Elementality – Fundamentals to Involve Chain/Sequential Elemental Casting; Complexity

[Enfarious]

You failed to read between the lines when I mentioned benefits of not being fully committed to an element or school of magic. Having too many spells around makes the system feel disjointed. Even with options people still gravitate towards what gets them more bang for their buck, which is why every Black Mage in FFXI merited Thunder Pontency and went 5/5 Burst II. Likewise why every Red Mage that was not me went full 5/5 Ice Accuracy (whereas I went 3/5 Fire and 2/5 Ice, as I like Fire).

That will happen in this too, but it's very avoidable, all they have to do is make the base dmg for each spell equal, keep the added effects, that's an interesting idea and helps keep them all useful. The reason XI ended up all Ice was because of the base dmg scaling, and then abyssea buffs, that was flawed mechanics, and a lesson that should be learned from.

Not really. It encourages a DPS rotation. In the case of PLD it creates part of the priority system for tanking. Still far from what I would call complete, though.
Yes, this is what I was referring to.

I assume you mean 1>2>3; 4 > 5 > 6; 1>2>3; 7 > 8> 9; 1>2>3 when you say rotation. Mind numbing when it's down on paper. Not very engaging as a game mechanic either, unless your a fan of very simple, but if you played XI to the point of having full merits on any job pre abyssea then simple wasn't your cup of tea.

It encourages each person to play their "individual" role, they don't work "together" a tank spams hate control, DDs spam WSs, we don't coordinate attacks for any form of "added effectiveness".
Battle Regimens were what was supposed to cover that, but they didn't work out well. I just hope they come back in a functional form, or that some other type of interconnection of WSs Spells and Abils to encourage actually playing in a coordinated way.
Yeah standing in the right place blah blah blah, so you don't get hit but again that's just individuals doing their thing, not interacting with one another for any actual effect.
The saddest thing I watched happen in XI was the failing of Skillchains and Magic Bursts, outside of static groups that were used to working together. Then the introduction of every job being able to solo skillchain, but it's been said Abyssea was the testing ground for the party/combat system for this.

[Shurrikhan]

I assume you mean 1>2>3; 4 > 5 > 6; 1>2>3; 7 > 8> 9; 1>2>3 when you say rotation. Mind numbing when it's down on paper.

The current combo system for certain is not engaging. He only said it was a step in the right direction. I personally see no difference between the first and second; both can be macro'ed to one or two damage-dealing buttons. There is no doubt however that solo-rotations can be engaging and intricate. It just takes a lot of factors, a lot of programming, in more than just the combat system itself. When I figure out a way to make that happen, I'll post it. I guess I've just been under a bit of a block lately.