Nerf, Buff, Change, New Class

[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.

[MagiusNecros]

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.

It's really simple. The beasts you summoned did the bulk of your damage. Not a measly 33% nor was it a glorified DoT. And you could Summon monsters in other titles to do said damage every turn. MP resources were fine. To the point a BLM's high tier spell was comparable to high level summoning. Along with defensive summons that bolstered your defense like the Golem's Earthen Ward from FF5.

Furthermore in the older games Summons were acquired upon their defeat and not in job quests. And since this game has set the mark for Summons are bad and you shouldn't do it, it just cements the fact that true Summoners have no place in Eorzea.

[Teraluna]

Once the "Oooooh Shiny" has worn off:

[IMG]via Imgflip Meme Generator[/IMG]

[Xlantaa]

FFXIV is not FFXI.

[Lisotte]

FFXIV is not FFXI.

You're right. It's prettied up WoW.

[Kohta]

FFXIV is not FFXI.

But it has the "Final Fantasy", Summoner currently feels like a Red Mage, Bio, Miasma, Miasma 2 which is basically Gravity.

I originally said I could go on and on, because it isnt just summoner, that was just one thing.

WHM - Wheres Dia? Banish? Re-Raise - the one ability to separate a WHM drastically from any other healer.

BLM - triggering a temporary ability to do Black Magic? Is my BLM a wanna be or deep down a Scholar reading the book on how to do it?

PLD - it pains me to list this one, I love FF PLD and how deeply rooted in Norse Mythology it is, but that shield is useless more often that it actually blocks, and when it does block, its rather insignificant, I am using invisible buffs to take possibly less DMG, maybe.

DRK - Dark Knight is too deeply rooted in "kill without remorse" to make me believe they care about protecting a party. No one should have to make up stories to try to justify why the most merciless jobs in FF is a tank. By that logic, Red Mage could be a tank because they use a shield and can boost elemental resistance.

SCH - What Summoner is now, should be as SCH, DoT, elemental shifts, very lite healing ability, resurrect, burst damage every now and then.

Ninja - Its a thief. Sneak Attack, Trick Attack, Dancing Edge, Daggers, Hide, 90% of its abilities comes from the Rogue/Thief line.
The best Ninja in this game is your sets of gear, now you see it, now you don't.