Started playing again recently and enjoyed the return of role actions in Frontline. I particularly liked this because I felt it did return some player (and skill?) expression, and thought about how there isn't much player expression in ranked PvP as there are in other MMO games.
I thought to propose the idea of optional job skills that players could choose from to use in thier PvP kits. This would be unlike the role actions in Frontline, and closer to a specialization within the job itself. Summoner kind of has this already with the option to select between Bahamut or Phoenix limit break. But I propose to take it a step further.
What if you gave all jobs the option to select between two different limit breaks, or swap out 1 or 2 other abilities in their kit with something else entirely, similar to role actions? As an example, think of DRG being able to choose from having wyrmwind thrust or talon throw before queing up. The player could choose to have a high damage aoe line attack, or a more consistent lower damage single target attack. I'm sure better examples could be thought of to make for more interesting and expressive gameplay. But once you select your "specialization" you wont be able to change it mid-match. Mirror matches of the same jobs in ranked would still feel very different based on the players' specs and playstyles.
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I thought to propose the idea of optional job skills that players could choose from to use in thier PvP kits. This would be unlike the role actions in Frontline, and closer to a specialization within the job itself. Summoner kind of has this already with the option to select between Bahamut or Phoenix limit break. But I propose to take it a step further.
What if you gave all jobs the option to select between two different limit breaks, or swap out 1 or 2 other abilities in their kit with something else entirely, similar to role actions? As an example, think of DRG being able to choose from having wyrmwind thrust or talon throw before queing up. The player could choose to have a high damage aoe line attack, or a more consistent lower damage single target attack. I'm sure better examples could be thought of to make for more interesting and expressive gameplay. But once you select your "specialization" you wont be able to change it mid-match. Mirror matches of the same jobs in ranked would still feel very different based on the players' specs and playstyles.
Continue reading...