Quote Originally Posted by Doc_Seraph View Post
What if they started randomizing the mechanics more so instead of just knowing mindlessly where to stand etc.. It keeps you on your pixelated toes hehe kupo <3
I mean, it's unlikely they'll entirely randomize things, but... I actually do enjoy the sort of "buffet table" approach to mechanics some fights take, where you'll have two or three things you need to combine.

E12, for instance, where Eden's Promise will tether to two of the memory crystals, and then use a mechanics pattern from that specific previous fight, and you need to see which the two patterns will be to know where the safe space is when they're overlaid on each other. The extreme version of the level 89 trial, where you get one of In, Out, or Intercardinals, combined with Spread, Party Stack, or Light Parties, and need to execute the one and then quickly shift to the other. P4S's Pinax patterns, where it could be Knockback or Be-At-The-Edge, followed by Spread or Light Party stacks, with a giant cleave or (potentially second) knockback from one specific side between the two in half the cases. Etc.

It can even be somewhat predictable; if your first Pinax pattern is Lightning (Out) and Poison (Spread), you know the next one will be Water (Knockback from center) plus Fire (light parties), though you don't know which wall the Shift will be from between the second pair until the actual cast is going. In the extreme of the level 89 trial, if you get In/Light Parties, you know the next will be Out/Spread. So you have to pay attention, but you also still benefit if you learn the patterns.

But that's less relevant to "how do you balance jobs", and more "how do you keep Pax engaged in the fight". (Pax being how many a friend abbreviates "Packetdancer".)

However, I do think the stats creep we have -- and the wonky way ilevel sync "functions" in this game -- do new players no favors, when you build up these big climactic fights in the story only to have them be mindless facerolls.

(And it does veteran players no favors either. Folks like to complain that a sproud doesn't know mechanics from previous fights. But it's not like "Pyretic" is a mechanic they'll encounter early on any longer; the five-headed dragon in World of Darkness is where that was introduced, I believe, and that poor thing never lives long enough to cast it anymore. And they're not necessarily going to know that "Acceleration Bomb" and "Extreme Caution" and "Pyretic" are all functionally the same thing, even if they've encountered the others.)