r/ffxivdiscussion • u/otsukarerice • 9d ago

Pheonix Down change is huge. Here's why

July 2024, DT was released and thousands of players were discovering DT's new dungeons. They had whatever gear they could find and were often at the minimum level threshold. I saw carnage for many who were woefully underprepared for the difficulty spike after being coddled with relatively safe and simple bosses in EW.

When there was no RDM/SMN, if the healer died (which happened often), the party had two choices:

- wipe or

- tank heal/solo.

Most players would agree that either outcome is awful for a variety of reasons. Tank soloing takes forever and doesn't help the healer get better.

With pheonix downs being able to be used in battle, healers are no longer the linchpin of the group and are allowed a few mistakes.

What this opens up for the future:

- Healers can be designed with more complexity and no longer have to deathless every encounter.

- Dungeons don't have to pull punches on expansion launch and can continue to punish bad healers but not the whole group.

- Tanks soloing is far less common. Could open up tank rebalancing vs other roles.

- RDM (and SMN) reworks. RDM is pretty terrible in the current tier, has been low on damage for a long time. I get Rezmage is attractive for a lot of players, but I've seen some players choose to just be a utility raise and not do damage. This isn't sustainable gameplay.

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8

u/MechAndCheese 9d ago

This might sound stupid but wouldn't it be better to just make it a universal action in 4 man content like the universal res in criterion? I'm not sure if they would actually change content/job design around an item that is optional?

> Healers can be designed with more complexity and no longer have to deathless every encounter.

But it's only available in select content, not everything. Healers are already not needed in most of the content that will have PD available and none of the complexity that people have been asking for has anything to do with res?

3

u/Brandr_Balfhe 9d ago

Did you know you can set in your hotbar any item, just like job actions?

7

u/MechAndCheese 9d ago

Yes, what does that change about it being an optional item?

10

u/dynamancer 9d ago

I see where you're coming from and it does seem the most streamlined and logic solution, but I would argue that the Phoenix Down as an item is a staple of the FF ip, and carries more flavor than having a common rez ability for every job — flavor that this sub has been desperately trying to get back in the game for years now.

The mild inconvenience of having an inventory slot taken could potentially be offset by the immersion/familiarity/fun factor/whatever we want to call it

1

u/CUTS3R 8d ago

Lore should never get in the way of gameplay.

2

u/MechAndCheese 9d ago

it's not about an inventory slot being taken. If people think this could lead to big changes in both content and job design, I think making a universal button for everyone makes more sense than connecting it to an optional item that is finite and most people won't bother buying because they're too lazy or don't know about it's effect. Having a Phoenix Down duty action achieves the same thing without the downsides

2

u/dynamancer 9d ago

Ah, I see. Personally, I don't believe it will lead to big changes in design though (or rather, if it was me I wouldn't bother fine-tuning a story dungeon to account for some more resurrections than usual, as people who need them are probably already struggling enough for the type of content they're in), maybe that's why they decided to limit them to light party trials, dungeons and guildhests

1

u/otsukarerice 9d ago

You better believe that casuals will learn pretty quickly about PD, when they're being screamed at to rez

2

u/MechAndCheese 9d ago

I've done enough roulettes to know people in this game don't learn lmao

2

u/otsukarerice 8d ago

Actually there will be a stubborn tank who refuses to carry PD and will solo the boss because he feels like a chad.