Gunbreaker gameplay hope and expectations

[Lyth]

I played WAR for nearly two years.

I suppose more specifically, I don't like what WAR and a few jobs like it have done to this game. We're on what, this game's third expansion (four if you count ARR's reboot). We should be celebrating the release of new jobs and the impact that they're going to have on our gameplay. But because several of the ARR jobs (WAR, SCH, NIN, DRG) have been unchecked for so long, they're pretty much a mandatory part of every group since ARR. I don't want to be raiding on and with the same ARR comp yet again for the sixth year running. And no, I don't want to be forced to bring a NIN just so that a non-WAR comp is capable of performing basic tank functions.

The discussion about dps windows was with relation to the conversation above. Even if you made slashing into a mini-trick window instead of a 100% uptime buff, it still shouldn't be on a tank. There are other reasons for slashing to not be in the game (not the least of which is the fact that several jobs, like PLD and DRK, use hybrid damage types, so it's unfair to have selective damage type buffs). If you're confident in your own skill as a player, you shouldn't need to bring a mandatory buff like Slashing in order for people to bring you along. Just get rid of Slashing and Piercing.

Burst is poorly balanced in this game. If two jobs do identical dps on a target dummy, then the job with the greater burst will invariably pull ahead in actual fights.

There are three reasons for this. The first is that if you're playing a burst heavy job, like WAR, in which most of your dps is concentrated in a 10 second window, having poor uptime for the remaining 90% of your rotation hurts you a lot less than it does jobs with limited burst.

Second, this game is built around burst windows from abilities like Trick. So if you perform your 10 second burst inside of this set of stacked raid buffs, a greater proportion of your total dps gets amplified compared to a job whose dps is spread out.

Lastly, most bosses have downtime, either when they jump or go untargetable. While this happens, nobody can dps, but the time to your next burst window keeps ticking down. So in fights with lower uptime, jobs like WAR pull significantly ahead, even if you execute everything flawlessly on PLD or DRK.

So unless jobs with high burst do significantly less damage on a target dummy, things aren't going to be anywhere near balanced in an actual fight.

As far as Inner Beast goes, that was more of a concession than anything else. People come up with all sorts of excuses for WAR's privileged position in this game. 'Oh, WAR needs a ton of defensive cooldowns because we can't use Inner Beast without losing dps'. Okay. Turn Inner Beast into a Sheltron/TBN analogue. Just get rid of Raw Intuition, Thrill of Battle, and give all three tanks proper parity on the 30% DR and Invuln moves.

'Oh, WAR needs oGCD stances that have no costs attached because there's a HP penalty for switching into Deliverance'. Fine. Just turn it into a flat %DR and make WAR stances on the GCD, costing 20% of your primary damage gauge like everyone else. We need to get rid of WAR's special treatment. Or better yet, get rid of stances across the board.

I know it's a scary thought, but maybe if all these tanks were on an equal playing field, people would value the player and not the job.

I kind of like Shadowbringers' motif of "out with the old, and in with the new" as the WoL and Scions shed their old jobs to try out new ones. It's high time for a change. The present course isn't working. Let's breathe some fresh air into this game.

As far as PLD is concerned: I'm glad that they actually found something resembling a niche this expansion, such that they are no longer forced to eat scraps off of WAR's table. And no, I don't think WAR should have a piece of that, which is why Shake it Off was a very poor decision. I hope the next expansion builds on PLD's identity, and I'd like to be able to raid with PLD on DRK without feeling like I have to bring along specific jobs to compensate for the lack of a WAR. I hope the same is true for DRK and Gunbreaker.