Devolved jobs will kill this game.

[Gwenkatsu]

Stagnation will kill this game... or nearly has already. Anything different is good, any change is welcome. Details can be judged when available.

[DeltaCyan]

There's a reason they're keeping reborn mode around, and they're no doubt tracking statistics of how many players and jobs are using reborn vs evolved.

So quite simply: If you don't like it? Don't play it.

Let the majority of players who actually play the game decide what they want and the devs will surely take note of it

[Ilisidi]

That would only work if there was an equal choice. I do not think that Tamaki is incompetent and therefore Yoshida's remark that Evolved is stronger won't hold true. Which makes it unlikely that the playerbase will allow you the choice which mode to play in content above normal difficulty.

[StarryVera]

There's a reason they're keeping reborn mode around, and they're no doubt tracking statistics of how many players and jobs are using reborn vs evolved.

So quite simply: If you don't like it? Don't play it.

Let the majority of players who actually play the game decide what they want and the devs will surely take note of it

This is quite literally not an option if the statement of Evolved jobs being stronger is true. I'd love to sit here and act like BRD isn't being gutted because reborn mode still exists, but if I want to play anything higher than a normal raid I am going to have to play evolved mode. They can barely balance 21 jobs in the game, there is no way in hell they will be able to balance 44. Especially for week 1, we will see the extremes of MCH being almost impossible to clear the tier with until more gear is gotten tenfold because of how many jobs will be just simply unable to be played effectively without the 2 minute buffs aligning their damage to a respectable amount.

[Xieldras]

This is quite literally not an option if the statement of Evolved jobs being stronger is true. I'd love to sit here and act like BRD isn't being gutted because reborn mode still exists, but if I want to play anything higher than a normal raid I am going to have to play evolved mode. They can barely balance 21 jobs in the game, there is no way in hell they will be able to balance 44. Especially for week 1, we will see the extremes of MCH being almost impossible to clear the tier with until more gear is gotten tenfold because of how many jobs will be just simply unable to be played effectively without the 2 minute buffs aligning their damage to a respectable amount.

They're also obviously removing Reborn mode entirely in 9.0, so Evolved will be the defacto going forward. So this isn't a case of "Don't like it don't play it", it's a case of "Too bad if you hate it, this is the new normal now".

[StarryVera]

They aren't giving us parries and dodge-rolls for kicks and giggles, it WILL be a mandatory element to survive while still being expected to fire off attacks, and I feel that's going to be the biggest hurdle for reborn jobs at the higher-end that they simply won't have the same mobility and utility as evolved (and with raid buffs going away, they won't even have that as an offering to stand out).

Except it can't be mandatory, because the way the game functions at a fundamental level cannot effectively support ARPG mechanics. Dodges and dashes are cool, when the game can function properly with them. This game even now still has some absolutely insane snapshotting in the CURRENT tier of content. The vast majority of players do not even play on a ping low enough to DOUBLE WEAVE, a REQUIRED thing to play optimally. And I have yet to hear anything about an east coast data center, south american data center, or anything of the sort, or hell, even a modernization of netcode.

[Dazedu]

People are leaving the game because it is becoming more and more gameplay casual. Yoshida: now we will reduce everything to 5 buttons, as in PVP. It's a good move.

[Valence]

I want evolved to be good. It's good in theory already.

But I do agree that I'm not exactly impressed with the auto combos everywhere. On Bard of all things...?

[StarryVera]

And yet even with all of that known to us they still saw no problem with ramping up the speed of things in Dawntrail to the point it was actively driving some people out because they couldn't keep up.

I wouldn't put it past them to still be tone-deaf/inconsiderate enough to think that everyone can in fact keep pace with how they design even faster fights, and when some people inevitably don't, it gets chalked up to "skill issue" instead of technical problems. (Lord knows a sizable portion of the community seemed to think anyone struggling in Dawntrail was "just mad because bad".)

Then SE need to realize they are actively killing their game in any country not named Japan. And last I checked, the game is still split 50/50 Japanese/non-Japanese. If they want to lose that part of the playerbase that physically cannot play the game because the server infrastructure is so bad then so be it.

[ForsakenRoe]

There are ways to make a 16 hotbar slot kit feel fun and engaging, but what they showed for some of the Jobs was concerning, to say the least. For example, WHM had less healing tools, and also less damage tools. Dia's gone, and so our gameplay between healing instances is going to be entirely comprised of using Holy Sanctuary to refund lost damage (if it's available), and spamming Glare, which is already one of the biggest pain points of the current design for Healers. The copium would be that, since we lose healing tools, it's harder to keep up with healing requirements without using GCD heals, and those GCD heals are what's intended to break up Glare spam, instead of more damage actions. But in the same breath, they're saying that actions will be increased in potency, or available more often, to counteract the removal of certain actions from the kit (eg PLD defensives will be stronger, because Bulwark is being removed, etc). So, I fear we may end up in a situation where we're expected to use Damage actions just as frequently as now, while also having even less (somehow) variety in WHAT Damage actions we can utilize

Like, I was spitballing with some friends about what SCH could look like with just 16 buttons, and came up with this:

Deployment Tactics (Cleric Stance-esque toggle, 0.5s CD, swaps actions between ST and AOE versions)
Broil/Art of War
Biolysis/Bane (Potency would be identical between the two. Biolysis would be 18s duration, Bane would be 'Bio, but AOE and 50% lower duration', so 9s)
Physick > Adloquium/Succor (Succor would have a bonus effect where, if a Barrier already exists on the target, the weaker Barrier (new vs old cast) is converted into HP recovery, baking Emergency Tactics' effect into Succor)
Aetherflow (CD lowered, generates 1 stack per use, can still hold up to 3 stacks)
Lustrate/Indomitability (CD removed, as frequency of use is already gated by AF)
Excogitation (CD removed, as frequency of use is already is gated by AF)
Sacred Soil (% increased, regen trait removed)
Protraction/Perpetuation (Perpetuation is 'Protraction, but AOE and 50% strength')
Recitation (It's Recitation. Maybe remove the CD, and add a cost of 1 Aetherflow to make its use feel more 'tactical')
Defensive Maneuvers > Expedient (Defensive Maneuvers is 'Expedient's %mit, without the Sprint part'. Mit % probably increased)
Whispering Dawn (CD reduced, duration reduced, potency increased slightly)
Fey Union/Fey Blessing (Blessing now costs gauge and has no CD, pulses AOE Healing like an AOE Union of sorts, even while the Faerie follows you as you move, giving a maybe-interesting 'heal while moving' tool)
Tabula Rasa (Reworked Seraphism, but with better VFX. Seraphism would still exist as a 'character action skin')
Synchronization Tactics (Faerie duplicates your Healing spells at 25% effectiveness for the duration. Basically 'Dissipation but more thematic')

With a kit like this for SCH, I'd think most would be pretty satisfied with the rework. Most of the SCH gameplay is in there, and there's only 15 buttons there, so there's space for one more action, be it another DOT, the return of Rouse, whatever. Not saying that this is what SE will do, but more an example of 'this is what they could do, as a way to have 'SCH gameplay' while also removing some of the button bloat'. The fear seems mostly to be 'what if every Healer is like what they showed for WHM', and they've not really shown anything to assuage those fears

The question is whether SE wants to have only WHM be the 'easy to use, fully focused on Healing spells, etc' design that they showed, or if they're intending that for ALL Healers, and SCH gameplay is going to be reduced down to 'spam Adlos and Succors' because that sounds terrible, and with how Healers have gone for the past several years, I cannot say I have confidence that SE won't do exactly that