Okay, so generally in MMO PvP, your spells and abilities are the same across all content. This often leads to healers becoming demigods, tanks being unkillable, and fights requiring heavy coordination to secure kills. World of Warcraft has operated like this on and off for years.
In that kind of environment, strong crowd control makes sense as a way to break stalemates or long attrition battles. FFXIV’s PvP used to work somewhat like this. But a few years ago, we got the big PvP revamp, and I've mostly loved it. Having abilities designed specifically for PvP, streamlined to each class’s core, makes the gameplay far more reactive and enjoyable both casually and competitively. However, we also kept all the crowd control tools, and they no longer make sense. The revamp already solved the original problem: nobody is unbreakable, healing is heavily limited, and even perfect play only extends your life briefly unless you disengage. That’s a good, it removes the need for excessive crowd control that often just feels like disabling the player’s controls.
In short, the problem was fixed, but the band-aid remained. Now we have fast time-to-kill, limited healing, and excessive crowd control with little to no noticeable diminishing returns. In WoW, repeated CC quickly grants immunity. In FFXIV, you can be locked down for several seconds with zero counterplay. Purify helps, but only in skirmishes, and it drains MP, which you also need for healing.This leads to poor combat experiences where fast-paced fights turn into getting silenced, transformed, and stunlocked to death. If the enemy team is even slightly coordinated, you will be locked down. This is already an issue in Crystal Conflict, though limited by team size. If you survive the initial CC, the enemy is at a disadvantage due to cooldowns. The problem is much worse in large-scale PvP, where even uncoordinated players can chain enough stuns and silences to instantly kill a target just by focusing them. Without CC, you’d at least have options: fleeing, using defensives, you can still play!
I don’t think these abilities need to be removed entirely, but I do think changes are needed:
In large-scale PvP, add strong diminishing returns and drastically shorten CC durations. In massive fights, anything longer than a second feels excessive. CC could instead grant a secondary effect, like a damage boost, so it'd still have value in skirmishes.
In Crystal Conflict, CC should simply be shorter. Diminishing returns would help, but even five players can chain long stuns that feel just as oppressive as larger modes. Using CC tactically is fine, but locking someone down until they die isn’t fun for either side.
To reiterate, I think CC could replaced with more utility, and PvP would be more fun overall. But even smaller adjustments like these would be a big improvement. I’ve never liked stuns in any game, though I understand their place in some. FFXIV just isn't one anymore.
Continue reading...
In that kind of environment, strong crowd control makes sense as a way to break stalemates or long attrition battles. FFXIV’s PvP used to work somewhat like this. But a few years ago, we got the big PvP revamp, and I've mostly loved it. Having abilities designed specifically for PvP, streamlined to each class’s core, makes the gameplay far more reactive and enjoyable both casually and competitively. However, we also kept all the crowd control tools, and they no longer make sense. The revamp already solved the original problem: nobody is unbreakable, healing is heavily limited, and even perfect play only extends your life briefly unless you disengage. That’s a good, it removes the need for excessive crowd control that often just feels like disabling the player’s controls.
In short, the problem was fixed, but the band-aid remained. Now we have fast time-to-kill, limited healing, and excessive crowd control with little to no noticeable diminishing returns. In WoW, repeated CC quickly grants immunity. In FFXIV, you can be locked down for several seconds with zero counterplay. Purify helps, but only in skirmishes, and it drains MP, which you also need for healing.This leads to poor combat experiences where fast-paced fights turn into getting silenced, transformed, and stunlocked to death. If the enemy team is even slightly coordinated, you will be locked down. This is already an issue in Crystal Conflict, though limited by team size. If you survive the initial CC, the enemy is at a disadvantage due to cooldowns. The problem is much worse in large-scale PvP, where even uncoordinated players can chain enough stuns and silences to instantly kill a target just by focusing them. Without CC, you’d at least have options: fleeing, using defensives, you can still play!
I don’t think these abilities need to be removed entirely, but I do think changes are needed:
In large-scale PvP, add strong diminishing returns and drastically shorten CC durations. In massive fights, anything longer than a second feels excessive. CC could instead grant a secondary effect, like a damage boost, so it'd still have value in skirmishes.
In Crystal Conflict, CC should simply be shorter. Diminishing returns would help, but even five players can chain long stuns that feel just as oppressive as larger modes. Using CC tactically is fine, but locking someone down until they die isn’t fun for either side.
To reiterate, I think CC could replaced with more utility, and PvP would be more fun overall. But even smaller adjustments like these would be a big improvement. I’ve never liked stuns in any game, though I understand their place in some. FFXIV just isn't one anymore.
Continue reading...