What Happened to Customization & Specialization?

[Gemina]

"Hmm... should I take rescue, or cleric stance? This particular boss has an insta-kill mechanic that often gets newer players, but also has an add phase and adding cleric to my AoE will help get through it faster"

*takes cleric stance*

*MT dies to mechanic. OT never leaves DPS stance. Boss goes bing bangy boom and wipes group before add phase even shows up*

"Shit! If only I had rescue"

This is an extreme example, so no need to scrutinize this situation but its bearing on this topic is to provide an example of this "player's choice" leading to kicking yourself in the butt. You think you have a choice, but you really don't. Not in an mmo like FFXIV, and the illusion of this choice is likely leading players to thinking they are being stripped of it.

To add, I never perceived role skills to separate one player from another playing the same job. It's how they use the tools given to them. One SCH might keep her fairy on sic, while the other SCH using maybe one different role skill keeps hers on obey. This alone puts miles between them. The latter example is a more optimal customization to the group.

[Shurrikhan]

This. Customizable abilities in multiplayer games are either mandatory or worthless. There is no middle ground, and if you aren't using the agreed upon ideal set up, you are essentially harassing everyone you play with by holding them back.

There is absolutely a middle ground unless fights are entirely homogeneous and/or the changes between choices have no cost beyond exiting combat.

A build may be faster for x section of x dungeon, but suffer in y portion or y dungeon or with z overlapping functionalities in z composition.

For every person who decided "why even think about flexible play -- I'll just copy the recommended builds online" at least 3 more were using adaptations of their leveling, tweaked further and further, and frequently outperformed them in all but the most target-dummy-like content. At perfect play in an exact encounter one or a few builds may have some 1-6% greater maximal throughputs, but even then they may suffer if, say, someone drops an AoE on their more turret-esque optimal build, ultimately performing beneath another "gutter trash leveling-tainted" build.

[Kaurhz]

10 role actions? SE has just made role actions irrelevant in their entirety since pretty much every "role" only supports 10 actions anyway. WHY?!?!?

[Gemina]

10 role actions? SE has just made role actions irrelevant in their entirety since pretty much every "role" only supports 10 actions anyway. WHY?!?!?

The role skill system in itself is already flawed to begin with, and has been since 4.0 was released. I can't speak for DPS since I don't play the role, but for tanks and healers, this isn't that big of a deal, and actually might improve QoL a little bit (healers for sure since we no longer will have to swap Protect/Esuna). The system needs to be reworked though (again), but likely won't happen until 5.0. So this is our band-aid for now.

Personally, I find having to swap skills in and out based on the situation cumbersome. I don't want to give the impression that I am lazy, but there is a difference between wanting everything handed to you, and certain job - in this case role skill mechanics - being clunky, and just making things more difficult than they have to be.

For healers in particular, they all use a standard set up of Swiftcast, Lucid Dreaming, Largesse, and Protect/Esuna macroed to give them an additional slot. SCH's can possibly forego Largesse in favor of Eye4Eye since they have innate abilities to increase their healing potency, and need that skill to take full advantage of Deployment Tactics (another design flaw). So the healers have to choose that last skill based on not only the fight, but also in anticipation of how your group might perform if running PUGs. This leads to a possibility of making the wrong choice like in the example in my previous post. It's not game breaking, but it still sucks knowing something could have been avoided if you brought along the right skill.

This current system, just doesn't work with how FFXIV is designed. By giving us the remaining slots, they have basically scrapped it without taking away the skills that are there. Peeps are making it seem like this is unfair, and I don't just don't see it. They even left the useless skills like Break in case for reason, you still want to use them.

[KisaiTenshi]

This current system, just doesn't work with how FFXIV is designed. By giving us the remaining slots, they have basically scrapped it without taking away the skills that are there. Peeps are making it seem like this is unfair, and I don't just don't see it. They even left the useless skills like Break in case for reason, you still want to use them.

I wouldn't say it's been scrapped, it's just been relegated to rubbish tools in the toolbox. Had they scrapped it, they would have returned the skills to the jobs. That is why I believe the "temporary" part of this comes in. They likely intend to remove it for 5.0. And with doing so, we will likely see the old skills return, and a few of the skills added by 4.0 like Rescue (which was the only skill added to healers that wasn't gutted from the base skills, even Break was the status effect from Aero) added permanently. They need to give each job it's own identity back.

[Gemina]

I wouldn't say it's been scrapped, it's just been relegated to rubbish tools in the toolbox. Had they scrapped it, they would have returned the skills to the jobs. That is why I believe the "temporary" part of this comes in. They likely intend to remove it for 5.0. And with doing so, we will likely see the old skills return, and a few of the skills added by 4.0 like Rescue (which was the only skill added to healers that wasn't gutted from the base skills, even Break was the status effect from Aero) added permanently. They need to give each job it's own identity back.

Yeah, by "scrapped" I mean they intend to do away with it, or at least as it is currently. Healers, tanks, and DPS all have their respective gripes about the role skills and soooo many jobs have lost a sense of their identity as a result of this system. I believe it is indicative that the devs acknowledge their derp, even if they won't just come out and say it.

I don't think it needs to go away entirely, but I also sometimes think it just should in order to retain job identity to the fullest. They just really need to evaluate and highly consider what they put in there, and probably not even call it "Role Skills" as the name is misleading. "Additional" is just fine. Some of the current ones make sense and I also think this system can get by with just 2-3 slots, and maybe 5-6 available skills. None of which, are needed for that particular job to perform their role. Instead, it would give the player the choice on how they would like to facilitate it. Your other party members couldn't care less what you choose to use.

I don't know if that's the best approach, but it is how I see things. I do like the idea of current role skills returning to their respective owners, along with the other skill that were lost. I didn't play DRK when they had dark dance and shadow skin, and even then I miss them.