Quote Originally Posted by Kinseykinz View Post
To those that want all event mobs/hardcore stuff to be class balanced: Unless you want every Mob to do similar damage and be more or less the same this is pretty much impossible. I mean even when I go out soloing as a CNJ vs soloing as GLA, there are different mobs each class kills better/worse. It's part of playing a video game...any video game. Different abilities/jobs/classes work better in different situations. So yes, there is an 'ideal' party set-up for Darkhold and for Ifrit right now BUT it is also completely possible, and not SOOO much harder, to do it with a different setup. No one is really left in the dark....some classes just have to work harder than others in certain fights. Down the road there WILL be mobs that PGL will EAT up, BLM will nuke the crap out of, PLD will tank like the pro he is. Everyone will get there battles...we just only have a handful to do right now and that's what makes people frustrated.
Well said Kinsey.

It would be nice in an ideal world to have every single class *perfectly* balanced so that they all did the exact same damage, or were perfectly balanced to be equal in every single fight, but that's not going to happen.

I posted a similar idea awhile back:

As long as Square releases Dungeons / Raids / NMs that can be beaten by all classes - within an acceptable range of effort / skill (so average players in each class can clear it) - then it's OK to have some Content be more advantageous to use certain classes.

The key is that right now, Square doesn't have enough Max Level Content to provide that spectrum. If, by the time 2.0 rolls around, we had a variety of content like this:

  • Dungeon 1: Has Encounters / Bosses that Archers / Bards are more advantageous at, BUT all Classes can overcome.
  • Dungeon 2: Has Encounters / Bosses that Pugilists / Close-Range Melee are more advantageous at, BUT all Classes can overcome.
  • Dungeon 3: Has Encounters / Bosses that favors Marauder Tanking, BUT all Classes can overcome.
  • Dungeon 4: Has Encounters / Bosses that favors Gladiator Tanking, BUT all Classes can overcome.
  • Dungeon 5: Has Encounters / Bosses that favors Conjurers, BUT all Classes can overcome.
  • Dungeon 6: Has Encounters / Bosses that favors Thaumaturges, BUT all Classes can overcome.
etc.


Then I think we'd see less issues. There'd be content that would advantageous for each Class where they're "needed" more, or put in the spotlight, and that's OK.


The Community-side issues of "demanding" "Archer ONLY" or "Lancer ONLY" is a separate issue, but hopefully that can be improved with education (that those demanding only 1 setup can realize that it can be overcome with all Classes).


Look at one of the most demanding genres of games, where balance is always being sought after: Fighting Games.


Is every single Fighter in a roster "equally balanced"? No.


There are always Tier 1, 2, 3, etc. levels of characters in every fighting game, and the developers spend much of their time desperately trying to balance each fighter and they still have balance issues.


But people can still have fun and can skillfully use, say, T. Hawk, Blanka, Dhalsim, Sakura or Vega and still be competitive vs. Yun, Sagat, Fei Long or Ryu, etc. even though they aren't 100% equal or 100% balanced with each other.


I'd rather see Class Uniqueness and each of them have Advantages and Disadvantages than having SE try to achieve a 100% Perfect Balance / Equal Damage / Equal Heal / Equal Tank scenario, where every single DD class does the exact same amount of damage.