Gamespot interview with Mr. Ozma... Very disappointing

[Eisi]

There is zero uptime when the boss is either untargetable or the hit box is so small that mechanics require players to run around dodging them without being able to attack. The only useful solution is larger hit boxes. The unhelpful solution would be for players to stop complaining when they can't hit something.

There is also the solution to minimize the design space for mechanics to adjust for smaller hitboxes with maximum uptime. Which also isn't optimal.

However I think there needs to be a sober middle ground. It's ridiculous to hit air as a melee all the time and it doesn't look or feel good.

[LittleImp]

Forced downtime is good, and when done properly can make optimization more interesting. 'Optional' downtime is also interesting; Introducing opportunities for players to create uptime strategies which may be riskier or more complicated is fun and rewarding.

Full uptime dummy bosses create a situation where you are doing the exact same sequence of abilities in multiple, different fights. It's extremely boring and makes content feel more repetitious.

[Payadopa]

I can't really say I'm surprised that Dawntrail is looking to be a carbon copy of Endwalker. They said before that the job designs were essentially perfect in their opinion aside some tweaks. It only makes sense they felt the same way about the combat as well since they go hand and hand with each other.

If that turns out to be the case I'll do the MSQ and lapse my sub. Seems to be what they want nowadays come to think of it.

[Noumenon]

There is also the solution to minimize the design space for mechanics to adjust for smaller hitboxes with maximum uptime. Which also isn't optimal.

However I think there needs to be a sober middle ground. It's ridiculous to hit air as a melee all the time and it doesn't look or feel good.

Actually there's a very easy solution:

Give all melees something in their kit that is optimal to use when they're forced to disengage. Ninja has Raiton and Suiton which they can use at range and is already part of their natural rotation. What about the other melees? Dragoon has Wyrmwind Thrust in PvP, why not put that in PvE?

[IkaraGreydancer]

Actually there's a very easy solution:

Give all melees something in their kit that is optimal to use when they're forced to disengage. Ninja has Raiton and Suiton which they can use at range and is already part of their natural rotation. What about the other melees? Dragoon has Wyrmwind Thrust in PvP, why not put that in PvE?

Wouldn't that be counter to the idea that all classes are the same? That would only make that supposed problem worse no?

[Noumenon]

Wouldn't that be counter to the idea that all classes are the same? That would only make that supposed problem worse no?

No, because the method of activation and the way to use it optimally while at range should be different for all the melees.

Ninja: One can use Hyosho and Raiton for ranged attacks during the burst window. Around 15 seconds before the next burst one also has the option to use Suiton. Outside of that one would shift a Raiton to fit that need. A good encounter design that rewards skill would be a forced disengagement that takes one GCD but requires the Ninja to move 15 yalms out. They would then need to weave Shukuchi, use Raiton for their GCD (or others), and Shukuchi back, which demands skill.

Dragoon: PvP Wyrmwind Thurst.

Delivers an attack with a potency of 8,000 to all enemies in a straight line before you.
Potency increases up to 16,000 the farther away you are from the target, reaching its maximum value when the target is 15 yalms away.
Can only be executed while under the effect of Firstminds' Focus.

Elusive Jump allows a Dragoon to use this GCD. Make it part of the core rotation. Of course, there will be Dragoons who jump off the arena or into bad when doing this. Genuinely I don't think the developers should be doing anything about it. It existed for Red Mage too and it was part of the charm and happened extremely rarely (like once every 200 pulls).

Monk: Six-sided Star can now be activated from 8y range, so they can start disengaging the GCD before SSS. It also consumes all Chakra to deal 68 potency per Chakra consumed, making it optimal to use Meditation while doing mechanics. Moreover, SSS now also reduces the cooldown of Thunderclap by half and the movement speed boost is increased to 40%.

Etc.

A lot of the kits are already there to make disengagement optimal and take some skill, the developers just need to utilize it.

[Eisi]

Actually there's a very easy solution:

Give all melees something in their kit that is optimal to use when they're forced to disengage. Ninja has Raiton and Suiton which they can use at range and is already part of their natural rotation. What about the other melees? Dragoon has Wyrmwind Thrust in PvP, why not put that in PvE?

Yeah I agree with this. Monk has Meditation, Six Sided Star and Anatman, Samurai has Yaten and Improved Airslice thingy and uh Meditation as well but Anatman-style but better. Reaper has that one cast and Dragoon has nothing I think. These are all great tools for downtime.

[Renathras]

Am I the only one that misses the days in MMOs where people actually used ranged attacks, like when Onixia was flying around in Vanilla WoW and even the WAR tank pulls out their autoattack stat stick bow to do chip damage to her?

Every Job in this game besides MNK has a ranged attack. And even there, for long disengages, you can use Howling Fist/Enlightenment for that (even if it's clunk as hell and a DPS loss VS FULL UPTIME to do so, it's still damage while disengaged IF fights actually had extended disengage times). A lot of Jobs also have DoTs they can slap on the enemy to do damage, or have other disengage options (for example, NIN has Ninjutsu and Phantom before they need to revert to Throwing Dagger; and if they DID have super long disengages, Hellfrog can be used once they generate enough Ninki from Throwing Dagger, giving a pseudo-ranged "rotation", too).

Just give MNK a slightly more accessible ranged attack and we can go back to times where using ranged attacks makes sense. Right now, they may as well not be on anyone's bars other than Tanks for pulls, and PLD practically doesn't need that since Holy Spirit exists.

.

I dunno, I thought those were neat times in MMOs. Would be neat for that to come back.

[Shurrikhan]

Am I the only one that misses the days in MMOs where people actually used ranged attacks, like when Onixia was flying around in Vanilla WoW and even the WAR tank pulls out their autoattack stat stick bow to do chip damage to her?

Every Job in this game besides MNK has a ranged attack.

Yes and no? I can't say I'd particularly enjoy having nothing to do but deal near worthless white damage for a phase or, more likely, my number of job/role choices being significantly reduced for the given fight, but I would enjoy a bit more phasal distinction short of consequences like those.

Note also that in early WoW, the ability to switch between classes was at a minimum, so it made sense not to worry so much about bringing the best classes one could for the given situation. Try that in XIV, though, and unless you similarly gimmick out the fight to offer roughly equal (dis)advantage to ranged jobs, you'd just bar melee from that fight (especially under the current relative value of LBs). Different community environments have different degrees of lenience in encounter design.

A quick note: if we consider a ranged attack as potency that can be contributed regardless of range limitations, Monk also has a (limited-use count) ranged attack, of roughly 156 effective potency per GCD. It's just that it's capped to 2.5 GCDs at a time (with up to almost 4.5 GCDs disconnected from target when including SSS) before you need to get within at least 10 yards. So, not a ranged attack insofar as would meet your needs here, but enough to meet the needs of XIV encounter design.

[Lieri]

Fine. Keep your 2 mins meta. It is a lost cause at this point because its easier to maintain for the devs. Thats the real reason.

But they need to walk away from insta wipe/multi damage downs mechanics when 1 player messed up in Savage. Fights that are recoverable (as long as the other players perform well) are far more interesting and raidwide damage down/insta wipe is just a lazy way to add artificial difficulty.

One of the tedious thing about Savage (and yet they have always encouraged players to try it) is that you can do your utmost best but the moment one player screw up you get screwed up too.

Keep those type of mechs for ultimates. Increase savage difficulty, increase individual responsibility without it screwing up another player that do them well.

I might be biased since I only raid on PF and oh boy it is demotivating to suffer all of those above just to get a freaking book because the loot system is bad and you have to complete floors in order too even if you have completed them. This game is becoming more and more like a irl job.

Loots are time gated and often the only reason to login, glams are gated (by mogstation), fights are tedious even when you do them well because in this game group responsibility > personal responsibility, jobs are carbon copies of each other, PF is slow and imbalance because of DC transfers, end game is hanging out in Limsa, cant add instance housing but Island is instanced per player. So outdated in its approach compared to most modern games.

Almost as if they make things slow and tedious to add artificial values once youve completed them and to keep players subbed. I dont think most players genuinely play for fun anymore.