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FFXIV Endgame: Balance or not to Balance?
Edeus
Member CommonPosts: 506
Now a days it seems like they make endgame balance so well balanced that every single caster class is doing the same thing but a different name. (IE "hit the big cooldown spell, maintain the dot, and spam X 10 times till the cooldown is up again) And every melee is doing the same thing, but different name. (Mash X and Y, maintain a dot, and hit the 1-2 cooldown moves) And everyone, if they have similarly lvl'd gear, is doing about the same damage. And God help the developer if "X class" is in low gear but doing way more damage than someone in better gear.
When I think back to FFXI endgame balance it almost seems unreal to me now. Back when I played FFXI endgame (right before CoP and then during CoP) it was one big imbalance: You had the lolDRG's, the OMG worthless THF's, the OK sam's and chi blasting mnk's, and the 90% of all dmg output RNG's and BLM's. (This endgame is mostly HNM hunting and God Farming and Dynamis, since all the endgame stuff that exists now didn't back then).
What do you guys hope the endgame balance will be like in FFXIV? I know it's still very early, and we don't even know all the classes much less the endgame balance, but do you hope it will be totally different than FFXI? Do you think SE favors balance at all, or will they bless the squishy glass cannons?
Do you think SE will change the classes at all once the endgame becomes apearent? Keeping in mind SE didn't do any sort of nerf to blm's in FFXI and the RNG "nerf" didn't come till years later. They didn't even change DRG's 2 hr's until 2 years later.
Taru-Gallante-Blood elf-Elysean-Kelari-Crime Fighting-Imperial Agent
Comments
It'll be more balanced simply for the fact that you can use multiple skills from multiple classes you have leveled.
My main concern with the jobs is making sure they are all EQUALLY USEFUL. All jobs should be equally effective for whatever their primary role is. Example: SMN was very gimped from the start and used as a primary healer for much of its career in FFXI -- even endgame, the upper level BPs were hit-and-miss and damage inconsistent. I hope that the roles of each "job class" are well defined and the skills used are equal across the board -- meaning, each job is necessary in the long run. We all know there will be differences that make certain jobs more appealing to endgame guilds--that is a given. But, I am hoping that they won't nerf certain jobs while boosting others. I shouldn't have to "skill up" a certain class because "that is what you need for endgame."
The word that I choose to describe how I wish endgame should be is DYNAMIC -- forever changing with something for everyone, no matter the job, size of group, or skill level. It should accomodate both small groups, larger groups, and huge alliances. Maybe scenarios or monsters that adapt to the group? I dunno (wild Idea, I know). Of course, we will always have those super-strong mobs that require a vast number of high ranking players - - that is a given with Square Enix. But, what about those who don't like being in large groups? Hopefuly (as square enix has indicated), they have figured out how to balance out endgame and make it more dynamic and solo/small group friendly.
The problem with balancing, is that they have to keep many different factors in play. Having a certain skill, for example, could be extremely usefull, so your overall dps is shot down. For the min/maxers, they will just go for the ultimate combination that will make their end game always a set combination of factors.
The fact that you can use skills from other jobs in your main job will do wonders for keeping things interesting, but in time, there will always be certain combinations vs certain mobs that will be the best way to go, and there is nothing stoping that. What I am hoping is that even after everyone is at maximum level with the best stuff, the game still feels like fun due to an intelligent AI. We have very little details about the type of AI, let alone the AI of end game mobs, but I am hoping that at that level, player skill and awareness wins out overall.
Of course... it can't be too hard or a good chunk of the player population will feel there is a bottleneck and will eventually leave the game, and we all know that low population, even in a great game, means less updates and less overall fun.