Matchmaking without the Trinity: how would you do it?

[Dreamsoap]

B-but MNK tank ;__;.

Monk tank needs to happen!

[Chiramu]

Monk tank needs to happen!

There is a monk tank in WoW . In the single player FF games there never was a real holy trinity system. Steiner was in heavy armour(chose Steiner because he looks like a tank in "traditional MMOs) but he was my strongest damage dealer. They didn't "have" to make FFXIV into the trinity system :/.

[basketofseals]

There is a monk tank in WoW . In the single player FF games there never was a real holy trinity system. Steiner was in heavy armour(chose Steiner because he looks like a tank in "traditional MMOs) but he was my strongest damage dealer. They didn't "have" to make FFXIV into the trinity system :/.

Do you not realize the inherent flaw with comparing a single player RPG to an MMORPG?

[Chiramu]

Do you not realize the inherent flaw with comparing a single player RPG to an MMORPG?

There are multiple MMORPGs breaking the Trinity mold. If they wanted to go for a FF feeling, they didn't have to go with the rest of them.

[Welsper59]

There is a monk tank in WoW . In the single player FF games there never was a real holy trinity system. Steiner was in heavy armour(chose Steiner because he looks like a tank in "traditional MMOs) but he was my strongest damage dealer. They didn't "have" to make FFXIV into the trinity system :/.

MNK in XI was sometimes treated as that backup tank. They did perfectly fine (if not outright OP) tanking for endgame merit parties. Sometimes you could even use them as an OT, depending how dangerous adds were. Perfect example of that would have been Vrtra.

Ahh the good ol' days, as far as how devs "defined" their classes/jobs. It had a lot of downsides to it, but the good was REALLY good. 30+ LS members fighting together, each party and alliance with specific roles, always meant that everyone* was invited to help out.

* = assuming there were no actual requirements to do it as a specific role/job

[basketofseals]

There are multiple MMORPGs breaking the Trinity mold. If they wanted to go for a FF feeling, they didn't have to go with the rest of them.

The only MMO that's doing well without the trinity, that I can think of, is GW2, and plenty of people here have mentioned dissatisfaction with that.

More importantly, the trinity is more important than just a trope that people are comfortable with. When you force people into playing a certain way, you can more finely tune an encounter to better suit a group's playstyle. If you cannot make an encounter that is viable for every group comp and have it be challenging unless roles are so homogenized that makeup matters little.

[Belhi]

Ironically GW2 has to an extent reintroduced a trinity set up in its new raid.

Fundamentally the trinity is valuable for both balancing and game design. It gives structure that allows for role diversity that creates a sense of variety in a game. In GW2 when they removed the trinity, healing and tank roles became useless which for people who enjoyed that style of gameplay greatly weakened the enjoyment factor of the game. A lot of people don't particularly enjoy dpsing.

The reality with gaming is the optimal will always rise to dominance, particularly in group content. Using a less optimal class by definition makes content harder for the others your playing with and makes you appear as a burden to be carried. Thus without a structure that allows for a diversity of strengths and weaknesses, you will simply have a handful of optimal roles rise to the top.

A support role is an interesting possibility but for it to work in the games meta it needs to be strong enough that you want to bring it. That also makes it something your expected to bring. For this reason, if they wanted to introduce a support role, they would need to release multiple support roles at once or convert existing classes into a support role (ie. BRD, MCH or AST). Otherwise you would have a Job that every group would need, regardless of if anyone in the static actually likes playing the Job.

[Khalithar]

The content would have to be balanced assuming you have no tank to mitigate any unavoidable single target stuff and no healer to deal with unavoidable aoe. It would have to be tuned very lightly for the sake of balance.

[Yellow]

Tank, Damage, Healing, Support.

[Derio]

Content would be turned into a snooze fest. Dcuo is an example of removing the trinity for dps sake