Quote Originally Posted by Vahlnir View Post
Job complexity doesn't always equal fun. Nor does it need to. I think that there needs to be a few jobs with a higher learning curve though, and we do have some of those. But not every job needs to be that way. Healers...yeah, like I've said many times I will never defend their design currently. They need serious help. I pity anyone who players a healer right now. And the next addition to the housing system, as well as the implementation of a lottery, will do absolutely nothing to fix housing. So we are still waiting for something meaningful. lol But yeah, things aren't perfect, but I still agree with the sentiment that the game's doing just fine.
Regarding job complexity—I think that there should be some kind of skill ceiling that each job has. The issue is, is that the developers are so determined to close the gap between “bad players” and “good players” that they have destroyed the skill ceilings for some of these jobs. And they’ve taken away and taken away repeatedly without really giving them anything back. It’s sort of cheapened the rewards for optimizing a job, and made them less fun to play for those who mained the jobs previously. I think that’s mostly what Kizuya was getting at: the devs are so focused on accessibility and making everything so easy and so “Baby’s First ___” that the complexity that previously existed that players loved is gone. I don’t think that accessibility is necessarily a bad thing, but it is when it comes at the cost of engagement and enjoyment.

I always think about Stormblood BRD when I think about how job complexity has gone down. Though BRD still has some optimization to it now, it’s not to the extent that it was in Stormblood. There was Straight Shot upkeep, Foe Requiem + Refresh management, Iron Jaws optimization…multiple things that good BRDs could chase in terms of optimization that weren’t inherently complex but that felt good to execute. And these were removed because the developers did not like how large the gap was between skilled BRDs and unskilled BRDs. That was the reason they gave for the removal of these things—alongside the unmentioned reason of “we’re giving all of this party support to DNC now because it’s the shiny new support class and this game can’t have two supports nope nope nope”. Nothing was given to BRDs in place of all the removals, and it left old BRD mains feeling particularly salty.