This Game is LINEAR as HELL

[Riposte]

That's the risk you take when you rush to the endgame. You've burnt yourself out on the game. I used to be guilty of this myself...

This game rushes you to endgame though. It is not like FFXI (at least a few years ago) where getting to 75 on each and every class/job was a journey where you met many people. The main scenario speeds you to level 40~ (mostly through easy, forgettable filler quests, but there are some decent dungeon and primal battles in the mix) and then you have to fill the gaps with FATEs as you complete the rest (worst, but most rewarding content in the game - actually, worst content to ever be in a videogame with the name Final Fantasy in it). Other classes are FATEs the whole way through, which is even more linear (and nightmarish). Yoshi-P himself has implied that "the game really begins at level 50".

Unfortunately, the endgame is very linear (more linear?) in terms of progression and gear progression, with really no room allowed thanks to how attributes work (gear is all the same, just with higher "item levels"). This also means higher and higher items levels in a short amount of time (we are already up to 90, several tiers, and the game just launched), which means more content being outdated quicker (less variety looking down) and more gear checks (less variety looking up). Crafted gear would at least provide two paths (of the same kind), but those also required a lot of tomestones... the exact same thing you need for non-crafted gear. So, yeah. Linear is how you could describe this game.

One thing this game does is discourage the idea of actually making use of that "be any class you like" - effectively making the game more linear. It does this by 1) only having enough decent leveling content for one class and leaving the rest for FATEs (again... a nightmare even once let alone for every battle class), 2) endgame being an insane grind where every class shares a single resource (tomestones) for virtually of their gear.

EDIT: Cross-class actions not being used in combos is definitely a missed opportunity. In fact, cross-class actions in general are poorly designed when looked at a multi-class perspective. Those actions should be useful for every job that can use them (e.g. Cure should give something to Paladin to make them consider using it). It feels like the team, headed by Yoshi-P, inherited game mechanics they don't know what to do with. You can also see this with how simple combos/actions which make up a combo are now, how battle guildleves don't fit into the game (why are they limited when FATEs are EXP fountains and dungeons can be done multiple times?), and how crafters and gatherers are basically being throw aside for unnecessary "side-upgrades" in favor of dungeon loot (farmed through tomestones).

[CamAlch]

You don't really know what linear means, do you?

Was going to say the same thing.

[Alkimi]

There is nothing useful for a DRG.

Internal Release, Second Wind and Bloodbath are all useful for DRG. True some jobs struggle to find more than 2 or 3 that they'll use regularly but there's always a few good ones.

[Leonas]

Internal Release, Second Wind and Bloodbath are all useful for DRG. True some jobs struggle to find more than 2 or 3 that they'll use regularly but there's always a few good ones.

Don't forget Mantra. That raid wide healing boost. yum.

[Fengor]

EDIT:and how crafters and gatherers are basically being throw aside for unnecessary "side-upgrades" in favor of dungeon loot (farmed through tomestones).

I'd love to level a crafter/gather for the sole purpose of creating some throw away level 50 gear that at the very least brings all my gear to the same level. Grinding a crafting class or gathering class is mind numbingly, insufferably needlessly boring and tedious. While I can appreciate what they've tried to do with making them more active gameplay than a passive diversion (thought really I'd argue that crafting and gathering really should be nothing more than a diversion), I can't f'ing stand it. I took mining to 22 and botany to 15 before I literally couldn't take another second of either, and I gave weaving the proverbial boot by level 5 because it wouldn't let me queue up the creation of multiple items.
(character limit reached, see next post)

[Fengor]

EDIT:and how crafters and gatherers are basically being throw aside for unnecessary "side-upgrades" in favor of dungeon loot (farmed through tomestones).

(continued from previous)
I had to chose what I wanted to make, click synthesize, play the little mini-game, return to the menu, choose it again, rinse repeat. It was maddening that I couldn't just say I wanted to craft 40 of X item and then just play the mini-game that many times in a row. Mining and Botany wasn't much better, but I'd say those just need a tweak to their leveling pace; maybe not leave us utterly defenseless in the field as well. (slow as molasses stealth doesn't really count. The tools for each can be quite dangerous, why can't my character fight back competently with those, especially once they've reached 50 on an actual class)

Honestly I'd prefer a more traditional crafting system over the bloated, inefficient monstrosity we have now.

[Acaelus]

Fracture with a potency of 20? I do more damage with my auto attack....

Heal spells are WORTHLESS, at lvl 41, I heal myself for 150! Out of 2400 health, I heal myself for 152 health points. And that is if my heal doesn't get interrupted. Foresight is OK, but it doesn't last long and has a long recast. And 20% damage reduction really isn't much. NO OTHER USEFUL SKILLS.

Fracture does hit with a potency of 20 per tick, so if you add them all up over the course of the entire DoT, it's better than you think, and it is a DPS increase in the long run. Sure the content seems a little light at the moment, but given time and player feedback (That's constructive) it will get better. You can't possibly expect to have healer quality heals while on a tank. You'd be a walking god if that was the case. So moral of the story, this isn't Burger King. You can't always have it your way. I suggest you go move on to another game. Or coloring with crayons.

[SteelyHermit]

What do skill choices have to do with linearity?

[Arkine]

We knew that the armory system is gimmicky and mediocre 3 years ago, this isn't news and they won't fix it.

[Nekhii]

Why does it take so much time to level stuff! I want to all crafts 50 now and don't want to put any effort in at all. Also please mail me full AF2 and AF3 since I don't have time to play much.