How do you feel about Role Actions?

[Shurrikhan]

The problem with initial role action system in Stormblood, as far as customisation went, is that it made you choose between actions which were completely unrelated in function. Rather than letting you choose from a pool, you should make focused decisions.

As an example, consider Low Blow and Interject. If you have a dedicated "interrupt" slot, you're now forced to choose depending on the fight. Another example is Provoke and Ultimatum. Every tank needs an enmity grab. But what if you were asked to choose between range and recast? There are situations in which each might provide an advantage.

Let's look at Protect. Right now, it exists simply because it's a classic Final Fantasy spell. But how can you make it interesting? Pyros gave us the answer: have Protect cover physical damage, and its counterpart Shell cover magical damage. If they're mutually exclusive, then you're forced to make some decisions over the course of prog based off of what you think the predominant damage type is. You could do something similar with a physical Rampart and, say, a magical Shadowskin as well, instead of keeping Rampart as a must pick that stays on your bars.

I'm not sure there's any advantage to this, either, though, unless one simply like playing around in menus between each pull or at the start of each new trial, etc. Is there any gameplay advantage to swapping between Provoke on ranged add or boss pulls and Ultimatum for trash, on the incredible rarity that you die in a dungeon or have two tanks in a trash fight that also somehow requires a swap? You could as easily wrap both effects in one, generating a higher recast time when affecting more mobs.

Same with Low Blow vs. Reprisal vs. Interject. Reprisal is worthless on mobs, Low Blow on bosses, and Interject except on bosses who cast. Is the gameplay somehow more compelling because for a brief moment you stopped said gameplay and played around with menus instead of simply having a degradable action that covers all three effects (Stun; else: cast Silence + damage suppression; else: full damage suppression)?

Protect vs. Shell? We'd just swap it with the related fight. In 8-mans, one would cast whichever and the other would have to hop into their menus, swap to the opposite, and cast that, all without making Protect or Shell any more compelling for the game itself.

You'd be adding additional irritants without any appreciable gameplay value.