What are your unrealistic expectations for the upcoming Combat Live Letter?

[Katish]

For the Healers:

All the oGCD Healings will change to GCD (some maybee with MP costs) with the exception of 1 or 2 (like Benediction and the Fairy Healing Abilities). With this simple change the Healer Experience should change vom 1,2,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,2,1,1,1 to something better. And they would not need to change all the combat encounters with this change.

Easy Healer Gameplay improvement.

This does not actually change the healer gameplay meaningfully, all this would introduce is something that is already a thing to begin with. Using your one heal, or someone else taking your opportunity like a tank usually, then you going back to your one dps button. The issue is it all, not just healing, those who say otherwise do not understand the bigger picture. Healers need something to do in their down time, and that one button is not doing it justice. That button is all you will be doing mostly out of all your skills and thus its monotony sticks out greatly, as outside of your prime responsibility it makes all the healers appear to be the same entity job wise [one could argue even within the job's prime responsibility the healers are the same but that's why I brought up that changing how healing operation does not change the gameplay meaningfully]. When compared to tanks, they have few differences outside their prime role responsibility when it comes to their rotations.

The best example we need to garner is from the Blue Mage to fix it all imo, it does both jobs and doesn't overly complicate the DPS kit or make unnecessary heals for no reason. But it still allows for options if you need them. (Of course the healers will have less DPS buttons than the Blue Mage but I think it could easily be a 40/60 or 60/40 split or somewhere in between, depending on the job. For example a DPS healer could lean 60% of their kit for dps (or buffs) and 40% heals, a supportive healer (the more ideal healer) could be 60% for heals and 40% for the dps kit (or buffs). This would have been more of a meaningful split than barrier vs pure again imho.

What this would look like in the grand scheme of things, if we changed kit for example and if we kept same number of buttons (just to give you a real idea of how it would work):
White Mage has 23 buttons allocated, I think 55% heals, 45% dps (or buffs (includes self buffs)) would be fine so: -4 heals, +4 DPS buttons
Sage has 21 buttons allocated, heals 40%, 60% dps (or buffs (includes self buffs)): -7 heals or -6 heals [if Penumbra adjusted], +6/7 DPS buttons
AST has 22 buttons allocated, 60% heals, 40% dps (or buffs (includes self buffs)): -1 heal/ -2 heals [if Macrocosmos adjusted] +1/2 DPS buttons
SCH has 24 buttons allocated, 58/42: -4 heals/ +4 DPS buttons

Replaced buttons could be effects combined or buttons removed entirely.

Note I did not consider any action that was either a role action or not attributing heals or dps buttons for allocated buttons (for obvious reasons, this is the area where jobs can differ (although it should still be looked at for button bloat in example of Undraw) and if work is put in can make them differ even more). I did not count Minor Arcana for AST (because it can be either). If the effects are both one button, it remains counted as one button.

[rawker]

In my opinion, they can cut off a few healing ogcds from all healers if they have no plans on making content that can maximize the entire kit.

[Katish]

In my opinion, they can cut off a few healing ogcds from all healers if they have no plans on making content that can maximize the entire kit.

I agree to this sentiment, it does not matter to me how they achieve consolidation.

[HappyHubris]

The cote issue is insufficient guaranteedincoming damage; rotational complexity isn't examining the root cause.

[Derio]

Restructure of the healers, their dps options and balance their damage better.

Give DRK better self sustain( extremely unrealistic)

[Katish]

The cote issue is insufficient guaranteed incoming damage; rotational complexity isn't examining the root cause.

There isn't a "root cause" because it's multiple issues. Focusing on the kit solves some of the issues but not EVERYTHING, the less options there are the more complex the role becomes in performing "X" because it limits decision making. There too should be increased healing, but in a game where outgoing healing has never been the prime answer and the birthing of healers that can barely perform the bare necessity (due to dps and tanks taking up the role) when it comes to healing, do you really trust them on a sudden constant incoming damage to heal(?) My answer is no, that's why you solve the most easy answer to increase their difficulty (their kit), then slightly move to increase incoming/outgoing damage to start training the healers to do their roles properly (again).

In this game it's a balance, not one or the other, both. When you are not healing, you are doing damage. That's why there exists regen and preemptive healing, to allow you the window to do so in the form of GCD (which we barely use as there is no benefit to do so [except if the goal is to waste your time])...in fact tank sustain has increased so much that it even furthers that window more, so it's only an insult to injury when you are left there pressing one button. Should they ever increase outgoing damage that makes us tap into our GCD, preapplication of healing would render that portion 0 and you would still be left there to dps. This even more true in content where there isn't just one healer. This is why it's multiple issues in one, not just "increase healing" call it a day, that doesn't really look at the bigger picture.

[Cynric]

Thats fair, each to their own, I've played this game since 1.0 and I have never not once enjoyed positionals so I've always been a caster, maybe im just getting old

I think it's just one of those differences in playstyle/ enjoyment sort of situation. Conversely I play melee because I really hate casting and standing still. I'm honestly a little peeved that they keep shoehorning standing still or casts onto some of the melee every expansion. Standing still while fighting because I choose to is one thing, but forcing me to just makes me sad lol.

You'll need to define what you mean by 'rotational complexity.'

New jobs are always subject to scrutiny. I'm not sure if you recall RPR's launch, but it was widely described as having 'minimal positionals' and 'mechanically easy'. All melee jobs have seen a progressive reduction in positional counts over time, with most jobs averaging at about one positional every 5 GCDs or so. RPR is the same as most of the others, except that the positional counts are less evenly distributed, such that you might have three positionals in a row followed by some downtime. This in conjunction with TN gave players the perception that there were fewer positionals overall. From a rotational standpoint it does have some very unique features, especially around the setup of Double/Triple Enshroud, with set entry points into burst depending on your Death's Design timer. But you'd never know this looking at the job from the outside.

At launch, it was universally derided, and suffered a series of iterative nerfs through to Abyssos, all on the basis that it was 'less challenging to optimize'. Do you really think that releasing melee that actually lacks positionals on the basis of 'theoretical rotational complexity' is going to fare any better? No way.

If you want to play a sword job without positionals, then PLD, DRK, and GNB are all options. This is the first time that we're getting a standard longsword job on melee after waiting for 10 years, with dual wielding no less. It would be really nice if they could get this right the first time. In particular, I want to see them err on the side of unusually difficult, rather than going the RPR route and producing a job that everyone dismisses from the outset. I want to see higher than average positional counts, higher baseline speed, higher weave counts, more intricate combos, and more nuanced movement actions.

If not, I suppose I'll just have to wait for them to bring out an Thunder God Cid-inspired greatsword spellblade to get a proper sword job on melee.

This is pretty much how I feel tbh. Each Melee has gotten more boring to play as time has gone on. I was really hoping reaper would be super fun, and it has its moments, but most of those moments are exclusively only because of enshroud, outside of enshroud it isn't super interesting.

I'd love for Viper to be ridiculously complex, if it isn't I will still play it but I'll be sad about it. The only realistic hope I can have is that they don't force viper to cast something like they've done with the last two melee or stand still for something.

It's weird like, positionals and being able to move around freely, these parts are the things that can make melee really fun and different. if you remove positionals, then we're basically no different than ranged jobs except we have to play up close.

[Valence]

Do you really think that releasing melee that actually lacks positionals on the basis of 'theoretical rotational complexity' is going to fare any better? No way.

Why would it not? Bring back SB double TK monk, remove all its positionals, and pit it against any other current design melee, and see if people think it's easier to play. Good grief.

If you want to play a sword job without positionals, then PLD, DRK, and GNB are all options. This is the first time that we're getting a standard longsword job on melee after waiting for 10 years, with dual wielding no less. It would be really nice if they could get this right the first time. In particular, I want to see them err on the side of unusually difficult, rather than going the RPR route and producing a job that everyone dismisses from the outset. I want to see higher than average positional counts, higher baseline speed, higher weave counts, more intricate combos, and more nuanced movement actions.

If not, I suppose I'll just have to wait for them to bring out an Thunder God Cid-inspired greatsword spellblade to get a proper sword job on melee.

Why are we talking about sword flavor now? Are you still trying to tell us to go play a support job if we don't like melee positionals on dps because of... blade flavor? Really?

I'm honestly a little peeved that they keep shoehorning standing still or casts onto some of the melee every expansion. Standing still while fighting because I choose to is one thing, but forcing me to just makes me sad lol.

The irony is that little nukes like midare or communio probably would have fitted rphys better, but they got scared shitless of people's reactions after they went over the top with bow and gun mage in HW... MCH tools (unless reassembled) or BRD's Apex Arrow are prime examples of what could require a cast.

[mallleable]

Walking casts are a brilliant mechanic, and should absolutely be incorporated into the design on certain physical ranged DPS.

[Supersnow845]

I never understood why apex arrow wasn’t a walking cast.