The Illusion of Choice

[Kaurie]

Basically. Sorry, Kaurie.


You were wanting to be able to build your character within a job a certain way for a certain fight, and then be able to easily switch it so that if content changes you won't get locked out? And that the different builds would play better in slightly different circumstances, but not so much that they would be selected against in story mode content?

I said we basically had that with different accessories/materia which could stack different stats, but that content didn't give us an excuse to stack anything but (SCH prospective) Mind. They just need to give us a reason to equip different things.

And then everyone said that it still wouldn't be a choice, you'd just stack those things for the one fight and then switch.

But that's exactly what you were asking for...so I'm pretty convinced they missed your point altogether.

The bottom line is that you can either have balance through switching your build easily, although this homogenizes the players for any given fight, or you have exclusion because you lock yourself into a certain build, even though you have diversity. You cannot have meaningful, lasting diversity and balance to the point that every build is viable and included. For all practical purposes you have to pick one.

Yoshi has gone with balance + homogenization. Honestly I'm fine with that. I wish they gave us reason to play around with different substats: that's the only think I would change. More varied content which requires branching out from the "stack your main stat only" build and experiment; and/or play around with the weights of the substats and make them more effectual.

Definitely. I can understand the desire to not want these things for balance, and think that is an acceptable argument. However, I think "Illusion of Choice" is a poor argument.

I made a thread about making all the stats affect every job, so that there would be reason to slot something other than your primary stat, but many argued against it with "The Illusion of Choice". I think that choice could be added in many ways, even within the scope of what is already in game (Attribute points, accessories not job bound, job changing with weapon swapping and encounter mechanics), but they are not really encouraging this. Attribute points go to your main stat, except BLM who may slot a PIE or two, and tanks who may slot STR vs VIT (but that will change shortly). There is no current reason in PvE for anyone to slot anything other than their main stat.

If, as you said, they created encounters which required different stat builds that would be something. That said, I think VIT vs MND is a rather boring choice. I suggested adding things like DEX improving accuracy, which WHMs with no accuracy gear may opt to slot in if they wanted to DPS (sacrifice 1% of healing ability, so that they hit accuracy cap). Perhaps STR could be CRIT focused, so a SCH who wants to crit more with adlo would slot that instead. The post was only made earlier this week if you care to see it.

Other options within the realm of what is in the game already (accessories not job bound, job changing and encounter mechanics) could be altered to make things more enjoyable. For example:

1. They could make it so you could gear more than 1 job at a time - i.e. put the 450 eso cap on purchases, rather than earning of tomestones. You can only spend 450 on SCH this week, but you can also spend 450 on SMN if you so choose. This would keep people from max gearing quickly, and provide incentive to run more roulettes throughout the week.

2. They could make secondary stats much more potent, so that you may opt to wear an accessory for another job due to the powerful 2ndary stats (45 MND 45 PIE 30 SS vs 45 INT 45 CRIT 30 DET -> if CRIT and DET were much more important, perhaps this would be more desirable, at least as your 2ndary ring)

That said, there wouldn't really be alternate builds that you can play with per encounter. There would still be one best option for your job. The great thing about adding variety and choice is that you can have multiple best options. As mentioned earlier in the thread, you could have a very high burst DPS build that rocks in Ravana EX due to the sword/shield swap, or you could have a great low TP/MP high sustained DPS that works well in long encounters, or you could have a high aoe but low single target build that rocks in A2S etc etc.

SMN and BLM do the same thing but they don't get there the same way

I strongly disagree with this statement. I am not sure how to argue it though. My only argument is that they don't do the same thing, with the only similarity that they do damage. In which case, a SMN also does the same thing as a WAR. Unless you mean they both use magic? In which case a NIN and a PLD are also identical, in that they both use physical damage. If you care to elaborate more on your point, that may be good, because perhaps I am missing something.

if they never made SMN and instead the Aetherflow mechanic with *Bane and Fester" was part of the Black Mage Thunder build, that would be a disservice to the community.s.

I completely agree, but removing an entire job to make a spec is not adding customization or variety, it is removing it.

As someone who hates BLM with an unknown passion, and finds every job outside of SMN, SCH and WHM to be utterly boring, if they made that change - I wouldn't be here.