7.0 DRG Update: Why replace Spineshatter with a dash? Draggons are supposed to jump.

[Arohk]

I mean we used to have more jumps that actually felt like jumps, but players (and raiders in particular) spent not a minute not whining about how the animation locks were "unfair" and "excluded them", so hey, they're all gone now.

animation locks where you can't move at all are trash, i hated that so much on Ninja in Shadowbringers, i even died a few times because of that.
But with Dragoon, it was a bit different, since it actually moved your character to the boss and back.

[Absurdity]

But with Dragoon, it was a bit different, since it actually moved your character to the boss and back.

Which was also the entire pain point of old jumps, due to engine jank.


Because you didn't actually jump to the boss, just like none of the "teleport" gap closers actually teleport you from point A to point B, they just play an animation that looks like it while moving your character over the ground really quickly.
This means all the restrictions of normal movement still apply, if jump had actually allowed you to "jump" over ground AoEs or gaps in the arena it would've had some great niche benefits, but it just didn't.

Now I don't mind restrictions on abilities like being unable to move during Ten-Chi-Jin, it makes you think about when it is safe to use them and adjust on a fight to fight basis.
But this requires said abilities to be flexible enough within your rotation to be shifted around and unfortunately neither of them were for at least two expansions, another negative of how rigid and formulaic our job gameplay is nowadays.

[Carighan]

But this requires said abilities to be flexible enough within your rotation to be shifted around and unfortunately neither of them were for at least two expansions, another negative of how rigid and formulaic our job gameplay is nowadays.

It's funny, but also makes sense: FFXIV is by now well old enough for all real problems the combat system is struggling with - including this one - to ultimately fall back to the flawed underpinning design where every single job is a "static rotation"-type. Even the supposedly proc-based ones (Bard, Dancer, Red Mage) have combat flows that while procs exist change extremely little in their layout from them, meaning that on the design level it's still all "static rotation".

And of course like you say, restrictive abilities can be beautifully integrated but not if their position in your rotation is static. They belong into jobs that are based on either a random element like a proc-based job or - more common in MMORPGs - into variable-flow combat jobs.

[Valence]

It's funny, but also makes sense: FFXIV is by now well old enough for all real problems the combat system is struggling with - including this one - to ultimately fall back to the flawed underpinning design where every single job is a "static rotation"-type. Even the supposedly proc-based ones (Bard, Dancer, Red Mage) have combat flows that while procs exist change extremely little in their layout from them, meaning that on the design level it's still all "static rotation".

At the risk of repeating myself, proc based jobs used to be 1) more numerous in job ratio and 2) used to have actually a lot more rng involved.

- AST just lost all remaining rng this expansion, but even then the HW/SB version was a lot more rng based with actual control than the washed out everybody gets the same card we had in ShB/EW (with little to no control/agency over it to boot).
- BRD lost all dot proc rng in favor of a streamlined tick based repertoire system, and got "cheats" baked behind Barrage to ensure RA procs.
- DNC didn't lose rng per se but lost rng in terms of ratio to abilities, since everything new they get not only is static (DotD, Starfall, Last Step, etc) but also moved a lot of rng out of the burst window which has become a lot more static as a result with little to no triage left. Compare this to ShB burst that not only had to account for proc overwriting, but also melee range considerations...
- MCH lost all rng, where it was in reality one of the most rng DPS jobs of all in its GCD structure (with ammo agency).
- RDM is the only job that kept some manner of rng (a budget old mch ammo at home), but like DNC gets more and more fixed nukes introduced into it.
- BLM lost rng over time, which was extremely rng based in ARR, then a lot less in HW due to F4 replacing F1 spamm, and less and less in the expansions after by getting more and more control tools like sharpcast and paradox to generate those procs and guarantee them. Agency over rng is good and warranted, but not when it removes the little rng a job has left.
- MNK I guess stayed the same for the barebones ogcd rng, which I appreciate.

In short if you're a healer and loved rng, you're screwed. If you're a dps and love rng, all your options have been trimmed and you'll probably be told to just "go play BRD or DNC" even though it's shallow as it is.

[Absurdity]

At the risk of repeating myself, proc based jobs used to be 1) more numerous in job ratio and 2) used to have actually a lot more rng involved.

- AST just lost all remaining rng this expansion, but even then the HW/SB version was a lot more rng based with actual control than the washed out everybody gets the same card we had in ShB/EW (with little to no control/agency over it to boot).
- BRD lost all dot proc rng in favor of a streamlined tick based repertoire system, and got "cheats" baked behind Barrage to ensure RA procs.
- DNC didn't lose rng per se but lost rng in terms of ratio to abilities, since everything new they get not only is static (DotD, Starfall, Last Step, etc) but also moved a lot of rng out of the burst window which has become a lot more static as a result with little to no triage left. Compare this to ShB burst that not only had to account for proc overwriting, but also melee range considerations...
- MCH lost all rng, where it was in reality one of the most rng DPS jobs of all in its GCD structure (with ammo agency).
- RDM is the only job that kept some manner of rng (a budget old mch ammo at home), but like DNC gets more and more fixed nukes introduced into it.
- BLM lost rng over time, which was extremely rng based in ARR, then a lot less in HW due to F4 replacing F1 spamm, and less and less in the expansions after by getting more and more control tools like sharpcast and paradox to generate those procs and guarantee them. Agency over rng is good and warranted, but not when it removes the little rng a job has left.
- MNK I guess stayed the same for the barebones ogcd rng, which I appreciate.

In short if you're a healer and loved rng, you're screwed. If you're a dps and love rng, all your options have been trimmed and you'll probably be told to just "go play BRD or DNC" even though it's shallow as it is.

This comes back to the devs' eternal crusade against friction when it comes to job gameplay, RNG is simply a part of it since you might get lucky with your procs or you might not and having to adjust on the fly makes it very much not smooth.

[CidHeiral]

This comes back to the devs' eternal crusade against friction when it comes to job gameplay, RNG is simply a part of it since you might get lucky with your procs or you might not and having to adjust on the fly makes it very much not smooth.

While the devs do make the final decision you have to keep in mind that this community complains constantly about any amount of RNG until it gets removed or severely limited. The devs aren't waking up and thinking "boy I hate RNG."

[Carighan]

While the devs do make the final decision you have to keep in mind that this community complains constantly about any amount of RNG until it gets removed or severely limited. The devs aren't waking up and thinking "boy I hate RNG."

Not only RNG. The community frequently complains about anything that might even superficially impede on MUH PAAAAARSE QQ.

Melee DPS actually having to worry about melee uptime? Naaaah, just keep pressing your rotation mindlessly.
Caster DPS actually getting interrupted by having to cast something? Oh come on, why not just make everything instant so I can keep pressing my rotation mindlessly?
More oGCDs to weave than can fit into the window covered by raid buffs? That's just unfair, combine them!
Having to weight the tradeoff between marginally more damage and loss of uptime? Can't you just remove damage from gapclosers SQEX, thinking is so haaaaaaaard. ;_;

At this point I feel that even if SQEX ever were to try improve the combat system and say, evenly spread the existing damage jobs over the four underlying archetypes of damage gameplay (static rotation, proc based, resource based, adaptable/variable), people would just implode from confusion. WDYM, this job cannot be played optimally no matter how hard I try? :')

[Absurdity]

While the devs do make the final decision you have to keep in mind that this community complains constantly about any amount of RNG until it gets removed or severely limited. The devs aren't waking up and thinking "boy I hate RNG."

Sure, these changes are because someone, at some point, complained about it.
But we have no idea if this was actually a majority opinion or 3 random people in a reddit thread, especially lately it seems to be the latter.

It still ultimately falls to the devs to determine whether a complaint is actually valid and worth or a few people being salty that they can't get their 99s.

And even when a complaint is actually valid, they tend to shoot so far past the goal almost every time that it becomes frustrating.
Instead of fixing the tiny issue within a role or a job's kit they just throw the entire thing into the trash.

[Arohk]

Now I don't mind restrictions on abilities like being unable to move during Ten-Chi-Jin, it makes you think about when it is safe to use them and adjust on a fight to fight basis.

Unfortunately, that is not how the game evolved, there is a clear and best way to do you Opener on Ninja and if you deviate from it, it can screw you over for the entire rest of the fight.
A good example was Ten-Ji-Jin, there were a few bosses Like Black cat that did hwer Spread mechanic right at the beginngn at the exact moment a Ninja would use Ten-Chi-Jin in their opener and you then you couldnt move.
I heard it a lot of times in discord how Ninajs or Summoners complained about this problem. "I have to use X, but i must move GHAAAAA!"

[Azurarok]

Unfortunately, that is not how the game evolved, there is a clear and best way to do you Opener on Ninja and if you deviate from it, it can screw you over for the entire rest of the fight.
A good example was Ten-Ji-Jin, there were a few bosses Like Black cat that did hwer Spread mechanic right at the beginngn at the exact moment a Ninja would use Ten-Chi-Jin in their opener and you then you couldnt move.
I heard it a lot of times in discord how Ninajs or Summoners complained about this problem. "I have to use X, but i must move GHAAAAA!"

That's why you pre-position and not just mindlessly do the burst with NIN, and actually think about what order you pull out Ifrit and Garuda with SMN.