On the Removal of Positionals

[W00by]

I really dislike the assertion that positionals are just "shimmying left and right" as you do a rotation. On training dummies and certain dungeon bosses, that can be the case, but it isn't the case all the time. I don't find Viper boring because I'm not just shimmying left and right -- I'm precisely positioning in tight safe spots that give me access to positionals, or moving quickly around the boss during mechanically intensive phases, or conserving resources like True North, Uncoiled Fury, Reawaken, and Slither to be able to hit as many as possible. For me, it feels so cool to finish a fight like DT EX2 or Arcadion M2 hitting as many positionals as I could. It makes me feel like a quick and nimble melee DPS, which is part of the fantasy. You may not play melees this way, but to equate my job to "just shimmying left and right" and describe something that I enjoy as something that must be removed because you don't find it interesting is painful. There is, of course, the caster argument that casting is "boring" when the fight isn't making you move, which I think is just as unfounded as saying positionals are "boring" because some fights don't make you do them, but mentioning casters in this thread seems to get me attacked ad hominem, so I won't.

Instead, I'd like to address the claim that the removal of positionals would allow for more interesting means of skill expression. Discounting the fact that I personally find positionals fun -- what do you actually think Square Enix would do to give melees more skill expression? Has Square Enix ever removed something from this game and then replaced it with something more interesting? Was Kaiten's removal replaced by interesting Kenki management? No, it was gutted and Kenki became the Shinten-dispensal-bar. Was Energy Drain's removal replaced by interesting Aetherflow management? No, they shamefully re-added it because they didn't have any other ideas. They never replace things with something equal and opposite or better when people complain, they just remove the ability in the name of consistency. So, when positionals get removed and melee DPS stay exactly the same without positionals, we will have strictly lost something with nothing to gain. At least in the ARR-DT design philosophy, anyway.

Speaking of consistency, I often see people say that mechanics can be made more interesting and engaging if you remove positionals. But if positionals are removed, how will they challenge melee that are looking for a challenge? The only real way they can do it is with more complex mechanical design which will scare off new players OR making melee uptime ITSELF prohibitively difficult, which will lower the skill floor of the game tremendously and make things like Party Finder and normal modes even more difficult in an expansion where mechanic difficulty is controversial (somehow). In my opinion, the positional paradigm is much better because the ceiling is entirely optional and the floor is easily accessible. The removal of positionals will make the game easier for the most hardcore players and harder for the most casual ones, which would be a baffling move on the dev's part and benefit literally no one. Or, I mean, they could just remove positionals and then keep designing fights exactly the same, which is likely too and similarly unbeneficial.

I think it's telling that many of positionals' biggest detractors (including big time streamers like Xenosys Vex) brazenly admit to just not doing them because they don't like them. And, if you can clear all content while brazenly ignoring them (which, clearly, you can)... why does it matter if they're there? You're not forced to play melee, and even if you are, there are melee with easy access to positionals like RPR (see my prior thread), and even if you don't want to play RPR, you can still ignore them on other jobs and do just fine. Unless you're at the highest level, you just don't have to do them, just like casuals don't have to do the Balance-sponsored opener if they don't want to. They don't need to go and they benefit everyone by staying.