Quote Originally Posted by Chardrizard View Post
There is no need for multiple spells or multiple tiers, it might feels like you have more choice but it was never that way, there has always been only that choice of spells you'll use. It only gave you the illusion of freedom.

Easy example from XI or could be used for XIV,
Protect & Shell -> Wall
1238193819-na's -> Esuna
1231973719 Threnodies -> Threnody that reduce all magic resistance?
Fire I/II/III/IV/V/VI/VII/VIII/IX -> Fire that scales with your level, omg!

and 15/11 limit is only for level50cap, there is no doubt this will change as they increase level cap.
I think you're making confusion between "horizontal variety" and "vertical variety".
FFXIV was, like FFXI and many other titles, a game which made use of "vertical variety".
That means that each action gets learned at a certain level with fixed stats. At higher levels you learn a higher tier of the same action with better stats, and so on.
From 1.20 onwards FFXIV will use a different system, a "scaling system", just like WoW and other games use.
This system has a single version for each different action. The stats on these actions are not fixed and scale accordingly to your level.
There is no "better system" among these two, they're just different and have different pros and cons, I'm fine with both, that's absolutely NOT THE PROBLEM with me

Then you have "horizontal variety", which is harder to explain and has nothing to do with the vertical one. You have different versions of the SAME spell, to use in different situations.
A good example of these are the different elements.
For example Fire, Water, Thunder and so on. In a game system where you have 6 elements, each in a "weak to" / "strong to" relation to each other (the so called "elemental wheel") you need to make a choice which spell to use because some will be more efficient than others, some may even heal your target.
That has nothing to do with "Vertical Variety", which is going away and I'm fine with that.

If you make so all elements are the same and it's just a different animation, an important strategic aspect of FF will vanish into nothingness.
Of course, it may replaced by new interesting strategic aspects that weren't there before, but still, do I have the right to say I'm sad to see this going? Or do I have to pretend I'm happy/I don't care? (SUPPOSING this is going, it's just a risk at the moment, not a certainty I hope ^^)

Concerning your buffs and dispel example, in other games it's just called "homogeneization".
A bit of homogeneization is good imho, FFXI was probably too much unnecessarily complex in this regard.
So talking about the -na spells then yes, I can agree FFXI probably had too many.
But at the same time jumping from "too many" to "a single one" wouldn't it be a bit too radical of a change?
And, again, another loss of game depth, since it was a way to display your skills, strategy and decisional power to use the right -na at the right time.
So yeah, reducing them is all good, but making so there's a single one it's a bit too much.

And it's the same for buffs imho. Grouping some of them is fine, but overdo that and it's gonna end up like post 4.0 WoW, where buffs are so homogenized and similar to each other that they don't really matter anymore.
WoW doesn't have a "support" type of class, it only has Ranged DDs, melee DDs, tanks and healers. FFXIV probably wants to have supporters? Because if you homogeneize things too much you kinda kill the necessity of a supporter job/class.