Feelings on FF14's Trinity System?

[Absurdity]

The idea was more like, the front positionals are for the main tank, not the off tank, like the positional effect is increased enmity generation. But I think the bigger flaw isn’t actually with the positionals themselves but bosses that don’t have positionals and thus always trigger them. Like if you’re facing a wall boss, the off tank would be triggering the extra enmity as well.

Maybe it would make more sense to have certain actions that have different effects based on if you’re at the top of a target’s threat table or not. Like if you’re at the top of the threat table, the action inflicts a damage down debuff and further increases enmity. If you’re second on the threat table, the attack deals increased damage.

I don't think you can attach any kind of DPS bonus to being the main or off tank, it will inevitably create issues with people not wanting to take the spot that makes them do less damage for basically no reason.
We already had that problem when all it did was mess with your opener and I doubt you're gonna get that out of the playerbase at this point.

The other issue with frontal positionals, depending on what they end up doing, is bosses with any kind of AoE busters or cleaves.

[ty_taurus]

I don't think you can attach any kind of DPS bonus to being the main or off tank, it will inevitably create issues with people not wanting to take the spot that makes them do less damage for basically no reason.
We already had that problem when all it did was mess with your opener and I doubt you're gonna get that out of the playerbase at this point.

The other issue with frontal positionals, depending on what they end up doing, is bosses with any kind of AoE busters or cleaves.

Personally, I hate having to curb design ideas based on people being whiny brats. So I do not accept that as a counter argument against the actual design of the mechanic.

[Absurdity]

Personally, I hate having to curb design ideas based on people being whiny brats. So I do not accept that as a counter argument against the actual design of the mechanic.

Whining aside, I just don't consider punishing the tank for essentially doing their job is a good design idea.
It's basically just bringing back the tank stance penalty but without the option of turning it off.

Punishment mechanics are fine when you can actually do something about it, you can't not have a main tank.

[ty_taurus]

Whining aside, I just don't consider punishing the tank for essentially doing their job is a good design idea.
It's basically just bringing back the tank stance penalty but without the option of turning it off.

Punishment mechanics are fine when you can actually do something about it, you can't not have a main tank.

Why is it a "punishment" though? If it's factored in as an expectation of the role, how is that any different than the difference in DPS between roles, or even sub roles of DPS? Also, you do have an entire rest of a kit to potentially play around with. While one action might offer less damage while main tanking, another could offer more. You could have multiple tools that shift in value depending on what position you're at as a Tank, and trying to reserve resources for when you're one or the other could become a new aspect of skill expression.

[Absurdity]

Why is it a "punishment" though? If it's factored in as an expectation of the role, how is that any different than the difference in DPS between roles, or even sub roles of DPS?

Yes, because this isn't a difference between roles or even sub roles, it's the exact same role but you do less damage by actually performing your role. Like I said, that's just old tank stance but with no option to turn it off.

Also, you do have an entire rest of a kit to potentially play around with. While one action might offer less damage while main tanking, another could offer more. You could have multiple tools that shift in value depending on what position you're at as a Tank, and trying to reserve resources for when you're one or the other could become a new aspect of skill expression.

Your initial proposal included none of that. You just talked about an attack doing either more enmity or more damage depending on whether or not you're main or off tank.

[ty_taurus]

Your initial proposal included none of that. You just talked about an attack doing either more enmity or more damage depending on whether or not you're main or off tank.

Was there some sort of force stopping you from coming to that conclusion yourself? If one idea posted on a forum thread is compelling enough to engage you in discussion regarding it, then I would think it isn't hard to look at an example of an idea and consider what factors might need to apply in order for that idea to function, even if different from mine. Doesn't mean that end result would work and/or be an idea you'd be in favor of 100% of the time, but assuming one idea shared on a thread can only exist as exclusively what is posted and nothing else just seems so dogmatic.