Quote Originally Posted by Lyth View Post
I enjoy a lot of game genres. My main issue with the current design is how scripted many fights feel. That can be exciting during prog when you're still figuring things out, but it feels like there's no real decision-making that occurs mid-fight. I like variable elements, be they branching mechanic patterns or proc-based actions. I agree that combos are uninspiring design and have nothing to do with player technical ability. But the main purpose is to keep your baseline keystroke pattern less tedious over many hours of play, not to keep you challenged.

I think interesting movement abilities is the way forward, because they add visual/spatial technical challenges to fights that are traditionally only about timing and nothing more.
I mean you're probably complaining more about the static fight design than job design at this point tbh. Positionals are/were probably one such elements that you're looking for when it comes to dynamic movement. I'm not saying that they shouldn't try other things like that, mind you. I wouldn't mind having to move more as a rphys player myself (although i'm not sure how besides having melee options like old DNC perhaps).

I just do feel that they keep removing more and more proc and priority based mechanics in jobs, and procs should be one of the ways to go to generate those decisions on the spot. This is literally what makes me play DPS jobs. I don't like melees due to the aforementioned design (I hate positionals with a burning passion, and that's just subjective taste). At least melees still have branching combos, even though they've been simplifying those too (Ninja lost the dot branch, etc), but recently they've been actually adding combos without any branching steps, which I find absolutely baffling (MCH and RPR). What is even the point of those when they could just be reduced to a single pvp button that does the same thing? It's just 3 buttons that are bloating your hotbar for very little gain in complexity. One simple thing they could do to make DRG more engaging is adding a small rng element between Fang and Wheeling.

One of the things that make rphys in their original design interesting for me to play was the heavy reliance on random elements and on the fly adjustment, especially during their bursts. BRD may have recurring patterns but every burst will never be the exact same combination and pattern. DNC as well although this one is a lot less finicky and more lax in the order of buttons. Old MCH was actually demanding into quickly identifying specific pre burst patterns in order to know what sequence to go for as well. I guess BLM still retains some of this, but it's a caster and not the main focus of it, and when you actually want to get into it you get into actual unintended voodoo like transpose lines.