Thread: 5.2 Liveletter

From my understanding of the translation, Yoshi said the team won't discuss job adjustments in the prelim patch notes. The LLs was a maybe and even then they'd only avoid talking about potencies and just detail what they plan to change. Case in point, they mentioned job changes for a few jobs in the recent LL but did not disclose the potencies or by exactly how much.

So I don't expect any changes besides for SMN, RDM, and SAM. If there are others, it was so minor and nothing noteworthy to mention to their players.

WAR
- There will be adjustments for the job. Details unspecified.

But if anything, it's just gonna be be broad generalization and probably nothing too specific unless it is a major issue.

Originally Posted by Saefinn

1. We heal too well for the content we are given
2. Healing too well gives us a lot of downtime
3. That downtime would not be considered terrible, as in fairness, we have it in Stormblood too, but in Stormblood we had more to do in said downtime (though I prefer HW and ARR as an example of when healing was fun)
4. By stripping us of our DPS skills that down time can get incredibly boring
5. AST would be the one with a saving grace here in having their cards still but the changes to cards for many feel as though the system is now less impactful and mediocre


Those would be the core of the issues, there are other issues but the above is what has people's knickers in a twist.

On paper it looks like the design philosophy is that they wanted to move healers away from DPS and to focus more on healing. But by making healing pretty OP, they've made DPS a bigger focus and by stripping our DPS abilities our focus is dull as Heck.
It boils down to one of the following to be done:
1. nerf healing to push healers more (the Blue Mage solution, their healing is less significant, but is more engaging as a healer)
2. Adjust the content to make full use of our healing toolkit and reduce our downtime significantly
3. Fill our downtime with non-healer stuff to do like DPS


The 3rd option is the most popular as it doest raise the skill floor for less experienced healers, respects current playstyles, is the simplest for the devs to implement and is how things worked before. And at least it means when healers have to do solo content, it won't be dull. And the bonus, if they want us to heal more on certain content, they can just by making that content take advantage of our healing abilities. That's because the content and healing skills are what determines a healing or DPS focus, rather than the DPS skills you have.

I kept saying a good solution would be to implement the third point. It's almost there in fact.

We all agree Healers should have different identities when it comes to their gameplay, but require a similar basic set of abilites to manintain balance.

Now we have that but the often neglected part of healer identity is how they deal with healing downtime.

Ast fills it with cards, great! Now focus on making the card and buff system interesting again.

Whm fills it with dps, good! Now focus on making the dps interesting! Weave options, proper dps rotation, damage and healing effects tied together.

Sch should fill it with a debuff system that mirrors Ast buffs. Rather than enhancing allies, SCH would weaken enemies! AoE stratagems, Data gathering, weakness exploits, tactical advantages and so on.

Originally Posted by Gemina

Hit the nail on the head with a tinkering hammer. And I would actually say that what usually takes place after the prelims outright kills that hype. I see no reason to make that happen even sooner.

It's a good point. I just wish I could get hyped to play healers again.

From the savage team interview. https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme...4_battle_devs/

Kawamoto: As a member of the battle system team, i wanted healers to be conscious. We actually held down/nerfed healers' healing capibilities across the board in shadowbringers, so having a percentage based attack that hit hard was on purpose.

This is probably the closest insight we have to the current design at the moment. It was only one question though and nothing else was really discussed.

Originally Posted by Maltothoris

From the savage team interview. https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme...4_battle_devs/

Kawamoto: As a member of the battle system team, i wanted healers to be conscious. We actually held down/nerfed healers' healing capibilities across the board in shadowbringers, so having a percentage based attack that hit hard was on purpose.

This is probably the closest insight we have to the current design at the moment. It was only one question though and nothing else was really discussed.

Hmm, all that says is healers needing to just be awake and pay attention though.

After this live letter, I completely believe the devs think all jobs (not just healer role)'s designs are fine. This is my final straw and I give up. My interest in playing healer dropped to the ground. They just refuse to take in any feedback anymore. They won't give details on job balance prior to patch anymore. What are the chance of they fixing afterwards? One fix per major patch aka 3-4 months is not acceptable. At this point I expect to see almost no adjustments on healers, tanks, and some minimal potency changes to create illusion for balance. Hopefully SMN won't be ruined.

Originally Posted by Miziliti

After this live letter, I completely believe the devs think all jobs (not just healer role)'s designs are fine. This is my final straw and I give up. My interest in playing healer dropped to the ground. They just refuse to take in any feedback anymore. They won't give details on job balance prior to patch anymore. What are the chance of they fixing afterwards? One fix per major patch aka 3-4 months is not acceptable. At this point I expect to see almost no adjustments on healers, tanks, and some minimal potency changes to create illusion for balance. Hopefully SMN won't be ruined.

I think they are taking back feedback but the OF isn't the only source. Consequently, it would be interesting to see feedback from the JP side as well. But at the same time they're under no obligation to take action given the feedback, especially if they don't agree without issues. I'll have to see what these patch notes look like, but if there only thing missing from the patch notes is potency adjustments for RDM and SMN, then we didn't really lose anything as Yoshi already said those jobs were getting adjustments.

Currently, all jobs are balanced besides RDM, SMN, and I'd argue BRD (being underpowered), and perhaps WAR (it also is a little on the soft side). Whether their playstyles are fun are not is another matter, but that doesn't equate to balance.

Originally Posted by Rai_Takara

I think they are taking back feedback but the OF isn't the only source. Consequently, it would be interesting to see feedback from the JP side as well. But at the same time they're under no obligation to take action given the feedback, especially if they don't agree without issues.

Disclaimer: I used Google translate so any one able to understand Japanese can freely correct me. I will also be summarising but feel free to look for yourself as it is the 800+ post thread on 1st page

Based on what I was reading (page 1 to page 15) they have separated into 2 groups the Guren group (old card system) and the jet black group (new card system) the most voted for comments(within the 15 pages of translation) which are found page 5,9,11,12,14.

All gravitate towards the Guren system, how the jet black system has lost judgemental calls (person even said be fine with all cards the same if had same amount of judgement calls with the cards) and flavour was lost to efficiency.

Opinions matter regardless and that the fact more people are complaining now is a sign that something is wrong with the job and needs looked at.

Do not buff Ast just to increase numbers.

Someone levelling Ast finds it boring and unfun and prefers the Guren system and wish it would return.

Does not like that may have to wait 2 yrs to see any improvements to either card system.



Now this looks so lopsided but the jet black system group do get a good amount of support it is just the Guren system tends to have higher satisfaction within their community (4yrs vs <1yr kinda does that). But based on what I was reading Japanese players are as unhappy as we are and the card system is just as divisive.