Should the playerbase stop playing certain jobs?

[Seraphor]

If a jobs changes are as bad as you say, then people WILL stop playing it, and SE WILL notice.

If that's not happening, chances are players are more or less content or apathetic to it, and there's nothing you can do to change that.

[Dxzstar]

If a jobs changes are as bad as you say, then people WILL stop playing it, and SE WILL notice.

If that's not happening, chances are players are more or less content or apathetic to it, and there's nothing you can do to change that.

I'd Normally agree with you. But I keep seeing threads of people who feel locked in the job for a tier because of their gear or their static needs them in that spot. Or, unironically look at healers. You still get DF pops but there is clearly a lot of dissatisfaction there. DRK suffered for six years apparently for like 2 changes? And it still had a dedicated playerbase. Many of which still did not like the jobs state. (Source: The DRK megathread) People will keep blindly playing that job even if they don't like it for a variety of reasons. Hell, that was me. I played summoner for over a month, and had even convinced myself I was having fun. Until I opened my eyes. I didn't watch some video. I didn't get convinced by some other player. I just stopped fooling myself into believing the job would be something better sooner or later. So while in the micro I believe you're right and there's no reason to make a point... in the macro. People still play these jobs they are dissatisfied with. Same reason people stick around at *actual* jobs they are dissatisfied with.

Also. I wanna focus for a second on one particular portion.

If a jobs changes are as bad as you say, then people WILL stop playing it, and SE WILL notice.

I wanna focus on that you portion. This isn't me. I don't play most of these jobs. These are things I pieced together from other players. The people that actually played the job. The ones with the actual complaints. Now if we're talking about SMN. Yes. I'm Doomposting. I don't like new SMN. I like the idea behind it's design path even less. And I think SMN contributes to some of the concern players have because they feel like their job is next on the operating table. Maybe more slowly, maybe over several patches, but I've had several people cite to me that they feel like SMN is the path every job (except BLM) is destined for at this point.

[SpartanPawnch]

I think YoshiP himself actively listens to feedback and actually plays the game. Unfortunately, the same cannot necessarily be said for the rest of the development team, especially when it comes to job design. For some of them, it feels like they don't even play the jobs they are in charge of and actively disregard feedback. While it probably isn't perfect all the time, I doubt BLM will ever get in the same state of the disrepair as other jobs, since YoshiP mains it and probably will not tolerate it if it gets that bad (feel free to correct me on this, I don't play Black Mage).

Let's look at the recent SAM changes and the sh*tstorm that came of them as an example. If you actively play the job you could at least see why the changes why the changes might mess with the job's identity, its underlying systems, its desirability in high-end content or its general enjoyment. However, when the developers in charge of SAM, who seemingly don't even play the job, sent the 6.1 changes for approval, Yoshida, who also doesn't play SAM, probably looked at them and thought: "Some numbers were shifted around and some random ability was removed. DPS is basically the same so should be fine.". This may be a reasonable assessment if you don't actually play the job, but given the current state of the DPS forums in all regions the situation isn't exactly that simple.

Unless we manage to force YoshiP to regularly play every single job in the game, the only sustainable solution seems to be to make the people behind each of the changes personally come out and publicly explain the actual reasoning behind job changes. It shouldn't even be that hard, they are supposed to be professionals and should at least be able to argue why their changes are good for the game.

For full disclosure, yes, I am a long-time SAM main. Well..., at least I used to be until 6.1. It's now become so boring that I don't even feel like touching the job.

[echo78]

lol monk has regularly been the least played or second least played job in the game since stormblood and look where it has gotten monk. Still one of the least played jobs in the game despite being the best performing job number-wise in the current savage tier. Not playing a job isn't going to get them to fix it, they'll just find a way to make it feel even worse to play like they've done with monk.

The only time I can recall them reverting a terrible change was energy drain with scholar. The devs generally don't care about players that miss previous iterations of jobs. They'll just look for ways to dumb down the job even more.

[Chopstix]

dont have to tell me twice, my sam is shelved indefinitely

did the same to DRK too after i got both tank mounts, gonna have to dust it off soon

i actually think i have not run into a single sam since 6.1 in DF content or savage PF reclears even, my static melee DPS member ditched it too

out of curiosity i glanced through PF randomly to see if there r any sams, i did see a few, hopefully they will realise whats up soon enough

[Ivtrix]

I think the SMN issues are twofold, not only is the class not enjoyable to play, but it doesn’t feel like there is any room for any job progression come 7.0

It’s concerning

[gamerseb]

To be honest, I didn't dislike the 80-90 MCH change.

They added one button, sure. But that button, Chainsaw, changes your reassemble priorities (since reassemble has 2 charges now). And allows you to call Queen on opener, due to the extra battery. Moreover, the extended combo period in 6.X makes the class more flexible, killing your combo only if you enter three hyper charge sequences in a row. And since the queen has more finishers now, calling her preemptively and making them fall within buffs gets you nice dmg.

Problem with MCH was there from before, and is still class identity, low damage, dependence in AI and ping dependence. Skill ceiling is too low for all the freedom it's given. Wildfire is not rewarding at all when it should be a gamble, and cannot crit or DH. Lack of queen interactivity is meh and doesn't synergize with other stuff in MCHs toolkit. And the hyper charge ping situation is terrible, to be honest.

Would love to see a MCH where the rotational complexity of the class increases while keeping its mobility, so a higher skill ceiling to allow for higher damage while still being mobile, to become a proper selfish dps.

A selfish dps where its complexity lies not in positional requirements, being in melee range or not moving, but in optimizing the rotation and its resources properly.

[darcstar62]

Honestly, it's what I'm doing. I was a MCH since the start of the expansion and kept holding out hope for something to make the small fixes the job needed. After this patch I'm done with it. Switching to RDM, staying on MCH feels like I'm trolling my group and since we have a DNC in it as well it's a no brainer.

Are you me? This is exactly what I've done. I was holding on by a thread until I saw the pathetic bone they threw us in 6.1 and now I've gone RDM and I'm not looking back.

[Engaru]

Current job design makes me lose hope for the future of this game, I'm wondering if I should bail now or stay and watch the game go to shit like so many other before it...