Quote Originally Posted by YarnMage48 View Post
I think the hardest issue they face is that even if they make changes to please one group of players, in doing so they are going to massively upset other players. So then they get stuck playing whack-a-mole trying to placate different groups of players. Try to please all, please none. But of course every single one of us is 100% correct on what is wrong and what needs to be done to fix it... I don't envy SE, trying to navigate this.
It's a hard line to balance, but I think it's possible by following a few specific prinicples:

1: Additional complexity should mostly be 'optional'. That is, when the job is updated, if someone wants to play the same way they did previously, their performance should be 'viable enough that they can still clear content'. This can be done by, for example, adding new damage actions that are stronger than the filler spell, but are only a small DPS gain, with the DPS checks of things like Savage being tuned such that 'ignoring the new buttons' does not cause enrages. Example: I'd give WHM a new button with a 15s CD - Water, later evolving into Banish. It would be 40p stronger than the Stone/Glare you have learned, so, ignoring it entirely would lose you just 160p per minute. Half a Glare. There's room in Savage DPS checks (and I'm looking at previous Savages since this one was an anomaly) to drop like... 30 Glares worth of damage, and still clear week 1. So, losing 1600p, or '5 and a bit Glares' (over the course of a 10min fight), is inconsequential to the check.

2: Additional actions should feed into the identity/lore of the job, not contradict it. Lore should bend to gameplay, if the gameplay requires it (and the gameplay is good), but the lore can also be used to guide the design for the gameplay. Something like Seraphism is strong. Very strong. But, it's also a very divisive action, due to the 'forced transformation' effect that gives us a white robe and angel wings (which blurs the line between SCH and WHM aesthetically), and it completely flies in the face of everything that made SCH, SCH previously (to the point where JP asked Y-P about it in an interview). AST Cards are an especially sore point IMO in their current form, as we have The Spear (a melee weapon) giving bonus damage to Ranged players, while The Arrow (a ranged projectile) is 'Healing received increased'. Very clearly, the gameplay was thought of first, and the lore was not considered at all.

3: Additional actions, when shown in the Job Action Trailer, should have 'cool' and 'eyecatching' VFX. Nothing sells the changes to players quite like the VFX of the action. People went nuts when SGE was shown because of 'how many attacks it had compared to SCH'. It showed Dosis (we use in ST), E.Dosis (we use in ST once per 30s), Phlegma (we use in ST once per 40s on average), Dyskrasia (we don't use in ST), Toxikon 2 (we use for mobility and only have 3 charges) and Pneuma (once per 2min and we use it for the healing). But because it showed 6 attacks, it gave the impression that it was some hyper-offense focused 'constant barrage of attacks' healer. But, look at previous Job Action Trailers, the most memorable things that people discuss after is usually the attacks. Misery, all of SGE's attacks, the new 92 attacks like Oracle and Psyche.

So now imagine a trailer that goes like this (based on the reworks I came up with):

WHM uses a few attacking and healing actions (ones we're used to seeing) to build a new gauge. They apply a barrier using Stoneskin, a returning action that now costs a Lily (thereby preparing Misery in the process).
At 50 gauge, they use a big healing move that modifies the gauge to have 3 'charges'. The clip ends with them firing off Misery, Quake, Tornado and Flood.

While multiple targets are being attacked (eg there's a tank on either side with a mob attacking them), SCH uses a bunch of tactical stuff, combining healing actions as we've come to expect (eg Recitation > Excogitation, Adloquium > Deployment) to manage both tanks' HP bars. While the SCH is putting up their DOTs (3 of them in total, Biolysis, Miasmalysis, Shadowflare) on one of the mobs, more enemies join the fray on that side. The SCH hits Chain Stratagem, and Baneful Impaction, not only applying the AOE DOT to the group, but spreading the original DOTs (And Chain) to the whole pack of enemies. They then use a new action, Synchronization Tactics (replacing Dissipation), to empower the Faerie, putting Fey Union on the tank handling one enemy, while the SCH and Faerie work together via Sync to focus heal the one with more enemies attacking.

AST throws up Divination and Oracle, but then follows up with playing a total of three different arcana (2 Major, one Minor) on the party. Additionally, in the midst of playing the cards, they burn up one Minor Arcana to the Royal Road, and empower the second Major Arcana they play. As the clip continues, the gauge shows that the cards are not just 'once per minute', but available far more often (eg Minor Arcana being every 15s), and are far more easy to manipulate via Redraw and Royal Road, making setting up for burst windows far more accessible. It also reveals that, rather than using just two cards from the Minor Arcana (there's 54 in total), we can use all 6 suits (Cups, Irons, Crowns, Rings, Staves and Knives), and that the gauge indicates that each Arcana has a 'favoured role' (EG The Bole is best used on a Tank, and the game indicates as such on the gauge)

SGE fires off two new attacks, one a line AOE and one a Cone AOE. They relentlessly attack the target, weaving in actions that augment Kardia (adding the stacks to the Job Gauge), and generate a purple gauge as the stacks are consumed via attacking. This purple gauge is later revealed to grant a pseudo-Enshroud, or Hypercharge from MCH, allowing the SGE to attack even faster (and thereby heal faster via Kardia). As the clip plays out, they use a 'Eukrasian Phlegma', Psyche, a regular Phlegma, augment themselves with the Purple Gauge, then rapid fire the Line, Cone, Line, Cone, and finally finish off with Pneuma, now reworked to be a strong finishing attack.


Having a Healer WOL for the poster job for an expansion would also be nice to see