What is everyone so happy about?

Weeks of lowered expectation leads to this? Happiness over this update? The only whining of note is about the haste cap? This update is empty to me. No new event, no surprises. Just expectations met, or let down, and everyone is happy. I don't get it. But I always seem to be on the other side of popular opinion, for good or for ill.

Lets talk about the DRK zerg nerf *cough* I mean the new haste cap. This is one of those things that could either be fine and not really cause a problem, or it could be the final straw that break dual wielders completely. To be reasonable, the cap has to do a couple of things, it can't effect Dual Wield at all. If it does, it nerfs Ninja's many source of damage, and in a game where they are already slipping behind all other jobs because of the Two-handed buff it really would start placing them into the realm of PLD for XP parties. It would also have to not effect the equipment haste cap because it would be devastating to MNK's who can reach it (like me you fuckers). What is special about MNK if they can't get to capped haste normally? Not much. It can't effect Haste + Soul Voice Marches because again, what is the freaking point at that point? To me for this not to be a horrible nerf they would have to place the total haste cap INCREDIBLY high, like at least 75%. Something that can't be reached normally, and would only be limiting in cases where all conditions are perfect (a la the DRK zerg scenario). If they put the limit any lower than that then they start fucking with just about everything in the game. In a normal xp party you can get to 25% + 15% + ~20% without something like Hasso or Desperate Blows factored in.

That is the most disconcerting thing to me right now, but the update in and of itself doesn't really have much to be that happy about. I can't point to one thing and say "Hey, you know thats really cool, I am looking forward to that." But whatever, lets see what else is going on. And I am not going to go over the generic stuff that is in every update or crap that isn't worthy of mention, so forget that stuff.

• NM's in the new areas - As expected, but they didn't mention it. This is cool I guess but I hate NM's as it is. Waiting + low drop rate + camping against others = not my idea of fun.
• Haste cap - Talked about it already.
• Limited spell-lock - Whatever.
• Skillchain buff - We will see, but I don't think its going to do jack taco to get BLM into XP parties.
• En-spell buff - Nice for Scholar and maybe Dancer? More on that later.
• Absorb spell adjustment - This is smart I think, but does DRK really need more buffing? Partial absorbs will definitely mean that they are used more often by DRK's especially in end-game fights.
• New spells -
• Past Teleports and Warps - Here is a really big problem, ok. The past doesn't have shit that requires anymore than what we already have to get around. What is the incentive to go anywhere in the past besides Campaign points? Their isn't one. If they don't add a reason to go to those areas then the new teleports are fucking useless. The Warps are ok I guess, but anyone that has done their quests and is smart amount their homepoints have them set to the homepoint crystal in their home nation closest to the Aht Urhgan warp person. Maybe these new NM's will justify using the new teleports, but man they haven't shown a lot of forethought so far, I don't know why they would start now.
• Absorb-ACC - Yeah, after the two-handed update DRK's really need this one. I suppose it will be good for zerg situations, like QQTH. We already have Feint though, so meh. Don't get me wrong though, I like the idea of giving a job like DRK more reasons to use MP. I will NEVER object to SE adding things to encourage more niche play within a broader based jobs. Thats why I wish that Tier 2 merits didn't suck so much, because it would have been a great place for players to differentiate themselves in this kind of monolithic game. RDM merits actually get the closest to this.
• Klimaform - This appears to be a magic accuracy boosting spell to spells of the current weather. So at least SCH gets their role in BLM burn parties. We will see how this one turns out.
• Ninja Sneak - Already commented on this one, I think its a bad idea to have it under 37 which it is, but no one seems to care about game balance except for when their favorite jobs get buffed or nerfed.
• Retaliation - No idea yet, will have to see it in action. Don't even know the level of it.
• Collaborator - WTF? Why give THF an ability that does the same thing except weakened of something they already have. Only exception if this was a much lower level ability that Accomplice.
• BST Reward - No idea.
• Sekkanoki - Ummm, depending on the timer, I can now self-chain at will. No need for more than a SAM to do most skill-chains now, especially at lower levels. You could actually just set up one macro that does everything you need depending on the cast timers of the abilities.
  
• Wyvern buff - Yeah, like DRG's needed more reasons to never XP on anything but birds. Now, as long as the Wyvern doesn't die it too can outparse a PLD.
• SMN Elemental MP refresh - Mentioned before, couldn't care less about SMN.
  
• BLU spells - more of the same, depends on what SC's they can make, but looks like more debuff and spam spells.
• Quick Draw Charges - Good idea, really good idea. Probably a good idea to add a Charge system to more stuff in the game.
• PUP attachments - Sure, whatever.
• DNC adjustments - Sure, whatever.

Now we come to the SCH buff-o-rama. Man, they really pumped up SCH and we don't even know how much yet. Charges for Strats now come at 10, 30, 50 and 70, making it even more useful as a subjob, but the real deal is the buff to the duration for another Charge to come up. At 10 its still 4 minutes, but at 30 its 2 minutes, 50 1:30 and at 70 it is 1 minute. So that basically means that you can spam 4 in a row then get another one every minute. That is a ton. Further, the get Sublimation which is basically like a DoT convert. Pretty good idea and pretty bad ass if you as me. It is also at level 35, so anyone can get this DoT Convert. You can't rest with it up, but there are TON's of places that WHM can't rest and could really use this. Salvage for example, mwhahaha. The addendums look neat, but they have very limited information for them. But we do know so far that the Light Addendum adds at least Raise and Reraise II, and that Dark Addendum gives Sleep II. My guess is that it will also add at least Stoneskin and probably Blink. Conserve MP, like they needed it has been added. The AoE ability now cost 2 times instead of three times the casting cost. They fixed everything about the Storm spells which I thought were pretty retardedly designed to begin with, I mean WTF is up with a 2 minute recast on a 2 minute duration spell that you are OBVIOUSLY going to want to cast on more than one person in the party. Finally, Light Arts will now increase Enfeebling spell. Another retarded mistake that SE made when they released SCH was that all the good enfeebling spells (Dia, Slow and Paralyze) were under Light Arts, but Dark Arts was the ability that increased enfeebling skill. So to get the enfeebling bonus you had to make them cost more and increase their recast time. It's good that they fixed that.

Back to the list:

• Emperor Band - It blows, its worse than the Empress Band if you XP more than three times a week. Maybe you don't, and maybe I can see it being used for more XP, but man, I was expecting something to get us to XP in Conquest areas.
• New Jug Pets - Maybe? Don't know because I don't know much about BST, but some people say there are now new Jug's listed.
  
• Macro saving - Doesn't look intrusive so probably won't mess with windower macros, so the onslaught of unhappy players is probably avoided.

Thats it for today, and man I had a metric shit ton of stuff that happened over the weekend, and some commentary on Friday's post. Well, suck it, you have to wait for tomorrow.

Adios.