Removal of Positionals

[ty_taurus]

I still do it too sometimes and kind of laugh when I catch myself doing it.

This isn't a solution, but a player can still choose to play as if the positionals were still there. I think it would be amazing if monk players collected together and outright refused to acknowledge the removal of positionals and upload videos of them playing this way in protest and then @ FFXIV with those videos. It'd just be something where I'd love to see how they'd respond.

[Valence]

I'm still unable to do a Monk rotation without muscle memorying every positional.

Rear Bootshine + True Strike, Flank Dragon Kick + Twin Snakes. I can't help it. I miss it.

At least you enjoy it.

I have the exact same ptsd except I don't. :c

[Equitable_Remedy]

I find positionals to be fun, so I hope that they stay - that's the beginning and end of the debate for me.

I like where NIN currently is: positionals on the two finishers of the 1-2-3 combo (and Trick Attack!). I'd also be fine with another marginal oGCD positional (such as Mug) and with more of the damage being put into the positional, but I'm good with the current state of affairs.

[boopadoop]

instead of removing positionals, i think making it so that bosses don't randomly turn around when attacking party members other than tanks or whoever has the aggro would be better. positionals can be pretty fun, esp for monks i think. it's just frustrating when bosses spin around every other second is why they suck. but if bosses ONLY turned to do telegraphed aoe attacks like a line or cone or something, instead of a targeted unavoidable attack on another player, i think that would be more fun because you'll have to break position to stay out of the aoe anyway ?

[dspguy]

instead of removing positionals, i think making it so that bosses don't randomly turn around when attacking party members other than tanks or whoever has the aggro would be better.

I always felt that positionals were a reasonable tradeoff for not having cast times (ranged physical DPS excluded). With this latest expansion, it seems that bosses do a lot more "dash to the center, turn a direction, do some telegraph). When I played a melee in previous expansions, these were few and far between and we could account for it in our rotations. It just seems it happens all the damn time.

I may have earlier defended positionals, in part, because they toned them down (most jobs only have positionals on finishers as you noted). However, with all this "jumping around" that bosses do, I wouldn't be sad to see positionals go.

[ElysiumDragon]

I'm in one of two minds, but neither involve the removal of positionals.

My first opinion is that the bad habit of bosses that change direction almost at random needs to be stamped out, as it completely disregards the tank's role in positioning the boss to make positionals easier for the melee players to hit them. Having more positionals wouldn't be a problem if the bosses actually stood still and didn't spin around randomly.

My second opinion is that positionals in high-end content limit the design space devs have for boss arenas, and that high-end content should either be designed with the explicit intention of positionals in mind (so no spinny teleporting nonsense), or should be omnipositional, so that the whole arena can be used for mechanics (See P2S as an example).

[AluneTempest]

If we can get better job designs (Tanks and Healers included), no ranged tax and better fights, i agree with positionals removal.

[Valence]

The ranged tax has never made any sense at a decent raiding level, for that uptime was not a problem once optimized, smaller hitboxes or not.

[Ransu]

The ranged tax has never made any sense at a decent raiding level, for that uptime was not a problem once optimized, smaller hitboxes or not.

True, but they didn't want ranged numbers running away. Ironically the larger hitboxes show the same problem in the other direction with melee.

[Kazimere]

When the damage difference between hitting your positional and not hitting you positional was significant, then the mechanic of hitting a positional mattered. When you wouldn't get the maximum amount of resources or benefits from not hitting your positional, then hitting a positional mattered. There are various examples of this, but I'm not going to go into them. As it stands, they're just there at this point. The damage difference is minimal, and there is no loss of resources or benefits if you miss one. In essence, you're moving just to move. People get attached to these mechanics, when the mechanic itself is pointless in its current iteration.