Why is everyone anxious about a PLD Rework?

[Gserpent]

I’d like to know people’s opinions on this since I’m noticing a lot of anxiety over changing their rotation* mid-expansion.

Short answer? I enjoyed ShB WAR well enough, thought it had *just* enough interaction with the class that it wasn't *completely* an AFK autopilot class, and most of all... it had relatively few buttons so I didn't have to add a bunch of extra keybinds. I guess I like simplicity. It was easier than I wanted, but then most ShB classes were "easy." It was kind of the design goal, for classes to be easy to play. Middle of the pack/lower end performance in exchange for lowest player investment, seemed fair. I enjoyed it.

Then come EW and they removed all but a very few bits of "player expression" in the class. Upheaval and Onslaught don't have a rage cost, so there's no more interactivity with the rage meter and needing to remember to pool rage at certain times; Inner Release was homogenized along with many other things to align with the new 2-minute paradigm, which removed an element from the class (particularly if you had a NIN), since now you don't have to think about when your raid's next burst cycle is and where it aligns with yours and the potion timer; Inner Release was changed to operate on charges rather than the oddball timer system, so precise timing of GCDs and oGCDs no longer mattered so much (this is a net positive, but it *is* removing an element from the gameplay); Upheaval and Onslaught no longer affected by Inner Release, so it's no longer possible to drift them other than drifting them *so* hard they actually fall outside of raid buffs (which is different from, for example, drifting them by a partial oGCD/GCD every cycle due to mismanagement until they either fall out of IR or you have to skip an entire use to reset their position); and then later they even changed Inner Release such that it *only* affects Fell Cleave and Decimate, so you don't even have to worry about losing damage due to being *so* asleep at the wheel you just kept mashing Heavy Swing accidentally out of habit or something.

As a result, while the class's performance is perfectly fine, it feels miserable to play. To the point that you might as well really just install a bot to play the game for you, because it's not like you're actually engaged anymore. After years of playing and gearing WAR as my first class each tier, I was forced to write off the class and try something else.

I ended up really enjoying PLD. I enjoyed that you're *allowed* to screw up and break combos by being too spam-happy with Atonement, that you can *absolutely* throw away your Confiteor by not paying attention (you actually need to *count how many GCDs you use during Req!* gasp!), that you can throw away your Blades combo by... again... not paying attention. And I am 110% convinced **ALL** of that is getting thrown out with this upcoming rework, because Square-Enix has apparently decided that they don't want players to be able to make major rotational mistakes anymore.

I'm not even convinced the class needs a rework. I don't see why they couldn't have sustained DPS classes and burst classes fit into the same system, even within the 2-minute paradigm, so long as the design for all classes is such that their biggest damage button(s) land during that window. They need some attention... Square-Enix needs to either make Cover actually useful or just delete it, block needs to apply to dots and the like, Clemency needs to be like a 10-25s oGCD to compensate for PLD not having a button like Equilibrium etc (Clemency is a big DPS loss to use)... but I don't think they need a "rework." And with how Square-Enix has approached class design, "rework" to me just means "sanding down all of the interesting bits."

So, yeah, plenty of anxiety about it. Sounds like they're about to kill off the only class left that I actually enjoy playing.

I don't like "burst" classes.
I don't like the 2min buff system.
I don't like to rely on crits of the heavy hits.
I don't like 2000 potency skills and the frustration of them not criting.

And PLD is one of the last job's who don't have these things I don't like.
Really, I would rather play a underperforming job which has trouble getting into HC PF group's or statics, then playing a 20sec burst job that has nothing to do for the remaining 100 sec.

Also, these 2min buff windows are only important for savage and ultimate groups. And there only in the first few weeks.

Go into the PF for extreme trail or DF alliance raid and you will not see any buff alignment, not even at the opener.
Because "casuals" don't care about it, don't have to worry about it and they clear the content while having fun.

Current PLD brings variation in gameplay styles and variations is a good thing.

Yeah, I don't even know who Square-Enix are designing the classes for. "Casual" players aren't paying attention to careful rotations or how much potency they are or aren't losing, they just want to be able to do enough damage/healing to make normals and maybe the occasional Ex go reasonably smoothly while seeing really gorgeous and flashy animations and stuff... that's not mutually exclusive with a design wherein not doing positionals, not managing cooldown drift, etc results in losing too much DPS to clear upper savage tiers.

I don't get who they're designing the game for, with excessive sanding-down of designs.