Artifact/Epic items

[Magis]

They did have special attributes in 1.23 but Yoshi took em away stating ARR's battle system has no need for 'complex' stats.

Ugh =\ that sucks. Speaking of complex combat, I wish XIV had an elemental wheel. Did 1.0 have one too (I'd assume so)? It's always weird how you kill a fire elemental with Fire.

[synaesthetic]

Ugh =\ that sucks. Speaking of complex combat, I wish XIV had an elemental wheel. Did 1.0 have one too (I'd assume so)? It's always weird how you kill a fire elemental with Fire.

Yoshida did this for a reason and I support his reasoning. What elemental resistances/weaknesses mean is that certain jobs will get trivialized in certain encounters. Nobody would take a BLM to fight Ifrit because they'd be forced to spam Blizzard spells, doing drastically reduced damage. I went through that crap in vanilla WoW, where mages were required to specialize for Frost spells, greatly reducing their damage potential.

[Tupsi]

Yoshida did this for a reason and I support his reasoning. What elemental resistances/weaknesses mean is that certain jobs will get trivialized in certain encounters.

So what you're saying is, no one prefers one class/class form (i.e melee/ranged) over another in ARR...? Because what he stated was basically trying to prevent something that would happen no matter what.

(Protip: It still happened.)

[MACEenyo]

Yoshida did this for a reason and I support his reasoning. What elemental resistances/weaknesses mean is that certain jobs will get trivialized in certain encounters. Nobody would take a BLM to fight Ifrit because they'd be forced to spam Blizzard spells, doing drastically reduced damage. I went through that crap in vanilla WoW, where mages were required to specialize for Frost spells, greatly reducing their damage potential.

Or he could just make Blizzard strength comparable to Fire. The design of the BLM class is horrible.

[Magis]

Yoshida did this for a reason and I support his reasoning. What elemental resistances/weaknesses mean is that certain jobs will get trivialized in certain encounters. Nobody would take a BLM to fight Ifrit because they'd be forced to spam Blizzard spells, doing drastically reduced damage. I went through that crap in vanilla WoW, where mages were required to specialize for Frost spells, greatly reducing their damage potential.

I understand, it seems more to be a problem with the combat system in general. And of course throwing an elemental wheel in would cripple the game at this point. If classes had access to more elemental spells/abilities, it would help avoid the issue. It would also open to more interesting mechanics like mobs that take more magical/physical damage, element damage, etc.

Also in Vanilla WoW the reason I recall ice was required was because fire generated more heat (heh pun) than ice, and burned more mana, not due to any elemental damage. Did WoW even have any? I only recall Chromaggus having one as a boss mechanic (alternating weaknesses).

Or he could just make Blizzard strength comparable to Fire. The design of the BLM class is horrible.

Agreed, it's just Fire, Blizzard, and a Thunder once in a while (with varying tiers) =\. Not really what one has in mind with the classic FF BLM.

[synaesthetic]

Or he could just make Blizzard strength comparable to Fire. The design of the BLM class is horrible.

You're joking, right? BLM is one of the most well-designed jobs in the game. It doesn't rely entirely upon a single skill (Invigorate) to keep it from running out of resources in long fights like MNK, DRG and BRD do. BLM has a perfect set-up with the "burn phase" with Astral Fire and the "recovery phase" with Umbral Ice. If only the rest of the jobs in the game had the same very active method of resource regeneration. Tanks are even more screwed, left just waiting for TP to regenerate. That's not fun; that's boring and uninvolved and frustrating.

[Mailstrum]

You're joking, right? BLM is one of the most well-designed jobs in the game. It doesn't rely entirely upon a single skill (Invigorate) to keep it from running out of resources in long fights like MNK, DRG and BRD do. BLM has a perfect set-up with the "burn phase" with Astral Fire and the "recovery phase" with Umbral Ice. If only the rest of the jobs in the game had the same very active method of resource regeneration. Tanks are even more screwed, left just waiting for TP to regenerate. That's not fun; that's boring and uninvolved and frustrating.

agree 10000%

[Shurrikhan]

You're joking, right? BLM is one of the most well-designed jobs in the game. It doesn't rely entirely upon a single skill (Invigorate) to keep it from running out of resources in long fights like MNK, DRG and BRD do. BLM has a perfect set-up with the "burn phase" with Astral Fire and the "recovery phase" with Umbral Ice. If only the rest of the jobs in the game had the same very active method of resource regeneration. Tanks are even more screwed, left just waiting for TP to regenerate. That's not fun; that's boring and uninvolved and frustrating.

I somewhat have to disagree with TP regen being uninvolved in consideration of Monk conservation phases, etc, but... those could be more interesting too. I honestly wish BLM's invocation/evocation phasing was a bit more variable though. It's still a very simple and relatively rigid mechanic, with less actual choice-work than long-term dps as a Monk, though likely more than that of any other class (any combo class simply drops a primary combo or two, waiting to rebuff, and Bard just drops primary shots, which is fairly dull).

[Shurrikhan]

Ugh =\ that sucks. Speaking of complex combat, I wish XIV had an elemental wheel. Did 1.0 have one too (I'd assume so)? It's always weird how you kill a fire elemental with Fire.

A mild one, at least. I don't remember how large the variance was for each element as a spellcaster, but it was often huge for my Monk (which used to use en-[element] modifiers in Fists of [x]). Sometimes my defensive buff would cause me to hit harder than the primary damage buff (Earth over Fire), though gnats [lightning element] are the only example I can think of at the moment for that. Conjurer was an elementalist with the full elemental wheel and Thaumaturge was a spiritualist with Bio, Banish, Dia, Scourge, etc.

To be honest I kind of like that each is actually utility though, especially since it's currently limited to halves, each within a single caster class. I'd rather have slows/binds, DoTs, and direct damage than one third of my spells usable for the same effect but each only on certain enemies. That's not to say that one can't have both the wheel and variant uses/utility, but it can't be done in the simplicity that Yoshi seems to prefer.

Also, even if you're 'spicing' up different abilities through different item bonuses, the objective will remain the same as long as the basic purpose of any raid does: kill the enemy more quickly. Situation-specific dps maximization, survival maximization, total/crucial healing maximization. The less dully that attaches itself to gearing choices (the more fights and bonuses ideal for them vary), the more total sets you'll need to maximize your potential in each fight.

[A rework of materia could prevent that, by going more in the direction of talents with some XP-like stat (materia points or w/e) allotted into varying abilities through choices opened by armor you have spiritbonded, but even that would likely lead only to niching in due time and less understanding of your teammates' abilities, diminishing coordination.]

Tldr; there's always another way to have more 'fun' at your disposal without locking yourself into particular pieces of gear or specialization niches. Just have more tools than you can simultaneously use, some of which are ideal only situationally, and therefore do not create incredibly long and roundabout rotations among the elite (unless the entire party knows how to fit those tools in perfectly).