AoE / Multi Target Map Interactions.

[Zydella]

I have a few suggestions regarding skills and targeting for players attacking. I started playing Final Fantasy XIV last December and my first impression is that the game is far too single mob-targeting oriented. I completely love everything about the game up to this point except for that one part of the skill design and thus I decided to come here to the forums to make this post.

Right now when playing the game, you basically feel like you are pressing the same few skills over and over again.. and you have very little interaction with what your character is doing. There's a bit of movement required when it comes to dodging enemy abilities and activating the effects of certain attacks however I've noticed that other than Sprint, it doesn't seem that any class directly has any real dodge or movement related abilities. To help with this my suggestion is to re-design some of the skills or perhaps add new ones of which are similar to that used currently in some other MMO's.

[Zydella]

1.) Ground / Map Targeted AoE's: Many games already have these, I feel like a lot of skills would be much more enjoyable if instead of targeting a single mob you were able to use an area selector to attack a spot on the map with your ability. This would go very well with something like the Dragoon's "Jump" ability. While Jump is not an AoE currently, the skill would feel a lot better if upon using it, it gave you a large circle on the ground and upon aiming and clicking you then leap and damage everything within the area before returning back to your original location. There are many skills that could be reformed to use this kind of targeting including the Archer's Quick Nock, Thaumaturge's Blizzard, and the Marauder's Overpower. Being able to cast in this matter would allow for more accurate positioning as well as make the user feel less like they're just mashing down on buttons over and over.

[Zydella]

2.) Movement Abilities: The game has zero abilities that allow you to re-position yourself quickly. In basically every single MMO ever made most Tank classes and some Magic classes have some form of Teleport or Dash to get them out of harms way in a pickle. I'd highly recommend giving Thaumaturge some kind of ability to allow them to instantly move to a different location close by and I think Lancer and Pugilist should have an ability to allow them to quickly dash in some specified direction. I also believe it'd be nice if Marauder was given some kind of spinning ability that allows them to do damage to enemies while moving, which seems to be present more and more in newer MMORPG's. Basically, there are abilities to be dodged however there's no counter abilities to dodge them. Creating this will allow players to have fun teleporting and dashing around as well as maneuver more easily around dangerous mob abilities.

[Zydella]

In conclusion, I believe that making these changes will ease the repetitive button mash feel of the game as well as allow them to feel like they have more control over their character's positioning and ability aim. Right now you can't always be sure what your AoE will and won't hit, however if you were able to see and move an indicator you would have much more success in the use of your ability as well as something to do outside of just hitting a button.

**Sorry if this is in the wrong forum section, I wasn't really sure where else to post. c: