Will they ever add melee DPS without positional attacks?

[Lambdafish]

And BLM has Triplecast (60s), Swiftcast (60s), Sharpcast (60s), Aetherial Manipulation (10(!)s), F3/T3 proc, Between the Line (3s)
They DO have mobility, they just have to work harder for it.

So have a melee job that doesn't have positionals, but is restricted in its mobility in other ways. The argument being made is that positionals are needed to make melee jobs fun and balanced, when there are so many design ideas that could replace it to create a truly unique melee job that is just as rewarding.

[mosaicex]

So have a melee job that doesn't have positionals, but is restricted in its mobility in other ways

Multiple people already mentioned this (especially those who argued in favor of positionals, so it's not their job to come up with alternatives).
So why don't you be the hero and come up with some actual idea instead of just empty suggestion? Just for kicks, not like SE will listen to suggestions like these, especially from western playerbase.
Cast time maybe? Because people really love it right? Not to mention those preemptive bitching during SAM reveal that it might be melee with cast time (and it is, as watered down as it was)

[Liam_Harper]

I'm baffled that people believe positionals make for engaging melee dps gameplay. Quite a few other games with better combat have melee without positionals and still manage to be far more fun.

I believe myself that complexity in MMO combat should be in the boss mechanics, your rotation (easy to learn, hard to master), situations where your rotation allows you to adapt on the spot for extra damage, lining up dps cooldowns with boss phases where you have max uptime, making full use of all utility and so on. Navigating clunkiness like positionals on a spinning boss or animation locks isn't skill, it's artificial difficulty.

Positionals are just tedious sometimes in regular play too. For example as a ninja questing, you'll never get behind a mob for your finisher so you're always slightly gimped. Or trying to trick attack a SB A-rank while on the hunt deserves a medal if you pull it off more than half the time. These aren't necessary to play the game, but certainly don't make the combat feel smooth in day-to-day gaming.

[Dzian]

I'd quite happily scrap most of them.

Positional are one of the reasons I just don't play monk it's more a ball ache than it is something fun.

Ninja is fine because it only really has armour crush that's flank. Everything else is is just stay behind it and smack it. Sam is kinda nice that it only has 2. So you don't need to move that much other than mechanics.

[wereotter]

That was Ninja on release (save Trick/Sneak Attack). They were also busted on release.

Didn’t ninja always have a positional on Aeolian Edge too?

Either way it’s still a job with very few positionals.

[Sunako]

Ninja not have much positionals. You can stand most of time behind the boss and hit one attack every 30 sec from the flank.

[bustamanteverde]

Positionals are the main reason I do not play MNK even though I enjoy the class. I mained a Monk in WoW and enjoyed the fast faced punching and kicking. My first job in this game was PUG > MNK but I quickly tired of not only getting my rotation down but moving back and flank like a mad man or lose potency in my attacks. I now play PLD and RDM mostly and as a tank when I have a MNK in my group I always notice they are super hyperactive moving from back to flank. Between dodging boss aoes, mechanics, risk cleaves if boss is moved I would rather just toss spells from ranged.

I do not see the appeal but luckily we have SAM who plays how I wish MNK played.

[Lambdafish]

So why don't you be the hero and come up with some actual idea instead of just empty suggestion?

Asking me to design an entire job just to prove a point is a big ask, that is really unnecessary. We already have a melee job in the game that uses very little positioning in ninja, and tbh, I think that trick attacks positional will be removed soon (the ease of play route that they are going) making it truly a job without positionals. The reason that ninja can get away with this is because it has so much to do. Mudras, dot management, Huton, and ninki, all within a GCD that is faster than usual.

All you need to do to make a melee job that doesn't need positionals is give it plenty to do within its job identity. If you want an actual example, imagine dancer as a melee DPS (something I don't actually want), it would have plenty to do because it would have intense dance management in among its basic moveset, giving the player enough to do without needing positionals.

[Kabooa]

Multiple people already mentioned this (especially those who argued in favor of positionals, so it's not their job to come up with alternatives).
So why don't you be the hero and come up with some actual idea instead of just empty suggestion? Just for kicks, not like SE will listen to suggestions like these, especially from western playerbase.
Cast time maybe? Because people really love it right? Not to mention those preemptive bitching during SAM reveal that it might be melee with cast time (and it is, as watered down as it was)

Reset Mechanics.
Imagine Monk for a second, but Forbidden Chakra uses reset, say, Howling Fist. New considerations and priorities arise out of this.

Ramp Up
Enpi gains a Sweet Spot debuff that lasts for 12 seconds. In the last 2 seconds, Enpi damage against this target adds the damage the previous Enpi has added while increasing the TP cost.

Distance Damage Modifiers
Dragoons deal more damage the further they are away from the target.

[Rayo]

I honestly like positional attacks, Makes melee more than a Point blank DPS Turret which many other MMOs basically treat Melee as. Honestly if you don't like positionals, just stand in front of the Raid Boss with the tank if you want, instead of being in the back near the positional sweet spot where it takes a literal step to switch between behind and flank.

How about we just give melee some more ranged options and shorten caster cast time to the point its basically instant, homogenize all the jobs even further