Are positionals a outdated thing?

[Packetdancer]

Not only do I enjoy positionals, I will continue to stubbornly act as if all of the MNK single-target attacks have a positional requirement, even though that's no longer true!

More seriously, I actually enjoy positionals; the fact that not only am I mobile but that mobility is important so that I can shift back and forth slightly to hit positionals is part of why I've discovered I like melee DPS better than caster or physical ranged. Maybe it's because as a healer main I am used to mobility being limited, and melee is the opposite end -- you not only can move while attacking, but unlike physical ranged, you have to as part of your rotation.

Variety is the spice of life and all that? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[SamsonBlacke]

I like Positionals. They're a bonus for standing in the right place.

[Raikai]

I was watching Xenosys and I been agreeing in that positionals are at this point just dumb and a archaic system. Should they just finally get rid of positionals once and for all?

The way the XIV's combat code and GCD are, it makes a bad structure for positional based gameplay. It would be for the better if those were gone and they made up a more interesting system.

[Aniya_Estlihn]

One of the most interestingly designed fights last tier was P2 and P2S because of the freedom they had with mechanics in relation to the arena. So I am in the camp that removing positionals would allow for more dynamic fight design which the game itself would generally benefit from on a universal scale.

[Seraphor]

I'd be down with removing them in exchange for a different way of making melee complex.
Mostly because they hamper boss design because the devs have to account for melee positionals

The devs can, and have, just made positionless enemies for when positionals aren't necessary or dont work.
There's not need to remove them from the jobs when you can just remove them from the enemies when needed.

[Payadopa]

I like positionals, please keep them.

I don't understand either. I want to think about where I have to stand in an encounter. If you don't like positionals, fair, just play ranged then.

[Jeeqbit]

I could say I don't like them because they make classes harder to play.

But that's exactly the point, isn't it?

Tanks don't have them, but in exchange they have to do other things such as positioning the boss, handling tank busters and protecting the party.

I can't explain ranged job rotations because some of them are actually like a tank rotation without anything else to distract them. There was a time when I would say the dot management on ranged jobs is their version of it, but now we have SMN, RDM, MCH and DNC which don't have these.

[Listrella]

i'm sure glad I don't have to worry about positionals with summoner, I have quite enough to handle with the latest extreme without having to do positionals as well.

[TheDustyOne]

If Square is willing to make more fights like P2 where boss positioning is a little more dynamic and makes positionals hard to design around, I wouldn't mind if they ended up going away to make room for it. But as the game is now, I'd rather they still be relevant to a jobs kit. Even now I play monk as if it still has those old positionals. They have a subtle effect on feel for jobs that can make a job with lots of positionals more dynamic and fast paced as you move around the boss, having to dodge while simultaneously making sure you can get that extra potency off.

I think ideally if Square wants more fights like P2 where positionals are more a hindrance to design than a boon, then it'd be fair to just make them not require positionals. But for other fights I'd rather they be kept as they can add a bit more spice to melee jobs than just standing at the bosses backside and can make good tanking just that bit more important.

[KuroMaboroshi]

The devs can, and have, just made positionless enemies for when positionals aren't necessary or dont work.
There's not need to remove them from the jobs when you can just remove them from the enemies when needed.

This is the best answer. Anyone pretending like positional hamstring fight design is conveniently ignoring bosses that are omnidirectional.

That being said, I am not fundamentally opposed to seeing them get removed one day, but only once there is an adequate follow-up system in place that allows for the same amount of skill expression (or ideally more) in melees.