Quote Originally Posted by Shin96 View Post
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I was really struggling to see how the seven or so posts in this thread prior to mine were
1) relevant to this thread
2) relevant to tanking and role design

So let me paraphrase. I do understand that everyone here has completed every 'worthwhile' challenge at the game and is distraught at how the more 'casual' playerbase is holding them back, but if we're done with the self-aggrandizement, it would be nice to get the thread back on track. Insert tactful segue here. Better now?

MMO games, as a genre, are mechanically very simple to begin with. There is no rotation that you can design which isn't going to become second nature to play after a month of focused playtime. That's exacerbated by the fact that this playerbase in particular bellyaches endlessly at any hint of randomness or variability. Oh, no procs please. Oh, no Critical Hit randomness please. Oh, no variable resource gains please. It'll mess up my perfect run. Because the rotation never changes, and because the fights never change, everything you ever do is a thinly disguised '1-2-3'. There is little difference between pressing 1-1-1-1-1 at fixed intervals and pressing 1-4-2-4-3-4, yet people fixate and obsess over this stuff.

Granted, the devs are getting more creative in using keyboard/controller real estate, using contextual keybinds that swap in and out as you need. This way you can have the illusion of varied keypresses without having a bunch of situational combo buttons that only get used once every 60 seconds. GNB and RPR did this fairly well, and you'll probably see more and more jobs doing this over the next few expansions or so. You're still essentially pressing 1-1-1 or 1-2-3, but at least you get different animations to keep you entertained. I still see this as fluff, but if it keeps people happy, I'm fine with that.

The core gameplay experience is that you fight a boss in a circular arena, you stay on the boss and adds without losing GCDs to mechanics. The focus should be on making that experience more engaging and varied. The rotation buttons that you press are fluff. It doesn't matter if you're typing out the lyrics to 'Mary had a little Lamb'. The button presses barely change from fight to fight. That's why adding a single new movement skill impacts job design far more than adding in three new happy meal combos that you can brag about to your friends.

The reason why a lot of other genres cut down on the number of keybinds while doubling down on the movement and mechanical game play is because it not only boosts the skill cap but is also visually a lot easier for streaming audiences to follow. RTS games go much more heavy down the keybind route and while it's mildly entertaining to watch the spectacle of the players' keyboard useage, most viewers can't decipher the flow of action. It really has nothing to do with pressing more buttons being more stressful.

I think we're already seeing a fairly large shift towards experimenting with more types of movement abilities this coming expansion. Players really enjoy using them, and the dev team is starting to recognize that. And you'll definitely see more of a skill differential between players that use these well and players that don't.

We're focusing on the wrong things. New action fluff sells expansions, but that isn't what's going to determine whether they stay interesting. If you want to address the many complaints about tanking and healing, you really have to look closely at fight design. And until more of us start talking about that, the dev team is just going to continue to focus in the wrong direction.