DualShocker Interview - 3.5 pt 2 next week, supposedly

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Originally Posted by Zojha

Not much to be done there except forcing every raid party to take X, Y or Z job just in order to clear. Mitigation and Healing are artificial additions and as a consequence only ever as useful as they are required, there's not much you can do about that - You can require more or less of it or you can invalidate Damage as Winning Condition. You don't have more options.

Every "utility" you give jobs is measured by the same standard. As such, the "defensive jobs" as you call them need either more direct DPS done by themselves, or indirect DPS via party buffs. It is as simple as that.

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With the simple combat system that we have and how fights are designed with DPS checks as one of their foci, you are correct.

Change how things are created, and you change that mentality.

Since Yoshida will not create content requiring a single job he present, we will maintain the status quo.

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Originally Posted by Istaru

Since Yoshida will not create content requiring a single job he present, we will maintain the status quo.

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A lot of things can change based on tool kits available and the Cross Role skills system changes will likely change that.

Pacification use is currently a no go in Raid content because only Paladin has access to it.
Harpooning use is currently a no go in Raid content because only Warrior has access to it.
Buff stripping is currently a no go in Raid content because only Monk has access to it.
Sleep use is currently a no go in Raid content because only White Mage and Black Mage have access to it.
Knockback requires in fight mechanics to use because only White Mage, Summoner and Machinist have access to it inherently.
Bind use is limited because Black Mage is the only Ranged DpS without it.
Silence use is limited because Paladin, Scholar, Monk, Ninja, Bard and Machinist are the ones that have it but you can build viable* comps that will have trouble silencing due to Monk/Scholar.

*"viable" being a comp with 2 tanks, 2 healers, 2 melee dps and 2 ranged dps all of different jobs.

Putting several of these effects in various Cross Role skill lists will allow the devs to design fights that require them.

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Originally Posted by Ultimatecalibur

A lot of things can change based on tool kits available and the Cross Role skills system changes will likely change that.

Pacification use is currently a no go in Raid content because only Paladin has access to it.
Harpooning use is currently a no go in Raid content because only Warrior has access to it.
Buff stripping is currently a no go in Raid content because only Monk has access to it.
Sleep use is currently a no go in Raid content because only White Mage and Black Mage have access to it.
Knockback requires in fight mechanics to use because only White Mage, Summoner and Machinist have access to it inherently.
Bind use is limited because Black Mage is the only Ranged DpS without it.
Silence use is limited because Paladin, Scholar, Monk, Ninja, Bard and Machinist are the ones that have it but you can build viable* comps that will have trouble silencing due to Monk/Scholar.

*"viable" being a comp with 2 tanks, 2 healers, 2 melee dps and 2 ranged dps all of different jobs.

Putting several of these effects in various Cross Role skill lists will allow the devs to design fights that require them.

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That's all well and good and sounds nice but, but how does that get PLD, WHM and to a lesser degree, MNK to the point of not being unwelcome in top tier content?

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Originally Posted by Ultimatecalibur

Putting several of these effects in various Cross Role skill lists will allow the devs to design fights that require them.

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If everyone can be useful for mechanics then why take the job with a lower DPS?

Perfect balance is impossible in MMORPGs, no amount of homogenization and streamlining will ever solve it...

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Originally Posted by Ririta

If everyone can be useful for mechanics then why take the job with a lower DPS?

Perfect balance is impossible in MMORPGs, no amount of homogenization and streamlining will ever solve it...

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http://ffxiv.gamerescape.com/wiki/Perfect_Balance

On the discussion of Paladin, obviously from this interview we can take that they're going to balance Paladin's MDef (but that isn't the /only/ change it'll recieve) and here is another "maybe" change:

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USgamer: Finally, let me end on selfish question. As a Paladin player, Flash is a good ability, but it doesn't have any impact. Can we give it some impact?

Yoshida: It's true. It is kind of hard to tell if the enemies have reacted to it or not. As you mentioned, it's literally a 'Ping!' and then some light. We're still in a state where we can go back and review some of the existing actions, so I'll look into it.
[Source]

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The admittance it feels pretty low impact and that they'll take a look is really nice imo (while it's a lot easier to use than Overpower lol, the spamming of flash in the very beginning to hold AoE hate feels awful, imo).

The spell isn't as bad as some of the worst ones jobs have but it has been a highly suggested/debated change across threads about what Flash does and how it may help the Paladin in it's AoE management. The fact he said "we're still open to changes" and "we'll look at it" makes me feel that its already being looked at (cannot say it will be changed or not) but at least the easiness in response makes it seem like a valid item on the Paladin 4.0.

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Originally Posted by Istaru

That's all well and good and sounds nice but, but how does that get PLD, WHM and to a lesser degree, MNK to the point of not being unwelcome in top tier content?

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Other changes involving the Cross Role system will help that.

Currently a lot of problems that Paladin and White Mage suffer from are caused by them being designated owner of certain "must have" abilities. Currently Paladin "owns" Provoke, Convalescence, Awareness and Rampart and White Mage owns Cleric Stance, Raise, Protect and Stoneskin. Moving these skills to the Cross Role Skill list frees up a significant amount of room to allow for abilities to balance these two with the other jobs in their roles.

Monk's problems are mostly tied to lack of a raid wide damage buff in the vein of Battle Litany and Trick Attack. Changing party wide buffs like Battle Litany and Mantra into the Cross Role skills will help them balance things out. The fact Dragoon's Piercing debuff boosts Bard/Machinist dps could be balanced out by giving Monk a way to boost caster dps.

Also the improved Magic Defense boost the Paladin mentioned in the interview and misinterpreted by the Op was likely referring to problems in raid caused by the lack of the -10% Int down debuff from Delirium or Dragon Kick.

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Originally Posted by Ririta

If everyone can be useful for mechanics then why take the job with a lower DPS?

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If the gap in personal+raid-wide dps is small enough: personal preference. Even if all job in the same role had similar levels of effectiveness players would gravitate to the jobs they most enjoy playing. Some players find Paladin boring others enjoy its streamlined simplicity over managing Origin stacks and MP consumption. As long as the dps gap is small enough players will not feel forced to play the most optimum job(s).

They've already suggested that they're going to trim a lot of the clutter and ensure that each role has access to the same tools that they require across the board. As far as PLD goes, this needs to be reflected in AoE capability as well, I feel. So I'm glad that they're in agreement that the Flash ability is lacking. A PLD who wants to get the ARR relic weapon is in for a frustrating time with the light farming phase. Even something as simple as Satasha unsynced can be infuriating due to the lack of AoE they can dish out. So you pull everything you can, use Circle of Scorn and then...you pretty much either have to wait to recharge or slowly pick off each enemy with direct hits. A WAR or DRK, by comparison, can simply spam their AoE and trim a lot of time off of it as a result.

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Originally Posted by Kosmos992k

I'm suggesting that all tanks could eventually achieve similar defensive resilience,

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Then Paladin will continue to warm the bench for yet another raid tier. They can buff Paladin's defenses through the moon. The only pertinent questions people at endgame care about are:

- Can Warrior and Dark Knight survive the incoming damage?
- Can both the healers heal either whilst maintaining high DPS relevant to the reduced damage Paladin takes?
- Does Paladin provide better utility?

If the answer to the first two questions is yes and the last no? Many raiders won't care what Paladin does. It's deemed inferior because damage is all that matters in FFXIV. White Mage suffers the same issue right now in that it's designed to be a raw burst healer yet no fight requires burst healing. And it's two counterparts can easily cover whatever incoming damage there is while providing vastly superior raid utility. The devs either have to devise a means of punishing players who value DPS above all else or overhaul the design of both jobs and give them equivalent utility.

If they upped the PLD's defenses, wouldn't it be interesting if they were given "tank buster" utility. Like an ability which allowed them to shave 1 buster stack on them or the ability to have a time based action which allowed them to retaliate dmg when a tank buster ability is being used, "Double Dmg if covering the person who is being tank busted".

I feel like being creative with the way PLD could increase their dmg output would be a god idea rather than giving them a straight att boost.