stance at any time, changing the stance means you go back to a previous level of ability.  Your split time decisions on whether it is best to make adjustments or stick with the same stance to get the extra benefits could decide whether you are the victor or the vanquished.

Spooner: This is the spiritual successor to the Monk from FFXI as well as including some abilities of the Thief class. I’m personally pretty happy that the THF is being removed and consolidated. I don’t like when the archetypal RPG classes continually get pasted over and over. Mixing and matching some abilities and making a familiar yet somewhat new class is fun. The Pugilist is a brawler, straight up DPS with some aggro managing moves to help keep targets at the front and away from the casters.

Marauder

Role: A powerful, overpowering, macho attacker. The trump card in battle. Made for those who want the most glorious parts of the battle.

Abilities:

• Blood Bath – The damage you deal the enemy turns into HP for you.
• Murderous Intent – Throw yourself into your attacks increasing critical hit rate but lowering TP generation.
• Defender – Use your Axe to increase your physical defense and generate threat in exchange for weaker attacks.
• Disorient – Throw dirt, dust, or sand at an enemy’s eyes to lower their evasion. Can stack 3 times.
• Enduring March – Can move,  albeit slowly, even when hit with roots and snares.

Weapon Skills:

• Skull Sunder -Strike a single enemy hard in the head with slashing damage that leaves a damage over time effect. In Steadfast stance will instead deal a cone AOE attack.
• Trunksplitter – Very affective attack against Seedkin (plant-type) enemies.
• Brandish – AoE melee attack.
• Iron Tempest – Swing your axe wildly dealing AoE wind elemental damage.

Developers: This class can do a lot of damage with their axe, enough to change the outcome of a battle with one swing.  However, depending on the number of enemies and how they are scattered about, they might not be able to gather all of their strength and have trouble during battle. They have more attack power than other classes but their accuracy is a bit lower. In order to use some of the Marauder’s special abilities, you’ll have to be standing still.  So it takes foresight to play this class effectively.

Spooner: For WoW players this is like an Arms Warrior or a Death Knight. If you played FFXI it’s like an evolution of the Dark Knight. The DRK was a big deal with 2H weapon damage and skill, that seems to be the case with this class. The cool thing about the Marauder is that they seem to really be selling it as the unstoppable juggernaut in battle. The lone mountain of pain you don’t want to be near. If a lot of abilities require him to be standing still to build up power to swing the massive axe then you’re likely going to see melee enemies giving him a wide berth. The ability to drain HP through dealing damage is nice as well since that’s going to facilitate solo play in a very big way. Other than the Lancer this is the class I will most likely be playing.

Archer

Role: The sniper who watches the battle from afar and waits for his chance to strike. The party’s shortstop. For people who love being alone.

Abilities:

• Replenish – Consume MP to refill your ammo.
• Chameleon – Blend in with your surroundings consuming TP to lower threat.
• Quickstride – Increase movement speed for a short period of time.
• Retrieval – Gather up arrows in exchange for some HP.
• Hawkeye – Increase the accuracy of your next attack.

Weapon Skills:

• Shadowbind – Fetter the enemy snaring them in place.
• Wide Volley – Increase attack power and deal projectile damage to a wide arc of enemies.
• Quick Knock – Use multiple arrows in rapid succession to attack enemies in a fan like AoE attack.
• Scourging Strike – Increase attack power, deal projectile damage, and debilitate the target by purging one enchantment buff.
• Shrieker – Deal massive damage to the target with a screaming arrow that also causes the target to flee.

Developers: More than anything, their role is to attack enemies from a distance.  After that, it all depends on the technical abilities of the archer.  If they attract too much attention from the enemy, they could get in trouble as they don’t have a high defense.  So you have to think about where you are going to stand and the best way to attack the enemy without capturing their interest.  This class has to look at the big picture. Archers also have a lot of abilities they can use to put some distance between them and their enemies.  I hope people use those in their battle strategies. The type of arrow you pick is also important.  There are arrows for doing direct damage but you can also use arrows to affect the status of your enemy and thereby help out your party members.

Spooner: This is a ranger cut and dry. No pets to worry about or any of that silliness, just a straight up ranged damage dealer with tools to keep the target in the sweet spot and with plenty of tools to keep threat down and ammo counts high, this class is looking like a powerhouse of DPS. A major cool factor for me are the different types of ammo the archer can switch between. So ammo isn’t just a boring dependency for the class, it’s an actual tactical tool.

Recently there’s been a massive explosion of content on the game on the official NA and JP websites. I’ve partnered up with Samodean from Massive Nerd as well as Joe and Roger from the FTL podcast and we’re putting together a special show next week all about this unique contender in the MMO ring. Consider this post the culmination of a lot of research trying to make sure all the facts are collected in one single spot.

FFXIV is the spiritual successor to FFXI and is the second Final Fantasy game to have the online multiplayer experience as it’s main feature. The look of the game is very much like FFXI with very nice graphical upgrades and some clever renaming of the primary races you can play as. I’ll be making references and trying to bridge the gap for the uninitiated throughout this post but please if you do find the game interesting, check out our podcast specifically on Monday March 22nd (2010) for a little more depth.

Not much has been revealed about the day to day normal gameplay but at least we’ve shed some light on how combat will work conceptually as well as a lot of different class specifics. Then there’s this particular screenshot that single-handedly got me excited for the game again.

It reminds me of the original UI from FFXI but it’s been vastly improved. On the bottom left you can see the latency display showing data sent and received. Just above that is the chat window where you have a normal chat log and then tabbed combat log which is pretty standard. Something completely brand new is the usage of the action bar at the bottom center of the screen giving you all your spells and attacks with a short bar underneath most likely to display cooldowns. The TP meter is just under that which works like a rage bar that fills during combat and such and is used for many different things including massive attacks.

Just to the right of the action bar are some icons for the character screen, social tab and inventory space. The bottom right has your typical HP/MP (mana) as both a bar and number value. Upper right of the screen is the mini-map showing what are most likely red dots for hostile mobs or NPCs and green/blue for friendly players/NPCs. In the middle of the screen just off-set to the right is the target health bar and a casting bar. One can assume that the party and raid interface when in a group will be in the upper left side of the screen opposite the mini-map showing party member health/mana and special effects. I don’t see a buff bar but once again, there’s plenty of room still for one to exist under the TP bar or above the player health bar.

Combat in FFXIV

This diagram shows the range of each class and their "sweet spot"

A quick key for the above image. Pugilist (melee monk type DPS) in green is immediate range. Gladiator (sword and shield tank type) is in blue at reasonably close range. Marauder (berserker type 2H weapon DPS) at extended melee range. Lancer (spear using tactical DPS) in yellow at max range for a melee fighter. Conjurer (all around master of spells in DPS and healing) in the teal at mid-range. Thaumaturge (AOE magic DPS and debuffer) in purple at mid-range. Archer (ranged tactical DPS) at extreme max range in orange.

One of the fundamental problems with FFXI was that you were forced to group after about an hour or two playing the game. I don’t mean forced like you need to raid in WoW or forced like you need to be in a party for some things in Aion. No. You could not play the game at all unless you were in a full group. You could not fight anything worth fighting and if you fought that same type of mob repeatedly then it would give you less EXP per kill over time. You could not play the game unless you were in a group. I cannot emphasize this enough. As well you could never fight more than one mob at a time. You were forced to pick a little spot somewhere in the zone with your party and that was your spot, you fucking lived there. One guy was sent out to pull a mob and hopefully he didn’t fuck it up and get two or die on the run back to camp. Then the tank would taunt the mob and you started to kill it. This is being changed for FFXIV.

Players can fight in parties or go solo in FFXIV, but the monsters can be in parties as well.  There will be battles where it is “party vs. party.”  Battles won’t be fought by pulling enemies back to a set camp, but rather we are envisioning players moving about as they fight.

The ability to solo is awesome, it’s a big part of what has made WoW so successful. But the concept of “parties” of mobs roaming a zone is very interesting. The big emphasis is on position and actually fighting the enemy as you would in say real combat. You move the group from enemy spawn to enemy spawn fighting along as you move, MP does not regenerate between battles however (Aetheryte and other player abilities/resources will replenish it for you) so managing your resources over the course of a long battle with many mob encounters is pretty much the way it will pan out.

In FFXIV, one’s position, as well as the position and orientation of the enemy, has a large effect on battles.  Following that line of reasoning, there will be appropriate distances for classes that maximize their effectiveness.

We plan to have enemy classes follow these rules as well, and also include some techniques they can use in conjunction with each other.  The idea is a battle where you are constantly moving, trying to attain the best position.  So when it’s party vs. party, this can get really exciting.  It’s not about sitting in one spot and striking away at an enemy; the player needs to consider the enemy’s position and act accordingly.

Close combat classes need to be more aware of their orientation, while ranged classes must pay particular attention to distance. When fighting close combat, your orientation will have different effects.  I wouldn’t say fighting close up is any easier than fighting at a distance.Also, there is the important factor of “area of effect.”  This mostly comes into play with magic, but there are many techniques utilized by classes outside the Disciples of Magic that have areas of effect.

We want you to think of the area in which you do battle as really your party’s space — a place where you work together.  To that end, attacks with an area of effect will be even more important this time around.

There are several aspects to areas of effect, such as spreading benefits across party members, or blasting through a bunch of enemies from within.  We hope that this, combined with distance and orientation, will make for fun, tactical battles that players will enjoy.

Essentially, there is very little to no “auto-attack” in the game. There will more than likely be auto-attack but the player will always have buttons to press that provide an immediate reaction and effect on the situation. NPCs will be governed by the same rules as a player party. That sounds damn exciting to me since I particularly like squad vs squad gameplay. one big group of players fighting one big group of enemies is very close to a war-like combat system where position and orientation play a big role just like in real combat simulations.

Adding to the tactical feel of the game, elements are making an appearance as they did in FFXI. This was one of my major gripes with FFXI and I sincerely hope they don’t take it to that level of complication with this new offering, but what has been revealed does sound pretty interesting.

In the world of FFXIV, there are 6 elements: Fire, Ice, Wind, Earth, Thunder and Water.  They will all have their characteristics  as well, such as Water being strong against Fire, but weak against Thunder. Both players and enemies will be affected by their affinity with the elements.  Also, there exist forces aligned to these 6 elements called “Star Poles” and “Spirit Poles.”  They are like the magnetic poles of our Earth, attracting different energies.

Each player will have their own strengths and weaknesses regarding each element.  For example, one person could be particularly strong against Fire. This aspect of the player will improve along with other stats, like HP, as they grow.  Depending on how you raise your character, you could be a specialist against a certain type of element. If you are strong against Water, an enemy’s water-based attacks won’t hurt you so much.

Two Conjuerers also could specialize in separate elements.  One could excel at Ice magic and the other at Fire, thus serving two separate roles.

One could even decide to improve all elemental resistances equally, which would make them somewhat effective against all elements at the expense of specializing in none.

So basically you could make a guild of nothing but fire attuned players that are all but invincible against fire enemies and players. So you’ll have this layer of customization to your character for added individuality. You can have race, class, gender, profession, elemental affinity, fighting style, and guild as different variables in what makes your character different from another. This of course doesn’t include things like gear or enchantments and such which i hope they’re taking from WoW and implementing into this game. Not having anything bind on pickup really made the economy completely inaccessible. The whole crafting synthesis system was pretty fucking broken too, but more on that another day.

I’ll be going into the different classes and what developers have said about each as well as specific updates for each in my next post coming soon.