Duty support is perfection. (2.0 edition)

[Omedon]

I am absolutely the target audience for duty support among people already playing the game, and this feature completely addressed my every concern with its coverage of the 2.0 MSQ, which I've just completed on a new character.

I work strange shifts that change every two weeks and sometimes my availability changes day to day, I play the game in a way that... people obsessed with performance or extreme time efficiency would not appreciate (still finished the Endwalker MSQ on my main, so I'm unquestionably a "good enough" player), and my play sessions are hard to schedule. In other MMOs, these would be crippling, but in FFXIV with duty support, I finally feel like I have a home that fully welcomes me, even before engaging the community. This is really important.

The interdependence and the "community policing" that first let MMORPGs "arrive" with games like EverQuest are now antiquated, and not even the best of communities (which I'd count FFXIV's as easily taking the cake on) can be fully trusted with the impression that will allow some players to invest in and "stick" to the game. Duty support acknowledges and, well, supports all of this. You can still want to play with other players, of course you can, but you don't *need* them to complete the all-important MSQ and that is so, so very important in modern, jaded online gaming. "I can want you if I know you, but if I don't know you I shouldn't need you" is the mantra I often apply to forming opinions of MMORPGs, and FFXIV has "won" on this axis with duty support, hands down.

Almost everyone I've recommended FFXIV to has gotten the "mandatory dungeon" warning from me (again, I'm someone who can't necessarily be present to help them through said mandatory dungeons on an easily scheduled basis) and in most cases, encountering this "wall" was what made them turn around and play something else. I'm going back to those same people now with a similar review to this one and telling them that it's being addressed, and they're very interested. Even lapsed veterans are very interested for one very big reason that duty support tackles, "unlocking" something that I always thought kinda silly in FFXIV: Alternate characters.

I'm rolling alts *because of* duty support. This game feels like I "own" my time within it now! I can play a tank and not be expected to pull wall to wall, I can play a healer for a tank that will never pull wall to wall! It's glorious, and in addition to my "all in one" main, I'm now rolling characters that make specific sense for a few jobs here and there, and it's pure bliss! I'm pausing these alts at the threshold of the duty support revamp, and playing them as the revamp moves along!

I just want to put some positive energy out there on the forums and say that this feature is a home run, for new players and for already invested players! Thank you to the devs for making this happen, as I'm incandescently happy and hope the revamp is as complete going forward. I'm *very* interested in seeing if the current, forthcoming slate of 8-person mandatory trials remains as is. If they slash all or even some of that up and put it into duty support, I will be so very happy!

So yeah, if sitting in queue, playing with strangers, or playing certain roles to "community standards" was stopping you before from playing a certain job or rolling an alt, now is the time... to level 50 anyway! It's just perfect! All the thumbs up!

[Omedon]

OH! A few details that really stood out, that are worthy of their own post instead of constantly editing the OP:

-The revamped fights in many leveling dungeons basically eliminate "someone click/do the thing," in all cases I imagine because either the AI would potentially do it which means it might as well not exist, or it always has to be you that does it regardless of role.

-A MAJOR theme of the fight revamping is a lot of "order of explosions" tracking. We don't click things any more, but we do have to pay attention to the order the tells are coming in!

-Lahabrea is a jerk now, I imagine because technically you can fail him and come back on easy. I personally didn't need that but I'm glad it's there.

-Praetorium is still mostly unskippable cutscene-wise, even on duty support. I imagine this is to maintain the sense of live players being the "efficiency option," which is fair.

-Speaking of, ARR is currently the only expansion with "capstone dungeons" that give full XP! I wish they'd do that for all capstone dungeons, but it was really needed here since the previous duty support leveling dungeon is stone vigil at 41, a gap that without prae/castrum/ultima would have left the "duty support reliant" dungeon leveler with a huge gap to sohm al at 53. Snowcloak may be mandatory for flight, but it's not an MSQ dungeon so we shouldn't anticipate its support (but I REALLY would like it!)

-The revamped dungeons are gorgeous! In particular Toto Rak is much nicer, copperbell is nigh unrecognizable, and the arena for the middle boss of the stone vigil is worth going to see! No more clicking cannons! (see above)