We Really Need To Talk About The State And Path Of FFXIV

[Bourne_Endeavor]

eh..well the combat content in this game is a bit dull if you play long enough.

We really only have three archetypes, tank, healer, and dps, and each job is more like a control style than anything. the lack of customization and flexibility means there really isn't much variation to encounters, you just repeat them over and over with minor variances, even if you can gear jobs to the same level. Like in ffxi, ninja was a radically different tank from paladin, but war or drk are still really similar to paladin in general concept; just minor differences.

Or liek with drg in ffxi, you can go dps spec, with /war or /sam subjob, or offheal/solo spec with blu or whm. Grinding is a little more tolerable when you have some options. Like ffxi rng you could specialize in gun, crossbow, or bow, or use all three as you liked. If you got really bored, BST opened up whole new ways of playing the game.

I think the game's linear nature kind of makes grind a lot less appealing. I do a bit less of it now than i used to, and for me crafting and gathering is the alternate path. For some its pvp.

FFXI was also an imbalanced mess half the time. You had builds that were straight garbage—to the point people wouldn't invite you. We may meme on BLM and SAM, however neither are even close to the level of ostracization you saw in FFXI. That being said, FFXIV treats its job switching flexibility as specs. If I want to play a faster paced melee DPS than Dragoon, I can switch to Ninja. There simply isn't a need to have specs which allow Dragoon to play like Ninja or Warrior. Not to mention, that creates a balancing nightmare since you've essentially doubled the jobs. And if Tank Dragoon isn't good, well, you're not getting invited to parties. Nevertheless, they're supposed trying some variation of this in the next Eureka. So maybe it'll work well enough they keep the idea around. At least if Eureka: Mach III is even worth doing.

[WhyAmIHere]

FFXI was also an imbalanced mess half the time. You had builds that were straight garbage—to the point people wouldn't invite you. We may meme on BLM and SAM, however neither are even close to the level of ostracization you saw in FFXI. That being said, FFXIV treats its job switching flexibility as specs. If I want to play a faster paced melee DPS than Dragoon, I can switch to Ninja. There simply isn't a need to have specs which allow Dragoon to play like Ninja or Warrior. Not to mention, that creates a balancing nightmare since you've essentially doubled the jobs. And if Tank Dragoon isn't good, well, you're not getting invited to parties. Nevertheless, they're supposed trying some variation of this in the next Eureka. So maybe it'll work well enough they keep the idea around. At least if Eureka: Mach III is even worth doing.

The logos system'll just be a duty action to correspond to your selected role.
DPS? here's a 20% damage boost for 35s, recast of 45s.
Tank? here's 30% mitigation for 20s, recast 30s.
Healer? here's an insanely potent heal and a 25s regen, recast of 35s.

[Deceptus]

FFXI was also an imbalanced mess half the time. You had builds that were straight garbage—to the point people wouldn't invite you. We may meme on BLM and SAM, however neither are even close to the level of ostracization you saw in FFXI. That being said, FFXIV treats its job switching flexibility as specs.

That's basically what I think jobs are. Specs to roles. You have 3 tanking specs, 3 healing specs, 2 magic ranged dps, 2 physcial ranged, etc

[RiyahArp]

FFXI was also an imbalanced mess half the time. You had builds that were straight garbage—to the point people wouldn't invite you. We may meme on BLM and SAM, however neither are even close to the level of ostracization you saw in FFXI.

I'd take that level of ostracization if I could have jobs like FFXI. I'd be perfectly happy switching to an alt class in endgame if I had something like puppetmaster for casual content. I played BST, yeah they were ostracized, but we could just make our own pet parties and do things, or we could even solo things no one else bothered with. It would probably work even better in this game, since casual content is forgiving enough we don't need to optimize as much.

[Vaer]

I'd take that level of ostracization if I could have jobs like FFXI. I'd be perfectly happy switching to an alt class in endgame if I had something like puppetmaster for casual content. I played BST, yeah they were ostracized, but we could just make our own pet parties and do things, or we could even solo things no one else bothered with. It would probably work even better in this game, since casual content is forgiving enough we don't need to optimize as much.

That's not necessary now though, back then most jobs couldn't solo worth anything so those jobs had a place as a niche, now all jobs can solo so it would be relatively pointless to have a job like that. The job closest to that niche is RDM which has a niche in Deep Dungeon.

I mean I guess you could have a job that is good for soloing in Eureka, but who would even care.. seems like a waste of dev time when they could have a cool new job that could be close or on par with existing jobs with a new playstyle for all content vs. a niche job that is a dumpster spec in group content but good at solo content that everyone else could do anyway. It's just not the same.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

I'd take that level of ostracization if I could have jobs like FFXI. I'd be perfectly happy switching to an alt class in endgame if I had something like puppetmaster for casual content. I played BST, yeah they were ostracized, but we could just make our own pet parties and do things, or we could even solo things no one else bothered with. It would probably work even better in this game, since casual content is forgiving enough we don't need to optimize as much.

You might, but the playerbase as a whole feels quite differently given reactions we see here or on reddit. The constant whining about groups refusing to take Samurais, debating the meta and etc would all become that much worse. They don't design jobs just to do the casual content. They want them to be viable in everything, which simply wasn't the case in FFXI. You can ask how Paladin mains felt in Heavensward, or White Mages after the Astro Balance buff. Both were treated as a meme because Dark Knight and Astro were simply better at virtually everything.