This game has lost it's identity again.... (Ranting Thread)

[Vahlnir]

FFXIV's predictability is a feature not a problem xD.

It has the potential to be both. Personally, I like knowing what I'm going to get, but I would also love to be surprised...and I mean pleasantly surprised, not horrified. The game does, at least at this point, need a bit of a shake up to the formula. Even if it's not progression content it needs...something new. Tbh, I would just be happy if they revamped Lords of Verminion to function more like pet battles in WoW. That alone would probably keep people busy for awhile and give people incentive to run old content for minions. It's not a new idea but it'd be new for this game, anyway. The game does need something truly new though, new and successful.

[Kaylessa]

I started out as SMN but went healers and the fact they didn't add another healer and the generic feel to the current 3. This is not what I call a final fantasy game.

Healing is in a horrible spot right now

[Averax]

I don't think that means what you think it means, OP

But i agree, the lack of innovation for our endgame formula does wear away at me, but this isn't the only MMO i play. I play here more when things are bad over there because there's a level of consistency i can come to expect from the game, which is nice.

But if i played this as a main MMO it would make me very bored to know that nothing has really changed, and nothing ever will change.

[ShannaraFan]

I don't play healers much so I don't have much to add there, but your point about the game remaining the same after all these years is spot on, and it's a bit frustrating. I've returned to the game 5 times now, 3 of those times was at the start of a new expansion. I don't know why but for whatever reason, each time I return I expect some fundamental change that's different from the established formula, and I'm always left disappointed. The sheer refusal to move outside the box is maddening, and the reasons they provide for them are even more so.

- No diversity across the same jobs. The idea that every single Bard, Paladin, Black Mage etc are identical to one another. No paths to choose, no skill trees etc.

- No special stats, set bonuses, unique gear. For example, a shield that improves the effect of cover

And many more things like this. And the reasoning behind it? They think we'll establish a meta and then start to discriminate against those that don't follow it. It's like we're children who need to have our hands held. I mean I understand the logic, but people are still facing discrimination and/or harassment anyway. You'll never be able to shield us from everything so please, enough of the status quo in the name of equality. The game has become a hamster wheel of MSQ, tome farming, and Savage raids

[RareItems]

Healing is in a horrible spot right now

Healing is actually extremely fun once you figured it out. I play SCH usually deal lots of DPS for mass pulls and still able to keep the tank above 50% most of the time. Stacking spellspeed instead of Crit/Det helps a lot especially with the new MP/TP Changes.

[Taebok]

An MMO is supposed to be a never ending treadmill.
You want "growth" you end up with WoW where the game you loved changes so much you don't recognize it anymore.

[Vahlnir]

An MMO is supposed to be a never ending treadmill.
You want "growth" you end up with WoW where the game you loved changes so much you don't recognize it anymore.

A game can grow without changing how it works at its core. The issue with WoW is that they change the game up just for the heck of it every expansion so it all feels "fresh". What it really did after a few times was result in the game losing its identity entirely. I don't even recognize WoW anymore. It lost everything that made it WoW to begin with.

[EaMett]

Healing is actually extremely fun once you figured it out. I play SCH usually deal lots of DPS for mass pulls and still able to keep the tank above 50% most of the time. Stacking spellspeed instead of Crit/Det helps a lot especially with the new MP/TP Changes.

WHM is fun. AST is busy and underwhelming. SCH is definitely less fun than it was during SB. I'm not talking subjectively but from a game design and player expression perspective. So much wrong currently that I wouldn't know where to start but I'm jumping in because this is pretty strange advice. Spell speed does nothing for your mana regen. It only makes you spend it faster. Also the changes to regen are pretty underwhelming, you need to stack a lot of piety for it to make any kind of significant difference. Not to mention spell speed has a diminishing return and given the levels of crit we have you will do more damage with crit than you would with spell speed. At a certain point (depending on ping first then hard in game limits) it can screw up your double weaving as well.

Sticking to traditional crit/det is pretty much the way to go.

[Nayout]

The last time that an MMO that I play tried to change the formula of its patches I finish shortening these of 5 to 3 and throwing content every 6-9 months. I prefer to KNOW when an update is coming and also know what it is going to have without waiting months for information.

I do not want the core change, I want the core expanded and improved.

[Razard]

I don't play healers much so I don't have much to add there, but your point about the game remaining the same after all these years is spot on, and it's a bit frustrating. I've returned to the game 5 times now, 3 of those times was at the start of a new expansion. I don't know why but for whatever reason, each time I return I expect some fundamental change that's different from the established formula, and I'm always left disappointed. The sheer refusal to move outside the box is maddening, and the reasons they provide for them are even more so.

- No diversity across the same jobs. The idea that every single Bard, Paladin, Black Mage etc are identical to one another. No paths to choose, no skill trees etc.

- No special stats, set bonuses, unique gear. For example, a shield that improves the effect of cover

And many more things like this. And the reasoning behind it? They think we'll establish a meta and then start to discriminate against those that don't follow it. It's like we're children who need to have our hands held. I mean I understand the logic, but people are still facing discrimination and/or harassment anyway. You'll never be able to shield us from everything so please, enough of the status quo in the name of equality. The game has become a hamster wheel of MSQ, tome farming, and Savage raids

You answered your own question there buddy. Their design philosophy has been "any Job can complete any content". They wan't to avoid the "leper class" or "Balanced so poorly having this Job in your party is an active detriment (looking at you FFXI)" phenomenon endemic in other MMO's. We do have it slightly better because you can change classes on the fly, but no one want's their favorite class to be on the bottom.

Also "Meta exists so lets just make it worse" isn't the answer.