synaesthetic

I still think Machinist as a pet-based Job for Musketeer would make a fantastic tank with a different spin. They could use their automaton to tank, building its enmity up by using their own damage abilities, and since Musketeer uses guns and is ranged, they'd be well away from the pet and able to avoid AE while raising their automaton's enmity, buffing it and working to mitigate damage against it. They could set it up similarly to a Soul Link demonology warlock from WoW, where they use a stance ability so that part of the damage taken by the automaton is shared with the Machinist and part of the healing received by the Machinist is shared with the automaton. We already have a pet-based healer and a pet-based damage dealer, so why not a pet-based tank?

It was Eve, wasn't it? I get accused of doing this but usually what I'm doing is alt-tabbing and idling.

You really, really did not read my post. The DRK outline that I described has them doing pretty much what every other damage dealer in the game does: using a rotation and managing some class mechanic. For BLM it's your Astral Fire and Umbral Ice cycles. For SMN it's managing MP and Aetherflow charges. For MNK it's your Greased Lightning stacks. For DRG it's managing flanking bonuses. For BRD it's weaving Bloodletters between the GCD. For DRK it's managing your MP and Blood Plague and Lethal Venom DoTs, which you have to make sure expire right around the same time, so you can land Soul Eater in that little window between 1 second remaining and the DoT falling off. So you do that by adjusting your standard damage rotation, weaving Drain between global cooldowns to restore MP, using your Riot Blade combo (but not using Lethal Strike, since that'd reset the duration of your DoT and you want both to tick close to 0 simultaneously) to restore MP, making sure you have the huge MP cost necessary to use Soul Eater when your DoTs tick down to near-zero. Honestly I don't get what the hell your problem is since the little design I did for a GLA-based DRK is actually more complex and deep than most of the damage dealers we already have. Yes, they lose a lot of their abilities when performing their role, but so does scholar, and yes as a scholar I will DPS but only when I don't need to heal. Eos cannot make up for my healing and mitigation powers on the tank when Twintania is hitting the tank like a Mack truck. Similarly, a GLA-based DRK would lose their tanking abilities when performing their role, just like SCH loses ACN's damage abilities when performing its role. But they could both fall back upon the roles of their base classes when necessary.

I'd love to see lancer get a parry-based tank job, and if the "Fencer" class is ever introduced, it would be the perfect place to stick Mystic Knight as an evasion/self-buff tank. And when musketeer is added, while it gets Corsair as it's damage job, it ought to get Machinist and function as a pet-based tank; where the pet tanks and the Machinist (Puppetmaster, see what I did there) buffs the pet and helps it build hate via its own damage, transferring enmity in a sort of Trick Attack like manner.

Then explain to me how Gladiator's abilities will be "negated" just because it's in a damage stance? Do you know what the fucking quotes mean or are you just dense? I play scholar in endgame content. I know how to play; I'm not a complete moron like you seem to think I am. I just fucking said that the point of giving a damage-dealing role to a tank class like Gladiator makes a lot of sense because they can drop their goddamned damage stance and offtank crazy mobs in emergencies, then reactivate it and resume doing damage. Hell, in an earlier post I explained exactly how DRK being a GLA job would be absolutely amazing for fights like Garuda EX, where you sometimes need three tanks (cyclone phase) but mostly just need two! BUT NO. You continue to insult my intelligence by misrepresenting my position. The lot of ya'll are just so bound up in the idea that DRK has to have a two-handed sword or scythe or axe and be exactly fuckin' like it was from FFXI because none of you can let go of the goddamned past. AND BESIDES I already outlined a way to make it so the only, the only, the absolute only abilities being wasted on a GLA-derived DRK, would be things like their defensive cooldowns. Which, if I remember correctly, other damage-dealers have and don't use unless they get aggro. Well, duuuuuh. But since you clearly can't read (but can somehow write, not really sure how that works), you completely missed the Darkside toggled ability (or stance, if you will) that DRK would get at level 30 upon completing their class quest. Darkside, as the name might suggest, allows the dark knight to indulge in their... dark side. All of the additional enmity effects are stripped from their weaponskills, abilities and spells. Their base damage is improved by 20% and their damage taken is increased by 15%. Oh, look, nothing at all has been made useless except: Provoke... and that's it! Everything else still has a use. Maybe it's situational, but it still has a use. Even Flash can still be used to apply Blind.

So... what does GLA get? Another tank job? That would be completely pointless and not in line with what Yoshida stated about classes getting jobs that changed their role. GLA will end up getting a damage-dealer job, and it will "negate" abilities, just like ACN's damage dealing abilities are "negated" on SCH. The benefit of GLA and MRD getting damage-dealer jobs will be that they can effectively offtank in emergencies, just like SCH and WHM can somewhat effectively deal damage in emergencies, and WAR can do a little damage as well.

Ah, sorry, I meant to say "well-balanced" with quotes around it. I know RIFT's balance is balls, and it doesn't really matter. Class stacking does happen, sure, it's even happening in XIV now even with how restrictive and samey our classes are. Garuda EX is an absolute joke if you take a bard and four black mages. A boring slog through her massive HP pool if you don't. Titan EX is far easier with more melee than casters. The ADS in Turn 2 is easier with two bards. Class stacking happens; theorycrafters will always reduce everything down to one and there's no way to stop them short of using a zero-sum/incomparables system (which are really hard to design well and keep fun). PvE doesn't really need to be balanced. You can use mechanics to stop class stacking; Turn 4 does it by having two enemy types that can only be damaged by either physical or magical damage dealers. This forces you to diversify your party. There are loads of other ways to design encounters to keep any one class from being preferred over the other... without nerfing the class directly and making your players feel slighted. It's still technically a nerf, but it's an invisible one. If you can, buff rather than nerf. Make the enemies stronger if the players feel too powerful. Raise the other classes up if one class sticks out as being stronger in all situations. Design encounters that forbid class stacking or at least make it harder to stack the flavor-of-the-month than to approach the encounter with a diverse party composition. PvP is easy, just as Naunet mentioned: completely disjoin PvE and PvP. Do it one hundred percent. Any PvP nerfs, adjustments or changes to actions should only ever take effect when those actions are used against another player. Yoshida claimed that this is what his team would do with XIV, and it turns out they did not do this; several PvP-related changes affected PvE to a considerable degree--Rain of Death, Scathe, taking Thunder away from SMN and giving them the PvE-useless Blizzard II, the diminishing returns adjustment that was intended to make PvP stunlocking more difficult making encounters designed to be stunned using the old DR rules more annoying... I could go on.

The biggest favor an MMO developer could do themselves is to throw out the idea that anything will ever be "balanced." You've played RIFT, yes? Consider how complex RIFT's talent system is compared to what I just outlined. Consider also how well-balanced RIFT is, and consider how Trion doesn't spend an inordinate amount of time concerning themselves with "balance" to the exclusion of all else.

I agree with you; I love love love the class switching and the ability to play anything on one character, especially as a PvE endgame addict, but tying it to the weapon is really silly. It would be much, much easier and cleaner and give us far more gear variety and flexibility if we could just switch classes/jobs in our character pane. Ideally what I'd like to see is a better split between classes and jobs. As things stand right now there's no reason to use a class over a job once you get your job, so the class beyond level 30 is basically pointless. I'd like to see them do a few things: Make cross-class actions wide open for classes. Don't really restrict anything. Give near-absolute flexibility to the classes. Of course, the traits would ensure that cross-class actions wouldn't be too powerful in the hands of other classes, but give us options so that getting those extra ten abilities is tempting rather than just a non-option. Reduce the attribute gap between the class and the job. Jobs should get a specialization boost over classes, for sure, but it shouldn't be nearly as big as it is right now. Classes need a slight stat buff to close this gap. Instead of allowing Jobs to cross-class actions as they do now, remove the cross-classing from Jobs entirely and give them five brand-new job-specific abilities (but make sure that the necessary utility features are filled... i.e. making sure WHM and SCH have a Swiftcast analogue, WAR has a Provoke analogue, etc). That way you have a real choice between flexibility (classes) and heavy specialization (Jobs). Relics and AF/AF+ should remain job-only since they're the iconic equipment of the job, but add equivalent gear so classes can still gear up in the same way that's about as easy to obtain as relic/AF. The Grand Companies would be a fantastic place to put this; a ROLE/CLASS SPECIFIC (cannot be used by Jobs) set of item level 90 gear, including weapon, for each class that has the iconic Grand Company look. A Maelstrom Doublet of Casting (usable by ACN/THM), or a Serpent Tunic of Healing (usable by CNJ). That sort of thing. Make them purchasable from the GC vendor using both GC seals and mythology tomes. Make the class-specific weapons a reward as part of a Grand Company questline similar to the relic quest in scope. Remove the stat point allocation entirely and instead replace it with Optional Traits that you can purchase with these points instead. Just add 30 points of the appropriate primary stat to the class/job's base attributes at 50 (ACN/SMN/THM/BLM gets 30 extra INT, CNJ/SCH/WHM gets 30 extra MND, etc), and then take the same 30 points you get for leveling up and use those to add extra traits to lower cooldowns, increase potencies, adjust other bits and pieces of your character's skills. Make them subtle but noticeable... examples would be to decrease the cooldown of Shroud of Saints slightly, or to add an extra flat amount of enmity to Provoke (to stop "rubberband" aggro). I'd love one for BLM that would decrease the cooldown of Convert, for example, or one for SCH that would increase the duration of Adloquium shields. How about an Optional Trait for SMN that would give Fester a 10% chance to consume no Aetherflow stacks? One for BRD that would increase the duration of Straight Shot? One for MNK that would reduce the cooldown of Perfect Balance? Or how about one for CNJ/WHM that would allow Stoneskin to be cast on the entire party when out of combat? That'd be fantastic and would give us a lot more flexibility in creating characters that really feel like our own, rather than just simple clones of everyone else.

oh god getting the chocobo license was absurdly stupid.

Square Enix needs to hire me as their conceptual planner, because I could make them all filthy fuckin' rich. All I'd do is spend my day playing every other profitable MMO on the market, spending the whole time taking notes. Every time I saw a feature that I found awesome, I'd write it down, and then demand that the dev team implement something like that in the next big patch. People are really silly and fail to remember why World of Warcraft was so wildly successful. It was not because Blizzard caught lightning in a bottle. It was not because the celestial alignment was perfect for the first time in 200,000 years. It was not even because Blizzard's rabid fanbase provided critical mass (Square's rabid fanbase is even bigger!) and put them in the position to be the top MMO dog. No. The reason that World of Warcraft was so wildly successful and made Blizzard an absolutely insane amount of money is simple: They looked at all the other major MMOs on the market, played them, read their forums, talked to their players, found all of the really great features, and used them. They found all the bits that the players didn't like, and discarded them. Why do no MMO devs do this? Why did only Blizzard think this far through? Why is every other MMO developer simply derping their way through it and making all of the exact same mistakes every other MMO developer has made? Learn from the mistakes of your peers, damn it. Stop repeating them.

I have Ariene, a mid-level Jedi Guardian on Ebon Hawk. I think she's in her 20s? It's been a while; I've kind of ignored the game since it went F2P. I'd be willing to reinstall and join up with ya'll for tankings. :3

You're forgetting that each class can only use one type of weapon in the Armory System, since the weapon is what determines what class you are currently switched to. So if Rangers use bows, they'd absolutely have to be an Archer Job. Actually, almost everything you listed requires that the Armory System be thrown away and replaced with a "switch jobs in the settings menu" thing similar to FFV.

Key words: "in the middle of raid healing." Yes, when the tank steps inside the conflagration, I hit Cleric Stance and dot the conflag, throw Energy Drain, Ruin, etc to try and help burn it down quickly. But once the conflag is gone, it's back to casting Lustrate, Physick, Succor, Sacred Soil and Adloquium. DRK would function the same way. Garuda EX would be a fantastic example. Your DRK is DPSing Garuda during the plume phase. When the cyclone phase starts, the MT grabs Garuda, the OT grabs Suparna and the DRK drops Darkside and grabs Chirada, tanking it temporarily while the DPS burn it down. This would prevent double Wicked Wheel from happening on the tank, and give a third person to Provoke the Spiny Plume. Once the sisters are dead, your DRK activates Darkside and starts dealing damage again, using her DPS combos instead of her enmity combo.

Adding DRK to GLA would sort of render most of their abilities very situational, sure. Same as with Scholar. Do you think scholars are using Miasma, Bio II and the like in the middle of raid healing? Hardly. They're only using their DPS abilities when they aren't needed for healing. DRK as a Job for GLA could "emergency" tank by dropping Darkside stance and using the standard Rage of Halone enmity combo. They'd suck at it compared to PLDs or WARs, but they'd still be better at it than MNKs or DRGs. Just like SCH and WHM DPS sucks compared to BLM or SMN, but they can do it if they need to.

My various game characters: FFXIV (Active) - Balmung Aeriyn Ashley - female Keeper of the Moon BLM/SMN/SCH/BRD/WAR K'airi Thalen - female Seeker of the Sun ARC (RP alt) (spoiler character) - female hyur Midlander ACN (RP alt) FFXI (Inactive) - Ramuh (or whatever it got merged into) Aislin - female hume BLU/SCH/RDM/NIN + various other things I can't remember WoW (Inactive) - Ravenholdt (RP-PvP) Rinelia - female blood elf Shadow Priest GW2 (Active) - Tarnished Coast Ariene Ashley - female human Elementalist Risette Alaya - female human Thief RIFT (Active) - Faeblight Aeriyn - female kelari Mage (Pyromancer)

OK, now that I can get behind 100%. And when they use their healing abilities, it should play 80s dance music tunes!

I don't get why everyone has to tie DRK to two-handed swords. Cecil was a Dark Knight before he became a Paladin, and he used one-handed swords and a shield! I find it amusing that people are so stuck to the XI idea of the dark knight, but they're opposed to the XI idea of the blue mage. >_>; GLA needs a DPS job, DRK is a good fit, and with the skills I outlined above, could have a very fun and interesting rotation with managing MP and damage-over-time effects and consuming them with a big finisher akin to a destruction warlock's Conflagrate. XIV already does a lot of things that are unprecedented in the Final Fantasy continuum, and yet the fans want to keep rehashing stuff that's already been done. There's no rule that states they have to copy jobs from previous FF games, and I think they need to branch out a bit in terms of how their classes and roles work. If Squee really wants "innovation" then they need to play around with MMO class and role "norms." A healer who heals through damage/lifedrain, as my idea of the Necromancer (NEC) job for Thaumaturge, is not standard--I've only seen it on chloromancer in RIFT. The idea of a melee healer who gains more powerful heals and buffs through their melee combos is a lot more interesting and original than "hurr DRK has to have a giant sword so we can make characters with various mispellings of Sephiroth as their name."

I just really think pugilist's other job should be dancer, because they breakdance!

Gladiator -> Dark Knight (DRK) Ability: Darkside, activated stance. Removes enmity added effects from weaponskills, increases damage by 20% and reduces defense by 15%. Ability: Drain. 30 second recast. Deals 170 potency magic damage to the target and restores 10% of maximum MP and 5% of maximum HP. Weaponskill: Blood Scythe. Combos through Fast Blade > Savage Blade > Blood Scythe, places Blood Plague, a 30 potency damage-over-time effect for 30 seconds, on the target and has a potency of 250 (100 out of combo). Restores HP (low). Weaponskill: Lethal Strike. Combos through Fast Blade > Riot Blade > Lethal Strike, places Lethal Plague, a 35 potency damage-over-time effect, on the target for 24 seconds and has a potency of 220 (100 out of combo). Ability: Soul Eater. 40 second recast. Costs 50% of current MP. Consumes existing damage-over-time effects (causes their duration to expire) and deals variable potency damage to the target. Potency 50-250/100-500, based on how close the DoTs are to expiring (i.e. if landed when both Blood Plague and Lethal Venom have only ~1 second remaining, the potency is maximized at 500, but if used the moment both DoTs are applied, the potency is only 100. If only Blood Plague or Lethal Venom is active, potency is halved). Primary stat is STR. Cross-classes from Lancer (LNC) and Marauder (MRD). I also have ideas for other jobs... including, but not limited to: Pugilist -> Dancer (DNC) - Front-line healer and support, uses TP and MP both for healing and beneficial effects. Primary stat MND. Cross-classes from CNJ and LNC. Conjurer -> Geomancer (GEO) - Magic damage dealer with a focus on ground-targeted effects that interact with each other. Primary stat INT. Cross-classes from THM and ACN. Archer -> Ranger (RNG) - Physical ranged damage dealer with debuff support (to counter bard's buff support). Primary stat DEX. Cross-classes from LNC and MRD. Lancer -> Defender (DEF) - Parry-based tank, single-target. Primary stat VIT. Cross-classes from MRD and GLA. Thaumaturge -> Necromancer (NEC) - Healer through damage dealing/vampiric effects (think chloromancer from RIFT). Primary stat INT. Cross-classes from ACN and CNJ. Of course, these jobs would require that the silly point allocation thing was fixed to be job-specific rather than class-specific, as some of these jobs share primary attributes with the existing jobs, and others do not. Disagree. Blue Mage and Red Mage both need new classes because none of the current ones fit with their style and characteristics. Nomad. Uses a Nomad's Arm (Scimitars, kukris and other exotic curved knives). A melee damage-dealer class that dual-wields lightweight, curved swords and knives. Its jobs are Blue Mage (magic-oriented damage) and Thief (physical-oriented damage). Fencer. Uses a Fencer's Arm (Rapier, fleuret, epee). A melee, magic-oriented damage-dealer class that uses lightweight thrusting swords and "En" spells. It's jobs are Red Mage (magic-oriented damage and debuffing) and Mystic Knight (magic-oriented "absorb" tank).

Talk to me in-game. Yuri's in our FC, too!

omg best

You gave me your heart! Your bitter chocolate heart! In exchange for a pure one!

Get QS first before you mess around with leveling ACN. It's the most important, especially as your gear ramps up and you start encounters where you need to be able to kill adds quickly. It's also valuable for the ADS in Turn 2, because one of the buffs the ADS receives when you fight him is a 30% slashing resistance buff. This means your tanks have a harder time keeping aggro.

I run a free company that is literally half full of trans* people. I doubt very seriously that you're carrying around that kind of weight. Unless you are. I mean it is possible (after all, half my free company is), in which case you should transfer to Balmung and apply to Unity.