Quote Originally Posted by Mikey_R View Post
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Something like that, yeah. As much as I hate continued homogenization, I think it's undeniable that's where they're going with class design for one reason or another. In that vein, copying No Mercy seems like the best fit for PLD - FoF simply becomes their version of No Mercy. Maybe with different timings, but the base concept is there. Instead of weaving in a ton of oGCDs and having that big burst of extra damage in between GCDs, you're instead putting the Req window in there somewhere and then you'll just be a boring, bland, awful "afk while pressing 1-2-3 for the next 35 seconds" class like everything else in the game is now. It's where we're going here, no doubt about it. With the changes this expansion such that using spells doesn't break weapon combos, it shouldn't be tough to fit in spells while still making sure Goring Blade is inside raid buffs (you would probably just do your 1-2-4 instead of 1-2-3, I imagine.) Oh, and I'm assuming that FoF applies to all damage, not just physical damage (hence the No Mercy comparison.) Potency of skills adjusted as needed of course.

For some of the outlying problems, I'd just copy how PvP solved them - Atonement just becomes something that outright replaces Fast Blade, like Raiden Thrust replaces... whatever the first step of DRG's combos is called, I forget. It's simply a potency booster that can't be assigned to a hotkey and is a "reward" for managing to press 1-2-3 without screwing up. Boring? I don't know, I guess? But is pressing 5-5-5 or sometimes only 5-5 any more exciting? Atonement just kinda sucks in PvE, it's not a "fun" button. I'd probably want to see a deeper redesign for it, but I don't think we'll see something more extensive like that in a mid-expansion patch. Then again, the ShB NIN patch shook things up a fair bit, so who knows?

I'm not a big fan of Circle of Scorn and the blade final dot overwriting each other. It's never been something I've liked and I would want to see that changed. Maybe it would be shifted to that the final blade spell gives you a lengthy buff that increases the damage of your next Circle of Scorn by whatever amount?

I also like the idea that others have mentioned, that FoF would be tuned to be a 120 second cooldown, so that you still have the 60 second Req window every odd minute to at least keep the gameplay from being a complete snoozefest. But it's going to be more boring than what we have now, no doubts about it - that's how they are choosing to design things.