People wanting a support class. Why?

[RoyalBeef]

A Bard's song is suppose to invigorate and motivate others who hears it to fight harder. That was the whole point behind their job story quests, right?

I just remembered this xD

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0004.html

[Miu-Tiiu]

I just remembered this xD

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0004.html

HEY!!!

At least he tried....

[Connor]

I feel like making the ranged DPS role an actual support oriented DPS role, then we wouldn’t need to have this conversation. Right now it’s the ‘do lower DPS than melee’ role. And that’s with rDPS added.

I’ve come to the conclusion that we’ll never get more support options. I’d wouldn’t be surprised if they just stop adding utility to any job from now, because the sad truth is that there just isn’t enough demand. Nobody cares about abilities that don’t deal direct damage, not enough for them to seriously consider the role of utility in Ffxiv. It’s so rare to see a Bard using Minne, or a Dancer using Curing Waltz of Improvisation. Because ultimately if they don’t deal damage, nobody will use them (unless you want to be called bad), especially if we ever get a support ability that’s not an oGCD (which currently does not exist on any job as far as I’m aware). It’s a total overreaction I know, but at the same time, I do find myself with very little faith that ‘utility’ will ever be more than a side thought in FFXIV

Naturally this applies to all healers as well. I’m coming across more and more Astrologians that just don’t use cards anymore. At all. Scholar only has a single button that doesn’t heal or damage the target (directly or indirectly), and if it had even one more I doubt we’d see it used often unless it was a direct damage increase. And White Mages have no party utility anyway outside of Temperance which - surprise, surprise - I see is considered either weak or useless.

Not gonna lie, it kinda makes me want to just stop playing. I know every reply in this thread is going to be a ‘lol later loser’ now, but still, there comes a point where a playstyle gets so watered down that it doesn’t exist anymore. I’m not saying that I won’t play the game if there’s no a full support role because obviously that’s unrealistic. But the jobs that did satisfyingly represent a ‘support’ role in FFXIV have been watered down and simplified To the point they no longer represent that playstyle. And if you’re not interested in other playstyles, your only real option is to play a different game, which is kinda depressing

[Machi_Machiavelli]

Support class would be cruise control for end game. No need to vie for a raid spot among other dps only to be nerfed one patch or another. With a pure support class groups will need you regardless.

[Shurrikhan]

Support class would be cruise control for end game. No need to vie for a raid spot among other dps only to be nerfed one patch or another. With a pure support class groups will need you regardless.

They neither should nor would have to be.

I want supports. I also want them to have to be just as good at their jobs as anyone else in order to have a spot in a raid. And as support tools get increasingly inflexible at their rDPS contribution less reliable or direct, the more it's possible for support to be significant to both numeric output and gameplay (i.e. without leaving supports as just rDPS bots with no real skill gap of their own).

[Barraind]

Support class would be cruise control for end game. No need to vie for a raid spot among other dps only to be nerfed one patch or another. With a pure support class groups will need you regardless.

Maybe.

Pure supports work in games theyre designed to work in, with raid sizes designed around having support classes.

You'd have to provide MASSIVE buffs/debuffs to get a spot, because they sure as hell wont let you run 1 tank or 1 healer, which means you'd always be competing for that DPS spot.

Right now, its about a ~23% damage increase for the entire fight before a support becomes more valuable than any dps'er. If you had healer level damage, its still a total increase of 13% you'd have to provide, meaning you'd have to provide more than 5 times the damage from your support abilities a dancer does in order to provide dancer level rdps.

In groups, that baloons significantly beyond what a support could possibly provide.


For comparison, supports in games where raid groups can be 5 dps + healer, a support class filling one of the dps spots needs to provide 8-10% to pull even with rdps (and do significantly more than that, which is why you basically stack dps groups with bards when you can recruit bards, because bards are fantastic in basically every mmo except 14).

[Zarabeth]

Oddly enough, there are people in this world who enjoy playing differently than, say, you. Or me. Or that guy/girl over there. This doesn't mean they are bad or they should not be allowed to play that way. It doesn't mean the jobs they like shouldn't exist. I don't like to tank, does that mean no one should like it? Wouldn't be much of a game then, would it?

[Allegor]

I speak only for myself but it'd be nice if the 4th healer is entirely based on support and utility, specially since that other healer was gutted of theirs. I mained a holy priest in WoW, I have more than enough experience in being borderline useless on my own if it means I'm viable or even desired in group content.

[Miles064]

I don't see a full support class ever working in this game. They could try to be crazy with stuff the dps have though. Like give SAM a taunt that forces aggro on them and auto deflects the next hit before returning the aggro to the one that had it before(sam gain no extra hate from this). With this SAM can eat a tank buster for the tanks or if they gave it a X amount of dmg or Y seconds condition they can "tank" for a few seconds too.

In all honesty, something like that would be loved by top end players and probably hated by the lower end one as people just randomly use it(i can see this messing up DRKs seeing as it's basically TBN for SAM). Healers having such a focus on dealing dmg makes them more "support" compared to something like DNC anyway.

[RyuDragnier]

I don't see a full support class ever working in this game.

It did work...back in ARR. It was called Bard. It was a guaranteed slot in every party.