People wanting a support class. Why?

[SturmChurro]

The reason FFXIV doesn't currently have any true support jobs is because there is no niche for them. The content in this game is braindead from a mechanical standpoint (stand in specific places et al). Other MMOs have them because they have raids or endgame fights that involve things like needed to keep one enemy dazed or stunned for most a pull (like an enemy that might buff all the others around it as soon as it "wakes up", so you want to kill the rest before dealing with it), or fights that are pure DPS burn fights where you wouldn't even bring a traditional healer and instead bring a class that can just raise the party's damage to extreme amounts, or bosses that put buffs on themselves similar to the enrage buffs in FFXIV that have to be cleansed/removed periodically.

One of my favorite examples is Lord of the Rings Online and Loremaster. They were basically required for a lot of endgame content and even regular instances because the dungeon/fight design in that game incorporated a lot of "captain" type enemies that needed to be kept out of the fight or giant, powerful enemies that you weren't meant to kill at all and just avoid while going through the dungeon. There is no equivalent to that in FFXIV, dungeons are purely tank and spank here.

I get in arguments all the time with my buddy about this kind of thing all the time. I always confuse normal raids with trials, but he and the game calls them raids, but I always think they are trials, and we always go back and forth. I'm all like "it's just a boss on a platform this is a trial, what exactly is the difference between this and a trial?" He always goes that he "likes it this way anyway - skip all the trash straight to the boss". I would love to see some actual raids that require outside mechanics, like adds, or something else. Extra enemies doesn't always have to be filler, sometimes it can be a good aspect of a fight, even SWTOR had more detailed raids, in my opinion, and I haven't played that game really in like 4 years.

[linay]

what exactly is the difference between this and a trial?

Reward structure, including lockout.

Raids are also released as a set. Alliance raids can be a set of 3 bosses in one instance. Normal raids can be a set of 4 bosses in 4 instances.

Trials are released standalone. One boss, one instance.

[SturmChurro]

Reward structure, including lockout.

Raids are also released as a set. Alliance raids can be a set of 3 bosses in one instance. Normal raids can be a set of 4 bosses in 4 instances.

Trials are released standalone. One boss, one instance.

Yeah, I get that. Mostly me and my friend joking around. I'd like to see more detailed raids, the bosses themselves can be more interesting in this than other games, but I don't think they are really worthy of being called raids. Not enough content, in my opinion. Great opportunities to make game mechanics that could actually benefit having some sort of support class. Game isn't designed like that though, so I suppose more trash would literally just be more time wasters. Just focus on doing as much DPS as possible, and do just that. It seems the game is getting more and more based around that too, it's probably easier to balance.