CC can always be perceived as a damage buff when it keeps you from dying. You canât DPS when dead, after all.
Citing FFXI again, Red Mage was basically deemed the âdebuffer classâ and had spells that could Slow, Paralyze, Blind, Poison, Sleep, Dispel, Gravity (-EVA/Move speed), lower DEF or ATK, and a few other things generally tied to XI. The class didnât get any useful AoE versions, either, so it was pretty much guaranteed youâd be spending 2-3s per debuff (even with fast cast traits + global cooldown) on every single mob, without accounting for resists or wear-offs. Now, some might perceive this role as useful, but I would remind that resistances and outright immunity were a thing and no one really expected debuffs in high enemy number situations, either. This effectively made the class boring when you couldnât do what you were supposed to be strong at. And with I imagine everyone knowing how game metas work, no one will want someone thatâs 3rd or 4th string at their secondary strength. Unfortunately, because the class had limited healing, people decided it would be shoehorned into a healer role because very few actually wanted to be healers, instead.
Far as that community went, I was probably one of a few of a small handful of others that routinely spoke out about the classâ poor state. Naturally, there was opposition from those who didnât want to see a healer shortage or those that took advantage of said shortage to gear other jobs. As time went on, it became increasingly obvious RDMâs healing was inadequate while none of the other issues were addressed. Funnily enough, when SE implemented Blue Mage, they wound up incorporating a lot of the suggestions myself and others had made over the years, including things like damaging spells having secondary debuff effects (and effects RDM didnât not have access to at all), spells that cast multiple debuffs at once, AoE (de)buffs, and then some. RDM was never cured of its so-called justified mediocrity as a jack of all trades, and little by little, people gave up on it. In the rare case SE acquiesced like with the Temper spell (self double attack rate up), people whined because it couldnât be used on others fully cognizant that RDMâs melee game was in the toilet despite people like me pointing out they needed access to better gear, traits, and new things to help make it work.
So, why do I bring this up? Because I rather doubt anyone will be playing a build that cycles through multiple debuffs per mob pack, assuming one class can even manage more than a couple natively. Whatâs more likely will be the secondary effect route (similar to how cold often slows/freezes), with the compromise being those skills wonât do as much damage as straight damage counterparts. Maybe there will be some items or passives that shake things up, but those have their respective costs compared to other options. And frankly, thatâs fine. Even citing D2 as some paragon of âhow itâs doneâ falls apart when you remember mobs and players could only have 1 curse on them (or more accurately, an overhead effect) at a time. Auras were better about this, but they were also more buff focused than debuff oriented even if Conviction is justifiably one of the best auras in the game.
Basically, donât expect too many debuff only spells, let alone spinning that as an excuse for why shortcut settings should basically be unlimited. Personally, I look at it a bit deeper seeing folks hoping for more one-point-wonder skills (alongside cross-class theft) and yet more +skill abuse.
