[Suggestion] - Revise Party buffs (Strength in numbers) & (Comradery)

This is a suggestion to increase the identity of classes and a way to lessen class stacking in dungeon parties.

What I suggest is to give each class its own aura buff and to remove Strength in Numbers and Comradery from the game.

Buffs could look something like the following:-

MRD - increased Crit to all party members
GLA - increased HP to all party members
PGL - increased Evasion to all party members
LNC - increased TP generation to all party members
CNJ - increased magic defense to all party members (Auto shell ?)
THM - increased MP to all party members
ARC - increased Accuracy to all Party members

• Aura's would not stack.
• Best party set up would be one of each class.
• Buff's would be removed instantly if party members changed class or left the party.
• Strengthens class identity in party situations.
• Lowers the chance of class stacking.

Not sure I agree 100% with the bonus per class you list (I'd probably put crit on LNC, HP on MRD, mdef on GLA, MP on CNJ and MACC on THM), but the idea itself is sound and I'd very much like to see it put in place over what we have currently.

This or something like it would make party composition much more interesting.

I would not say it discourages class stacking because the reason you would want to stack classes is entirely a positioning/DPS reason- THM/ARCstacking is great because of how much damage they do with ease at a higher level of survivability as well as DPS uptime. At best what it'll do is create situation "token" classes for people to come on just for the group buff (which, please, if I have a choice, try to convince me to bring a GLA along because it gives more HP to the party over a MRD when we already have a MRD in the party, it won't happen), or discourage multiple of a class in a full party- mainly a concern for PUGs, perhaps, but even so it's a change to something that doesn't impact the nature of XIV's current encounter design.

Its attempting to fix something that's "okay" but I'm not convinced it'll actually bring anything to the game.

EDIT: The only way I can see this being beneficial is if the endgame dungeons could theoretically be attempted and cleared by less than a full party due to the nature and potency of the class buffs.

Not at a bad Idea at all.. now do you have to be a in a party of how many people for this effect to take place??

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Originally Posted by Icecylee

Not sure I agree 100% with the bonus per class you list (I'd probably put crit on LNC, HP on MRD, mdef on GLA, MP on CNJ and MACC on THM), but the idea itself is sound and I'd very much like to see it put in place over what we have currently.

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I thought that the buff should really benefit all classes equally, thats why I didn't go MACC for THM, it only really benefits one class, mp bonus benefits all classes.

Plus I thought TP generation was more interesting than crit for LNC. (perhaps overpowered though?)

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Originally Posted by SynysterBlitz

Not at a bad Idea at all.. now do you have to be a in a party of how many people for this effect to take place??

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Hard to say really you could have it as low as 2 people, that's up to SE to decide I guess.

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Originally Posted by Hachi-Roku

EDIT: The only way I can see this being beneficial is if the endgame dungeons could theoretically be attempted and cleared by less than a full party due to the nature and potency of the class buffs.

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Hopefully not, Ideally the buffs that replace the existing system would be similar to Strength in Numbers.

I wouldn't want it to make the game easier, it's already far too easy as is, and if it did have that effect hopefully SE would retune aspects of dungeons to compensate for the changes.

Well, theoretically there'll be more mage classes released eventually, and I figured if there's still a way to get ACC out the gate there should be a way to get MACC as well. I wouldn't feel entirely comfortable with a +TP gain buff unless there was a different mage bringing in +Refresh as well (and is probably a bit more finicky to balance) but either way.

And yeah I can't imagine this would actually put a stop to class stacking, but as more classes come out I think it would be a vastly more interesting system than comradery/strength in numbers (which is kind of boring).

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Originally Posted by Jinko

Hopefully not, Ideally the buffs that replace the existing system would be similar to Strength in Numbers.

I wouldn't want it to make the game easier, it's already far too easy as is, and if it did have that effect hopefully SE would retune aspects of dungeons to compensate for the changes.

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You're kinda missing my point in its entirety though - there is little reason to introduce these class-specific auras and doing so only introduces more problems than it solves.

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Originally Posted by Icecylee

And yeah I can't imagine this would actually put a stop to class stacking, but as more classes come out I think it would be a vastly more interesting system than comradery/strength in numbers (which is kind of boring).

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The actual problem is that the party bonus in any form is not really so much "boring" but is "pointless" as-is: it could be removed tomorrow and absolutely nothing would change about how the game is played. I've never needed 'at least four or always eight' people for an XP run (because while the bonus is nice it is just that, a bonus), I'm fairly certain we can do Darkhold with just six people now, and the Primals require eight so the fights are more or less tuned to the bonus. And even ignoring that, I'm not sure how giving classes their own specific-type auras that don't stack makes anything more interesting, with the exception of them actually being very potent.

The way to make the auras interesting is to have them be powerful enough so that you can make gear decisions and changes based off of them, because then it allows for more options and viability to gear. I can't ever imagine using a Sibold's Reach over an Ifrit's Battleaxe because the gains (+10 Attack Power) aren't worth the losses (-1 damage, no +Fire Resistance, and then a whopping -20 Accuracy), even with the current Strength in Numbers buff. But then if I can go "huh, my static has an ARC in it, that should raise my accuracy high enough to use the other axe," then bam, that's a benefit to having individualized auras, and then you'd be able to use all kinds of wacky statted gear that you may never use "alone in a white room" so to speak.

That's Final Fantasy XIII.

I really love the idea, and i'm pretty sure it can help bringing more different classes in setups.
Buffs indeed have to be powerful, almost to the point where 7 auras could replace an 8th member.

That's not really FF XIII, where the bonuses are cumulative if you have the same role multiple times. And I think the battle mechanics are awesome in FF XIII :p