Hello!
I was looking at the classes (and jobs) earlier and I got confused.
What is the exact difference between the classes beside slightly different skills/abilities?
I thought they were supposed to have defined roles (I know, I know, took me a while to notice).
Gladiator is focused on defence, that one is easy (lots of defence boosting abilities and shield stuff).
Also easy, the conjurer is a healer (only one with healing magic).
What about pugilist, lancer and marauder? Sure they all have different skills and abilities, but it looks minimal on the paper. They all can somehow enfeeble the enemy, they all have attack power bonus and they all are damage classes. Of course, pugilist relies slightly more on speedy attacks, lancer a bit more on TP stuff and critical strikes, and marauder also has some enmity and defence skills.
The difference is slim, even conjurer has two sets of elemental offensive magic while the thaumaturge has three.
So, even though the difference is slim when only looking at abilities, the role in game is "clearly" defined?
Gladiator: focus on defence so he is a tank? So is Paladin?
Pugilist: focus on quick attacks so he is a fast DD? So is Monk?
Lancer: focus on TP? critical strikes? I remember reading that Yoshi-P wanted Dragoon to be a critical strike DD, is it the case?
Marauder: what is his role? Attack and defence? Raw power and secondary tank then?
Archer: focus on ... accuracy? Not getting in the way of the better DD? Bard is a support job, at least that is clear.
Conjurer: focus on healing so he is a healer. So is White Mage.
Thaumaturge: focus on damage with only 3 sets of elemental magic?! Like, spam thunder spells and occasionally use the others? Same goes for Black Mage.
Arcanist: supposed to focus on debuff, but aren't all fighting classes capable on inflicting debuffs? Are arcanist debuff more power and have a longer duration? The pet is for attack/defence, that's a given. Same goes for Summoner, the summons will also inflict debuffs or attack? Then summoner is a debuff+damage dealer?
The line is blurred, which is ok by me because I enjoy versatility and being able to survive in many situations without having to switch classes all the time (especially since required class/job gear came into the game).
My big question is, simply, what is the supposed role of each class/job and what truly makes them different from one another?