Dug into the history of how many new jobs FFXIV has been added over the last 10 years compared to class specs in WoW. The answer may surprise you… or not 😉
Check out The Popoto Pub FFXIV Podcast here: https://youtu.be/A-mEPtgDHzk
P.S. I do truly hope that WoW can turn it around, especially after the announcement of the Microsoft / Xbox acquisition. I spent 16 years there and would like to feel good about playing it again, but in good conscience I can’t support Activision Blizzard until they create a better work culture, start treating their employees with respect, and start listening to their players.
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Were you surprised?
As a non-WoW player, this is really surprising, as I keep hearing there are too many specs in WoW that balancing is difficult. Maybe because there are a lot of released before 10 years ago?
Next? Viable specs/jobs in endgame. XD
Plus machinist got a redesign in Shadowbringers and summoner in Endwalker making them essentially new jobs too.
WoW has had issues balancing specs since classic launch. It might be a good thing that they've failed to add as many jobs/specs as FF14 in the same time period.
You somehow forgot Death Knight. So it's actually 8 new specs.
How did you forget Death Knight?
id argue you forgot blue mage, but thats not a real job 😛
That's a prime example to adjust the data, so the statistic falls into the own narrative. But I think the message is more, how FF14 add much more new jobs for each expension than WoW, but we have to look at a different basis. I would like to start with 2010, the release year of FF14 1.0 and Cataclysm:
Cataclysm: 9 Classes * 3 Specs + Druid = 31 Specs
FF14 1.0: 10 Jobs
WoW Today: 36 Specs
FF14 Today: 19 Jobs + Blue Mage
So within 12 years, WoW added 5 specs while FF14 added 9 (+ Blue Mage, but… you know), while WoW still has more in total.
I don't even play WoW but I would say that this isn't a fair comparison because WoW is an older game that already had a huge number of "specs" by the time FFXIV came around and still, in fact, has more overall builds capping out at around 36 to my knowledge whereas FFXIV currently has 19 combat jobs plus one limited job. SWTOR pretty much copied WoW's homework in this department as their class system is almost identical but with less overall advanced classes capping out at 8 with 3 specs each yielding 24 options. Having played SWTOR competitively for many years I can say that the pros of the spec system are that you can identify as a specific class and have many avenues open to change specs with the changing meta but even with only 24 permutations the balance shifted often so like in many games you were encouraged to be proficient in multiple specs as well have alts available to sometimes swap in for specific fights. I specifically remember an encounter that had such a tight DPS check between killing adds and DPSing down multiple bosses that the "meta" was to have a specific tank that excelled at AOE damage in a certain spec to respec and even swap out a few gear pieces so that you had someone who could still tank the bosses and pop a few defensive abilities but who was otherwise an additional DPS that was needed to help push the phases before it was a wipe. You don't really have that kind of flexibility in FFXIV as every job is its own unique thing that may share gear with other jobs but that's about it with the benefit being that you can play EVERY JOB on just the one character. This, along with a fairly straightforward gearing system, makes FFXIV quite a bit easier to balance over WoW or SWTOR who have more permutations to deal with. It's for this reason that I do believe that FFXIV will either scale down adding new jobs to just one per expansion or stop adding them completely sooner or later as it eventually just becomes a massive endeavor to keep up with as they not only add new jobs but also re-do existing jobs and add new abilities for all of them with every expansion.
You forget also the number of very extreme changes made to the likes of Healers, Tanks, and even the cross-class system as a whole in FFXIV, removing stance-dancing from both Healers and Tanks and also removing damage options in lieu of giving them much simpler buttons (we lost Flash, which was admittedly a very terrible button)
I don't know if there was anything nearly as drastic in WoW, but it's slightly disingenuous to leave changes like that out
Kinda surprised how little WoW has added on the job/spec front. But I also hear they have HUGE issues with balancing what they have, so might be for the best.
10 years 10 classes
PERFECTION
If you add in the baseline stuff that was at launch, in quantity WoW wins. Infact you could argue that with the massive rework to summoner in endwalker FF removed a class adding another in it's place where as when WoW did the same with with Demonolgy Warlock they atleast added havoc Demon Hunter which played very similar to the old Demo Lock.
I think expansion to expansion wow's changes to specs are much more aggressive, and often result in a redesign. I would also add the split of Guardian/Feral for druids in MoP imo.
To be fair, if you want to be completely fair, WoW would be 8 specs, because you forgot about Death Knight from WotLK.
Not like it would change the results though xP
I laughed way too hard at the crickets XD
What do you think about class identity between the two games?
I don't think WoW's number of classes/specs is a problem. FFXIV makes them feel distinct like WoW used to.
Book, but I laughed way too hard at the crickets and smiled at the victory fanfare. I’ve been hearing that from as early as I can remember.
To be "fair", every job in WoW has 3 specs, but effectively only one good one everyone will be playing shortly so they only really have 1 real job per class. What's balance?
Seriously? What's the point of this? Games came different time and had different numbers since the beginning. If you are so on with putting shit on Wow, then maybe do it fairly. And I am talking as FF XIV player. At some point in time when FF will have 9-10 expansions, we may get less jobs or more redesignes of older ones to fit better new days. And I am fine with it. Each new job means more work for the team = possible delays of next expansions. So it's not about quantity, but keeping them interesting and playable. SO a dislike for the video ;/ .
Blizzard barely knows wtf to do with Paladin, DH, and DK half the time. Adding more classes and specs honestly just adds to the already improper balance that has plagued WoW since classic. I will say this though, that also says a lot about SE's ability to at least make all of the jobs a mostly even playing field. I can't think of one "bad" job in FFXIV, meanwhile I can easily count 10 whole classes or specs that flounder in WoW's meta. cough Shaman *cough*.
oh man i miss legion. also, if you include TBC and Wrath, isnt there only 1 new class (DK) so even with two extra expansions its still losing XD
you should do a video about classes/specs eviscerated/obliterated/rendered useless. (Still bitter about demo locks lol)
Edit: while were on the topic of classes; I played WC3 first and always wished theyd add Necromancer to WoW. People always shit on that idea and tell me to play warlock, which I already did lol. Ad then in Wrath they added DK, but i was like, no give me Necromancer, with a talent spec that lets me become a Lich (or better yet, Lich hero class)……….sigh…..a girl can still dream T-T
You forgot WotLK adding Death Knight. Yet FF14 would STILL win 10-8. lol
Edit: Just noticed the title specifically states "Over the past 10 years". My bad. Point still kinda stands though. And actually makes it a lot worse really. lol
No Blue Mage on the list? I'm so sad.
Eh, I don't know about this. It doesn't seem quite fair to make comparisons like this, given how different the games are in terms of their systems, and approaches to gameplay. It would be bes-… huh? FF14 won?
Nevermind what I said, IT IS FAIR GAME!!!! WOHOOOO!!!!!!