Yay, i get to play my job with no changes for another 2+ years...

[Bad_Luck]

Stagnation is boring tho.
They could make the job better, like they did SMN.
If not, you could do something else.

[ZiraZ]

They could make the job better, like they did SMN.

good job I actually heard the laugh track in my head

[Luluya]

If warrior needs to have its party wide mitigation, why is it a shield/heal instead of something that leans more into the berserker/inner beast identity like a Ferocious Roar/Shout that inflicts a damage debuff or something on enemies

[Kisshu]

I really hope WAR gets more in it's rotation than a single GCD every 1 minute. Feels like I'm still playing the same WAR now as when SHB launched some 5 years ago.

Also really wonder what they're gonna do with healers or if they're just gonna ignore the issues (again).

[Mikey_R]

If warrior needs to have its party wide mitigation, why is it a shield/heal instead of something that leans more into the berserker/inner beast identity like a Ferocious Roar/Shout that inflicts a damage debuff or something on enemies

Whilst it would be unique, you have to take into account not all mechanics that could require party mitigation necessarily have a target to debuff, which means you have made an action that is just inferior to all other party mitigations. Even DRK and GNB have criticisms because they only mitigate magical damage as opposed to PLD and WAR that shields all damage.

[Gemina]

I think people need to stop blaming "the meta" for everything. Even in the current state of the game where everything is more or less balanced and every job is completely viable, there still exists a meta, and there will forever be a meta as long as job differences (however minor) exists.

The dev team should really be focused on making jobs that are fun to play with a coherent kit and room to improve while being less concerned about what meta the players are creating. After all, it's no longer HW where the BRD will leave the party if you don't lock in DRG, there's no hyper dependencies anymore.

Of course, if someone decides to join an optimisation party and complain that they have to play a job favoured by the meta, I think it's safe to ignore that kind of complaint.

You're contradicting yourself. You say a meta is unavoidable, yet want the dev team to focus on making jobs fun to play. This game has already experienced a time when jobs weren't so streamlined, individual, unique, and fun. The meta saw to it that many of these jobs were excluded in comps. A meta that forced players to take on jobs they did not care to play in order to be able to participate in the game's more difficult content. If you think I am just going to excuse a poor mentality from gamers, that is as likely to happen as the meta going away. Players are every bit as accountable as the dev team.

Don't get me wrong, I think a meta does have a place in games, but not when gatekeeping is a consequence of it. The more "fun" version of jobs you're referring to creates the hyper dependencies you want to avoid. But I wouldn't call it "hyper dependencies." Euphemisms does not hide what that actually is. I think a meta is fine when it demands optimization from the players willing to participate. IOW, players bring their A game with the job they choose and the group optimizes based on what is truly available to the comp. I'm not even sure if "meta" accurately describes this mentality, because if it was, optimization would be based on the comp, not the reverse.

[Menriq]

I find it fascinating that a lot of people who don't engage in certain content always have the most interesting takes.

[ReynTime]

I'd like less bloat for black mage and PLD
but what changes would you want to see with WAR? (I've dabbled in playing the class and had fun, but folks who've main'd it might have a difference of opinion)

Just don't play Black Mage and Paladin.

Literally the most fun of their respective roles. With multiple jobs per role they shouldn't level everyone down to brainfart tier. Every role should have one that is more complex or bloated.

The thing about warrior is I don’t understand why it has Nascent Flash or a party wide Shake it Off. Literally nothing about the identity of a berserker gives me “supports the party” vibes. I see a fighter who doesn’t care if their teammates live or die, they just fight till they can’t fight anymore.

Inversely, though, I do wish healing utility from jobs like Paladin and Dancer could feel helpful while also not impeding on the healing expected of healers. It’s so hard to add utility to jobs because the game stifles situations where utility can be useful. Silence? No harder fights have any interruptible abilities. Stun/Sleep? Few fights have adds where stun or sleep could be helpful, and even the ones where we do have them, those enemies cannot be CC’d. Esuna? Almost no fights inflict debuffs that can be cleansed. MP refresh? MP is basically just a window decoration at this point. Helping with healing could be another way some jobs could differentiate themselves if healing were something we needed more often.

In a good designed jRPG some characters or jobs will be better suited for some situations and not optimal for others. A selfish tank that excels in dps while the 2nd tank, like say a paladin, takes care of party mitigation would absolutely work in another game where the "meta" varies by type of content or encounter. Unfortunately CBU3 chose the crappy "one size fits all" approach to its design.

[Valence]

The meta saw to it that many of these jobs were excluded in comps. A meta that forced players to take on jobs they did not care to play in order to be able to participate in the game's more difficult content.

When did you experience this and on what datacenter exactly?

I've played during HW and SB on Aether, which was arguably the most raidy and toxic NA DC back then (mostly due to gilgamesh, people will remember), and never have I seen truly, consistently barred jobs from any PF, besides a couple of troll ones (extremely rare, half the time just there to troll and not actually play).

[ty_taurus]

When did you experience this and on what datacenter exactly?

I've played during HW and SB on Aether, which was arguably the most raidy and toxic NA DC back then (mostly due to gilgamesh, people will remember), and never have I seen truly, consistently barred jobs from any PF, besides a couple of troll ones (extremely rare, half the time just there to troll and not actually play).

There is a "meta" in which comps are taken by early raiding groups, such as week 1 savage, or world-first racing, and speed clear parties with the specific goal of reaching the highest possible parses. Then there's literally everyone else, where job meta has had nearly no impact and has never had any impact ever because regardless of balancing concerns, there have very very rarely been "unviable" jobs. There was never a time where you would regularly see any particular job being excluded from party finders. On very rare occasions, you might come across such a party where job X isn't being allowed into the group. Those groups are always led by someone who has a negative amount of understanding in regards to raiding, googled "best FFXIV raid comp" once, and deemed that mandatory.