Unsubs vs Resubs over BLM changes

[HikariKurosawa]

A few things I personally find disagreeable with your thoughts on this topic.

Firstly you are assuming the content we are about to get is going to be significantly more difficult, that is wrong, because they have established a relative difficulty for savage and that is barely going to change going into the second tier, just like previous expacs. They mentioned an increase of boss movement or mechanics that make you move, which is nothing new. Almost every second turn going back in the history of this game did the exact same thing and it wasn't a problem. Just look at abyssos our most recent example. Not reason to change in my opinion.

Secondly, the idea that BLM's core identity was the complexity, it is not. It was the engagement felt from a play style that requires timing, planning, practice and knowledge. It changes nothing for people who can't do those things as not being able to plan your instants is still going to be a detriment and if you couldn't do it before you still won't be able to do it. If you can't hit your GCD while doing extended movement you're still going to do bad damage, the only thing lost is the risk factor and by extension the reward. As soon as the people who think they can play new BLM find out their performance is still bad, they will drop it again. And then who would the change be for? I guess we will wait and see for the clear rates in the next savage.

That wasn't the point I was making about encounter difficulty, nor is it relevant in this context. I said that they are shifting the focus of difficulty to the level of encounter you engage with, from the job you play. For all we know(and this is true since third party addon usage is so prolific), the game is too hard by the developer's metrics. They feel betrayed by the playerbase who complains about lacking difficulty yet largely(not wholely) relies on third party tools to engage with the difficulty. They likely want to rework the way encounter difficulty is expressed so that they can get the metric of third party tool usage down. This will likely mean more straightforward encounter design of lower difficulty, not higher difficulty. While also shifting difficulty away from job difficulty at the same time. Never once did I say the game would be getting harder or should be getting harder in any way. If anything TOP and DSR prove that it should be made easier overall. Maybe stop cheating(not you personally, I don't know or care whether you cheat or not) if this stuff is important to you.

"Its core identity wasn't about complexity" then you proceed to explain the complexity of the playstyle lol. Do you even read your own words before posting them? What is lost is the complexity of maintaining the full rotation during encounters. There is fluent optimal job expression, and then there is successful job expression. Two very different things, with two very different levels of performance.

Thirdly you say why should someone who wants to play the fantasy of BLM be forced to not play it? I'd argue they should have delved into it before if they liked the fantasy and at least played the basic rotation which in itself is simple. No one forced people away from BLM aside from themselves. The fact that they didn't leads to believe they weren't interested enough in the first place. People with a passion would have overcome this trial. You've only invited people who have had this class in mind on the back burner or had no interest in it in the first place and there's no guarantee it will stick with them. I find it extremely odd you say of all the things that are making you sub to the game it's the simplification of one job. And this entire line of argument is don't gatekeep the fantasy people want to play when no one is doing so, but let's sacrifice what people already like about the class so they feel forced to play something else instead, isn't that a bit contradictory?

And lastly there are plenty of examples of requests from players requesting more engaging jobs alongside encounter designs. It shouldn't be a sacrifice of either one to get the other. SMNs have been asking for it, all of the healers have been screaming for it, it's been multiple expansions for some jobs, its only been loud from BLM most recently. If our current job is starting to feel stale switching to a different one should give a fresh and exciting feel, but if they all play similarly because of homogenization due to simplification then you are going feel the stale about the new job quickly.

The topic of third party is entirely irrelevant, you just made a whole broad statement implying everyone is using third party to simplify encounters while asking for complexity, in itself is not true. And third party should not be taken into consideration when discussing design choices.

Cool!

[Aysin]

That wasn't the point I was making about encounter difficulty, nor is it relevant in this context. I said that they are shifting the focus of difficulty to the level of encounter you engage with, from the job you play. For all we know(and this is true since third party addon usage is so prolific), the game is too hard by the developer's metrics. They feel betrayed by the playerbase who complains about lacking difficulty yet largely(not wholely) relies on third party tools to engage with the difficulty. They likely want to rework the way encounter difficulty is expressed so that they can get the metric of third party tool usage down. This will likely mean more straightforward encounter design of lower difficulty, not higher difficulty. While also shifting difficulty away from job difficulty at the same time. Never once did I say the game would be getting harder or should be getting harder in any way. If anything TOP and DSR prove that it should be made easier overall. Maybe stop cheating(not you personally, I don't know or care whether you cheat or not) if this stuff is important to you.

I'd argue it is relevant in this context specifically because they have always admitted and as a standard made the first tier of every expansion easier on purpose. Thus by extension a return to their normal tuning would mean this next tier in theory will be more difficult compared to the last, you missed my point entirely. The only new change they're saying to was increasing the movement of bosses, which by extension sometimes means movement of players, and my argument was they were already doing that previously. Caster movement and melee downtime were some of the reasons used to make this patch's job balance and changes.

"Its core identity wasn't about complexity" then you proceed to explain the complexity of the playstyle lol. Do you even read your own words before posting them? What is lost is the complexity of maintaining the full rotation during encounters. There is fluent optimal job expression, and then there is successful job expression. Two very different things, with two very different levels of performance.

It's core identity was the play style, and complexity was an addition to it's appeal. Yes I read my words, unlike you I didn't confuse my reasons to play a job or narrow it down to a single reason. Slow lethal casts that do larger than an average globals worth of damage while narrowing between mechanics and finding time to sit still as much as possible while still maintaining a timing in rotation that would allow me to extend my timers was the identity. Having the choice of using tools for mechanics, or for damage, and shifting my standard fire phase to fit in my burst of Xeno while buffs are up are all bits that add complexity to the identity which made for more engagement.

[TheInsomniac13]

Hallo HikariKurosawa

Firstly I have seen a view post of you at this point and your continued condescending tone against anyone who do´s not share your view point not only weakens the perception of you but also the side you choose to argue for.
Black Mages are pissed and that rightfully so, a Job they enjoyed and identify with for years now was fundamentally altered without a alternativ option that delivers them the complexity of Job play they enjoyed.
At the end of the day it´s the call of the Developers what they wanna do with there own game, but that do´s not take away there right to be upset and voice there complains.
As I see it in order to potentionally boost the the Number of People who will play Black Mage they ousted there dedicated Mains. And I think that we even have the concept of I Main this I Main that in FF14 shows how important it is for people to Identify themself with a Job.
And currently it looks like that they work towards short term gain while sacrificing long term player retention.

I belief that the Devs make a huge mistake by focusing on encounter design over Job Identity and see it as one of the reasons the game is bleeding players since it peak times. As of now there are still many players in the game and only time can tell if the dip in players is just a fluke of the moment or if the downwards curve will continue.

For anyone who do´s not feel at home anymore in FF14 be it because the story do´s not appeal to you anymore or the gameplay is just not your cup pf water, I encourage you to leave. Look for another game that brings you happiness because staying and complaining in the forums will accomplish nothing... the Devs do not see or hear you and you can only make them notice things are wrong if you speak with your wallet.