Long-term Design Questions Best Answered Before 5.0

[Shurrikhan]

For those (at least vaguely combat-related) questions that probably ought to have been answered a while back, but get more irritating with each expansion they're left unanswered.

I'll start, and then shortlist the questions here. (Please write the core question in bold, if you don't mind.)

What's the point of TP, really?

What, if anything, SE will be doing to introduce a new healer that isn't a copy of WHM + SCH + gimmick (like AST is) in light of the above.

What is the point of the resistance down debuffs, and why are they still in the game?

Why create a ["selfish" or independent output] job meant to be nothing more than raw damage...and not allow them to put out enough raw damage to surpass a utility DPS job?

[Brightamethyst]

- What's the point of TP, really?

At this point? To limit AoE spam, mostly.

[Hestzhyen]

Healer actions and diversity.

The fundamental design of combat dictates that healers have many burst options to handle massive tank busters, but outgoing damage is not consistent enough to demand high healing output in most situations. This limits the toolkits healers can have to be effective and leave most content feeling grossly undertuned from a healing perspective.

I want to know what, if anything, SE will be doing to introduce a new healer that isn't a copy of WHM + SCH + gimmick (like AST is) in light of the above.

[Brightamethyst]

I want to know what, if anything, SE will be doing to introduce a new healer that isn't a copy of WHM + SCH + gimmick (like AST is)

I'm not sure how realistic that is. The gimmick (cards, pets, etc) is really the important part here. Healing itself is pretty binary. You either heal the damage after it happens (cures, regens) or you prevent it from happening in the first place (shields, damage reductions.) There isn't really a third option. The non-direct healing part of the play style is really the only way to make a new class different.

[Elamys]

Healing itself is pretty binary.

This is true, but there's way to make those classes feel and play differently by the way their abilities interact with each other. I wish people wouldn't complain about the cards as a gimmick, but right now, the actual healing portion of AST is pretty much the exact same as WHM. WoW did a great job having all their healers play and feel different.

[HyoMinPark]

I have one that I would like a decent answer to: What is the point of the resistance down debuffs, and why are they still in the game?

It is always said it’s to promote job synergy, but there is only 1 synergy that comes out of the current design with regards to resistance down debuffs: DRG+BRD+MCH (or DRG+BRD/DRG+MCH). All other physical DPS jobs can apply their respective damage resistance debuffs (MNK applies Blunt, SAM/NIN apply Slashing [and WAR, but I’m talking about just DPS jobs here], and DRG applies Piercing) save for these two (BRD and MCH), which leaves them heavily reliant on the only other job that offers piercing resistance down. There is no such thing as “magic resistance down” in this game in terms of personally applied damage resistance down debuffs, so why cling to the physical damage resistance down debuffs? Especially considering the issues that piercing resistance down causes for players/groups that wish to optimize?


Another one that I thought of just now: The developers like this idea of a “selfish DPS job”, yet they seem unwilling to let the selfish DPS jobs be truly selfish in terms of personal damage output (e.g., SAM). Why create a job meant to be nothing more than raw damage...and not allow them to put out enough raw damage to surpass a utility DPS job?

[Shurrikhan]

At this point? To limit AoE spam, mostly.

But for the vast majority of AoE packs, if all players AoE efficiently, you won't run out before all the mobs are dead. It's just a matter of putting enough mana into the equation, too, when relevant.

But, on that note, TP isn't an AoE resource for DRK, nor is even MP an AoE resource for RDM or BLM. It's quite nearly a non-resource for SMN, even, during DWT, given its massive MP cost reduction on Tri-bind and the limited duration access to any spammable AoE.

I have one that I would like a decent answer to: What is the point of the resistance down debuffs, and why are they still in the game?

It is always said it’s to promote job synergy, but there is only 1 synergy that comes out of the current design with regards to resistance down debuffs: DRG+BRD+MCH (or DRG+BRD/DRG+MCH). All other physical DPS jobs can apply their respective damage resistance debuffs (MNK applies Blunt, SAM/NIN apply Slashing [and WAR, but I’m talking about just DPS jobs here], and DRG applies Piercing) save for these two (BRD and MCH), which leaves them heavily reliant on the only other job that offers piercing resistance down. There is no such thing as “magic resistance down” in this game in terms of personally applied damage resistance down debuffs, so why cling to the physical damage resistance down debuffs? Especially considering the issues that piercing resistance down causes for players/groups that wish to optimize?


Another one that I thought of just now: The developers like this idea of a “selfish DPS job”, yet they seem unwilling to let the selfish DPS jobs be truly selfish in terms of personal damage output (e.g., SAM). Why create a job meant to be nothing more than raw damage...and not allow them to put out enough raw damage to surpass a utility DPS job?

I'm not certain. I like the idea that when I'm running with another player using my weapon type, it's faster to spread our focus fire targets, or the applying weaponskill won't have to be short of damage on one or the other of our application's, but that's a (barely) DRG-DRG, (noticeably) MNK-MNK, or formerly a (slight) WAR-WAR thing. Never has it added any real sense of coordination to cross-class play: It's not significant enough to further skip multi-DoTing to focus a certain target you wouldn't otherwise have already been focusing; PLD can't weave in magic damage to hold on until Slashing Down is applied, due to its Requiescat window, so there's no way for it to take advantage -- or not take advantage -- of Slashing; the percentage isn't significant enough to hold off on a buffed rotational, only an oGCD like Plunge or an enmity-fluffing Onslaught, and never to the point of desync with synergetic CDs or a loss of casts over a fight. In gameplay it's rarely strong enough to have an effect, while in pure numbers, its effect is so powerful that it badly restricts compositions, a worst of both worlds.

And yet, I can't think of an easy solution off the top of my head save to give virtually everyone some way of applying their debuff type. Maybe critical hits against targets could create a brief piercing effect for Archer (seeing use from Straighter Shot and a version of Refulgent Arrow consolidated there-into) and a buffed Clean Shot could generate the effect for Machinist. Maybe Riot Blade and a revised Scourge could apply it for Gladiator and Dark Knight.