Why balance jobs to just high-end raids?

[Avoidy]

Man I'd kill for just... jobs feeling GOOD across all content. 90% of this game tosses you into downsynced content that feels like shit to do because you're missing skills or you're cockblocked from even pulling off your rotation. This insistence that the only content allowed to flow well and feel good should be limited to a small niche area of the game is so lazy. I'm thinking now of when Yoshi told healers to just play ultimates if they wanted an engaging experience. Literally the most niche 1% tier of content in the entire game. So what the head dev is telling me is that if I'm a healer and I don't want to fall asleep in your game, 99% of the content available isn't going to cut it. That sounds like a cop out to me. If the gameplay loop is fun at its core, then doing ezmode content becomes enjoyable because the job you're playing is fun.

Hell, even outside the realm of downsynced content, in the vast majority of level 90 content stuff dies before it can even do its mechanics, healers feel totally unnecessary, downtime/mid-fight cutscenes will occur right as players are about to go into their bursts (which all feel railroaded thanks to the new 2m setup we're forced into, yet we still have situations like these that feel like shit), I could go on. Euphrosyne for example, is level 90 content that's normal difficulty and it feels like a boring slog because the outgoing damage is pitifully low, the dps checks are a joke, the mechanical aspects are recycled from older content, the bosses have so little hp that they melt before they can even finish teaching you their mechanics, and they have this gross habit of disappearing right as your railroaded 2m burst comes up, as if the devs knew how hard they were pigeonholing us with this 2m meta and then decided to just ... go out of their way to blueball us on purpose.

[CelestiCer]

Man I'd kill for just... jobs feeling GOOD across all content. 90% of this game tosses you into downsynced content that feels like shit to do because you're missing skills or you're cockblocked from even pulling off your rotation. This insistence that the only content allowed to flow well and feel good should be limited to a small niche area of the game is so lazy. I'm thinking now of when Yoshi told healers to just play ultimates if they wanted an engaging experience. Literally the most niche 1% tier of content in the entire game. So what the head dev is telling me is that if I'm a healer and I don't want to fall asleep in your game, 99% of the content available isn't going to cut it. That sounds like a cop out to me. If the gameplay loop is fun at its core, then doing ezmode content becomes enjoyable because the job you're playing is fun.

Been told numerous times to go play Ultimate after I lost my Kaiten by many friends... and there was no joy in it...

Complexity from content is no where near the same as Complexity/Depth/Nuances from your favorite Job... Content mastery will never be as meaningful to me vs Class mastery in almost any MMO I ever played, yet I am being sold on FFXIV that its the reverse here which is a load of horse radish. It's soulless. I went from being a Raider? to becoming a Gposer/Housing decorator out of Copium. I enjoy it? but that's how bad the changes have been. Doing content has never been this boring because my Job was never this boring...

Keep my Job fun? and content is more likely Fun to do, no matter how boring the content is. Keep my Job braindead? then no matter how amazing the content or raid or ultimate is going to be? my Job... my favorite Job? might as well be dead to me which makes the content dead to me.

[Payotz]

Complexity from content is no where near the same as Complexity/Depth/Nuances from your favorite Job... Content mastery will never be as meaningful to me vs Class mastery in almost any MMO I ever played, yet I am being sold on FFXIV that its the reverse here which is a load of horse radish. It's soulless.

I've had a conversation with a friend who's trying to convince me about how good FFXIV is again the other day and it's funny how we both kinda agreed on the fact that spamming ONE button in Path of Exile is more satisfying than doing your entire rotation in FFXIV just because of how interesting the interactions are in PoE than in FFXIV.

Apples to Oranges comparison I know, but it kinda illuminated the fact that there's not really a lot of meaningful interactions in PvE job rotations in the Shadowbringers era compared to the ARR->HW->SB era. "Difficulty" in PvE job rotations right now are basically pressing a bunch of Shinten clones on cooldown in-between GCDs without any thought put into it, which makes it a lot less engaging compared to games with less buttons but with more meaningful interactions behind their actions.

I guess the proper comparison is the difference between the PvP and PvE toolkits, with PvP having more interactions and thus more engaging gameplay with less button bloat, and with PvE having filler 250 potency OGCDs that you press on cooldown, and the rotation of every job being designed around having full striking dummy uptime 24/7 with as little friction as possible (proved by the fact that every player moans about their cooldowns whenever you get forced to downtime in like 3 fights or something).

I can relate to you though. The only reason why I sub every now and then is to talk with friends. I just kinda treat this game as Gaia online successor with tacked on raiding.

[CelestiCer]

I've had a conversation with a friend who's trying to convince me about how good FFXIV is again the other day and it's funny how we both kinda agreed on the fact that spamming ONE button in Path of Exile is more satisfying than doing your entire rotation in FFXIV just because of how interesting the interactions are in PoE than in FFXIV.

Apples to Oranges comparison I know, but it kinda illuminated the fact that there's not really a lot of meaningful interactions in PvE job rotations in the Shadowbringers era compared to the ARR->HW->SB era. "Difficulty" in PvE job rotations right now are basically pressing a bunch of Shinten clones on cooldown in-between GCDs without any thought put into it, which makes it a lot less engaging compared to games with less buttons but with more meaningful interactions behind their actions.

I guess the proper comparison is the difference between the PvP and PvE toolkits, with PvP having more interactions and thus more engaging gameplay with less button bloat, and with PvE having filler 250 potency GCDs that you press on cooldown, and the rotation of every job being designed around having full striking dummy uptime 24/7 with as little friction as possible (proved by the fact that every player moans about their cooldowns whenever you get forced to downtime in like 3 fights or something).

I can relate to you though. The only reason why I sub every now and then is to talk with friends. I just kinda treat this game as Gaia online successor with tacked on raiding.

Someone freaking gets me!!!
I feel that way with other MMO's I used to play.

And that's purely why I stay subbed, not cause I enjoy content? but because I enjoy doing anything with friends. Content is boring though. I will do Savage while watching Netflix at this point. I became a housing decorator/Gposer even though the appeal was the Story? that turned into Samurai and Raiding... ironic... That what made me love FFXIV is the PvE combat of Samurai and raiding with my Samurai. What makes me despise it? are the changes to my Job and what PvE combat has turned into and raiding...

I'm not wishing it to fail either... I want it to improve otherwise I would not be posting or ranting so much about it. I wished it at least be as fun how it used to be for me... but for now? it's just Housing honestly and helping friends and party finders clear fights.

[Leifei]

Man I'd kill for just... jobs feeling GOOD across all content. 90% of this game tosses you into downsynced content that feels like shit to do because you're missing skills or you're cockblocked from even pulling off your rotation. This insistence that the only content allowed to flow well and feel good should be limited to a small niche area of the game is so lazy. I'm thinking now of when Yoshi told healers to just play ultimates if they wanted an engaging experience. Literally the most niche 1% tier of content in the entire game. So what the head dev is telling me is that if I'm a healer and I don't want to fall asleep in your game, 99% of the content available isn't going to cut it. That sounds like a cop out to me. If the gameplay loop is fun at its core, then doing ezmode content becomes enjoyable because the job you're playing is fun.

Hell, even outside the realm of downsynced content, in the vast majority of level 90 content stuff dies before it can even do its mechanics, healers feel totally unnecessary, downtime/mid-fight cutscenes will occur right as players are about to go into their bursts (which all feel railroaded thanks to the new 2m setup we're forced into, yet we still have situations like these that feel like shit), I could go on. Euphrosyne for example, is level 90 content that's normal difficulty and it feels like a boring slog because the outgoing damage is pitifully low, the dps checks are a joke, the mechanical aspects are recycled from older content, the bosses have so little hp that they melt before they can even finish teaching you their mechanics, and they have this gross habit of disappearing right as your railroaded 2m burst comes up, as if the devs knew how hard they were pigeonholing us with this 2m meta and then decided to just ... go out of their way to blueball us on purpose.

You're making some really good points there.