The duty support is bad for the game's story.

[Jangles]

The duty support function doesn't have to represent the canon events if the group of people we have with us doesn't fit the party of 4 needed for duty support. The story shouldn't bend over backwards and suffer because we just need to have NPCs with fitting roles accompanying us just for duty support.

Most of the time when people wonder "Why is this character even present?" the answer is mostly because they are needed for duty support. Forcing characters to follow us around unnaturaly just for this function has only hurt the game's writing. (Together with many other problems the writing already has.) Going back to the pre-ShB setup of us canonically doing the dungeons/trials with whoever is currently present independent from the gameplay portion would benefit the story.


EDIT:

Also to make it clear I'm not saying duty support should be removed, even though I don't like the feature. It's that it shouldn't be "canonized". We don't need to be doing every story beat with exactly 4/8 people, like for example how we canonically go through a lot of old dungeons either solo or with a group of random amount of people, or how we canonically face Thordan alone, even though the trial is with 7 other players. Gameplay and story don't have to represent eachother 1:1, it's cool if they can but it shouldn't be forced to do so for the detriment of either.

(also do away with the azem crystal already please, it was cool during seat of sacrifice but it's just silly now.)

[TheMightyMollusk]

Just have a scene where the Scions talk about how we can always call on them in times of need, even when we're far apart, and then say we're using Azem's crystal to summon them as needed. Teleport magics are canon, they can leave on their own when we're done. Thancred might need some kind of handwave, though.

[Absurdity]

Just have a scene where the Scions talk about how we can always call on them in times of need, even when we're far apart, and then say we're using Azem's crystal to summon them as needed. Teleport magics are canon, they can leave on their own when we're done. Thancred might need some kind of handwave, though.

Even if it's technically canonized that we can summon people with Azem's crystal every time we need backup I still consider it a cheap cop-out made for the sake of convenience in almost all instances it gets used.
They could make it canon tomorrow that we just beat every encounter by nuking it with an orbital laser, doesn't make it any less terrible from a writing perspective.

[-Kairi]

Just have a scene where the Scions talk about how we can always call on them in times of need, even when we're far apart, and then say we're using Azem's crystal to summon them as needed. Teleport magics are canon, they can leave on their own when we're done. Thancred might need some kind of handwave, though.

Lmfao, Thancred

[VeyaAkemi]

Thancred might need some kind of handwave, though.

Thancred can't cast magic anymore, but us summoning him wouldn't be him using magic, it's even explicit that he can use magic indirectly if some other mechanism casts the spell and he simply contributes the aether, like when he used the experimental Aetheryte to go to Thavnair.

[Jeeqbit]

I agree that in many cases recently it has been pretty obvious people were there just so they could be used for Duty Support. I don't think they should put them there just so they can be used for Duty Support.

But I don't agree that Duty Support is bad, nor do I agree that they shouldn't go out of their way to make use of characters in the area for it if they are in the area anyway. For example, since ARR I had always wanted Snowcloak to make use of the NPCs there (ishgard knights and the Scions who conveniently "had to go somewhere"). In fact I used to find it pretty common that scions and other allies "had to go somewhere" whenever I actually needed them, purely because SE hadn't coded a sophisticated NPC system for dungeons.

In cases where there just aren't enough people in the canon, I have an idea for that as well, which is ghosts. Which would be just imagining that they are there and using their essence as motivation to power through. We effectively do this when fighting Varis and we come across "Specters" in some content such as Tsukuyomi.

[Anarnee]

I think it's just terribly utilized. There is NO reason that we couldn't have gone into the fights alone, we summon folks with the Azem crystal, why can't the duty support characters just be some random spectres of light that we summon, or something like that?

I don't like that some stuff has been overly dumbed down for duty support, but the story issues are a problem of a lack of imagination if anything.

[ovIm]

I think it's just terribly utilized. There is NO reason that we couldn't have gone into the fights alone, we summon folks with the Azem crystal, why can't the duty support characters just be some random spectres of light that we summon, or something like that?

I don't like that some stuff has been overly dumbed down for duty support, but the story issues are a problem of a lack of imagination if anything.

I think the Azem crystal summoning thing can technically "run out" so the WoL tries not using it too much?

However:
In Stormblood, before the Susano fight (i think?), Alisae jokes about the WoL just summoning random friends they have around somewhere.
There are other parts in the game where its implied that the WoL just stomped the current local god by themselves.

Both solutions worked equally well I find. A healthy mix of every explanation we have would be nice.

[Daralii]

I think the Azem crystal summoning thing can technically "run out" so the WoL tries not using it too much?

However:
In Stormblood, before the Susano fight (i think?), Alisae jokes about the WoL just summoning random friends they have around somewhere.
There are other parts in the game where its implied that the WoL just stomped the current local god by themselves.

Both solutions worked equally well I find. A healthy mix of every explanation we have would be nice.

Azem never had a real soul crystal made because they abdicated their seat before the plan was set in motion. The one the WoL picked up and uses is another phantom that Emet made, and it's supposed to fade away eventually, but with how much it simplifies things from a writing perspective I doubt it'll actually happen. Hydaelyn enhanced it so that we could do the thing at the end of Ultima Thule, and that enchantment burned out, but it's otherwise stable.