MMOs are better if classes are imbalanced—you just need to do it on purpose

Games MMO MMOs are better if classes are imbalanced—you just need to do it on purpose Features By Harvey Randall published 16 May 2026 Perfectly balanced, as all things shouldn't be. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. (Image credit: Square Enix) Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter Terminally Online (Image credit: Future)This is Terminally Online: PC Gamer's very own MMO column. Every other week, I'll be sharing my thoughts on the genre, interviewing fellow MMO-heads like me, taking a deep-dive into mechanics we've all taken for granted, and, occasionally, bringing in guest writers to talk about their MMO of choice.I'm thinking about Final Fantasy 14: Evercold's keynotes, and something in them's been rattling around in the back of my skull—during them, Hikaru Tamaki (who was affectionately coined as Mr Prime live on stage)—revealed that the design team was considering making the new version of Dragoon, which'll be arriving in the expansion, have a 90% damage reduction buff while using its new Sky High action.Since I've been playing it (circa Shadowbringers), FF14 has been praised for having an almost pitch-perfect balance between its jobs. We're talking separations of a few percentages between the DPS of different classes at the highest level. That's in part to having no talent tree system to speak of.But it's also led to one of the biggest criticisms of the game: Homogenization. Every tank plays the same, every healer plays the same, every DPS hits its burst windows at two minutes. It's something that the developers are directly taking aim at. Whether they will is another question, as my colleague and fellow FF14-head Mollie Taylor rightfully pointed out earlier this week.Latest Videos From You may like World of Warcraft: Midnight's class balancing is steering the MMO headfirst into a mistake that's been haunting FF14 for years Question time: Do you care about fashion in MMOs, or do you just chuck any old g [Conteúdo truncado para controle de custo.]