Buffs that last a bit longer

[RichardButte]

That's where the strategy comes in. You've got to figure out when you can re-buff. And you've got to consider the amount of aggro you're pulling. You've got to time it so that your tank doesn't die because you've missed a heal.

But you said yourself that you can't tell me what the number on aggro is, that you've sometimes pulled aggro with a buff and sometimes not.

How can that ever be a meaningful, strategic decision when all it boils down to is GUESSING? If it was just you and a tank, you could maybe deduce how much aggro you have, but when there are 1-6 other party members involved, how in the hell could you possibly make an informed decision about how much aggro you personally hold?

Want strategic buffs? Give CONs a single-target, long cooldown megabuff that draws lots of aggro, one that doubles the damage output of your tank for 30 seconds or something. THAT would be a strategic decision to make in a fight, and it wouldn't involve any of the maintenance buffs, either.

But it becomes a concern when you start doing fights that last 20 minutes.
But if you're "desperately healing the tank" and also trying to figure out when/how you can re-buff, how is that tedious?

It's not, but the problem lies in the fact that 20 minute fights are roughly 5% of all the fights you'll have (maybe). The other 95% is spent buffing and rebuffing the party every five minutes and that gets old fast.

Not that you've done this a lot, but I've seen far too many people try to justify things in this game by pointing out NM battles, ignoring the fact that NM battles don't happen until much later in the game and that many players may never fight NMs at all.

And you're using another strawman. I never said nor implied that there's a problem on your end. People like different things. There's nothing wrong with that. If you don't like buffing, then don't buff.

If that's how you intended to use it, fair enough.

But it's still a bad suggestion. I like nuking, I like healing and I like buffing, but having to stop every 5 minutes to call the party together to stand in one place while I recast buffs gets old fast.

It's the one aspect of the class that I don't like, so why would I abandon it instead of suggesting changes?

Your axe rank is zero. Your sword rank is zero. Your lancer rank is zero.

They're called "alts" and I have them. I also tried these classes in beta.

Let's go to the WoW Wiki and see if this is true:2 minutes? 40 seconds? Those are less than five minutes, right?

Most of what you listed are personal buffs that equate more to the Lancer's Ferocity.

The buffs you need to be looking at are:

Power word: Fortitude: increases the target's HP, lasts 30 minutes (group cast lasts 1 hour, uses a reagent).

Mark of the Wild: increases all stats and resistances, lasts 30 minutes (group cast lasts 1 hour, uses a reagent).

These are the buffs that are closer to what Shell and Protect do, only they last 30 minutes, minimum.

WoW/Aion buffs also have no casting time, meaning you can even run past people and toss a friendly buff on them if you want.

This is where I think XIV has a chance to one-up WoW by eliminating this tedium entirely or, like some have suggested, make the duration of the buff scale with the caster level (if you're playing as that class when you cast the buff, of course).

The other irritating thing about buffing a party is this: it's not a single button press like in WoW. First, you need to gather the party together to ensure the AoE hits everyone. Then, you press the button, press return to confirm AoE and do this for 4 buffs (usually Shell, Protect, Stoneskin and Shock Spikes), and you need to do this EVERY FIVE MINUTES (three for stoneskin and shock spikes)!

I'm sorry, but that's just a bloody hassle. If we want mid-fight buffing strategy, give us buffs that can make or break a fight and generate lots of aggro, but let these little maintenance buffs be 30 minutes to an hour, or scale based upon the caster level.