Having being around since the start of 2.0 I have seen lots of changes both good and bad throughout the years to all the different jobs a player can play. I've played all of them at some time or another on my main or an alt and mainly just grumbled and changed to a different more fun job when one of them got gutted.
Sadly at this point as many threads have shown, the direction SE has taken over the years has been homogenizing, "balancing" or stripping critical and/or fun elements from each job to the point where we have had a tank shortage in 2.0 and 4.0, a melee shortage in 3.0 and a healer shortage in 5.0
Shadowbringers in particular has brought out a lot of disappointment with regards to job gameplay due to the sheer frustration and short sighted skill removal over the years boiling over. To address this, SE needs to go back to why heavensward's and some of the 4.0 jobs gameplay (such as brd and ast) was loved.
Every job had an identity, lore that matched, unique mechanics and abilities for the most part with only barest essentials cross class such as protect, swiftcast, foresight etc were needed. Buffs and debuffs for the most part were strong enough to feel like they had an impact. Individual but identical abilities (eg raise, ascend, resurrection) all looked different and related to their job
To this end, I would ask folks what they feel their job was at its highest point no matter when in the game's lifecycle in terms of feel (ie visuals, playstyle) and in terms of gameplay (abilities, potencies etc)
If we're lucky, perhaps we one of the community team picks this up when it comes to 6.0 and we see improvements
Continue reading...
Sadly at this point as many threads have shown, the direction SE has taken over the years has been homogenizing, "balancing" or stripping critical and/or fun elements from each job to the point where we have had a tank shortage in 2.0 and 4.0, a melee shortage in 3.0 and a healer shortage in 5.0
Shadowbringers in particular has brought out a lot of disappointment with regards to job gameplay due to the sheer frustration and short sighted skill removal over the years boiling over. To address this, SE needs to go back to why heavensward's and some of the 4.0 jobs gameplay (such as brd and ast) was loved.
Every job had an identity, lore that matched, unique mechanics and abilities for the most part with only barest essentials cross class such as protect, swiftcast, foresight etc were needed. Buffs and debuffs for the most part were strong enough to feel like they had an impact. Individual but identical abilities (eg raise, ascend, resurrection) all looked different and related to their job
To this end, I would ask folks what they feel their job was at its highest point no matter when in the game's lifecycle in terms of feel (ie visuals, playstyle) and in terms of gameplay (abilities, potencies etc)
If we're lucky, perhaps we one of the community team picks this up when it comes to 6.0 and we see improvements
Continue reading...