Is PvP intentionally unbalanced?

[ICountFrom0]

Everything else in the game, no matter what class you are, you can get into it and complete it. This means we're used to thinking about final fantasy 14 with that mindset.

But, what if?

What if PvP is being intentionally left unbalanced? What if there actually is a best composition for Crystal groups?

Yes, they are taking away things that are too obviously broken, paladin cover and guard as instant win, and when BLM was so broken that everybody picked it in CC and the other 3 slots took forever to fill in the 4 man party, it got trimmed back.

On the other hand, Dark Knight and Samurai and Ninja and Monk are quite obviously outliers. They are simply better.

What if that's intentional?

I'm starting to think that this might not be a bad thing. Your not locked out of PVP if you play a bad class, you still get wins at a 1/3 ratio in frontline. If you want to play any other class you don't have leveled, that's FINE. PvP will let it pretend to be max level, you toss the skills on it, and wear any equipment because your stats will get fixed. Make yourself look FABULOUS and go strut your stuff.

Might I be onto something, or did I just step in something?

[Kansene]

In CC I mostly find any job I meet to be okay-ish. I don't feel like DRK are any more oppressive than the other tanks, and NIN/MNK are dangerous, but can mostly be dealt with.
I find SAM in CC to be a non-issue, since it's actually manageable to keep track of them there and play around their LB.
However, I don't play CC very often, just the occasional evening here and there, and never ranked. High tier play is probably a whole different story.
I don't think the devs would intentionally try to keep things unbalanced, but I definitely think they're way too slow to address obvious issues, and that PvP is not a high priority at all, especially FL.

Only applicable in FL:
I'm just so happy to be rid of PLD cheese that nothing can really ruin my day. Nothing even comes close to that level of lameness and anti-fun.
I despise SAM/NIN LBs, but they're not broken or OP. Just cheap.
DRK pulls are incredibly annoying, and I'm really, REALLY sick of seeing so many people playing DRK and endlessly chain pulling into easy team wipes, but I don't think they're necessarily broken or unfair either. Just way too common and starting to get really old and boring to see in every FL. It's obviously super strong, or people wouldn't play it so often, and I would like to see it changed so we can get more variety, but it's not so bad that I mald over it, just a point of frustration now and then.

[Ransu]

CC has some balance problems, but imo everything is viable.

Frontlines? Who cares... lol. People need to understand that it is objectively impossible to balance a mode with 72 players running around.

[Novani]

I hate to say it, but they can tweak potency numbers and duration all they want, it wouldn't change the core issue with how these modes play out. Players do not have equal agency with how the game prioritizes actions, effects, animations, and even just general feedback. All too common is the situation where people are obliterated, behind a wall, with barely any chance to heal or defend themselves. You do not see this problem in PvE, because it is far more static. Here, the system just simply cannot keep everyone up to date and will only choose one result, it's not snappy gameplay at all.

So no, I wouldn't say it's intentionally unbalanced (except maybe for NIN's LB, that duration extension is just absurdly long), as much as they keep trying to tackle the wrong end of the problem and thus solving nothing that significantly sharpens up the gameplay across the board.

It's never going to be perfect, this is an MMO, someone's always going to have an intense disadvantage to overcome, to say nothing of the learning curve. But it would be nice if it didn't feel like we were all playing entirely different games or rulesets every so often.

Surprised also that Monk got mentioned as an outlier, their animation delays are terrible for weaving anything or even finishing off 1% HP enemies. And Riddle of Earth is contender for one of the worst PvP defensives in the game, so yay.

And as for Crystalline Conflict... it absolutely needs to get a better idea of what classes can substitute for others better, half the time it just feels utterly nonsensical.

[Elfidan]

To be honest the balancing issues are mostly because certain jobs are designed to fill specific roles BUT every party is random, so this is negated except when you get that perfect comp vs something else. Wait though because now the variance of player skill comes into play. In the end CC falls into perfect line with everything SE makes. RNG heavy mode based on factors you cannot control.

[AnnRam]

FL it's fine if SAM ult gets nerfed to oblivion.
CC needs a lot of work, like why MNK Lb means you are dead no matter what job you are.

[Vatom]

No your pretty spot on it’s unbalanced internationally

[Cidel]

CC has some balance problems, but imo everything is viable.

I'm of this opinion, generally.

Some jobs are just better than others, its just in the nature of competitive games with different characters/archetypes that have differing mechanics or skillsets. But aside from day 1 of the entire PvP rework and through a couple "balance" adjustments, I just don't find any 1 particular job to be glaringly bad or "overpowered;" the exception being SCH, which simply put is either going to vary between amazing or useless, depending on the basic competency of their other 4 teammates.

However, where things start to get a little bit more complicated comes from the random team compositions. Some jobs just synergize well with others. The big issue I see is the possibility of lopsided compositions- and I don't necessarily mean tank, healer and dps distribution complaints we saw early on, though this is similar. A team of say, DRK AST MNK DRG BLM is going to have an easier time than say, a PLD SGE NIN DNC BRD team if they both have equal skill. The melee vs ranged problem for DPS can lead to very one-sided situations like one team has 3-4 noticeably tankier melee jobs all diving-in on squishier jobs that are forced to engage without cover. All of the jobs may be viable, but that's usually in a sense if they exist in a vacuum.

I once saw a good comment on reddit that I wish I could find again about Crystalline Conflict and an accurate, alternate take on the jobs and their "actual" roles; like there being "Executioner" jobs (like MCH or NIN I guess), "Pressure, Support, Interference, Set-up, etc." (I can't remember all of the categories used, but you get the gist of it). But if you get matched on a team that runs heavily on Support or Interference, killing targets becomes more difficult and you basically can only win by essentially majorly outplaying a better-stacked team.

This doesn't make any 1 job bad, but if they're in a particular match-up where they're not allowed to perform how they're intended to (ranged jobs seem particularly susceptible to this), they'll get picked-off or be unable to fully utilize their skillset. Like if your only melee is a NIN against a team that has 2 different melee + a tank, direct confrontations will never end well for your team.