On the Removal of Positionals

[HikariKurosawa]

They should definitely have melee jobs that do not have flank positionals. Rear alone should be enough for the job based on assassination and stealth(nin), yet it gets flank for some reason.

I don't think I'm in the majority across FFXIV. But I firmly believe we melee players enjoy positionals, and that most people who make takes like yours don't main melee, especially not at a high level -- which, no offense, is obviously the case for you as well.

This forum has a big problem with projecting personal beliefs onto an entire demographic.

[W00by]

They should definitely have melee jobs that do not have flank positionals. Rear alone should be enough for the job based on assassination and stealth(nin), yet it gets flank for some reason.



This forum has a big problem with projecting personal beliefs onto an entire demographic.

I don't deny that there is a demographic that exists that dislikes positionals. There are people who dislike just about every element of the game -- nothing in this game is a monolith.

But I ask you: who should melee DPS be designed for?

The people who are playing melee DPS, who have for years, and who dedicate great effort to improving at the class?

Or people who don't play melee DPS, and have no intention to?

To me, classes and characters should be designed for their most dedicated players first. Don't get me wrong, I'm strongly against massive barriers of entry that make it impossible for casual players to even play a job. I think gatekeeping like that is elitist. But, as I and many people here have explained, positionals are not a massive barrier to entry -- they are 40 or 60 potency here or there every now and then. No one who wants to play a melee is completely incapable of doing so because of positionals. (I also believe the barrier of entry to melee would get BIGGER if positionals were removed: see my prior post about that a couple pages back.)

The fact of the matter is, do I go to another country and vote in their elections? Do I visit other people's family gatherings and tell them how they should settle familial disputes? No. So I think melee players' voices should be weighed more heavily here. It's not that the voices of other demographics don't matter -- just that their voices lack a key insight that being an actual melee player provides. After all, if I don't understand something, how can I explain to someone else how it works? I can't cook, and I wouldn't tell a 5-star chef to take garlic out of his pasta recipe because I don't like garlic. He knows what he's doing way better than I do and it's probably in there for a reason.

My effort is not to gatekeep melee, but rather to explain to non-melee players why positionals remaining is better for everyone than them going away. Most of all for melee players, who I believe should matter most in a discussion about melee DPS... if that even needs to be said.

Edit: Also, just thought I would add again that there already is a melee DPS job that barely has positionals. That job is RPR, and I made a post a while back in this thread about how you can practically ignore the existence of positionals on that job and still hit pretty much all of them. Check my post history for more details! There are already plenty of places to go if you want a melee with no positionals (like Tank, as Naomishtola insightfully said).

[HikariKurosawa]

So much yapping I actually cant be bothered to read that post.

I pretty much only play melee and would celebrate the removal of positionals. TLDR.

Then there are all the people that would be playing melee if not for positionals. You are not the voice you think you are.