#FFXIVHEALERSTRIKE

[SeriousPan]

Mind you, the focus on Serious Endgame Raiding to the exclusion of everything else was not the only decision that led to WildStar's downfall, but it was sure a contributing factor. And while it wasn't exactly "balancing for this specific group," it is sure an example of "heeding the requests of the 'top players' to the exclusion of all else can be harmful."

(Despite its flaws, I do miss WildStar, though.)

It didn't help that a lot of countries had wildly high ping when playing, like Australia, and were essentially blocked off from feasibly doing any end game content. I loved Wildstar and I miss it all the time but yeah for all the reasons you said it shot itself in the foot. Hell of a cautionary tale for MMOs.

[Packetdancer]

MCH wasn't locked out because it wasn't viable, MCH was locked out because it was far enough behind that the 1% stat boost and their personal damage wasn't enough to bridge the gap between them and a melee, something that is happening again this tier btw.

Okay, fair enough; instead of saying MCH wasn't viable, we'll say that MCH was technically viable, it just wasn't optimal, hence why it got excluded.

What the dev team should do is to stop trying to break player-created metas, it's not worth the problems that it creates. Make unique and fun jobs, then make sure they're all viable, that's all they need to do.

Except you yourself point out in the quote above that even with MCH being viable, the fact that it wasn't as optimal as other things meant it got excluded. (Granted it was a dramatic lack of optimization, but still.)

I would argue (and have argued) that viability alone is not enough for how this community optimizes fights, and that need to have things not just viable but more or less functionally equivalent in overall damage contribution (within a certain margin of error, anyway) introduces a significant limiting factor on how distinct and different from each other you can make jobs within a role.

A potential compromise, though, is just to have more content where specific utility advantages are decently frequent but in roughly equal portion and are especially valuable (relative to raw output) and the exact encounters are largely randomized. In those cases, without knowing who will come out on top, again a larger variance tends to be acceptable so long as, chances accounted for, each enters with roughly equal risk.

I agree with this; I think the fact that FFXIV's encounters are so rigidly scripted is potentially a significant part of what constrains the dev team design-wise. The fact that we can make a rigid timeline for a fight means we can literally mathematically break down what is optimal to take into a fight. If there was a bit more variance and random chance, that would be a (slightly) more nebulous situation to solve for.

[Aravell]

I would argue (and have argued) that viability alone is not enough for how this community optimizes fights, and that need to have things not just viable but more or less functionally equivalent in overall damage contribution (within a certain margin of error, anyway) introduces a significant limiting factor on how distinct and different from each other you can make jobs within a role.

And I'm pointing out that it's a big mistake to care about player-created metas. If every job is viable, people that lock out certain jobs in regular PF would be seen as the memes that they are, as long as the jobs are reasonably balanced.

So someone will lock out jobs that aren't optimal, so what? WHM was never optimal except for 1 patch and nobody really locks out WHM. You can't achieve a balance that can completely break a player-created meta unless every job does the exact same things with different skins, and I don't have to point out why that's a bad idea.

[Irazell]

wow this is still going?

[Supersnow845]

wow this is still going?

It’s almost like they didn’t fix healer issues so there is no reason to stop

[Wolf_Necros]

I understand why people are striking over this but like Can I not get a healer that refuses to heal? I'm honestly heated over healers that can't keep the party alive and allow the entire party and their mom to die.

[Rein_eon_Osborne]

I understand why people are striking over this but like Can I not get a healer that refuses to heal? I'm honestly heated over healers that can't keep the party alive and allow the entire party and their mom to die.

Maybe give them advice if they're receptive. Or vote dismiss that healer and wait for another if they're actively walling the party from clearing.

Such healers are byproduct of both developer and community pardoning the "below-mediocrity" of healer quality in DFs from various factors for years.

[Wolf_Necros]

Maybe give them advice if they're receptive. Or vote dismiss that healer and wait for another if they're actively walling the party from clearing.

Such healers are byproduct of both developer and community pardoning the "below-mediocrity" of healer quality in DFs from various factors for years.

I play solo and my biggest pet peeve is that multiple people have to agree and if it's already a premade + me I'm automatically in the wrong.

[CaptainLagbeard]

I understand why people are striking over this but like Can I not get a healer that refuses to heal? I'm honestly heated over healers that can't keep the party alive and allow the entire party and their mom to die.

It's kind of the end result of Square driving people who want to heal out of the role that those healers become more common.

[Somnolence]

I understand why people are striking over this but like Can I not get a healer that refuses to heal? I'm honestly heated over healers that can't keep the party alive and allow the entire party and their mom to die.

Healer gameplay loop is such that they are probably just brain afk.