Definition of Limited Jobs - “Limited jobs are jobs designed for casual solo play, with mechanics that are not balanced for grouping, and a level cap of 50”
The problems with it
It is not casual solo play
There may be content regarding it to promote its casual play but in the long run, in certain cases shown by Blue Mage some of its move set cannot be obtained unless it went through group content, like learning J Kick (Brute Justice), Surpanakha (Ravana), Quasar (Sophia) and a few others which can be really useful in masked carnival. Overall if jobs had to go through trials, raids and dungeons just to obtain parts or pet items, it is no longer solo content rather incorporated with multiplayer content.
Locked out from Duty Finder
Blue Mage being the only case study, most of the spells it learns are from Dungeons, Trials and Raids. At level 50 raids they can solo, but there is a chance of learning while in a full group and syncing the chance of learning raises to a guarantee. Even if the Party Finder system is there this would have been a hard time for some due to time constraints (In Real Life Schedule); People leaving midway of searching for members through Party Finder and eventually some dropping out because of In Real life Issue or couldn’t wait any longer, which eventually leads the party finder being empty for over 50 min+ compared to a manual duty finder queue where it can take up to 30 minutes at most; Some people play at different times and sometimes some players play at odd hours.
There are casual solo content, but they are locked out from it - Content like Squadron Mission and Deep Dungeons are mainly solo content. Squadron allows you to queue with NPC to clear a dungeon while the other is randomly generated and has several floors to clear but can be queued alone. When limited Jobs are advertised for Casual Solo Content, Deep Dungeon and Squadron come to mind alongside the Main Scenario Quest line. An example to compare Blue Mage in Deep Dungeon would be Red Mage, because they can Heal and Raise while dealing a lot of damage as it is counted as a DPS.
Limited Jobs Capped below 20 levels of current content
No one is willing to manually replay old content unless it was during hype, in the short term yes people will do it to complete the job. However in the long run people will be stuck, unless they try to use PF or find like minded people to redo the content. Below current cap is a bad idea because how can they play that job with their friend if they really want to play that job in the current content with them.
It sets a dark standard for future jobs
It will set a standard for any and new potential jobs to be put into FFXIV. If we were to implement Rune Fencer into FFXIV (As an example) it can be done into a Tank with the right idea or a DPS. However with Limited Job now set into the mix if a development team couldn’t come up with a solution to add it to the normal roster they would categorize it as a limited job. Blue Mage as a Limited Job has already set an example that they can post half done content when they cannot find a solution. There are plenty of solutions but now that we have Limited Jobs you could say the next 2 new jobs are going to be limited and not added to the normal job roster because they couldn’t get the solution on how to fit the job into the game and will allow the reason of “It has to be this way”.
[B]Arguments against Limited Jobs[/B]
It allows freedom of the Job Design
No it doesn’t, it is already there for the traditional/normal jobs. There is nothing impossible with the jobs as of now, because design is by creativity not the rules that defines it. Even with Puppetmaster and Beastmaster they can be a full fledged job and can be played with the current content without the Limited Job Status. This is because they already have a set idea in previous Final Fantasy Games. Beastmaster is more likely to be a DPS role because it is a melee job with pets like summoners (With the exception of melee weapons). Puppetmaster may cover all roles, but it can be given a Tank or DPS role depending on how it is meant to be played and it would be interesting to have a pet based Tank where the pet tanks the monster instead of a player. Limited jobs only allows the excuse to release half done ideas rather than a finished idea.
It allows unbalanced classes to be played
All jobs are unbalanced as there are too many factors. One of the prominent factors would be the battle itself, an example would be E8S Shiva where there is 3 phases, A Black Mage would suffer because of the 45 second cutscene before the final phase of the battle where they cannot upkeep their Enochian because it only lasts for 15 seconds, not just that but the boss moving around and mechanics forcing you to move it make it difficult for Black Mages to get a sustain DPS on the boss where summoners can easily sustain their DPS. There too many fights and many of them favor different classes and many disfavor them. There is no way to perfectly balance every job in every fight. Potency wise they can balance it, but many variable factors like player skill, differently jobs play differently in every scenario, players tend to have their own way of calculating the effectiveness in certain fights.
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The problems with it
It is not casual solo play
There may be content regarding it to promote its casual play but in the long run, in certain cases shown by Blue Mage some of its move set cannot be obtained unless it went through group content, like learning J Kick (Brute Justice), Surpanakha (Ravana), Quasar (Sophia) and a few others which can be really useful in masked carnival. Overall if jobs had to go through trials, raids and dungeons just to obtain parts or pet items, it is no longer solo content rather incorporated with multiplayer content.
Locked out from Duty Finder
Blue Mage being the only case study, most of the spells it learns are from Dungeons, Trials and Raids. At level 50 raids they can solo, but there is a chance of learning while in a full group and syncing the chance of learning raises to a guarantee. Even if the Party Finder system is there this would have been a hard time for some due to time constraints (In Real Life Schedule); People leaving midway of searching for members through Party Finder and eventually some dropping out because of In Real life Issue or couldn’t wait any longer, which eventually leads the party finder being empty for over 50 min+ compared to a manual duty finder queue where it can take up to 30 minutes at most; Some people play at different times and sometimes some players play at odd hours.
There are casual solo content, but they are locked out from it - Content like Squadron Mission and Deep Dungeons are mainly solo content. Squadron allows you to queue with NPC to clear a dungeon while the other is randomly generated and has several floors to clear but can be queued alone. When limited Jobs are advertised for Casual Solo Content, Deep Dungeon and Squadron come to mind alongside the Main Scenario Quest line. An example to compare Blue Mage in Deep Dungeon would be Red Mage, because they can Heal and Raise while dealing a lot of damage as it is counted as a DPS.
Limited Jobs Capped below 20 levels of current content
No one is willing to manually replay old content unless it was during hype, in the short term yes people will do it to complete the job. However in the long run people will be stuck, unless they try to use PF or find like minded people to redo the content. Below current cap is a bad idea because how can they play that job with their friend if they really want to play that job in the current content with them.
It sets a dark standard for future jobs
It will set a standard for any and new potential jobs to be put into FFXIV. If we were to implement Rune Fencer into FFXIV (As an example) it can be done into a Tank with the right idea or a DPS. However with Limited Job now set into the mix if a development team couldn’t come up with a solution to add it to the normal roster they would categorize it as a limited job. Blue Mage as a Limited Job has already set an example that they can post half done content when they cannot find a solution. There are plenty of solutions but now that we have Limited Jobs you could say the next 2 new jobs are going to be limited and not added to the normal job roster because they couldn’t get the solution on how to fit the job into the game and will allow the reason of “It has to be this way”.
[B]Arguments against Limited Jobs[/B]
It allows freedom of the Job Design
No it doesn’t, it is already there for the traditional/normal jobs. There is nothing impossible with the jobs as of now, because design is by creativity not the rules that defines it. Even with Puppetmaster and Beastmaster they can be a full fledged job and can be played with the current content without the Limited Job Status. This is because they already have a set idea in previous Final Fantasy Games. Beastmaster is more likely to be a DPS role because it is a melee job with pets like summoners (With the exception of melee weapons). Puppetmaster may cover all roles, but it can be given a Tank or DPS role depending on how it is meant to be played and it would be interesting to have a pet based Tank where the pet tanks the monster instead of a player. Limited jobs only allows the excuse to release half done ideas rather than a finished idea.
It allows unbalanced classes to be played
All jobs are unbalanced as there are too many factors. One of the prominent factors would be the battle itself, an example would be E8S Shiva where there is 3 phases, A Black Mage would suffer because of the 45 second cutscene before the final phase of the battle where they cannot upkeep their Enochian because it only lasts for 15 seconds, not just that but the boss moving around and mechanics forcing you to move it make it difficult for Black Mages to get a sustain DPS on the boss where summoners can easily sustain their DPS. There too many fights and many of them favor different classes and many disfavor them. There is no way to perfectly balance every job in every fight. Potency wise they can balance it, but many variable factors like player skill, differently jobs play differently in every scenario, players tend to have their own way of calculating the effectiveness in certain fights.
Continue reading...