A thought of inviduality to jobs

[Seera1024]

The more different builds a game can have the more harder the game is to balance.

You can either have well balanced builds or a wide variety of different builds.

No game has figured out how to have both.

Some games go for variety and hope to have a vast majority of builds be viable for content that most players play.

Other games try to have every build relatively balanced so that no one is excluded because they chose to play a specific build.

You want the former. SE has chosen the latter. I highly doubt that that's going to change anytime soon for one main reason:

How they are handling the balancing and build variety is working. You don't make drastic changes to a game's playstyle unless you're already hurting numbers wise. Because players choose to play specific games for specific reasons and drastic changes can mean you've alienated your core game player base.

[Nekokaori]

The more different builds a game can have the more harder the game is to balance.

You can either have well balanced builds or a wide variety of different builds.

No game has figured out how to have both.

Some games go for variety and hope to have a vast majority of builds be viable for content that most players play.

Other games try to have every build relatively balanced so that no one is excluded because they chose to play a specific build.

You want the former. SE has chosen the latter. I highly doubt that that's going to change anytime soon for one main reason:

How they are handling the balancing and build variety is working. You don't make drastic changes to a game's playstyle unless you're already hurting numbers wise. Because players choose to play specific games for specific reasons and drastic changes can mean you've alienated your core game player base.

there isnt a build variety at all though removing it completely you basicly done every player into a drone running on auto pilot with the job, hell anyone could essenitally make a bot with just a autokeying program with how they have it to clear stuff perfectly lol

plus *cough* they drasticly changed ast from its stormblood orgin and tbh same with bard

[Ransu]

there isnt a build variety at all though removing it completely you basicly done every player into a drone running on auto pilot with the job, hell anyone could essenitally make a bot with just a autokeying program with how they have it to clear stuff perfectly lol

And this is different from specs/skill trees how? My fury marauder in swtor has played the same rotation for years and the utilities you chose made little difference outside of adding passives to stuff. I could switch to carnage or annihilation spec, but I'm still a marauder playing either burst, sustained or dot, but I have to have a unique gear set for each spec. FFXIV if I want to play something different I just switch jobs. Same concept, better approach imo. The uniqueness of multiple job fantasies > 3 specs of the same class.

[Nekokaori]

And this is different from specs/skill trees how? My fury marauder in swtor has played the same rotation for years and the utilities you chose made little difference outside of adding passives to stuff. I could switch to carnage or annihilation spec, but I'm still a marauder playing either burst, sustained or dot, but I have to have a unique gear set for each spec. FFXIV if I want to play something different I just switch jobs. Same concept, better approach imo. The uniqueness of multiple job fantasies > 3 specs of the same class.

okay im going to tell you why its not the same thing and its simple and obviose

if You switch from lets say Black mage to Summoner (atleast it was like this)
no matter what your black mage will always follow a similar set of fire- fire fire fire fire fire then if u get firestarter pop fire 3 then blizzard 3 to get mp and keeping thunder up it was like this essentally for the majority of game play (yes i know later they add more moves) that wasnt much diffrent than poping off bio-miasma- then ruining and using bahamut and mega flare inbetween cast the core of it was essentally the exact same game play the only difference being names within the same role.

And mele is just as bad you do a 1-2-3 combo then throw in a few other moves based on situation or timing

essentally every single job plays like the last at the core of it the gameplay and combat is the exact same if you master 1 job you basicly have a core understanding how to quick mater every other job in the game "Because the core and the combat is essentally the same with every single job in the game just with diffrent names and different utility boost in some cases.

[DPZ2]

And mele is just as bad you do a 1-2-3 combo then throw in a few other moves based on situation or timing

essentally every single job plays like the last at the core of it the gameplay and combat is the exact same if you master 1 job you basicly have a core understanding how to quick mater every other job in the game "Because the core and the combat is essentally the same with every single job in the game just with diffrent names and different utility boost in some cases.

Have you actually played every job at a high enough level to make that evaluation? Bard, for example, doesn't have a 1-2-3 combo. Dragoon has two [1-2-3/1-4-5] combos, to be used at different times in gameplay, followed by a 6-7 (or 7-6) addition.

The only reason you can figure out the "core" of combat so easily is because it is based on GCDs and oGCDs, and similar jobs (Ranged Magic DPS: Black Mage, Summoner, Red Mage) have similar capabilities, but different playstyles. Black mage can't move around as easily as the other two. Red Mage is extremely proc-based. I prefer the Summoner playstyle, even after the 6.0 changes.

The fact that I don't have to switch out skill trees in order to become a Summoner or a Scholar, the fact that I don't have to switch to an alt in order to play a Bard: this is the real 'customization' in this game. Something not offered by the majority of MMOs I've every played.

[Nekokaori]

Have you actually played every job at a high enough level to make that evaluation? Bard, for example, doesn't have a 1-2-3 combo. Dragoon has two [1-2-3/1-4-5] combos, to be used at different times in gameplay, followed by a 6-7 (or 7-6) addition.

The only reason you can figure out the "core" of combat so easily is because it is based on GCDs and oGCDs, and similar jobs (Ranged Magic DPS: Black Mage, Summoner, Red Mage) have similar capabilities, but different playstyles. Black mage can't move around as easily as the other two. Red Mage is extremely proc-based. I prefer the Summoner playstyle, even after the 6.0 changes.

The fact that I don't have to switch out skill trees in order to become a Summoner or a Scholar, the fact that I don't have to switch to an alt in order to play a Bard: this is the real 'customization' in this game. Something not offered by the majority of MMOs I've every played.

in stormblood i had every job maxed outside of white mage and paladin (simply because i hate holy theme) on my account that had its email hacked so i can retreive it

[Vahlnir]

in stormblood i had every job maxed outside of white mage and paladin (simply because i hate holy theme) on my account that had its email hacked so i can retreive it

Some jobs have received some changes since then, for better or worse. Others haven't played like you say they do since...well, they were created. Doesn't really sound like you have all of the information you need to be making all of these claims, and most jobs aren't as braindead as you seem to believe when played correctly. Even tanks and healers in their present state have a good bit going on, though healers still have significantly less to do by comparison nowadays. I will never defend healer job design as it currently stands.

[Seera1024]

there isnt a build variety at all though removing it completely you basicly done every player into a drone running on auto pilot with the job, hell anyone could essenitally make a bot with just a autokeying program with how they have it to clear stuff perfectly lol

plus *cough* they drasticly changed ast from its stormblood orgin and tbh same with bard

Where did I say there was build variety?

If you read my first post again you'll see that I said the is a correlation between a game's balance and a game's build variety.

The correlation being that the more variety there is with the builds the harder it is to balance. Meaning that there may be builds excluded from play at top levels due to differences in DPS/support abilities.

SE has apparently put a higher preference on balance than build variety.

The chances of that changing is slim.

The game's popularity is obviously not hurting so they must be doing things right.

A change in this aspect would be a drastic change.

Drastic changes are risky. You only do a risky change if your game is already hurting.

As this game is not hurting for players, I would suggest going to other games to scratch your buildcrafting itch.