Why is everyone anxious about a PLD Rework?

[HyperiusUltima]

I’d like to know people’s opinions on this since I’m noticing a lot of anxiety over changing their rotation* mid-expansion. These have happened before with other jobs, namely those that have inherent job issues that haven’t been brought up until new systems and changes in the expac are already in place.

In my opinion, I think a change to PLD’s rotation would be good in the long run, as long as it has the following:

- Control over when Healing is applied, separated from Requiscat

- Fix Atonement Drifting(it’s horrible)

- Bring it up to speed with the “2-Minute Meta” so it doesn’t lag behind in exchange for Sustained Damage that skews lower vs. other tanks specifically in certain fights with continuous re-opening phases.

[Vencio]

Not anxious, rather irritable.

Left WoW 3 years ago due to constant class revamp it lead from bad to worse; so I sought refuge here…only for the latter to haunt me once more…SAM was stripped terribly despite at one point I advocated it but now see it truly made a mess, Healers are just “stones” like Bob Marley.

The ongoing inconsistencies job revamps will wreak havoc which it will never stopped & feed on more discord in everyone needlessly speaking.

I can only wait & see what manner of blasphemy will they call the inquisition upon my favourite job PLD.

[Raraka]

People are afraid of change, and with good reason

Take something you love, enjoy or like a lot, and then someone comes along and says that they want to change it or rework it. Your gut reaction would be "But I like it how it is, what if they make it worse or less fun?"

In some cases, like with DRK bloodweapon and Living dead changes, both the players and the Devs agreed they needed changes, so people were looking fowards to this changes. But in the case of PLD, most dedicated PLD players will say that they enjoy the job, and/or are afraid of another incident like the SMN rework (wich numerically succeeded by making the job more accesible, but ended up making old SMN players feel abandoned/like their job was gutted)

So, to circle around to your main question. People are anxious about the PLD rework because reworks tend to be hit or miss, it could be minimal changes that somehow make PLD work perfectly in the 2 minute meta, or it could be a fundamental change to the rotation that shifts the playstyle to something old PLD mains don't like, and that is what has people anxious

[Mithron]

Because I don't like the two minute burst meta and would rather them remove that instead of forcing PLD into it. I've also loved PLD's rotation since I started the game in HW, and enjoyed each iteration of it per expansion with growth and natural evolution adding to its skills and rotation. Seeing my bread and butter be forced to change simply because they screwed up their entire job design philosophy with two minute meta is incredibly disappointing.

[FireMage]

Because I don't like the two minute burst meta and would rather them remove that instead of forcing PLD into it. I've also loved PLD's rotation since I started the game in HW, and enjoyed each iteration of it per expansion with growth and natural evolution adding to its skills and rotation. Seeing my bread and butter be forced to change simply because they screwed up their entire job design philosophy with two minute meta is incredibly disappointing.

They aren't going to remove something that benefits the game for the singular outlier

[fulminating]

They aren't going to remove something that benefits the game for the singular outlier

You're right! Noone has to worry about balance if noone wants to play any job anymore

[Jonah_Greymont]

To be fair, it is the CURRENT single outlier; monk was in the same boat pre-EW. Despite the 2-min window being their core philosophy they still managed to design PLD outside of it with the expansion, even as they “fixed” monk to fit inside that box.

I am personally a fan of having at least one class that operates outside of burst damage, and current PLD does it in a way that is interesting to me personally with the longer rotation. It doesn’t even bother me that it generally performs behind the other tanks in terms of damage. I think if they went back to focusing on damage vs utility and found a way to fit more utility (by redesigning the current kit; looking at you, Cover) onto PLD, that would alleviate the pains that exist on it currently.

I also realize that all of that is a pipe dream and they have pretty well settled on what this rework will be. The 3 main things I hope they retain are these:

1) The long, unique rotation. 1-2-3, or 1-2-4-1-2-3 is a big reason why seasoned players don’t like playing tanks. Keep this interesting for PLD.

2) The “party utility” status. Hell, add in a party damage buff even (highly unlikely), but don’t strip PLD down to the generic tank abilities.

3) The caster-tank role. Even if this is relegated to the “burst phase,” keep some form of this alive.

[Gserpent]

To be fair, it is the CURRENT single outlier; monk was in the same boat pre-EW. Despite the 2-min window being their core philosophy they still managed to design PLD outside of it with the expansion, even as they “fixed” monk to fit inside that box.

I am personally a fan of having at least one class that operates outside of burst damage, and current PLD does it in a way that is interesting to me personally with the longer rotation. It doesn’t even bother me that it generally performs behind the other tanks in terms of damage. I think if they went back to focusing on damage vs utility and found a way to fit more utility (by redesigning the current kit; looking at you, Cover) onto PLD, that would alleviate the pains that exist on it currently.

I also realize that all of that is a pipe dream and they have pretty well settled on what this rework will be. The 3 main things I hope they retain are these:

1) The long, unique rotation. 1-2-3, or 1-2-4-1-2-3 is a big reason why seasoned players don’t like playing tanks. Keep this interesting for PLD.

2) The “party utility” status. Hell, add in a party damage buff even (highly unlikely), but don’t strip PLD down to the generic tank abilities.

3) The caster-tank role. Even if this is relegated to the “burst phase,” keep some form of this alive.

The Famitsu interview makes it sound like it's the other way around - PLD's design goes all the way back to 2.0 and beyond, and they've largely just been tacking stuff onto it ever since then, and after the 2 minute paradigm changes, it was left in a very uncomfortable position.

I *wish* this was the kind of game to actually allow for #2 to any meaningful degree. Stuff like warhorn/shout warrior in GW2 is really enjoyable to play and a distinct departure from the usual healer/supporter roles. But with raids being pretty much nothing but sheet music and the only meaningful degree of player input being their DPS output... it ain't gonna happen.

[FireMage]

You're right! Noone has to worry about balance if noone wants to play any job anymore

If things that benefit the game make people leave, good riddance

[Rithy255]

If things that benefit the game make people leave, good riddance

So how does the new design to jobs benefit the game? I'd like to know as you sure seem to know.