Quote Originally Posted by AmiableApkallu View Post
When I first picked up FFXIV (when post-ShB was current), I was expecting damage types to be relevant noticeable — elemental, piercing, slashing, etc.

As a sprout CNJ, I was concerned with how I'd be able to fair against earth or wind enemies.

Why isn't that simply how combat works in FFXIV?
Slashing/piercing/blunt used to be in the game, however, they created more favourable parties which would perform far and above another group. Fr example, Dragoon applied Piercing and, at the time, only Dragoon, Bard and Machinist benefitted from it. Bard and Machinist could not apply Piercing, so having a Dragoon in the party automatically increased their damage by 10%. Monk was the only non caster that done Blunt damage and was the only job that could apply Blunt down, so it wasn't a benefit to the group. Ninja and Warrior could apply Slashing, in HW, Warrior would be the one to apply slashing whilst Ninja could forgo that combo and get more damage by virtue of being able to use more Aeolian Edges. In SB, these debuffs were changed so that they were applied as part of your optimal rotation (which is what Samurai's 3rd combo used to apply). Bard and Machinist still couldn't apply piercing, so they got free damage just from having a Dragoon (though it was 5% in SB). Considering there was a massive issue with debuffs, removing them seemed a good way to reduce the clutter and avoid any party disparities.

As for elemental damage, it too would run into issues. Elemental damage has never been a thing to consider in FFXIV, at least from 2.0 onwards (do not know about 1.0), but, just taking Black Mage for example, how would you want it to play? You could have a button that changes the elements of everything it has, but then you necessarily have to lose buttons from elsewhere to accommodate this. How about Red Mage? Would you forgo using Verfire and reduce your damage? How about not using Verthunder 3? and even bigger damage loss. With elements being much more varied in Red Mage's kit, it would be even more of a headache. At least, in my opinion, it just wouldn't add anything interesting to the combat.

As for the topic itself, it is just eureka done outside a separate zone. I don't think it really adds anything, especially if you can gain 3-5 levels on each one, you would just max each one out and not have to think about it at all. It would also destroy any semblance of challenge from dungeon bosses as I assume there is no sync, so, as you gain elemental levels, you just get stronger and stronger relative to the boss. I just don't think it would be a good system.