tldr:
This change is god awful. I am unsubbing from this game/quitting pvp. Devs, you have no idea what you are doing, and it shows.

Longer format:
I resubbed to try new changes last night, and to no surprise - they are as bad as I thought. I was greeted by way more bards than usual, as well as way more white mages than usual. Also, paladin is now bonkers in Frontline. Why did you need to buff it? It was doing completely okay.

Anyway!

Game direction in the last few patches has upped the lethality of all the encounters:
  1. More attacks go through guard - Guard nerfed
  2. Skills that steal MP
  3. Purify went from 4s to 3s to 2s in a few patches
  4. Purify now costs 2500MP!
  5. There is more cc than ever before.
  6. Role actions means there is more damage overall

On top of it all the BH change makes it seem like it's all part of the plan to make Frontline a fast paced game mode.

But! It isn't a fast paced mode, nor is it fun to play, because what's the counterplay to all the cc? Now you just have to eat the non-lethal cc. How do you do that?
You just stand there. Great. Peak game design. Not only that but what was once free, now costs MP and it is worse than before.

Oh you want to guard? Value of guard is diminished, enjoy walking from spawn.

Why would you want skills that remove/cost MP? Standard Issue Elixir is just as bad. Standing there for 4.5 seconds feels awful (this alone deserves a separate post).

Maybe this trash is amazing in Crystaline Conflict, but for FL, this ain't it.
Honestly, maybe Yoshi P is right.
Maybe when I am tired of FF14 I should play other games.

p.s.
Oh and I can't post if I am not subbed, so enjoy the game everyone. Hopefully they fix it 8.35!