What if the new expansion doesn't a healer or a tank

[RukiaFae]

I wanted to get people's opinions on how they would feel if the new expansion doesn't have either a healer or a tank. They talked about not doing two jobs again so we will most likely only get two jobs. We know that SE loves DPS because that is a popular role. Also after seeing Geomancy they could easily make this a DPS job. So I feel like I could add in another DPS. With this in mind how would feel if we only received two jobs and it was just healer/dps or tank/dps combo?

I can't see them leaving one out because the other group would be extremely mad, because that would make two expansions without a new job. I also don't see them giving a new dps. I personally would be extremely disappointment if we don't get a healer/ tank.

[Derio]

Its very interesting. Although they said the numbers didnt rise in healer in tank population, I think the contrary was the numbers didnt rise as high as they would like. I was a SMN main all through 2.x until DRK was announced and went PLD towards the end of 2.x just for the class and ended up being a tank ever since.

They could only add dps job and I would be fine with that, especially considering the tank and healer balance that has happened since the start of 3.0

But they do owe tank and healer players a new job. I think many people would be angry and upset if they released 2 dps jobs in the next expansion.

[Avatre]

I can say it seemed like the numbers did rise for a short period of time for the number of active healers/tanks shortly after HW hit. Likewise, I think that the number of DPS slightly rose for a time with SB only have 2 new DPS classes. In the end, I don't think it makes as large an impact as they expect since the people will always gravitate towards what has/can/will keep their interest/is most enjoyable to them. Even if they add 50 new tanks tomorrow, I don't think it will be as large an impact as would be needed after the initial "OMG! NEW CLASS TO TRY AND MAX OUT!" subsides.

As for how I would feel, I would just feel like I have more to learn than what I currently do need to learn, so it would keep me invested in the game.

[TheGrimace]

I would really like more tanks and healers. DPS is great, but honestly I feel like we're getting over-saturated with those types of jobs. Giving more tanks and healers would give people more options to try if they're not interested in the current offerings.

[Souljacker]

Why did they think numbers would rise? Did the playerbase get bigger? It's pretty big, but it's not like people are flocking to this game that would inflate the numbers. Most people who would play as a healer or tank are already doing so with the jobs we have. Since they have loot lockouts you can only realistically gear one job at a time, so you have to make a choice. More people choose DPS as a general rule.

In fact, I don't play healer anymore because of the ridiculous DPS expectations. I leveled white mage because personally I like the class fantasy, but as far as queuing up with it? Maybe if there's a leveling healer bonus or I feel like AFK in raid roulette. That's about it. If I'm going to DPS I'm going to do it on Monk.

[Tridus]

If they don't, what will happen is early on there will be a flood of people playing the new DPS job, longer queues, and then it'll go back to the status quo.

If they do, there will be wild balance problems and people will be told not to play X tank and Y healer.

[LittleChickenNugget]

I'm fine with the tanks and healers we have now. There's only so many ways they can make holding aggro and healing your team interesting. The truth is, the people who aren't playing those classes now, likely won't because of a different flavor of tanking or healing being made available. People who don't like to tank or heal just aren't going to do it.

[Mahrze]

If they do, there will be wild balance problems and people will be told not to play X tank and Y healer.

I'd rather just them focus on the 3 we got of both tanks and heals and really experiment/expand on them. rather than playing catch up balance. Its already silly with just 3 of each rn.

[Hestzhyen]

I'm fine with the tanks and healers we have now. There's only so many ways they can make holding aggro and healing your team interesting. The truth is, the people who aren't playing those classes now, likely won't because of a different flavor of tanking or healing being made available. People who don't like to tank or heal just aren't going to do it.

It's not about recruiting people to play a role they don't already play, it's about giving those of us who already do more options.

SE designed themselves into a corner with the healer jobs so I don't think they'll be able to introduce a truly compelling new job in that space without sweeping changes to the combat system. I could see a new tank though- you're right in that there are only so many ways to hold aggro, but the flavor in how you do it matters. The flow and theme of the job are the most important ways to differentiate IMO. Healers have no flows, no combos, and play whack-a-mole with super powerful restorative spells due to the fundamental design of combat, so they are tricky to differentiate outside of SFX/VFX in this game. Tanks have more options available as they play more like DPS do with combos and OGCDs to weave in.

I will lose interest altogether if I see no new healer job in 5.0, but I can see them doing DPS/Tank at least.

[BroodingFicus]

I do understand why they held off on another healer and tank in Stormblood. Coming into it, Astro and Dark Knight were in an ok place but they'd been seemingly struggling to find a spot for them that didn't leave them feeling under powered or over superior to the existing jobs. I mean they're still really struggling to find that balance with the Dark Knight to this day so releasing two dps gave them the time to tweak the other roles. That said, I'd be rather miffed if they were left out again in the following expansion. Is adding more tanks and healers going to add to the pool of people who play them? For a time maybe, but really its going toward maintaining the people who already exist.

For example, I have been a White Mage since near the beginning of the game and even in HW I would still run content for the first time on that Job. However after that I leveled a new character as an Astro and would rotate between them here and there to break up the monotony of the grind. I never much cared for Scholar so I stayed away from it. It was having multiple options that kept me logging in daily to do the roulette and the like but it also kept me in the role of healer which meant I wasn't adding to bloated dps queues. Now in Stormblood, I still started out strong as a White Mage but once I was done with the MSQ and had done all the dungeons etc at the end game that I planned to, I found I gradually got tired of running it over and over on that one class and I'd lost interest in Astro. So what did I do? I leveled a Red Mage. Then a Black Mage. Now I probably spend about 50% of my game time healing and 50% as DPS. In fact I'm pretty sure my Black Mage is at the same item level or higher than my White Mage. I hadn't actually healed anything for close to a month before the new 24 man raid dropped and I did my first run through. I'd imagine I'm not the only one who has branched out to quell the boredom which only makes getting in as DPS harder.

Now one could argue that rather than adding new healers or tanks they could rework old ones and add new things but there is only so much you can do without alienating the people who already love a Job and just tagging on new moves here and there doesn't really make up for the lack of an entire new job to explore. Every job gets new moves each expansion and speaking personally, I don't consider the lily mechanic as ground breaking enough to be considered a 'rework'. Far from it. I'm not saying it'll be easy. Healers especially. I think it was too early on in the games life to add a job that was a hybrid of two existing ones and I think they'll struggle to come up with an original idea that is both distinct and viable but they'll have had a lot of time to do it by the next expansion and I think most people expect them to deliver. Would it stop me from playing FFXIV? No. But it would certainly lead to me spending more time on my other classes.

The long story short is that adding new tanks and healers isn't about pulling in new people. The people that enjoy that role are already playing it. Adding new ones is 'maintenance' on the existing population to keep them from being seduced away by the lure of DPS jobs, slowly decreasing the pool of available healers and tanks. It isn't about adding. Its about maintaining the status quo.