Is it just me or is class design / balance severely lacking this expansion?

[Lium]

We might all criticize homogenization but what's the alternative? Each job having their own unique flavor inevitably leads to some jobs being great (FOTM) and some jobs being bad (jobs that are basically not viable for progression content). This puts a lot of stress on developers who have to figure out a way to make all classes pretty much equal because everyone has their own playstyle.

The easiest way to do that is to essentially make them all the same.

[MagiusNecros]

We might all criticize homogenization but what's the alternative? Each job having their own unique flavor inevitably leads to some jobs being great (FOTM) and some jobs being bad (jobs that are basically not viable for progression content). This puts a lot of stress on developers who have to figure out a way to make all classes pretty much equal because everyone has their own playstyle.

The easiest way to do that is to essentially make them all the same.

That's fine because it's kinda been FotE. Flavor of the Expansion. You can see that easily with White Mage.

It can also be reflected in past content where a PLD's Physical mitigation excelled in one fight while Magic mitigation from DRK excelled in another.

Have no movement then use BLM or a melee that loves standing still? Have movement take a class that can attack on the go and has no or very short cast times.

And once they make all the jobs function the same you'll just choose the one that brings the most benefit.

I'd prefer some being great and some being bad. Whether it's Job A is good at this and Job B is good at that or Job C can do the jobs of A and B but better but only if you play at a high skill level.

----------------

Main problem I think many can agree on is that the classes are getting simpler and just aren't evolving in a engaging way. And as a result does not feel fun. And with each xpac you just go through the motions of leveling up a class to cap, get disinterested in it after 5 minutes and then level something else up and be unhappy about that. And then you take a break and hope things get better. Combat is going to get real shallow if every class Archetype has the same general kit and the only deviation is animations and if you do either burst or sustained DoT.

And it's getting worse if they are going to start hiding information about battle changes. There was no reason to exclude changes from the Preliminary notes. It lacks transparency. If it's not the changes the playerbase is hoping for they should grin and bear it. Not send a message that they clearly aren't addressing player concerns. Which especially on the Healer end is more then warranted.

I don't play Healer role but it's very disconcerting I took a break for 3-5 months and found they've done nothing to address that. And the same general Tank complaints are still around too. Yeah damage numbers are more balanced at ever but at what cost? Job lore and identity.

Story is great but the combat is a mess.

[Satarn]

We might all criticize homogenization but what's the alternative? Each job having their own unique flavor inevitably leads to some jobs being great (FOTM) and some jobs being bad (jobs that are basically not viable for progression content). This puts a lot of stress on developers who have to figure out a way to make all classes pretty much equal because everyone has their own playstyle.

The easiest way to do that is to essentially make them all the same.

What is the point of having 17 jobs and adding more on top of that, if they're all going to play the same? XIV has a varied population of players and this population needs diverse play-style options to satisfy its needs. If you limit the choices to just roles - and on top of that make those roles as shallow and unengaging as tanking and healing are currently - people who don't find the specific niche you've settled on fun will eventually leave.

The thing is that FFXIV has overall been pretty damn good in terms of balance - not just now. Rarely is a job literally not viable to clear content and I don't think any job has ever been actually mandatory due to its unique abilities. The imbalance in this game mainly boils down to just rDPS, which can be adjusted easily with mere numerical tweaks, rather than game-play changes.
This shows there is no real need for homogenization in order to achieve balance. A job is wildly below what is accepted as decent rDPS? Just throw more potency at it until it gets there, you don't need to change how it does its damage.