Breaking the Majority’s Silence: A Job Criticism Thread

[LioJen]

PVP shows you don't need complex rotations to have unique action identity.

[Reinhardt_Azureheim]

PVP shows you don't need complex rotations to have unique action identity.

*waits for people to realize that HP spender with limitations and using HP lifesteal as a way to fund them + get a small bonus on top is a way to design a job*

*looks at PvP Dark Knight*

Yeah.

[Shougun]

PVP shows you don't need complex rotations to have unique action identity.

I almost universally prefer the PvP kits to the PvE kits lol. There are a few PvE kits that I also like, but the jobs are so well expressed in so few buttons in PvP that I just appreciate them on multiple levels. That and I'm not really particular for loads of buttons, I just want really 'cool' buttons that make me feel like whatever its trying to convey.

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Also I don't really see exactly what OP is claiming happens, in the sense of it at least. By that I mean someone may feel X job is imbalanced and wants to be on equal power footing but rarely, if ever, is it said "I want the same kit". It just happens to be a reliable way to balance jobs when they are more similar.

Naturally people will be upset if some jobs are just better at X Y Z given their unique aspect shinning in whatever scene fits it best, so balance will always be do you lose or do you lose lol. Personally I'd like to balance ( . . . .) the losing between unique and not so far that only jerks and the highest end of content (ultimate) will kick you if you're not optimally spec'd (in this case optimally job selected). I can't see how you can avoid the highest end having an impact here, since every element matters and uniqueness, if combat represented, will produce variations that fit better in specific situations (though the stat party bonus thing helps avoid stacking).

PERSONALLY, I actually believe the / most / likely culprit of why things are similar are not casual players who play BLM like an ice-mage, as is often suggested. Those players were going to be bad anyways, and wouldn't know what to suggest or why for. I believe most likely its people who are pinching %s via log websites and care about the top end of content (whether they are dreaming of doing it or actually doing it). Imo, balance is most irrelevant in the casual MSQ-only space.

So if we had to point fingers (we dont. . . haha), going to point at the space where numbers actually start to matter- and that's not where your ice mage is. Not that it was OP's point on casual vs savage, just that I see savage people ask for better balance and then more often then not also are the ones that will blame casual players for the homogenization.

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Anyway my 'silent' take (lol post count, yee real silent), from a willfully casual player* is that I wish to see, without huge damage to balance (but some can be given up), the jobs gain more identity. Outside of combat I also would really like to see some roleplay elements too, such that when I have a job selected I really feel that I'm that job both in AND out of combat.

Due to WoW's The War Within expansion stuff I was just curious how they were doing, and immediately I was slapped with tangible differences. Whether I was gaining cool self mount shape shifting, walking on water, teleporting myself around, seeing through walls and gliding, or sneaking and unlocking doors and chests, or using racials, it was a big difference. They're adding warbands which will essentially make WoW have a job system like FFXIV.. On top of the natural roleplay that they have, and fairly large differences in classes (which does lead to some specs being forbidden from high end content), they are also adding an additional element of roleplay in hero talents.. Not that I think we should have racials, but just an example. An example that doesn't end, as the crafting classes often have cool roleplay gimmicks, and they have that whole toy chest full of neat world interactions.

That and they are making Dragon Riding mechanic mount default, a system likely inspired by GW2's best in MMO class system (and one I have been asking FFXIV to add, prior to GW2 even adding it... lol).

While playing WoW I was instantly missing a lot of things in FFXIV (and left mostly not with "wow WoW is better" but "Man I feel WoW is getting hungry, has these neat things and is going to take other best of class elements from FFXIV, and other games, meanwhile I'm not certain FFXIV can or will even bother to do similar... I want to play FFXIV /over/ WoW but I am respecting where they are at and more particularly where they are going- it sounds like a fantastic plan", so I'm not saying "WoW better" but definitely felt I wish to see FFXIV reverse uno'd the thing Blizzard was famous for (even WoW recently stating some 'respecting player's time' bits that FFXIV is generally more famous for).


*(have and used to play MMOs more end game, I have for many years now chose not to as I don't feel it's a good use of time to value of fun anymore)

[Valknut]

PVP shows you don't need complex rotations to have unique action identity.

This is very true, but currently in PVP I have button bloat and no job identity.