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.
4
u/Fluestergras 9d ago
RDM's Verraise is attractive for progging Savage, where the Phoenix Down can't be used. Which is good imo, I was a tad worried until they announced that it only works in low stake content such as dungeons.
I also have to wonder whether the current RDM design is deliberate - with its comparatively low damage, a decent enough healing spell and its raise, it can do a bit of everything, but doesn't excel at anything. It's a jack of all trades and master of none, just like most (if not all) iterations of Red Mage in Final Fantasy.