Tank population drop after Stormblood?

[kashi11]

Anyone else worried there won't be enough tanks for heavenward and below content when Stormblood launches? With the introduction of new DPS jobs I'm worried the 50-60 instances will suffer from long queue times, as many main tanks will either be pushing new content or testing out the new jobs. Perhaps duty roulette will help out with tanks leveling from 60-70, but who knows.

[Jpec07]

Not really.

In Heavensward, they introduced new jobs in tanking and healing roles to try to get people to shift into those roles to play the Shiny New Thing (TM) (if I remember right, it was at about 20-20-60 for tank-heal-dd). What they found was that despite the new jobs being in the less desirable roles, it had zero impact on the ratios of players picking different roles. So what they're doing in Stormblood makes sense, bringing the availability of diversity in jobs more closely in line with actual player role selection ratios.

I don't think it will hurt the population. Maybe at first, since everyone is going to want to level RDM and SMR (SAM?), but I don't think it's going to stay that way in endgame. Tanks will still want to tank, DDs will still want the l33t d33pz, and healers will still wonder why they think they enjoy covering for everyone else's incompetence and cursing their fat-fingering of Cleric Stance.

[Zojha]

So what they're doing in Stormblood makes sense, bringing the availability of diversity in jobs more closely in line with actual player role selection ratios.

Alas, they're not adjusting the party slot ratio to match as well.

I agree that in the long run, there won't be too much change. But the start is gonna be a royal pain and I really hope PotD is going to stay a decent XP source.

[TheSky]

While it is true that that it didn't increase the overall population much, it did keep it afloat.

With no new jobs there isn't much to keep Tanks and Healers interested apart from their main, considering they had time to try out the old jobs already to see if they like them or not.

[Jpec07]

While it is true that that it didn't increase the overall population much, it did keep it afloat.

With no new jobs there isn't much to keep Tanks and Healers interested apart from their main, considering they had time to try out the old jobs already to see if they like them or not.

I don't think this claim can be substantiated. Neither the addition of nothing but a DPS job (NIN), nor the addition of a mix of special jobs (DRK-AST-MCH) had any kind of impact on the population ratio. People who want to tank are going to keep tanking. People who want to heal are going to keep healing. People who want the l33t d33pz are going to keep DPSing, and it's a little fallacious to suggest that the addition (or lack of addition) of a new job for each of those roles is going to have an impact on their respective populations in the long term.

I guess we'll have to see with Stormblood, but I would guess that the main reason to keep playing for most players is content and story, rather than new classes/jobs in their chosen role.

[Risvertasashi]

Anyone else worried there won't be enough tanks for heavenward and below content when Stormblood launches? With the introduction of new DPS jobs I'm worried the 50-60 instances will suffer from long queue times, as many main tanks will either be pushing new content or testing out the new jobs. Perhaps duty roulette will help out with tanks leveling from 60-70, but who knows.

According to Yoshi, PotD and Fates and such are supposed to keep this from happening.

[Alien_Gamer]

I'm interested in playing the new classes but my WAR will always be my priority and it'll be what I get to 70 first. Heck, I may even level both DRK and PLD to 70 before starting the new classes just to avoid the huge DPS queues for the first few months. Most of the tanks I know in game feel the same so I'm not worried about it. We may lose a few tanks to the deeps, deeps may lose a few to tanks for the queue times; overall I expect it to stay similar to what it was for HW.

[Venjenz]

I'm interested in playing the new classes but my WAR will always be my priority and it'll be what I get to 70 first. Heck, I may even level both DRK and PLD to 70 before starting the new classes just to avoid the huge DPS queues for the first few months. Most of the tanks I know in game feel the same so I'm not worried about it. We may lose a few tanks to the deeps, deeps may lose a few to tanks for the queue times; overall I expect it to stay similar to what it was for HW.

This tank agrees. WAR to 70 first, then PLD and DRK. And I am one who can only endure PotD for short bursts. As much as I can complain about DF sometimes, I prefer mixing up the dungeons and seeing changes of scenery. So no drop off of dungeon running for me. =)

[SpookyGhost]

Parry rework might draw some people in if it's interesting enough. I imagine, though, that with the introduction of no new tank jobs and 2 DPS jobs that we'll see at least a small decline in tank population. I'm personally not that interested in WAR anymore unless they decide to re-focus tanks on balancing defense and DPS rather than just being pure DPS that occasionally press defensive CDs. Dunno how many other tanks feel that way, I think a lot love it since it makes tanks the easiest jobs to play in the game, but I'm personally not a huge fan - if I'm basically just going to be DPSing anyway I'd rather just play a pure DPS and do more damage.

[Risvertasashi]

Parry rework might draw some people in if it's interesting enough. I imagine, though, that with the introduction of no new tank jobs and 2 DPS jobs that we'll see at least a small decline in tank population. I'm personally not that interested in WAR anymore unless they decide to re-focus tanks on balancing defense and DPS rather than just being pure DPS that occasionally press defensive CDs. Dunno how many other tanks feel that way, I think a lot love it since it makes tanks the easiest jobs to play in the game, but I'm personally not a huge fan - if I'm basically just going to be DPSing anyway I'd rather just play a pure DPS and do more damage.

Well, there was an interview that strongly suggested Paladin's options for defending against magic attacks are going to be increased. So it is nice to see defensive stuff is being looked at in some ways.

That said, the WAR crowd tends to attract a lot of hardcore DPSers... No news on it yet but, yeah, if SE touched that (more than they had to with the STR/VIT rework already), I can imagine a lot of people would be upset.