Counter to Elitism

[Reynhart]

Even accounting for the positive side, a system of measuring performance vs. reward would be oversimplified and arbitrary.

Long post again

Monsters have a certain number of HP, dungeons have a certain amount of monster. So, there's a finite number of damage you can make over the course of the dungeon. The higher the percentage of HP you deplete, the better the DPS, simple.

I'm sorry, but any strategy where the BLM is supposed to take hits is a flaw in the game. For a mage, taking hits means dying, and dying can't be a strategy. Back in FFXI, some fights where done two times. First, in a "dry run", just to look how the fight goes without using items or 2h, dying, then retry. From a roleplay point of view (Which MMO should have more) it's pretty awkward.

For a dynamic system, think "Gambits" like FF XII. You can design severals "If...then..." sentences and when a player fulfill one sentence, you give him points. Higher priority sentences will yield more points. I tried to translate FFXI gameplay with a gambit system, and, suprisingly, with 15-20 sentences per job, you can cover almost any situation.

And if the programmed actions are too far from the real game, you can simply adjust the sentences without a big update.