Job hopes for next expansion?

[zlygork]

the reason is some jobs don't go 1-2-3. they go 1a or 1b, 2a or 2b, 3a or 3b. until they figure out a way to do this without further simplifying said rotations, combos are staying in pvp sadly.

Yeah no, branching combos like the samurai's should definitely stay as they are, those have a valid and engaging reason to be separated. I just don't feel like this sort of thing absolutely needs to be an all or nothing thing - not all classes are equally affected by bloat after all.

[Raikai]

Yeah no, branching combos like the samurai's should definitely stay as they are, those have a valid and engaging reason to be separated. I just don't feel like this sort of thing absolutely needs to be an all or nothing thing - not all classes are equally affected by bloat after all.

I kinda agree... they can collapse the rotational combos into a single button (for most cases at least) so that can open up for new abilities and interactions. Because truth be told, despite a couple of examples, there's not a lot of meaningful differences in how the pve and pvp combos work, except the former occupying more keybinds.

[Lauront]

Yeah no, branching combos like the samurai's should definitely stay as they are, those have a valid and engaging reason to be separated. I just don't feel like this sort of thing absolutely needs to be an all or nothing thing - not all classes are equally affected by bloat after all.

I agree with you and I think it's going to cause a problem soon, because melee jobs already take up a lot of keybind space. BLM is similar but they can easily correct this by making some choices to have certain buttons rolled into one and just put on a streamlined upgrade path. Not as easy for melee jobs. I've got an MMO mouse and even so it's getting stretched to its limits e.g. for SAM. I suspect they're going to pare back some existing abilities as they add new rotational embellishments, but there's limits to what you can do. Getting the PVP button compression to work, on an optional basis, would help with this.

On the main topic, I'm genuinely keen to see what they're going to do with BLM at this point. I put forward some streamlining I'd like to see before, as well as some other things, but for the sake of repetition:

• Streamline the spells, so that Fire 1 becomes Fire 3, Blizzard 1 becomes Blizzard 3, Blizzard 2 becomes Freeze and Fire 2 becomes Flare. This will require a rework of Firestarter, to let Fire 3 proc it, and of the various spell costs and cast times and any other necessary aspects, but it'd significantly reduce button bloat and make a clear upgrade path feasible, to provide some new animations for these two spells. Fire 1 is ugly and I'd rather it vanished at this point.
• Rework Blizzard 2 to center on the enemy target, as with Freeze.
• Fuse Enochian with Fire 4 and Blizzard 4, as with PVP.
• Allow for the procs to be OGCDs. The job has a good number of instants now, through 2 Xenos, Triplecast and Swiftcast, and possibly even some new ones to come, so it'd be nice to be able to weave the procs into them.
• Burst (new spell) - an AOE spell, maybe on a 30 sec CD, which consumes Thunder DOTs at a discount to their full value. If used below a certain HP threshold, it instead multiplies the remaining damage of the DOT. The envisaged usage would be for consuming what's left of Thunder before the boss vanishes or is at low HP and close to dying.
• Some new AOEs. Sartauvoir (the Bozja mage), with his Tri-Directional Flame, has reignited my desire for Entropic Flame, so I'd like Flare to upgrade to that, and Freeze to an appropriately frosty ice spell. I'd settle for some version of Comet too, if Entropic Flame didn't make it in (e.g. if it were given to some other caster.)
• Speed up UI MP ticks.
• Figure out Scathe's purpose.
• Primarily for PVP - turn Aetherial Manipulation into a dash forward spell.
• I'd also like to see Aspect Mastery moved to when Flare is acquired. The trait is a huge QoL upgrade and it's sorely missed when synced.

Mainly, I'm expecting them to take the easy option of upgrading the AOEs and Fire/Blizzard 1 and Thunder 3. Maybe some new or upgraded utility and one new nuke. The rotation is currently very good, so it's difficult to see where they're going to take it from here, but there's options, like power up phases modifying existing spells etc.

For summoner I would like for egis to go away and dots to go away too. Current summoner doesn’t feel like a true summoner job. Where is my shiva, Garuda, leviathan, ramuh, titan and ifrit summons? Actual summons not some egis. I would like them to take a page from ff7 remake. Summon and let them fight on their own for the duration of their timer then do their ultimate attack and leave. Kinda like how machinist automaton and drk shadow does. We can rotate through them like let’s say Garuda and leviathan for example will be aoe summons that will aoe mobs down and we rotate ifrit, ramuh, shiva etc for single target. Will free up allot more buttons too because we will get rid of egi assaults. I still enjoy fester and painflare. New abilities can be spells that empower our summons when we summon them. Increasing their physical and magical strength. Even them giving us players some of their power kinda like how Phoenix does. For example summon Garuda then as she is aoe mobs 1-2 of our buttons change to wind spells that we can use to help so we not just standing around just summoning. That’s my hope. Summoner mains don’t kill me please

I strongly believe they're going to go in such a direction for the bolded. The dots are leftovers from ACN, and with the egis, you could feasibly implement them as visuals incorporated into spells - including a DOT to account for their autoattack damage. Something like stances to affect the egi visual and the demi-egi trances for the high-powered ones is where it looks like it may be going. With SMN and BLM focusing so little on their dot, it also gives them room for a caster which is focused on managing them.