Balance, Homogenisation and Encounter Design: The Problem.

[Nariel]

What I tried to say with that discussion is that we are stuck in the DPS and homogenisation mindset because the current philosophy behind activity design is pushing towards that direction. If every high-end encounter required a good dose of both physical and magical mitigation (it's just an example) tanks would need a more incisive identity. I like every job being viable, but there are many routes available to achieve that result without going all-in on DPS checks and full homogenisation mode IMHO, and of course they are more time consuming and difficult to design for the devs.

Another thing I think is very important and is not being discussed is the fact that a lot of players in this thread are talking about being locked out of duties and people using the best possible option for a fight. This is true indeed, but it opens up for another problem: if the players are relying so much on party finder and struggle to find groups for high end content, it means that social features built in the game are not doing their job properly.

Also, to Nora, these were just two random examples. I'm just worried for what I think may be just the beginning of a bigger identity loss process. Personally, I fear the day when we'll be just 3 roles with different cosmetics and a couple rotation nuances, but of course there is a lot of people out there who wants just that.

Yeah because having to be carried away by your friend or because those randos pity you is such a nice and compleling feelling, nothing like feelling totaly useless and unable to carry your own weight because "well too bad your favorite job don't have the toolkit for those bosses".

[CapricaLangley]

Yeah because having to be carried away by your friend or because those randos pity you is such a nice and compleling felling, nothing like felling totaly useless and unable to carry your own weight because "well too bad your favorite job don't have the toolkit for those bosses"

I seriously don't understand why I keep receiving those kind of passive aggressive answers. I'm not pointing a gun to any job, I don't want anyone to be left behind, never said or even made an allusion to anything like that. I'm just worried because I feel like the homogenisation process is gutting job identity. I don't know which class you do play, here in the forum I see Archer 80, as you can see i'm registered as Bard level 80: wouldn't you like this job even more if it actually felt like an actual Bard?

I mean, of course I want every class to be viable and DPS differences not being an issue, but I'd like it even more if every job had a more unique identity. I remind you that probably the thing that got you into playing your favourite job was identity, because at the beginning nobody knows how does it feel or perform in actual end game content.

edit bc edit: Again, I think (maybe being completely wrong) that there may be a lot of different ways to include job identity in encounter design without making anything mandatory.