Current state of high tier battlefields and job discrimination...

[Panda2013]

It seems like the default party set up for most of these fights has become a party with a PLD, BRD, WHM and RNGs. While this may be effective and "safe" I feel like most jobs are becoming more and more useless and superfluous. I know you can play a job you don't really like to join the battlefield to get gear for your favorite job, BUT I've feel like this has resulted in me just idling my favorite job than doing any content. Even difficulty levels(Normal and below) where other jobs (RDM, GEO, DDs, etc) can take part we still see players demand rangers and plds. There are a few exceptions like delve and incursion, but seeing as SE's "end game" seems to be releasing a new high tier battlefield every month, I really wish they were more friendly towards other jobs.

What could possibly fix this? Maybe if the battlefields had restrictions on only being able to take unique jobs into the battlefields, that is, only 1 of any type of job is allowed. This would force players to use those additional slots to take in jobs that aren't used much. Otherwise you might as well combine RDM BRD COR and GEO into 1 job, all DDs into RNG somehow and PLD and RUNE into a single job as well.

I don't know, it might just be me, but I'm finding this game more and more boring the more jobs are excluded. FFXI endgame (75 cap days and even aby days) were some of the most job friendly days. You could do anything and play any job you really loved. It gave us so many combinations and so many jobs to gear.

Or maybe it's the player base. Maybe SE never intended these end game battlefields to become stagnant and mundane. Personally I have been approaching these as solo challenges. I've had more fun soloing them on pld, rdm, bst and nin than any party, but even that gets old...

tl;dr: Delve is old, incursion needs more goals, and high tier battlefield job discrimination is making this game stagnant and mundane.

[Crevox]

The answer is: make your own party and make whatever composition you want. People will join that feel the same as you.

From there, it's up to you to succeed.

[Shirai]

Pretty much that, sure there are a few guaranteed win setups and those are comprised of a limited amout of jobs.
But that shouldn't stop people from trying different formations.

That said, there's nothing stopping you from leveling one of the more wanted jobs for certain events either.

[Byrth]

As far as the recently introduced avatar fights, I got all my Normal clears with a setup like DDx3, BRD, WHM, GEO. I also did a D Garuda fairly recently on DNC and soloed Easy Garuda on PLD and DNC. It's a waste of time to use an RNG+PLD setup below VD. The only reason to use it for VD is because it's a braindead simple way to win that is (thus) amenable to shout groups. You can win faster if you use essentially the same strategy with 3x DD or 2x DD + Buffer instead of 2x RNG + PLD, but your melee can't be retarded. I've 4-manned the D versions of these fights a few times with RNG, WHM, PLD, Buffer. Given my difficulty finding bards capable of keeping Scherzo up last night, I think I might resort to doing that all the time.

So yeah, there are a lot of other ways to win and they're all easy (these fights are really easy), but I'm not going to be shouting for any of them because I already have my Normal clears.

[Dale]

It seems like the default party set up for most of these fights has become a party with a PLD, BRD, WHM and RNGs. While this may be effective and "safe" I feel like most jobs are becoming more and more useless and superfluous. I know you can play a job you don't really like to join the battlefield to get gear for your favorite job, BUT I've feel like this has resulted in me just idling my favorite job than doing any content. Even difficulty levels(Normal and below) where other jobs (RDM, GEO, DDs, etc) can take part we still see players demand rangers and plds. There are a few exceptions like delve and incursion, but seeing as SE's "end game" seems to be releasing a new high tier battlefield every month, I really wish they were more friendly towards other jobs.

What could possibly fix this? Maybe if the battlefields had restrictions on only being able to take unique jobs into the battlefields, that is, only 1 of any type of job is allowed. This would force players to use those additional slots to take in jobs that aren't used much. Otherwise you might as well combine RDM BRD COR and GEO into 1 job, all DDs into RNG somehow and PLD and RUNE into a single job as well.

I don't know, it might just be me, but I'm finding this game more and more boring the more jobs are excluded. FFXI endgame (75 cap days and even aby days) were some of the most job friendly days. You could do anything and play any job you really loved. It gave us so many combinations and so many jobs to gear.

Or maybe it's the player base. Maybe SE never intended these end game battlefields to become stagnant and mundane. Personally I have been approaching these as solo challenges. I've had more fun soloing them on pld, rdm, bst and nin than any party, but even that gets old...

tl;dr: Delve is old, incursion needs more goals, and high tier battlefield job discrimination is making this game stagnant and mundane.

The fix would likely do more harm than good. Because part of what makes FFXI remain interesting is the jobs on this game still have a wide range of depth and variety where as on other games they have been balanced to the point of boredom to where they all perform simplistic and nearly identical roles in order to combat this issue you're seeing.

But you can complete this content you describe without resorting to the few specific jobs and group make-ups the so-called elites discriminate over. Which is ironic in and of itself if you think about it. Because you would think skilled players who love a challenge wouldn't insist on everything being done as easily as possible with the most ideal job set up possible. They ought to relish the chance of doing fights in unique and more challenging ways. But anyway, this is beside the point.

In the end this is a player problem not a game problem. So the only real solution here is for people to find friends who won't hold their job choice against them and simply do the content with them. Because I do think your last comment hit the nail on the head in that it's the player base that is to blame for this.

[Afania]

What could possibly fix this? Maybe if the battlefields had restrictions on only being able to take unique jobs into the battlefields, that is, only 1 of any type of job is allowed.

I have to lv specific job for certain BC because the BC wouldn't let me bring my job? Artificial limitation, no thanks!

[Olor]

soloed Easy Garuda on PLD and DNC.

How? I tried VE titan on BST and lasted like 20 seconds... my pet was losing like 10% of it's HP per swing...

Bleh. I guess BST is just that crappy. Don't know why I even bother...

[Byrth]

SP BPs do not drop shadows. I just grabbed book shell, wore PDT gear on DNC, and kept shadows up. For PLD it was more like equip aegis->afk. I can solo tank even VD avatars essentially indefinitely on PLD, but I do crap damage and they have regen. You should look into pet elemental strengths if you want to solo avatars on BST.

[Spectreman]

It seems like the default party set up for most of these fights has become a party with a PLD, BRD, WHM and RNGs. While this may be effective and "safe" I feel like most jobs are becoming more and more useless and superfluous. I know you can play a job you don't really like to join the battlefield to get gear for your favorite job, BUT I've feel like this has resulted in me just idling my favorite job than doing any content. Even difficulty levels(Normal and below) where other jobs (RDM, GEO, DDs, etc) can take part we still see players demand rangers and plds. There are a few exceptions like delve and incursion, but seeing as SE's "end game" seems to be releasing a new high tier battlefield every month, I really wish they were more friendly towards other jobs.

What could possibly fix this? Maybe if the battlefields had restrictions on only being able to take unique jobs into the battlefields, that is, only 1 of any type of job is allowed. This would force players to use those additional slots to take in jobs that aren't used much. Otherwise you might as well combine RDM BRD COR and GEO into 1 job, all DDs into RNG somehow and PLD and RUNE into a single job as well.

I don't know, it might just be me, but I'm finding this game more and more boring the more jobs are excluded. FFXI endgame (75 cap days and even aby days) were some of the most job friendly days. You could do anything and play any job you really loved. It gave us so many combinations and so many jobs to gear.

Or maybe it's the player base. Maybe SE never intended these end game battlefields to become stagnant and mundane. Personally I have been approaching these as solo challenges. I've had more fun soloing them on pld, rdm, bst and nin than any party, but even that gets old...

tl;dr: Delve is old, incursion needs more goals, and high tier battlefield job discrimination is making this game stagnant and mundane.

Welcome To Final Fantasy XI!

[Olor]

SP BPs do not drop shadows. I just grabbed book shell, wore PDT gear on DNC, and kept shadows up. For PLD it was more like equip aegis->afk. I can solo tank even VD avatars essentially indefinitely on PLD, but I do crap damage and they have regen. You should look into pet elemental strengths if you want to solo avatars on BST.

Thanks for the info. Maybe I should level my DNC up. Do you think BLU could do it okay? I don't think any pet has enough elemental resistance to make much of a difference on these things.