[Suggestion] MoP style talents!

[Ransu]

You are assuming again. Balance is implied as being important but seeing people can do healer-less Ultimates now I'm going to say they need to try a bit harder.

Go play WoW.

[EggRollBandit]

Or I could just play a game that is heavily inspired by MoP era WoW and make reasonable suggestions to enhance its gameplay. >_>

[Ransu]

Inspired doesn't mean it has to be a carbon copy. Talent trees do not enhance gameplay, they hinder it and I have no interest in advocating for bringing that garbage into this game.

[EggRollBandit]

It doesn't have to be a carbon copy. It could be called something else entirely but the core issue here right now is there is very little choice with how you play a job. Issues that WoW had fewer problems with compared to FFXIV and it is the inspiration.

WoW aside, customizing how you play has been a fundamental part of Final Fantasy since the early titles. FFV was ALL about it, FFVI you could boost stats with Espers and had a myriad of characters to play with. FF7 had materia's and some weapons that had interesting synergy with certain materia. (Sniper Rifle/God Hand + Deathblow materia) FFT much like FFV was big on customization as well. It's honestly un-Final Fantasy for this game to be so cut and dried as it is as far as builds and customization go.

[Ransu]

There are 19 jobs to play. That is your choice in style. We do not need a pointless talent system that will just be cookie cutter immediately.

[EggRollBandit]

Well obviously I disagree but am humble enough to speak on only my behalf and not "we's". That aside it would not be either cookie cutter or pointless it would serve for sake of diversity. Cookie cutter is getting a job to max level, using the same rotation, gear and materia as everyone else with no alternatives being possible whatsoever. Why even have materia in this game when it doesn't serve a purpose of real customization but rather a Gil sink..

[DrWho2010]

this is a game where balance is top priority. (ish)
the point of whatever it is you're doing is to kill the boss, and do it as quickly as possible.
diverse builds are good in single player RPG where you can have that balance be broken and it's ok. people who think that that kind of gameplay is fun want it in the mmo too.
but in the mmo it doesn't matter because every will want the same build, the most "powerful" build possible to kill the boss quicker.
illusion of choice is no choice, because there is no point to diversity in builds because why would you want to kill the boss slower?
if you make everything the same, then what is ultimately the most limiting factor is, and always will be....

PLAYER SKILL

If you are not good, you need to get better to kill the boss.

People think they want "diversity in builds" so that they can find some kind of theoretical broken build that will cover for their lack of player skill.
If you want to get better at the game to kill the boss, then you have to put the work in to get better. But people don't want to do that because most people are inherently lazy. So they look for alternatives to getting better and begin to want ways to cheat the system.

[Ayche]

To give you a sincere answer, they want to save whatever design space they got into new jobs.
Like if talents can create two different feeling warriors, that can also be packaged as two different warrior-like jobs.

[EggRollBandit]

Again, I don't really believe in the "Balance is a top priority" thing. I've already gone over that all in a prior post and gave a good reason why that is false and could use some work.

That aside, you are incorrect in saying diverse builds are good for single-player but good for MMO because builds can have both a point where it's better to use one build over the other. Let's use WoW Classic's Mage as an example. The highest DPS spec possible for Mage late game is Fire, but if you were a new player and thinking of using that spec in early phase raids you're gonna be dropped hard on your head. The reason is the Fire resistance of enemies in Molten Core & BWL. Now that is just an example but a good one because it illustrates that some inferior specs can be the optimal spec depending on the content at hand.

And again, a BIG NO at you constantly saying people want diversity so they can find broken builds. It's more about people wanting a different playstyle for a job they love every now and then just so they can do something else with it. And that isn't possible right now because again, one of the traditional items that enables people to do that in Final Fantasy games -- Materia, doesn't really enable that here. It really serves as nothing else but a Gil tax for players whenever they get new gear.

[DrWho2010]

You're just flat out in the wrong here. The devs aren't going to do a 180 and do what you're suggesting because you're just mad/upset that TOP was cleared without a healer (but let's face it, that's not how 99% of the players even attempting TOP is going to play that way.) because you think that means the game needs your style of fixing.

Like others have said, if talent changes were going to change a job in how it plays, they'll just make a new job. (or completely redesign it).

And if people want a game that lets them have different play styles, then go play that game instead. If materia was going to anything like you're suggesting it would have been designed like that from the get go. Remember how they started out with elemental materia and even main stat materia, and even then it did barely anything? And it's been long since removed from the game.

Give it up. Unless you can get so many people on board with this topic nothing about it is going to change.
And this topic has come up again and again and again and every time it goes nowhere, because not enough people want it bad enough to make it an issue big enough to make the devs notice.