XIV EW Job-Gameplay is Terrible... Why?

[OgruMogru]

I have to say I'm very torn because on the one hand I think EW Blm is the best feeling to play but I YEARN for the alternative timeline where we have our current kit but also never lost any of the more granular abilities/job aspects that we had to also juggle in Stormblood - lucid dreaming and diversion for aggro management, apocatastasis and manashift would be less clunky now with the extra instas we now have for weaving opportunities. For a treat I want the enochian refresh juggling to see a return as well but just the damage buff with diminishing returns on refreshing and do away with the old caveat that it locked you out of using F4/B4 if it was dropped. I Love BLM a lot but it feels like since the removal of these extra aspects our toolkit is full of answers to problems we don't really have anymore - no instafoul, all those utility spells needing to be weaved and only 1 charge of triple and no xenos to weave easier - THEY TOOK THE HEALTH PENALTY FROM MANAFONT/CONVERT give it back! I loved the risk!

[VentVanitas]

I don't think there's a single job in EW that I consider to actually be at their peak. if you asked me before 6.3, I would've said PLD maybe but... lol, lmao even.

at best, a lot of the EW additions were marginal improvements that didn't really substantially evolve their jobs (outside of BLM with Paradox, even then I still have my gripes with EW BLM). at worst we have SMN that has become the community's go-to punching bag just because of how easy it is to make fun of that nothing of a job.

as for my main, MNK, all I can really do to summarize my feelings for it is to call it "frustrating." as if it took 2 steps forward and 2 steps back at the same time, thus ending up nowhere. I see a lot of people herald Monk as "one of the very few mechanically interesting jobs left in the game" but I honestly don't share that sentiment, it feels more like every other job was dragged down to its level in my eyes. I get it though, when jobs have gotten to the state they're in now people rightfully feel the need to preserve what little we have left but MNK has always had massive problems with its design. even the iteration that I personally consider to be the job's peak, Stormblood Monk, still had a lot of issues.

[Aravell]

I see a lot of people herald Monk as "one of the very few mechanically interesting jobs left in the game" but I honestly don't share that sentiment, it feels more like every other job was dragged down to its level in my eyes. I get it though, when jobs have gotten to the state they're in now people rightfully feel the need to preserve what little we have left but MNK has always had massive problems with its design. even the iteration that I personally consider to be the job's peak, Stormblood Monk, still had a lot of issues.

I think people herald MNK as one of the few mechanically interesting jobs remaining in the game because it is, in fact, one of the few remaining jobs that allow you to think and plan. DRG has this too, but it's getting reworked soon (presumably to remove any thinking required like every other job). Personally, I'm not particularly impressed with EW MNK either, but there's no denying that it requires more thought than other jobs like RPR. I don't think any iteration of MNK has had no issues, but SB MNK was peak because the playerbase were able to creatively use the job kit to overcome some of the problems (mainly TK being absolutely worthless when playing normally). In fact, if you think about it, a lot of the really cool interactions in old job kits were unintended design. Kind of sad, honestly.

[Vyrerus]

Let's see... for me... favorite iterations of jobs over the expansions:

DRK - HW
WAR - HW
PLD - EW (until they made the split weird and also fucked up Goring Blade. Mainly because it screams FFT Holy Sword and is a continuation of SHB's design in reality)
GNB - SHB - EW's version just feels like they tacked on Double Down and tried to up the ante on it, but it feels weird and worse.

DRG - I've actually liked all of DRG's iterations enough that I haven't felt terrible about playing it, but I will say I miss it feeling powerful which last time it did was in HW.
MNK - SHB
SAM - Stormblood
NIN - HW

BRD - ARR (I really like its Stormblood version too, but I miss it having Healer LB3)
MCH - Stormblood
DNC - No preference. I don't care much about Dancer.

RDM - Similar to DRG. They haven't screwed it up too much rotationally over the years. I admit I like its EW version the most. But I mean... it hasn't really lost anything from its old main kit anyway so... why wouldn't I?

BLM - I don't care at all about BLM.

SMN - SHB. I like phoenix even when it was bad and just felt it really jived with that expansion storyline wise for the WoL as well. I liked all of its iterations prior to SHB as well. I really miss Shadowflare still, though.

BLU - BLU hasn't changed But SHB I guess, since that's when they endorsed soloing by adding Basic Instinct.

WHM - HW RIP Aero III

SCH - HW, give us back Shadowflare, damn it!

AST - Late HW. Cards got OP. No silly unnecessary gauge that interfered with holding multiples and such. Stella, my beloved, was still in the game.


Not really paying enough attention to the game to know if Reaper and Sage have had any significant changes yet. I like them both as they are now, and do not have faith that they will be as enjoyable as they are now in the future.

[Supersnow845]

Would anyone put the ShB or EW versions of the healers first if they experienced the old healers, I’m genuinely interested. The healer forums lean very strongly no but I’d be interested in the opinions of people who do

For me all three healers peaked in SB but the collective healer balanced peaked in ARR

[TaleraRistain]

Would anyone put the ShB or EW versions of the healers first if they experienced the old healers, I’m genuinely interested. The healer forums lean very strongly no but I’d be interested in the opinions of people who do

For me all three healers peaked in SB but the collective healer balanced peaked in ARR

I prefer ShB WHM to SB WHM though they're both better than ARR and HW WHM. WHM were kind of in a bad place until they fixed our MP issues and gave us more mobility and the lily system was garbage at first because it didn't fill automatically but depended on rarely used abilities.

[SargeTheSeagull]

Would anyone put the ShB or EW versions of the healers first if they experienced the old healers, I’m genuinely interested. The healer forums lean very strongly no but I’d be interested in the opinions of people who do

For me all three healers peaked in SB but the collective healer balanced peaked in ARR

If anyone would I’d imagine on average it would be white mage. But that’s more due to how bad WHM has always been than how “good” it’s ShB/EW variations are

[Supersnow845]

If anyone would I’d imagine on average it would be white mage. But that’s more due to how bad WHM has always been than how “good” it’s ShB/EW variations are

That’s fair, lilys seem beloved despite how………meh they are and how little they actually add to WHM

[Aravell]

If anyone would I’d imagine on average it would be white mage. But that’s more due to how bad WHM has always been than how “good” it’s ShB/EW variations are

WHM does seem to be quite well-received. It honestly wouldn't surprise me to see SE alter the lily system into 3 similar systems for the other 3 healers in DT.

[Hanayumi]

Well that thing, SE really likes looking at the numbers and dovating a lot changes based on them. With that in mind, a far majority of the popular/most played jobs are some of the easiest to play/learn, unfortunately because of this Devs genuinely believe theyre in right. Are folks picking up these jobs because theyre easy or because theres a belief that it would be dumb not to? Dunno, but as it stands the current system of combat is very much looking to stay...