4.0 abilities

[seekified]

I'm playing on PC, on a 3-4 year old screen so it's not that big. With party members left, mini map right top, chat bottom left, my hp left top and boss hp mid top, my skills are mid bottom, 3 rows, and its starting to get cluttered. I love the option to hide Duty lists while in a duty, gives me a lot more space to look right/re-position myself, but more skills would end up being click for me, as my 1 till = are full, as are my shift+1-5 and ctrl+1-5....

I recommend reducing the overall HUD scaling to ~80% and also, learn to use hotbar switching. There's more than enough time between GCDs for that not to impair your play and it can free up a lot of screenspace.

[Nalien]

Personally, I don't want to see either of those things. I want to see a merit point system where we can stick points into our EXISTING skills to improve them in some way.

I can see it now;

Ninja

Enhance All Fours!
Enhance Fleet of Foot!
Enhance Mug Effect!
Enhance Hide Effect!

Whatever they do for 4.0, I really hope they seriously adjust Ninja... It's not particularly broken, just a whole lot of odd choices... Kiss of the Wasp/Viper was seemingly designed with stance dancing in mind, then they completely failed to provide effects that would justify it... All Fours was always pointless, even before they removed fall damage from instances... Hide is incredibly meh after Lv50 and even before that it fails as a stealth skill, perfect invisibility is the god-mode cheat of stealth gameplay... Ninjutsu is fine, though I don't get why they halved the potential number of options... Why do I have two combinations for Huton when I could have Huton and Utsusemi?! Dream Within a Dream is just the mediocre icing on the proverbial cake... Yay, something not remotely interesting...

What I wouldn't give for them to rework the Hidden mechanic entirely... Tie it to enmity, make Shadewalker feel mechanically justified... Make me use it so I remain Hidden for longer, not because I'm bored and want to see if I can help a DPS pull hate and die... Suiton should just remove enmity to maintain Hidden, no idea why I can't Smoke Screen myself and no idea why Shukuchi, a skill in which I Smoke Screen myself and teleport away, doesn't reduce my enmity... Can Ninja feel stealthy please? In a manner that doesn't reduce my movement speed to that of a six day dead snail... I feel left out, Monk and Dragoon get nice glow effects from their mechanics, can't I have some misty effect for when I'm Hidden or something?

[Laflama_Blanca]

I would like a mix of traits and skills. 5 new skills would lead to further ability bar bloat and be a bit much, but I think a couple new skills would be nice. As a NIN main, here's my wishlist for 4.0:

62: Improved Armor Crush (trait) Increases the duration your Huton is extended by Armor Crush to 45 seconds.

Allows more uses of AE in the rotation and makes keeping DE up less of a chore if needed. A moderate increase to single target damage that feels powerful yet doesn't change things too drastically.

64: Hayagake (new skill) Delivers an attack with 100 potency to your target and gain a movement speed up buff for 10 seconds. 60 second cooldown.

As a NIN I often feel like the least mobile melee dps. Shukuchi is awesome and fun, but only available every 60 seconds. Meanwhile, dragoons are flipping around left and right as needed. NIN should be a mobile class and this allows us to have a sprint-esque ability to compliment Shukuchi. Unlike gap closers, this needs to be used proactively to apply the buff prior to movement phases, so it has a different feel from other skills.

66: Improved Kassatsu (trait) Reduces the cooldown of Kassatsu to 60 seconds.

Mudras are such a fun part of the class but only used every 20 seconds. More kassatsus = more ninjutsu = more fun. This adds versatility to both single and aoe situations.It also compliments my level 70 trait.

68: All Creation (new skill) Delivers an attack with 300 potency to all enemies in a straight line. 90 second cooldown.

Stole it from Yuffie's final LB. An off global cooldown AOE move, something NIN currently lacks aside from ninjutsu. 300 potency is a lot, but it's on a 90 second cooldown. Monks are tossing out 220 potency elixir fields every 30 seconds, so why not.

70: Improved Sneak Attack (trait) Sneak Attack no longer shares a recast timer with Trick Attack.

Rather than adding a new big hitting single target ability, why not just let us use one we currently rarely touch? Trick attack kassatsu suiton sneak attack would be so fun...

Just some ideas. They likely sound pretty powerful, but every class would be getting fun new toys.

[RiceisNice]

Personally, I don't want to see either of those things. I want to see a merit point system where we can stick points into our EXISTING skills to improve them in some way.

There's no room for individuality in this game at the moment, so it's past time they made some room.

I'd rather not this be the only thing if we're going into a new expansion. This doesn't leave for any feeling of character/job growth as you gain levels, and you ultimately feel exactly the same as if you were playing at level 60 than you are now at 4.x's cap. Adding bonuses or additional perks to your existing abilties will do nothing to stray it from the same, predetermined rotation.

I recommend reducing the overall HUD scaling to ~80% and also, learn to use hotbar switching. There's more than enough time between GCDs for that not to impair your play and it can free up a lot of screenspace.

I'm using 3 hotbars (using keybindings 1-7, +ctrl and +alt variations, as well as numpads and moues buttons) and I'm struggling to fit PvP abilties (not without dropping some of my PvE abilties such as recall turret). Do mind that at least 5 of these slots are to skills that either add no depth to the job (such as gauss round) and cross skills. There's a few ways to prune or consoldate skills where it's needed. Even if you were to use hot bar toggling, it still doesn't resolve the increasing skill bloat, nor does it help gamepad/console players.

[EdwinLi]

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I think it is not the question what it can not change but the question of what can a Merit/Modification system can change using what we already have.

For example..

a Machinist Modification tree could progress can provide options on how they want to change their skills.

Gauss Barrel Modifications choice, once unlocked, can be
1) Give electric shock DoT effect on attacks with it stacking up to 5 for stronger effect per stack.
2) Remove cast and return auto attack with Gauss barrel equipped allwoing players to be mobile again with Gauss Barrel Active but reduce the damage a bit in exchange for getting auto attack back.
3) Increase the damage increase of Gauss barrel even more.

Ammo modification can be
1) incendiary ammo - perform a burn DoT effect.
2) Armor Piercing Ammo - a more direct damage increase.

Rook turret modification can be
1) Modificed Rook Turret - Stronger version of Rook turret.
2) Pawn Turrets - Give all members in the party a mini-turret (noticed by a buff on them) that attacks their target. Alone it is weaker than Rook but if all 4 members can stay alive it can be stronger.

Bishop Turret
1) Modified Bishop Turret - A slightly stronger version of Bishop with a larger AoE range.
2) Knight Turret - does slightly more damage than Modified Bishop Turret but sacrifice their 360 degree AoE for a 90 degree AoE attack.

The merit/modification system can also be the means to allow Summoner to access the other Primal Egi as they have established Summoner's are restriected to a limited number of summons lore wise being 3 (1 tank, 1 melee, and 1 range).

Melee Summon - Default is Ifrit-egi
1) Ravana Egi
2) Default Carbuncle
3) Ruby Carbuncle

Range Summon - Default Garuda-egi
1) leviathan egi
2) Good King Moggle Mog egi
3) Default Carbuncle

Tank Summon - Default Titan egi
1) Default Carbuncle
2) Obsidian Carbuncle
3) Odin egi

etc etc etc.

Another matter would be the leveling of the Merit system as it is the question should it be a separate leveling system so the max level remains lvl 60 or would players begin to obtain points for the Merit/Modification system once lvl 61+ and the unlock of the Merit/Modification system in each Job remain separate for each job. Unlocking only sections of the Merit/Modification tree as players complete their Job Quests.

[Critical-Limit]

Honestly hope 4.0 we don't level to 70. And use all that development making new zones, still making zones but less about leveling and more about doing things in them that are relevant

[RiceisNice]

I think it is not the question what it can not change but the question of what can a Merit/Modification system can change using what we already have....

None of which that actually does anything to change MCH's gameplay. If you were to give GB a damage buff or a stacking dot, it has no change how a MCH plays, while the removal if cast times is straight up removing an existing mechanic to begin with. That's the perfect example of an illusion of choice where it doesn't have an influence on how you play the job. A better alternative (which was one of their scrapped ideas) is the concept of multiple attachments that augment your attacks, sort of like a stance. You'd have a choice of weaker, higher TP cost aoe weaponskills (and do away with spread shot, which is an exact copy of spread shot), or a stronger, less TP efficent attachment with more emphasis on DPS than sustainability, or not using an attachment at all. Ammo could've been a side resource used to use specific skills rather than what we have now for a straight potency buff and tp regen.

I don't think anyone wants to be playing the exact same job in the exact same manner at level 70 cap when it as when it was 60. I'm not opposed ot the idea of a merit system to offer some form of customization (even if it does lead to the inevitable min/maxing and cookie cutters), but I don't want that to be the only thing that's supposed to be the growth to our character, because there isn't any feeling of growth or evolution.

[EdwinLi]

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I extended the description a bit since you last posted. Check on it when you have the time.

Back on topic:

Those were just small examples as I do have much more gameplay changing examples on some of the skills but I rather not use them as example as those are just wishful thinking.

As for introducing new skills to expands on Jobs the merit/modification can do that assuming effort and consideration how it changes certain skills and combos was put into it. As other have said there is a point when adding more skills does become a burden than actual growth of a character and completely changing a gameplay style for the job from what it was can have some negative effects as we saw in 3.0 when they completely changed the game play for Bards.

Adding new skills to expand on current rotation can also be a burden as well as we see in Dragoons dealing with a RNG 4th combo while trying to maintain their new buff changing them from their more simple direct gameplay into a more RNG position depended gameplay. They expanded on Dragoon combos along with trying to change the gameplay style from its origial simple melee DPS base gameplay into a more maintain combo buff style gameplay but we already have that with Monk.

Not to mention they may start running out of ideas on how to expand a Job's combo as we see with paladin's 4th combo skill introduced in 3.0 being a simple 350 potency direct damage skill with no Tank Job effects on it other than pure damage.

[Shurrikhan]

Whatever they do for 4.0, I really hope they seriously adjust Ninja... It's not particularly broken, just a whole lot of odd choices... Kiss of the Wasp/Viper was seemingly designed with stance dancing in mind, then they completely failed to provide effects that would justify it... All Fours was always pointless, even before they removed fall damage from instances... Hide is incredibly meh after Lv50 and even before that it fails as a stealth skill, perfect invisibility is the god-mode cheat of stealth gameplay... Ninjutsu is fine, though I don't get why they halved the potential number of options... Why do I have two combinations for Huton when I could have Huton and Utsusemi?! Dream Within a Dream is just the mediocre icing on the proverbial cake... Yay, something not remotely interesting...

What I wouldn't give for them to rework the Hidden mechanic entirely... Tie it to enmity, make Shadewalker feel mechanically justified... Make me use it so I remain Hidden for longer, not because I'm bored and want to see if I can help a DPS pull hate and die... Suiton should just remove enmity to maintain Hidden, no idea why I can't Smoke Screen myself and no idea why Shukuchi, a skill in which I Smoke Screen myself and teleport away, doesn't reduce my enmity... Can Ninja feel stealthy please? In a manner that doesn't reduce my movement speed to that of a six day dead snail... I feel left out, Monk and Dragoon get nice glow effects from their mechanics, can't I have some misty effect for when I'm Hidden or something?

My thoughts on reading the new Ninja ability names:
Smoke Screen: Ooh, a way to mass-LoS attacks to bring ranged enemies attacking multiple party members in close, OR a way to make myself and others enter Hide in combat with minimal movement loss.
Armor Crush: (Honestly had no idea what to make of it until I got it, at which point I'd just have called it Wind Spine instead, or swapped its name and animation with Dancing Blade...)
Shadewalker: Can place a shadow image on a target ally or enemy, allowing me to attack through it for increased melee range or enmity transfer, and likely for further synergy later?!
Duality: Doubles my attacks for a brief time or causes an active Shade to mimic my attacks, including additional effects, on its target or target of target.
Dream Within a Dream: Able to blink-strike to and instantly attack for 100 potency at a time any enemy within X yalms, or Y if affected by one of your (or your Shade's) DoTs, to a maximum of A strikes total or B strikes to a single particular target?...

I also feel like if NIN wasn't supposed to be a MP- and TP-self-restoring job/class, then there needed to be some sort of near-rotational component to Wasp and Viper. Hide really should have had at least normal movement speed (just losing the advantage of Fleet of Foot, basically), but rendered you more vulnerable to detection the faster you moved (using an alternate /walk animation for its sneaking about), and the more time you spend (especially if moving) within the enemy's field of sight. But even then there's just so much to be desired from any stealth aspect of this game that it's not likely to deliver on.

And don't even get me started on the enmity system...

[nexas506]

No abilities. We need traits to enhance current ones.
DoH and DoL got traits for completing job quest, and that's exactly what DoW/M need.