What is your RPG playstyle?

[Rekh]

I've been thinking for awhile that the current FF14 is less of an "RPG" and more of a "mid-paced action game with mild RPG elements". I in no way want to put words in your mouth, but I personally wonder if that might explain why you're not finding your desired RPG playstyle here?

+1

Funny thing is Elden Ring's more of an rpg than FFXIV is; XIV now plays itself for the most part. Customization of stats? Nah, that's not allowed in my "perfectly balanced FFXIV, it makes the job for devs easier."

[TheMightyMollusk]

My consequence-free power fantasy is being able to actually help people and make things better. Paragon for life.

[Cynric]

This looks like fun.

Ever since I was a kid I always gravitated towards characters that attacked/moved fast, this led to me playing lots of Thieves, Rogues, and Assassins, which in turn led me into playing lots of characters that dual wield. I also really liked swords a lot so if I had an option I'd usually pick a Sword as my weapon. Ironically even though I liked attacking fast and the rogue archetype, I wasn't actually a big fan of daggers.

Eventually almost every game I tried to play characters within that type. I was an Assassin Cross in Ragnarok Online(swords/katars/crit) , a Combat Rogue in WoW before they removed it, later a Frost Death knight (Dual Wield) and a Demon Hunter,(momentum), a Blade in FlyFF, Sith Marauder in Swtor, the list probably goes on, even in single player games I gravitated towards anyone who could dual wield and for a little while I was also really into playing stealthy too so it worked out. Like in Oblivion and Skyrim I played the typical assassin with sneaking.

Though at some point , probably around the time I started playing Death Knight in wow, I kind of stopped enjoying the stealth portion of jobs and wanted to be more of a frontliner, and really enjoyed being able to do that.
This sort of really hit home for me recently in Baldurs Gate 3 when I tried to play Rogue but wasn't enjoying it, and enjoyed simple Two Weapon Fighting Fighter / Ranger much more.

Anyway, when it came to ffxiv since I started way back at the start of the game, even though I was really excited to play the game, there weren't any jobs that really fit me either. Paladin had a sword but I didn't really want to be a tank and I'm not a huge fan of shields. I wanted to be a DPS but there really wasn't a rogue character at the time. The closest that the game had was monk since it had rear positionals and had a speed buff, but I still was kind of hoping for swords. So when Rogue released I was honestly super excited, but then it turned into Ninja and I was instantly disappointed.

Fast forward to now and we're getting Viper so that's pretty exciting for me, I've basically been waiting like 11-12 years to play the kind of character I usually play. lol

All in all I guess it evolved from stealthy rogue to fast attacking dual wielding frontline DPS, or maybe it was always that, and stealth just happened to always be shoehorned on to the dual wielder.

I'm not sure if there's a specific archetype for what I like in reference to the older ones anymore with how my playstyle changed over the years.

The only thing thats remained the same is I'm really not a fan of casting or charging attacks, probably because it's too slow for me and I like the "death of a thousand cuts" fast attacks coupled with dual wielding.

[LilimoLimomo]

I mean, FFXIV is an MMORPG... "RPG" is literally in the genre name.

I'm right there with ya! And I think that's part of why it's taken me this long to look past the name and "genre" and really think about what activities the game asks me to do. And when I look at that, I don't see much RPG going on there, at least not in the combat.

But regardless, if the issue of me not finding my playstyle in FFXIV is because of the genre, then wouldn't my issue be that there would never have been a job that fit my style ever in FFXIV? Scholar very much did for the first 6 years of the game's lifespan.

Good question! You're the expert on you, but my guess would be that over time, FF14 has mechanically changed, and with those its gameplay — and thus its genre — have shifted as well. When I started the game in ARR, the game was much different than it is now; there were things like sub-jobs and aggro management and fire materia. Without getting distracted by the tantalizing conversation of whether these changes made the game better or worse, we can see that in the past it used to be possible to actually customize the abilities and resistances you had in combat. Those kinds of choices are something I relate to RPG's, and they're now absent from the game. I could be wrong, but I don't think it would be a controversial statement to at the very least say that the game is currently less of an RPG than it was previously. So it's possible that at some point, the amount of RPG juice the game was giving you fell below your minimum requirements.

Though broadly speaking, I'd be surprised if there weren't numerous factors at play...but this might be among them.

[LynxDubh]

I've always been a support type player when it comes to cooperative games. And when I have to play solo games I enjoy utility type mages. Supporting my team is where I derive a lot of enjoyment, being able to tip the scales in our favor and all that. Occasionally I do love roguish and stealth types.

For MMOs, I played RDM and BLU in FFXI for their support capabilities and wide range of skills. And HW/SB AST was pretty much built for me with the variety of buffs and enfeeblements it had in its kit. I've found that I enjoy DNC now to scratch that particular itch.

In ARPGs I find myself playing things like Wide Range Sword and Shield in Monster Hunter and status based builds to debilitated the monster during hunts.

In traditional turn based and tactical rpgs, classes like Darkest Dungeon's Antiquarian, FFT's Mystic, Triangle Strategy's Tacticians, Fire Emblem's Dancers, and Unicorn Overlord's Arbalests are my favorite type of units. Classes that really set you up for success or offer great utility and defensive capabilites.

And my tendencies really come through in TTRPGs. Artificers, Druids, Wizards, and sometimes Rangers are my bread and butter classes. Treantmonk's "God Wizard" from the old 3.5 forums is closest for what I strive for. My build typically excel in battlefield control, enemy enfeeblement, ally empowerment, and utility needs. Beyond D&D I've played things ranging from a Spider in Blades in the Dark (someone who weaves a web of connections to pull favors for the gang's advantage) to the Thaumaturge from Pathfinder (an occult knowledge class that takes advantage of foe's weaknesses and esoteric knowledge).

My favorite character from my D&D 4e days was an Artificer/Swordmage Dwarf named Morrend. He gave himself and his allies large amounts of temporary hit points, buffed his hammer for melee, buffed his allies' attacks, reduced enemies chances to hit, reduced the damage allies would take from enemies, healed a bit, and made utility items for the party. He was such a fun unkillable ball of health. I had to make someone who could survive dealing with a party of nothing else but squishy casters and no other frontliners.

[Aravell]

In RPGs that give a wide build variety, I usually go wild and try to break the game.

In FF1, my white mage was my damage dealer. I try and build characters to work differently than intended, like if a character is designated a healer, I'd try and build them offensively instead. Or if a character is designated a damage dealer, I make them a healer for fun.

In terms of FFXIV, that's why I vastly prefer the HW era. We had so much build variety back then because potencies weren't that high, so crit wasn't a must. I had a lot of fun on full skill speed ninja. Was it optimal? No. Was it fun? It was to me.

[Iscah]

Funny thing is Elden Ring's more of an rpg than FFXIV is; XIV now plays itself for the most part. Customization of stats? Nah, that's not allowed in my "perfectly balanced FFXIV, it makes the job for devs easier."

I'm right there with ya! And I think that's part of why it's taken me this long to look past the name and "genre" and really think about what activities the game asks me to do. And when I look at that, I don't see much RPG going on there, at least not in the combat.

[...] FF14 has mechanically changed, and with those its gameplay — and thus its genre — have shifted as well. When I started the game in ARR, the game was much different than it is now; there were things like sub-jobs and aggro management and fire materia. [...] in the past it used to be possible to actually customize the abilities and resistances you had in combat. Those kinds of choices are something I relate to RPG's, and they're now absent from the game. I could be wrong, but I don't think it would be a controversial statement to at the very least say that the game is currently less of an RPG than it was previously.

This seems like a really strange base definition of RPG to me. Are we talking the difference between western and JRPG here?

As far as I've known them, RPGs generally mean "epic fantasy storyline" and the degree of customisation is irrelevant to classifying the genre. Some might go deep with a job system or other ways to edit your characters, but you don't necessarily have to engage with it to clear the game.

If you have a party and you're on a worldwide hike, it's probably an RPG.

And I was only thinking generically when I wrote that previous sentence, but now I stop to think about it, FFXIV has felt like more of an RPG over time as we started to have party members travelling with us. I think it's what made Heavensward stand out initially and it's become stronger now that we have trusts.


Edit to add: The other defining factor is EXP and levelling up. At least as I was taught it, that's the absolute line between a game being an "action RPG" (eg. Kingdom Hearts) and an "action-adventure game" (eg. Legend of Zelda) where your strength and abilities either stay constant or have to be upgraded through collectables or progress.

[ty_taurus]

Good question! You're the expert on you, but my guess would be that over time, FF14 has mechanically changed, and with those its gameplay — and thus its genre — have shifted as well. When I started the game in ARR, the game was much different than it is now; there were things like sub-jobs and aggro management and fire materia. Without getting distracted by the tantalizing conversation of whether these changes made the game better or worse, we can see that in the past it used to be possible to actually customize the abilities and resistances you had in combat. Those kinds of choices are something I relate to RPG's, and they're now absent from the game. I could be wrong, but I don't think it would be a controversial statement to at the very least say that the game is currently less of an RPG than it was previously. So it's possible that at some point, the amount of RPG juice the game was giving you fell below your minimum requirements.

A lot of the shift in FFXIV's design direction is stuff that revolves around job design more than the design of the jobs themselves. There are examples of actions that wouldn't work with modern FFXIV, like Cleric Stance, Hawk's Eye, Quelling Strikes, Goad and other TP related actions, Awareness, Sustain, etc. But the bulk of job design would still function. Like there's nothing about old Scholar that would create conflict with modern design except for Fey Light's attack speed boost which is an unwelcome buff due to how attack speed is not something most jobs want an unaccounted-for amount of. You'd probably need to add some of Scholar's newer resources to help provide it with enough resources to compete with the other healers, but if we were to bring back Miasma, Shadowflare, Miasma II, and Bane, that doesn't break Scholar.

The changes we have are not made because they must be made. They're made because someone in some seat of power wants to see the game streamlined even more than it already is.

[MikkoAkure]

I'm the kind of person who can never commit to just one thing so I tend to play jack-of-all trades characters or classes that often come with support abilities. I wish I could be the kind of person who always plays mage classes since witches are my favorite aesthetic, but in a lot of games I end up getting frustrated when I'm squishy and get rushed by enemies, get interrupted casting by being hit or having to dodge, or where MP is a precious resource and I need to think about my spells strategically.

One thing I do love are DoTs and debuffs when they're available in a game. HSR is a lot of things, but weakness breaks are really satisfying as well as spreading DoTs everywhere so I always go around with 3 Nihility characters and a Preservation for shields. I loved the DoT aspect of old SMN gameplay but I also think that it should have gotten overhauled since it didn't fit SMN's image as much as it just fit Arcanist's and I wish we were getting Green Mage as a DoT/Debuffer to make up for it, but oh well.

In Tactics-style RPGs I'd like to think I calculate and position everyone strategically but I usually just end up going extremely direct at the enemy, strategy be damned.

[VentVanitas]

despite my incessant ramblings about job design for XIV, I'm actually an "aesthetics first" kind of person when it comes to picking a class or playstyle in an RPG. hell, the whole reason why I picked MNK as my first job and main to begin with was because at the time I was incredibly obsessed with Hunter x Hunter, it being a technical job was merely an added bonus and brother I won't lie to you- I'm on the verge of becoming a Viper main just because I've been waiting for a DPS sword job.

because of this though, my aesthetic preferences tend to take me to options that are not typically considered "top tier" in other games, but I'm not really bothered by that.