Game Watch Translation - Heavensward Role Highlights (EU Media Event 5/18-5/20)

[Seravi Edalborez]

You're just pulling a Tellah/Galuf/insert0HP old man moment. He would have lived if everyone else didn't wipe and somebody tossed him a goddamn potion.

[Spider-Dan]

My only issue is the whole: "Curing you while you're an undead thing" when most if not all FFs before this curing something undead either negated it or killed it.

Nitpick, sure but it just reminds me of those little things that always added a bit of depth to battle variety.

Yeah, but that baby has already been thrown out with the bathwater.. You can't even target undead with cures, curing mummied bros on Qarn boss doesn't kill them, etc.

[ZarakiKujata]

All of these factors are dependent on things like WS potency that we simply cannot know yet. It doesn't matter if DRK can't fulltime MP stance if they are doing WAY more damage than a normal OT during it... and in fact, in practice that would be far superior (because an OT normally needs to swap back on to tanking, otherwise you'd just bring another DPS). This makes sense in the context of DRK being unable to receive MP regen; they'll probably be broken when burning MP but necessarily limited by MP recovery.

They can't give it WS potency that is THAT different than WAR/PLD otherwise you have the problem of them ripping hate anytime they crit which is already a huge issue for OTs. Increasing potency any further is going to cause more problems than anything. And the buffs to WAR and PLD already make it unlikely that its going to be THAT superior as a DPS if at all.

in practice that would be far superior (because an OT normally needs to swap back on to tanking, otherwise you'd just bring another DPS

Except each fight has different swap mechanics. In T10 the OT is almost never in tank stance. T12 has very specific timing for its swaps. T13 outside of Akh Morns and adds the OT does not need to be in tank stance ever with only 1 swap (Holmgang).

FCOB has extended periods of time at max ilvl and echo that are even longer in progression ilvls where a tank swap is unneeded. If DRK can't sustain itself for the entire phase of a fight that could be as much as 1/4th to 1/3 of a bosses HP then it's inferior to WAR/PLD.

Then what happens in fights like T12 (or Ultima Ex, T2, Ifrit Ex) where an early tank swap would be downright detrimental to the party at the minimum ilvls required. Regardless of whether its not using all its MP based CDs that Slycer said could burn through your MP in 3 attacks or switching back into tank stance prematurely you end up doing less DPS which means exclusion from bleeding edge groups and subsequent trickle down exclusion as other groups try to mimic the strategies and party comps of the top tier groups.

I'm sorry but this job just feels like 2.0 WAR. Yes you could do Titan HM/t1-5 with 1 or even 2 warriors tanking but its just feels like adding extra work and difficulty. Ontop of all the DPS stance problems it would need to be able to offer replacements for some if not all of the following: HG, Cover, Sentinel, Halone, Divine Veil, and Storms Path (if there's a NIN in PT) I think this is particularly important and hasn't been acknowledged yet at all.

Look at AST. It has 2 stances that are clearly meant to represent WHM and SCH healing styles ontop of card buffs meant to replace the Selene buffs. They've gone out of their way to highlight the versatility of AST and how it could complement either healer for raid compositions thus disrupting the current synergy that exists between the two roles. They've then gone and shown how SCH and WHM were changing to accomodate AST/WHM and SCH/AST setups where they'd lose certain benefits. Yes it has lead to a bit of homogenization of SCH and WHM but they've made clear what healer playing styles will be like. There has literally been 0 information for how DRK will complement either PLD or WAR or why changing the default tank setup would offer anything of benefit to a raid group.

It just seems like an inferior/broken fan service job that was rushed to fit the 'theme' of the expansion.

...and it has 2 blanket damage up traits and access to every cross-classable damage increase CD (which was a big change from 1.23).

Again, which is why people flocked to it initially. Once people learned how to play the more complex jobs it became clear that BRD wasn't as overpowered as OF complaints that caused the nerf made it seem. Like 90% of the reasoning behind the nerf was that it was the only job that could 100% DPS while moving in Titan HM which gave it an unfair advantage. It was immediately obvious to anybody doing content harder than titan hm that it was fine as it was and that properly geared mnk/blms destroyed it in parses.

The default party was 2 BRD because the fights were basically designed to require them: mandatory silence rotations, one job has oGCD ranged silence, and the silence rotation is shorter than Blunt Arrow's cooldown. Surely you don't think it's a coincidence that both T1 and T2 had this mechanic, and then nothing else again ever?

PLD had silence on the same CD as BRD. You had 2 PLDs in coil too. MNK could silence. SCH had oGCD ranged silence and there are even fucking pots on the poison pot CD that could be used for it. You really only needed 1 bard for songs.

There's any number of other reasons people chose bards that range from the stuff I mentioned about it being the fastest to master to first coil favoring ranged/aoe DPS to the idea of trickle down exclusion I brought up for DRK since everyone saw BG's world first clears using a brd/brd/mnk/blm set-up and copied that.

And the reason why we never saw silence again is the same reason we only have circle arenas with flat terrain. They saw T1/5 terrain exploits. They saw people flocking to brd/brd for High Voltage. They saw people only bringing a melee for LB. They saw how T2, 4 and 5 favored 3 range 1 melee comps. They decided they didnt want a repeat of FFXI and adjusted it so all fights could accomodate any composition.

When was SCH promised a mount? The incentive to play/level SCH was that 1) the job was really good and 2) you also got a DPS job for free.

It was never promised one explicitly but Yoshida said early on when they were designing tank incentives that they anticipated that the healer roles would be the least played trinity roles and adjusted accordingly when it turned out to be tanks.

You don't have to promise people a mount to get them to play; that's just one method. NIN never got a mount and people flocked to that job.

Because it was a popular fan service job introduced at a time when a significant portion of the population had all 50 DoW/M (or all the ones they wanted to level) and nothing to do since they weren't doing FCoB. And clearly the tank drain hasnt changed since despite DRK being super popular fan service it still gets a 200 point mount (maybe so people actually play it instead of the war/pld master race?)

[Niiro]

I'm sorry but this job just feels like 2.0 WAR. Yes you could do Titan HM/t1-5 with 1 or even 2 warriors tanking but its just feels like adding extra work and difficulty. Ontop of all the DPS stance problems it would need to be able to offer replacements for some if not all of the following: HG, Cover, Sentinel, Halone, Divine Veil, and Storms Path (if there's a NIN in PT) I think this is particularly important and hasn't been acknowledged yet at all.

I know I expressed my own concerns about DRK earlier but we don't have any idea how quickly the DPS stance consumes MP nor how much MP their WS recovers, their 2 non-enmity combos use the MP drain WS as well. It seems to me that it's meant to be able to maintained as long as you make an effort to maintain it.

We also don't know about.....any of their defensive cooldowns aside from their HG/Holmgang move.

[Tisi]

"Tank is Undead <se.3> Please Flare the tank"

[Cantih]

"Tank is Undead <se.3> Please Flare the tank"

I know history, ya'll are gonna shank me the first chance you get.

[Slycer]

Fixed ninja translation based on info from Dengeki and rereading the Game Watch article. I had a statement in there about a buff which makes a WS hit three times. There's actually a new WS that's being added which hits three times and, separately, a buff which enhances the damage of WSes.

[Raldo]

Hits three times... I wonder what the significance of that is? Seems like an odd thing to point out.

[Niiro]

Yea that sounds very......odd.

Multi-hit WS haven't been a thing since 1.0 so either they're just describing the animation or it's actually a unique kind of WS.

[Elcura]

Could calculate the damage 3x based on something extra, like crit chance and de/buff procs, or it could have a native accuracy loss so there's a chance even with 100% acc not all 3 hits at once. There's a few things they can do with it, I dunno how effective they could be but ultimately I do think it's just a WS that looks like it hits 3 times.

Cause then even Bootshine is a 3 hit WS!

[Hiryo]

I always wanted us to get attacks that enemies in game have that we don't. Specifically, Nael's Bahamut Claw sounded really cool - forego x number of gcds for a 5 hit weapon skill(as long as you stay in range and/or immobile). I doubt that the ninja ability will be this way, but it would be cool if "multihit WS" were basically multiple hits that extended beyond 1 gcd. So the idea is that once your priority dots and buffs are in place, you use this instead of your filler WS, then you're probably back to dots/buffs, then filler WS to close the circle.

Only issue is, when I read "weapon skill" for FFXIV i think of things on the GCD, which this would need a longer cooldown.

[Seravi Edalborez]

There's a few bosses with multi-hit WS (Livia, Greg Big Keep, KotL gunship flamethrower if you want to count that), and the NIN one specifically is seen in the job action trailer I believe. It probably is just for looks.

Confusingly I'm p.sure it's off-gcd though, so weaponskill might just be interview fluff.

[Niiro]

I went and looked at the video and the big fancy 3 hit attack isn't used in combo with any other WSs but you can't see what color the aura effect is cause of the blinding white background.

[Seravi Edalborez]

Off-gcd. The blue swirl is right before any jumping starts. The assassination stab thing before Jugulate seems to be a WS though.

[Niiro]

Somewhat related, if the name of this attack



isn't Herniate it will have been a huge missed opportunity.

[Spider-Dan]

Multi-hit WS haven't been a thing since 1.0 so either they're just describing the animation or it's actually a unique kind of WS.

Most of BRD's WS have a double attack animation, but I've never heard them described as "two-hit WSes."

I think this one is probably different somehow. Maybe like a self-combo?

[Niiro]

Idk what you mean by self-combo.

All combos are....done....with yourself <_>

[Raldo]

Probably meant a single action that you use, then use again (that does something different or more powerful), and then a 3rd time for another different/powerful swing

[Spider-Dan]

^This.

I meant the WS combos with itself.

[Lucavi]

Not quite a stacking effect, but whatever.

Where'd that ninja pic come from? Are they actually trying to make ninja look like actual "based on late 1800's drama piece artistic depictions of" ninja?!

Whoa.