Thread: Frontlines 7.1

Originally Posted by Bonoki

I can absolutely confirm this. I’m in a Discord server where people treat PvP like it’s parsing in PvE, prioritizing padding their stats over actually winning the match. To them, having the highest number of kills or the most damage is what matters because it makes them look like they contributed more and, by extension, look better than everyone else. Winning the match has become secondary to boosting their own numbers. When I first got invited to the server, I was genuinely shocked by how widespread this mindset is. It’s not just a few players—it’s a significant number, and they even run premade groups nightly with this exact goal in mind. It’s like parsing culture bleeding straight into PvP.

This is actually why I left a couple of large PvP Discord servers. Made me feel queasy. It's a great shame, because some of those guys have done a lot of good (RW would be stone cold dead rather than just ailing without them), but you've described the situation perfectly. It's personal stats first, with winning little more than a side bonus if it happens.

Originally Posted by Mawlzy

This is actually why I left a couple of large PvP Discord servers. Made me feel queasy. It's a great shame, because some of those guys have done a lot of good (RW would be stone cold dead rather than just ailing without them), but you've described the situation perfectly. It's personal stats first, with winning little more than a side bonus if it happens.

In all fairness, as I am someone who occasionally pads. It is much easier to pad and play for your numbers and yourself than it is to control 23 other people on your team. Some outcomes of the match are just out of your control but playing for numbers and performing well on a job is still something you can do plenty. I think the only issue with only playing to pad is if you end up hitting the wrong team because it is either weaker, squishier (more ranged = bigger numbers) or they're clumped up more. Besides from that I don't think there's any issue only playing to pad so long as you're stopping the winning/stronger team as well. I think doing both is just fine and it's how I play.

In terms of looking for damage, I'd be more impressed at a SAM or a WAR doing over 1.5m damage than I would some ranged/caster anyway. Some jobs just make it easier like right now RDM/AST/SMN are the top dogs from my experience. Gone are the days of SCH! (good riddance)

Originally Posted by Bonoki

I can absolutely confirm this. I’m in a Discord server where people treat PvP like it’s parsing in PvE, prioritizing padding their stats over actually winning the match. To them, having the highest number of kills or the most damage is what matters because it makes them look like they contributed more and, by extension, look better than everyone else. Winning the match has become secondary to boosting their own numbers. When I first got invited to the server, I was genuinely shocked by how widespread this mindset is. It’s not just a few players—it’s a significant number, and they even run premade groups nightly with this exact goal in mind. It’s like parsing culture bleeding straight into PvP.

I've seen a plethora of premades who just go in to pack as many people and aoe them down, disregarding objectives all the time. They're just doing pve in pvp on pve players who pve the nodes, nothing new in mmo pvp. Still, I'd rather fight them than the objectives-focused premades. At least there's more counterplay.

I'm not sure I would call a lopsided design where everything is built around DRK centric stacks, "balanced". That is a strange choice of words to me.

I like FL and play solo most of the time. I liked how accessible it was: you don't need a lot of experience, you don't always have to bring your A game, and the pace is slower than CC. As a solo player, I was proud of what I accomplished on my own. It was jank, even on that cloud server test, but it was an acceptable tolerance of jank. I didn't always have fun (I hate deathballs, being part of them or against them, and some people can be unbearable ice lickers or consistently make bad choices), but it was fun most of the time.

Back on topic, yeah these changes are killing any enjoyment I'm having with FL. There's a lot of things that feel wrong, like the hit detection, my main jobs hitting like wet noodles even with BH5, way too much damage, cc, and guard piercing moves going out, and the combination of them all.

Sadly, I think I won't be playing much FL for the foreseeable future. I'm not having fun nearly all of the time. And suddenly having to give up something I enjoyed makes me pretty upset.

this game stopped being good with the launch of endwalker, then pvp stopped being good with the launch of 6.1, just unsub, no more coping.

Frontlines on 7.1 feels much better now that DRK got nerfed and Purify got buffed. Any DRK that tries a plunge gets swarned and pecked to death.

Of course now the problem is AST stacking with their ungodly damage, mobility, and AoE Gravity II. Who in the hell asked for that?

Originally Posted by Alyko

Frontlines on 7.1 feels much better now that DRK got nerfed and Purify got buffed. Any DRK that tries a plunge gets swarned and pecked to death.

Of course now the problem is AST stacking with their ungodly damage, mobility, and AoE Gravity II. Who in the hell asked for that?

I'm afraid I've just had reports that The Maid is back, apparently commanding as a DRK with double AST and either BRD or DNC?

The DRK meta is not dead.

After diving into ranked (plat) and frontlines 7.1 for the past few days I feel like the "I'm just here for the exp" is going to be on the rise with players actions being much less impactful in a casual sense when soloing. For pre made groups this may be amazing for some with the recent returning astro stacking allowing people to just nuke teams lately. Now don't get me wrong nuking teams is great BUT when all other jobs hit like a nerf gun in comparison it pushes a lot of people away. We have now come full circle with additional problems now. Season 1 had LB spam sum with Ninja and Sam going wild but were adjusted respectfully. Now our newer issue as of late is a more frequent aoe from astro and with new hp and hit reg ninja and sam made a come back for easiest way to remove players again. I've gotten off of almost all my main roles this update and play whm now for cc and mch for frontlines due to the whole everyone runs away theme that is going on now because they just can with less punishment. Now on the flip side of these complaints it does feel a lot like feast in terms of rules of engagement working together to focus people down but if that is the direction we are aiming for astro and red mage will need some nerfs OR buff the jobs falling behind. All I do know is this is the most negative reaction I've seen to pvp since my time starting in shadowbringers hopefully square makes a comeback.

I would much have preferred they address the root cause of the issue itself, rather than making everything feel so much slower.


Cap targets pulled by DRK to 5. Cap AoE targets to 5 with diminishing damage for subsequent targets, e.g., 100% damage for first target, 75% for second and third, and 50% for remaining two or something.