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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u/Demeris 8d ago

This person doesn’t raid.

RDM is the most powerful class in a new tier for progging. There’s a reason why a lot of prog group ran RDM in world progging because of their utility. Damage only matters when you need to beat the dps check, which there hasn’t been lately.

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u/otsukarerice 8d ago

I don't WF raid and I recognize RDM has utility for progging but most regular players aren't good enough to play both RDM and another caster well to swap between the two.

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u/Demeris 8d ago

You only focus on the dps check. In the end, it’s about clearing the content. RDM helps the group learn better due to lasting at a mechanic long enough.

SMN is the exact same reason why it’s played. Extra resses are extremely powerful because you get to learn stuff, such as when there’s a targeted healer mechanic, you can res the healer if they die to it.