Are role actions a nerf?

[Nicodemus_Mercy]

There is an indication. Cleric Stance will be way less mandatory to do healer dps than it is now.

It's also "the best-case scenario [...] now provide[ing an] optional 'boosts' to existing abilities.", right?

Heavy 40% for 20s, 50 potency, on a GCD doesn't sound very mandatory, too.

Pulling someone over to you every 150s? Mandatory my butt.

Surecast? Mandatory. NOT.

So why jump a horse over the hedge because of Divine Seal or Shroud?

Maybe rezz is not a 7ish s cast, but a normal 2,5s one now.
Then even Swiftcast for AST not mandatory anymore.

Maybe they finally fixed Protect as being the most boring and one of the most mandatory abilities at the same time.

The few things we know all indicate that role-based skills are optional and by way not mandatory to accomplish your given task.
We also know that SCH keeps it's thingies and that one of the goals of all this is to bring jobs of one role in line.
So SCH is another indication that the optional skills will not be mandatory for the other ones as well or that they likely have similar capabilities (or at least any capability) in the specific field.

"I use X ability all the time in Stormblood [and if they're still as mandatory and we don't get any compensation, then DEVS suck balls." is all you need to say right now. Yes, maybe they are. Maybe they are not. We'll see. But asking or assuming if they actually are, before we see, is kinda pointless.

"If they do a bad balance this game will be worse" isn't a moot point.


Even though I know that CS will be a pretty small addition, how could I say now "I won't take it"? Do I know the other options in detail? No.

The problem is the number of abilities that many feel ARE mandatory in the shared role action list, basically limiting or outright removing any choice at all.

What do I consider mandatory for me as a healer?

Protect - Assuming it does in 4.0 what it does now, healers will be the only ones able to provide this buff.

Swiftcast - Assuming resses aren't made instant cast by default.

Lucid Dream - Assuming each healer isn't getting its own mp recovery tool (and why would they when the goal was to prune things)

Esuna - I consider the ability to cleanse debuffs essential.

That's four out of five picks I can't live without. And if Affection (the ability using the Divine Seal icon) turns out to be Divine Seal and that WHM has lost Divine Seal as a default skill, I'd be VERY hard pressed to choose any of the other choices over it. My role as a healer means that I need to be the best healer I can be and that means having all the tools I feel I need to perform that role.

Now you might say I am making a lot of assumptions here, but I say so are you. You're assuming we'll be getting replacements for all these skills moved into shared role skills or things will change so much that we won't "need" them, and I say that's a hell of an assumption. I can only go by what SE has shown so far. And what they have shown me is that 4 out of 5 of my shared role actions "choices" have already been made for me... 5 if Affection turns out to be Divine Seal, so no choices at all. I'll happily endure any embarrassment if it turns out I am being overly concerned for nothing, but right now I think I am justified with my concern.