SMN Perpetuation And MagianFollow

Several things have brought this post to a head. I think I speak for most old players when I say these things.

First, we like when our accomplishments are permanent in the sense that they will not be taken away. Again, to use the WoW example, when a new update hits with new gear, they ninja-nerf the old gear to be worse. My friend was telling me how his one armor in WoW which had a -X% damage taken became -1/2 X % damage after a recent update in WoW. I feel this way about leveling summoner and how the dev team snuck in not 1, but 2 mp/tick perpetuation cost increases for all summoner pets for 75 to 80. My new level 80 summoner can no longer do things he once could because I am no longer able to keep my pets out. It's a ninja nerf in the worst way. Which leads me to my second point...

We like when our accomplishments are permanent in the sense that new content will not entirely outclass old content. We very much do not want WoW, where when a new expansion hits, regular monsters drop gear which is better than the old top-tier gear. I played FFXI for seven years under this belief, and the dev team has done well in the slow power creep. The Magian weapons are a huge power creep, the proverbial regular experience monster dropping better gear than the old top-tier gear. (Bahamut's Staff, and more recently Fay Crozier, anyone?) Sure, I can have the same overall perpetuation, but that requires I continue to do more grind. The dev team gave me an apple in the form of 75 summoner, then they took it back with this update, but offered the apple back if I did some more content. This is quite unpalpable. Which leads me to my last point...

It might not be so bad if the new Magian weapons were fun to get. However, as all endgame FFXI players know, the Magian weapons content is the biggest piece of sh*t in the history of this game. Apparently SE moved most of their dev team to FF14, and are actively trying to kill this game. The Magian content is horrible. I like FFXI's endgame grind because it various, Sea farming and gods for example. I like FFXI's endgame grind because it's challenging and requires skill. Even experience parties are more interesting and exciting than Magian breaking. Magian breaking is the worst content in the entire game by far due to its tediousness and capriciousness (weather anyone?). You want me to get 7 -5 perp staffs? That's ridiculous. Even playing many hours a day, that would take many many months of worthless content, not to mention precious inventory.

tl;dr I had free Fenrir and Garuda. Update took it away and said "You can have free Garuda and Fenrir back once you do these new Magian trials", but too bad Magian trials are the bane of FFXI existence.

So please, FFXI dev team, knock this ninja-nerfing off. Abandon Magian in its entirety. Make the game fun again and less drivel, as I am considering taking an extended break.

Edited, Jul 5th 2010 9:55pm by GerrardCapashen

If you had to get SMN to 80 to realize that the job has increasing perp costs and how they can actually be an impediment toward doing things you could have done more easily with a lower perp cost, you really didn't think the job through well enough before you started leveling it.

Anyway, I do think the whole "being punished for leveling SMN" is bullcrap and ought to be addressed somehow, but I don't see what that really has to do with the magian trial system.



I lol'd.

Any endgame activity, once you've done it enough for it to not be new anymore, becomes no different from all of the rest of the game, which is "farm X sh*t over and over until you get levels/gil/drops and become strong enough to start farming Y sh*t over and over". It's pretty much an RPG staple. Perhaps you're playing the wrong genre of game?



How about no? I happen to enjoy the system. Not all of us are big endgamers and this gives those that are not something to do and work toward that's actually for the most part *doable*.

If you aren't willing to put in the work to stay up to date on new gear, that's your business, but don't drag the rest of us down along with you.

yes, perpetuation cost should scale gradually as you level up SMN--but in this update, they really screwed it up. Previously perpetuation scaled gradually on a fairly steady schedule all the way up to 74. All of a sudden they crammed two tiers almost back to back at the last minute:

Carby: 54, 63, 72, 79, 80 (two back to back)

Fenrir: 59, 66, 73, 78, 80 (all of a sudden the pattern reduces by 1/2)

Diabolos/others: 68, 71, 74, 78, 80 (this is more like it, but should have been 77, not 78)

Elementals: 63, 67, 72, 77, 79, 80 (again... 1/2 stepped tier, then back to back??!!)

I could live with the new teirs between 77-79, but what is with immediately adding a new tier for ALL OF THEM again at 80??!!! They didnt' do this for ANY of the level caps prior to this.

Raist

Even if they get no new spells, the Spirit is still stronger at lvls 76 through 80 than it was at level 75 (higher HP, presumably higher base stats, better results in any calculations relying on level correction vs target mob, etc).

Do SMNs even bother keeping Spirits out? I thought they were just Elemental Siphon targets.

Most SMNs know better. A select few of them still do not.

It's because the dev team feels that the perp increase is OK because the magian staffs can bring it back down to where it was. See OP post. The entire genre of MMO is indeed a rat race, but I prefer a slow moving target as opposed to being pulled back arbitrarily and capriciously. Yes, it doesn't necessarily make logical sense, but that's how I feel.


I politely disagree with your assessment. If the game consisted of pushing the red button when a green light lit up, it would not be a fun game. Presumably you see the point I'm driving at, that yes every repeated activity may eventually become boring, but a sufficiently complex and nuanced activity survives a lot longer than blatant drivel. I stand by my point that the Magian system is a horrible hack, that it was quick for the dev team and was a "good" time suck for the players.

For example, I used to pull Dynamis in my old shell. Yes, it was repeating the same tasks over and over, both intra-run and run-to-run. However, there was nuance and subtlety to the pulling. It required skill that most people did not have in that shell, and to do it really well requires skill that most people do not have. I could easily make or break the run depending on what I did.

Moreover, Magian is ridiculously more tedious than even an experience points party. At least in an experience points party I can challenge myself to do better, to find harder mobs, to skillchain, carefully time my jump, high jump, super jump, weaponskills, and third eye on drg/sam.

All of that, from dynamis, to farming sea pops, to popping sea gods, to experience parties, all of that is immensely more interesting than "Wait for weather. Engage Easy Prey treant. Repeat 100x."

Can you imagine the amount of horrible work needed to get all 7 required 5 perp staffs, just to get back to where I was before the update? I referenced this in my OP post and else-thread that it may not make logical sense, but that's how human desires tend to work. A slow constantly moving target imparts a better feel of accomplishment than to be taken back 10 feet in the race every 12 feet.

Edited, Jul 6th 2010 8:19pm by GerrardCapashen

That's great, but you know what? People also bitched about having to get Nirvana (SMN mythic) in order to get a staff with -1 more perp as well, which entails a whole helluva lot more work and investment and "time suck" than most of these trials do. And they all got told the same thing that I'm telling you now -- tough sh*t. Either do the work to stay up to date, or be happy with what you have.

Don't piss on everyone else's corn flakes just because you don't like yours.




See also: every other perp increase prior to 75, and other assorted gear you had to farm/buy in order to bring THAT increase back down. Why not complain about how hard Penance Robe is to make while you're at it?

Point is, you should have been used to this kind of thing by now. Similar pet job scenario: Yeah, it's bullsh*t that BST can lose claim on NMs when they charm new pets. But if you knew it was going to happen, why do you keep trying to solo NMs on BST?




Yeah, there's no such thing as finding ways to find/research/farm trial mobs more efficiently; you can only do that with VT-IT mobs, right?

Oh wait.




For one, no, 7 staves are not *required*. Do you think BLMs are making all six potency staves? The vast majority of them don't give a sh*t about any of them but thunder and maybe ice. If you feel like you have to do them all for completeness' sake, that's your issue, not the game's. Really, how often do you actually keep avatars out, and if you do, which ones are you actually keeping out? I highly doubt both your answers were "all the time" and "all of them".

For two, welcome to SMN. Again, you should have known all about the whole rising perp costs thing back at Dunes level, assuming you didn't just Korroloka it up all the way to 75-80. If you have issue with that, why did you level the job in the first place?

If you think your SMN was better at 75 than it is at 76+ because of increased perpetuation cost, just delevel it to 75 and set yourself to merit mode. There's, it's like the update never happened. Problem fixed.

Please explain how? Based on what I'm seeing, the only avatar that might not have been "due" for an increase was Carbuncle.

Rising perp costs have been standard issue for your SMN ever since it was in diapers. There's no excuse for you not to have expected a higher perp with a level cap raise. I don't even play SMN and I expected one. Why couldn't you?

Is it cruel and unusual that they made it +2 perp by LV80 all across the board? Yeah. Does it have anything to do with magian trials? Not really, no. Keep your arguments straight.



Pretty much this. I happen to think BRD got kinda screwed in this update, so I'm leaving it at 75 for now and just using it as my merit/sync whore.

Guys, I think you're missing the point of this forum. This forum is feedback and suggestions. It is not strategy guides. You're supposed to complain here (feedback) and preferably in a constructive way (suggestions). I believe I have done so.

The perp increase is somewhat ridiculous, I am surprised there are people who disagree. Of course we expected an increase at some point, but if you look at the pattern up to 75 it remains constant, in this update the patten changed dramatically adding two perpetuation on each avatar between 76-80 when if the pattern had remained constant there would have been... none.

Personally I am kind of fond of the Magian system, and I don't have many complaints about it; it is rather tedious, but if its a choice between doing something tedious or never getting good gear because I am not in a large successful EG shell I pick doing something tedious.

That aside though Summoners were, once again, kind of screwed over. It seems you acknowledge that point at least, so really all you're doing is telling someone who is coming to the feedback forum to give feedback on the matter a hard time because he should be used to summoners being screwed over by now. Aside from being a bad argument, it seems kind of like trolling.

No, you're not the only ones that noticed. I've already said that the increases on perp were a little crazy. I'm saying three things:

1) This has nothing to do with magian trials; keep your arguments straight
2) You should have expected *some* increase in perp with a level cap raise
3) If you're not willing to put in the work for magian trials, you don't deserve the better gear. Some of this stuff is a lot easier to obtain than previous improvements on gear, such as Nirvana. Either deal with it, live with what you've got, or just stay at 75.




Where exactly is SE admitting that perp was a bad decision? Maybe we think it is.

I'm sorry, but when I bother to research stuff I only research the facts, not possible perceived player/SE beliefs and interpretations at some point back in time.

I'd be okay with increasing perpetuation costs if they simultaneously added more -perp gear that was relatively obtainable and could counteract the increasing costs. But it hasn't happened :/

This has everything to do with Magian. It is no coincidence that in the last 4-5 months, we have seen an increase of exactly 2 to the perpetuation of all smn pets and an exactly 2 increase to the perp gear that is "reasonably obtainable" (aka not Nirvana). It is a blatant play at keeping players by giving them busy work, and sh*tty busy work at that. I prefer not having accomplishments ripped out from under me, nor having to pay a upkeep to just keep my head above water. I want to play this game when it's convenient and not backpeddle for it.

Ok...? Doesn't change the fact that it's still retarded, so we'll mention it again here, as feedback, in the feedback and suggestions forum, with the suggestion "don't have it so leveling a summoner makes it worse than before it leveled, and offsetting it with new gear does not make it ok" in the feedback and suggestions forum.

That's just it. My argument is it's not better gear. When I get the new Magian stuff and level 80, I'll be almost right back where I was before the update at level 75. My pets will cost the same amount, they'll be just as sh*tty or sh*ttier compared to other jobs, and I'll lose inventory on it.

Also, your continued implications that Nirvana is reasonably obtainable is laughable and outrageous.

Edited, Jul 7th 2010 8:54pm by GerrardCapashen

it should also be noted that the final Magian -perp. staves are in some ways worse than the previously used HQ Elemental staves. All the elemental staves boost stats, accuracy/potency of spells of the same element, and also elemental resistances.

Also, Yama's is a level 80 item. What about when you have to level synch? Is the perpetuation going to scale down? I doubt it (I've put xp on hold trying to get the dark staff done before I ding 80 SMN). So...we may still have to have our elementals handy for situational use, even if we complete the mind-numbing task of getting a Yama for each avatar. There goes a big chunk of our inventory space....

Personally...I'm likely only going to do the dark staff since I use Fenrir so much....will just have to wait and see what happens with future level caps I guess.

Raist

Edited, Jul 7th 2010 9:10pm by BDHERTZER

Meant as a completely non-offensive observation: WoW might be the game for you. Presumably, you'll never be hardcore, so the hardcore people will always have better gear than you, but with each new patch releasing better gear dropped off random mobs which is better than old top tier gear, the difference between you and hardcore players may be less pronounced.

I like how FFXI has always been about the group mechanic. They're going away from their roots now, which I could stand perhaps, but the solo content of Magian is still atrocious beyond all measure. Solo does not imply "must kill 1000s of Easy Prey mobs under arbitrary and capricious conditions". They could have implemented actual fun content, like the level 20 avatar fights, or the content for Evoker's Ring.

Edited, Jul 7th 2010 9:38pm by GerrardCapashen

Still ignoring that they "ninja-ed" it to be higher than past patterns.

So hostile. Where's the love?

Also, I would think that the entire point of this forum is so things might perhaps change.

I would remind you that this "constantly increasing perpetuation" has largely been a think of the past, more than 7 years ago. The cap has been constant, and consequently the the perp cost has been constant for over 7 years. This punishment you speak of which summoners endure didn't really exist for nearly all of the American release, and nearly the entire history of the game itself. Leveling to 75 is by no means a trivial feat, but it took me less than 4 months to get summoner from 1 to 75, and I played on 75 summoner for many years. For the majority of my playtime on summoner, I did not experience this "ever increasing perpetuation". Thus I also refute your argument on this ground.

Perhaps, if you phrased the criticism in that light earlier, you might be less of a jackass, and you might actually get your point across and thus be efficacious. The alternative, of course, is to continue being a jackass and trolling.

I also don't think you've thought this through carefully. Are you suggesting that all content should be easily obtained? Are you suggesting there shouldn't be content with varying degrees of difficulty and work required? For example, I personally entertain no notion that I will ever get a relic or mythic. This does not lower my enjoyment of the game. However, to reduce all difficulty to the lowest common denominator would destroy the economy and destroy this game.

As I mentioned else-thread, this is also mostly irrelevant to my critique of Magian. My main problem with Magian is not its difficulty per se. I'm not suggesting it should require all the effort and work of Salvage. I'm merely suggesting that the content be at least slightly interesting, such as again the level 20 avatar fights, the evoker's ring content, the artifact armor quests, or any other piece of content in the game, solo or group.

Also, please don't cite Nirvana again. That misses the point that Nirvana is only for the elite of the elite, it is not standard content, and it is not really factored into balancing by the dev team. Whereas Magian is considered standard content, it is expected that most people will do it, and it is factored into the balancing by the dev team. If it's obscure content, it matters less if it's sh*tty. If it's quote unquote required content, and if it's sh*tty, like Magian, then it matters a whole lot more. In that regard, while the content to get a relic is worse than the content to get a Magian weapon, the Magian weapon is much more standard content, much more expected to be done, and much less obscure, and thus Magian is an overall worse design choice for this game. Elite players should be given content which is very repetitive, as there is nothing else which will hold there interest for the same dev team investment. However, the common player base, to which Magian is targeted, and which is a larger portion of the player base, should be given more dev team investment for better content, not this autogenerated garbage.

Edited, Jul 7th 2010 10:30pm by GerrardCapashen

I think a better analogy would be to use BLM or RDM, seeing as his profile shows he hasn't leveled SMN to a point where perpetuation really kicks in, but he has leveled BLM and RDM.

The average perpetuation pattern has accelerated by almost 5% to 9% faster across 80 levels vs. the previous pattern had at the 75 cap:

Carby: >72, once every 8.00 levels
@80, once every 7.27 levels 9.1% increase

Fenrir: >73, once every 6.64 levels
@80, once every 6.15 levels 7.4% increase

Diabolos/ >74, once every 5.69 levels
Others @80, once every 5.33 levels 6.3% increase

Elementals: >72, once every 4.00 levels
@80, once every 3.81 levels 4.75% increase


Now, lets make this a BLM and RDM issue. You've played for years with all your spells costing the same amount. Now all of a sudden, you break a level cap and level up. You picked up two new spells, but they cost a lot to use. But I get new Magic Burst Bonus, and more INT/MND to work with so my old spells are more powerful/accurate now under the right conditions. But wait...wtf? all my previous spells are suddenly costing me more to use them??!! Oh, cool... there's magian trial weapons that will offset it. But...I have to do one weapon for each element to cover all my spells. Oh well... time to grind the hunt lists.

....

....


All these mobs aren't mobs everyone normally XP's on at their levels. Gotta form parties specifically to hunt these lists, or grind it solo.


Whew.... weeks later, I have a full set of staves to offset the new MP costs...but...they only work at 80+ and I can't use them in level synch. Good thing I still have my HQ elemental staves....oh crap....just realized I don't get the MACC/MAB and resistance bumps from the Yama Staves that I got from my elemental staves....

<Forum post>
What's up SE? Why are you making us jump through so many hoops just to maintain the same efficiency on our jobs? Couldn't you have just given us one weapon to offset the new MP Cost across the board? You gave us one with the Fey Weapons, but this new tweak is stronger than that weapon offsets. Why not give us another tier of the same type of weapon with Magian?

<reply on forums>
If you don't like it, don't level the job.



That's it. No more feeding the trolls on this issue...

Raist

Let's try to find some common ground. Please stop as soon as you disagree. You do agree that they ninja-ed the perp cost to be higher than expected, right? You do agree that the dev team specifically planned both of these changes in conjunction, one relying on the other, right? Specifically, you do agree that a balancing decision was reached by the dev team which jacked the perp cost up abnormally, but offset it by the new Magian staffs, in order to result in more busy work by the summoners to be powerful, but to end in a state where they were not more powerful than where they started? (Not trying to be pejorative here about busy work. Just stating facts.) Thus, you do agree that the new Magian perp staffs are intricately tied to the ninja-ed perp cost increase, right?

While partially true, I think this is a mischaracterization. I am all for new content, and yes you have to do that new content to stay competitive. There is another, mostly orthogonal, point which I'm trying to make, and that is that purposefully making the class even worse when leveled, but making up for it in new content, is
1- specific to summoner,
2- worse than past patterns, aka has some origin to this update,
3- and is fundamentally different than doing new content to stay competitive with others doing new content.

Instead, it's doing new content on 80 summoner to be competitive vs someone who did no new content on 75 summoner. I still think you're just being contrary when you claim that it's a reasonable state of affairs when leveling makes your character worse. You can cite that it has been this way in the past, but that is immaterial to this point. Past conditions are irrelevant on the desirability of an outcome.

It's also unfair to summoner vs other jobs which do not need to do this busy work to stay competitive vs their level 75 counterparts. (At least most of them. I'm unaware of the brd stuff. I'll have to look into that when I'm not lazy.)

No. The fundamental subtle point made continuously throughout my posts, starting in the OP, is that there is a difference between staying competitive with other players doing new content, and staying competitive vs past behavior. It is distinctly unsatisfying to be able to do something one day, then to have it taken away. (And yes, I still think you're just being contrary if you think it's reasonable that I should just not level. etc etc)

My point is that someone, if they take a break for a year, should not be better at old content than if they partook in new content. My 75 summoner will be better in some ways compared to my new summoner who merely partook in new content, aka to get to level 80. This is standard content. Content should not make you worse, especially something as intrinsic as leveling. That's just counter to so many intuitions and desires.

Edited, Jul 8th 2010 1:15am by GerrardCapashen

Here, you conveniently snip the relevant portion of my argument.
You snipped the context of the quote, doing me a disservice. Allow me to reproduce the rest of the snipped paragraph.Specifically, "to complete the comparison", as in the snipped portion is incomplete. Let me repeat argument which I made else-thread, else you misquote me.

The argument goes that the dev team surely considered the ninja-ed increase to perpetuation at the same time and in conjunction with the new Magian perp staffs. They felt it was reasonable to apply this summoner specific, patch specific, new nerf, because there was a remedy to this nerf in the form of the new Magian perp staffs. That is the connection between perpetuation and Magian.

Note that this is the feedback and suggestions forum, so it makes sense to frame the feedback and suggestions in light of this obvious and intentional game balancing decision, the decision "the additional perpetuation which breaks past patterns is ok because of the new Magian perp staffs", with which I disagree.

Edited, Jul 8th 2010 1:17am by GerrardCapashen

The ironic part is that perpetuation and new useful things are completely unrelated.

When we get new BPs, we get new MP costs to balance them out.

When we get new perpetuation, the only thing we get to balance that out is a few HP, higher level for damage calculations, and some minor increase in damage taken. I.e. the perpetuation cost is for what any melee get for free.

Perpetuation exists to prevent you from insane solo. But it prevents you from any kind of partying too. Just like if you made PLD take high damage from mobs to prevent them from soloing, and then they become useless at party tanking. Perpetuation should have always been canceled out by party members.

Solo = normal perpetuation
duo = -1 perpetuation
full party = -5 perpetuation

That would have put a well geared SMN at 0 perpetuation in parties, and the job would never have had any issues at all. A solution that should have been done 2004, but since SE can't admit their mistakes, we are stuck with them repeatedly doing the same mistakes over and over.

tbh...I never understood why summoning was bound to a mp perpetuation cost in the first place. The avatars and elementals are standalone entities. You don't cast a spell and create them out of thin air. You maybe cast a spell to summon them, but that's about it. Making them consume mp while out is kind of like having a BST pet or DRG wyvern consume the caller's hp over time. If anything, that's really what an Avatar should be bound to--HP. It is after all considered a BLOOD PACT. In summoning jutsu, the conjurer sacrifices their blood to call forth a demon--should follow the same theme for summoners.

...but that's SE for you....

Raist

This just gave me another way of thinking about it. Let's take bst or drg or pup. The cost to "summon" their pet is constant from the moment they get the ability. For bst, drg, and pup, it's simply a recast timer on a job ability. In addition, their pet scales with level. Summoner pets do not have a set cost; the cost varies with level. Unlike bst, drg, and pup pets, the summoner cost more the higher level your summoner is.

I wonder what it would be like if the perp cost was constant from level 1, you know, so leveling actually made your job better ala bst, drg, and pup. That's probably how it should have been done.

Heh, the more I think about it, the more I realize that summoner has all the bizarro balancing. It has ever increasing perp cost, BP delays, skill over cap, etc. The entire class is just fundamentally broken and needed a rewrite as soon as it was released, but good ole SE didn't do it then, and it's much harder to do it now.

Here's some provocative ideas:

1- Perp cost is constant across levels. Carby mitts makes carby free. Nirvana makes the rest of them free. (I like my sacred cows.) Summoner gains the ability to actually have some customization with gear instead of worrying about mp bleed. As it currently stands, lets see, with my gear I devote weapon, head, body, hands, 1 ring, and feet all to just prevent this mp bleed, aka just treading water. That's a lot of gear slots lost just to be functional. Anyone can see that this pattern cannot continue much longer without just new tier sets of gear ala Magian which I think would be a horrible idea, which I've mentioned else-thread.

2- Just get rid of BP timer entirely in its current form. I've been partial to a pup-style system where you can spam BPs, but if you use BPs too quickly, a penalty might / will occur, such as each subsequent BP costs more mp until you are "cooled down". The current BP gear could be retrofitted to decrease this "cooldown" time.

3- Summoner skill over the cap is beyond retarded. Make it like the rest of the skills, like Polearm skill, so it's the absolute number which matters. I doubt there's any actual summoners nowadays who don't have near-capped skill anyway.

4- Fix the BP Wards and Favors to be cost competitive with other buffing jobs. As is nearly all of them are a joke, especially moreso nowadays when other jobs can do AOE stoneskin and AOE blink. That used to be special. Now our 250 (?) point stoneskinga is a joke. For the sh*tty wards, some combination of last longer, more "powerful" (ex: more damage absorbed by stoneskin, higher attack bonus of Crimson Howl), and cheaper (though I will remind you that the mp cost is generally not the biggest cost to BPs. It's the time cost to summon, to use the BP, to position the pet, and the BP recast timer.) Same for Favors.

5- Make spirits less stupid. Some combination of better AI, better magic acc and magic att, less time between castings, and cheaper.

6- Make some combination of summoner's mnd, summoner's int, summoner's cha affect the various attributes of the pet. (I'd go with cha, but that's because I'm a DND guy.) We're the only job where all of our base stats are near meaningless, though int has become important with /sch.

PS: Thank you for Odin. That was a really nice move to allow summoner to dump all their MP for one big massive shot, aka useful for zergs. I don't think any summoner was really asking for that, but it's quite useful nonetheless.

Edited, Jul 8th 2010 6:16pm by GerrardCapashen

Oh how I wish.

As noted else-thread, the solution that SE has had for perp has always been in the past better gear. The problem with this is that a lot of summoner gear is now simply devoted to perp, and they're running out of slots to devote to perp. The end result is that they're starting to have much more blatant tier set releases. (This I strongly dislike. The updates should be gradual, not overpowered tier sets each release.) This update is no different. It is no coincidence that the staffs available to most summoners went from 3 to 5 in the last couple of months and the perp cost went 2 higher in the last couple of months.

This is correct.



They gave us one of those, it made me sad all day. Hopefully you are right, and there is a good perp- ability on the way, but I won't hold my breath.

Though the avatars are namesakes and references to real life deities, they are wholly separate from their real life counterparts. And with the exception of Garuda all are actually reincarnations of previous Final Fantasy summons, though again in XI they exist in a unique mythology different from their incarnations in previous games (e.g. Shiva in FFXI is not the Shiva in X or IX or VIII etc...) So ascribing to them the myths of their real life counterparts is inaccurate. Its quite common in SE games, as they love to make reference to mythological and historical things. Another example is the Joyeuse; Obviously there was no Charlemagne in Vana'diel history, and the sword in game is not like the Joyeuse which Charlemagne was said to use. It's just a reference to it.

In FFXI the avatars have a very interesting back story, which I have always thought deserved more attention in the main plots. The origins of the celestial avatars, excluding Alex and Odin, are explained in old Vana'diel Tribune articles called Legends of the Constellations. If you play through various quests and missions you also learn that the celestial avatars are actually slumbering in another plane. As for the Terrestrial avatars I believe they were animals who ascended to godhood to look over Vana'diel while the celestial avatars slumbered. I think, though it has been some time since I read up on it, that when they awaken the five terrestrial avatars and the races of Altana will die and it will be the end of Vana'diel as we know it.

Anywho, the avatars we call forth a small fractions of their true forms, and it is the power of the summoner that evokes them and keeps them within the material plane, thus we have perpetuation costs. Logical enough from a story standpoint, huge pain in the butt from a game balance stand point.