Are role actions a nerf?

[Hamada]

If you are talking about normal trials/24-man: Just have protect slotted in advance, who cares? What are you missing then?
In 24-man you can switch it out if you want after the first boss. If you want to. If not, no big deal..

Because you sounded as if Protect have a short duration and need to be recast every time.

No I did not, and again a point is missed.

It is a skill road block for those of lesser skilled, and an annoyance for those that know what to do. Nothing good comes out of it except shifting the illusion of choice spectrum.

I underlined this for A REASON! Take a look at this:

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...=1#post3354919

Read every post in that thread. There is NO WAY you can sit here and tell me requiring the switching abilities in the middle of runs is not a skill roadblock for most.

Look at how people are confused on what to do with stat bonus points and you think people are going to be able manage this role system?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYU_eDMr4xE

Here is my reaction seeing what they put in the role system:

Personally I think this whole change is going to backfire hilariously.

I mean, think about it: SE has stated they want to (a) reduce button bloat, and (b) make the system more accessible / usable for casual players. Laudable goals, both, assuming they can be effectively achieved. But, it is arguable the nature of the role-based system might worsen both. Consider:

1.) Role-based skills are broad enough that it appears frequent swapping between skill combinations is encouraged. This means that users must integrate most or all of the Role-based skills onto their hotbars, rather than just the five I'd use now, all of which are relatively static.

2.) Role-based skills being flexible and guaranteed means the floodgates will be opened for players being told how to play. Think that situation is bad now? Wait until tanks start bitching at healers for not having Esuna selected. Wait until people wipe because the tank forgot to respec from a damage-oriented setup they were using for solo'ing. This isn't going to lead to a friendlier environment for casual or forgetful players.

Don't get me wrong, I think the role-based skill system is potentially a good idea - but it doesn't fix the problem. They've essentially removed the need to level other jobs, but shifted even MORE crucial abilities into optional skills. Healers in 3.x need to have Swiftcast, but now they need to make damned sure they've selected Esuna, too - and heaven help them if they don't. This would have worked a hell of a lot better if the role-based skills were optional things that gave non-crucial, but nonetheless useful, abilities. They should have behaved like Merit Point abilities in FFXI. Hell, they could have even allowed for the selection of a role-based Trait or two, something powerful, so people could really customize how their class felt. Instead, they've worsened almost all the problems of the cross-class system; the only thing they fixed (and it's debatable if this is a good thing or not) is the fact that players no longer have to level separate jobs they might not be interested in.

Truly a missed opportunity.