Opinion piece about the 7.3 changes, with a community focus on the Purify change

[Talke]

Hello.
I recently produced a video covering the 7.3 changes, emphasizing the community reaction and thoughts over the changes to how Purify works, and someone recommended to me that I post it to the Official Forums.

https://youtu.be/eUzH07TfH3A

Before I produced this video, I decided I wanted to survey the community's thoughts and impressions on how the changes affected their PvP mode of choice, as I wanted to highlight the community reaction as part of it. Though the respondent sample is relatively small and skewed (62 respondents, in their majority NA PVP veterans), I got a lot of nuanced and interesting responses, and I would love to pass off this information to a community team rep if there's any interest--I'm just not sure how to get in touch with them.

[Mercury_Grey]

A lot of the people i talked to lately say the Purify change is very terrible and you become useless once out of mana and guard. Before any say "just run away and use elixir". It is hard to run away when you are CC chained to 0 HP from full. I get it was suppose to be a bit easier to use, but the MP cost makes it a bad trade off

[Themarvin]

NA PvP Veterans is not NA PvP Veterans when it is about adapting to PvP... if Purify is less of a thing then it is also a less or more of the thing for the opponents...

Stop making a fuss about things where there is none.

[TofuLove]

NA PvP Veterans is not NA PvP Veterans when it is about adapting to PvP... if Purify is less of a thing then it is also a less or more of the thing for the opponents...

Stop making a fuss about things where there is none.

We don't all play the same job, so it less or more of a thing for opponents.
For frontline at least, melee classes are more exposed to cc, than ranged, yet ranged have the same (and even more) access to cc and some have access to MP removal. And also melee are more punished by cc effect due to their need to stay closer to enemies.
Balance is completely bonkered with the current change.

[Valence]

Nobody is complaining that the opponent isn't hit by the change too. People are complaining about:

1) It's a gigantic nerf to Purify in most cases: you rarely have time to use Purify multiple times in quick succession in most pvp modes, what matters is the first CC you suffer from and how you get out of it.
2) It adds a potential 15k damage to every CC ability (multiplied by the amount of people hit in the case of AoE CC)
3) It breaks job balance very badly in favor of CC jobs, and even more in favor of MP removal abilities
4) It makes CC feel even more oppressive than it already was, and I'm pretty confident in saying that people haven't exactly been complaining that the game didn't have enough CC so far...

[Divinemights]

Overall, feedback is negative from Japanese PvP forum
TLDR, I am just a messenger so don't unleased your rage on me if it is something you don't like

Summary of points made by Japanese players:

1. PvP Modes & Roles

Frontline: 24 players, 3 teams.
Crystalline Conflict: 5 players, 2 teams.
Both are role-free, meaning any combination of jobs is allowed—but the meta still favors certain jobs.
Job disparity exists: winning or surviving often requires picking the strongest jobs rather than playing for fun.

2. Front Line Stress vs. Ranged Output

Tanks and melee are meant to “push the front line,” but reality is harsh:
Constant CC effects (Stun, Silence, Heavy, Kappa, etc.)
High incoming damage despite higher durability
Risk/reward imbalance: frontline jobs have higher risk but don’t get the payoff
Result: Pure stress rather than enjoyable gameplay; new players evaporate instantly.

3. Ranged DPS “VIP Treatment”

Ranged DPS output is disproportionately high.

Black Mage example:

• Traditionally fragile, now tankier than actual tanks
• Abilities like Ice Reprise and Xenoglossy give defensive utility + self-healing
• Mobility + massive AoE = oppressive, hard to counter

White Mage example:

• Should be backline support; now can stun, deal AoE damage, and heal simultaneously
• Limit Break becomes battlefield-altering every 60 seconds
• Cleansing changes exacerbate stress rather than alleviate it

4. Developer Concerns

Lack of communication or reasoning behind these adjustments
Questionable playtesting: seems designed without serious PvP feedback
Changes favor ranged DPS over frontline roles, making PvP less fun for the majority

TL;DR

Frontline (tanks/melee): overexposed, high stress, low reward
Ranged DPS (Black Mage, White Mage): overpowered, too durable, excessive damage + utility
Dev explanation: nonexistent; PvP feels designed by non-PvP players
Result: Stress > fun; balance still broken

[Atreus]

Thanks for putting this video and survey together Tal'ke! I totally get all angles of what people are feeling atm.

I think the biggest sin of it all is how little the jobs themselves were updated to accommodate these changes. Something as significant as this requires a much bigger shakeup. This kind of change feels like it should have been during a new expansion, where they effectively redo the jobs as is.

[Atreus]

Sorry for double post, but you said something in your video that changes are "often so experimental as to be reckless" and gahd DAMN what a perfect way to describe the PvP update process.

[ILovePVP]

Agree with posts above, the PVP Dev Team not speaking or even communicating is unacceptable. I don't think it's difficult to place a forum post or even give us 10 minutes of a 2 hour live letter where the devs give their thoughts and feelings and where their headspace is at.

I think EVERY job should've also gotten a change up to try and accomodate the direction the developers are wanting to go with the game mode. (this ties into dev communication as well)

We've had preseasons before and I think this would've been an amazing opportunity to put a month long preseason and gauge community feedback on what to change or adjust before going into another ranked season. A Ranked Season shouldn't be used to see how a major adjustment will go, but to fine tune it, a preseason would've given them access to bigger adjustments before starting the current season and getting the mode closer to their ideal vision.
Not only that but we got zero rank reset so the players who have been struggling with the changes are thrown into lobbies and games that they have really zero chance of fighting in, consistently leading to the fastest games I think I've seen in a while.

The worst part about above is that they will use the win/loss ratio for specific jobs to buff/nerf and adjust jobs based on what they see in statistical numbers(all skewed by a non reset as well) instead of what can actually be seen throughout gameplay and playtesting, meaning that some jobs that could've massively used an adjustment to make surviving and interacting in current meta possible, will be overlooked for a potency buff/nerf to a job that really did not need much else(looking at you PCT getting buffed 6 times).

It's MORE than ok to be experimental, I think that this is what SE needs to do to keep CC/FL fresh every few seasons and shake up meta jobs from being perma-played and win conditions, but they need to implement an adjustment period to see how it actually impacts the game mode across all regions, not just Japan.

[Brycie]

Hi Tal'ke I really enjoyed your video. I also like the purify changes as well.

I do agree with the sentiment spoken by some in this thread that the classes just were not changed enough to accommodate the direction that the PvP devs seem to be trying to go in. I'm happy they did this at least, since I was not previously enjoying the changes they have been making for Crystalline Conflict. I do hope they will finally settle on the path they want PvP to follow and actually commit to making it great and enjoyable, rather than all these experimental changes feeling like throwing darts at a board seeing if one sticks.

I also really hope the developers become more transparent, thinking about anything going on in this game is such a headache communication wise when I compare it to my equally as long stint in Old School Runescape, whose developers hold communication in such high regard.