Quote Originally Posted by Ransu View Post
No, this is a terrible take. If positionals are about "skill" and then you remove the ability to hit all positionals during a fight you now create a system of frustration for a player because no matter how good they are they will hit a dps loss with zero ways to mitigate it.
The skill is in getting as many as you can. The problem is people put the restrictions on themselves that they HAVE to hit every single one, when it isn't the case. The odd one missed here or there isn't going to impact performance much, but doing it throughout the fight is going to be detrimental. In the same way having to cancel a cast here and there isn't going to massively impact performance, unless it happens constantly. Oh, and because I suspect the question will be asked, I expect somewhere around 85%-90% of positionals to be hit in a fight, any more than that and that person has very very good fight knowledge.

Limited or removal of true north would force boss designs to be more static. The reason why P2S for example is a circle is because of how you have to position yourself around the stage for mechanics and how often the boss jumps around. DRG for example, would be impossible to hit all their positionals in that fight which is WHY they made it a full circle target to remove positional requirements and it made for an interesting boss fight. I'd rather have that than the static design where a boss barely moves to account for positionals.
They weren't more static back in the day though and because back then tanks had to position bosses, this could mean bosses potentially ended up in different places pull by pull and it could change by the tank you had. Even with all this, noone complained about positionals. The challenge was to hit as many as possible and that was the thrill. The fact bosses position themselves, so you know exactly when they are going to move and what direction they will face, means you should be able to fully pre plan and pre position where to stand. This then means that the shift in fight design is what has potentially caused some people to dislike positionals as they have become uninteresting in that regard. Change the fight design back to where melee have to think on the fly, and you have more meaningful positionals.

I can't speak for the other casters as I don't mess with them in end game, but yes as a BLM I fully expect you to keep your GCD's rolling and not clip GCD's. There are enough tools/instant casts available for when you need to move. The only fight where I wanted to pull my hair out this tier was P7S with the running back and forth to bait circles, but its still 100% doable to always have something casting.
Not surprising with BLM being one of the more mobile casters, it would be interesting to see how a RDM or SMN sees things, considering they either have a more limited capability in getting insatcasts for long periods (RDM) or, depending on fight mechanics, they might not be able to avoid having to stop casting (SMN, yes, in theory, if movement happens on Slipstream and Ruby Rite in a minute, you may have to not be casting, I know, shocking. No idea how often that issue comes up though).

Now, where do you find fun in utilising the tools given to casters? I suspect it is the satisfaction of dancing around mechanics whilst keeping uptime. Planning the use of Swiftcast/Triplecast etc. to bypass the restrictions imposed on casters. It is that puzzle element you enjoy. But that is exactly what positionals were for melee, especially Monk. The challenge of dancing around mechanics whilst keeping uptime, not only on the boss, but also hitting the positional. The more and more I compare positionals to cast times, the more parallels I find.