Please stop simplifying and homogenizing the game. Please.

[Leemon]

My brother and I were on a good way to clear p4s after starting late into the tier with only pugs that take hours to fill. But after this joke of a LL, me seeing nothing for healers and him being disgusted about the sam change, we haven't launched the game back.
Wonder if I'll keep the sub active or wait for multiple patches (and be disappointed) like last xpac.

I'm bitter.

Tell your brother he's not alone. I haven't launched the game since the dreadful Live Letter dropped and butchered SAM, at this point maybe never. I forgot how fun other games are I felt stupid.

[Lyth]

...

Viability is a incredibly low bar to set. You can argue that pretty much any job can be 'viable' when paired with jobs that have sufficiently high carry potential. But that doesn't make for satisfying gameplay.

If you read my post, you'd see that I think that partial homogenization is very very bad. A classic example of this was in Heavensward/Stormblood and the 30% DR cooldowns when Sentinel was 40%/180s, Shadow Wall was 30%/180s, and Vengeance was 30%/120s with thorns. It doesn't take a genius to be able to rank these effects from best to worst. If you're going to make it so obvious that the skills are equivalent, then you need to make them identical. Otherwise, make them so different from each other that you can't draw a comparison. This is really not a difficult concept.

The 'job synergies' in this game has had historically were pretty dumb. They didn't reward gameplay so much as they did picking a particular job, which lead to a very stagnant meta. The only people who supported that bad game design were players who lacked the confidence to find groups on account of their own personal skill. If you're genuinely interested in synergy, it should come from coordinating and timing your burst with your teammates, not from your job choice.

[GrizzlyTank]

If they are simplifying then they could at least reduce the gcd of the simplified job.

[IckeDerTyp]

Agreed.

Have my bump!

[Gora]

The game has been going downhill (from a gameplay perspective) since the release of ShB. That expansion brought with it some of the most offensive homogenisation and simplification this game has ever seen; EW has only continued the trend. SB, for all its jank, had intricacies and nuance to every class as well as party composition (e.g. piercing/slashing debuffs) that really added a flavour to the content. Coupled with threat management being a thing for dps/healers to actively worry about, and tank stance dancing, the endgame really was the funnest it has ever been during SB, despite some classes being too clunky (drk) or rng-heavy (mch) to really be attractive choices. They did still have their loyalists, mind, probably in part due to such jank.
Then ShB rolled out, and with it the great homogenisation event. In an attempt to make all classes sufficiently viable/accessible in the endgame without people getting too snot-nosed about sub-meta comps in their raid groups, they really flattened out the bulk of class flavour and completely eliminated composition nuance. From an endgame perspective it was a struggle at times to enjoy the content, but little nuggets of intricacy in classes still remained to keep myself interested.
Now, with EW, I really can't find anything to enjoy in the endgame outside of two classes: mnk and sch. These two classes, while nothing compared to what they once were, still feel quite unique in their play and have much more adaptive qualities to them. Everything else is a sequence simulator and/or rng farmer. It is sad, as I've been playing since 1.0 and this is the first time I really struggle to enjoy the game (arguably more so than in 1.0). And, as endgame players are still the minority, as echoed above the complaints will be ignored and the homogenisation will continue.
I guess, just try to enjoy the game before it is a complete loss.

tl;dr bump

[Nekokaori]

Viability is a incredibly low bar to set. You can argue that pretty much any job can be 'viable' when paired with jobs that have sufficiently high carry potential. But that doesn't make for satisfying gameplay.

If you read my post, you'd see that I think that partial homogenization is very very bad. A classic example of this was in Heavensward/Stormblood and the 30% DR cooldowns when Sentinel was 40%/180s, Shadow Wall was 30%/180s, and Vengeance was 30%/120s with thorns. It doesn't take a genius to be able to rank these effects from best to worst. If you're going to make it so obvious that the skills are equivalent, then you need to make them identical. Otherwise, make them so different from each other that you can't draw a comparison. This is really not a difficult concept.

The 'job synergies' in this game has had historically were pretty dumb. They didn't reward gameplay so much as they did picking a particular job, which lead to a very stagnant meta. The only people who supported that bad game design were players who lacked the confidence to find groups on account of their own personal skill. If you're genuinely interested in synergy, it should come from coordinating and timing your burst with your teammates, not from your job choice.

thats false old bard and ast were rewarding if u knew how to use the song and right cards for each sceniro u were in lol

[AnotherPerson]

thats false old bard and ast were rewarding if u knew how to use the song and right cards for each sceniro u were in lol

That's a bit debatable. Old AST had Bole - a damage mitigation card. Sure, it's useful when you're trying to save a run and all in DF, but when fights are scripted heavily and you can't guarantee whether you're going to draw a Bole when you need it for high-end content where mitigation becomes crucial, it becomes superfluous as healers would plan around it.

[Nekokaori]

That's a bit debatable. Old AST had Bole - a damage mitigation card. Sure, it's useful when you're trying to save a run and all in DF, but when fights are scripted heavily and you can't guarantee whether you're going to draw a Bole when you need it for high-end content where mitigation becomes crucial, it becomes superfluous as healers would plan around it.

u could though with redraw chances are u would get it or arrow both were more usefull than people give them credit for, or you could set the card when u got it for a spot u know bole was a usefull one to use

honestly if u knew what u were doing with ast it wasnt even range at all, but knowing when to use your card and how to use it, it was alot like old school yughio playing when u got a card u have to know when and how to use it

and if u played ur cards right u were rewarded which showed the difference of trash ast players and great ones, which was A GOOD THING



also edit:

side note tbh many classes,jobs get destoryed for PEOPLE who are obessed with end game its not even casual ppl destorying jobs its their ....asses

[Demetri_Delethorn]

The game has been going downhill (from a gameplay perspective) since the release of ShB.

Thankfully a strong majority disagree since it's never been more popular

[Rhysati]

Thankfully a strong majority disagree since it's never been more popular

Facebook is popular. Nestle is popular. Walmart is popular. McDonalds is popular. The Pauls are popular.

Popularity is not the same as good.