(LL Discussion) Physical and Magical not distinguishable? UI can't implement it? Why?

[KageTokage]

They already bothered giving some physical attacks a slight distinction in that the combat log says "readies" instead of "begins casting", so I don't see why they couldn't at least make that universal.

[Sicno]

This was one of many disappointing answers we got during the live letter. I think the only question that got a positive response was the one about any new UI skins. Everything else was no, no, no, no, no and more no. And the reasons were usually the same: "it requires work", "it requires work", "it requires work". Meanwhile here we're reworking gathering collectables, with a new interface and all, something that was already working well enough and nobody asked to change.

[Tint]

I don't understand it. They already gave interruptable skills a different cast bar, why is it so hard to do the same for magical attacks?

Well AoE attacks are most often magical because of DD and healer defense balance, a physical AoE would hit healers a lot harder than melees. But for tankbusters it's a guessing game, especially without any 3rd party tools. And having DRK balanced with a magical only cooldown in mind is just bad design, when a large portion of the playerbase will never be able to use it properly.

Either rework the cast bar or Dark Mind I would say o.ô

Especially when they are making a lot of things "more accessible" (Fishing? for real? Don't get me wrong, Fish Eyes is a horrible skill and a rework is appreciated, but dumbing down fishing will not lead to more people suddenly like fishing, they have long quit before they even reach the point to use that skill...), but then they leave a crucial mechanic in a state where the average player just have no idea what is going on.

[Seraphor]

I don't understand it. They already gave interruptable skills a different cast bar, why is it so hard to do the same for magical attacks?

Well AoE attacks are most often magical because of DD and healer defense balance, a physical AoE would hit healers a lot harder than melees. But for tankbusters it's a guessing game, especially without any 3rd party tools. And having DRK balanced with a magical only cooldown in mind is just bad design, when a large portion of the playerbase will never be able to use it properly.

Either rework the cast bar or Dark Mind I would say o.ô

Especially when they are making a lot of things "more accessible" (Fishing? for real? Don't get me wrong, Fish Eyes is a horrible skill and a rework is appreciated, but dumbing down fishing will not lead to more people suddenly like fishing, they have long quit before they even reach the point to use that skill...), but then they leave a crucial mechanic in a state where the average player just have no idea what is going on.

DRK shouldn't have to use Dark Mind for tank busters, and neither does GNB need to use Camouflage (parry so physical only).
They have enough tools between their 30% mitigation, their on demand shield, and Rampart/Reprisal to take anything in their stride if used correctly.

Dark Mind and Camouflage are flavour skills intended for trash pulls and chip damage.
They dont need to homogenize their only remaining unique abilities.

[Deceptus]

DRK shouldn't have to use Dark Mind for tank busters, and neither does GNB need to use Camouflage (parry so physical only).
They have enough tools between their 30% mitigation, their on demand shield, and Rampart/Reprisal to take anything in their stride if used correctly.

Dark Mind and Camouflage are flavour skills intended for trash pulls and chip damage.
They dont need to homogenize their only remaining unique abilities.

Point is you can't have skills that specifically reduce a school of attack and then not be able to determine the type of attack coming easily.

That's ridiculous.

Other games don't have this issue and FFXIV shouldn't either. There are ways around it but they refuse to implement them. The whole "readies attack" vs "begins casting attack" would be the easiest solution. But they can't even be arsed to do that and it's extremely frustrating.

[Tint]

Dark Mind and Camouflage are flavour skills intended for trash pulls and chip damage.
They dont need to homogenize their only remaining unique abilities.

Camouflage, yes, but Dark Mind is not a usefull tool against trash pulls. Magic auto attacks are pretty rare and with only 10 seconds duration it's not even that good against magic attacking trash packs. Dark Mind always was best against tank busters, making DRK the most defensive tank in savage raids, where magic busters are not uncommon.

And Camouflage by the way has a 10% damage mitigation against all types of damage, and when you parry an attack you can be sure it's physical.

I don't want to take away the flavour of DRK and I don't want to nerf his awesome extra button against magic busters, but I want to know when I can actually use it. Otherwise it's just a useless button.

But when they really can't give us a clue if an attack is magical, then maybe give Dark Mind also a 10% damage mitigation against all types of damage on top of the magical mitigation. Or bring back Dark Dance and let it share the cooldown with Dark Mind, so at least there is an actual fluff mitiagtion tool (not that DRK really needs it - while DRK is lacking a fluff mitigation tool, TBN is just that powerfull... but Dark Dance wasn't that strong anyway, so I don't see a problem with adding it back).


However, it has to be saved somewhere if an attack does magical or physical damage. Is it really that difficult to let every cast look that up and do something like "if physical use that normal castbar" and "if magical use that other castbar". Then they can switch between magical and physical back and forth and the game automatically uses the correct castbar o.ô

[VenKitsune]

And Camouflage by the way has a 10% damage mitigation against all types of damage, and when you parry an attack you can be sure it's physical.

DRK shouldn't have to use Dark Mind for tank busters, and neither does GNB need to use Camouflage (parry so physical only).
They have enough tools between their 30% mitigation, their on demand shield, and Rampart/Reprisal to take anything in their stride if used correctly.

Dark Mind and Camouflage are flavour skills intended for trash pulls and chip damage.
They dont need to homogenize their only remaining unique abilities.

Just wanted to correct you here.

Magical attacks of all types are now parryable/blockable, they changed that some time in stormblood i believe, to make PLD more viable in raids with the use of sheltron and Bulwark. So you can't even tell if something is physical anymore based on if you can parry it.

Honestly its stupid. Anyone done E4S? The attack where he smashes the arena with his hand over and over? That's magical. Yes, Magical. He slams the ground with his massive fist, and its magical, it boggles the mind. There really needs to be a way to tell what damage type is what because even things that LOOK physical arent, even things that look magical, arent. The Auto attacks from Shiva in E8S For example? She blasts magic out of her hand, you'd assume its magical but last time i checked, it was physical and yet in E2S, where magic is also blasted out of the bosses hand, that IS magical, so its not like magical auto attacks are uncommon.

[Tint]

Just wanted to correct you here.

Magical attacks of all types are now parryable/blockable, they changed that some time in stormblood i believe, to make PLD more viable in raids with the use of sheltron and Bulwark. So you can't even tell if something is physical anymore based on if you can parry it.

Nope, you can't parry magical attacks. But yes, you can block them now.

The change to parry (and block) was that you can parry (and block) attacks without facing towards the enemy now.

[VenKitsune]

Nope, you can't parry magical attacks. But yes, you can block them now.

The change to parry (and block) was that you can parry (and block) attacks without facing towards the enemy now.

Really? I'm almost certain i've been parrying magic attacks on GNB after the 99 kills (Read: Slog) through Seat of Sacrifice for the totems, namely the LB1 and earthshakers but i could be wrong, those could be physical for all i know or i could of been seeing things, i havent bothered to check. Just another problem with the current system, heh.
Funny thing too, there is no way to GUARANTEE a parry these days, only ways to guarantee a block so you could chalk it up to being "well i didnt parry it, must be magical" when its IS physical, you just have horrible luck on parry chances. Ironically, this might of been the only good use for the old parry substat...Testing their game for systems they dont want to implement because they're too busy adding umbrellas to the game.

[RyuDragnier]

DRK shouldn't have to use Dark Mind for tank busters, and neither does GNB need to use Camouflage (parry so physical only).
They have enough tools between their 30% mitigation, their on demand shield, and Rampart/Reprisal to take anything in their stride if used correctly.

Dark Mind and Camouflage are flavour skills intended for trash pulls and chip damage.
They dont need to homogenize their only remaining unique abilities.

Homogenize in this case would work better. Add a 10% physical damage mitigation to Dark Mind, and then it can actually be used as a cooldown instead of being absolutely worthless 90% of the time.