FFXIV and Party Setup.

[kyuven]

Support classes create a rather troubling dynamic: They tend to be terrible at soloing compared to other classes.
DPS classes blast everything to kingdom come before they take too much damage.
Tanks just sit there and take hits while doling out some damage til everything dies.
Healers are able to basically do what tanks do in a more active means.
But support classes? They can't deal damage like the DPS classes, can't take hits like the tank, and can't restore their own health like the healers.
But what does this mean?
Easy.
It means they're less popular than even the tanks.
Now you have to build encounters around them.
And have slots for them in the queues.
So you have options:
1) Design encounters with Support in mind as a role, and deal with player complaints of the queues being too long (not to mention taking longer since the Support will do less damage)
2) Design encounters to not take them into account and allow it to be flexible, which means the encounters are now much more dull to take into account that groups may not always have a support.

So rather than building support classes, our DPS classes have support options.
Remember: This is not FFXI. And after playing it quite a bit recently, I'm glad for that.

[Kosmos992k]

.So you have options:
1) Design encounters with Support in mind as a role, and deal with player complaints of the queues being too long (not to mention taking longer since the Support will do less damage)
2) Design encounters to not take them into account and allow it to be flexible, which means the encounters are now much more dull to take into account that groups may not always have a support.

The other issue that *will* arise is that as people overgear content, the need for a support class disappears as players begin ignoring mechanics that otherwise might need support to mitigate. Personally I hate the way people ignore mechanics, but then I am a relatively undergeared tank who can't quite ignore things the way that others can.

[Conradus]

Support classes create a rather troubling dynamic: They tend to be terrible at soloing compared to other classes.
<snip>
So rather than building support classes, our DPS classes have support options.
Remember: This is not FFXI. And after playing it quite a bit recently, I'm glad for that.

But FFXI had the premier example of a support class that could also be a great soloer: Red Mage.

[Kaisha]

But FFXI had the premier example of a support class that could also be a great soloer: Red Mage.

RDM solo was only for show/prestige. It wasn't efficient by any remote stretch of the means when everything of value took 30min+ to defeat, via a variety of methods, some of which abuse faults in the game engine.