Character Configuration Option for Positionals

[SaberMaxwell]

You seeing the streams is not the same as you seeing the strategies being formed or the logic that goes into the formation of those strategies. Congratulations you saw a Monk hitting both the rear and flanks for Brute Justice, but do you understand why he stands where he does when he does? The planning that has to be done so he and the drg can both get their positionals while at the same time not running into each other and leaving lanes of motion open to go to the enumeration stacks again without running over each other? The plotting of every greedable positional and how to capitalize on them when moving on the way to the judgment line?

It's easy enough to be an observer and say "it doesn't matter" and "I don't see it." It doesn't change that positionals add a layer to the optimization game for melees.

[Kolsykol]

You seeing the streams is not the same as you seeing the strategies being formed or the logic that goes into the formation of those strategies. Congratulations you saw a Monk hitting both the rear and flanks for Brute Justice, but do you understand why he stands where he does when he does? The planning that has to be done so he and the drg can both get their positionals while at the same time not running into each other and leaving lanes of motion open to go to the enumeration stacks again without running over each other? The plotting of every greedable positional and how to capitalize on them when moving on the way to the judgment line?

It's easy enough to be an observer and say "it doesn't matter" and "I don't see it." It doesn't change that positionals add a layer to the optimization game for melees.

I jump around a lot from ranged to melee and it screws with my head sometimes, playing melee and casters in particular can be a very different experience.

[SaberMaxwell]

I jump around a lot from ranged to melee and it screws with my head sometimes, playing melee and casters in particular can be a very different experience.

For sure. It's those little metagames that I enjoy in this game personally, the way that a fight can be so drastically different just because one is playing a different role and it requires different layers of planning ahead.

[IruruCece]

Considering that penalty is minimum, it's been said again and again that keeping uptime is far more valuable that holding a GCD for 0.05 seconds to get the positionnal.
The penalty is ridiculously low, you can actually ignore positionnals and perform very well.

Which is why the solution isn't to appease people who don't want to actually put in effort into the game by making every job reward them just for showing up and pressing buttons. Instead, it is to recognize that some jobs aren't going to appeal to everyone. What has happened to Monk is that the devs did try to cater specifically to such players, and now the job has fewer players taking it into endgame content than even during Shadowbringers. It is still unappealing, from a mechanical OR visual standpoint. Summoner produces considerably less DPS, yet tens of thousands more players are submitting parses for the job. The same can be said about Red Mage, Bard, and Dancer.

Positionals should not only be a significant bonus, players who purposefully refuse to do them should struggle to properly contribute to groups. In the case of Monk prior to Endwalker, such players should have produced at least 25%-50% less DPS than a "perfect" player who lands every single one. It should be very easy to notice when a raid fails a DPS check despite having one of the top raidDPS jobs in the game in their roster, a position that Monk sat comfortably in throughout Shadowbringers.

Players who didn't like that could have stayed as happy ranged DPS mains, though doubtlessly they'd have found something else to complain about. But if they wanted so badly to punch things for the ~aesthetic~, they should have learned how to play it right.

Note: it isn't always possible to land every positional. It almost never was possible. Sometimes the game does things to force you out of position, to force you to choose safety rather than dps. It's no different from Black Mages being forced out of leylines due to AoE or knockback or having a spell interrupted, or a Samurai or Bard missing their dot refresh, or a Ninja flubbing a jutsu. Stuff happens, mistakes happen. The fun isn't in having numbers handed to you, it's in working around the things that stop you from doing everything perfectly, and producing successful results despite what the devs are throwing your way.

[Mikey_R]

The point of a person doing positonals at that point is the simple point of them liking positionals. Why would someone climb Mt. Everest and chance frostbite or death. Cause they want the challenge. But I main DNC so I was just trying to think of a option that all might be ok with lol.

But there is no reward. The whole idea behind positionals is to reward the players for putting in that extra bit of work. You can climb Mt. Everest and get a reward, or take a cable car up to make it easier (if there was one) and still get the same reward. Obviously, there is no cable car, so why should there be omni-directions on everything.

[Kyuse]

I'm not a fan of positionals, but they should have 1 or 2 jobs which utilize them, there's a ton of people who likes them and sucks not having a job that fits your gameplay