Future direction of FFXIV

[KizuyaKatogami]

I'm really confused.
The team has been doing a great job and the game is a success. Why should anyone need to be replaced? o_O
All this gloom and doom when things are going well and tons of people are enjoying the game makes no sense to me.

The team has done a fantastic job simplifying most jobs, butchering healers over each expansion, ignoring said healers for the past 6 years, and taking 6-8 years to somewhat fix their horrible housing system. But hey, at least the casuals are happy.

[Vahlnir]

The team has done a fantastic job simplifying most jobs, butchering healers over each expansion, ignoring said healers for the past 6 years, and taking 6-8 years to somewhat fix their horrible housing system. But hey, at least the casuals are happy.

Job complexity doesn't always equal fun. Nor does it need to. I think that there needs to be a few jobs with a higher learning curve though, and we do have some of those. But not every job needs to be that way. Healers...yeah, like I've said many times I will never defend their design currently. They need serious help. I pity anyone who players a healer right now. And the next addition to the housing system, as well as the implementation of a lottery, will do absolutely nothing to fix housing. So we are still waiting for something meaningful. lol But yeah, things aren't perfect, but I still agree with the sentiment that the game's doing just fine.

[HyoMinPark]

Job complexity doesn't always equal fun. Nor does it need to. I think that there needs to be a few jobs with a higher learning curve though, and we do have some of those. But not every job needs to be that way. Healers...yeah, like I've said many times I will never defend their design currently. They need serious help. I pity anyone who players a healer right now. And the next addition to the housing system, as well as the implementation of a lottery, will do absolutely nothing to fix housing. So we are still waiting for something meaningful. lol But yeah, things aren't perfect, but I still agree with the sentiment that the game's doing just fine.

Regarding job complexity—I think that there should be some kind of skill ceiling that each job has. The issue is, is that the developers are so determined to close the gap between “bad players” and “good players” that they have destroyed the skill ceilings for some of these jobs. And they’ve taken away and taken away repeatedly without really giving them anything back. It’s sort of cheapened the rewards for optimizing a job, and made them less fun to play for those who mained the jobs previously. I think that’s mostly what Kizuya was getting at: the devs are so focused on accessibility and making everything so easy and so “Baby’s First ___” that the complexity that previously existed that players loved is gone. I don’t think that accessibility is necessarily a bad thing, but it is when it comes at the cost of engagement and enjoyment.

I always think about Stormblood BRD when I think about how job complexity has gone down. Though BRD still has some optimization to it now, it’s not to the extent that it was in Stormblood. There was Straight Shot upkeep, Foe Requiem + Refresh management, Iron Jaws optimization…multiple things that good BRDs could chase in terms of optimization that weren’t inherently complex but that felt good to execute. And these were removed because the developers did not like how large the gap was between skilled BRDs and unskilled BRDs. That was the reason they gave for the removal of these things—alongside the unmentioned reason of “we’re giving all of this party support to DNC now because it’s the shiny new support class and this game can’t have two supports nope nope nope”. Nothing was given to BRDs in place of all the removals, and it left old BRD mains feeling particularly salty.

[Poporito_Popoto]

The team has done a fantastic job simplifying most jobs, butchering healers over each expansion, ignoring said healers for the past 6 years, and taking 6-8 years to somewhat fix their horrible housing system. But hey, at least the casuals are happy.

Imagine being forced to play such a simplified game...logging in every day for years. It's a wonder how people do it.

[Clover_Blake]

The team has done a fantastic job simplifying most jobs, butchering healers over each expansion, ignoring said healers for the past 6 years, and taking 6-8 years to somewhat fix their horrible housing system. But hey, at least the casuals are happy.

I happen to main White Mage and I have a blast playing it. Spoeak for yourself!
(Late reply is late, sorry ;;; )

[aveyond-dreams]

I happen to main White Mage and I have a blast playing it. Spoeak for yourself!

White Mage prior to this expansion was my go to healer, and while I do not heal in high end content it was fun playing it in the NieR raids and pushing my trusts to do mega pulls as WHM through the use of tools like Thin Air. The nerf to that ability has significantly lowered my desire to play the job, especially when Sage feels more active and like more of a spectacle through its abilities.

At present Sage has now become my go to healer, along with Astrologian.

[KizuyaKatogami]

I happen to main White Mage and I have a blast playing it. Spoeak for yourself!
(Late reply is late, sorry ;;; )

Doesnt change the mp problems whm has, or the misery problems, etc. Im happy some people enjoy spamming 1 button for 90% of a fight though.

[HyoMinPark]

I happen to main White Mage and I have a blast playing it. Spoeak for yourself!
(Late reply is late, sorry ;;; )

This doesn’t mean that WHM isn’t without its issues, though. Or that all of the healers aren’t without their issues. From clunky toolkits that don’t synergize well with one another (AST and SCH) to mana problems if you are just keeping up your standard ABC (WHM) to boring gameplay where you are spamming 1 button a total of 100 to 150 times during any given fight (all four), the healers have a lot of issues that will need addressing. Healer mains have already been pretty salty since SB.

So you want pointless trash pulls and pre-clears and running back to the boss after a wipe and other nonsense from raids to come back? Nah I quite like the current raiding format being similar to how trials are. Queue in, boss, done. Wiping resets your CD's so you don't have to pointlessly sit there and wait for several minutes for CD's etc...God forbid someone used a pot late in the fight.

While I don’t see the point in adding in trash mobs to Savage fights, I would prefer door bosses that weren’t nearly as long as the phase two boss. Exdeath’s length was perfect; he didn’t feel like he overstayed his welcome. Some of the door bosses (E12S and P4S) are just as long as the phase two boss, and I personally don’t like that. I also didn’t really mind the Faust mini bosses before bosses like Oppressor and Refurbisher.

CD and pot resets can still exist even with mini-bosses. So not sure why that’s thrown in there.