Invulns: Problems and Solutions

[Lyth]

Invulns are a problem.

In essence, they allow you to negate either a tankbuster or group mechanic. Each tank has the capability of doing this roughly two to three times per fight. They're much too accessible.

At the same time, invulns are one of the remaining flavour differences between tank (even if certain invulns, like Living Dead, are terribly designed). They also create dramatic moments where you can try to 1v1 a boss down in the last few seconds to either stall a wipe or get a clutch clear on the encounter. And when every job has a limited number of actions, nobody wants to have an action slot dedicated to an ability that can only be used once per fight.

So how do we keep invulns in check?

If I'm to be realistic, the solution that is most likely to be successful is to simply remove invulns from the game. A part of me very strongly wants to see this happen, even if only to put an end to Living Dead.

There is an alternative solution, though. Make invulns into actual ultimate abilities: i.e. Personal Limit Breaks, with their own gauge. There are several advantages to this:
- They're no longer actions. So even if you can use them only once in an encounter, it doesn't feel like a wasted slot.
- You can control access to them on a fight-by-fight basis. If you only want one invuln use in a given fight, slow down the rate of generation.
- Decision-making around invulns becomes more complex when it is gauge driven instead of recast driven.
- You can remove a lot of the really bad drawbacks from them (i.e. Living Dead) and let them feel different in positive ways, instead of negative ones.

You could do something similar for raises on healers as well, such that we don't have access to unlimited numbers of raises.

Either way, I'd like to see invulns be addressed. They're too strong in their present implementation. Thoughts?