Quote:
Originally Posted by
Ketaru
The situation is the Final Fantasy XI people don't want to upset people that want people that want updates that make us better mages, but they don't want to let go of their image of a magical swordsman. The whole situation reeks of indecisiveness.
The ideal solution would have been the developers stepping in to say "this is what we want the job to do. Now STFU and play our game" early on, rather than leaving things be for years on end.
Quote:
First and foremost, they don't want to upset the people who have held the position for years that any update to make RDM a better fighter will break game balance.
The thing is that it wouldn't hurt much once the changes actually go through. At the risk of annoying the WoW haters, what you're mentioning are the exact same arguments I used to see on the WoW boards whenever someone mentioned Retribution (AKA melee) Paladins and their then-lacking melee. The first argument that came out of the nay-sayers' mouths was "omg no pallyz r foar heelz!! melee pally = OP and no1 wuld playz neting elz!1!!", subsequently followed by "uz good pallyz that heelz luk bda becuz of u lolmelee pallyzz!".
The big bad update that fixed retribution came and went and....everyone still played their normal characters. You had a bunch of people that finally decided to roll a paladin after seeing your endgame fate did not HAVE to be healing in raids, but aside from that not much changed. So yeah, I can't help but roll my eyes when people start crying about the hybrid apocalypse.
Quote:
Depending on your linkshell, you aren't allowed to melee mobs even if you were a standard melee job like a DRK or DRG. That's the way our linkshell is. The only people allowed to melee tougher enemies are jobs that can double as tanks like PLD, NIN, or MNK. The targets are just easier to manage that way and less annoying people that need healing. You got a mage job? You're coming mage. You don't got a mage job? You're going to act as mage-like as your job would allow, like Stunning on DRK.
This is more testimony to XI's crappy encounter design than anything else.
Aside from that, I don't think I'd be the only melee enthusiast here that would be alright with abiding by the rules the melee classes follow when it comes to that sort of thing.
Quote:
The best melee update for us would likely go underused so why ask for one? The game culture, as it exists now, simply doesn't support it.
As I've constantly argued, a big enough change would have an effect on how people do things.
Quote:
Saying "Bring back Campaign!" as a solution to the hybrid image problem is oversimplifying it. But I'm just getting at the fact that, really, it's the game's culture that needs to expand. Instead, it shrank. And for all the things I love about Abyssea, that is the one thing I find fault in it for.
No offense, but I don't see what this has to do with anything, outside of hint "save melee for when you're in campaign".
Quote:
All I'm going to say is a lot of people look at RDM and SCH and immediately assume they are similar, as if they looked at Cliffnotes descriptions of each job when they truth is they really don't play the same at all. In fact, to this end, RDM is a lot more flexible and transitions roles much more seamlessly than SCH can.
SCH happens to have a stance mechanic built-in. I would venture to say SCH is better at switching roles than RDM seeing that the switching of roles is built into the job rather than implied through spread-thin stats and profficiencies like RDM.
The other requires inventory space and doesn't have built-in mechanics that support its roles. It is one of the reasons I'm in favor of RDM getting stances to help the front and back liners stand apart from one another rather than leave the job a compilation of "what if"s that get in the way of the job's development.
Quote:
To be fair, this is a different take on the issue. To me, the development team is playing both sides of the fence on this and people have a right to be frustrated by such indecisiveness. The job may be backline in reality. But the players really are owed an explanation about why they keep promoting the job the way that they do. And until they give a proper explanation, some people are forever going to hold onto the hope the job will get a frontline update.
I agree 100% here.