I would really like to see more differentiation between jobs in the future, especially when it comes to their core gameplay mechanics.
One of my biggest issues with the current job design is that many jobs feel increasingly similar to play. They have different animations, resources and rotations, but the fundamental gameplay often feels the same: maintain uptime, keep your GCD rolling, build and spend resources, and weave cooldowns in the correct order, usually around similar burst windows.
There is nothing inherently wrong with this gameplay. I enjoy it. My problem is that I would like individual jobs to approach combat in much more distinct ways.
For example:
* A job heavily focused on managing multiple DoTs.
* A real pet-focused job where the pet is actually part of the gameplay rather than mostly representing attacks visually. Summoner has fantastic animations, but I don’t really feel like I am controlling or fighting alongside a pet.
* A tank based around counters, parries or reactive abilities. Successfully timing defensive abilities against enemy attacks could generate resources or enable powerful counterattacks.
* Jobs that interact more directly with what the enemy is doing instead of primarily executing a rotation while maintaining uptime.
These are only examples. My main point is that choosing a job should be about more than aesthetics, animations and which rotation I prefer. Ideally, changing jobs could mean experiencing combat in a genuinely different way.
I understand that this would make balancing more difficult. A DoT-focused job might naturally be stronger in long encounters and weaker against enemies that die quickly. A counter-based tank might perform particularly well against certain bosses while being less effective against others.
Personally, I think some degree of imbalance would be an acceptable trade-off for stronger job identity, as long as every job remains viable for clearing content.
Perfect balance does not necessarily have to mean that every job performs equally well in every situation. Jobs can have strengths and weaknesses while still being balanced across the game as a whole. Those strengths and weaknesses can be an important part of what gives a job its identity.
I don’t necessarily want every job to become more complicated either. Complexity and uniqueness are not the same thing. A relatively simple job can still have a very distinctive gameplay concept.
FFXIV already has a fantastic variety of job themes and aesthetics. I would love to see that same variety reflected more strongly in how those jobs actually play.
Continue reading...
One of my biggest issues with the current job design is that many jobs feel increasingly similar to play. They have different animations, resources and rotations, but the fundamental gameplay often feels the same: maintain uptime, keep your GCD rolling, build and spend resources, and weave cooldowns in the correct order, usually around similar burst windows.
There is nothing inherently wrong with this gameplay. I enjoy it. My problem is that I would like individual jobs to approach combat in much more distinct ways.
For example:
* A job heavily focused on managing multiple DoTs.
* A real pet-focused job where the pet is actually part of the gameplay rather than mostly representing attacks visually. Summoner has fantastic animations, but I don’t really feel like I am controlling or fighting alongside a pet.
* A tank based around counters, parries or reactive abilities. Successfully timing defensive abilities against enemy attacks could generate resources or enable powerful counterattacks.
* Jobs that interact more directly with what the enemy is doing instead of primarily executing a rotation while maintaining uptime.
These are only examples. My main point is that choosing a job should be about more than aesthetics, animations and which rotation I prefer. Ideally, changing jobs could mean experiencing combat in a genuinely different way.
I understand that this would make balancing more difficult. A DoT-focused job might naturally be stronger in long encounters and weaker against enemies that die quickly. A counter-based tank might perform particularly well against certain bosses while being less effective against others.
Personally, I think some degree of imbalance would be an acceptable trade-off for stronger job identity, as long as every job remains viable for clearing content.
Perfect balance does not necessarily have to mean that every job performs equally well in every situation. Jobs can have strengths and weaknesses while still being balanced across the game as a whole. Those strengths and weaknesses can be an important part of what gives a job its identity.
I don’t necessarily want every job to become more complicated either. Complexity and uniqueness are not the same thing. A relatively simple job can still have a very distinctive gameplay concept.
FFXIV already has a fantastic variety of job themes and aesthetics. I would love to see that same variety reflected more strongly in how those jobs actually play.
Continue reading...