Let's Talk Benchmark and Skills~

[Fernosaur]

PLD is definitely getting a mini-Holy attack. Sadly, it looks like it's a skill with a castbar. Hopefully casting cannot be interrupted for PLD lmfao.

DRK seems to be getting something similar to Cover, though it looks more like a single-target shield than Cover itself.

WAR is getting a gap closer, which is equal times cool and terrible. It's starting to feel like all tanks will have more or less the same skills.


As for the healers, the new cards look great, though I'm more interested about SCH's new fairy ability. She seems to tether to a party member, but for what purpose? Maybe her healing is buffed for that party member? Or maybe it's SE's new way of getting rid of her by giving the party member a buff while she's tethered and blocking her healing, lmao. Guess we can only wait and see!

WHM seems to be doing something that affects the whole party, but it's much less obvious than the others.

[dragonseth07]

WAR is getting a gap closer, which is equal times cool and terrible. It's starting to feel like all tanks will have more or less the same skills.

Well, they do have to be interchangeable for all content, right? There have to be a lot of similarities in what they can do.

[Shougun]

WAR is getting a gap closer, which is equal times cool and terrible. It's starting to feel like all tanks will have more or less the same skills.

Well, they do have to be interchangeable for all content, right? There have to be a lot of similarities in what they can do.

Yeah, they do need to be interchangeable, we're not in the sort of hardcore RPG/era where people will accept from the devs "not right class of the role group? tough shit, get the right one! Monks only for these skeletons baby! Elemental/magic resistance from black mages on the next muahaha" lol, and certain QoL might be deemed too useful not to put on all like a ranged attack (shield lob, etc etc).

So it wouldn't shock me to see the Paladin also get a gap closer too, if they don't have an animation set I would love to have the hand thrown bolt / thor / praise the sun toss a lightning bolt (Dark Souls) effect for Paladin. Launches a holy bolt at the target, and through some method Paladin blinks to the impact site with a shield bash causing it to mushroom out from a bolt and explode (like the FFXV dagger skills, sort of)... :3.

Perhaps to allow for a bit of an animation build up it has a longer range (but takes longer to finish, this can make them all a bit different). Like Dark Knight's has the lowest cooldown and great mobility, Warrior might be able to use his on oGCD to build a stack (making it useful for not just gap closing - leading to a great potential for higher dps and likely weaved in), and Paladin's maybe does the most burst damage, range, but has a longer windup and cooldown (making it less mobile and sluggish, but still.. hopefully impactful).

So long as the playstyles are different I think that is enough (how things are managed, not what they can do), ideally what they can do is more similar for balance but the management is as different as possible without becoming impossible to balance. Making the stance/defense/DD stuff different rather than copy paste is best, like no cleric stance for all healers.. thats making it all same same lol (but I believe each healer should of course be able to damage, just in different styles).

[Fernosaur]

Well, they do have to be interchangeable for all content, right? There have to be a lot of similarities in what they can do.

Interchangeable isn't necessarily the same as having the exact same skills, though. In terms of movement control, all tanks have a form to "stand their ground," so to speak, that work different from each other. DRK has Plunge, which makes it so they can reposition immediately after a knockback from the boss, or keep the boss still after a forced movement, like the jumps in A8. PLD has Tempered Will, which is crap, I know, but hopefully we'll see them rebalance it to make it a worthwhile CD. WAR has Holmgang, which doubles as the immunity, and of course you want to use it for the immunity, so WAR is the one that's left in the dust when it comes to cancelling movement. I guess that's the reason they're giving WAR a gap closer.

I'm holding more opinions until we actually see a change log, though. I think an excess of homogenization could be detrimental for the state of the game, but we cannot be sure about anything until we have patch notes. I do think most of the skills seen in the Benchmark Trailer look pretty cool, though. I'm infinitely curious about the new stuff each healer is showing off.

[CosmicKirby]

Well, they do have to be interchangeable for all content, right? There have to be a lot of similarities in what they can do.

Similarity in RESULTS in important. Similarity in method is bland.

Some tanks/healers should, ideally be better suited in certain situations and fights, while all healers/tanks should be able to complete that same content. If, say WAR does really well in one fight of a raid, but poorly in the next that's fine and helps to bring the differences he has compared to the other tanks.
If all tanks perform equally well by doing the same things, what's the point in there being 3 tanks?

[whiteblade89]

If all tanks perform equally well by doing the same things, what's the point in there being 3 tanks?

Flavor :3.

[Duelle]

Flavor :3.

This. You can have tanks with equal results while still having:

a) different aesthetics (this includes weapons)
b) different gameplay
c) different forms of utility (within reason)

Given the shitshow we saw at the beginning of the expansion, I'm surprised to see people want performance discrepancies between the tanks instead of, say, try to avoid recreating that same shitshow.

[Daniolaut]

Hopefully casting cannot be interrupted for PLD lmfao.

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Maybe thats what the first animation that paladin does just before holy is signifying? Anti-interruption?

[Jandor]

As for the healers, the new cards look great, though I'm more interested about SCH's new fairy ability. She seems to tether to a party member, but for what purpose? Maybe her healing is buffed for that party member? Or maybe it's SE's new way of getting rid of her by giving the party member a buff while she's tethered and blocking her healing, lmao. Guess we can only wait and see!

Maybe the fairy is covering the party member? Might be that instead of getting rid of cover they want it spread it around enough jobs so that they can use it in encounter design.

[Fawkes]

WHM seems to be doing something that affects the whole party, but it's much less obvious than the others.

The way it lands on party members sequentially made me think it might be another sort of protect, or maybe WHM shields.