How will 7.0 make jobs even more dumbed down?

[Payotz]

I think it's pretty obvious how they'll do it:

General changes:

Enmity is removed from the game. The party leader can now designate a Main Tank and an Offtank before entering the duty.
Main tank will take the damage unless the Offtank provokes the boss.
The boss will now automatically change to the other tank upon inflicting a tankbuster to the main tank. This will not occur if the main tank pops an invuln.
In light parties, the tank role will now be automatically assigned as the Main Tank. Enemy combatants in the duty will now automatically attack the tank.

Upon dying, all enemy combatans including the boss will stop auto attacking. If a tank has been resurrected during this, the boss will have a 10 second grace period for the boss to not attack the tank and for the healers to top the tank up.

All jobs and classes now has a stance skill.
All casters will now automatically cast Addle if they have their stance enabled during boss abilities.
All melee will now automatically cast Feint if they have their stance enabled during boss abilities.

Melee stances will now passively provide True North once enabled.
Caster stances will now passively make their GCDs instacast once enabled.
Tank stances will automatically use their invuln upon taking fatal damage. This will not put the invuln into cooldown.

WHM:

All 3 damaging GCDs are now rolled into one button. It will have a cast time of 1.5 GCD and will inflict a DoT upon dealing damage in addition to direct damage.
This damaging GCD will also deal damage around the target for 40% less damage.
WHM can now change their only GCD animation into either Glare, Holy or Dia by typing /spellglamour . You cannot criticize them removing Holy from the game because it's still in the game.
Cure 1, Cure 3, Medica 2 and Benediction are now removed from the game.

Cure 2 will now transform into Benediction at lvl 50 (Benediction functionality removed, but at least it has +100 potency now and instacast)
Medica will now transform into Cure 3 at lvl 56 (same Medica functionality, but it has +100 potency).

Tetra is now removed from the game.
Thin Air is removed from the game.
Plenary Indulgence will be learned at 70. Plenary Indulgence can now be cast in citystates. Plenary Indulgence will heal the party for 100 potency.

Benediction will now transform into Afflatus Solace at lvl 66. Medica will now transform into Afflatus Rapture at lvl 72.
Afflatus Misery is now a 1200 potency GCD that has 2 charges. Each charge has a charge time of 60 seconds.

Temperance is now a stance.

If Temperance is enabled, the WHM will now have an Asylum that radiates from themselves that has a radius of 500 yalms.
If Temperance is enabled, the WHM will now automatically cast Assize every 30 seconds. This will automatically crit.
If Temperance is enabled, the WHM will now automatically cast Divine Benison and Aquaveil on the main tank every 15 seconds.

Aquaveil will be removed in 7.05. You can now change the animation for Divine Benison into either Divine Benison, Aquaveil or Stoneskin by typing /spellglamour.

AST:

All 3 damaging GCDs are now rolled into one button. It will have a cast time of 1.5 GCD and will inflict a DoT upon dealing damage in addition to direct damage.
This damaging GCD will also deal damage around the target for 40% less damage.

AST can now change their only GCD animation into either Malefic, Combust and Gravity.
Benefic 1, Aspected Benefic and Aspected Helios is now removed from the game.

Lightspeed is now reworked. Lightspeed will now make the next GCD instant.
This will be removed in the 7.05 rework.

Draw, Undraw, Redraw, Play, Minor Arcana, Horoscope, Macrocosmos is now removed from the game.

Neutral Sect is now a stance.

If Neutral Sect is enabled, the AST will now automatically have an Earthly Star that radiates from themselves that has a radius of 500 yalms. Every 60 seconds, the Earthly Star explodes, healing the party and damaging the boss and restoring mana. These has the same values as Assize for balance reasons. This will also automatically crit.
If Neutral Sect is enabled, the AST will now provide Horoscope to the party passively. This will now automatically heal the party every 15 seconds.
If Neutral Sect is enabled, the AST will not cast Divination every 120 seconds. You can now change the animation for this spell into Draw and Minor Arcana by using /spellglamour. You can now change the card graphic that is being shown every cast by using /cardglamour

SCH:

All 3 damaging GCDs are now rolled into one button. It will have a cast time of 1.5 GCD and will inflict a DoT upon dealing damage in addition to direct damage.
This damaging GCD will also deal damage around the target for 40% less damage.

The SCH can now change their only GCD animation into either Broil, Bio, and Miasma by using /spellglamour.
Energy Drain is removed from the game. Energy Drain will be added back into 7.05 due to backlash. This will be a GCD that will deal 10 potency worth of damage.
Dissipation is still in the game at lvl 70. It can now be cast in citystates and housing wards with no fairy. Targetting a player with this skill will now play an animation where the SCH will shrink the target player and eat them.

Physick will now transform into Adlo at level 36. (this will now provide a shield)
Adlo will now transform into Lustrate at lvl 66. (this will have the same functionality but have +100 potency)
Lustrate will now transform into Excognitation at lvl 72 (this will have the same functionality but have +200 potency)

Succor will now transform into Indom, (this will have the same functionality but have +100 potency)

Aetherflow will now give SCH the status "Aetherflowed".
If the SCH has the status "Aetherflow", the next spell the SCH will cast will be instant.
If the SCH has the status "Aetherflow", the next damage spell the SCH will cast will also automatically crit.
You can now change the Aetherflow animation into Aetherflow, Deployment Tactics or Emergency Tactics by using /spellglamour.

Summon Seraph is now a stance. You can change the fairy that appears when using the stance via /eosglamour

If Summon Seraph is enabled, the SCH will now automatically have a Sacred Soil that radiates from themselves that has a radius of 500 yalms.
If Summon Seraph is enabled, the fairy will now automatically tether the tank that is taking damage from the main boss.
If Summon Seraph is enabled, the SCH will now provide the entire party with Expedience.

SGE:

All 3 damaging GCDs are now rolled into one button. It will have a cast time of 1.5 GCD and will inflict a DoT upon dealing damage in addition to direct damage.
This damaging GCD will also deal damage around the target for 40% less damage.

The SGE can now change their only GCD animation into either, Dosis, Pneuma, Eukranian Dosis, Dykrasia and Toxikon via /spellglamour.

Diagnosis will now transform into Eukrasian Diagnosis at level 36 (this will now proviade a shield)
Eukrasian Diagnosis will now transform into Druochole at lvl 62. (this will have the same functionality but have +100 potency)

Prognosis will now transform into Eukrasian Prognosis at level 36 (this will now proviade a shield)
Eukrasian Prognosis will now transform into Ixochole at level 52. (this will have the same functionality but have +100 potency)

Eukrasia will now give SGE the status "Technoflowed"
If the SGE has the status "Technoflowed" the next spell the SGE will cast will be instant.
If the SGE has the status "Technoflowed" the next damaging spell the SGE will cast will automatically crit.
We promise we will update the glamour of this spell with more options. Please look forward to it.

Kardia is now a stance. We promise we will update the glamour of this spell with more options. Please look forward to it.
If Kardia is enabled, the SGE will now provide the entire party with Kardion.
If Kardia is enabled, the SGE will now provide the entire party with Haima.
If Kardia is enabled, the SGE will now automatically cast Pneuma every 120 seconds.
If Kardia is enabled, the main tank will receive double the healing from Kardion.

[Genbe197]

This stupid 2min window needs to die. I unsub for most of the game now and only come for new story (.0 usually skip .1 .2 .3 and come back for .5) just because how boring the combat is now. Healing used to be a lot more fun but now everything is lvl 2 WHM in terms of complexiity.

[Raikai]

I don't really see the point in changing STR/DEX/INT/MND into just "Power" if you're not going to thereby merge armor classes anyways. The redundancy costs us nothing while indicating the gear type in a more at-a-glance fashion. But, neither would I care if they were officially consolidated into that single term, instead of that just being the community term for the resultant Attack/Magic/Healing Power.

And if we're not going to do anything with our Primary Stats anyways, I'd just go with...

• Speed (SkS+SpS+Sprint recharge speed*, with MP instead ticking per half-GCD and fixed GCD timers made to instead scale with the GCD),
• Break (Crit chance + Dodge chance + Parry chance),
• Will (Determination+Tenacity), and
• Spirit (Mastery, with effects dependent on one's job).

Simple and intuitive, but this allows Will to indirectly take over the "Big crits" role so that Crit doesn't self-contain its biggest synergies, while Speed is no longer so self-defeating/inefficient for Casters or users of (previously) fixed-length GCDs, and Spirit offers more variable gameplay effects.

Alternatively, split Tenacity, Piety, and Mobility (replacing Direct Hit) into a separate class of stats, buff the usefulness of Piety to non-Casters/Healers, strip the attack value from Tenacity, and just have those QoL/survivability Tertiary stats (TEN/PIE/MBL) compete only with each other, opposite the throughput-affecting Secondary Stats SPD/BRK/WIL.

From there, just ramp up the effect per point of stat and we might yet see some decent customization of gameplay.

I like it, honestly if a stat revamp could go even closer to something like this, would be a huge gain, I'd just look up the materia customization and keep utility/qol/survivability stats not being interchangeable with the main ones, or else is Tenacity, as it is today, all over again.

[SieyaM]

I don't expect it, but would not be surprised if AST has cards deleted. It has caused them nothing but trouble and they seem to have no idea how to make them fall into the strict balance they have insisted on. You go back to the older system and people complain they aren't getting balance the whole time, and you keep it in the new system and it's an almost imperceptible increase in damage and the astrodyne and divination abilities are just plain disappointing.

[Shurrikhan]

I like it, honestly if a stat revamp could go even closer to something like this, would be a huge gain, I'd just look up the materia customization and keep utility/qol/survivability stats not being interchangeable with the main ones, or else is Tenacity, as it is today, all over again.

Aye; you'd want to either have them wholly separate, or have everything give their effects. I didn't bother with Piety in the 4-stat system since it could just be carried by Healer jobs' Mastery and (Spell) Speed would no longer harm relative MP efficiency.

Honestly, I feel like a MP system that depends on what would otherwise be a waste-stat to function at fight-specific optimal values isn't a particular interesting form of customization anyways compared to its hassles, and would rather see MP reformed to not be so bimodal / basically irrelevant until near starvation anyways at that point.

[Supersnow845]

I don't expect it, but would not be surprised if AST has cards deleted. It has caused them nothing but trouble and they seem to have no idea how to make them fall into the strict balance they have insisted on. You go back to the older system and people complain they aren't getting balance the whole time, and you keep it in the new system and it's an almost imperceptible increase in damage and the astrodyne and divination abilities are just plain disappointing.

The cards were fine (though boring) in ShB and pretty easy to balance, they just ruined it by giving charges on draw and removing sub burst windows on the other jobs, so it changed the job from mild APM with skill expression to APM bloat literally being it’s expression

I don’t like the modern card design but AST being a walking dumpster fire in EW is totally caused by the decisions they made for EW and not an inherent limitation of how the ShB cards work

[Shurrikhan]

While the cards did remove the opportunity cost for less than immediate use of cards, I don't feel like it actually hit our skill expression that much, as we now have to target recipient's burst windows, specifically/always (after first card per instance), instead of using cards on CD.

Similarly, there'd be a reduction in skill ceiling but not much in complexity if we were to always see the next Card in advance, since it's just mean you have up to 30 seconds to remember who the best recipient would be rather than just having it memorized in advance. It'd be a loss to cognitive load required for optimal play, but not a loss to nuance in itself.

Just food for thought.

Somewhat related: Things that would make it easier to track recipient actions/sync (such as by showing their last instant action, too, rather than just casts, and perhaps even allowing one to track particular CDs) would likewise reduce cognitive load but, in doing so, would make optimization more accessible to enough players that it would likely seem to increase the in-practice complexity of what actions that change would affect.

[SieyaM]

The cards were fine (though boring) in ShB and pretty easy to balance, they just ruined it by giving charges on draw and removing sub burst windows on the other jobs, so it changed the job from mild APM with skill expression to APM bloat literally being it’s expression

I don’t like the modern card design but AST being a walking dumpster fire in EW is totally caused by the decisions they made for EW and not an inherent limitation of how the ShB cards work

The ShB cards and by extension these we have now are much less interesting than their previous iteration. When you had royal road and varying card effects that had varying efficacy on different jobs, decisions making and situational awareness were required and added a lot of fun and interaction with the job and the cards had a noticeable difference if used correctly and even more so if used well. Now it's all just the same flat % damage increase, and I do absolutely believe if they keep them they will change it so that every card gives every person the same % increase, so all you are doing is fishing for seals instead of even having to think about who gets what.

[Supersnow845]

The ShB cards and by extension these we have now are much less interesting than their previous iteration. When you had royal road and varying card effects that had varying efficacy on different jobs, decisions making and situational awareness were required and added a lot of fun and interaction with the job and the cards had a noticeable difference if used correctly and even more so if used well. Now it's all just the same flat % damage increase, and I do absolutely believe if they keep them they will change it so that every card gives every person the same % increase, so all you are doing is fishing for seals instead of even having to think about who gets what.

That’s why I said “(though boring)” and “I don’t like the modern card design”

I know how the old cards worked and I liked them better

I’m simply saying that EW AST train wreck of a design is not actually caused by a flaw in the modern card design (as boring and uninspired as it is), I’m saying it was cause by decisions they made going into EW

[ForsakenRoe]

I don't expect it, but would not be surprised if AST has cards deleted. It has caused them nothing but trouble and they seem to have no idea how to make them fall into the strict balance they have insisted on. You go back to the older system and people complain they aren't getting balance the whole time, and you keep it in the new system and it's an almost imperceptible increase in damage and the astrodyne and divination abilities are just plain disappointing.

Again, the issue was not just Balance, it was AOE Balance. It wasn't that 'oh Balance gives 10% damage up for 15s, vs Bole giving 0% damage', it was 'AOE Balance is literally current Brotherhood/Mug/Embolden, and Bole is not'. The main factor in why the cards could not be balanced back then is because of the AOE potential. If they had removed Royal Road and added Divination for that predictable AOE raidbuff they really want, they'd have noticed that actually, it's pretty easy to balance cards against each other when they're single target

If they remove cards/simplify them more because they can't work out how to balance them, then there's zero hope for healer design in general. It'd show that, rather than put any effort into fixing an issue, they'd rather just remove the pain point completely, fun/aesthetic/identity/etc be damned. And that's just going to lead to where we are going with certain other jobs right now, sterile, bland, flavorless, they 'work', they are 'functional' but they have no soul