Small Dragoon changes to give it more of an identity

Just cuz it'd be fun, I thought up a few minor to substantial changes to Dragoon to give it some flavor.

1. Dragoon gets a new trait to completely nullify fall damage. Just makes sense the job based on jumping would also be good at landing.

2. Potential upgrade at level 50+. In certain arenas (such as Navel, Thok ast Thok, etc) Dragoon can automatically leap back on-stage, maybe with a large portion of health lost. This keeps Elusive Jump from being a noob trap, while allowing Dragoon a certain amount of utility/safety net. Still allows some arenas to instant kill Dragoons via death fields (Seat of Sacrifice (the extreme anyway) comes to mind).

3. Give Dragoon more range. A melee range of 5 or 6 yalms instead of just 3. It's a spear, if any melee job should have more range than the others, Dragoon should be the one.

4. Drop Winged Glide, replace it with Spineshatter Dive again. Stop removing jumps from the jump job.

5. A lesser change, but make Jump/High Jump like it was back an expansion or two. Not the slow change, but the "rush to target then rush back" effect. This adds a small amount of knockback resistance.

I do think they should bring some jumps back. Jump, high jump, super jump... Jumping has kind of always been the DRG thing. I miss the little wyvern companion from FFXI too but given how much SE seem to hate carby/fairies, IDK how they could implement it in FFXIV without it just being a carbon copy of living shadow/automaton queen.

I don't think they should prevent you from being able to goon yourself off a platform. The game has already been child-proofed to the point of feeling sterile and boring. I like that NIN and DRG have unique movement abilities and being able to use them well is part of being good at the jobs.

Giving DRG some extra melee range is an interesting idea but given that players can play many jobs and being able to quickly position yourself at max melee range is so important for a lot mechanics, I think this could end up causing problems for people in the long run. If you got used to playing DRG for a long time, re-learning max melee range for the other jobs would be pain.

No fall damage is a cool idea. IDK how useful it would be but it fits the job fantasy and I'd like to see more things like this that make jobs unique.

The issue with the jump was only ever that it locked you in place. It's now purely an animation, so there's no reason for it to be so fast. And I agree they should reinstate Spineshatter Dive.

I'd actually like if Monk would have a little more range as well on its kick attack so that if I've already started run out of an AoE, I'm not "technically" too far to press it when the GCD is ready.

Awww yeah I live for this stuff:

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1. Dragoon gets a new trait to completely nullify fall damage. Just makes sense the job based on jumping would also be good at landing.

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YES. WHY DOES NINJA HAVE FALL DAMAGE REDUCTION BUT NOT... FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF...reaaakinggg Dragoon? SE? Huh? The only answer is "I did wrong", fix it lol. God it hurts, like a little itch in the back of the brain that wont ever go away.

Also if you feel passionately about this stuff maybe check out this thread: Roleplay Gameplay :D

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2. Potential upgrade at level 50+. In certain arenas (such as Navel, Thok ast Thok, etc) Dragoon can automatically leap back on-stage, maybe with a large portion of health lost. This keeps Elusive Jump from being a noob trap, while allowing Dragoon a certain amount of utility/safety net. Still allows some arenas to instant kill Dragoons via death fields (Seat of Sacrifice (the extreme anyway) comes to mind).

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Neat idea, I think you can make it "fair" by just saying "if echo can be applied to this content, then this skill works". Or if people are really sensitive, "epic echo". Also, make sure jumps can be used while falling -- would be cool to jump off an edge and then leap back up like some wild Smash Bros type stuff XD.

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3. Give Dragoon more range. A melee range of 5 or 6 yalms instead of just 3. It's a spear, if any melee job should have more range than the others, Dragoon should be the one.

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Interesting, does this apply any gameplay changing ideas in mind? I can imagine positional being slightly annoying the further away you are (just because the area to 'move' will become larger). I'm not saying you can't, just curious if this comes with a larger vision for the job.

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4. Drop Winged Glide, replace it with Spineshatter Dive again. Stop removing jumps from the jump job.
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5. A lesser change, but make Jump/High Jump like it was back an expansion or two. Not the slow change, but the "rush to target then rush back" effect. This adds a small amount of knockback resistance.

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FFFff--- god yes, also lol. One suggestion I had, besides the slight improvement they did a while ago (it shouldn't feel like a stun, but yes it SHOULD feel like a jump skill), is wind bristled scales. A passive that grants you max hp % shield for a short time after a jump. Unskilled players can buffer poor choices, skilled players can actually use it to negate some damage that is unavoidable. Giving it a FF Tactics like vibe (in that game you can jump and avoid damage). Heck, maybe one of the jumps is akin to the PvP jump where you just full on dodge damage until you choose to land (sans mechanics that tank invulns can't dodge, to ensure boss fights don't "break").

Also a suggestion for improved feel. Allow players to move their landing spot while the animation is playing, as in you can adjust WHILE in the air (the jumps are fast, so it wont be a lot- but it will improve the continuity of the skill and make you feel always in the cockpit). Like how some games allow you to control your direction while falling (so you can adjust mid air, not realistic but helpful- and Dragoon is supposed to be a super jumper so in this case I think it 'is' realistic for them).

If square wanted to give Dragoon any identity they would revert it back to the end of Endwalker, but doing so would mean you'd have to have at least 1 functioning braincell to play the job so they're not going to do that