Homogenization and Simplicity in Tank Roles

[Lyth]

Soapbox aside, I think that FFXIV does a good job of offering something for everyone. The core game features and story are very accessible without requiring a time commitment. At the same time, there are plenty of exclusive rewards for clearing niche content. There is no lack of challenges, especially if you're into achievement hunting. Most of the people who are bored with the game just aren't looking for new challenges, or else we'd see more Necromancers riding around on Morbols.

I think that a lot of the complaints about one combo jobs and one button burst windows are coming from people only using one neuron to post. You don't need 32 different keybinds to have intricate gameplay. MOBAs and FPS games are proof of this. FPS games are especially bad, all you have to do is one button spam your left click, how easy is that? What makes these genres more complex than your standard MMO are the fact that factors like movement, anticipation, and aim are key determinants of skill. Yet throw in anything remotely resembling a skillshot into FFXIV and you'll see players complain about it being too cumbersome.

Actually, anyone who has played a tank in other MMOs could probably tell you that the factor limiting tanks right now is fight design. If you have tanks actually moving bosses around the map, the role becomes exponentially more interesting. The problem is that there is a lot of 1.0 movement jank that's buried under the flowery fight choreography that we see, and until they fix that, tanks aren't really getting the chance to be tanks.

If I had to pick a second issue, it would be the fact that invulns remove the need for you to understand how much damage you actually receive for any given damage spike. As long as invulns exist, mitigation is just a glorified quicktime event. If you just fix those two things alone, you'd dramatically change tank engagement overnight. I'm really just waiting to see whether Endwalker is capable of addressing these two points.

Outside of those gameplay elements, tank gameplay is essentially identical to playing a melee dps, and it's worth remembering that there actually are some pretty interesting melee dps out there now. Reaper even has TBN.

[Shin96]

Most of the people who are bored with the game just aren't looking for new challenges, or else we'd see more Necromancers riding around on Morbols.

I don't see how that has anything to do with job and role design though. Those are cherry-picked challenges, and the reason I haven't done them is because I'm simply not interested. 90% of the content you run all aside is suffering from the lack of poor reward structure and complacency with skill stagnation, as I have illustrated some posts before.

I think that a lot of the complaints about one combo jobs and one button burst windows are coming from people only using one neuron to post.

I think you like to forget the fact not everyone is named Lyth. Thank god you're not designing jobs, I already despise pressing 1-2-3 ad nauseam. As for the burst window, I like to think the designers aren't particularly skilled at coming up with anything else. Otherwise they would find more interesting ways for gameplay loops. Or maybe this is purely intentional given how bad the majority of players are in this game. If that's the case they are absolute geniuses.

Speak less from a point of authority and more adressing the actual issue which is the playerbase itself. You mentioned MOBA's and FPS games, but these are highly competitive in their self-contained nature, it makes sense to reduce the player input regarding buttons to press considering you are under perpetual stress of situational awareness and reflex. As this is not the case for FFXIV, the only framework to expand upon are actions and the jobs themselves. Why? Because there's a lack in all of the things I mentioned.

As for movement and all the other wonderful things we would like to have, it's never going to happen. Some people already miss pressing sprint on their hotbar, let alone go into a fight without any prior engagements or knowledge. And you expect it will go well? The reason we can't have nice things is because they are on a crusade to dumb this game down in every possible way. Your solution is a good start, but realistically speaking it's just as likely to happen as the return of the enmity system.