Discussion: Redefinition and Redistribution of Actions, Abilities, and Weapon Skills

[NoctisUmbra]

One announcement in Yoshi-P's latest letter piqued my curiosity, and I haven't seen a discussion about it just yet - amid all the Chocobo threads - and this is the topic of overhaul to class actions, abilities, and weapon skills that they have planned:

Revisions to the battle algorithm has led to the need to redefine and redistribute actions, abilities, and weapon skills for all battle classes. As these changes can't take place concurrently with work on the algorithm, we have decided to release the list of changes planned for all classes around the time 1.19 goes live. The feedback we receive from players at this time will help to shape our work, which is scheduled for completion in patch 1.20.

I look forward to seeing what changes they will release for us to discuss, but I figured why not get the ball rolling.

Personally I would like Second Wind to recover some MP as well - perhaps have it renamed to Chakra. With the MP costs on the basic attacks as they are now for PGL this may very well be coming anyway.

I'd also like it so they change the guild-bought skills for PGL into Auto-Attack modifiers by changing the stance of the Pugilist to offensive or defensive - going back to what FFXIV originally had planned for PGL:

In my opinion, what they should have done is change the function of Light Strike and Pummel. Go back to the roots of Pugilist class design, as it was depicted on the FFXIV website before the game's release.

Have Light Strike and Pummel act as Auto-Attack modifiers in the form of stances.

Light Strike - 10 MP, 60s Cooldown
Adopt a defensive stance, increasing defense and evasion while reducing damage done and TP generated by Auto-Attack. Enable counter-attack chains*. Effect lasts 300s.

Pummel - 20 MP, 60s Cooldown
Adopt an offensive stance, increasing Auto-Attack speed. Disable counter-attacks. Effect lasts 300s

*The ability to use Haymaker, Jarring Strike and/or Simian Thrash in succession.


Now if they went with something like this, not only would it make PGL a much more unique class, but it would justify the MP costs.

What are some changes you would like to see to the current game classes in regards to their skills?