[dev1206] The effects of Protect and Shell have been made mutually exclusive

[Jinko]

I have a friend that fell in love with thaumaturge for the cone effect. I, too, was enjoying the different AoE. Cone being more offensively oriented while circle AoE defensive for party. It was combat dynamic, now it's being oversimplified again... they could just have shown the area of effect on the screen instead.

I would actually argue that the cone shape was better for healing and casting buffs.

Like Firon suggested it would have been nice if they allowed both classes to toggle between the two types or maybe have different stances.

[Bahn]

I would actually argue that the cone shape was better for healing and casting buffs.

Like Firon suggested it would have been nice if they allowed both classes to toggle between the two types or maybe have different stances.

That would add a whole slew of considerations you need to make for balancing spells. By Square dictating whether a spell can be a Cone or Circle-type, they don't have to worry as much about balancing a spell. By allowing the player to actually make a spell do both, although it's better for casters (more flexibility and strategy), it makes balancing the spell tougher because now you have to worry about how effective the spell would be in a cone vs a circle, and we all know that Square has some serious problems properly balancing classes compared to other companies - I don't want to add yet another dimension that Square may screw up on, as much as I would LOVE the better strategy it would give us if we had the option of selecting between the two AoE types.