Gauge Management is Fun, Actually

[NegativeS]

Honestly, I have an entirely different problem with the changes from "gauge increasers" to "ability unlockers": It feels like they're setting up the framework to either remove the gauge, or never add any other complexity to it, ever again.

Take RDM for example. In the past, the base function of Manafication was to add 50 Mana to both the Black and White gauges. Now, it gives three uses of your swordplay that do not consume your Mana. These two effects are functionally exactly the same (especially after the (welcome) changes to Moulinet that lines up its Mana consumption with your single target combo) as your swordplay is the only thing you can spend your Mana on. But there's no reason to take away this unique flavor of the Mana bars, or just give us the option to restore Mana when we're out of combat for whatever reason.

Across pretty much every job they've made a worrying shift toward making everything managed by buffs rather than by combos or your job gauge. So many DT capstones give "X Ready" buffs. It's frustrating, and makes me feel like they're paving the way for dumbing down resource management even more.

(BLM seems to be somewhat exempt from this, but probably only because their gauge is already a complicated mess. Did we really need a seperate UI element for Flare Star?)

[Myon88]

Take RDM for example. In the past, the base function of Manafication was to add 50 Mana to both the Black and White gauges.

I think it's worth noting that wasn't even the original function of manafication either. In even earlier points in the job's lifespan, it worked by doubling your mana levels across the board.

The reason it was changed was twofold, first people complained it made the opener unusually slow to ramp up (since you first needed to build up enough mana to be worth doubling), and secondly because it was a big failure point for less experienced players. You could brick your mana bar quite badly if you used it with uneven mana levels (20/40 becomes 40/80 taking a long time to fix).

So you have a skill that was originally designed in a flavourful way to match a specific job identity, then it got homogenized into a generic gain 50 gauge skill that half the jobs in the game have a carbon copy of. And eventually even that level of abstraction wasn't enough and they went about sanding off even more rough edges. Which basically sums up their approach to job design from Stormblood onward.