How would people feel if they took positional requirements away?

[AncientCrystal]

Been thinking about this lately. I mean, on the one hand, some people would feel that melees would be too brain dead easy, but others would say that positionals add a level of complexity and challenge to the jobs.

I mean I always wondered if people find positonals stupid gimmicks they we shouldn't have to sweat over.

[SenorPatty]

New year, new decade, age old topic lol.

I don't want to say positionals add complexity. It sounds like I'm elevating that aspect a bit too high imo. Gimmick is too much of a strong word for it...

hmm...

I feel like positionals are sort of this...half-baked requirement for melee that should not go away. Sort of like a strange final wall between a semblance of depth and total dumblivion. I mean, if you look at the jobs globally, so much has been taken away that this particular argument actually had weight when the game had more...things for all jobs in the past. Globally, jobs had typically had to do a lot of stuff and upkeep a lot of stuff in gameplay so arguing about positionals seemed to have more merit. Today, you take this away and we just narrow even further the road melee dps plays.

So I guess what I'm saying is, right now, at this current point of time in the game, the positionals are an actual necessary evil (or good depending on where you stand) because they provide a (slim) semblance of depth to melee.


EDIT: Tbh though, with the way the devs are going on about this game and taking drastic measures in the name of "smoothing things out", I wouldn't bat an eyelash if they were gone tomorrow. For real. I really hate to say it but positionals gone wouldn't faze me. Not because I want to see them gone but because it's very clear the combat gameplay is losing its substance as the expansions go.

[StriderShinryu]

Positionals, as they are now, definitely feel like they don't carry a lot of weight and I don't really feel a lot would be lost if they were removed. That said, I do think they are/were an interesting component of melee DPS that have their place in the game. If anything I would like to see them removed for some classes but made pretty much mandatory for others. That way if you're someone who doesn't like positionals you have classes you can play but if you want that extra complexity then you also have classes that you can play. Of course, the classes that require positionals should be rewarded with higher DPS or some other reward if those positionals are hit.

[Theodric]

I wouldn't be opposed to seeing positional requirements removed. I think it'd make the melee jobs - especially MNK - feel a lot less clunky.

[Dreamsoap]

I wouldn't be opposed to seeing positional requirements removed. I think it'd make the melee jobs - especially MNK - feel a lot less clunky.

Dunno how I feel about this. I mained MNK before WHM and honestly a lot of the fun was the positionals. It made it challenging, so much so that I found it a lot less interesting to play other DPS when I tried them later. I think losing positionals would be a huge blow to jobs like Monk who's identity is more or less formed around them. But... it's also kind of cheap and felt much more like you were being punished for the role than rewarded, especially depending on the fight. (Granted this was back in Stormblood for me.)

[Enla]

I'd rather they not unless they in turn decide to add something else to make up for the lack. Melee can be brain dead enough as it is.

[tdb]

I dislike monk because of positionals from both rear and flank. It makes the class feel too twitchy for my tastes. Ninja is fine with only rear positionals. Haven't played dragoon or samurai so far. It's not like I have time to gear up and play all classes though, so I'll just leave monk to those players who like the twitchy, constantly-on-the-move playstyle.

No need to do anything about positionals IMO, but I won't be heartbroken if they are removed.

[Halivel]

Ninja is fine with only rear positionals.

Ninja has flank positional. "Armor crush" that exctends your Huton, to be precise.

[tdb]

Ninja has flank positional. "Armor crush" that exctends your Huton, to be precise.

I stand corrected. At least it only needs to be used once every 30 seconds, unlike monk's rotation which needs changing positions after every couple of attacks.

[Halivel]

I main Tank job so that's probably not exactly my topic, but still. 1st thing I learnt as Tank as soon as I started to level my first melee job is... dont. turn. damn. mob. around. (I still wonder why no one really yelled at me when I started play the game...).
That being said, positionals is something that doesn't make the job really challengable, but does make you dependable on Tanks and their ability to avoid turning mobs. If they will be removed, the only thing that will be really gone is stress and annoyance of situations when you try to do your best but your co-patry Tank makes everything for you to fail. On the other hand it's also something what makes melee jobs different from others, and there certainly are players that would miss that if it's gone.