Job balancing?

[OmnysValefor]

I don't think you understand. BLU job point gifts are so mindbogglingly overpowered compared to all other jobs that they need to be toned down significantly. Having two free levels of all your traits, combined with the ability to choose which traits to set is too powerful. Especially when you compare it to jobs like DNC, or PUP, where your job point gifts actually hurt you.

There is a reason that BLU is the most sought-after melee right now, and it's because it's broken. And they won't fix it because they don't want to admit that they made a mistake.

Let's look at some other Jobs' 100 and 1200 point gifts, and compare them to two free levels of whatever job traits you want to set, excluding TA and TH.

[...]

Oh no, I do totally understand

A lot of jobs got the shaft. Either the guys designing JP gifts really understood BLU or really didn't. I would love to see an overhaul of many jobs JP gifts (not GEO's though--I think GEO's base is too high to need much love and I think that the synergy of the gifts giving skill means you can change your midcast set is a wonderful thing. T5 nukes may be a silly gift, but GEO just... doesn't need much).

Towards the thread I linked above, an old one of mine, I'd point out that whoever designed gifts really didn't understand PLD, and really didn't understand Monk.

It is true that most jobs in the game would trade their 100/1200 for (Two free tiers of all your native job traits) and I understand how much more potent blu's is due to versatility.

[machini]

The problem is that it's much easier to get rid of the BLU 100/1200 gifts than it is to give everyone else equally useful things. I'd prefer a solution that doesn't remove those two free levels, but it seems like it's the only workable solution, given the priorities of the dev team.

[Railer]

On Runefencer Battuta needs to be a spell not a job ability.

[OmnysValefor]

On Ninja, they have a Ninjutsu spell like Crusade. Why? They already have Yonin, Buff Yonin to match. Nobody is trying to hold-hate on anything danger in Innin. Ninja has too many spells.

Subtle Blow should reduce damage taken from spike spells. Every 1 point of subtle blow should reduce the damage taken from spikes by 1%.

[Olor]

Oh yeah, pretty much a cross post but... either fencer needs to have some benefits for pets and BST needs better shields and shield ratings or fencer needs to be dumped in favour of dual-wield on BST ... PLZ.

[Kassaiemi]

Oh no, I do totally understand

A lot of jobs got the shaft. Either the guys designing JP gifts really understood BLU or really didn't. I would love to see an overhaul of many jobs JP gifts (not GEO's though--I think GEO's base is too high to need much love and I think that the synergy of the gifts giving skill means you can change your midcast set is a wonderful thing. T5 nukes may be a silly gift, but GEO just... doesn't need much).

Towards the thread I linked above, an old one of mine, I'd point out that whoever designed gifts really didn't understand PLD, and really didn't understand Monk.

It is true that most jobs in the game would trade their 100/1200 for (Two free tiers of all your native job traits) and I understand how much more potent blu's is due to versatility.

I just have a hard time thinking of anything that would be an equivalent power boost to other jobs that match the sheer number of new spells and the power of traits available to BLU. It's especially bad in the case of RDM, where BLU has more or less become a better RDM. You're a much more balanced caster/melee hybrid, you're a hell of a lot more powerful, and you still have party wide buffs, at the cost of not having the powerful disables RDM has, but on the flip side, it's extremely difficult to land those disables on things that matter anyways. What would you even do to bring RDM back into playability, when comparing it to the bar BLU has set? Go against its class design and give it AOEs? Massively reduce the resistance to debuffs bosses have? Massively increase its spell damage and put it on par with BLM or SCH and, again, go against its class design? Massively buff its heals to make it compete with WHM and SCH for healing?

I'd love to see buffs to the other jobs that bring them "up to BLU's level" but I'm completely stumped on what any such buffs would even be, other than just upping trait levels, layering on tons of new spells and abilities (which might not even be possible within the limitations of the game engine), and making the (non-BLU) melees about thirty times tankier. Which would in turn further polarize the difference between no JP BLUs and fully farmed BLUs which is a whole other kettle of fish. I dunno. BLU does have the distinction of being one of -- if not the most -- farm-intensive jobs to actually become relevant, but when it DOES become relevant, it turns into such complete BS.

[dmuller30]

I can tell you first hand I got blu 99 with JP just for the power it posses. It far outweighs any other job and you can get the gear easily. The relic or mythic isn't the best a pair of good Coladas will do the trick. They should make the rest of the jobs follow suit. Why take away from us they keep on taking away from us. They should add more abilities to other jobs to make them fun and powerful so that way some balancing can happen. And even on blu I don't get ask to go anywhere on it most the time I get asked to go on my GEO although my gear on blu far outweighs my geo. I can survive aoe attacks and heal myself but just barley monsters still needs to be fixed. What I would really love is to play my MNK or SMN again, those 2 jobs in my eyes need a serious face lift!

[cengeal]

I don't think you understand. BLU job point gifts are so mindbogglingly overpowered compared to all other jobs that they need to be toned down significantly. Having two free levels of all your traits, combined with the ability to choose which traits to set is too powerful. Especially when you compare it to jobs like DNC, or PUP, where your job point gifts actually hurt you.

RNG gets 10% ranged attack delay reduction while under the effect of Velocity Shot, which as a 2 minute duration and a 5 minute recast time. So 60% of the time, Ranger's DRG gets a buff to their incredibly fragile pet.

[edited for politeness]

Velocity Shot lasts 2 hours, not 2 minutes. Not sure why you thought it lasted 2 minutes. Secondly, DRG wyverns are not that fragile. The DRG however, is. And DRG gifts are actually pretty good. You also didn't post every 550 JP Gifts, which is okay, but leaving that out can be rather misleading. RUN gets Temper, which is actually pretty awesome for a true melee. RDM gets new enfeebles, which are pretty useful (if they land). DRK gets Drain III, which can cap your max hp. There are other pretty awesome 550 JP Gifts, but I don't feel like listing them all.

You are correct: Some jobs get crappy gifts, others get good ones, some get amazing gifts. This is a fact. If anything, I think the inequality of JP Gifts demonstrates SE's limited vision of the future, or the lack of understanding of the jobs. They don't seem to have a vision for some jobs in the game's future, so they just give them basic gifts that are "neat". If anything, the values on some of them could be adjusted to help make up for the lack of a game changing gift. Or just change it altogether. Example: Take away enhanced martial arts for MNK, give crit rate+5%. That's just one example.

Finally: nerfing BLU will only make the game harder. It won't make other jobs like DRK or PUP any better.

[Ketaru]

It's especially bad in the case of RDM, where BLU has more or less become a better RDM. You're a much more balanced caster/melee hybrid, you're a hell of a lot more powerful, and you still have party wide buffs, at the cost of not having the powerful disables RDM has, but on the flip side, it's extremely difficult to land those disables on things that matter anyways. What would you even do to bring RDM back into playability, when comparing it to the bar BLU has set

The two jobs don't even compete for the same party spot. If you want to go by BLU's current desired role alone, yes RDM can self-skillchain Light/Darkness fairly consistently. Probably has an easier time of it than most other melee jobs. And if a group I'm in just wanted me to do Light, regardless of how much damage the weaponskills themselves actually do, I'm sure RDM could easily do it.

You know what I want for RDM right now? More Magic Burst Damage bonuses. That would make it far more competitive. As it is now, it doesn't even hold a candle to what BLM and SCH can do. Let's get rid of that Shield Mastery BS and give the job a few more traits of Magic Burst Damage.

[Kassaiemi]

The two jobs don't even compete for the same party spot. If you want to go by BLU's current desired role alone, yes RDM can self-skillchain Light/Darkness fairly consistently. Probably has an easier time of it than most other melee jobs. And if a group I'm in just wanted me to do Light, regardless of how much damage the weaponskills themselves actually do, I'm sure RDM could easily do it.

You know what I want for RDM right now? More Magic Burst Damage bonuses. That would make it far more competitive. As it is now, it doesn't even hold a candle to what BLM and SCH can do. Let's get rid of that Shield Mastery BS and give the job a few more traits of Magic Burst Damage.

Maybe I'm just way off base then. It just really seems lousy that the biggest part of RDM's kit, the hugely powerful enfeebles, gets kicked to the curb by NMs sitting there going "lol immune" until you land one for a whopping ten seconds when it's at 35%, and there's BLU doing caster/swordsman better, and SCH doing white mage+black mage better. Maybe RDM is just spread too thin or something. Or it's because the only RDM I've ever really known is my own terribly geared RDM.

RDMs being able to get absurdly huge magic bursts without necessarily having great non-magic burst spell damage would be a pretty rad thing though. It'd be super relevant in the current setup, anyways.