What if Support Role was Added to FFXIV?

[AnotherPerson]

We have "Support" but you wouldn't call it that because it doesn't even look like one. Healers are supposed to be "Support" but they can barely support outside of just healing/shielding. They're just 1-button DPS otherwise, and it sucks on so many levels.
AoE Esuna? Removed. Increased Skill speed & Spell speed? Removed. Restoring TP? Removed. Regenerate MP to party member? Removed. Knockback enemy? Removed and replaced with Bind. Where's Bind you ask? Removed.

Pretty much all semblance of support has been reduced to just DPS for the sake of balance and 'ease of use without stress on that party member to make a difference whether the party lives or wipes'.

Literally, the ONE support skill that isn't just a DPS buff is Expedient because it gave movement speed in combat, and that's only unlocked on SCH at level 90 and usable every 2 minutes. And even then, the movement speed effect got nerfed.

The one actual support skill all healers have is Rescue - the skill that so many players complain about. People don't use it much because every job has so much mobility, because it has a huge cooldown, and because of the pull delay that it's easier to make a mistake from using it. Not to mention, a lot of mechanics outright don't even allow the possibility of rescue from messing up a mechanic. You can't rescue someone from Down From the Count debuff (Holminister Switch Left/Right Knockout, P5 Devour), can't rescue a target that's chained to move them (Holminister Switch Chain Down, Battle in the Big Keep Enchain, Kugane Ohashi Hell's Gate), Can't rescue someone that's about to die from being eaten (World of Darkness Stepping into Slabber and being stuck). The skill has so many limitations to its usability. You only use it if you are sure you can pull someone to safety or to pull someone mid-LB animation to safety. Otherwise, you get blamed even if that person was going to die otherwise because you "interrupted them".

Ranged DPS are supposed to be "Support" but most of their support utility is just DPS, but you can literally count the number of support utility they provide. They have bind, heavy, and interrupt skills, but they rarely see usage. Peloton gets usage but mainly in dungeons and alliance raids, not in combat. Their individual shield mitigation? That's basically Feint/Addle, but applied to parties instead of a target. We have Warden's Paean, which is just a longer-lasting Esuna effect.

MCH? Is that even a support? Maybe during Heavensward, but not anymore. It's hard to call Physical Ranged DPS as the support class when MCH doesn't support the party outside of Tactician. Even MNK can be looked like a better support class than MCH (provides a DPS buff to the party, an AoE healing up buff, and Feint).
Physical range DPS is not so much of a support role because it has support utility, but because it supports the party by attacking from afar... which isn't even true anymore due to boss hitboxes getting big enough for melee uptime.

[Shurrikhan]

We have "Support" but you wouldn't call it that because it doesn't even look like one. Healers are supposed to be "Support" but they can barely support outside of just healing/shielding. They're just 1-button DPS otherwise, and it sucks on so many levels.
AoE Esuna? Removed. Increased Skill speed & Spell speed? Removed. Restoring TP? Removed. Regenerate MP to party member? Removed. Knockback enemy? Removed and replaced with Bind. Where's Bind you ask? Removed.

I think one of the main things to keep in mind alongside all this is that, once up and balanced, support is less about additions/features than it is about interdependence. The ability to make a significantly more pleasant experience or any other unique opportunity requires creating a baseline experience that is that comparatively that much more unpleasant or lacks those otherwise accessible opportunities, and will more than likely make what feels like it should be your gameplay deferable by others' errors.

Take granting Haste (SkS/SpS), for instance. If you already had a rotational speed you like, unless the particular percentage somehow coincidentally hits upon another pace that syncs up in itself and to your combo-progress when the buff is granted... it's just been screwed over. A healer Role Action to AoE immune a knockback mechanic? For that to be significant, the fight would have to offer X more knockbacks than would otherwise seem fitting.

That's not to say designing in support functionality is always going to be futile or a matter of... mechanical racketeering (wherein your problem exists only because it was designed in, without the usual concern for thematic or mechanical cohesion/alignment/etc., just to give those tools their place), but they create a fine line devs have to then walk between feeling like a bonus when they happen and making the baseline/normal feel like crap when they don't. Ideally, one ought to get a bigger dopamine spike, so to speak, from receiving that bonus than if it had come from their own kit, despite all the additional ways that could then go wrong (and all the massive balancing headaches it'd give in trying to make that support functionality worthwhile outside of just hivemind-ed statics).

There's also the matter of "fool-proofing" some of these potential Support skills. If Rescue extended melee range and allowed for casting while moving during and for some half-second after its use, people would complain a whole lot less about being Rescued. If players had specific control over their GCD speeds, or could allow Skill/Spell speed to be "junction"-ed to only increase GCD speed if able to hit certain thresholds (otherwise/thereafter spending it all on periodic potency increases), they wouldn't mind receiving Haste. Etc., etc.

[Kes13a]

Really don't see a whole category being added 10 years in.
If we get one new job per expansion going forward that would already be good.

I really dont want new jobs.
the jobs are close to being as non unique as you can get without removing the names and just name them all tank, healer or dps.
adding more jobs just gets us closer to that since they just remove skills from the rest to give it to the new one. (and usually the best skills to make it more flashy)

[FiliusLunae]

FFXI had legit support jobs. BRD and COR (Corsair) come to mind. BRD provided such good and strong buffs for casters and melee that parties had at least one BRD. Sometimes 2 BRDs in a 6-person party, situationally.

BRD was considered off-heal support—you were expected to aid the main healer in between singing songs, which took 4-8 seconds to play each.

COR, on the other hand, was DPS support. Its buffs were similar to BRD, but COR was expected to maximize DPS in between buffs. Neither BRD or COR would never top the charts, but their utility and the way they maximized the party was desired.

This is what I see missing from FFXIV. As a BRD in FFIX, your role was to run around the battlefield so you could buff people with the appropriate songs—casters got MP and Magic+ buffs, and the frontline got Haste, Attack+ and other melee goodies. Your rotation consisted of singings with the occasional off-heal. Your role was really to support your party. This concept doesn't exist in FFXIV.

[R041]

This concept doesn't exist in FFXIV.

It used to. :/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pve2swkUMUI

SE is so afraid of us breaking their content, and their 'intended' DDR playstyle, that they've just been removing our individual capabilities in favor of different flavors of damage abilities and extended bursting that match their designed windows. With how everything else has gone, Crit is probably on the chopping block for next expac. There's nothing to support anymore.

[Atelier-Bagur]

It used to. :/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pve2swkUMUI

SE is so afraid of us breaking their content, and their 'intended' DDR playstyle, that they've just been removing our individual capabilities in favor of different flavors of damage abilities and extended bursting that match their designed windows. With how everything else has gone, Crit is probably on the chopping block for next expac. There's nothing to support anymore.

nothing to support 'cept the game which to some is considered a downright abysmal failure in almost every single way in its current game.

[Stanelis]

Would it make sense to add a fourth role to the Trinity of Tank, Healer and DPS to help create a better balance between all the job classes?

It has been asked several time to Yoshida in interviews and sadly it isn't planned at this point.

[FiliusLunae]

FFXI had legit support jobs. BRD and COR (Corsair) come to mind. BRD provided such good and strong buffs for casters and melee that parties had at least one BRD. Sometimes 2 BRDs in a 6-person party, situationally.

BRD was considered off-heal support—you were expected to aid the main healer in between singing songs, which took 4-8 seconds to play each.

COR, on the other hand, was DPS support. Its buffs were similar to BRD, but COR was expected to maximize DPS in between buffs. Neither BRD or COR would never top the charts, but their utility and the way they maximized the party was desired.

This is what I see missing from FFXIV. As a BRD in FFIX, your role was to run around the battlefield so you could buff people with the appropriate songs—casters got MP and Magic+ buffs, and the frontline got Haste, Attack+ and other melee goodies. Your rotation consisted of singings with the occasional off-heal. Your role was really to support your party. This concept doesn't exist in FFXIV.

Another role I miss is that of debuffer from FFXIV. This usually fell to RDM, who got the highest enfleebling skill and the strongest debuffs. Depending on the situation, you could opt for bringing a RDM as a main healer and sacrifice efficient healing for the strongest debuffs.

I feel that type of strategic decision making is missing in XIV.

[R041]

nothing to support 'cept the game which to some is considered a downright abysmal failure in almost every single way in its current game.

I don't even know what you're trying to say. But I do find it funny that you have more posts in 1 year than most that have been playing for a decade. lol

You sure are the whitest DRK.

[Atelier-Bagur]

I don't even know what you're trying to say. But I do find it funny that you have more posts in 1 year than most that have been playing for a decade. lol

You sure are the whitest DRK.

I have no clue what you're even talking about. Im just echoing what the forums are basically saying really.

Also I cant be white if Im green (well this current character at least) and a Paladin sooooo..