Quote Originally Posted by Chardrizard View Post
and what is this negative unintended consequences and bad behavious you talking about?
Do I need to explain this again? I posted about it in this thread multiple times, and even the OP elaborated on this issue.



Let's say you are solo. You add another member to your party to make a duo. Your battle effectiveness increases accordingly to the ability of your partner and you ability to work together as a team.

Let's say you add another member to make your party a trio. Your battle effectiveness increases accordingly to the ability of the third party member and your ability to work together as a team.

Let's say you add another member to make a party of 4. Your battle effectiveness increases accordingly to the ability of the 4th parth member and you ability to work together as a team. In addition, you are granted an additional bonus for no apparent reason, other than the fact that you reached the arbitrary number 4.

That 4th member could be anyone, and you'd still get the party buff. It would be a crafter, it could be a rank 1 alt, it could be someone AFKing back in town. It doesn't matter. You can add a completely useless party member to your party, and while normally, this would be a hindrance to your party since you're just carrying dead weight, with the party buff in place this otherwise useless party member actually increases your overall effectiveness just by being there.

Functionally, your party is still a trio, but it is rewarded with buffs just by adding a useless member to it.

Is it fostering good gameplay to reward players for adding useless members to their party? No.

Is it necessary for dungeon content balance to have to resort to crutches like a party balance buff? No.

Look, this isn't a huge issue. The debate about the party buff is insignificant when compared to the other problems this game has.

That doesn't mean I can't point out bad design decisions when I see them.