Request: Alternate Weapon Types

[DWolfwood]

I touched on this in the SAMURAI SHOWDOWN thread, but I've been meaning to put this out there.

WHM and BLM have the distinction of having used both 2h and 1h weapons in the past. The 1h weapons came with shields, and they have since seemingly been abandoned as an idea, but I would like to revive the idea once again.

Ideally, every race and even gender would have different combat animations, but given the magnitude of what such an endeavor would be, I think it's fair to let the development team be forgiven on this. That said, I think I'm not the only person who wants more diversity in the visuals of our combat stances and animations.

My request is to make the following changes:

PLD: Now wields Swords & Maces/Hammers
WAR: Now wields 2h Axes, 2h Hammers, Dual Axes, Dual Hammers, and Dual Swords
DRK: Now wields Great Swords & Scythes

Now, I know this is a lot to ask, especially in regards to WAR. However, I think in WAR's particular case, something strongly identified with it in almost every game is that they are versatile fighters. Almost every game out there right now uses at least one of the listed weapon types, so I think taking the time and effort to make a Dual-Wield animation set for WAR would go a long way.

Feel free to add to this list, though I have a hard time coming up with ideas that would not require consideration to ability names, such as "Snap Punch." and "Blunt Arrow." Some might be easier, like MCH using canons.

I leave those requests to the rest of you, but these are mine for now.

[Dorander]

You realize that the developers are actually trying to do the opposite of this right? That's why they changed all the daggers low level paladin/gladiator's got into swords when rogues/ninja were put in. Also why they are now going through and removing the wands and brands that low level white and black mages had to deal with and changing them to staffs and rods. They want each job to have a relatively unique type of weapon with the only exception being SCH/SMN because they come from the same base class. (which they have said was a major mistake anyway.)

[Ashkendor]

WHM and BLM have the distinction of having used both 2h and 1h weapons in the past. The 1h weapons came with shields, and they have since seemingly been abandoned as an idea, but I would like to revive the idea once again.

It was a relic of 1.0 when there were actual skills to go with shield use. It's kind of pointless now. Honestly, I'd rather not go down the road of complexity for complexity's sake. I've played other games that had multiple weapons per class and there were only slight statistical differences, but it still led to one being preferred over the other so one was always less desirable and of course that's the one that always dropped. This would be a ton of animation work for no real reason.

[DWolfwood]

You realize that the developers are actually trying to do the opposite of this right?

...they have since seemingly been abandoned as an idea, but I would like to revive the idea once again.

I completely understand the current situation and decision. I'm merely requesting otherwise.

I'd rather not go down the road of complexity for complexity's sake.

It's not for "complexity's sake," it's merely a visual thing, exactly like SMN getting new egi glamours. I'm just asking for the random, different type of weapon here and there. The only real necessary obstacle I see about my particular suggestion is that Storm's Eye would now be seemingly useless for hammers. Do they make Hammers do slashing damage? It would probably be fine if they did blunt damage, and you had a Monk, but it would be something to think about.

[RiceisNice]

It's not for "complexity's sake," it's merely a visual thing, exactly like SMN getting new egi glamours. I'm just asking for the random, different type of weapon here and there. The only real necessary obstacle I see about my particular suggestion is that Storm's Eye would now be seemingly useless for hammers. Do they make Hammers do slashing damage? It would probably be fine if they did blunt damage, and you had a Monk, but it would be something to think about.

It's not entirely aestehteic unless you intend on making them still do their respective damage (paladin does slashing with a mace), which then doesn't make sense aesthetically to a whole new level. It ends up becoming such a cumbersome looking thing on paper that it doesn't feel like it's worth it, especially when it thematically does not make sense for the job itself.

[Rhaja]

Plus... CNJ's and THM had wands and shields. Now.... >_>

[odintius]

I don't mine the idea but they also need to create content to go along with having different weapons equipped and a variety of it imo. I could see weapons of different types give party wide support type effects depending on content.

[Enkidoh]

It won't happen, because that is the complete opposite of what the Armoury System is about. This is not FFXI where a Job and it's weapon are separate (and you had the whole problem of having multiple Jobs with varying proficiency in certain weapon types and having to learn skill points just to be able to use it effectively), here your weapon is your class/Job (hence why the term 'class' is something of a misnomer, and why they are more accurately and officially known as 'Disciplines' - it's a set of abilities based around proficiency in that weapon or tool.

Thus each class only has one weapon type associated with it (even shields fit into this as they were actually their own separate sub-class originally in FFXIV 1.0 called 'Sentinel' or SEN for short - which was scrapped when the battle system was redesigned around patch 1.20 in 1.0 and it's abilities given to GLA), and accordingly, you will not see each class/Job getting multiple weapon types to equip I'm afraid. Any new weapons added to the game will become new classes/Jobs, that's how it's been since the beginning and that is how it will always be.

[Duelle]

It won't happen, because that is the complete opposite of what the Armoury System is about.

This, pretty much. You'd have to scrap the armoury system, design individual skills per weapon (swords and maces are not used in the same way, for example) and separate all job skills from those weapons. It's a huge undertaking and undermines one of the main systems behind the game, so I don't see them doing this, nor would I want them to spend time and resources doing this.

[Khalithar]

Snip

I don't know about scrapping the armory system, if the different weapons were purely aesthetic then you wouldn't need new animations necessarily. A purely visual swap between say a marauder axe and a hammer isn't unreasonable nor is replacing a gld sword with a one handed axe or a mch gun with a crossbow. They could still add those weapons to other jobs even if they add weapon skins because two people carrying the same weapon don't necessarily have the same fighting style with it.