Do you think Melee DPS should have a weak AoE around lv16 for the very first dungeon?

[Shironeko_Narunyan]

I think a lot of the jobs need to have their skills adjusted from the ground up, to make the power progression more of a smooth experience.
Some jobs have incomplete combos (or none at all) for a long time. Some have aoe, some don't, and some change dramatically over the course of their levelling journey, to the point of having to relearn them several times once you reach certain breakpoints (blm would be a good example for that).

Level 16, 32, 50, 60, 70, 80 would be where I would try to outfit every job with equivalent tools, ie an aoe at 16.

[DPZ2]

This is not about mass pulling or about difficulty.
Even the lowest dungeon gives you groups of 3-4 enemies where it is advised to aoe rather than single target but instead you are stuck with ranged dps, tanks, casters with those tools while melee just stick on a single target using 1-2.

Sure it's about mass pulling, about shortening the time to get through those instances for higher level players (who complain, for some reason, about the lack of AoEs in those instances). Those lowest dungeons were created in the days when an AoE was reserved for higher level content. Period. All of them were perfectly adapted to using the skillsets of the appropriately leveled players, regardless of class. Many classes and jobs didn't get an AoE until much later.

If anything, AoEs have dumbed down early content to the point we get complaints from folks like the OP.

[DPZ2]

I also believe you should have your entire kit by 50, full stop. The only thing you should be getting post 50 is more uses of established oGCD stuff, like additional uses of your gap closer or stun.

Just my humble opinion!

How boring the playstyle of the MMOs you've found that do this. Congrats - you now have to go through the next 40 levels never having to learn anything new, never renewing your interest in a job because it suddenly takes a new direction, never growing, never changing.

Gods, I'd quit that game shortly after hitting level 50, regardless of how rewarding the entire kit might be.

What other game does that? Certainly not WoW. Please, let me know so I can avoid it like the plague.

[Fawkes]

Remove all AoEs, bring back target marking!

[Ultaniku]

I won’t even run a leveling roulette as a melee for fear of getting a party that can’t handle an aoe situation. I do think they need to lower melee aoe just a bit to help lower leve dungeon runs go a bit quicker. I’m like yes gimme double ranged at lower levels.

[DPZ2]

I won’t even run a leveling roulette as a melee for fear of getting a party that can’t handle an aoe situation. I do think they need to lower melee aoe just a bit to help lower leve dungeon runs go a bit quicker. I’m like yes gimme double ranged at lower levels.

I can safely tell you that most player AoE's appear to be available at level 18, except for Dancer, where they're available at level 15. At today's MSQ leveling XP, that's about when a majority of players gain the ability to actually run dungeons these days. So, no worries. Melee don't have AoEs until much later, but then, they do much more single mob damage to make up for it. It's fairly fun as Machinist/Bard/Dancer in Tam-Tara Deepcroft. That being said, running the same instances as Dragoon/Pugilist/Rogue is just as easy at similar levels, so, no, AoEs aren't necessary at that point. I'd rather melee DPS get comfortable with single-mob positioning attacks before being handed AoEs.

[Shougun]

Wonder if we could throw a wrench into all of this... something like the more monsters are around the more damage a monster is susceptible from single target attacks. With a non-linear growth curve perhaps. Such like with a huge ball of death you could eviscerate a few mobs, then AoE comes back into priority power BUT single target isn't a garbage choice like it is currently.

Yes I just came up with a crazy way to make low level problem fit more lol, but I also think it has the implication of improving some trash combat depth. Currently we all have two buttons, maybe some oGCD aoe, to use. Besides the now the idea you might hunt out a slightly scarier monster and pop them, you also have the opportunity to build a job without the proverbial required AoE 'rotation'. I suppose you could make it a job unique trait if you wanted to be really wild...

Weird I suppose but I don't love how rigid we're aiming to be for convenience- though I don't say that out of lack of understanding either. Feeling suboptimal or slow isn't a great feeling. No one wants to be so unbalanced they're frustrated at what they play or who they're playing with.

[DPZ2]

Just wait to see how 6.0 deals with the stat squish. As I've said elsewhere, pulling 6-9 mobs that do not die as easily will curtail a lot of the AoE fests players have come to depend on.

[Ultaniku]

I can safely tell you that most player AoE's appear to be available at level 18, except for Dancer, where they're available at level 15. At today's MSQ leveling XP, that's about when a majority of players gain the ability to actually run dungeons these days. So, no worries. Melee don't have AoEs until much later, but then, they do much more single mob damage to make up for it. It's fairly fun as Machinist/Bard/Dancer in Tam-Tara Deepcroft. That being said, running the same instances as Dragoon/Pugilist/Rogue is just as easy at similar levels, so, no, AoEs aren't necessary at that point. I'd rather melee DPS get comfortable with single-mob positioning attacks before being handed AoEs.

Oh I was fully just playing along. I don’t have an issue with melee in the roulettes. Would it be nicer to get an earlier aoe of course, but I’m truly unbothered.

[AziraSyuren]

Melee should have AoE earlier for the sake of design consistency more than anything. It wouldn't make things that much quicker because you either have newbie tanks who only single pull, or tanks who know how to do some of that weird cheesier stuff that some of the earlier dungeons have (de-aggroing in copperbell comes to mind).