Originally Posted by
Amsai
This.
To me this represents a bigger problem inherent with the game though, not the players. Most melee I come in contact with dont know what they are doing and have problems dealing with AoE damage and Environmental damage. For this reason I think my biggest issue is the lack of ballance (in terms of survivability) of ranged vs melee. I think the damage outputs are fine, but they seriously need to beef up melee a bit to make them more viable to the average player, at least for 1.0. The only thing I have seen Melees not have a problem with is the Laser that Van Darnus fires. Once they know what to look for, melees have no trouble avoiding it. Where as someone I know that plays as monk will always get hit by traps in Ifrit. I cant decide what is the bigger reason for this: a seeming lack of lag, more than 1/2 a second to move, or more obvious visual clues, or possibly a combination of all 3? Whatever the case its working and is the most ballanced fight I have seen in terms of survival in ranged vs melee.
Im hoping that the new engine will ensure no lag in potential response time in 2.0 for moves that you MUST get out of the way for in 2.0. They also mentioned supplying something like a cast bar as a visual indicator too. Seems to me if they can integrate these 2 things well in 2.0, then this might make more people open and able to use melee for boss encounters. Having more than 1/2 a second to move probably wouldnt hurt either, but wouldnt be necessary if the other two were implemented well.
They have also mentioned recently that they want skill and gear to be about 50/50. If it works like I imagine that means that people would be just as able to make up for lack of gear with skill, as they were able to make up for lack of skill with gear. At least to some degree, this could help average/casual players become more viable in boss fights as well.
I think if SE addresses these issues it would help greatly to promote diversity of party set up and play styles with out the fear of constant wipes that lead to people wanting only certain party set ups.