[url=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/5510782]THE ELEMENTAL NOTE BUFF IS LIVE![/url]

The DoCS has already been updated to reflect the changes, but if you want a side by side breakdown, just click on the link above for the patch notes. Some of you may wish to change your notes up due to this. 

I gave a decent write up on why the changes were made, and I won't repeat myself here. But I will say a few words on the direction the DoCS is moving in. 

Arcane defense is kind of strong. Most of your opponents use magic based attacks of some kind and many espers only use arcane weaponry. At the same time, your primary foes are monsters, and they all have very low magical defenses. This does make it difficult to justify using stronger notes against monsters. This wasn't an issue in the last RP because everyone was locked to silver glamors and couldn't get very strong. But it's possible to cast S rank melodies now. It's just not always clear if it's necessary to do so. [s]Even if some of you just like big numbers and will always use the strongest abilities at your disposal.[/s]

Moving forward, you're going to notice a lot of notes are going to start relying on factors other than magical resistance, especially when it comes to monsters. Arcane resistance is always going to reduce damage from spells, it's just not always going to be the deciding factor on weather an effect works or not. 

And Blink/Transplace/Purify/Dispel are due for a rework, maybe next downtime.

Other than that, Operations should start again in 1-2 weeks. I'll probably have a poll up later today asking what everyone wants to participate in. Hopefully you have your collabs most the way done. If you've written with someone, you can start brainstorming Backups with them if you'd like.