People wanting a support class. Why?

[Kazrah]

There's always a mentality that favors being able to help others through means other than pure damage. That I think is the biggest reason why Dancer is so popular despite it not being a healer: it filled a niche that Bard mains found lacking with their previous job.

The problem is that I think support is being toned back to make job design easier, which is a shame, but if Astrologian proved anything, it's that support stuff is really hard to balance properly.

[Aladire]

Well let me ask another question then. Is Dancer the support class you’ve always wanted in the game, I.E you feel like you’re being helpful?

To me, DNC is not a support class. It is a dps class that instead of having DOTS or multiple combos, it is a class that does a couple attacks till it can do 1 of the two combo that result in big aoe damage that also shoot a buff to others and self.

A support class, if comparing to other MMOs, is one that is spending time putting buffs and debuffs on targets and then working to keep them up while occasionally throwing out some damage or heals. So, while your hps and dps is super low, if you add up the increase of the whole party and raid, your dps and hps is actually on par with others or even higher. It is a class designed to help eased the fight with said mechanics.

[legione]

beats me.

i capped dancer despite being a support class, i really wished it was the physical ranged blm counterpart.

bb

[Aladire]

Oh on a side note, look at how the bard was implemented in FFXI. I think that is a little more extreme of pure support for FFXIV, but people always welcome a bard in your party if you were good at managing your effects. What also helped to make it really fun is that they had buffs or debuffs based on elemental effects. So, if the mob is weak to fire and you reduce the fire resistance even more since you had a BLM, then it was extremely powerful combo.

The side thing though is that a true support class cannot solo while a lot of this game is designed that at least for the side quests and MSQs, you are supposed to be able to solo.

[Connor]

I love playing the kind of jobs that buff party members or help them out in some way so I’d love to see a support class. Though I don’t have any misconceptions that it’s something that would ever happen, both because of the lack of demand and because of the enormous amount of work it would take them.

I think my own ideas for a support class are based on my limited experience with MMOs. The only one I’ve played other than this was some grief forays into FFXI, and from what I understand that’s quite an outlier in how there were jobs that only did buffs / debuffs / healing. In general they seem to be entirely impossible to balance in any other MMO from what I’ve heard. But since most of my experience is with single player games, I’m more used to them having a wider scope in what they can and can’t do in terms of designing jobs etc because there’s less pressure to balance.

Dancer is great and very fun but it’s more like a ‘damage dealer who buffs the party’ rather than support. Which isn’t necessarily bad, but I wish it could’ve had that spot alongside Bard instead of taking it from them. Ranged DPS right now is described in the job guide as ‘supporting the party’ but it’s more like a sliding scale than a description of the role. Machinist has high damage and almost no utility, Bard has a bit less damage but some limited buffs, Dancer has less damage than the others but more active buffing abilities. I feel like they wanted ranged to essentially be the ‘support’ role of FFXIV, but right now it’s more like the ‘do you want lots of utility or none’ role, so maybe this is why some people are feeling like a ‘support’ role would be a welcome addition to the game

[Driavna]

The thing about supports in this kind of game is: will become mandatory or you will be better off with a regular "real" class. I guess SE can add one more party slot and force a support class in every group, that way a new class could be added and bard/dancer transform into true supports.

Personally, I don't think is worth it. Also, no matter what, if the class do damage people will want that you contribute to the max of your ability.

[Wanzzo]

Support jobs will allow each job we already have to focus on different things since they will get spell/skills reduced by them. In the space, they could do more job specific skill/spell simplifying them to use for their each role allowing them to focus on unique features for each job. Like, no more all healers doing the same type of buff/debuff and being useless when used togheter.

As a support, all things like: buffs, debuffs, pull, push, etc, would create crowd/ground controllers and more ways to accelerate or change the combat.

Mind that now we have in a 4 members party: 2 DPS, 1 Tanker and 1 healer. Introducing support role, it would be like: 1 DPS, 1 Healer, 1 Tanker and 1 Support. The team, as a whole, could become less efficient and slower to finish duties. Unless, the buff/debuff and other control tricks of the support compensate that 1 dps missing...(hard to believe)

Though, if they do things like that, then I'll be really -supportive- for this "new" role! But its quite improbable since they'll need to revamp a lot of classes/jobs since ARR (including descriptions, quests and so on).

Archer/Bard and Arcanist would perfectly match for the role since the begining. Archer would be that keen eye who see and hear every movement of the enemies and do shots focused more in the exact point of impact than brutal force. And arcanist IS PURE support when we read the description and go through the class quests ("strategy is a weapon to change the will in to the desired reality" - or something like that).

[linay]

I don't care either way, but if the job has support abilities, I prefer abilities that do not require a specific target during combat. Support abilities should either buff party members and/or debuff enemies over a designated area. That's why I'm mostly glad about how dancer turned out; the partner mechanic I can tolerate due to thematic reasoning (and it doesn't require targeting during combat), though I'd still prefer it gone.

[Ayuhra]

Well let me ask another question then. Is Dancer the support class you’ve always wanted in the game, I.E you feel like you’re being helpful?

It's close but needs work, especially regarding the logistics of having two Dancers.

For example right now if I Technical Finish then another Dancer Technical Finishes the buff of the second TF overwrites mine on the raid (makes sense) AND makes me lose my personal Esprit gain buff, which is now being given to the second DNC. That should be looked into.

It would be cool if we could debuff targets with our dances too.

[gman1311]

It's close but needs work, especially regarding the logistics of having two Dancers.

For example right now if I Technical Finish then another Dancer Technical Finishes the buff of the second TF overwrites mine on the raid (makes sense) AND makes me lose my personal Esprit gain buff, which is now being given to the second DNC. That should be looked into.

It would be cool if we could debuff targets with our dances too.

Tanks got the debuff part covered with reprisal and arm’s length.