How would people feel if they took positional requirements away?

[Adonan]

I actually started a topic about the MNK positionals on the DPS Roles section of the forums. Here's the thread if anyone's interested. As I said in that thread, I would rather they didn't remove the positional requirements of the MNK because it's what gives the class it's identity, at least in my opinion. I wouldn't mind if they removed the positionals for every other melee job, all of which I play, but at least leave the MNK with them. In fact, I would prefer if they increased the positional DPS (decreased the missed positional DPS) of the MNK to reward good players. Certain fights can get hectic, but I've pulled through them while landing the vast majority of my positionals (I use True North, though I usually forget Earth's Reply has the same effect). Keep in mind, I have ADHD, so classes like the MNK and BRD appeal to me.

[Bright-Flower]

I wouldn't mind seeing them go honestly. But it kind of depends on a job by job basis. Monk is constantly moving between rear and side so you could argue it's an important part of the job's playstyle. But the other melee don't have so many. It would be making playing melee easier if they went away, but personally I always found positionals to be kind of arbitrary and forced? Like I could understand if say, you had an ability called 'backstab' like in WoW (forget if they removed that or not) where it makes sense to have to be behind the enemy to get a full effect. But I haven't noticed any real thematic reason for positionals. They're just...there, for the sake of having them, for the sake of making melee slightly more complicated to play optimally. And keep you from doing your full dps in solo content/quests when you don't have a 'tank' to face things away from you.

Honestly, I woulnd't be sad to see them go.

[Kytrin]

I wouldn't mind seeing them go honestly. But it kind of depends on a job by job basis. Monk is constantly moving between rear and side so you could argue it's an important part of the job's playstyle. But the other melee don't have so many. It would be making playing melee easier if they went away, but personally I always found positionals to be kind of arbitrary and forced? Like I could understand if say, you had an ability called 'backstab' like in WoW (forget if they removed that or not) where it makes sense to have to be behind the enemy to get a full effect. But I haven't noticed any real thematic reason for positionals. They're just...there, for the sake of having them, for the sake of making melee slightly more complicated to play optimally. And keep you from doing your full dps in solo content/quests when you don't have a 'tank' to face things away from you.

Honestly, I woulnd't be sad to see them go.

I wouldn't be sad to see them go either. SAM has to bounce between flank and rear as well, and I can do it, but it can also be a real pain to deal with when the boss has mechanics, or the tank positions the boss badly, that mean I fight from wherever I am vs. where I should. Admittedly, true north helps but not that much.

Granted, I understand they have them to make the jobs a bit more challenging and require some strategy to make things work optimally. But if that's what they're aiming for I'd rather they put positionals on individual attacks like Shoha or Senei or something. Not your basic rotations.

[tdb]

But I haven't noticed any real thematic reason for positionals.

NIN is a stealth-themed class, so it makes sense to attack from behind the enemy. A different question is how much sense does it make to have a stealth-themed class in fights that last 5-10 minutes.

[Stanelis]

Positionnals are a left over from 1.0 and 2.0, when it could have made sense. Now in the modern FFXIV, they do not, aside from a few exceptions (like trick attack, as it is a skill from FFXI). On some encounters, they are even deactivated (like E3S).

Positionals are good for a couple of things:

Keep my hands busy. Even if they were removed, I'd probably still be moving around because standing still is kinda boring.

Adds a modicum of skill to the rotations. Properly hitting your positionals and knowing when to use True North help widen the skill gap a little bit between players.

When exactly are people standing still in FFXIV's relevant content ? x)

[Ryaz]

I despise positionals, they don't make playing melee more difficult, only more tedious. There is nothing interesting or engaging about moving back and forth a couple yalms for a few attacks. Melee already has more crap to dodge because of being in melee range causing us to have to move more (and lose damage), as well as worrying about tanks that can't keep the boss pointed in the same direction, or the occasional boss with the turn and blast an attack at a random player without aggro stuff to dance around too. Time for positionals to go bye bye.

Melee has more crap to dodge? You've never played a BLM whose leylines instantly get AoE targeted have you?

[Bright-Flower]

NIN is a stealth-themed class, so it makes sense to attack from behind the enemy. A different question is how much sense does it make to have a stealth-themed class in fights that last 5-10 minutes.

Trick attack I get, since it's used from stealth. (Well, that or via ninjitsu). Their regular combos though, not as much if they have positionals there, I haven't touched Ninja lately so I'm not sure if anything changed for them in shb with positionals.

[Eyske]

Guys, lets be honest here.
Most of the Playerbase we have nowadays (Hi Wow Veterans O/) give a shi...va about where to stand to maximazie their DPS.
I have to admit too, that from time to time I also just chill behind an Boss and only move if the mechanic forces me to do so.

With that in mind, make it go away ^^

[Rai_Takara]

Apologies, I don't play the classes - but last time I checked, SMN was pretty mobile, it also has res, a bit of utility, and currently is the strongest DPS - if I'm not mistaken.

I'm not saying physical ranged DPS should be brought up to SMN/BLM levels of play, but casters ARE ranged DPS. I see no reason why BRD got gutted for utility & damage., and yet SMN (with this current patch) has all of its tools +2000-2500 more DPS.

SMN is slightly overturned but, casters have it harder than phys ranged who are always mobile and have no cast times ever.

No reason for physical ranged to do more damage when uptime is never sacrificed.

[Vespar]

I WOULD LOVE IF THEY TOOK AWAY POSITIONALS!

That said, I dont mind them except for on MNK. I dont mind each job having 1-2 positionals but MNK's amount of positionals is excessive and keeps me from playing the job. When I played it in the past, I felt like I had 2 left feet that Im tripping over constantly (assuming I wanted to play it properly). True North or w/e its called helps, but I just feel like SE should lower the amount of positionals on MNK.