What abilities are you most sad got removed?

[Shurrikhan]

For anyone curious, the basic premise of the pre-Yoshida XIV concept was that you level up yourself, not a job. Leveling classes unlocked skills, building up your arsenal/kit, and allowed you to better leverage weapon types to a higher and higher cap, but your actual stats and armor unlocks were shared and every job used every type of stat, up to certain soft-caps.

Sadly, the skills were pretty damn unimaginative, basically just being semi-random combinations of elemental types (and piercing/slashing/blunt, which technically weapons could each do multiple of, except non-pointy fist weapons), positionals, geometries, scaling factors, and debuffs.

For example, Doom Spike was affinitive with piercing damage, be that by bow or spear, and dealt greater damage in a line for each enemy struck (100%, 115%, 130%, 145%, and so on, such that if you pulled enough mobs you could possibly one-shot a monster well above your level on the other end), but started at low damage. Puncture started at full damage and diminished with each intersecting target. Concussive Blow was a blunt-affinity frontal that afflicted Blind. Moonrise was a slashing-affinity flank attack (from Lancer, but spears could do all three damage types) that stymied enemy TP (which is what mobs and players both used for their non-basic skills, akin to Kenki but with mostly GCD spenders). Etc., etc.

The more fun part was simply the idea, though, that you didn't necessarily have to perform each role in a traditional way and that there were a lot of odd/interesting interlinkages. The best taunt wasn't on a traditional high-eHP tank, but on Pugilist. Gladiator was built for tag-teaming more than for solo-tanking. Lancer could apply much the same advantages as a tank in reducing net damage intake relative to output as a strike leader via the likes of Life Surge (granting healing per offensive action against the debuffed focus target). There was no dedicated healer, but simply a light-and-shadow priestly caster vs. an elemental caster capable of healing through water/unaspected magics, fortifying through earth, suppressing through wind or ice, or just forgoing the need for healing by blowing shit up quickly enough (especially through Fire and Lightning, though anything may work given elemental weaknesses). Etc., etc. Everything seemed designed with an inclination towards sandboxy ingenuity/versatility.

Again, the execution was crap, though. And that's even before discussing the problems with netcode, optimization (though, tbh, my frames didn't go up with ARR in the vast majority of situations), how long the animation times (most with movement locks as well) or GCD were, lack of content, dullness of most fights, or somehow even worse UI and menu issues than we have today, etc. All I can really say for it in practice --despite decent enough foundational concepts-- was that you did mostly feel like a real enough person in that world, rather that it feeling so single-player or one's person-as-set-of-class-choices-or-the-like so interchangeable.

If you want to see it in action in greater polish, though, try out Team Ninja's Final Fantasy: Strangers of Paradise. Solid combat system, very akin to Nioh 2's but with a stamina-gauge each for finishers and special blocks and for sprinting/dodging/regular-blocking, with fun progression/customization. There (a single-player game), any gear that drops you already have the levels to use, so ilvl replaces character level, and each class skills don't cross over as much (though probably about as much as any optimal build would have done anyways), but it otherwise follows a pretty similar system given the "all jobs on one character" concept that pre-Yoshida XIV leveraged a lot more than post-Yoshida. (Hell, pre-Yoshida XIV obliged multi-classing, since you needed cross-class skills there to have a full kit [even if that was worth less then than now as they were all GCD spenders only contextual upgrades] and max job/class levels were timed gated via logarithmic soft-caps to further push you to spread out your leveling time. P.S. You could even still use gear your equipped class was too low level for; it'd just be automatically scaled down, just below gear of exactly your level until you reached its actual level, akin to Heirloom gear in WoW.)

[enthauptet]

Grenade shot was an awesome skill on Machinist, the usefulness of it is debatable I guess (though it did hit all the guys on the 1st boss in alexander 6 savage) but it was nice to stand back and hit it vs the wide cone AoE every single other job has.

The best part about it was the animation though it was really cool you actually tossed a grenade then shot it and it exploded, the other AoE animation is so LAME.

I guess the turrets were sort-of fun too and made it somewhat more interesting. Honestly I miss heavensward machinist I haven't really liked it anywhere near as much as back then.


Another thing is Bane along with dot-mage summoner, I haven't played summoner since they changed it in stormblood it just gets leveled up with scholar but I don't touch it.

Scholar has been pruned of a lot of interesting abilities, such as having multiple DoT's and the ability to spread them via Bane, you also had a separate fairy with its own abilities, including AoE Esuna. There is also Shadowflare, Quickened Aetherflow and Rouse. Expedience also used to be 20s but was shortened to 10s because the devs hate fun. Now SCH feels like every other healer when it used to be quite unique. White Mage also had Aero 3, an ability everyone liked, removed as well.

Dark Knight also had cool stuff, like Scourge, old Blood Weapon (added a haste) a parry proc that reset Low Blow (did damage) and you could empower your defense cooldowns. You also used to have to manage your MP as it used to constantly drain, which was cool, but that was all pruned.

I hate how they removed Diversion, it was a button that dampened your aggro, which was useful when the tank died and all of a sudden targets you with the damn tank buster, I used to be able to avoid situations like that, now I literally cannot.

Bard used to have lots of little interactions with its DoT effects and the procs added a lot to its fast paced gameplay style, now the DoT's are effectively vestigial because they put all the procs on the songs and removed interactions like Sidewinder. The reason people think DoT's are boring is because the devs deliberately make them as boring as possible. Bard and Machinist could also refresh party MP, completely removed. Machinist also had an AoE attack where they lobbed a grenade over the enemy, trick shot it and the shrapnel rained down on them, cool as fuck, removed.

Paladin used to have a combo with Goring Blade and it had a uniquely good sustain among the tanks, but it didn't burst hard enough because of the 2 min meta so it was refashioned into diet Gunbreaker. Also still mad we lost the awesome animation of Butcher's Block on Warrior but we still have the lousy looking Storm's Path.

Monk had a literal Bruce Lee style touch of death skill that was pruned. Ninja had some really cool abilities with great animations, Mutilate, Shadowfang, Dancing Edge, Duality, all removed.

Those ninja ones were pretty fun. IMO ToD was a pretty boring skill looks wise lol.

[Onshinn]

Nocturnal Sect enough said

[Carighan]

Nocturnal Sect enough said

That's kinda a wash because what we have now is strictly superior tbh. Yeah it lacks the flavor and it feels pretty stupid as a vestigial ability, but from a utility/power level it's strictly better, so I dunno.

[CidHeiral]

Everything from EW DRG.

[Kirutsuki]

Antman (Anatman) for monk.
While the usecase for it was a highly specific downtime situations I just loved using it as a pose when a transition happened or there was like a massive raidwide attack and my character was just facetanking it all.

[Shurrikhan]

Monk had a literal Bruce Lee style touch of death skill that was pruned.

Bruce Lee-style... Touch of Death? The little beakish tap with a 30s DoT?
Not... One-Ilm Punch that purged buffs (from back in the era when enemies could occasionally self-buff)?

Mutiliate, Shadowfang, Dancing Edge, Duality

I definitely miss those animations, yeah. Shadowfang and Dancing Edge, especially.

Now for the slight nostalgia-checks...

Dark Knight also had cool stuff, like Scourge, old Blood Weapon (added a haste) a parry proc that reset Low Blow (did damage) and you could empower your defense cooldowns. You also used to have to manage your MP as it used to constantly drain, which was cool, but that was all pruned.

They were cool, but apart from Dark Dance against trash, virtually none were worth empowering and the constant drain was offset by having higher relative MP generation, especially from Syphon Strike (e.g., 800 out of ~4800 or roughly 2 Syphons per MP spender instead of 600 out of 10000, or 5 Syphons per spender).

Would still love to have that back in a revitalized form, though, don't get me wrong. They'd just have to stop babying tanks so we could get some real use out of at-cost mitigation.

Scholar has been pruned of a lot of interesting abilities, such as having multiple DoT's and the ability to spread them via Bane, you also had a separate fairy with its own abilities, including AoE Esuna. There is also Shadowflare, Quickened Aetherflow and Rouse.

Wasn't a big fan of Shadowflare, and Quicken Aetherflow was ultimately just a 15s CDR on AF that could only be failed by using all three charges in the last 15 seconds, last 2 in the last 10, last charge in the last 5. The rest I definitely miss a lot, though, even if Bane would feel gutted without regaining at least nearly the number of DoTs it had before.

Expedience also used to be 20s but was shortened to 10s because the devs hate fun.

Which is more fun, though -- having a second sprint that gets its out-of-combat duration even when in combat and can be popped without penalty some 17 seconds before the few seconds you'd really want it... or... actually using it nearer to, and having the duration such that you almost want to play chicken with, that moment of need?

I get your point, but just an extra perspective as the flipside of the coin: I'm not sure excess strength is always the more "fun", and can often steal away the intensity of proper use.

I hate how they removed Diversion, it was a button that dampened your aggro, which was useful when the tank died and all of a sudden targets you with the damn tank buster, I used to be able to avoid situations like that, now I literally cannot.

Using Diversion only after your tank died just meant you were costing the tank damage. Moreover, it merely halved your Enmity generated over the next 20 seconds (best popped alongside your other CDs going into burst), rather than dropping existing Enmity.

At best, if someone else was right on your heals before the boss target was locked in, you'd have them die instead of you. If not for Diversion being something to use nearly on CD, this would be deserved since being the highest-enmity DPS would mean you were the top DPS, but... if you weren't using it on CD anyways... And even if it were an aggro drop, the last thing you'd want is to have your healer get murdered instead.

___________________________________________

Anatman for monk.

Same, oddly enough. Hated how it had to be used in ShB, but it was a pretty great animation, and I'd love to see it revitalized.

Nocturnal Sect enough said

That's kinda a wash because what we have now is strictly superior tbh. Yeah it lacks the flavor and it feels pretty stupid as a vestigial ability, but from a utility/power level it's strictly better, so I dunno.

I always kinda wished that Noctural Sect / Diurnal Sect was more like 4.0 Warrior's stance-swaps, tbh. That would have flavor and agency, both.

[Zarkovitch]

counter attacks on tanks, like Old school Reprisal and shield swipe

[Underscore]

Spineshatter Dive and everything else about Dragoon.

[CNitsah]

Conceptually? Pets, both from Summoner and Scholar. I get that it's a natural thing for MMORPGs that over the years they either remove, factually remove or trivialize their pets to be DoTs-but-with-a-model, but eh, I still mourn it each and every time. Even DAoC removed their Necromancer in favor of a shapeshifting class, essentially. Sad. :'(

I want proper pet classes where the overwhelming majority of the output (independent of whether damage or healing) is produced by the pet via its own attack/casting queue, and my character is mostly using pet commands to add to the queue respectively modify it. Meanwhile the pet is vulnerable to damage, so while my damage/healing is vastly automated, I need to invest my time into babysitting the pet around AoE damage and boss abilities.

Yeah, I miss being able to off tank for little while with titan egi.