Quote Originally Posted by Mugiwara View Post
That wasn't an argument, that was a statement. And yes, increasing the timer on something because it is "tedious" is a way of dumbing down something...
Coming up with a more efficient way of doing things is not 'dumbing it down.'

Is driving a car to work just 'dumbing down' walking?

The only 'strategies' that I've seen that are applicable to buffs are that they require better aggro management, since casting buffs in the middle of a battle draws a lot of aggro, and that casting buffs draws your attention away from other things (nuking/healing) causing you to have to prioritize what you're doing.

Make buffs an hour long, up the aggro on healing spells, and have enemies do more abilities that require you to cleanse statuses. Yes, the maintenance on buffs is gone, but the extra healing aggro forces healers to play smarter with how they heal, instead of just spamming AoE heals on everyone, and having more enemies with status effects effectively makes it so you have to juggle if it's worth it to stop healing/nuking in order to clear an ailment, or if you should ride it out.

There are ways to add strategy without adding tedium. The above is just an example of how you could do it while keeping buffs longer.

I'm still for multiple abilities that require thought and awareness of the current battle situation in order to use effectively without getting munched on by the enemy.