The Culling: Moving into 5.0

[Jonnycbad]

1-2-3 abilities getting squashed down into 1-1-1 would free up quite a bit of space for melee's.

Why.are.people.so.against.this?

There's literally no situation where you would need to interrupt your combo/start your combo over midway or use an uncombo'd 2 or uncombo'd 3. And if there are situations, is such a slight optimization that it wouldn't kill you to do it with the new system. We would save a CRAP LOAD of buttons if combos were 1 button and would open up the floodgates for more oGCDs and job gauge mechanics. It doesn't make content harder or easier either, it's just quality of life, especially for controller players, which is ultimately the limiting factor. Besides, it would only affect melee classes. Mages would still have their individual spells to cast.

[Tex_Mex]

Why.are.people.so.against.this?

Because the jobs in this game are already easy enough as it is. While I agree that 1-2-3 combos are not challenging in the least, they provide a punishment in the form of DPS loss if you hit incorrect buttons. There are already jobs to play in this game if you don't want to have so many buttons to hit. There are very few jobs; however, that provide much of a challenge to play well.

[Reckion]

For ninjas, I would like for them to rework Ten-Chi-Jin ability. It's clunky to use as a ninja. You're supposed to be a fast, mobile, versatile melee damage dealer. TCJ is... against that. Stucking yourself to the ground untill you make you cast or run and lose damage is a thing for casters, not ninjas. It should not be that. My idea for it would be to be able to use it while moving, but if you stand still for the whole cast, TCJ cast makes more damage. Way less punishing and it would reward awareness of the fight and encounter.

Another thing I would like is the Trick attack animation's frames to be severely reduced.

For MCH, there's a list of ideas that my MCH main friend has to say:

- Remove Hot Shot, rework the buff into Split Shot or Slug Shot
- Revamp/reorder skill aquisitions at given levels to round out the leveling experience. Gauss Barrel and the Heat Gauge shouldn't "just be there" for 10 levels.
- Flamethrower needs to either do more, or go away.
- Spread Shot is annoying. It just is. We'll happily trade it for Grenado Shot, which doesn't require positioning for a conal attack.
- Unnerf Bishop Turret damage falloff. There's no reason an aoe turret should deal less damage to multiple targets when that's exactly what it's intended to do.
- Pistols or Rifles: Pick one. No more antiques, no more thin/tiny art pieces. Please study how a proper stock is fitted to a firearm (they don't sit at the very bottom of the handle). We're the newest and most technologically advanced combat job outside of Garlemald. Get creative.
- Less pirate and cowboy in aesthetics.
- What if Wildfire were completely reworked into the gauge itself, to power a beam attack instead? Mechanically, it would function similar to now: You activate the skill, then you have the 10 (could go back up to 15 maybe) seconds to accumulate the damage for it, as if "building" for the shot. Then once the time wears out, "Wildfire" now becomes the [Beam Skill], and can be used as and when needed, rather than the way it works currently, where you'll simply lose out on the damage if the target becomes untargetable or dies prior. You'll still need to build up for the damage, but can now apply it at will. And for any concerned, simply holding onto it would be a DPS loss. Build, then spend. "Wildfire" doesn't reset til the beam is used.

[Jonnycbad]

Because the jobs in this game are already easy enough as it is. While I agree that 1-2-3 combos are not challenging in the least, they provide a punishment in the form of DPS loss if you hit incorrect buttons. There are already jobs to play in this game if you don't want to have so many buttons to hit. There are very few jobs; however, that provide much of a challenge to play well.

That's not a challenge, that's just dexterity/memory/fat finger problems.It's not an error in judgement, it's just being trigger happy or being so focused on mechanics you mistakenly hit the wrong button. The difficulty of a battle should be the mechanics and teamwork. That said, reducing button bloat by consolidating DRG's basic rotation into 2 individuals buttons

Button 1= DoT/Debuff combo: ID-DiS-CT-WT-FC
Button 2= DPS combo: TT-VT(gives HT's buff)-FT-FC-WT
Remove HT

Bam, you just saved 8 slots by condensing 10 individual hotkeys into 2.

Then, SE have more room to add interesting things to the jobs like more buffs/oGCDs and job-specific gimmicks to make gameplay more dynamic other than a basic rotation.

[Jonnycbad]

MCH Stuff.

MCH was meant to be a Machinist. It's not meant to be a Gunner. By that I mean, the main aesthetic and theme of the job is that they use tools and machines to deal damage, of which their Rifle is simply their main arm. That said, although the gun is their basic armament, I would love it if the MACHINIST aspect of the job was fleshed out more and made less about being a Gunner/Marksmen. Machinist/Engineer is a prototypical job class in the FF series, dating back to FF4/FF6. MCH should have more tools at their disposal, Flashbulbs/Drills/Chainsaw/Grenades etc...Make it less gunny and more tooly. I feel like they made MCH too gun focused and it's a shame. The same was true of BRD pre 4.0, where they were more Archer than Bard and songs were just oGCD buffs. Make the turret do more stuff and not just be a DoT with a life bar.

[Kabooa]

The 123 combos remind me a lot of the SWToR's "auto" attack. Meant to have a button to push at all times while minimizing the impact of that button compared to other choices.

PVP style combos where it's consolidated to its own button (Which is not the first implementation: The first game I played that used it was Aion, but even then that game hard horrid button bloat) allows for better slot of economy, which in turn allows for Standalone abilities to come back or be added.

[Liam_Harper]

Why.are.people.so.against.this?

It's unfortunately a common misconception in games that clunkiness or inconvenience equals difficulty and skill. It holds games back, because as you've pointed out instead of the complexity being in the encounter, timing and lining up abilities and knowing the mechanics and depths of your class, it's in adapting to clunky things like tons of unnecessary buttons and animation locks while we grind out a dull 1-2-3-1-2-3-1-2-4-1-2-3.

Jobs are easy because of clinging to outdated things like this instead of evolving and streamlining.

[Jonnycbad]

Exactly. If they eliminated the cumbersomeness of button bloat, we could have more interesting job gauge interactions and more abilities instead of it being focused heavily around combos. Then they could bring back single GCD DoTs like Phlebotomize and Scourge.

[Tex_Mex]

Exactly. If they eliminated the cumbersomeness of button bloat, we could have more interesting job gauge interactions and more abilities instead of it being focused heavily around combos. Then they could bring back single GCD DoTs like Phlebotomize and Scourge.

I think this argument comes more from console players who have very limited numbers of buttons to be able to use. I use a razer Naga, so I literally can put 30+ buttons onto my mouse alone (factoring in shift+keys) and then I still have room on my keyboard for even more if I want them. Maybe adding an option for console players to reduce those buttons would be an alright addition, but I would prefer it to be an option and not a complete change. I strongly feel that this game is too easy already and actually do like the additional challenge that comes from having so many keybinds. It is worth noting though, that I have been an MMO player for a very long time, so I don't have any issue with lots of keybinds, but I can see how it would be annoying if you were playing on console with a controller.

[Kabooa]

You shouldn't need a specific mouse to play a game.