Rank Speculation: How would Corsair/Pirate/Musketeer play in XIV

[Raskbuck]

The first being that the devs design the content and classes in mind that you will have support in every group, and design the bosses accordingly; Which unfortunately means that if you do not have that support class with you (for whatever reason), you are at a severe disadvantage for content.
- There is also the side-effect that the DPS classes which are already dime-a-dozen will have even fewer spaces to fill in the group creating an even worse bottle-neck.

The second outcome is that the devs design content and classes without the support in mind; Any encounter that you do bring the support class to will be trivialized because you have all of the default buffs that the classes bring on their own -plus- the buffs offered by the support.
- There is also the possibility that the devs will not make the support class too powerful, so as to prevent trivializing content; In that case the support class will be forgotten by almost any group as it would probably be better to bring another DPS that could support itself with it's own buffs.

Regarding your first point, isn't that like saying something like "If you don't have a healer, you are at a severe disadvantage for content."? If we treat support as a fully fledged class, that could be applied to any role in a party. Much like a party won't be able to clear content easily without a tank, or without DPS.
About DPS classes already being too many and adding a support role will make things worse, I can't disagree much with that. Unless, of course, you add a fifth slot in the current Light Party setup for Support and either replace a DPS or add a ninth slot in Full Parties.

As for not designing the content with Support in mind, they can always adjust the encounters. I mean, they are not precisely set in stone; much like they modified WP so that you couldn't skip almost all of the dungeon.
As for making the support class too powerful or too trivial, they can always adjust the content to make it feel appropriate.

[Reslin]

About DPS classes already being too many and adding a support role will make things worse, I can't disagree much with that. Unless, of course, you add a fifth slot in the current Light Party setup for Support and either replace a DPS or add a ninth slot in Full Parties.

The big problem with the add another slot to light/full parties is that they'd need to re-balance existing encounters on top of this it presents the problem of making support worthwhile enough to have over another dps or healer. If they are it becomes the problem of balancing them so they don't replace an existing role by being too strong. Support classes have always been the hardest to balance.

While Blue Mage in XI is quite OP in the general sense

And this proves my point. It's very easy to make them too strong or too weak and any overpowered class is bad for the health of an mmo. It's why constant measures are taken to keep things balanced.

[Tupsi]

And this proves my point. It's very easy to make them too strong or too weak and any overpowered class is bad for the health of an mmo. It's why constant measures are taken to keep things balanced.

Blue Mage isn't a support though - It's a Physical Hybrid which is insanely tough to balance. This is why Geomancer was seen as "weak" because its focus is support but it can also nuke, and a few updates later? They brought it up to speed with current game balance. So while balance is a fine mistress, all MMOs have to go through a period of uncertainty for classes in order to find the right flow. I only used Blue Mage as an example because even given its nature they balanced exactly what it could do to prevent its support spells from basically melting bosses.

Preventing TP gain or flat out removing it? Yeah when monsters does it to us it removes all of our TP, but when a Blue Mage does it, it only removes a fraction of it (usually in the 30-80 range) which is still good and something only a Dark Knight can do (even stronger at that) but the balance is there. It's just the fact Blue Mage itself isn't in any defined role because it can DD, Tank, Heal or Debuff (Hybrid) but FFXI unlike most MMOs have enough classes and battle balance to be built around it, so while you may one shot The final boss in Moogle Kupo D'tat, good luck even being wanted for Delve content because one is 75 content, the other is level 120 content. I think the main thing with ARR is the game doesn't balance up or down well, a remnant from 1.x where being over certain levels just absolutely destroys anything under you.

[Reslin]

I think the main thing with ARR is the game doesn't balance up or down well, a remnant from 1.x where being over certain levels just absolutely destroys anything under you.

Ah, I see. I apologize for my misunderstanding. I played FF11 before blue mage was introduced. That being said, in most theme park mmo's. Mobs don't stand a chance against a player 5 levels over them. The idea is a journey to understand your class and it's mechanics to prepare you for max level. The leveling process isn't long by design.