Vana'fest! It keeps going... and going... and going...

I don't know how I missed this, but a couple of days ago, SE stealth added even more content to the Vana'fest website. It isn't any amazingly earth-shattering information, but it is at least a better English translation of what we have heard so far. The first thing to check out are the video reviews of Vana'fest. The first two videos are of the NA Community Team doing a review of the event, and the rest of the videos are very high quality versions of the event itself. They are all definitely worth the view time.

The second thing that has been added is a listing of the potential changes that are coming to all 20 jobs in the next year. These are insanely vague, as SE hates making promises before they can deliver, like they did with the whole new Summons debacle. You can't point to anything in the discussion that makes you say, "Oh, we are getting that new ability". In fact, I don't know if any of this is going to equate into specific job abilities themselves. It is more of an explanation of the design philosophy for all of the jobs moving forward.

Honestly, I am at a loss as to how SE is going to handle the level cap increase for everyone. Are we going to get more JA's and spells as the levels rise? I don't think there are any jobs that truly get new JA's at level cap. For the most part JA's are pretty much finished by level 60. So while, I, and probably everyone else, is hoping that we end up getting a huge number of new JA's, I just don't see it happening. That said, if they are going to give us some new JA's, then level 80 would be a nice round number to give us those new abilities. Spells on the other hand are going to need to come more often just because that is how they are designed. Most spell casters get at least one new spell every level, and raising the level cap without more spells just doesn't seem to do very much. At the very least, healers are going to need a new tier of spells because as levels rise so will HP pools, and so will damage from higher level mobs. To deal with this with the current tier of spells would quickly drain almost all healers. But then again, maybe that is why all healers are going to have access to Refresh and Convert.

I don't know if this is how SE is going to feed us information regarding the announcements made at Vana'fest but I will keep an eye out and see if anything new pops up!

<a href="http://www.playonline.com/ff11/event/vanafes2010/reportimg/7a_6984.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://www.playonline.com/ff11/event/vanafes2010/reportimg/7a_6984.jpg" style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 252px; height: 182px;" /></a>I don't know how I missed this, but a couple of days ago, SE stealth added even more content to the Vana'fest website. It isn't any amazingly earth-shattering information, but it is at least a better English translation of what we have heard so far. The first thing to check out are the <a href="http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/event/vanafes2010/index.html">video reviews of Vana'fest</a>. The first two videos are of the NA Community Team doing a review of the event, and the rest of the videos are very high quality versions of the event itself. They are all definitely worth the view time. <br /><br />The second thing that has been added is a listing of the potential changes that are coming to <a href="http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/event/vanafes2010/index.html?page=5">all 20 jobs</a> in the next year. These are insanely vague, as SE hates making promises before they can deliver, like they did with the whole new Summons debacle. You can't point to anything in the discussion that makes you say, "Oh, we are getting <span style="font-style:italic;">that</span> new ability". In fact, I don't know if any of this is going to equate into specific job abilities themselves. It is more of an explanation of the design philosophy for all of the jobs moving forward.<br /><br />Honestly, I am at a loss as to how SE is going to handle the level cap increase for everyone. Are we going to get more JA's and spells as the levels rise? I don't think there are any jobs that truly get new JA's at level cap. For the most part JA's are pretty much finished by level 60. So while, I, and probably everyone else, is hoping that we end up getting a huge number of new JA's, I just don't see it happening. That said, if they are going to give us some new JA's, then level 80 would be a nice round number to give us those new abilities. Spells on the other hand are going to need to come more often just because that is how they are designed. Most spell casters get at least one new spell every level, and raising the level cap without more spells just doesn't seem to do very much. At the very least, healers are going to need a new tier of spells because as levels rise so will HP pools, and so will damage from higher level mobs. To deal with this with the current tier of spells would quickly drain almost all healers. But then again, maybe that is why all healers are going to have access to Refresh and Convert.<br /><br />I don't know if this is how SE is going to feed us information regarding the announcements made at Vana'fest but I will keep an eye out and see if anything new pops up!

Yours truely on LBR? More likely than you might think!

Yesterday, I made a guest appearance on Limit Break Radio. Well, I was on the recording of the show, but the show isn't available yet. You should see it as soon as Aniero gets done with the editing. Be sure to check it out on the Limit Break Radio website. We covered a wide array of topics dealing with Vana'fest and the March update. Sadly, Kallo was not able to make the show, and I think that is probably because is he is huge pussy. He was scared of me coming on the show and crushing his hopes, his dream and his soul. That's right, I am the Kallo Soul Crusher. In reality, he had some personal issues to deal with so he could not make it. Excuses, excuses, excuses. We even discussed the fact that all he is doing right now is having his life controlled by his girlfriend, forcing him to play WoW during one of WoW's most boring content cycles, and during one of FFXI's most exciting content cycles. Talk about whipped.

Aniero even promised to no bleep out Izman's name because Kallo was not on the show. That's what you get Kallo!

Yesterday, I made a guest appearance on Limit Break Radio. Well, I was on the recording of the show, but the show isn't available yet. You should see it as soon as Aniero gets done with the editing. Be sure to check it out on the <a href="http://limitbreakradio.com/">Limit Break Radio website</a>. We covered a wide array of topics dealing with Vana'fest and the March update. Sadly, Kallo was not able to make the show, and I think that is probably because is he is huge pussy. He was scared of me coming on the show and crushing his hopes, his dream and his soul. That's right, I am the Kallo Soul Crusher. In reality, he had some personal issues to deal with so he could not make it. Excuses, excuses, excuses. We even discussed the fact that all he is doing right now is having his life controlled by his girlfriend, forcing him to play WoW during one of WoW's most boring content cycles, and during one of FFXI's most exciting content cycles. Talk about whipped.<br /><br />Aniero even promised to no bleep out Izman's name because Kallo was not on the show. That's what you get Kallo!