Did the game get too complicated, or am I just an idiot?

[RiisWolf]

Either the OP has had a uniquely terrible chain of experiences with unnecessarily rude or exacting people in DF or something else is wrong, whether it's related to DPS numbers or something else.

If I were regularly getting feedback from strangers that my DPS seemed low, I would parse myself or have a friend parse (if I were a PS player) during a run of the same dungeons to get an idea of what's really going on. I find it common with BLMs and DPS in general that many players can at least do okay on a dummy, but they drop off dramatically when faced even with basic mechanics because they haven't had enough practice maintaining their rotations in actual gameplay.

Yeah you should not ever expect DPS parse in a real fight be like on a striking dummy, cause mobs tend to die fast and bosses tend to fling you about, forces you to stop attacking it, and/or become untouchable.

And I'd report the ones who are stupid enough to screw over the team because of AND while blabbing about how he got his parsers.

[Linadae]

To be honest I personally am finding a lot of ability bloat. At 50 my ninja rotation was already crowded enough with mudras and multiple combos required to keep dots up. Now at lvl 54 it's just gone into the realm of frustrating now that they've added a fourth combo that of course I can't skip because it extends one of my buffs. So now I have three dots (one has a one step combo, the other a two step combo), my buff extender is a two step combo, and I still have my basic damage combo which has two steps to set up for the big move.

Meanwhile I'm expected to weave in mug and random mudras (all of which take 2 or more button presses) and this isn't even counting cooldowns or mid-battle support abilities.

It's too much. It's unnecessary. I say, keep the mudras, they bring a unique flavor to the class but as for the dots, combine them all into one combo. No class (outside of a dot based class) needs more than one dot move. That will leave us with three basic combos and mudras at lvl 54 giving us wiggle room for whatever other skills they decide to add in.

And to be honest...adding a new skill every two levels was a bit overkill. Really could have spaced those out with some traits.

[HairyRoger]

The game did get more complicated just for the sake of it, but not really too complicated.

I have a very hard time believing this thread. You get kicked on a regular basis when doing normal dps? I have seen people doing almost negative dps and not getting that treatment. Meeting a dick or two is always possible, but not more times than you can count. You are either not telling the truth, being rude or afking during runs.

SE is also irrelevant in this context. Don't be that guy.

[Alahra]

The game did get more complicated just for the sake of it, but not really too complicated.

I'd say that probably varies somewhat from class to class. NIN didn't change much (though I think they have needless ability bloat), for instance, but other classes, such as BLM, have a lot more to worry about now that they didn't have to before.

[HairyRoger]

I'd say that probably varies somewhat from class to class. NIN didn't change much (though I think they have needless ability bloat), for instance, but other classes, such as BLM, have a lot more to worry about now that they didn't have to before.

As I said. The game is more complicated, and not really in a good way. I disagree with it being too complicated though. Nin is just one class out of many and since it was rather new already it was no surprise it had less changes done. Most classes seem to have ability bloat at the moment though.

[Alahra]

As I said. The game is more complicated, and not really in a good way. I disagree with it being too complicated though. Nin is just one class out of many and since it was rather new already it was no surprise it had less changes done. Most classes seem to have ability bloat at the moment though.

The tanks didn't become much more complex either, nor did any of the healers. I'd say the classes that ended up with the most added complexity at this point are BLM and DRG.

Some added complexity is fine (most of the classes probably were a bit too simple in ARR), though I wish they would have gone with the established pattern and given us two new abilities and 3 traits, which would have significantly cut down on bloat. They're going to have a problem on their hands in 4.0, as even on keyboard I'm struggling to find comfortable keybinds for everything. I can't imagine how it feels on gamepad.

[Ryaz]

Definitely some ability bloat. MCH have so many cooldowns to manage, I'm not surprised some people get confused (though several abilities are situational in nature so they don't get used much) and I know Drg went from fairly simple to pretty complex with the new expansion. I feel bad for anyone playing on a controller. Even on PC, I've pretty much used all my hot bars. Two for the most used abilities, 1 for slightly less used abilities (these all switch when I changed classes), a bar for mounts, a bar for extraneous, non-combat stuff, a bar to let me see procs easier for my MCH, and a bar for marking targets. I'm scared at what the next expansion will bring.

[Greedalox]

I greatly appreciate the added complexity that came in 3.0. It's a great deal of fun and I find it takes a good deal more concentration to play your class somewhat optimally which I found was greatly lacking in 2.0.

I also don't feel that it went overboard with how difficult things have become as it can all learned with some Practice Dummy training. Going above and beyond what "casual" content requires needs a more mechanical understanding of your class and as such is a different story.

Anyone can do Alexander with what most would call a minimum necessity of knowledge in your class, if you're not at that point yet then you need to spend more time at a Dummy or learning fight mechanics. Savage is at the moment the end game content so should need near optimal playing. If you're being kicked from groups at 52 (Which isn't much different from 50) then I think your fundamentals of the class might be lacking and it might be time to practice a bit!

[HairyRoger]

I like turtles.

So you are saying that BLM and DRG is too complicated?

Just trying to understand where exactly the discussion is coming from. Ability bloat is an issue, but seeing as other games already realized and had to cut down on abilities, I hope SE takes the hint before it goes too far. Complexity is fine if it means adding a new dimension to whatever class you are playing, imo. What they did was more like adding complexity while not really making it more rewarding nor exciting.

[Alahra]

So you are saying that BLM and DRG is too complicated?

I'm simply saying that they are more complicated than they used to be, to a greater degree than is the case for other classes. I don't have a stake in whether that's a good or bad thing at present as I don't play either class, though I do wonder at the design decisions that lead to making two of ARR's simpler DPS classes into two of HW's most complex ones. Ideally, expansion changes should grow a class, not shift it in a massively different direction, and for those that played DRG or BLM in part because of the nature of their playstyle/rotations (compared to "harder" classes like MNK or SMN), the added complexity can be quite frustrating.

I'd say that NIN, the tanks, and the healers are all examples of a good balance between the addition of new complexities while maintaining a similar playstyle to their previous incarnations.