Please Bring Back DoTs and Debuffs

[Renathras]

OP: They MIGHT someday make a new DoT Job - some people have argued that was part of their goal with all the pruning of DoTs used by existing Jobs and removing them from SMN entirely - but it's really hard to say since they also gave their reasoning as being opposed to DoTs (I don't remember the exact quote/reference, but it was something about it being more taxing server-side)

So it's hard to see them going back on that SO SOON.

Note the capitalized words. They tend to reconsider or somewhat go back on things over time. The game's systems/combat has changed over time. ARR/HW, SB, and ShB/EW have all had somewhat different encounter designs, mechanics, and Job designs, with some Jobs getting complete reworks if they were incompatible with the "new" model (SEE: BRD going into SB, SCH and MCH going into ShB, MNK and NIN in ShB, SMN going into EW, PLD in EW, etc; AST in basically every expansion, sometimes in the middle of them...)

So it's possible in 7.0, they decide to move back away from the 2 min business and go back towards the SB direction (which I would love; imo, that was the sweet spot/golden era in terms of Job designs, if not balance), which WOULD then allow for a more DoT focused Job. Though even if they DO go more in the SB direction, it doesn't guarantee one. And we aren't even guaranteed that direction, it's just kind of my personal hope that is maybe shared by others, but who knows.

I mean chain exists

Let's be real here: That's just because the Devs haven't figured out how to make a party buff that boosts Crit by 5%, but only crit CHANCE not crit DAMAGE (like a straight buff to the crit stat overall would do). As soon as they figure that out, Chain Strategem will become like Divination.

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Ain't even just DoTs, all of the things that make RPGs what they are have been lost over time. Resistances, elements, debuffs, even stats dont really matter outside of week 1 savage and maybe ultimates. I hear people talk about old abilities and they sound so much more interesting than what we have now. All skills are losing their flavour over time, I've noticed it and I've only been around for one expansion. God knows how people who've been around since ARR feel

I mean, it's not all bad, nor unique to FFXIV. WoW's been around a long time, and seen the same thing, too. They've gone through something like 4 (maybe 5, I haven't played in 2 expansions and likely won't again) rounds of pruning abilities, and the only really out of the box abilities that still exist are because they're (a) completely useless in combat and (b) so iconic it would hurt too much to remove them (e.g. Shaman Farsight; and I think even that was nerfed)

It seems to be happening in every MMO, and in RPGs more generally (and gaming even more generally) as focus shifts over time away from RP and flavor and more to everything being in service to combat, with social type abilities being relegated to emotes instead. Like FFXIV's Performance is cool, but in some old games like Star Wars Galaxies, you could actually have people perform that buffed people, and likewise Bards in Everquest. I don't know if "dumbing down" is the right term, but "the dumbing down" of MMOs, RPGs, gaming, and society/entertainment in general just seems to be the way of the future. (I personally hope it's not, but...we live in a world that likes instant gratification, mobile games, etc etc...)

I've been playing since...2.3 or so? Whatever patch was the one before NIN. Most of the changes were so gradual over time, it wasn't super noticeable, but when I compare now to then directly, it is kind of crazy.

Cross-class skills where you had to level other classes to get them (e.g. leveling THM to get Swiftcast) - or even just leveling one class to 30 and another to 15 in order to even get the Jobs unlocked (and how that limited what Cross-class stuff you could equip) is so lost now.

Not so much elemental resistances, though - that was never really used at all in 2.0.

FFXI (which FFXIV 1.0 was strongly based on) is still in operation, though, and I hear does a lot of that stuff. But it's too hard for me to get into considering the full price sub and that everyone just says level with Trusts - which defeats the point of a group-focused old school MMO experience to me, honestly...