Would this help queue times...Follow

I'm not sure the comparison to how WoW was after a year is valid. Look at what brought us from 1.0 to ARR... guildleves are the same instanced events you'd find in WoW, FATEs are the same 'dynamic events' you'd find in RIFT or GW2, duty finder is the same dungeon tool you'd find in all of those games. All they have to do is exactly the same thing they have done over the past 4 years. They don't have to reinvent the wheel here. It took other developers as long as it did because they started from scratch and formed ideas through trial and error. In this case, SE would be adopting something that other developers have already been working on; the exact same thing that brought ARR to where it is today.

It's not illusion of choice if it's properly implemented. There are literally thousands of viable choices for what spec and build you can run in Diablo 3. No it wasn't like that at launch, but it wasn't really a massive change that lead to the breakthrough. They simply normalized spells, spread the utility around a bit more evenly and then allowed players to tailor their gear to the way they wanted to play.

SE doesn't have to take it that far, but the recent surge of players back to D3 and the popularity of the game as it's moved to console is a testament to how much players enjoy that freedom to play how they want to play. I'm not sure if you remember, but the D3 concept sounds a LOT like how the original armory system was explained all those years ago. It didn't come into it's own(at least, not in XIV) but it was adapted for another game into something that has been pretty successful. With some minor tweaks it could be adapted for XIV to make it a better game.

And, not to mention, there's always that possibility that there's a combination the devs didn't think of (because there are hundreds, thousands, what-not) that results in something completely overpowered.

Then we have to stop, drop what we're doing, and then hand out nerfs (which will make some people complain and/or maybe even quit the game as a result).

Fewer dev-based builds are easier to keep balanced, and there's a lot less likeliness of something becoming silly broken overpowered because of an oversight. How many times has this happened in WoW, Diablo 3, etc again, where for a few weeks you had this grossly overpowered build where people roflstomped stuff, and then they had to release a hotfix and go "guys this was overpowered, it was needed" and you'd still have some rage-quitters spewing their vitriol all over the forums because their EZmode got nerfed?

That's one of the bigger problems with the "thousands of possible combinations!" that people seem to forget about. The devs can't personally check, and test, each one of said thousands of combinations. They simply don't have that kind of time. What might look good on paper might be ridiculous when put to actual use, and/or combined with something else creatively.

Edited, Oct 3rd 2014 10:25am by Lyrailis

I will agree that Classes, Jobs, and Cross-Class Skills really really need some work.

For example, if you are a WHM..... you want Swiftcast and Surecast. End of story, full stop. I didn't see where I could use much of anything else whatsoever. Even if I did want to use something else, all of those abilities granted by WHM drowns out anything that I can't equip as WHM.

And even worse, a LOT of cross-class skills are hit with heavy nerfs when equipped as another class, such as Flash. A Gladiator using Flash gets Enmity AND Blind. Anybody else only gets Enmity (and from personal experience, it seems like a chunk of the enmity was cut too). Equipping Flash as a MRD is "Meh, Guess I Might as well". Using Flash doesn't really do much of anything, it is more of a "I need something right now and can't do anything else" button. Oh, and the fact MRD appears to have no MP Regen whatsoever doesn't help things either.

IMO, I think we should get rid of the Job Penalty, just accept the fact everybody needs to equip a soul crystal, and improve Cross-Classing skills so that each player has actual choices and options. I'd go as far as to say that each cross-class skill should have different effects depending on who equips them. Also, buffing the list a little wouldn't hurt either, there's some abilities I wish were cross-classable and others that are and I'm scratching my head going "uh, why is THIS cross-classable?"

For example, Savage Blade. Who would want to Cross-Class Savage Blade? MRD already gets an ability that does the exact same thing. Without the Fast Blade combo, it doesn't do jack for damage and it doesn't have the enmity modifier. Meanwhile, I'm scratching my head wondering why Riot Blade isn't Cross-Classable, an ability others might actually want.

Edited, Oct 3rd 2014 10:54am by Lyrailis

I'd rather see more new classes/jobs adding variables to the equation, than the devs trying to balance between classes and jobs. Either way even the best designers will not be able to balance all the variables after a certain point, regardless of how much time and effort is thrown at the problem. We all can say "they should do both" but if they can't, they just can't. It's not a problem money and designer talent can solve. Jobs are balanced right now, and the more jobs that are added the less likely this kind of balance becomes. They should strive to retain current balance above all, imo.

Also getting rid of the stat bonus system because it's a waste of time trying to improve.. and a perfect example of illusion of choice.

Edited, Oct 3rd 2014 5:47pm by Hyanmen

I've actually started on a DPS Marauder build for my WAR. I'll still use my WAR for tanking, but I want a damage based MRD gear set for when I'm soloing outside of a dungeon or acting as DPS in a small group (e.g. atma party, map party, etc.)

Really no reason not to do the same thing for CNJ. I'll have to think about it.

Again, SE doesn't need to add thousands of spells and abilities. All I was asking for was more utility and some added mechanics of how spells can be used and combined for different outcomes. Give every spell and ability maybe 3-5 more options for how players use it.


Using the suspension analogy, ideally you'd want SE to create tracks that average out to an equal amount of strain on whatever suspension settings you had. Some parts of the course would be difficult for one driver, other parts difficult for the next but assuming even skill level, all cars would end up coming to the finish line around the same time.

You only have an infinite number of wrong suspension choices if you're always driving the same car on the same track. - McNasty 2014

Giving players a ton of options with only one of them being viable is a design flaw, not a flaw with actually having the options.

Isn't pretty much ALL higher item level gear JSE, though?

I haven't raided CT/ST/Coil yet, but I noticed that all of the left side of the character sheet i90 (the stuff you buy with Allied Seals/Myth) is all JSE from what I could tell except for the Belt.

That alone tells me that SE expects everybody to use Jobs rather than Classes.

Edited, Oct 4th 2014 12:32am by Lyrailis

not anymore. All of the 100+ Soldiery gear is available to your CLASS. 90 JSE is old news which possibly kinda perhaps MAYYYYBE makes classes useful for something again once you get past item level 90.

I'd sploog if there was CLASS specific (not too overpowered) ABILITIES in addition to the ten (only 5 additional) slots of cross class madness you get.

I dream a lot, but I'd hate to be whoever would have to balance all that......

Oh and maybe CLASS specific equipment? CSE?

Until classes become more interesting than a stat debuff and 5 additional slots for mostly useless skills, the pugilists lancers conjurers thaumaturges and the like.... will only be a relic of 1.0 that shouldn't even be around anymore or should at least be automatically "promoted" to their respective job without even the option of removing the job crystal.

Edited, Oct 6th 2014 8:57am by klooste8