History repeats itself: Time for the Great Archer Nerf of 2011

[Peregrine]

The problem with pretty much your entire argument is that it's based on the current combat system being viable in good future content. It's not. They've said so many times that they can't really give us good content with this system because it's THAT bad. For an example of this, look at the recent dev posting stating that Ishgard is being held back by the combat system because they want playing through its content to be fun when it's unlocked.

With the magnitude of the changes necessary to make the system fun (and I'm cautiously optimistic here that it will be) there's really no sense speculating as to what class balance is going to look like on the other end. Archer will probably still be outside of any enemy-centric AoEs, but maybe we'll be meant to interrupt the AoEs in the first place or put up defenses against them (think back to when we were using Garuda's Aerial Armor to absorb Fafnir's Hurricane Wing). Maybe some encounters will be most susceptible to piercing damage and others blunt damage and the specific associated class will be doing most of the damage while others lend support abilities. We just don't know, and if your future vision of the game involves damage dealers still being functionally equivalent and people stacking whichever one has the highest DPS then your outlook is far bleaker than mine.

It's not the mechanics, it's the principles. Archer needs to be the worst-offensive attack job. Archer is flawed in principle. Not mechanics. Doesn't matter what the new system looks like if the principles are the same.

It needs fixed now. Archer at its most fundamental level needs redesigned into a low-output offense. They never get slowed. They never get paralyzed. They never get blinded. They never get attack down'd. They never get anything. They just keep shooting.

Everything difficult enemies do to players to make things difficult doesn't happen to archers. DUHFIXIT.

[Raikki]

Archer needs to be the worst-offensive attack job.

Just no. This is a terrible narrow-sighted conclusion which shows no interest whatsoever in making the combat system actually fun. Practically speaking, every MMO is going to require a somewhat mindless high-damage class or you're going to alienate a very large group of people. Let these people cling to damage meters and feel good about themselves. Meanwhile, give everyone else more important things to do (stuns, offtanking, debuffs, etc.) to supplement their damage output. If done correctly, you'll end up with groups that fill in pure dps/archers LAST after they've taken care of the critical survivability roles.

[Peregrine]

Just no. This is a terrible narrow-sighted conclusion which shows no interest whatsoever in making the combat system actually fun. Practically speaking, every MMO is going to require a somewhat mindless high-damage class or you're going to alienate a very large group of people. Let these people cling to damage meters and feel good about themselves. Meanwhile, give everyone else more important things to do (stuns, offtanking, debuffs, etc.) to supplement their damage output. If done correctly, you'll end up with groups that fill in pure dps/archers LAST after they've taken care of the critical survivability roles.

Haha you don't need to stun an ability that only hits your tank because everyone else is out of range. When all your members are archers there are only two critical roles. The tank and the tank healer.

Which is why FFXIV only has 3 real jobs. The other ones are useless.

[Raikki]

Haha you don't need to stun an ability that only hits your tank because everyone else is out of range. When all your members are archers there are only two critical roles. The tank and the tank healer.

Which is why FFXIV only has 3 real jobs. The other ones are useless.

You seriously can't envision NMs having abilities that need to be interrupted even if it only hits the tank? Have you actually played other MMOs?

[yukikaze_yanagi]

Haha you don't need to stun an ability that only hits your tank because everyone else is out of range. When all your members are archers there are only two critical roles. The tank and the tank healer.

Which is why FFXIV only has 3 real jobs. The other ones are useless.

/facepalm
in before "nerfbat it to the ground"

[Shampooo]

Haha you don't need to stun an ability that only hits your tank because everyone else is out of range. When all your members are archers there are only two critical roles. The tank and the tank healer.

Which is why FFXIV only has 3 real jobs. The other ones are useless.

Didnt you say to look to the future? i think we're all hoping for more dynamic fights to come where we're required to do more than tank and spank. Maybe we'll have some encounters where AE dmg will be flying all over the place requiring ranged fighters to change position often. This would then make archers do less damage, and if they do get nerfed then they would be worthless to bring to the fight. Hopefully SE stays true to the word and brings very unique fights to the game where some fights maybe have archers being top DPS, where as some fights may have pgl or other melee being top DPS. That being said, some classes are already more effective at fighting certain things due to different damage types. Also, thats what makes this game great and the armory system fun, your not locked into a certain job or class. if you spend the time you can rank up which ever class you need and bring w/e is most effective to the fight. There will always be one role doing more dmg on a fight than another, why bring the less effective class. lets say we have big giant super strong crab NM, we're gonna see a giant group of pgl beating on the NM, who cares if they are in range of AE, i dont know any healer who wont switch his heals to AE, from there its just positioning, you can have one healer healing everyone taking dmg.

[Peregrine]

Didnt you say to look to the future? i think we're all hoping for more dynamic fights to come where we're required to do more than tank and spank.

This is the MMO genre. We're at maintenance. There is nothing new under the sun. If these chronic problems with archers haven't been solved in 7 years of trying, they won't be solved unless you do what needs to be done.

Reduce their output. End this nonsense. They don't get slowed. They don't get petrified. They don't get hit. They don't get stunned. They don't get paralyzed. They don't get stomped. They don't get anything. They just keep shooting.