Quote Originally Posted by Jocko View Post
As of right now, pure DPS is all that matters. With the current system, debuffs as well as tactics such as positioning, stunning to prevent WS's from going off, kiting, anything in general really are made completely useless. That not only makes combat feel dull, but also harms the creativity and viability of interesting class types.
Stuns would have to be on lower cooldowns, or introduce interrupts and give them the lower cooldowns so that the stuns can then be used for crowd control instead.

Debuffing has to get away from the asinine design of FFXI, and that requires re-imagining a whole bunch of the spells. Paralyze preventing actions on proc is OP'd. Silence preventing spell casting is OP'd. Amnesia as we knew it in XI was OP'd from a player character perspective (hence why players never got access to it). I would even venture and say we should shift towards group buffs provided by different classes (both War and Magic disciplines), and perhaps design debuff potency so that in a 24-man raid the debuffs stack up to a certain point to avoid overlap. Something like DRK using Riot Blade to reduce defense, then RDM using Dia to lower defense even further, and both effects stacking. Say you don't have a DRK but have a DNC instead in that DPS slot; then you can have them use Box step to help your group reach that Defense Down cap on a boss level mob.

Classes like Green Mage would completely flounder. Longer, more varied battles would alleviate those issues.
I disagree. Green Mage would suffer if it was limited solely to buffs and debuffs. It would have to be (IMO) designed as a HoT-focused healer to enter the healer roster alongside WHM, with some buffs to help the group out (+Attack, +Spell Power).