Nerf, Buff, Change, New Class

[Khalithar]

If they ever go to Full Summon I hope they make it like the old original concept of Summon being Summoing the Summon to perform their Ulitmate attack only.

If designed right and had you summon a different primal each time for variety? I'd be down for it.

[Kohta]

I'd say take a break from the game and I don't mean that in a rude way, I think some time playing other MMO's or maybe some non-rpg like a platformer or a shooter might be a good idea.

You're right on and have a great way of expressing your opinion. In terms of burnt out, I only resubscribed a few* weeks ago, before that, the last substantial game-play was March, in the last month I have invested 10 hours, with a current highest ilv of 185, if burned out is what it is, it happened a long time ago, at this point I am at bare minimum access. I am playing Blade and Soul, which I honestly think has more flaws than I could count- Overwatch, not really an MMO has a community you wouldn't desire to be around for very long, don't get me wrong, I love riding my motorcycle, work quite a bit and have a child. I want to love FFXIV, I continue to play it, unfortunately my wait times in the only content I am able to do as a Summoner are well over 40 minutes on average, by the time I have done a single run we are an hour invested, for 60 Esoterics or whatever I am earning at this point.

The reason I am in this position is because I have been playing other things, because the state of the game at it's base forces you to like it or get left behind until the next expansion, where you're given a free set of gear to get re-instated, why don't I just wait until 4.0? This is where a collective voice has stired, I just happened to make a thread questioning it.

[Khalithar]

In the last month I have invested 10 hours, with a current highest ilv of 185, if burned out is what it is, it happend a long time ago, at this point I am at bare minimum access.

I see your point, I can tell you really want to like the game. But as I stated in my other post, SE's PVE formula is very much set in stone and I don't see them changing the progression model anytime soon, if ever. The other problem is that it's really only the one progression system, you grind tomestones for the best gear and have just enough time to maybe finish one set (if you started from day 1) before a new set is out.

The weekly caps are definitely irritating but it comes down to them wanting to drag it out, if they didn't, players would grind out a full set in a week or two and then have nothing to do and therein lies the problem. There's only a gear treadmill for combat classes and the fact that this game has such a massive instanced PVE focus. Unless you absolutely adore instanced PVE (and the associated vertical progression) there is really not much else to do as a combat class.

Edit: Removing the cap would be cool for someone like myself (I have personally leveled everything to 60 except for three crafters) as I would love to gear up all of my combat clsases to 230 but the cap prevents me from doing that as by the time i do the gear is already obsolete.

As to why you should play, might I suggest doing what my brother does? He subs long enough to complete the main story quests because he really likes the HW story, then does other stuff until the next batch of main story quests comes out.

[Laerune]

I would change two things:

1. Summoner should be a summoner in Final Fantasy term and not a Warlock from World of Warcraft. Class should be about the summons and not the caster.
2. Bard should either go back to 2.0 version and have more mobility or they should introduce a Ranger class that plays like a 2.0 Bard without the support skills. Instead Bard can stay being a BowMage, but in return gets more support abilities.

[HakaseNyan]

snip

Would've made more sense adding ranger and making that the bow mage. Ranger would have a bigger bow and more draw time for more damage. Bard shorter bows with the mobility of 2.0. Also, bard has a poor focus with the songs. Many of the jobs have poor focus on their "job" skills.

[l---------------l]

Hi... Player since 2.1..... Having to admit that your point of view is kinda what it is, even if painful.

3.0 was funny and interesting first months though, it hyped me. But still, we would need like, such an expansion every 3 months to get us hyped still. Until now it's a rinse and repeat circle. That's why I find solace in doing PvP. Late on it's like I just do roulette, a bit of raiding, and some PvP when I can, not caring about anything else, PvE is pointless because it's all the same.

[MagiusNecros]

As far as the Jobs are concerned the only 2 dynamic Job classes IMO are Monk and Warrior. Everything else I have reservations about. I main BLM true but other classes especially when you bring Summoner to the forefront do not hearken to FF tradition. And thus they may hold the title but they play differently then from their old counterpart.

This is why you can make such abstract comparisons to XIV against any other game in the FF series.

As far as the game's jaded design the only meaningful thing people stick around for is the stellar story.

[Vaer]

It's stale but continues to sell. As long as people keep paying for it, it won't change. SE's online game division actually has an upward trend in revenue through the expansion launch. I think people are staying for the regular content updates and polish in the end. It's main competition WoW hasn't had a real content patch in almost an entire year.

I give them credit for trying to branch off with Diadem/Aquapolis/Palace of the Dead.

[Schwarzwind]

I absolutely agree with OP's statement. As great as the mainscenario is, the game itself lacks the typical Final Fantasy feeling - at least in my opinion.
Summoner is nothing like I imagined it after thinking about how Yuna handled the summons in FFX (the second FF I ever played), which was really disappointing to me. Bard, my main job, was nice before HW hit, but got worse after it. Usually I tend to play supporters but Bard is just feeling halfassed: no real damage, no real support. I blame this on the dungeonsystem FFXIV is currently using.
In the end, I have to adapt to those things because it is just how the game is and all in all I love this game and I really hope that SE is able to enhance the Final Fantasy feeling in the near future. I also wish they would find a way to get rid of the boring tome system and give the open world more depth and meaning. Apart from Hunt mobs there is NO real danger in the open world, none at all! Even my very first MMO Ragnarok Online managed to make the world a experience and not just a rollover.

[LineageRazor]

On Summoner... When folks ask FFXIV to go back to its "roots" and give the Summoner's summons the focus of the job, I really have to wonder what they're talking about. Up until Final Fantasy TEN, Summons have always been a one-shot attack, usually too resource intense to use more than once per fight. Because of this, the Summoner usually had a secondary role (which, to be honest, was more like a primary role) casting white or black magic. Of the single-player FF's ten and thirteen were the only ones to use the "persistent" summon that hangs around a while performing multiple attacks, and in those cases all or most of the party left the battlefield in the interim.

Eleven was the only game to treat Summoner like a "pet class" - and it, too, wound up being more useful for its secondary role as a healer due to how spectacularly bad the Summons were. Eventually SE buffed them to a point where the summons were actually worthwhile, but it took a long, long time to get to that point.

A Summoner with the summon doing the majority of the work would be a NEW take on Summoner - just as the so-called "Warlock Summoner" is a new take on the job. Much as in previous FFs, the Summoner is doing something not-too-summony for the majority of their effectiveness, with summons along for a little bit extra.

To be honest, I think making pet damage the focus of SMN in this game would have been an awesome idea. This would have been the perfect game for it, too. It didn't work in Eleven, because the enmity system there was so simplistic; a SMN with a sufficiently powerful pet would just have to stay out range of the enemy's aoe and they could deal damage like a dedicated DPS completely without risk... To avoid that, they put all kinds of restrictions in place; the summons' attacks were weak, they drained MP so the SMN became useless if they left a pet out for too long, and so on, leaving the SMN undesirable compared to other DPS. Eventually they fixed some of these deficiencies, but not until VERY late in the game's life. In this game, though there IS no safe distance; the bosses' scripts cause them to target players regardless of their places on the enmity list, meaning the SMN can't just sit back and let the pet do all the work. They have to dance along with everyone else, so I see no harm in the bulk of the damage coming from the pet - as long as the pet is sufficiently survivable!

What we got, though, is fine, too, though, continuing the Final Fantasy tradition of summoners whose summons contribute only a small component of what they do.