FFXIV Job Design Feedback

[VentVanitas]

So I thought of an interesting question that could be fun to discuss. There's no need to get very specific with these ideas, but start by picking a job. What are 1-5 actions you want to see added to that job in the next expansion (regardless of whether or not you believe they're realistic), and what are 1-5 actions you expect to see of that same job?

Oh boy an excuse to talk about Monk! Monk to me is an interesting job to discuss when it comes to new actions because a lot of its problems can't really be solved with more additions to its rotation. Adding one thing (assuming it isn't just a flat potency oGCD) could potentially effect other systems without even being directly tied to it, such as was the case of ShB Anatman or SB's 60s Perfect Balance and Wind Tackle. But I'll answer this question strictly under the context of "new actions only" rather than what systems I want to see reworked.

What I want:
- Pressure Point (trait) - Using skills like Forbidden Chakra/Enlightenment, Six Sided Star, Form Shift or Riddle of Wind gives the Pressure Point buff, increasing the next (non-Blitz) GCD skill's damage by 50%.
- Chi Blast (GCD) - Additional follow up attack to Six Sided Star, gives one Chakra upon use. Added potency if used under Pressure Point.
- Internal Release (returning oGCD) - 15 second buff on a 45s cooldown, all GCDs under this buff open a Chakra.
- A visual upgrade to Elixir Field, preferably named Aura Bolt.

What I expect (and hope doesn't happen):
- An oGCD that can only be used under Riddle of Fire or Brotherhood.
- A 2 minute cooldown that just gives us both Nadis so Phantom Rush can be used in the opener.

[ForsakenRoe]

"Agreed, the thing is" - honestly, I think oGCDs are way too powerful. I feel like healing should be far more GCD based. GCD heals should be the strong ones with oGCD heals being agumenting them. So skilled healers in good parties can shift more to the oGCD side, but people using GCD heals should be able to get through the healing requirements, and the shift should be from GCD to oGCD as encounter teams get better. Right now, it's not that way. The oGCDs are the first line heals rather than the last line or secondary help. Instead of "Use Asylum if Medica 2 isn't quite enough healing", it's "Use Medica 2 if Asylum isn't enough healing".

So... Heavensward?

What I expect (and hope doesn't happen):
- An oGCD that can only be used under Riddle of Fire or Brotherhood.
- A 2 minute cooldown that just gives us both Nadis so Phantom Rush can be used in the opener.

I can see the latter being added as a side effect like 'press Anatman outside of combat and it instantly gives you 5 chakra and 2 nadi'. Spirit Bomb followup to brotherhood would be funny for the meme but it wouldn't feel right unless it took 4 episodes to charge and cast

edit: wait let me do one too

WHM: What I want:
- Dia rescaled to be 12s
- Water/Banish as a 15s CD GCD, slightly stronger than Glare equivalent, instantcast
- New gauge, 0-100, fills 1 per Glare, 1 per Dia tick (and 1 on cast), 5 per Banish (roughly 60 gauge per min in dummy scenario)
- New AOE GCD heal that costs 50 of this new gauge, which also turns GlareDiaBanish for one cast into...
- Quake (100p more than Glare), Tornado (30p more than Dia, 20p per tick more than Dia's tick, total boost of 110), Flood (100 more than Banish). These three boosts combined make the heal damage neutral
- 2 Charges on Assize/Tetra
- Rapture moved to 70
- Plenary moved to 76
- Protect as low level mit tool, upgrades to Plenary at 76 (keeps the mit effect so WHM has a 60s answer to AST's CU)
- Divine Seal back as 'Temperance without the mit', upgrades to Temp at 80
- Lily spender Stoneskin, applies a shield, at 70 it upgrades to Afflatus Bastion/Sanctuary (AOE version is learned at 70 too), shields are weaker than SGE/SCH GCD shields but damage neutral so there's maybe interesting 'can we get away with it' moments
- Cleric Stance (or Seraph Strike) as a 60s CD, 10s duration selfbuff, as a 'Trick attack' to POM's 'Mug'. Lean into WHM being the BLM of healers, it has no utility but it pumps
- Merge Cure and Cure2 (MP cost reduced to Cure1's level), merge Medica and Medica2 (just add the Med2 HOT to Med1's base heal)
- If there's any room left for another thing before the 'i play healer to heal' complaints get too much to handle, return Aero 3 as a 24s DOT (or Phlegma-like 24s CD if you really have to), generate 10 gauge over it's duration/at once if it's a burst damage

What I expect:
- Probably the AOE heal, without the gauge cost, or the Quake etc side effect, just a standalone GCD aoe heal
- Regen 2

And for SGE, what I want: this, I am not writing it all again

what I expect:

- Holos 2

[Zairava]

So I thought of an interesting question that could be fun to discuss. There's no need to get very specific with these ideas, but start by picking a job. What are 1-5 actions you want to see added to that job in the next expansion (regardless of whether or not you believe they're realistic), and what are 1-5 actions you expect to see of that same job?

Dark Knight.

What I want to see:

• Shadowskin to come back as a low level TBN, to then evolve into TBN, then for TBN to evolve into Oblation which adds the 10% damage mit and adds a small regen upon fading or breaking. The mana cost on this to be removed and thus increasing its cooldown.
• Dark Arts to return on a 3k mana cost, granting nothing to the Darkside Timer. This would effect and/or grant various GCD's. (given that the mana cost on the short CD is removed, this irons out to 1-2 uses per minute)
• Darkside timer more involved. If it isn't, just make it a passive.
• Scourge and Power Slash to come back in some form as GCD's, Through Dark Arts or otherwise.
• Shadowbringer to be a single charge
• Revamp Living Shadow into something that merges with you, similar to Reaper's enshroud in animation but works like Bunshin.
• Something more interesting done with Salted Earth similar to its pvp counterpart.
• Either make Delirium something that isn't worse Inner Release or remove it entirely and move the potency elsewhere

What I expect:

• Upgrades to Flood/Edge
• TBN merged with oblation, or oblation with Dark Mind
• Upgraded 1-2-3 combo or just the combo ender
• Delirium granting or starting a combo like Paladin's Confiteor combo
• If nothing is done with Salted Earth, for it to be removed from the pve scene.

[ty_taurus]

I suppose I could ask this over on the tank forums, but it popped into my mind here. Now, I'm not really a tank player; I've only just leveled the tanks. I understand some of the complaints and issues surrounding tanks on a surface level, but not on an intimate level, so forgive me if this is not an effective solution to Living Shadow, but I'd like to ask for anyone with more intimate knowledge of the job.

Would Living Shadow feel better and function well if Frey was designed to imitate the GCDs you use, perhaps up to 5 hits or so? I know a big complaint with Living Shadow as well as the Automaton Queen is that they feel like glorified DoTs, so I am curious if making Frey's action usage dependent on your own would resolve that.

[Zairava]

I suppose I could ask this over on the tank forums, but it popped into my mind here. Now, I'm not really a tank player; I've only just leveled the tanks. I understand some of the complaints and issues surrounding tanks on a surface level, but not on an intimate level, so forgive me if this is not an effective solution to Living Shadow, but I'd like to ask for anyone with more intimate knowledge of the job.

Would Living Shadow feel better and function well if Frey was designed to imitate the GCDs you use, perhaps up to 5 hits or so? I know a big complaint with Living Shadow as well as the Automaton Queen is that they feel like glorified DoTs, so I am curious if making Frey's action usage dependent on your own would resolve that.

It undeniably would feel better, and more impactful at the least. Living Shadow as it is is just press and forget, and the 50 gauge cost doesn't amount to much. While the idea of summoning him is cool on paper, it feels ultimately hollow because there's no interaction with Living Shadow and the rest of the kit.

[RyuDragnier]

It undeniably would feel better, and more impactful at the least. Living Shadow as it is is just press and forget, and the 50 gauge cost doesn't amount to much. While the idea of summoning him is cool on paper, it feels ultimately hollow because there's no interaction with Living Shadow and the rest of the kit.

It's the same reason why Shadowbringer is a pretty bad capstone ability. Yes, it does a lot of damage, but it isn't linked to anything else in the kit. It doesn't cost Darkside, MP, or Blood, and there's no special requirement for being able to access it, it's just there to press.

[ForsakenRoe]

Would Living Shadow feel better and function well if Frey was designed to imitate the GCDs you use, perhaps up to 5 hits or so? I know a big complaint with Living Shadow as well as the Automaton Queen is that they feel like glorified DoTs, so I am curious if making Frey's action usage dependent on your own would resolve that.

I guess then the issue is that it's possible to 'do it wrong' and we know how that's anathema to the design they're going for. Look at WOW for a similar thing, Blood DK has 'Dancing Rune Weapon', summons a floating sword that copies your abilities. Any modifier that applies to your abilities, applies to the sword too. If you Death Strike to heal yourself, it Death Strikes and heals ITself. If you Heartstrike, it Heartstrikes. If you're stood in your Death and Decay (Salted Earth), both your and the DRW's Heartstrikes cleave. If you use Marrowrend to generate 3 Boneshield charges, it does too, giving you a total of 6. And I'm pretty sure that if you have any talent that says 'autoattacks have a chance to...' then it considers the DRW's autos as separate rolls at that chance, such as the 'instantly resets Death and Decay's CD and removes it's rune cost' proc

So the way I'd implement it as a 'best of both' compromise, is that if you use an attack GCD or OGCD, it copies it animationwise. Have the first thing it does be Plunge to get into range still, but after that, it copies you directly. You Abyssal Drain, it does too. You spam Stalwart Soul 6 times in a row like a bot, it does too. If any move you use has a secondary effect, it triggers twice. Souleater's heal, Syphonstrike's MP restore, the tiny MP restore caused by Delirium, AD's heal, all twice. HOWEVER, the base potency of the skill that is being copied is instead locked to a flat value. It doesn't matter if your GCDs under Living Shadow are 8 Hard Slashes or the full optimized rotation with resource pooling etc, the damage from LS will be the same. Damage from YOU might be different, but from LS it's the same. If that's too much skill-based variance still, have it only count GCDs

[Mikey_R]

It's the same reason why Shadowbringer ... there's no special requirement for being able to access it, it's just there to press.

Technically, you need to be under Darkside to use it, so technically, there is a special requirement. However, I know this is being pedantic and in theory you will have Darkside up 100% of the time anyway, making this requirement a null point.

[Zairava]

Technically, you need to be under Darkside to use it, so technically, there is a special requirement. However, I know this is being pedantic and in theory you will have Darkside up 100% of the time anyway, making this requirement a null point.

Which is the exact reason, I feel, it should cost Darkside rather than just merely requiring Darkside to be active

[Renathras]

So... Heavensward?

More like SB. No Cleric Stance. HW having Cleric Stance makes it a different animal.

It's the same reason why Shadowbringer is a pretty bad capstone ability. Yes, it does a lot of damage, but it isn't linked to anything else in the kit. It doesn't cost Darkside, MP, or Blood, and there's no special requirement for being able to access it, it's just there to press.

It's like that one NIN ability where your shadow attacks (based on if you use a single target ability, ranged ability, or AOE ability), but it's really just a "press and then do what you'd be doing anyway" button.