Can an expansion survive without a DPS?

[WantlessYoYo]

Basically the title
Can an expansion survive without a DPS as one of the new jobs? -Not counting limited jobs

Looking back at past expansions there always has been a DPS as one of the new jobs

HW introduced DRK and MCH
SB had both SAM and RDM
SHB had GNB and DNC
EW RPR and SGE
And now DT will feature another 2 DPS Viper and Picto

You guys think if we ever got 2 supports (say 1 tank-1 healer, 2 tanks or 2 healers) could an expansion survive the hype?

[Jeeqbit]

Of course it would survive. An expansion is more than just a new job.

But the reason they say they do it is because DPS is the most popular role and it's one of the things they are doing to sell the expansion.

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

Basically the title
Can an expansion survive without a DPS as one of the new jobs? -Not counting limited jobs

Looking back at past expansions there always has been a DPS as one of the new jobs

HW introduced DRK and MCH
SB had both SAM and RDM
SHB had GNB and DNC
EW RPR and SGE
And now DT will feature another 2 DPS Viper and Picto

You guys think if we ever got 2 supports (say 1 tank-1 healer, 2 tanks or 2 healers) could an expansion survive the hype?

You messed up HW. It was DRK, MCH, AND AST.

[Raikai]

It's more likely to do well nowadays since we have a lot more dpsers than when HW hit. I wouldn't mind an 8.0 with a Healer/Tank combo instead.

[Fyrebrand]

I could see them possibly doing an expansion where they give us a tank and a healer. DPS is indeed the most popular role, but DPS jobs already outnumber both tank and healer roles combined, even before Dawntrails two new jobs. There may come a time when there are simply too many, and the average DPS player is simply not even touching half the jobs because they don't have the time or interest in so many alts. The devs may also just not have any great ideas for a new DPS, whether that means mechanics or theme.

Plus, you can't let tank and healer players feel like they have nothing new to look forward to. These players need to stick around and stay actively engaged, or the game breaks down.

Then again, we might reach a point where two jobs per expansion stops being the standard. We might only get one new job per xpac at some point.

[Lyth]

While it's doable as evidenced by HW, support balance tends to be much more complex than DPS balance. It's relatively common for them to adjust DPS output mid-expansion to fix balance problems, but they seem to struggle to achieve the same from a utility or mitigation standpoint. I think that this presents much the same challenges as adding two tanks or two healers in the same expansion. Perhaps even more so, because their attention will be split and one of those two roles will likely suffer in terms of balance.

[DrForester]

I would imagine it's harder to add and balance new Tank and Healers into the game than it is to add and balance a DPS.

[Supersnow845]

Well considering we waited for what…….7 years and got “SCH but worse” out of it it’s obvious they don’t know how to make and balance new support roles so I’m assuming they will never make a support only expansion because if the new support fails they can just go “hey look at the cool new DPS”

[Hyperia]

We will eventually get to the point where it is no longer feasible to add new jobs due to job dilution and the limited resources of the dev team.
How soon that will be, we do not know but I would guess that its probably sometime around 8.0 or 9.0.

[Absurdity]

We will eventually get to the point where it is no longer feasible to add new jobs due to job dilution and the limited resources of the dev team.
How soon that will be, we do not know but I would guess that its probably sometime around 8.0 or 9.0.

We've already passed that point long ago, their job design team hasn't increased in years and having only 4 people for 19, soon 21 (22 including Blue Mage), jobs is already showing it's problems, and has been for arguably two expansions.

It is not feasible for so few people to create satisfying designs for all of these jobs, so you end up with a bunch of "palette swaps", a whole lot of different flashy sparkles and no substance.