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by Reaperfan Sun Mar 18, 2012 1:56 amDISCLAIMER: I am posting this with the sole intention of venting frustration. I am not attacking anybody or anything, and do not want to start a flamewar, though if somehow this sparks actual discussion that's fine. I don't even know if what I'm saying will completely make sense because I'm thinking pretty wildly right now, and in hindsight will probably look back at this and realize I am just plain wrong on some things. This is just an announcement from me, drawn out in the form of a disgruntled rant.
Something has snapped in me. Anybody who's known me here for a significant amount of time will know what this is. I haven't had much of a problem with it until recently when I thought back to all the times I've encountered other players in the past few weeks. Whether it be random invasions, summons for duels, or hosts I've invaded, in the past few weeks I've seen about 6 people who didn't use the Dark Wood Grain Ring, and 3 of those were under the 25% equip load, so their fighting style was no different from someone using it. I've seen 1 medium weight roller, and about two >50% players, all of which were hosts I invaded and were clearly playing the game for the first time.
Then I realized the ways this has impacted the metagame, beyond it just being a broken singular item...by rereading our own FC rules. I respect our community, love it in fact. It's the only other entirely online community I've ever felt genuinely attached to besides my first Linkshell in Final Fantasy XI. It is because of this that I respect what we consider to be, as a community, worth disallowing in honorable fights. But by looking at what we chose and agreed upon as "unfair" in fighting, I realized so many problems with what we prioritize. We seem to have made dueling into nothing but a poke-fest. There is no variety, just players dodging around, fishing for a hit, then backing out to dodge around again, and the DWGR is at the heart of this boring style of fighting. We consider backstabs unfair because they are too easy to accomplish with the ring equipped. We consider spells (except for weapon buffs because those shorten the poke-fests by a considerable amount) unfair because of a single spell, Wrath of the Gods, which happens to be one of the few counters to constantly flipping around fishing for hits. We consider turtling unfair because we can't backstab people out of it due to previously stated reasons, and it elongates fights to the point of boredom as a result. The no healing midfight and bowing before and after are to ensure basic courtesy and signal that you are part of the group, but do not impact the actual style of the match. We have locked ourselves into a static fighting style, reinforced by the advantages the DWGR allows (for what those are, look up any previous posts by me in balance-related threads here or on the old forums, I'm feeling too broken up to repeat those here).
The worst part is, this is all necessary because of what happens in PvP outside of the honorable duels. People abuse the DWGR to stack poise without losing mobility, making backstab-fishing possible. People abuse the family masks because they all benefit characters with semi-tanky loadouts, which the DWGR allows them to have with no consequences. People abuse Wrath of the Gods because it's the only genuinely effective way to stop backstab spam and dodge-happy pokers, and those tactics are only abused because of the freedom allowed by the DWGR. Nobody uses greatshields because they provide nothing a "medium shield + flip" doesn't.
Without the DWGR, backstabs would be okay because you'd have to work to get them. Without the DWGR, there would be a reason to wear something without poise. Without the DWGR, there would be variety in shield and armor choice. Without the DWGR, spells would be viable because they wouldn't be so easy to dodge with every build. Without the DWGR, someone could effectively use a build with greater than 50% equip load. Without the DWGR, combat would be interesting.
Until the day comes that the DWGR doesn't define everything we do with our characters, consider me hollowed. Farewell.
Something has snapped in me. Anybody who's known me here for a significant amount of time will know what this is. I haven't had much of a problem with it until recently when I thought back to all the times I've encountered other players in the past few weeks. Whether it be random invasions, summons for duels, or hosts I've invaded, in the past few weeks I've seen about 6 people who didn't use the Dark Wood Grain Ring, and 3 of those were under the 25% equip load, so their fighting style was no different from someone using it. I've seen 1 medium weight roller, and about two >50% players, all of which were hosts I invaded and were clearly playing the game for the first time.
Then I realized the ways this has impacted the metagame, beyond it just being a broken singular item...by rereading our own FC rules. I respect our community, love it in fact. It's the only other entirely online community I've ever felt genuinely attached to besides my first Linkshell in Final Fantasy XI. It is because of this that I respect what we consider to be, as a community, worth disallowing in honorable fights. But by looking at what we chose and agreed upon as "unfair" in fighting, I realized so many problems with what we prioritize. We seem to have made dueling into nothing but a poke-fest. There is no variety, just players dodging around, fishing for a hit, then backing out to dodge around again, and the DWGR is at the heart of this boring style of fighting. We consider backstabs unfair because they are too easy to accomplish with the ring equipped. We consider spells (except for weapon buffs because those shorten the poke-fests by a considerable amount) unfair because of a single spell, Wrath of the Gods, which happens to be one of the few counters to constantly flipping around fishing for hits. We consider turtling unfair because we can't backstab people out of it due to previously stated reasons, and it elongates fights to the point of boredom as a result. The no healing midfight and bowing before and after are to ensure basic courtesy and signal that you are part of the group, but do not impact the actual style of the match. We have locked ourselves into a static fighting style, reinforced by the advantages the DWGR allows (for what those are, look up any previous posts by me in balance-related threads here or on the old forums, I'm feeling too broken up to repeat those here).
The worst part is, this is all necessary because of what happens in PvP outside of the honorable duels. People abuse the DWGR to stack poise without losing mobility, making backstab-fishing possible. People abuse the family masks because they all benefit characters with semi-tanky loadouts, which the DWGR allows them to have with no consequences. People abuse Wrath of the Gods because it's the only genuinely effective way to stop backstab spam and dodge-happy pokers, and those tactics are only abused because of the freedom allowed by the DWGR. Nobody uses greatshields because they provide nothing a "medium shield + flip" doesn't.
Without the DWGR, backstabs would be okay because you'd have to work to get them. Without the DWGR, there would be a reason to wear something without poise. Without the DWGR, there would be variety in shield and armor choice. Without the DWGR, spells would be viable because they wouldn't be so easy to dodge with every build. Without the DWGR, someone could effectively use a build with greater than 50% equip load. Without the DWGR, combat would be interesting.
Until the day comes that the DWGR doesn't define everything we do with our characters, consider me hollowed. Farewell.
Wait, farmers...
