Remove AOE Toggle

[Ava]

I feel that currently FFXIV suffers from an issue that is only going to get worse in the future. And that is the issue of making an interface usable on both keyboard/mouse and controller. To help mitigate this issue as much as possible, I feel the dev team should look at implementing parts of it in different ways.

AOE Toggle right now is an inconvenience, and it consumes an entire button on the controller. This button could be used for many more important things like cycling through target modes, or toggle battle regimens. With the redesigning of the combat classes/jobs/roles/specializations/whateverpeoplewanttocallthem, I think that would be a good time for something like this.

I propose the AOE toggle gets removed to free up the button on the controller for more important functions, and in place give us aoe -ga spells. This would give classes a bigger variety of spells, and possibly make some classes unique. If Conjurer had aoe -ga spells but Thaumaturge didn't, that would be a really great thing to seperate the two classes. In addition, this could open up possibilities for new jobs on the future. You could make certain jobs specialize in AOE effects and others in single target effects.

Think about the current Archer debate found in the General Discussion forum right now. By making some classes specialize in AOE and others in single target, you could do things like make Archer/Lancer aoe specialists (Archer having various volley attacks, Lancer having sweeping attacks) while Marauder and Pugilist would be single target specialists.

I think that by removing the AOE toggle, it would really balance out some classes and present some excellent opportunities for class uniqueness. Just think of how important Scholar was in FFXI. The ability to AOE any spell they wanted to was huge, that was an entire role in itself. FFXIV gives this ability to every class and sort of homogenizes them.

[Reika]

You dont want to be able to AOE?

[ChiefCurrahee]

how about you read the post next time Reika?

I 2nd the motion to abandon the AOE button and implement -ga style spells instead.

[Demacia]

You dont want to be able to AOE?

Can you read?

I agree completely with OP. AoE everything right off the bat just makes healing, enfeebling, and nuking completely mindless. Instead of toggling AoE on and off for every spell there should be, for instance: Fire (single target) and Firaga (AoE). Bringing up scholar is also a good example as it did specialize in AoE spells that other classes could only single target.

[Ava]

You dont want to be able to AOE?

As the others said, that's not what my post said. I definitely DO want aoe, I think aoe is extremely important in strategy and I think that the game should reflect that and not hand it out to everyone for free. Making certain classes specialize in AOE would create some much needed uniqueness in the game, and with the up and coming combat changes, it would be the perfect time to do something like that.

[Shiyo]

Omg you don't want to AOE?! I only know how to read thread titles, not the actual text inside, big words hurt my head ;_;!

I agree with changing the AOE toggle, and adding additional enmity(like 4000000000000000000000x the enmity of single target spells, especially cures) to AOE. It will make mages more challenging and more fun to play, while also giving us more spells to play with. Overall it would make the game more complex, which is desperately needed.

[yukikaze_yanagi]

I hightly doubt separate spell in single and aoe would bring any benefith to the game (and remember spaces in action bar is limited, would be a problem equipping both single and aoe together. Just think to healers), and shape classes in single or aoe based is even worst, you can already see "for this fight it's better the aoe dude, kick the single dude" and vice versa.

[Ava]

I hightly doubt separate spell in single and aoe would bring any benefith to the game (and remember spaces in action bar is limited, would be a problem equipping both single and aoe together. Just think to healers), and shape classes in single or aoe based is even worst, you can already see "for this fight it's better the aoe dude, kick the single dude" and vice versa.

Well, the action slot issue could be a problem, but also keep in mind that every monster in the game has an elemental weakness. You could simply equip the correct spell for the monsters you're fighting and swap it out for something else in the event that you change to a different type of monster. For people that like to just equip everything, yea that's kind of a problem but like on my CON, I only equip 1 nuke and 1 elemental debuff and I simply change it via macro depending on which monsters I'm fighting.

Edit: As a healer, over half of my slots are used on nukes/debuffs so I could very easily make room for AoE heals. In fact, this is even another benefit because you could have healers seperate into pure healers equipping AoE heals and debuffer/offhealer equipping single target heals only.

[Demacia]

I hightly doubt separate spell in single and aoe would bring any benefith to the game (and remember spaces in action bar is limited, would be a problem equipping both single and aoe together. Just think to healers), and shape classes in single or aoe based is even worst, you can already see "for this fight it's better the aoe dude, kick the single dude" and vice versa.

That wasn't a problem in an 8 year old MMO, I don't see why it would be a problem in this one.

[Crowley]

AoE needs to be a static widget while in a DoM job. There are only a few situations where I am in single target mode.

I really want a system that I can nuke without hitting enter of clicking the mob, but also have the ability to switch up my target. Maybe by using the target lock function.