FFXIV is in a Prime Position to Make Some Drastic Changes

[BlatantPyre]

Competition in its purest form is survival of the fittest.

It is a sad fact resulting from the scarcity of ressources on our planet. It does rely on loss because the sole purpose of competition is to decide who eats and who has to go hungry. Who lives and who dies. Who gets the title and who doesn't. Who becomes rich and who becomes poor. Who wins and who loses.

If everyone can win, everyone can eat and everyone can live, there is no need for competition and nobody sane engages in such. I'm most certain you too do not compete over your food, health or anything that matters if you don't have to. Feel free to correct me if you actually are. I, for one, don't know a single person who would. Everyone I know would rather that everyone can go home sated and happy, if somehow possible.

Again, you are redefining competition to something it's not. Who has told you to think this way? You are taking something messed up and grafting it on something that has nothing to do with what's messed up. Competition isn't about victory over others, it's about challenging each other. It's about improvement, about learning, as a *people*. And sure, it can *come into play* in survival; but it isn't survival itself, it's an ingredient that comprises it, not the other way around. In your example of competing for food, such an instance exists only when there's a *shortage*...the competition isn't the problem, something else is. And in current reality, it's because people have either become lazy or corrupt that's the problem, not competition. And besides, even in such a setting, if *no one* worked to eat, ALL would die. If the problem of scarcity were solved, no one would have to compete to survive...but competition would remain, because it's necessary for life. Stop being fooled into focusing on red herrings and straw-men - look at the REAL problems.

This is going to be my last post on this, feel free to continue, but...this isn't the place for it.

[Alahra]

Could be a melee dps/support (using spells like enfire etc to not only buff their own weapon but the melee party members as well). Basically using TP and MP skills for dps with some support added?

If they're DPS, they'd definitely be more in the support avenue (like BRD and MCH I'd wager), that's for sure.

[BlatantPyre]

As far as RDM goes...<sigh> everything you guys have said makes sense. It's just that, the big reason I've always been into the job is because of the versatility of it. If that goes away, it won't really be RDM to me. I agree that FFXIV has done a good job of redefining many of the old jobs into something not only useful in an MMO, but that expands on what those jobs have been by introducing new mechanics. I wouldn't mind a similar treatment to RDM...but it has to still be RDM. Look at BRD. Of all the jobs, it's the least like it's original counter-part (heck, it's pretty much in truth Ranger). And which job do we hear the most complaints about? I do mean the most, btw, I know there's complaints across the board...

I don't really care (much) (..too much...) (...maybe a bit) about what role/roles the job will be. I just want it to be able to have some utility and versatility in a fight, is all...

[Shyle]

If they're DPS, they'd definitely be more in the support avenue (like BRD and MCH I'd wager), that's for sure.

Which I don't think would be a good choice to be honest. XIV I think needs to move from Trinity to a 4 pillars style MMO. Where instead of just tank/dps/heal there's Tank/dps/heal/support. Where the support is purely support. They do literally everything, but their main job is to aid each other role with it's buffs/debuffs.That way, Bards can be true bards, using songs to debuff enemies and buff the group, rdms can do their thing, then we can get Ranger as a true physical mobile dps and machinist as a mobile dps ranged slot with turrets (?). I honestly don't know what the role of machinist was in previous FF games, so maybe not have ranger and just have MCH take the mobile ranged dps spot? But considering the game is based on 4 man variant groups (4/8/24) having that fourth pillar would fit fine for groups.

in any case, the hybrid classes (BRD/MCH) suffer in this game without the support role as a slot for the group. just my .02$.

[MilesSaintboroguh]

I don't know if most people would even like to play as support, for it just sounds like a weaker DPS playing the role of a healer.

[Molic]

Rdm would be easy to implement... just make the queue as dps, and give them a sword for melee and have some abilitys like en-fira stance or w/e gives the entire a dps buff so the rdm dps + the bonus the give to the party would = what a normal dps dmg would do.

Then they could have like en-windra or something gives party regen

en-stonera gives tank+ rdm dmg reduciton

Then melee weapon skills and shit that chain with spells. Hit all the rdm tropes.

[Alahra]

Which I don't think would be a good choice to be honest. XIV I think needs to move from Trinity to a 4 pillars style MMO. Where instead of just tank/dps/heal there's Tank/dps/heal/support.

It's honestly too late for that, and it would cause huge disruptions in the Duty Finder, really. Support roles are already rather rare (if you ever played FFXI, you probably know how rare yet sought-after BRDs, RDMs, and CORs were), and they wouldn't really fit into the Light Party/Full Party setup very well, which is built around a foundation of 1 tank, 1 healer, and 2 DPS (and then doubled for Full Parties).

Adding a codified support role would mean either changing the party setup to a 5-man/10-man structure/30-man structure, or giving the support classes enough DPS so that they could still fill the role of the 2nd DPS in 4-man content (which is pretty much the system we have now). Even if they went with the 5-person party foundation, support roles would arguably be more rare than Healers are (and potentially as rare as, or even more rare than, tanks are), creating yet another bottleneck for Duty Finder queues to get through.

It's just not feasible for the game to do that this late in the game--that's the sort of thing the game would have to have been built around from the ground up.