What if Support Role was Added to FFXIV?

[R041]

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You're right, and I said the same thing a page ago - There's nothing to support exactly. It's all been kinda streamlined into a smooth experience without opportunity for failure. Saying it's smoother doesn't even give it credit as a better experience necessarily, because technically our boss mechanics have gotten more interesting, but the difficulty from the player's individual class requirements have been mostly removed and more boring in favor of DDR gameplay. I want both.

[Avoidy]

You're right, and I said the same thing a page ago

I committed the sin of not reading a thread all the way through before commenting. Support roles were my all time favorite thing to do in tera before it died, and no other mmo has come close to the fun I had from healing in that game, so I jump at the chance to talk about this subject.
At this point, I don't think it'll improve. And I'm speaking broadly now, at just the mmo genre in general. So many games are steering away from the trinity model and creating independent dps experiences where you heal and budget your mana with consumables. If support exists, it's some watered down damage only form of support where you hit a button to make people's damage jump by X%. It doesn't feel meaningful. And that's just where we are now. I hope XIV can be pioneers and lead us back into a golden age of support, but I 100% do not expect innovation from a game that's comfortable staying the course and will have support and approval for doing so. Feelsbadman.

[R041]

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Part of me kinda holds out hope, because RDM got AoE shield. BUT I'm also worried because most of our 'Support' is turning into Damage Buff or Defense. So it doesn't feel very innovative after 12 years of XIV. Like I can't necessarily say what would be innovative for them at this point, because they've only been removing and re-gifting to other classes for the past 5 years, while 'streamlining' all of the stats and resources like MP/TP.

I paraded the idea of removing Job + Class combinations in lieu of an easier/streamlined class system overall. But then I realize that it was actually a huge mistake and they should have made adjustments instead of remove entirely. My problem was you'd have to level a whole separate class outside of your Main/Secondary just to get a passive or role ability that we knew was necessary. Then I look at how WoW's Skill Tree is going and realize we're really missing out on individuality, they managed to give them options and make it not a slog.

So I don't really know anymore, and I think 7.0 is going to really tell us if they want to stay on this Shadowbringers copycat path, or try and innovate again like they used to. I kinda feel like we're in a pseudo-maintenance mode considering Yoshi is focusing on XVI, and that makes me sad.