Flaws of the combat system

[Solarbear88]

I would say the biggest flaw is the lack of crowd control. Essentially everything is move, tank, and spank with a twist. Knowing what to CC would add a layer to the gameplay that other games have.

[kiagenwa]

I would say the biggest flaw is the lack of crowd control. Essentially everything is move, tank, and spank with a twist. Knowing what to CC would add a layer to the gameplay that other games have.

With CC skills, it's fun and game when everyone use them correctly.
Not so otherwise.

[TristanX]

I would say the biggest flaw is the lack of crowd control. Essentially everything is move, tank, and spank with a twist. Knowing what to CC would add a layer to the gameplay that other games have.

Maybe make CC required for highest difficulty version of the dungeon or raid. Its not easy to make pugs do mechanics though.

CTRL+TAB targeting for friendlies is nice as well.

[Shironeko_Narunyan]

I'm an old MMO player. I started with Ultima Online and later DAoC. CC was a vital point in both PVE and PVP there.
When I played WOW when it came out, it was immediately obvious that the PVE in that game had a lot less depth, and that seems to have become the trend for modern MMOs.
But not only the lack of crowd control is sad, also the lack of real support.
Have strong buffs that trigger when you perform certain actions as Bard or Dancer.
Healers could have strong debuffs that actually cripple an enemy, then they had an important job other than healing, and the fact that their DPS consists of pressing one button wouldn't be so painful.

Maybe FFXIV just isn't the game for this.

[Illmaeran]

Maybe the game isn't in the right genre for this [anymore].

Corrected with an RL sad face.

[Roda]

Sadly, they usually shove the interesting support skills and mob manipulation in their "exploratory" content quarentine gimmicks. (Deep dungeon, eureka, bozja)

Hopefully they'll have enough confidence to put fun wacky stuff like that in the real game one day.

[Ozzmal]

I personally like tanking, im fairly new, just now going SB patch content. Paladin is my first job and im having a blast. Ive dealt with fighting for threat in older games (EQ/Old WoW), and for me it wasnt really enjoyable.

[Jeeqbit]

The problem with CC is that even if you do it, everyone's aoe just interrupts it and you really don't want your BLM casting Sleep over and over again instead of doing DPS.

What works better in this game is interrupts, because certain trash in shadowbringers are given powerful casts you can interrupt that can cause a wipe or unnecessary healing if you don't. The challenge for the tank is picking out the enemy that casts it and using focus target on the second one that casts it so they can interrupt and stun them both, while also mitigating and doing damage, which gets very busy.

[Mindiori]

The game has been gutted of all difficulty for 'casuals' when yet again, what it means to be 'casual' has been rewritten by those pushing an agenda of laziness and incompetence.

Rather than 'I dont play 24/7' - the implication is now, that playing infrequently is justification to be skiless and as thick as a brick. Maybe the vocal minority enjoy that and their gleeful handouts; but most of the time in this life - I find that people actually are happy overcoming challenge. Feeling as if their efforts, even within a game, are respectable and appreciated by their peers. It is just a game yes, yet with a similarity to sports in this instance. Yes they are somewhat meaningless recreation; but still a use of time. Still something you do with others. And stripping any effort or achievement from them is an affront to the joy of the invested and those that rightfully find the current design mindless. It's my personal opinion; but I find it disgusting quite honestly.

Plenty of my friends have extensive and difficult careers. I am fed up of people hiding their agenda behind cute sounding platitudes. If you have a hard day at work; certainly you want relaxed options in a game. Activities which aren't demanding. When does that become 'I want a braindead game with so little to do for other types of players that they essentially get nothing; and the game they also pay for becomes a tedious one button festival'. The answer is, it doesn't. Very few, if any asked for that.

There is no sense of job balance, risk/effort/reward now in this lazy design. Tanking used to be something that required a functioning brain/ Healing had potential pressure and the focus of feeling like you had a role other than back seat dps and the rotations of dps, weren't stuck to oh look flashy button. Rinse repeat.

It is said that there is no extra skill in extra buttons. When thats wrong entirely. Having to manage a sequence correctly, whilst also remaining mindful of the environment and performance; was a layer of difficulty within the limits of game design. Undoubtedly it could be improved. But following the voices of 'hurr durr it could just be rolled into one easy button' is brainless stupidity. More so when we all knew full well that encounter difficulty couldn't be changed, for the very same reason they claim casuals cant handle the buttons. 'Too much skill required'.

No it didn't take much skill at all. The game was still plenty attractive. Yes it gains attention when rewards are like handouts. Thats the story of the real world right now in many respects too. But long term? Long term it makes you weak, diminishes the value of your achievement and ultimately leaves things feeling hollow. Not everything must be hard - but find some damn balance. 99% of things being so brainless they can be completed by a semi-conscious toddler; isn't a game. Nor a good use of time. Its pointless tedium.

[Jeeqbit]

The game has been gutted of all difficulty for 'casuals' when yet again, what it means to be 'casual' has been rewritten by those pushing an agenda of laziness and incompetence.

Nobody is rewriting what it means to be casual. The facts are in front of us. Do roulettes every day and what you see is people with a returner icon, implying they are casual because they take breaks. They don't keep logging in for very long, it usually wanes after a month if you added them to your friends list which is not very long to learn how to play the game properly. Yet they make up a lot of the people you come across in a dungeon.

Being good usually requires a time investment to build up experience of trial and error and by the time a lot of people get that they have stopped logging in anymore. You can say "but I would learn quickly from guides" but that's just you, otherwise every person in a dungeon would be extremely good.

Maybe the vocal minority enjoy that and their gleeful handouts; but most of the time in this life - I find that people actually are happy overcoming challenge. Feeling as if their efforts, even within a game, are respectable and appreciated by their peers.

Not everyone plays for a difficult challenge. That's why games have Easy and Hard modes and why this game has optional content like extreme, savage and ultimate.

It may seem crazy but a lot of casual players do regard the normal content as challenging. Titania normal is a common recent example where some parties can't do it until the echo builds up to 30% and they have a sense of accomplishment when they beat it.

If you watch youtube videos of people clearing dungeons you will often see them struggling with something as simple as a 1, 2, 3 combo or anything beyond that like buffs and dots.

One of the things we were told in a live letter in response to requests for things to be harder is that "easy is good for us", which is obvious but they were telling it like it is.

99% of things being so brainless they can be completed by a semi-conscious toddler; isn't a game. Nor a good use of time. Its pointless tedium.

If everything were synced to minimum item level it would be much less brainless, but most things from the current expansion can't be synced or there wouldn't be a point in upgrading gear.