Eight Fixes to Make These Changes Good.

[Rentahamster]

It required the user to moderate there damage and time there attacks.

Maybe in patch 1.18, but surely not in patch 1.19. Due to the archer nerfs, their damage output is so pitiful they never pull hate from me.

[Viridiana]

SO, now your defense of Auto-Attack is that it makes being an Archer easier? We must be world apart about what makes a game good. I personally do not need the game to do it for me. I like there to be a little Skill involved in my game play. Archer was the last DD in the game that offer real player dependent skill. It required the user to moderate there damage and time there attacks. What you are advocating is watching your TP bar fill up and hitting a weapon skill. You are advocating the removal of skill, class uniqueness, engaging combat, and Potency. You would sacrifice all of that so that your class isn't to hard?

We have different definitions of skill, apparently. Pushing the 1 key every 3.5 seconds or so is no more skillful than saying "bang" out loud every 3.5 seconds or so. There's really no skill to it to speak of. Letting the game handle that for you (and more efficiently, at that) opens up room for you to be doing other things instead.

For example, if I went to Ifrit right now on my PGL, I could do things like popping Raging Strike, Ferocity, and Blindside while I still only have 1500 TP in preparation for a 3k TP Victimize. I know that all of those abilities will stay active until I have enough TP to do the attack, and then I can use them again sooner for a different attack. If I tried to do that on ARC, well, I can either Light Shot and waste the buffs, or Barrage and hope it does significant damage. Yes, I realize ARC doesn't have a native 3k TP skill, but even if it did, you wouldn't be able to do what I'm talking about with the current setup. On the other hand, even on my PGL, I might mess up and hit Light Strike instead of Victimize, thus wasting my buffs, so I have to actually pay attention to what I'm doing.

Of course, that's not even getting into the animation lock discussion. It's well known that LNC is basically the favored class for Ifrit, but your vaunted Light Shot is why ARC is the bottom of the barrel. At least the other classes can continue their auto attacks in the seconds leading up to Ifrit's attacks, whereas ARC has to be careful on its Light Shots. Note that, in this case, "be careful" actually means "stop attacking."

I'm not advocating "watching [my] TP bar fill up and hitting a weapon skill." I'm advocating using some preliminary buffs while the TP fills and damage rolls in, then starting in on the combos while watching my aggro. It takes just as much skill; we're only just now getting class uniqueness; combat will be about the same level of activity; and I expect ARC potency to go up, if anything. The fact is, ARC isn't "hard" now.

[Alerith]

Of course, that's not even getting into the animation lock discussion. It's well known that LNC is basically the favored class for Ifrit, but your vaunted Light Shot is why ARC is the bottom of the barrel. At least the other classes can continue their auto attacks in the seconds leading up to Ifrit's attacks, whereas ARC has to be careful on its Light Shots. Note that, in this case, "be careful" actually means "stop attacking."

To expand upon this, we don't have an answer on whether or not your character will automatically stand in place when firing. Chances are it won't, since none of the auto-attacks from any other class force this. This will increase your survivability and might even make you MORE desirable for the Ifrit fight since you can move at a greater distance and still attack while any other job will end up missing out on a few hits because they have to run out of their AA range.

There. A tactic for Ifrit. Even though you have said the tactics for ARC would go out the window, I have presented one to you. Why invite 5 LNC who have to miss several seconds of attacking when you can invite 5 ARCs who never have to stop attacking and can still move?

[Kiote]

Welp. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news (to some, and good news to others, I suppose)... But the "ARC auto-attack" on the action list was actually a mistake. It should have read "ARC standard attack" which is what I've updated that to. ARCs auto-attack will remain a swift punch in the face come patch 1.20 with the manual shot process remaining as it is currently.

OH THANK GOD!

Now,

The whole Drk-like Dragoon thing is settled..

The Ranger Auto-Attack is Settled..

Let get to the Reactive Combat Skills.

I honestly think making Feint, Jarring Strike, Fracture, and Phalanx class specific is going to be very detrimental to the Enjoyment of solo game play.

Even if we somehow get to keep our manual attacks, it has always felt like they were not enough to warrant 30-60 second timers. The reactive combat skills give Solo combat the ability to draw the user into a fight. They also allow for a significant boost in Damage output for solo player. This boost does not translate in to party imbalance because these skills can only be used by the person with hate. I think it would be a great disservice to the people with a preference of solo game play to restrict skills that make there battles more Exciting and interactive.

These skills also go a long way to making tanking more fun. Players gain the ability to add to the party damage output and an additional method of gaining hate. I have always found tanking to be rather boring in other MMOs, but when you add these skills to a Gladiator or a Marauder it gives alot of depth and quick thinking to their game play.

[Corrderio]

So ARC is still gimped as hell due to animation lock? Nice.

[Kiote]

So ARC is still gimped as hell due to animation lock? Nice.

Animation lock is a temporary issue that should in no way impact the future of a class' mechanics.

Now we are on to the issue of Reactive combat skills.

I fail to see what benifits can be gained from making skills like Feint, Jarring Strike, Frature, and Phalanx class specific.

[Viridiana]

Actual class identity instead of the hodge-podge we have now?

[Corrderio]

Animation lock is a temporary issue that should in no way impact the future of a class' mechanics.

If future fights are anything like Ifrit where you need to be ready to in order to survive, ARC is going to be nothing but a cruth to the party.

Animation lock for weaponskills is one thing, but animation lock for your basic attack is beyond retarded. It's amazing Yoshida still considered manual ranged attacks as a good thing.

[Exni]

OH THANK GOD!

ARC is by far the weakest "DD" class atm, and by defintion a weak DDonly class is useless. The upcoming changes suggest that it will STILL be the weakest DD. Now they've confirmed that it will still be the only class getting it's TP accumulation gimped by not including an AA. Even with fixes to all the other nerfs that 1.19 brought to ARC, with the new changes, ARC still sits at the bottom of the totem pole. Add that BRD offers a large amount of increased survivabilitly and the Dev's have effectively scraped ARC as a viable DD. BRD may shine, and so people will level ARC to access it, but since ARC is the only class that got a completely different role assignment as a job... the Dev's should have focused more on keeping the class BRD stems from viable. But I guess that's no different from what's going on right now.. ARC's been dead for awhile now, guess we are still paying atonement for a year of OPness.. but THAT WASN'T PLAYERS FAULT!

Owait, do you even run ARC? If not, don't bother replying directly to me cause I won't be paying attention..