Why is everyone anxious about a PLD Rework?

[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.