Can we add some complexity to combat? Skill chains and magic bursts ??

[BoomerOU]

Does anyone else feel there's something missing from combat in FFXIV? It just seems super generic. As things are, interaction between players during combat is just like every other "holy trinity (tank/healer/dd)" MMO out there. Tanks worry about positioning and mitigation, DD worry about dealing damage without pulling hate, and healers worry about healing tanks and DD that take hits. All while everyone tries to stay out of puddles. You can find these kinds of challenges in tons of other games.
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Why repost this exact same thread daily? Every one of the threads you've created is about this. Is it because most replies aren't in support of the feature?

[Combinatoric]

Why repost this exact same thread daily? Every one of the threads you've created is about this. Is it because most replies aren't in support of the feature?

Honestly? Just trying to get a few intelligent responses on the topic to see what people think. The majority of responses are over simplifications.

[Ri_ri]

Honestly? Just trying to get a few intelligent responses on the topic to see what people think. The majority of responses are over simplifications.

By intelligent responses, you mean people agreeing with you?

Anyway, just because there's no system with a fancy name doesn't means you just don't have to care about what others are using.

[Dhex]

Honestly? Just trying to get a few intelligent responses on the topic to see what people think. The majority of responses are over simplifications.

Okay well...


It doesn't work with the structure of combat. A majority of actions on your hotbar are stuck with a dedicated GCD from 2.5s~2.3s with variance between classes. Not all classes function the same. Tanks both have a three step enmity chain they need to maintain to keep enmity building at a dedicated rate to out pace the generation of DPS/Healers. Skill Chains - for this system to be inherently interesting, and not subject to the self-skill chaining abuse as in Square's previous MMO title (FFXI), a Skill Chain would need to require an attack by each role to activate. Imbalance in mechanics of Skill Chains would drive the community towards a predisposition to any class able to self-chain.

Skill Chains themselves would require that a player react within a split second to a visual cue graphically; either (animation) or (text log). The pace of combat would make this impractical in the extreme - combat simply moves to quickly. People would need to artificially delay their actions so other players could interpret and react to them accurately - which just doesn't work. In the time it takes to enter a message into the log to forewarn your party that you're beginning a chain the situation in the fight could change drastically - area of effect, incoming damage spike, or simply a positional change would render your message moot. Not everyone has access to a VoIP - not everyone you play with is in your FC/LS.

• Paladin: Fast Blade -> Savage Blade -> Rage of Halone if I interrupt this chain to complete a "Skill Chain" which another player it interrupts the core rotation of the class. Enmity does not decay - how is Skill Chain damage calculated and who is the enmity attributed to? If I delayed my basic rotation the DPS also had to interrupt their rotations to perform an opener. In fights requiring dedicated Stuns they become unable to Skill Chain effectively.

• Warrior: See Paladin. Then tack on needing a 2nd distinct bi/tri rotation to their basic cycle to maintain Maim/Storm's Eye buff/debuff while building, maintaining, and utilizing Wrath stack requirements. Warrior would be less viable and more difficult to group with because of their ineffective rotations paired with a system that demands they delay or even cancel a combination to complete a chain - this once again directly goes against party play and structure in A Realm Reborn.

• Monk: Relies on maintaining a rotation and utilizing this rotation to maintain stacking buffs to output damage - abilities only become available when moving through forms and are gated by prerequisites unless their Perfect Balance ability is used - which is primarily for quickly recovering their stacked buff. It is not unfeasible that a class such as Monk could initiate or complete a Skill Chain under perfect circumstances - but it is highly unlikely and the class would suffer and likely become shunned as less effective.

• Bard: Could easily Skill Chain - the way Bard functions it would be the best choice, if not the exclusive choice, for a system that involved a group chaining skills together.

• White Mage: Did White Mage ever truly get to participate with any regularity in Skill Chains before? Please give me a structure where all roles are somehow incorporated.

• Scholar: See White Mage.

• Black Mage: Relies on building stacks of Fire, and recovering with stacks of Ice. Black Mage using Magic Burst to deal extra aspect damage without participating actively in the chain build means they are granted a DPS boost simply by existing in the party and continuing to do their basic rotations.

• Summoner: Has no method of outputting spike damage making their Burst utility practically null. Involving a pet in a Skill Chain would be horrendous due the imprecise nature of pet control in FFXIV ARR.

• Dragoon: Simplistic - Dragoon is the most traditional class and would be second only to Bard in such a system with it's freedom to position and utilize any particular skill on demand while only slightly disrupting their general GCD rotation.

In short - the pace of combat and the nature of Job mechanics would come into direct conflict with the idea of Skill Chains. Magic Burst would overwhelmingly favor Black Mage and lead to certain classes being stacked for an exponential effect. A system that requires players to interact in this manner would work in a game of significantly lower pace (FFXI) but is not possible in a modern MMO where the entire focus is on the individual's performance, positional awareness, and cool-down management to fulfill their role.