"A system that rewards effort and innovation" can't be buzzwords for imbalance-get

[Arcell]

So then how would YOU design combat encounters to work against having just those 3 classes shine? How would YOU envision a system where Rangers and Thaums aren't > all?

Personally I think the first step would be to "fix" Emulate so that Thaums can't solo NMs. There's no reason any one class should be able to solo content that others need groups for.

As far as Archers go, give directional AoEs (not necessarily front or wide) that extend past an Archer's range. That way they're in just as much danger as everyone else is. Their ability to stay out of AoE range is a great asset and if you can take that away there will be need for others. Other players who are closer to the enemy can more easily get out of a cone AoE's range by moving around it. Archers are further away and thus must move a greater distance to get out of the cone. Even further maybe give enemies attacks lie Arrow Helix and Iron Tempest that actually don't hit melee range but have a huge radius.

Aside from that giving enemies the ability to reposition themselves mid-fight would help at the very least keep all classes on their toes. What was once at max range could in seconds be in your face.

Outside of things like that though I'm not sure what you could do about fixing it aside from straight numbers balancing.

[Peregrine]

So then how would YOU design combat encounters to work against having just those 3 classes shine? How would YOU envision a system where Rangers and Thaums aren't > all?

Personally I think the first step would be to "fix" Emulate so that Thaums can't solo NMs. There's no reason any one class should be able to solo content that others need groups for.

As far as Archers go, give directional AoEs (not necessarily front or wide) that extend past an Archer's range. That way they're in just as much danger as everyone else is. Their ability to stay out of AoE range is a great asset and if you can take that away there will be need for others. Other players who are closer to the enemy can more easily get out of a cone AoE's range by moving around it. Archers are further away and thus must move a greater distance to get out of the cone. Even further maybe give enemies attacks lie Arrow Helix and Iron Tempest that actually don't hit melee range but have a huge radius.

Aside from that giving enemies the ability to reposition themselves mid-fight would help at the very least keep all classes on their toes. What was once at max range could in seconds be in your face.

Outside of things like that though I'm not sure what you could do about fixing it aside from straight numbers balancing.

I would implement regimens and strategies that gain exponential momentum based on the different classes in it, and I would make them so beneficial that teams that whore out jobs for imbalance have a difficult time keeping up. Thus, a party with only two or three kinds of classes or jobs in it is always inferior to a party with 6 classes or jobs in it. People flock to imbalance too easily. The solution is to OP balance.

Or have a status effect, where if your party is balanced, you get enhancements like comrade in arms. "Strength in Diversity"--TP regain? Attack and potency boost? Regimen output+30%?

The solution is to overpower balance. Reward diversity. Don't just sit there and develop challenge that benefits the same stunners, sleepers, spike damagers, and ranged attackers as always.

But I'm not in the business of saying how it should be done. I only care about what needs done. I don't care how it's done honestly. You cannot put hackneyed challenge checks into this game, or it'll instantly become and archer and thaumafest.

Honestly my solution to archer is to give meleers multishot. Archers have no business avoiding AoE while being the kings of spike and DPS.

Thaumaturge...yeah it's just a matter of fiddling with their abilities. I like the idea of a magical tank, but if they're the magical tank...they'd best be paying for that with a big fat damage reduction like gladiator does.

They've already proven they can kick the player base's habit of inviting as few people as you can, to the point where parties actively want more people as opposed to wanting as few as possible. They've already designed content where strangers who NM hunt are better off pairing up and helping each other out rather than countercamping.

They can create a system where job diversity is celebrated, not intentionally avoided because it just dilutes good jobs with bad ones.

[Tsuga]

I would implement regimens and strategies that gain exponential momentum based on the different classes in it, and I would make them so beneficial that teams that whore out jobs for imbalance have a difficult time keeping up. Thus, a party with only two or three kinds of classes or jobs in it is always inferior to a party with 6 classes or jobs in it. People flock to imbalance too easily. The solution is to OP balance.

Or have a status effect, where if your party is balanced, you get enhancements like comrade in arms. "Strength in Diversity"--TP regain? Attack and potency boost? Regimen output+30%?

The solution is to overpower balance. Reward diversity. Don't just sit there and develop challenge that benefits the same stunners, sleepers, spike damagers, and ranged attackers as always.

But I'm not in the business of saying how it should be done. I only care about what needs done. I don't care how it's done honestly. You cannot put hackneyed challenge checks into this game, or it'll instantly become and archer and thaumafest.

Honestly my solution to archer is to give meleers multishot. Archers have no business avoiding AoE while being the kings of spike and DPS.

Thaumaturge...yeah it's just a matter of fiddling with their abilities. I like the idea of a magical tank, but if they're the magical tank...they'd best be paying for that with a big fat damage reduction like gladiator does.

These are awesome ideas, but I feel like there's really no way to make sure that EVERY class is included. When it gets to the point that XI did, people are going to hand pick classes/jobs that are better per situation, and there will always be a couple of classes that get left out. It is just too difficult to make perfect balance when there is so much diversity.

I am hopeful that the devs have something up their sleeves, though. Naysaying what they haven't even shown us yet won't fix/change anything, since we have nothing to criticize, yet.