April 21st Patch Notes

[Event-Related] - The first event for Conflict, "Ballista," has been introduced. As of this update, Ballista will be run as several stand-alone events. It is scheduled to become a permanent feature at a later date. - New quests and battles designed for alliances have been added. - New quests are available in most nations. - Guild quests that call for the manufacture of certain items have been implemented. New NPCs have appeared in each guild to offer the quest to characters who have the required rank and skill level in the appropriate craft. - Players will now be able to participate in an event called "Garrison" at several of the outposts. A specific item must be traded to the guard in order to begin the event, and then a level restriction will be imposed depending on the location of the outpost. - A new low-level quest to obtain the pact for summoning avatars has been implemented. - The amount of gil required to change titles has been reduced. The rewards for the following quests have been adjusted: - Unexpected Treasure (San d'Oria) - Lufet's Lake Salt (San d'Oria) - A Test of True Love (Bastok) - Nothing Matters (Windurst) - To Bee or not to Bee? (Windurst) [Battle-Related] - New Dynamis field areas have become accessible. Certain conditions must be fulfilled in order to reserve and enter the two new areas. - Additional monsters have been placed in the four existing areas of Dynamis. Characteristics such as names and behavior have also been changed for some of the monsters in these areas. - Two new orb battles have been introduced. The level restrictions for the orbs are 20 and 30 respectively, with the number of characters able to enter the battlefield limited to three for both orbs. - Cloudy Orb (Level Restriction: 20) Obtained by trading 20 beastmen's seals - Sky Orb (Level Restriction: 30) Obtained by trading 30 beastmen's seals - The moon orb (obtained by trading 60 beastmen's seals) can now be used at the Qu'Bia Arena shimmering circle. - An issue concerning the accumulation of TP with weapon skills that consist of multiple strikes (i.e. Combo, Penta Thrust, etc.) has been corrected. TP will be accumulated as usual for that weapon type on the first strike (first two strikes for hand-to-hand attacks or when wielding two weapons), with each subsequent strike accumulating 1 TP. Accordingly, enemies who are the targets of multiple-strike weapon skills will only gain TP from the first strike (first two strikes for hand-to-hand attacks or when wielding two weapons). Also, all elemental weapon skills, except for Starlight and Moonlight (which affect only the wielder or party members), will now accumulate TP when used. The following magic has been added: -Thunder Spirit SMN Lv.1 (Summons a Thunder Spirit to fight by your side.) - A new job trait called "Subtle Blow" has become available to ninja and monks. This ability reduces the amount of TP gained by enemies when striking them. - A new job ability called "Spirit Link" has become available to dragoons. This ability enables dragoons to sacrifice their own hit points to heal their wyverns. Also, if a wyvern at full HP is sent away using the "Dismiss" command, the "Call Wyvern" ability will be available for use immediately. [Item-Related] - The mysterious "Strange Apparatuses" have become operational. - A new flowerpot known as the "Arcane Flowerpot" has been added. - Players will be able to insert their names in the help text of certain items they synthesize by using the crystals listed below. This signature will remain with the item when it is traded, bought from a bazaar, or sent to a player (including deliveries from the Auction House), but will be lost if purchased directly from the Auction House. It is possible to see if an item is signed when making purchases from a bazaar. Also, when perusing a bazaar, other information such as the Dynamis reservation time of the perpetual hourglass and the size of fish obtained through fishing will now be visible. - Inferno Crystal: Has the same effect as a fire crystal - Glacier Crystal: Has the same effect as an ice crystal - Cyclone Crystal: Has the same effect as a wind crystal - Terra Crystal: Has the same effect as an earth crystal - Plasma Crystal: Has the same effect as a lightning crystal - Torrent Crystal: Has the same effect as a water crystal - Aurora Crystal: Has the same effect as a light crystal - Twilight Crystal: Has the same effect as a dark crystal - New guild-related furniture and equipment have been added. - The number of items obtained from beastmen treasure caskets has been increased. - New synthesis and desynthesis recipes have become available. - New items have become available for purchase at several of the guild shops. - Various other new items have been added. - The woodworking recipe for making "bookshelves" has been adjusted. The skill level required to synthesize this item has been lowered accordingly. - An issue where attempts to synthesize a pair of Cursed Breeches resulted in an incorrect high-quality item has been addressed. - The name for the following equippable item has been changed: Lucky Egg --> Fortune Egg The help text of the following items has been adjusted: - Melee Gloves "Reduces TP gained by opponent" --> "Subtle Blow"+(value) - Melee Hose "Reduces TP gained by opponent" --> "Subtle Blow"+(value) The status of the following item has been adjusted: Fenrir Stone "Delay:276" --> "Delay:999" [System-Related] The following emotes have been added: /hurray Give a triumphant cry. /toss Perform the action of tossing an object. - A new text command "/recast" has been added that displays the time remaining until a spell, etc. can be reused. - A sort function has been added to the Storage menu. - A character's footsteps will no longer be heard when using Sneak. - The name of a pet's master will be displayed when a pet is targeted. - The limit for the /wait macro has been extended to sixty seconds. - An ON/OFF setting for "Battle Effects" has been added to the Config menu. - It is now possible to place single items on auction directly from an incomplete stack of items. - When typing in the input window, the cursor can now be shifted to the start or end of the line by pressing the Home or End keys. - The camera view is now adjustable when using the Layout function of the Mog House. - An issue concerning consistent reappearance of the "!" mark on the key item: Moghancements has been addressed. - The help text of the key item Moghancement: Experience, which stated that the item did not have any effect on Raise spells has been corrected. - A new system called "Mentor" that allows veteran adventurers to assist new players has been implemented. Characters below level 5 and with less than 5 hours of play time will automatically gain "New Adventurer" status, signified by an icon displayed next to the character's name. - The New Adventurer icon can be removed by selecting "Cancel New Adventurer Status" under Config in the Help Desk menu. Please be advised that once New Adventurer Status has been canceled, it cannot be reinstated. - The category "Key Item" has been added to the auto-translate function.

Comments

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DRG effectiveness
# Apr 22 2004 at 1:48 PM Rating: Decent
People often under rate the usefulness of the Wyvern in attacks. Now that you can heal your Wyvern, and put it away when you think an AOE is going to hurt it, you can use the Wyvern more effectively. Before, you used your Wyvern until it was eventually killed and had to wait 2 hours to get it back. Ignoring the TP issue, Jumps are a nice extra attack that add a bit more damage to the fight if you have decent accuracy. The fact that Super Jump can hit and remove hate is wonderful, as that makes the tank's job easier and lets the DRG keep doing more damage. It all depends on how good a player you are really. If you aren't up for a fun challenge, they have plenty of easier damage dealers out there.
Play Reasons
# Apr 22 2004 at 1:21 PM Rating: Decent
35 posts
There is no wrong reason to play a character. If a white mage has a particularly strong WS that no one uses because...well...it's a white mage. Then you are not playing a WHM for the wrong reason.

Just because one plays a class in a way it's not meant for, doesn't mean it's wrong. I have no knowledge of this for myself, but I was told that the TP collection of Penta Thrust was great for making DRG's worth something. Those that played DRG so they could use Penta Thrust and get a good deal of TP back to use it again were not playing for the wrong reason I believe. They were playing for fun, and I doubt many will fail to see how being able to pop out many quick WS's would be fun.

But that was not actually the issue I was asking about. Are DRG's still an effective job class without Penta Thrust? Or are they maybe still fun, but ineffective in comparision to all role related jobs? *Roles being tank/attacker/debuffer/healer*
DRG, the real story
# Apr 22 2004 at 12:27 PM Rating: Decent
The only thing that was adjusted by this update for DRG attacks is that multi-hit attacks, whether they be WS or regular, do not accumilate all the TP it used to. They were never intended to, as this is NOT their function. DRG is not a DRK, it is a Wyvern user with some jump attacks. The life of a DRG should center around the Wyvern, and as such, you can now sacrafice your HP to give to the Wyvern. You can also put the Wyvern away when you think it is best. The TP issue is not what you should focus on if you are a DRG. If you do, then you are playing for the wrong reason. DRK is for you.
Dragoons
# Apr 22 2004 at 9:48 AM Rating: Decent
35 posts
From what I've gathered from the LS, Penta Thrust was the saving grace for a Dragoon, what made it desirable. With this update, SE has effectively screwed the job class of Dragoon.

Is this true?
lol
# Apr 22 2004 at 9:08 AM Rating: Default
I'm not having any problem with the downloading stuff. My friends arent either. Its probably cuz you guys got Dial-up :P
poor bastards..
I heard from a friend of a friend...
# Apr 22 2004 at 8:56 AM Rating: Excellent
*
82 posts
I got this from a friend who is very good at finding information, but I'm not sure where he got it from or how reliable he thinks it is:
Quote:
Requirements:

Level 6+ Fame in the area you attain the quest. (The quest is in the same place as the old avatar quests, see any of the guides for details on where these are).

Summoner Job unlocked, and in use.

Level 20 Recommended, as its the cap.

Some foods to keep your MP up are STRONGLY recommended. (Yagudo Drink, Hi-Ether, whatever you can pack).

The fight:

When you are ready, the NPC will teleport you to the battlefield against the Avatar. The Avatar is considerably weaker than its prior form (duh), but there is one catch...you are alone. Yes, no party. Its you and the avatar, 1 on 1. You can summon Carbuncle only. This is why I recommend the juices, as you will need carbuncle out for a while.

Try using your 2-hr to finish off the Avatar.

Defeating the Avatar will result in attaining it. You cannot obtain the treasures that you would normally get from the high level avatar fights, and you can't use these to unlock Fenrir.


Edited, Thu Apr 22 10:00:02 2004
RE: I heard from a friend of a friend...
# Apr 22 2004 at 1:29 PM Rating: Decent
this is fairly accurate ... the NEW avatar quests are not given by the original NPC taru's but the NPC's that accompany them who, prior to the patch, only gave you a useless string of text; "learn from your mistakes" etc~

you HAVE to play as a 20 summoner

the mini-tuning forks are NOT key items

but the best part is, you are warped to the protocrystals by the quest NPC ... bad news is, unless youve completed the original prime avatar fight, you cannot exit. SO~ bring a scroll of warp or something. Guinness' post about rewards is correct~

i have yet to try this since i abandoned my summoner at lv.15 to try and raise another job for the prime avatar fights, but i intend to try ifrit and rumah this weekend~ tell your friend thank you for me!

Ophe - 50BLM/20WHM Lakshmi
SMN
# Apr 21 2004 at 10:37 PM Rating: Decent
I wish I knew more about this SMN thing... I've heard two things.
Parties of lvl 45+ can now take on prime avatars.
and the other thing I've heard is that there is a 1v1 battle for the new Thunder Elemntal pact for the SMN.
One or the other of these are true. Damn I wish I knew XD
DRG pentatrust
# Apr 21 2004 at 10:01 PM Rating: Decent
Hi i would like to talk about the Tp of weapon skill i find that wonderfull because DRG/SAM was way to much overpowered if you take :

- Pentatrut ( lets said they all hit )= 50%tp
- + the tree jump they can chain ( if they all
hit to )= 80%tp
- + the bonus of midetation and store tp of SAM they got 100%tp in like 10 sec of the fight they wait like 30 seconde and they can do it again way overkill if you ask me now they are just balanced if you ask me ... i got many friend that are DRG and i know they all will be frustrated by that but see that as a more challenging way to play a DRG ^.^
I <3 S-E (sarcasm)
# Apr 21 2004 at 9:57 PM Rating: Default
Hey, SE, why not consider making the updates as seperate downloadable files so that they could be MIRRORED like most every other game? Oh, and thanks for gimping the Dragoon class, knowing that a really cool WS has been severely hindered really makes me wanna go lvl that job up now....

BlueThunder
Seraph Server

61 PLD
31 WAR
25 DRK
23 WHM
10 BLM
11 MNK <--- who really gives a damn?
Hrm
# Apr 21 2004 at 9:51 PM Rating: Decent

- A new low-level quest to obtain the pact for summoning avatars has been implemented.


I would definately like to know more about this...
downloading files
# Apr 21 2004 at 9:41 PM Rating: Decent
ive been downloading the files for the patch for about 2 hours now. i cant wait to see how long it takes to install them....
Update problem reason
# Apr 21 2004 at 8:57 PM Rating: Decent
From PlayOnline:

Quote:
On April 21st, from 12:00 to 15:00 (PDT), FINAL FANTASY XI was updated, and a client update is necessary. At present, you may be experiencing timeout errors and other issues related to the version update process. These are due to server congestion.
yup
# Apr 21 2004 at 8:22 PM Rating: Decent
Yeah there's definitely some issues with connection when downloading the patch. I've done it on 3 of my computers and it's done the same thing each time... the only thing I could figure out to do was jamming "retry" about 50 times until it finally decided to connect and download. go figure.

also... this "new low level quest for obtaining the pacts for summoning avatars" thing is kinda bothering me... summoner has kinda been an honored job because it means you've gotten far in the game and such... but if any body can get em now it sorta takes away from the specialness of it all... i dunno...
cant download
# Apr 21 2004 at 8:07 PM Rating: Decent
my computer isnt locking up it just wont let me download the update, everytime i click on it it says it cant connect when im right here on the internet typing to u so it can connect. im guessing theres too many people trying to update at once or sumthin so im just gonna try later
...
# Apr 21 2004 at 7:30 PM Rating: Decent
Holy... they could have packaged this and sold it as an expansion pack. Anyone else worried about the adjustment to TP accumulation with weaponskills (ie: PENTATHRUST) - seems like those awesome DRG/SAM combos have just been killed. Other than that... I'm excited for this update. Are you excited!?
Lock Ups?
# Apr 21 2004 at 7:29 PM Rating: Decent
They forgot to add

- Locks up your computer within 20 seconds of loading into game.

I guess it's a special feature!

Anyone else having trouble with the game locking after the patch?
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