Thread: Your Opinion on the Current State of Job Identity/Balance in 6.4?

Ill just go down the list with my personal opinions:

DPS
All Melee DPS: Fine where they are. I'm a Sam main so I might be bias, but I don't really care when other jobs do like 1% more dps in some encounters on logs
Black Mage: Gud
Machinist: Finally close to where it belongs
Bard: Needs something special like a combat peleton on llike a 90s CD exclusive to bard
DNC: Fine as is although I never touched dancer after getting it to 90
Summoner: I don't have an answer for this, but you shouldn't be able to functionally one button macro SMN. Feels bland. Needs more integration with summoning primals in a certain order + maybe you could pick to glamour some primals.
Red Mage: Pays the VerRaise Tax and I think it should stay that way unless they make it so you cant.

Tanks: Remove Damage from Gap Close
Warrior: I'm kinda salty its doing the most damage atm while having some of the best mit and its party mit only being topped by PLD because PLD has Divine Veil + Passage
Paladin: I hate Goring blade the way it currently is. I like the atonement combo changes. Clemency sucks when compared to Oblation and Equilibrium
Gunbreaker: Aurora feels kinda useless. Otherwise, I'm bias towards liking how GNB is overall although I do kinda wish SKS didnt make the job into an optimization nightmare.
Dark Knight: Feels like there's not much reason to play it after the GNB and WAR potency buffs

Healers:
Astrologian: I don't know what AST needs but I dropped it as soon as I hit 90 because unlike all the other healers you are punished by the random RNG that is Astrodyne and Lord/Lady of Crowns
Sage: This job is so strong and convenient to play I think it actually makes me worse at other healers.
White Mage: heavily struggles in the mit department compared to AST
Scholar: I don't know how Aetherflow and Energy Drain still exist when Addersgal and Addersting is such an insanely better alternative. I don't have any reason to ever play Scholar the way it currently is

Additional Mini-Rant about healers:
Everyone complaining about healings thinking that adding more dots would improve the job don't really know what they want or what they're asking for.
You would just pog out during the announcement and then after a couple days feel like healing is no different and if anything is worse because you have to spend more GCD time re-apply dots which may conflict with mechanics and cause drifting.
The entire approach to encounters and damage would have to change for them to rework healers unless they just give healers combo actions and a rotation that magically heals up the party with some oGCD cooldowns for mits or topping up individuals

All of the jobs just feel the same, just covered with a different layer of paint. I really wished every job was truly different and had its own unique advantages and disadvantages.

Originally Posted by Kansene

Lots of buttons just aren't interesting. 3-part combos that are just increasing potencies of damage. Big GCD damage. Big oGCD damage. Big AoE oGCD damage and so on.

Combos are really only interesting when you get to choose through split paths. So yeah, most combos are really bland.

I get that XIV has a ver on-leash job design, but they certainly didn't have to double down on that by making the 120s meta what it is today.

For almost every job playstyle, what we are challenged with is not our ability to think, but our reflexes. Can a RDM press a 6 step combo in the correct order? Can we hit every OGCD as it comes off cooldown so everything aligns in the 2min marks?

Originally Posted by Raikai

For almost every job playstyle, what we are challenged with is not our ability to think, but our reflexes. Can a RDM press a 6 step combo in the correct order? Can we hit every OGCD as it comes off cooldown so everything aligns in the 2min marks?

And even that feels very, very constrained if there's no means (or need) to adjust for recovery / to salvage the larger rotation -- which then brings us back to the (lacking) capacity for decision-making within our kits.

I like the jobs that have less buttons to worry about. Let's me stay more focused on mechanics and having fun.

Originally Posted by AstrumRemi

All of the jobs just feel the same, just covered with a different layer of paint. I really wished every job was truly different and had its own unique advantages and disadvantages.

More or less yeah.
Not saying it's exactly the same right now, but it's really close to the point where every job is almost just a reskin of each other and the only difference is rotational (hardly in a lot of cases) and visually.

Originally Posted by Rithy255

More or less yeah.
Not saying it's exactly the same right now, but it's really close to the point where every job is almost just a reskin of each other and the only difference is rotational (hardly in a lot of cases) and visually.

Basically the only things that makes jobs distinct nowadays are aesthetics and the obligatory job gimmick they have, but in the bigger picture everything is just meant to align to the 2min burst. Ironically, even the few actions that are not on the 2min recast time are meant to be used on cooldown or else they won't align to the 2min burst.

Honestly, I feel that no matter how many ideas the playerbase writes on posts like this... If the 2min meta remains, job design will always have to orbit it. And being chained to that severely limits the designs we get and in the end of the day all they will have to offer is going to be a gimmick.

PvP has better job identity representation than PvE and that's just plain sad.

Originally Posted by Soge01

PvP has better job identity representation than PvE and that's just plain sad.

I agree! And pvp actions are way less numerous than their pve counterpart, but still more engaging, because you have to think strategically when to use your tools rather than putting them on a set script.

I pvp mostly as a Dancer, and one thing that really thrills me is that to play optimally you dynamically swap Closed Position based on the situation, or even to save someone that is about to die with Curing Waltz. It's a shame that the only real good PVP we have right now is CC. Besides the messy situation with ranked, the casual is really fun to play, but it certainly gets old to play over and over the same mode.