Why do Raid Buffs even exist?

[Mithron]

I like some jobs having job identity through buffing the damage of others, as you mentioned: BRD, DNC and NIN are prime examples of this. I also feel this is core identity to RDM as RDM was a party buffer in FF1 as well. As for everyone else... Making them all selfish DPS with very unique and individualized rotations would do wonders for this game IMO.

[Spigg]

I like some jobs having job identity through buffing the damage of others, as you mentioned: BRD, DNC and NIN are prime examples of this. I also feel this is core identity to RDM as RDM was a party buffer in FF1 as well. As for everyone else... Making them all selfish DPS with very unique and individualized rotations would do wonders for this game IMO.

Agree. Though I believe it would be best for the buffer type to stay in the range subclass, and something like trick attack would sadly have to go... Is what I would say if SE hadn't aready axed it themselves.

That being said, I'm not too educated on the history of these jobs in other FF games, and maybe there are good ways for jobs like RDM to be a party buffer without contributing to the problem that is the 2min buff meta.

[Mithron]

Agree. Though I believe it would be best for the buffer type to stay in the range subclass, and something like trick attack would sadly have to go... Is what I would say if SE hadn't aready axed it themselves.

That being said, I'm not too educated on the history of these jobs in other FF games, and maybe there are good ways for jobs like RDM to be a party buffer without contributing to the problem that is the 2min buff meta.

I think we can keep party buffs like Trick Attack (Mug) and Embolden, perhaps even on 2 minute cooldowns, as they've been in the game honestly since HW and SB without feeling annoying. As long as they keep rDPS and aDPS relatively balanced between the raid damage buffers and selfish DPS, the differences should only be "flavor" and with proper balance and job design, would not feel homogenized, boring, or rigid. Pressing those buttons may still be required "on cooldown" for optimization, but it's okay if the few party buffer jobs are more rigid than others in that respect. Because it would only be for those jobs and some people like that playstyle, rather than every single job feeling so rigid. Perhaps your rotations would even change depending on who's in the party for further complexity, optimization, and mastery over your job.

[AmiableApkallu]

I think we can keep party buffs like Trick Attack (Mug) and Embolden, perhaps even on 2 minute cooldowns, as they've been in the game honestly since HW and SB without feeling annoying.

I started when late/post ShB was current. I figure that as long as even one party member has a raid buff, then the question inevitably becomes, "How does everyone dump as much potency as they can under the buff?" Which, if the raid buff is on a 2min cooldown, is the 2min meta.

Are you saying that somehow wasn't the case back in HW and SB? Or something else?

[Mithron]

I started when late/post ShB was current. I figure that as long as even one party member has a raid buff, then the question inevitably becomes, "How does everyone dump as much potency as they can under the buff?" Which, if the raid buff is on a 2min cooldown, is the 2min meta.

Are you saying that somehow wasn't the case back in HW and SB? Or something else?

Trick Attack was on a 60 second cooldown, but every job was more uniquely designed with some buttons being 90s or even other weird timers like 80s so things didn't always line up perfectly and if you tried to force it, it ended up being a DPS loss. A lot of people still wanted NIN for Trick, but they only exasperated the problem by redesigning every job to play exactly the same under the 120s window. Now everyone lines up every 120s, whereas before only a handful of jobs did.

[Reinhardt_Azureheim]

Trick Attack was on a 60 second cooldown, but every job was more uniquely designed with some buttons being 90s or even other weird timers like 80s so things didn't always line up perfectly and if you tried to force it, it ended up being a DPS loss. A lot of people still wanted NIN for Trick, but they only exasperated the problem by redesigning every job to play exactly the same under the 120s window. Now everyone lines up every 120s, whereas before only a handful of jobs did.

I legit miss 80s cycles on Bard and Dark Knight or other non-standard things like Foe's Requiem.