Last straw

[CTSwiftheal]

We have beaten Moogle multiple times pre and post 1.20a, we had lancers, pugs, and mrds in almost every group. 2 arc is good for rotating binds on the gld but as long as the players know their job well enough (hint: read and understand their abilities and combos) and dont stand in the fire any job can be a great dps. ie. some pug combos spike 1k+ dmg

[NoctisUmbra]

We have beaten Moogle multiple times pre and post 1.20a, we had lancers, pugs, and mrds in almost every group. 2 arc is good for rotating binds on the gld but as long as the players know their job well enough (hint: read and understand their abilities and combos) and dont stand in the fire any job can be a great dps. ie. some pug combos spike 1k+ dmg

PGL is the greatest single target damage dealer at the moment from what I can tell. Call it stigma from previous patches, or down right ignorance, but people just don't want to escape their comfort zones.

[syntaxlies]

PGL is the greatest single target damage dealer at the moment from what I can tell. Call it stigma from previous patches, or down right ignorance, but people just don't want to escape their comfort zones.

also one of the hardest classes to play as you need to be a good DD and know elemental weakness of mobs. my pug is 42, ive been doing GC leves. Using flame fist i do x2 damage on bombs and can kill them much faster then my other classes.will be a nice class in the future when hey add more elemental stances and better mp recovery.

[NoctisUmbra]

also one of the hardest classes to play as you need to be a good DD and know elemental weakness of mobs. my pug is 42, ive been doing GC leves. Using flame fist i do x2 damage on bombs and can kill them much faster then my other classes.will be a nice class in the future when hey add more elemental stances and better mp recovery.

Yea, I won't say they are easy to play. There's a lot to manage if you want to maximize your DPS - but the rewards are very much so there. I've been practicing PGL extensively while doing GC leves amassing seals for promotions/items. All that practice has allowed me to figure out a number of tricks to pull off combos with near 100% success. Only times I fail are due to some form of lag.

Paying attention to elemental weaknesses though, it pays off. If there is any mob that is weak to fire, set a PGL off on it in Fire Fists and its AA will strike like a string of weaponskills, and its weaponskills hit like massive single target nukes.

In many ways, PGL sort of feels like the antithesis of ARC.

[CTSwiftheal]

I try to run my linkshell fair, i don't force anyone to level anything that they don't want to, the people that don't level their classes for the basic abilities that help (Sentinel and Raise) just have to wait until the strat is hammered out. In our large member base only about 14 of us have all 7 classes to 50, and its those people that are there every day willing to fill any role in the party. the people that only have 1 or 2 classes to 50 are only online 1 or 2 days of the week and i try to work around them to form a winning party so everyone is happy. (Can not make everyone happy, it is impossible)

[IStolzI]

I can sympathize for TC. I can never seem to get a group for these battles, and when I do it's far from a winning one.

[Gramul]

So basically you're saying you either play the flavor of the month or get left behind? Yeah, that's sure going to keep the playerbase happy.

That will change with the addition of content.

It's only "flavor of the month" because we only get one battle every update. When the game is "complete" we'll have many different battles that will favor different classes. And it's not like Ifrit is gone or anything.

You're not going to be left "behind". You're just not useful for this battle.

However, most of the time in other MMOs, outside of very specific fights and setups, you won't be rejected by 90% of the community because you aren't class X.

Sure, in FFXIV we can change classes, but what you're saying is simply: "Leveled X to cap only to discover no one does endgame on X? Too bad, level up Y or gtfo, we don't want lazy players" which is stupid. All classes should be equally viable on most endgame fights, then people with multiple classes should have an extra advantage due to that fact, instead of the current fights that does "enforce" cookie cutter stacking setups that the community will obviously jump on once discovered.

But the main feature of the game presented is the fact that you're supposed to change classes to fit whatever situation you're in. No, I don't think all classes should be viable for most endgame fights. I think we should have a wide range of enemies that require different strategies and setups to defeat. Something that takes advantage of the class flexibility we have. If you don't want to level another class to participate in a fight well suited for that class, suit yourself, you don't have to fight it.

I'd rather not sacrifice variety for equality in this case. Especially sense we only have 2 of these fights so far.

[NoctisUmbra]

You're not going to be left "behind". You're just not useful for this battle.

Careful. Last thing people need is to hear more lies. Every class is useful for the fight. ARC is the the easiest.

I can sympathize for TC. I can never seem to get a group for these battles, and when I do it's far from a winning one.

So you blame the game? Seems like the popular thing to do now.

[Ava]

I think SE needs to seriously look at what other MMORPGs are doing and adopt some of their balance habits. Something several MMOs have done that has worked wonderfully for class balance is give classes exclusive raid buffs. This way, an archer can do less dps, but if it can give your entire party an accuracy or attack power aura, then it would be worth taking one anyways. Or if Marauder gave a str/vit buff to everyone, and GLA gave the entire party like 5% damage reduction, etc. As of now, the only thing they have even close to this outside of CJR protect is a couple WS effects which seem completely underwhelming, and aren't personal buffs.

This would enable them to make certain classes damage output slightly lower than others while giving them the utility of buffing the others with no sacrifice to the group's total dps. If there is no utility outside of ranged/melee, and everyone is balanced to do similar dps, parses will always pick out one that is like .5 avg dps higher and people will ask for only those people because this is what FFXI trained people to do. Classes need more utility. A lot more. If they don't do it with jobs, then this game will suffer the same fate FFXI did. BLM/RNG only.

[Firon]

I agree with NoctisUmbra i have gotten my wins on pgl my ls makes it work and we do well. Even with x4 arc it does not = win. Another problem i think most people have in this game they always have the filter on that shows when a mob readies an attack and the can't dodge then blame it on lag~