Tank Roles, DPS Roles, Healer Roles... No Support Roles?

[Asiaine]

Forget 'Modern MMORPG' (aka: what everyone else is doing). This is not 'New MMORPG 2.0' this is 'Final Fantasy'. And one of the hallmarks of all Final Fantasy games is some sort of support role. Even their latest console games still have support roles. Therefore, for this to still deserve the title of Final Fantasy, they need to retain their support roles.

But because they need to simplify things for people, they may disguise the 'support' role as a 'DPS' or 'Healing' role (people who complain about text in an RPG can't handle more than 3 types of options ; .

So one day we may find RDM, Synergist, Dancer, whatever, in the future, but disguised and tweaked a bit to push them into one of those categories.

(Maybe one day I can be an RDM again and poke things with my sword!)

[Duelle]

And one of the hallmarks of all Final Fantasy games is some sort of support role. Even their latest console games still have support roles. Therefore, for this to still deserve the title of Final Fantasy, they need to retain their support roles.

For this to still deserve the title Final Fantasy it has to have Final Fantasy written on the name. Close-minded fanboys will wank to pictures of chocobo and airships while saying any game not showing them off ad nauseum is not worthy of the title, but that's the truth of it.

Your nonsensical "different for the sake of being different" thing aside, console games do not need the trinity because tank roles don't really exist in them, and everyone is either DPS or some variation of DPS with a gimmick or three, barring the mandatory healer. This is why FFXI's class and role distribution was so lopsided: they were using an approach that only works for single-player console RPGs.

But because they need to simplify things for people, they may disguise the 'support' role as a 'DPS' or 'Healing' role (people who complain about text in an RPG can't handle more than 3 types of options.

Rather than simplification, it's more the fact that like with every concept that gets adapted from one genre to another, some parts of the concept will work as they are, others are altered to fit the new genre while others will get dropped entirely. "Support" is literally the 5th wheel in this case and as such was blended into the trinity.

PS: Your claim of BRD being disguised as DPS would have merit if BRD was just slightly above PLD in DPS while trailing FAR behind everyone else. Turns out BRD is up there with the best of them, hence their being a DPS with group cooldowns like a WoW enhancement shaman.

[Asiaine]

....

Without the traditional concepts of 'Crystals', 'Jobs', 'Chocobos', 'Magic', it is hard to live up to the Final Fantasy franchise... It may well be a great game, a better game, but it will be missing the elements that one expects in a game labeled Final Fantasy. Much like one would expect the next 'Star Wars' game to feature space, and ships. If it featured only Cars and a cooking simulator, people would be woefully disappointed.

And he specifically stated he wants to keep the elements and essence of Final Fantasy alive (which is why its so Final Fantasyish if you look at it). So it is quite reasonable to expect support like roles in the future.

Me, I'm looking forward to the 'Supportish' role of RDM returning, hopefully as a DPS, which can do both attacks and support the party!

[Urthdigger]

And one of the hallmarks of all Final Fantasy games is some sort of support role.

I'm having trouble figuring out who the support character was in FF1, FF2, FF4, FF6, FF7, FF8, FF9, or FF10. Unless you're lumping healer in with support.

[Drakent]

I'm having trouble figuring out who the support character was in ff.

Final fantasyTactics had like 5 support jobs

ffv is where dancer made its first appearance and it was a support job

ff9

Adelbert Steiner was suppor by having the ability to adsorb more damage then any player so in case all your player die he would be standing to raise some 1 so it wont be endgame,

Quina Quen was blue mage that had alot of ability that will help you against monster damage, for example there a boss fight where boss would cast earthquake and do massive damage well quina has a spell that would keep you off the ground so you would take 0 damage.

and last was Eiko Carol the smn, her smn had ability to add buff to other caracter like adding element damage to your attacks

i can keep on going with a huge list.... support jobs is part of the final fantasy franchise just like every single story on ff is based on a crystal

[Urthdigger]

stuff

I know tactics and 5 had support jobs. That's why I didn't list them. As for 9, this thread is about how FF14 has no jobs that are PRIMARILY support, where that is the primary function. If the examples from 9 are valid, then we can go ahead and call WHM a support job instead of a healer due to stoneskin, protect, and regen.

Steiner was a tank. Quina was primarily DPS, with Quina only having two buffs, and four debuffs (All of which either had a low success rate or hit the party as well), and the rest of her blue magic being either damage or Death of some kind. Eiko was primarily a healer, being able to cast white magic, while her summons were all damage of some kind with the exception of Carbuncle. Heck... of the support abilities they have, you didn't even manage to get them right :/

My point is, the vast majority of FF games do not have a dedicated support job, such as what's being asked for in this thread. Typically, support is a secondary role of black mage or white mage. No, support roles are not as big a part of the FF franchise as the Crystals. They're more like the Buster Sword: Some FF games have it. The majority do not.

[Pots_Talos]

I'm having trouble figuring out who the support character was in FF1, FF2, FF4, FF6, FF7, FF8, FF9, or FF10. Unless you're lumping healer in with support.

Final Fantasy XIV utilizes a job/class system so it should only be compared to other Final Fantasy games that have them. So in that regard, yes, it should have a support role.

As a side note, I recently ran through FF1 again and played with Fighter, Thief, Black Belt, and Red Mage. I found Red Mage in that game did subpar damage all around, be it from spells or swords. Know what he excelled at doing? Being support, casting Fast, Ruse, Saber, ect...
Also, Edward from FF4 would be considered support with his bard spells. In my opinion Blue Mage is support, which would knock out most if not all of the other titles from the list (of course this is just my opinion).