How would people feel if they took positional requirements away?

[Brightamethyst]

Positionals are one of those things that sound great in theory but are annoying in practice. I'm not bothered by their existence, but if positionals vanished tomorrow I wouldn't miss them in the slightest.

[Macleod]

Positionals are one of those things that sound great in theory but are annoying in practice. I'm not bothered by their existence, but if positionals vanished tomorrow I wouldn't miss them in the slightest.

Kinda like TP, unnecessary, don't need it, don't miss it.

Time to purge the positionals as well.

[Powercow]

Positionals are one of those things that sound great in theory but are annoying in practice. I'm not bothered by their existence, but if positionals vanished tomorrow I wouldn't miss them in the slightest.

Yeah, like combo skills, instanced boss fights, sprint, procs, loot and MP. Stupid, useless, outdated mechanics. Just remove them all, it can only make the game better!

[Almandaragal]

For context, I played just casters and DRK until I decided to try SAM as my first physical DPS so I could do the ShB role quest for it and get the bit after. I also haven't played SAM in any properly relevant content (I need to run some trusts to get a better feel without inconveniencing players). I have a bit of experience trying to make the positionals work, but of course you can't do them in the open world since our Chocobos can't probably hold aggro.

That said, I'm definitely not a fan. Are they doable? Totally. My playstyle doesn't seem very well adapted to making this work while keeping the whole ABC thing running, but I know there are plenty of people who can make it happen. It may also have to do with how SAM has more consistently necessary buttons to use than I'm used to, so I can't find key slots to put all the buttons that I need "quick" access to/can reach without looking at the keyboard.

Still, I can't say that I enjoy them. They are an interesting concept, and I think that with time I could become passable on SAM, but it's just plain not fun. It's tedious, and depending on the tank's awareness/the mob situation, frustrating. I'd honestly much prefer what I saw someone mention earlier: One particular positional. So, you need to be behind, or at a flank, or hell, even a specific flank. Keep a little of the particulars, but not so annoying as to have to keep moving every combo.

I may not be the best set of data to take an opinion from, but for me, I'd like to see them reduced or removed at a personal level. Or, if there's a way to have positionals so you're not moving for every freaking combo back and forth, that would be nice. Maybe if they were based on, say, forms like monk has instead of per skills. So Coeurl form gets bonuses from the side, Raptor is all from the flank, etc. Other melee would then need forms or something similar (Stances/Techniques for SAM?), but if they were triggered by end of combos or something similar to how Monk rolls through them, or granted the form for X time, it might be less onerous?

All in all, I'm not sure how to "keep" positionals while making them less "unfun", but I'm not opposed to seeing SE try. Just as long as they could be made less complicated purely for the sake of complexity.

[Kaiserdrache]

Monk shouldn't be at all abou ridiculous positionals, the monk gameplay should be focused around making the right attacks at the right time to land guaranteed critical direct his tha are in return required to land to put your enemy through them under a monk unique Staggered Condition in which you can deal significantly more damage to unlesh then in thesd moments your strongest chain link combo attacks to deal massive burst damage.

That should be the monk gameplay and not circling around enemies like total idiots, just to deal slightly more damage, that makes in 99,9% of the game absolutely no difference, a fight will be won perhaps a few seconds faster - WOW what...an...Impact!!!...Seriously.
But a Monk, that goes crazy bonkers on a staggered enemy, that receives like double the damage from monk attacks, while being staggered, eventually even kept longer staggered by stun attacks from others, so that the monks rampage agaist the target may last longer, that would make an impact, while allowing the monk player to stay better focused on what the enemy does to not accidently run into enemy AoEs just because of having to circle around the enemy like a fool into the damage only to ensure that our skills deal for the moment the best possible damage.

The same annoying crap also too with Dragoon, but they have at least more defense and aren't as squishy as monks, this positioning fits therefore better to them and I see also no plausible reason for it, why this game NEEDS to have 2 classes with positioning game desing, when just one is enough, the one with better defense, where playing the class does feel so strongly punishing if you take hits for making sure you make the correct positioning, if therefore the dealt damage feels also being very powerful that it does make some kind of impact to have a good Dragoon with you.

[Dreamsoap]

I wouldn't be opposed to seeing positional requirements removed. I think it'd make the melee jobs - especially MNK - feel a lot less clunky.

Dunno how I feel about this. I mained MNK before WHM and honestly a lot of the fun was the positionals. It made it challenging, so much so that I found it a lot less interesting to play other DPS when I tried them later. I think losing positionals would be a huge blow to jobs like Monk who's identity is more or less formed around them. But... it's also kind of cheap and felt much more like you were being punished for the role than rewarded, especially depending on the fight. (Granted this was back in Stormblood for me.)

[Reinha]

Like what for example?

Ask this guy. I have no idea what other things he meant.

Maybe because the ranged have other things going on to which positions would be unnessasary for engagement?

[Malmstrom]

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

Sounds like you should have waited until after the cast to put down your leylines, it's not like most of the fights aren't scripted or anything, right?

Also yes, melee has to dodge all sorts of crap AND keep up their damage on the boss. What do you do as BLM? Move two feet to the side and keep casting?

[Kytrin]

Commentary on difficulty with SAM and positionals.

I'm not sure if you're keyboard or controller, but if it helps... try to arrange your hotbars so you have Gyoten first for your rush followed immediately by Hakaze, Yukikaze, Shifu, Kasha, Jinpu, Gekko. That allows you to have your non-positional combo first, then flank, then rear. Personally, I like to rush the boss if I have the kenki, then Yukikaze and Kasha before running around to the back for Gekko. Once I get my dot and first Midare off that's usually about when mechanics start, so I Meikyo Shisui and True North so it doesn't matter where I hit the thing and keep going from there for Ikishoten+Senei, Kaeshi: Setsugekka, and Shoha.

Usually by then, the boss is back in a place you can bounce between flank and rear again without too much trouble. Would be easier if we didn't have the positionals at all, but hopefully that'll make SAM slightly less horror inducing for you.

[Brightamethyst]

Yeah, like combo skills, instanced boss fights, sprint, procs, loot and MP. Stupid, useless, outdated mechanics. Just remove them all, it can only make the game better!

Your hilariously uneven comparisons aside, you can actually make an argument for ditching combos as well.

Like positionals, combos are a somewhat outdated concept. They're designed to keep old abilities relevant forever, which was fine at 50 and even 60, but at this point is just contributing to the ability bloat. Personally I'd be thrilled if melees moved away from combos and super strict rotations and into more of a priority/proc system like the ranged jobs have.