Thread: 3.1 PLD Changes

Originally Posted by Yonanja

first balance the classes and then look at the encounters. But I don't think that will ever happens, since I doubt even the devs know what they want to do with this game.

You say this like it's freakin' easy. "Oh, yeah...they just need to do that". You're missing a few things:
1. Devs always have a well-defined idea of what they want a class/job to do. *This is software design 101. Figure out what everything does!*
2. You cannot always predict what players are going to do with the dev design. *You cannot test everything.*
3. The easiest way to conform to the original dev design without breaking the game completely is to make tweaks to certain abilities. *If people don't like the original dev design, there are other class/job options.*

Everyone always complains and says, "The devs have no idea what they're doing". Actually, they do. FFXIV is definitely one of the better games in terms of job design and balance. Each job has an intended role that it fits very well, on the whole. Yes, sometimes a job suffers here or there, but the adjustments made usually make up for that -- WHILE still allowing the job to conform to the intended design.

The problem is, everyone wants to sit there and have it their way. Well, sorry...YOUR WAY isn't really what the devs are going to do. (If you're lucky, they'll do it "close" to your way.) If you always want it your way in a game, then go develop your own dang game!

Originally Posted by Duelle

There will always be a superior choice when you take this approach. You can try to create a scenario where different advantages help in leading to the clear in different ways, but once people figure out the best way to do it, that will become the standard. That's just an aspect of human nature that is part of the landscape in ANYTHING that involves more than one player.

Does that standard explicitly not include more than one tank, or are we just waxing generalities? What's the alternative? Should I give up on the idea of them being balanced? If you mean that we should be looking less at the cruxes of the fight and more about how the different jobs handle the 'white numbers' or the more arbitrary considerations of the fight, I can understand that, but... what you're saying here... doesn't point anywhere.

And why are we going back to demonizing performance parity? Especially when the lack of performance parity is one of the main culprits behind the problems we're currently seeing (encounter design being another)?

Noting a second method is not the same as demonizing the first. I find two methods less restrictive than just one. I've been suggesting further parity for PLD in terms of dps and less niched mitigation since 3.0... I just think it may also take adjustments on to the raid environment itself, and would have preferred that not just be by reversing the niched situation (e.g. all of Thordan's tankbusters are physical, the dps requirements are relatively lenient aside from wanting to clear the hell out of last phase, most of the intensive dps phases do not simultaneously involve tanking, and there's no AoE dps to be done). Because, for better or worse, tank value comes in context. Just as a tank with zero AoE damage (apart from CoS) loses nothing in a fight without AoEs, a tank with off-healing capabilities gains nothing if there's no point at which he can use it significantly.

Class identity can still come from mechanics, abilities and aesthetics while still remaining equal to other members of the roster in performance. Are you really that bothered by WAR and DRK dealing the same damage as a PLD?

Never said otherwise. I have no issue with PLD doing the same dps as WAR and DRK, but let's face it. WAR and DRK don't even do the "same" damage. Depending on the very particular situation, one will come out ahead of the other. Now, my personal preference (though other outcomes will not bother me) is that PLD would be to tanks much like NIN is to DPS, so to speak, but mostly because I feel like this expands the options available to the tank role, assuming first that each tank has a mostly viable toolset, and is wholly viable in the context of each encounter. I like options.

Which is not a bad thing. The utility PLD was given is not the type that is or should be needed all the time. This is why I facepalm at the people who complain about Clemency not being a mandatory ability in the rotation (it's situational off-healing, emphasis on situational) and those that expect Divine Veil to be up all the time, every time (because expecting to do so would be like expecting this or this to be used every time it's up instead of during oh-shit moments).

Here we'll have to disagree to some extent. I think it is a bad thing, albeit just barely. If you can go an entire fight without using an ability, that's fine. To go an entire fight without having reason to use an ability, is not fine. Granted, this differs depending on the resource cost (be it a CD or mana requirements), but for an ability to be left entirely for "oh shit" moments is like saying that a Bard is balanced against another dps when it has no benefit for its songs unless things go horribly, horribly wrong (luckily Rain of Death makes that rare, since you can always squeeze out more healer dps with Foes even without caster dps) - oh except that, for PLD, it most likely won't go off in time... /shrug.

I've solo-healed the MT through the A4N's 3x Perpetual Ray spam many a time since it lost its weekly lockout while my healers were killing themselves with Nist or bombs or just generally being headless. It's great, relatively speaking, when it's the only healing output your party has. Divine Veil is great when you would have all died by 8% health. The problem is that it depends on either cutting edge progression or failure. It's niched, but not in a way that typically adds options to the encounter. Instead, it simply devalues PLD in most situations, and leaves them (if balanced in all other regards) equal in few. Slight adjustments, however, I feel could change that, leaving it wholly situational, but also much more usable.

Originally Posted by Shurrikhan

Should I give up on the idea of them being balanced? If you mean that we should be looking less at the cruxes of the fight and more about how the different jobs handle the 'white numbers' or the more arbitrary considerations of the fight, I can understand that, but... what you're saying here... doesn't point anywhere.

The point I was trying to make is that clinging to certain paradigms won't yield anything good. Trying to justify the WAR/PLD/DRK niches by attempting to design content to make all three useful or viable or good in a non-uniform way is a losing proposition in the end because people will still gravitate towards the "best" approach.

To ignore the incongruities in performance between the three and blaming content is doing basically just that. I think that's why people weren't satisfied with what Yoshida said about PLD. Can't speak for others, but I can say it's a combination of tank design AND content, not just one or the other.

Here we'll have to disagree to some extent. I think it is a bad thing, albeit just barely. If you can go an entire fight without using an ability, that's fine. To go an entire fight without having reason to use an ability, is not fine. Granted, this differs depending on the resource cost (be it a CD or mana requirements), but for an ability to be left entirely for "oh shit" moments is like saying that a Bard is balanced against another dps when it has no benefit for its songs unless things go horribly, horribly wrong

Your example is dependent on the nature of the effect/ability. Mitigation cooldowns or anything that increases survivability is generally for oh-shot moments. Hence why I mentioned Rallying Cry and Hand of Protection. There may be fights where they're not used, but when needed come in handy (Rallying Cry in particular may be used to sort of mitigate some raid damage, much like Divine Veil).

The difference lies in constant use. The people that want Divine Veil available for every time Oppressor jumps, for example, don't realize that when you make an ability reusable in short intervals it stops being "a nice help to the healers that comes into play once in a while" and becomes a mandatory thing you have to do to get the clear (because the devs will then tune damage output around the raid having that effect active). That's what separates mitigation cooldowns from things like interrupts. It also increases the value of the ability and may even force the devs to give that to the other members of the roster just to even things out; this isn't even limited only to defensive cooldowns, but all types of abilities and utility (see: Mortal Strike in WoW and the fact it had to be given out like candy because it was so useful that only Arms Warriors having it was making them too powerful/valuable).

oh except that, for PLD, it most likely won't go off in time... /shrug.

This is the one item I wish more people would complain about. I can probably run a test and find that post-fix Mudras activate faster than defensive cooldowns. If I end up being right I'll be really sad.

All I meant by that example is that in general this game makes us pay not only for using utility, but for merely having it. For PLD to balanced around having it and not really be able to use it puts it in a tight spot, balance-wise. Rather than leaving it on the clunky outskirts, perhaps even balancing PLD around its skills without regard to its utilities, I'd rather see these utilities get a bit more usability. But, for damn sure, I don't want them to become a mandatory component of the job, either. I just want to be able to actually use Cover, etc., worth a damn again, and for Clemency to actually go off in time in a real "oh shit" moment, because right now it only saves anyone in situations that I knew ahead of time would fail and precast for accordingly.

Originally Posted by Duelle

This is the one item I wish more people would complain about. I can probably run a test and find that post-fix Mudras activate faster than defensive cooldowns. If I end up being right I'll be really sad.

From what I've tested, Shuriken definitely launches faster than a defensive CD takes effect, but as a finishing blow would kill slower (which is what I'll here call 'actually doing damage'). It's shitty too, because it even says on your screen '+ Sentinel' before the hit immediately after that it still just barely failed to mitigate.

...And then there's Hallowed Ground... which I can pop while the first of a 3-second damage stream hits and it won't mitigate the next two... Infamous is as infamous does.

Edit: Also, input's up on your DNC outline.