It's coming

[Del Murder]

In less than a month we will see the first level cap raise in about 6 years. They haven't released what the cap will be, but I'm guessing 80 since that makes the most sense.

So how many of your level 75 jobs are you going to take to 80 and beyond? What subjobs are you most looking forward to using with your new high level job? What new features do you think your job will get at the high levels?

I'm taking BLU up first, no doubt. It's easy to know what I'll get, more monster spells, but which ones are hard to say since there are so damn many. I'm really hoping for Battery Charge, since with /RDM we can refresh ourselves anyway, so giving us a spell for it shouldn't be too bad.

Not sure how far I will take PLD. Depends on what it gets at high levels and how long it takes to level it. Most merit style parties don't use a tank, though my DD PLD gear is pretty decent since BLU uses many of the same things.

As for subjobs, I already got NIN to 49 since that's the sub I use 90% of the time. If Innin doesn't get nerfed in some way it will be pretty sweet, especially if it affects BLU physical spells, but I have my doubts. The other sub I'm working on is RDM since Convert and Refresh are pretty nice (assuming they aren't nerfed either).

[Ouch!]

Level 80 was confirmed quite some time ago in an interview; no details on how the level caps will proceed from there. It was also confirmed at Vanafest that Yonin/Innin will not be available at all when NIN is used as a support job. Yonin/Innin for NIN and WHM's Afflatus "stances" were identified as staples for the jobs and will not carry over, similar to how DRG's Call Wyvern is exclusive. Certainly this is subject to change, but they seemed pretty adamant about it).

I'll be taking RDM up first with SCH up second. As far as RDM support jobs go, WHM is sitting at 41. Without Afflatus, /WHM offers very little of use in comparison to /SCH, and probably not enough to justify leveling it. BLM is currently at level 45; I'll finish soloing it later. SCH is 75 already, so no need to worry there. BLU is at 38 and NIN at 37. Since these are melee subs, and hardly priorities, I'm sure I'll get around to them later.

[Del Murder]

No Innin...that sucks. So really /NIN adds nothing except DWIII, which is pretty good but not what I was looking forward to once I was a DD NIN in a party and saw how great Innin was. Oh well.

[Rostum]

I'll probably take PLD up first, but WAR and BLM might be easier... We'll see.

[Ouch!]

No Innin...that sucks. So really /NIN adds nothing except DWIII, which is pretty good but not what I was looking forward to once I was a DD NIN in a party and saw how great Innin was. Oh well.

It is a bit disappointing that when NIN finally offers something useful other than utsusemi spam as a support job (dual wield is all but dead for most melees anyway), they rip it away from us. I understand that PLD/NIN with yonin would be potentially broken, but Square Enix has adjusted abilities for support jobs before (Sneak and Trick Attack only granting a critical hit without the natural DEX/AGI multipliers that main job gets, for instance). Why not do the same for yonin and innin?

[Del Murder]

The level 76-80 job abilities and spells have been released! Also some pre-75 stuff gets added as well:

FINAL FANTASY XI Official Web Site

Did your job(s) get anything good? Looks like PLD is getting some stuff to help it take physical damage better. Phalanx will be a tremendous help. A return of /war sub might be in the mix.

It sucks that all the jobs get all these new things and all BLU gets is 'new spells will be added'. Gee thanks SE we couldn't figure that out already. That's what they always do for BLU in the update notes though. I hope Battery Charge is good.

[Rostum]

I don't know if I have it in me to level even just one of my 75 jobs to 80...

[Ouch!]

It's here and everything ever is completely smurfing useless. Well, almost everything.
http://juliandev.com/juneupdate/armor.txt

[Del Murder]

I was wondering what the hell you were talking about and then I remembered this is Ouch! so it's probably about gear. Gear shmear. What about the new BLU spells!?

[Rostum]

Gear shmear.

I don't think you understand. Everything is replaced by a huge margin. Though, personally I probably won't be playing much longer if I need to grind heap and replace all my gear.

Btw, here you go:

Acrid Stream - Deals water damage to enemies within a fan-shaped area originating from the caster. Additional effect: Lowers target's magic defense.

Blazing Bound - Deals fire damage to an enemy.

Plenilune Embrace - Restores target party member's HP and enhances attack and magic attack.

Demoralizing Roar - Weakens the attack of enemies within range.

Cimicine Discharge - Reduces the attack speed of enemies within range.

Animating Wail - Increases attack speed.

Battery Charge - Gradually restores MP.

Leafstorm - Deals wind damage to enemies within area of effect.

Regenration - Gradually restores HP.

[Del Murder]

REFRESH! No new physical spells, but that's ok, lots of other good stuff.

Also, and I'll have to check once I finally get to log in, but once I do I'm pretty sure everything I had in my inventory will still be there and won't be replaced. What was good yesterday will still be good today.

[Ouch!]

If you like being gimp, sure. Level 76-80 stuff is better than anything we have right now save for a few pieces. Sure, it'll last to 80 and do well, but they just outright killed a lot of formerly top-tier gear. If they're doing that with only level 80 out, imagine everything from 81-99.

[Del Murder]

I looked at your list and only saw a few things I would want, to be honest. There is some good stuff to be sure, but to say it replaces everything is an overstatement. We don't even know how to get this junk. If it requires hunting some level 99 NM then I'm perfectly fine with my slightly less elite equipment.

[Rostum]

Except that all the new gear is a huge improvement of anything currently in the game, and to say otherwise pretty much shows you either don't know anything about end-game gear or you're just in denial because you don't want to make the effort to get more gear.

I can not imagine sticking with our current gear at level 99 or even 80+ for that matter. You'll gimp out majorly, and I'm not saying that because I'm an elitist snob (because I'm far from it). It'll pretty much equate to being level 30 and saying "Why should I get new gear when this level 16 gear worked fine when I was level 16?".

That said, I can't be assed to get more gear. ><; Probably be the end of me on FFXI. Also tried out Walk of Echos and it was complete trash.

[Ouch!]

While Walk of Echoes is apparently trash (nobody knows what the smurf is up, as I understand it), Abyssea is some of the most fun I've had in Final Fantasy XI in years.