Quote Originally Posted by kaynide View Post
Even in Guildwars 2 it’s largely used to give different secondary buff/debuffs, or to offer more variety of play style rather than as a rock-paper-scissors gimmick.
Well even the boons/condis in GW2 have resulted in certain professions/builds being preferred over others. So I wouldn't necessarily advocate for "elements-but-statuses" as a system, either, except inasmuch as we have in the jobs as they currently exist. Where each job has a limited kit of buffs/debuffs that do not substantially break their kits compared to other jobs, and the elemental affinities are mostly for spectacle/flavor.

The problem is that rock-paper-scissors is universally a power increase in any situation with elemental weakness, and so giving any job access to less than the full range of elements creates job tiers. And buffs/debuffs can functionally result in the same problem, if said buffs/debuffs are made strong enough as to be near-universally better to have than not.

I think an elemental system for attack damage is a lost cause for FF XIV. On the one hand, if it were implemented back into job abilities, you would have de facto job tiers. And, on the other hand, if you made it in any way independent of job abilities/weapons, now you have this massive flavor fail where the visuals of many jobs' attacks communicate one elemental type even if they may have other unseen elements attached to them. It dilutes many job fantasies (off the top of my head, BLM, RDM, NIN, SAM, MNK, and to some extent SMN, WHM, and maybe GLD, DRK, RPR would all have diluted elemental identities).

An elemental system for defense resistence could still work though. Being able to ward against elements doesn't affect visuals or flavor nearly as much as imbuing attacks. It would complement XIV's gameplay well, where oftentimes the limiting factor for duty and raid groups is survivability, not DPS, so it would keep sprouts alive more. It would offer players more opportunities and options with *how* they might build a survivable character (making it a lot easier and cheaper overall for players to intentionally or even accidentally meet other players' baseline expectations of gearing). And, if it were materia-based, it would encourage an overhaul of the materia system (which is generally useless outside of high-level raiding because of how slow/clunky/expensive melding is), where players would be encouraged to be swapping materia in and out from a very early level.

The plus side is that if we had a modular elemental defense system to boost player survivability, we could also incorporate status effects without breaking the game. A fire materia could have a secondary effect of reducing burn status hit%/duration, and ice freeze status hit%/duration, etc. It would add a degree of prep strategy to gaming that would reward players for participating in specific game mechanics, while being completely job-indifferent.