PvP in FFXIV and it's Future

[Kiurai]

So before I start the thread, this is a cross post from my thread on the ffxivdiscussion subreddit the main point of said thread being an updated version of a topic I asked about prior in the same forum, and wanted to try gauging a wide array of opinions on this.

So the primary points of discussion I wanted to pose is this:

What is the main issues with FFXIV pvp? What improvements do you think could be made to better the gamemode as a whole? What are it's strengths so far? Do you think their is a way for the devs to better incentivize the playerbase to engage in PvP? Be it through rewards? Events? Titles? Etc. And lastly, do you think PvP should receive more or less dev attention in the coming expac(s) similar to the focus brought to Crafting and Gathering content in Shadowbringers? Would appreciate thoughts below!

[Sauteed]

To me it is pointless outside of itself. You get a couple mounts to show off and some furniture and a few orchestrion rolls.

There is very little involvement with the rest of the game and that leads to lack of motivation to care about it. Another issue is it is pretty blatantly mindless. You either join a premade group and roll with your homies and agree to obey call outs [similar to other pvp mmorpgs] or completely get decimated for just signing up for some xp. There are outlier cases where you queue randomly and win. But you cannot even remain loyal to your grand company you are now a freelancer 100% of the time. Again there is no reason behind it aside from the few random items you can get in wolf's den. Other pvp centric games do pvp way better and for the time investment involved there is just more enjoyment to be had.

There are a few things you can choose as far as pvp skills you can pick from but most of the time there is only 2 real options leading to an extreme cookie cutter mentality. You either have the 2 real skills or just get your butt kicked anyways.

Another thing I do not like is every mode except feast (which has all kinds of other issues) is pretty much flag a base or some non pvp objective. It doesn't matter how good you are at right clicking a flag or whatever else if you get hit by the tiniest little speck of damage you start all over again. That's not fun to me. I was over that the first time it happened. I queued recently again just to see how I felt about pvp and the same issues were right there all over again. The "balance" is not balance just like little ideas that just don't work smeared all over the place melee having increased defense so they can actually get close might seem appealing to a melee character but what is the point of a ranged character now? They get nothing to offset any disadvantage caused by this. Like think of how the longbow won wars for mucho long time. I realize this is a video game and balance must rule our digital lives and such but this is not balance.

I also think the the everyone is level 30 each build is the same with no kind of customization outside of what class you choose is stale.

[ADVSS]

I also think the the everyone is level 30 each build is the same with no kind of customization outside of what class you choose is stale.

Pretty much was more fun playing with classes when the cross class system was available, then botching that/your normal rotation, and giving you special actions that arent even used outside of pvp. The rewards are meh, the old status materia would have been okay, but they eliminated the pvp gear advantage to doing pvp for the pvp gear thing super super fast. It has no real conitinuity outside of itself, with only hardcore ranking etc, and no real reason outside of itself to do it unless you like being gang busted by groups of players. I find the one v one dueling in Wolfs Den to be the peak of fun and fair pvp, but this is coming from a pve mainly person. That being said, wolf marks are cool and all, but i can get tome gear from doing other stuff. Glams? alright you got me there. Thats about it though. You want the authentic prizes from leaderboards? Welllllll guess you can just give up on doing any activity outside of grinding it, cause they make you upkeep your rank, which i am certain is totally unpopular when raid season hits. Offering older prizes for wolf marks would be pretty dope for glam nuts, and mount collectors(a much bigger area of community) could help, but it would just piss off the real pvp'ers when they worked hard for the stuff, and rightfully so because they at least deserve it for the effort imo. This is all my opinion, though. Others with a better mind set will definitely have better arguments than me.

[Sauteed]

I'm on my cell right now but I can really lay on pretty thick with xiv pvp. It is just boring and uninspired mostly. I have been fairly vocal and critical about it. The fix it ideas I propose are generally shot down in flames as I utter them so I'll just say scrap the whole pvp system and rebuild from the ground up. No jiggling potencies around and saying check it out now will spark interest in people that are not currently pvp'ing. It is a hot mess all the way around.

[Anhra]

One of the biggest mistakes and issues imo, is that PvP during the early days (heavensward and before) of FFXIV, People complained all the time that PvP is far too complex and that even the hotbar couldnt handle all of the skills every Job had back then.

And the result of this? Predictable! Square Enix answered the crying of CASUAL players who couldn't get into PvP and simplified it to the System we still know today which shoo'd away 90% of the old PvP Community, and that is the gist of it.

What any PvP content in any MMO needs in order to work is a complex combat system so that every class (or Jobs in the case of FFXIV) can respond to every other existing class and still have a fair chance of winning, of course there will be cases where Class X will have advantages over Class Y but as long as it doesn't get completely out of hand, it shouldn't be too bad.

IF there is one thing i would wish for the most, is a Skillkit for every Job in the game to be "balanced out" in a way that it works for BOTH PvP and PvE content while still appealing to the idea i just mentioned above this.

[Adeacia]

Pvp only seems to be in the game just so they can say the game has pvp. They could remove it and nothing would change really.

I find it funny that people here complain about everyone being the same when in every other game people complain when everyone is not the same. They don't want anything they can't plan for ahead of time. People never seem to know what they want.

My views as someone who has done pvp in other games, and a bit in this one.

[Kiurai]

IMO I think that the games pvp should focus more on smaller scale pvp since it's easier to make groups for it, and try copying or borrowing popular gamemodes from other MMOs and working them to better fit with FFXIV's combat system

[Shinklet]

Every player who championed 'wanting more buttons' for the past two years are the reason why ShB PvP is worse than SB pvp.

I'd be happier with 8-10 and idk, maybe about 10 more macros set up. As long as the skills did something.

Right now we have a burst of 80-150k damage that is spread out over 14 or so skills.

I'd much rather jobs, have the ability to deploy fields with various effects, like slows, damage ups/downs, shield generations.

Channeled abilities, like lasers and heals that intensify.

Actions like BTE that require other factors to use them to their full extent.

You know, more than just a selection of skills with varying levels of damage associated with them.

And I want this awful medal system abandoned and never returned too. I, for one would be happier with a capture the hill style feast mode on a map slightly larger the lichenweed.

But idk, this community would rather whinge about rewards as if that has any bearing on player retainability other than past a week or two.

[Sauteed]

IMO I think that the games pvp should focus more on smaller scale pvp since it's easier to make groups for it, and try copying or borrowing popular gamemodes from other MMOs and working them to better fit with FFXIV's combat system

It should have more PVP yes.

[Stormfur]

Every time an expansion is released, somehow that drawing from the early days of FFXIV comes up and people start talking about open-world PVP and world vs. world PVP when Feast can't even handle pings right. I'd rather the devs concentrate on making PVP fun and interesting again rather than trying to jump on all these tangents like MOBAs and such to try and wriggle the engine into a system it wasn't designed for