Flaws of the combat system

[Jeeqbit]

I've heard about old aggro management, and I think it would lead to an interesting amount of depth that the game feels lacking in with the normal dungeon content. I don't know how it would be implemented, but I don't like that I was able to begin leveling Gladiator into PLD, and the only 2 things I needed to do to succeed with regular commendations was put on tank stance, hold W and mash my 1 or 2 AOE buttons. (Don't worry, I know that mitigation is a thing, that is a different subject and subnote.) I feel as though I could have very easily went through ALL of the dungeons I ran to level my PLD to 80 without giving a care to the enemies I had following behind me, as long as I was hitting my AOE, I had no worry that anyone in the party was going to die by getting slapped to death unless I did first.

Even though tanking normal content is easy, there is a such thing as a good tank. Does your tank pull big? Do they go fast or slow? Can they survive even when the healing isn't good? Do they stun and interrupt trash? Do they use their abilities well, both for damage and to prevent someone from dying who is about to die (TBN, Nascent Flash, Cover, Reprisal)?

There is depth, that depth just isn't required, but feels good and looks good when you do it. I do really mean it when something like reprisal can save a wipe, because when everyone is not topped off and they survived with a few % of health you know it changed everything.

Shadowbringers dungeons added some depth by giving certain trash a powerful interruptable cast, so you have to pick them out of the dozens you pulled and interrupt it. Most tanks don't so it's a bigger burden on the healer, but it's something that you can do.

I think having to actively make the trash in dungeons pick me out as the main target over my party would make it more interesting. How anything like that would be accomplished within the current system is beyond me though. I can't think of anything within the current design to make aggro more interesting for tanks. If the tank stance aggro was lowered, and dps were given a mini-shirk button, I feel it might be at the least a more engaging minigame than we have right now, but in its current state it feels impossible to lose. The only thing I can think of as to why there is absolutely no more depth to it than that, is because aggro isn't a feature the design team is worried about messing with.

That's how it used to work (at least, aggro was more of a challenge if you were using your DPS stance so the DPS shirked you). The problem is that because dungeons are for casual players doing the story and nothing else, they have to work for people who are not interested in challenging content. The dungeons cannot be too difficult for them to clear, for that there is optional content like extreme, savage and ultimate.

[Kozh]

Inb4 someone will come here and go "THINK ABOUT THE CASUALS!!1!", as if casuals means they always play games in journalist mode ¬.¬

That aside, I agree with you your post OP. However, and I'm sorry to put this bluntly, I think post like this won't change anything. By saying that they will base future job system on 5.0, we know they won't go back to pre-shb system (i.e aggro management). At this point I'm already jaded enough and don't expect anything from them. I just hope they don't dumb down the game even more.

[Saraide]

Healers arent 10% of a DPS' damage, more like 50% and above against bosses and sometimes just straight up more damage against trash mobs.

[TheRealQuah]

Emnity is a boring fluff mechanic, I'm glad they made it braindead. Before, casual players couldn't understand how to manage it, and good players found it boring.

Support DPS are key in any content that matters, buffs are big, and once again, good players will know how to maximise them.

You whole complaint seems to be, dungeons too easy. They don't matter, they are story content.

[Rinhi]

Tanking is super easy and yet players are still having issues with keeping emnity and using mitigations - and you want to add more complexity to it?

10% of a DPS? a decent WHM does just about as much damage as an average DPS in level cap dungeons and out DPSes them if the DPS' are bad

Ranged DPS are already the most mobile classes and your post makes it seem that it's bad that the pretty immobile MNK is finally getting a movement ability and that MCH should get one too, but why? MCH has no cast times, can move around freely and whatnot
DNC could lose a dash I suppose, but it also has support abilities it needs to be closer to the party for that the MCH simply doesn't have

[ReynTime]

I would argue the biggest glaring flaw of the combat in the game is how its completely reliant on boss mechanics to have any level of encounter variance at all.
Anything that isn't a boss or elite mark is excruciatingly tedious to fight because you fight them the exact same way. Only their animations differ.

[Solarbear88]

I would say the biggest flaw is the lack of crowd control. Essentially everything is move, tank, and spank with a twist. Knowing what to CC would add a layer to the gameplay that other games have.

[kiagenwa]

I would say the biggest flaw is the lack of crowd control. Essentially everything is move, tank, and spank with a twist. Knowing what to CC would add a layer to the gameplay that other games have.

With CC skills, it's fun and game when everyone use them correctly.
Not so otherwise.

[TristanX]

I would say the biggest flaw is the lack of crowd control. Essentially everything is move, tank, and spank with a twist. Knowing what to CC would add a layer to the gameplay that other games have.

Maybe make CC required for highest difficulty version of the dungeon or raid. Its not easy to make pugs do mechanics though.

CTRL+TAB targeting for friendlies is nice as well.

[Shironeko_Narunyan]

I'm an old MMO player. I started with Ultima Online and later DAoC. CC was a vital point in both PVE and PVP there.
When I played WOW when it came out, it was immediately obvious that the PVE in that game had a lot less depth, and that seems to have become the trend for modern MMOs.
But not only the lack of crowd control is sad, also the lack of real support.
Have strong buffs that trigger when you perform certain actions as Bard or Dancer.
Healers could have strong debuffs that actually cripple an enemy, then they had an important job other than healing, and the fact that their DPS consists of pressing one button wouldn't be so painful.

Maybe FFXIV just isn't the game for this.