About Positionals

[Blindheart]

Lots of heat on this board today about positionals. I can say as someone who has played from the start of 2.0 I have never cared about them. I just mash whatever button comes next in my combos and call it a day.

That said, one of the main reasons I don’t care is because I have no idea I should even be doing them. I know it’s part of the skill description, but having played the game for the last 10 years I have read very few skill descriptions recently. I have no idea what skills are positional dependent of not. There is no obvious indicator on screen that tells me this. As Dps I mainly just stay behind the boss unless fight mechanics say otherwise.

I had to google this but there may be a brief flash or a different sound that plays to indicate you got it correct, or text in the spam of battle log. But in the heat of battle with full audio and spell effects going on I would not notice subtitle changes like this. And this would only apply after I have already done the attack.

If there was some kind of visual indicator that could display before I attack to tell me the skill I am about to use would work better from a different angle it would be amazing. I’m sure this is all part of the ‘Git Gud’ part of the game and will get hate for this. But clear visual indicators of how skills should be used would go a long way to fixing the positional debate in my opinion.

[Battler-Ushiromiya]

I agree remove positionals

[Lusarae]

Positionals suck. Even assuming you remembered them flawlessly it doesn't matter. The tank just moves the boss and suddenly you have a choice of either missing the positional or wasting the GCD. Both are a DPS loss at no fault of your own. Or the boss just switches into a new mechanic that makes it zoom across the map, darting everywhere. Or the boss just has such a gigantic hitbox and they're on the edge of the map floating and you can only hit them from the front.

Just remove them from the game. Or make it so that attacking things from the back just gives you a flat bonus in DPS. Because then at least there wouldn't be this weird mental hangup that makes you go "do I need to be at the flank or the back" which can cost you a GCD while your attention is spent trying to stay alive or not wipe the raid. DPS rotations should be automatic, muscle reflex that you never have to think about so you can actually focus on the fun part of the fight. The fight itself.

[Zaredth]

They seperate players who like to push jobs further in the melee field. While I will agree that you shouldn't be severely punished for not landing them, you should be rewarded well when you go out of your way to do them. They are fine.

[noelregnard]

Don't like positionals don't do them. They only matter in contents you probably don't do anyway. And there are 15 jobs without them.

[Blindheart]

I’m not saying they need to be gotten rid of, as I said I just ignore them. Not that I am against that solution either. I’m just pointing out it can and should be clearer on the HUD or on the Enemy you are fighting if you are in the correct position or not.

Using Xenoblade 1 as an example, it has some skills that are positional dependent and the icons for the ability change to let you know you’re in the correct spot. I know that’s more complicated to program in an MMO compared to a single player game, but if it can track where you are when you do the damage, surely there is a way to display where you are before you unleash the ability.

[Amenara]

I think the game could definitely do a much better job at doing any kind of explanation of positionals, but really once you know and realize how little movement is required to hit positionals it becomes pretty easy I think.

[Laun_dingo]

Positionals suck. Even assuming you remembered them flawlessly it doesn't matter. The tank just moves the boss and suddenly you have a choice of either missing the positional or wasting the GCD. Both are a DPS loss at no fault of your own. Or the boss just switches into a new mechanic that makes it zoom across the map, darting everywhere. Or the boss just has such a gigantic hitbox and they're on the edge of the map floating and you can only hit them from the front.

Just remove them from the game. Or make it so that attacking things from the back just gives you a flat bonus in DPS. Because then at least there wouldn't be this weird mental hangup that makes you go "do I need to be at the flank or the back" which can cost you a GCD while your attention is spent trying to stay alive or not wipe the raid. DPS rotations should be automatic, muscle reflex that you never have to think about so you can actually focus on the fun part of the fight. The fight itself.

True North helps with just about... everything here, also the bosses that are only on the edge attackable from the front have closed circle hit boxes which means you don't need positionals at all. Open circle hit boxes are the the ones meant for positionals not that anyone is forced to do them.

[Elaithe]

Lots of heat on this board today about positionals. I can say as someone who has played from the start of 2.0 I have never cared about them. I just mash whatever button comes next in my combos and call it a day.

That said, one of the main reasons I don’t care is because I have no idea I should even be doing them. I know it’s part of the skill description, but having played the game for the last 10 years I have read very few skill descriptions recently. I have no idea what skills are positional dependent of not. There is no obvious indicator on screen that tells me this. As Dps I mainly just stay behind the boss unless fight mechanics say otherwise.

I had to google this but there may be a brief flash or a different sound that plays to indicate you got it correct, or text in the spam of battle log. But in the heat of battle with full audio and spell effects going on I would not notice subtitle changes like this. And this would only apply after I have already done the attack.

If there was some kind of visual indicator that could display before I attack to tell me the skill I am about to use would work better from a different angle it would be amazing. I’m sure this is all part of the ‘Git Gud’ part of the game and will get hate for this. But clear visual indicators of how skills should be used would go a long way to fixing the positional debate in my opinion.

This may surprise you but I don't have to be a jerk and tell you to git gud to just want positionals in the game because I find them to be personally fun.

Let me simply ask this I guess, how does removing them even help you if you already ignore their existence? Because from your point of view it seems like they don't matter, but to mine they do as I like being rewarded for what skillful gameplay this game allows.

[Rhael]

OP has been playing the game for a decade and still can't do positionals. You can't make this shit up lmao

clear visual indicators of how skills should be used would go a long way to fixing the positional debate in my opinion.

They're called tooltips. Reading the skill explains the skill.