Petition: Add A Support Role To The Game.

[MartaDemireux]

Of course, this would require SE to completely re-balance every dungeon/quest in the game

I don't think it would require too much re-balancing of current dungeons to be honest. It would require some for sure but all of it is currently balanced to include at least one or two BRDs. BRD would remain unchanged really, just a hit to their DPS which could be made up for by giving them songs that boost party DPS when further level caps are unlocked.

If we change the role associated with BRD in the current game we could then ensure every party has the DPS LB which should be the case as it is with a DPS in the party. It wasn't quite as important before/presently since BRD was/is pretty strong. With the reduction of BRD DPS in 2.1, however, getting into a dungeon with 2 BRDs is going to be more painful.

I felt like Scholar fills this roll pretty well

Agreed, it really could but there would have to be some restrictions placed of course. If you allow it to choose between support or healer role when queueing up you'd have to restrict which fairy it can use and possibly require the setting and maintained use of Cleric Stance. Otherwise you're stuck with 2 healers essentially in a 4 man party which could either be really weak or really strong depending. These things are possible to code though and SCH does have DPS spells it could use so it would be interesting to see for sure.

To make support classes work you have to gut the output on the rest of the classes to make the new support role necessary.

Not necessarily true. You could simply weaken the supporters DPS while supporting in the same way that BRD's songs currently do.

[raelgun]

theres a reason why its called the holy trinity, let me explain some things, when you add a "role", you take account of the content to have that, i.e bosses need a tank, healer and damage dealers, and mechanics are designed to have those, with support, then the bosses need to take account of that role, otherwise why have the role right?
now, saying that, how many tanks and healers are there compared to damage dealers already?, what was that, the combined amount of main spec tanks and healers still being less then damage dealers?, add another role into that fragmentation, its a headache from the playerbase front, and the devs know this, they know this as they aquire data in game, adding another role thats needed in a fight just makes things even harder to do from a logistical standpoint and waiting times are longer

[Kiroh]

theres a reason why its called the holy trinity, let me explain some things, when you add a "role", you take account of the content to have that, i.e bosses need a tank, healer and damage dealers, and mechanics are designed to have those, with support, then the bosses need to take account of that role, otherwise why have the role right?
now, saying that, how many tanks and healers are there compared to damage dealers already?, what was that, the combined amount of main spec tanks and healers still being less then damage dealers?, add another role into that fragmentation, its a headache from the playerbase front, and the devs know this, they know this as they aquire data in game, adding another role thats needed in a fight just makes things even harder to do from a logistical standpoint and waiting times are longer

I hate to break it to you, but new jobs (and even new classes) are going to be added to the game. It's not really negotiable.

[MartaDemireux]

adding another role thats needed in a fight just makes things even harder to do from a logistical standpoint and waiting times are longer

This doesn't have to be the case. If they indeed include the option for ACN to choose to be a healer or a DPS role they could do the same for other classes and jobs. Current 4-man fights could be made to fill with either 1 tank, 1 healer, 2 DPS or 1 tank, 1 healer, 1 DPS, 1 Support. 8-man fights could follow the same formula, accepting up to 2 supports.

And as someone said above, new classes and jobs will indeed be coming to the game which would essentially increase respective wait times as it is, this is just another option to handle it. If you have only a ton of DPS classes coming in then you're going to be wishing some were able to queue as support to ease the strain on the DPS queue time. Healers currently face the same issue in that they have slow queue times as compared to tanks. If a SCH could queue as support (with restrictions) then the group would fill faster.

[HunkyJimpjorps]

Pure support classes are outmoded. Good class design has support coming from every role.

[MartaDemireux]

Pure support classes are outmoded. Good class design has support coming from every role.

This is why I suggest every support role be a DPS at their core (in a similar way to BRD by decreasing their DPS while supporting or have low DPS normally that bumps party DPS) as well as be able to fill DPS slots in a party (to a capped number of course). This way they're not just standing around buffing/debuffing but also actively supporting in the depleting of enemy HP. Even if it was currently implemented with only BRD we would see the queue wait time for all other jobs decrease as BRD would be filling a different slot on their own. Also you'd avoid the problem of no DPS LB by having 2 BRD in a party.

[MartaDemireux]

Well maybe if they create a whole patch and content release based on the change I could see it. First they would need to release a second branch for all the class->jobs though.

Yes definitely agree they would need to do that but I do think it could work even with our current classes if even just to prevent 2 BRDs in a 4 man party.

[Tribunus]

Cant and wont happen, for them to add a support role at anytime from now till the cease of service would require them to readjust all the content available so that the role is viable.

Instead what they should and likely will do is add varying degrees of utility to the DPS classes, they kinda have it now with BRD and MNK and should continue to expand the support role that way.

[Wolf_Gang]

Each DPS class having a support ability is what makes them unique.

Adding a support role trivializes the DPS classes and results in groups only taking the one with the highest dps.

[Phai]

Cant and wont happen, for them to add a support role at anytime from now till the cease of service would require them to readjust all the content available so that the role is viable.

Instead what they should and likely will do is add varying degrees of utility to the DPS classes, they kinda have it now with BRD and MNK and should continue to expand the support role that way.

Agree, and this is a good point People should think about insted of demanding nerf on some classes, we should demand they Balance the use of every class in the content that is, and will come in future.
Brd is getting a damage nerf, not a utility nerf. they are one of weakest dd past titan, but still have the utility to be wanted. Give other classes something good to bring to the tabel, that way grp's have more freedom in what to bring into endgame. Hell, at one point we might even see ppl in coil progress grps play classes they love playing, insted of whats needed.