Tactics Slots

Been playing a lot of Dragon Age: Origins lately... Mainly I want to finish that so that I can lend it to a coworker, but the plot and character interactions of the game are pretty fun. Ahh... soon I'll have to choose between Alister and Lelianaa... decisions decisions...

One of the features I like the most about DA:O is the "Tactics Slots". Basically, simple programs for your party members to follow. It's basically the same feature as in Final Fantasy XII, or in Mass Effect where you can set actions for your party members to follow when in combat, like when to heal, when to attack, and what spells to cast. Manual control is also possible, like I don't want to cast a huge Blizzard spell unless I have the area under control.

Still... sometimes I wish I could just set tactics for my other party members in FFXI and have them obey... sample tactics:

PLD

1. Self HP less than 75% -- Cure IV

2. Flash [t]

3. Sentinel [me]

4. Rampart [me]

5. Reprisal [me]

BLM

1. Stoneskin [me]

2. Blink [me]

3. Self HP less than 50% -- Drain

4. [target] has MP -- Aspir

5. Self HP > 50% -- Blizzard IV [t]

6. Self HP > 50% -- Thunder IV [t]

DD

1. Attack [t]

2. TP more than 100% -- Weaponskill

BRD

1. Cast March/Minet

2. Cast Ballad

3. If ally HP less than 50% -- Cure III

Healer

1. If ally HP less than 70% -- Cure V

2. If ally enfeebled - Appropriate -na spells

3. If ally HP less than 90% -- Regen

4. If [target] has AoE -- Stay at long range

5. Cast Stoneskin

6. Cast Protectra & Shellra

Then again, isn't that what we do whenever we start up a group event? We assume that other players have their tactic slots set up correctly based on their past experience, and that they can execute their tactics appropriately. Unfortunately, that isn't always the case and we have to adjust their tactics on the fly as we discover holes, or simply a lack of available slots. Every person/player is configured slightly differently and may need adjustment to fit in with what the leader of an event might require... or might not have enough "slots" available to use as they become overwhelmed with what they need to do.

Unfortunately, unlike Dragon Age, we can't take control of them and manually take over for a few commands before letting the program resume.

Dragoon - Further Impressions

I think I'm getting to the point where I'm comfortable with using DRG in most situations. A couple of things happened in the past few days to give me more "on the job" training on DRG.

DRG/mage

Had a little crash course on DRG/WHM fighting Roc. Kurai found him wandering around and got me & Radack over... I think Lumiere did fairly well for healing, and I learnt that Horde Lullaby is a pain when your main healer is a Wyvern that can only be woken up once every 3 minutes. Made some decent progress here, but DRGs really do not make for a good tank since our Jump abilities are designed to shed hate.

Besieged was a better test as DRG/BLU. With Giant's Drink, Lumiere's healing capabilities skyrockets as the HP trigger level is a lot easier to reach, and Lumiere heals for a lot more. I think she surprised Fuuji with how she was basically spamming Cure IV on me (and him) while I ended up tanking the mob. Interestingly enough, I think DRG/BLU is actually a better Besieged job compared to PLD, my former favorite. The only issue is keeping Lumiere alive so that I don't lose my main healer... If I were to do more DRG soloing, I'd probably fully merit Spirit Link.

DRG/SAM

Got bored of DRG/SAM quickly in mass group events like Dynamis. Once I figured out my gear swap macros, the only thing to do was just WS and stuff... I think I want a little more practice on being main assist, but beyond that, I have more fun on PLD.

However, during the ASA fight at Full Moon Fountain. After a bad start and losing both main healers at basically the beginning of the fight, the only thing that kept the DDs going was our sheer remaining HP and Fuuji doing his best with Cure III on BLM. Unfortunately, /SAM means that I can't trigger Healing Breath in any way, but there are still a few tricks that a DRG can use.

Lumiere & I were getting low on HP when I decided to try a risky Spirit Link -> Spirit Surge trick to get my HP up to high enough to survive an avatar's 2-hr. I was looking at our HP bars and figured that Lumiere would be dead from the next 2-hr, and my HP would be too low to survive the next Fomor's 2-hour. Spirit Link followed by Spirit Surge gave Lumiere enough HP that I ended up with a net gain of HP, back to nearly full, and gave me back my Jumps and enough TP to pull off yet another WS. Getting Super Jump back at exactly the right time let me avoid one more Astral Flow, so that kept me & Talint in the game long enough for us to do enough damage to kill the remaining Fomors.

DRG was definitely the right choice for a DD for me... Being able to adjust hate as I see fit, tank if necessary, and the flexibility to be configured as a healer all fit nicely with the way I like to play :)