Post-99 Job Specialization System

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been reading a lot of interesting suggestions regarding new jobs, spells, and new gameplay elements. Since I thought a lot of the ideas would be awesome if implemented in FFXI, I began to think of a way SE could actually do so with the limited development resources allotted to the game. And thus, I came up with the Job Specialization System!

It's pretty long! I wrote most of this stuff back when FFXI was down after the tsunami.

I hope you’ll enjoy reading about my idea as much I have everyone else’s :)

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The (Post-99) Job Specialization System

What is it?
The Job Specialization system will give players a way to continue to utilize their merit points after reaching level 99 by unlocking new specializations for each job and spending merit points to attain new abilities and job traits. These job specializations would increase the job’s aptitude in a certain role (i.e. tank, damage dealer, healer, support, crowd control / AoE, pets, etc.) and even offer new roles for existing jobs, varying the gameplay experience and making it easier to create parties.

Players would only be able to choose 1 specialization per job; to switch, the player would need to forsake all traits and abilities learned thus far and focus completely on the other specialization. Each job would have 2 specializations, though very few would have 3.

Here’s an example of how it would work:

Suppose you reach level 99 Dancer. You may then "lock-in" to one of the following 3 specializations.

1. Wondrous Waltzer – The dancer focuses on healing and curative dances, as well as enfeebling steps. Job traits in this specialization would grant bonuses to curing potency, step accuracy and potency. Some new job abilities might include:

• Ballroom Dance: Temporarily increases the dancer’s maximum TP pool by 200% and separates the recast timers for Waltz abilities, but prohibits the usage of weapon skills. Also grants a moderate regain effect (2TP/tic). (Similar to Fan Dance and Saber Dance, only one can be active at a time)

• Auto Regain (Trait): Grants a small regain effect (1 TP/tic)

• Super Step: The next step will immediately grant the full extent of the debuff (level 5). The dancer will receive a normal number of finishing moves.
Etc.

2. Furious Flourisher – The dancer deals increased damage to foes through improved flourish and samba effects. Traits would augment haste samba, dual wield, and saber dance, as well as grant new damaging flourish abilities. (DD Spec)

3. Animated Acrobat – The dancer uses great evasion and agility to frustrate and elude the enemy. Fan Dance and closed position would be augmented, and new evasion and enmity traits granted. Steps would generate a large amount of enmity. (Tank Spec)

After locking in one specialization, you would use your merit points to obtain new abilities.

The above is just an example of how the system could work. By doing this, SE would be giving the player more choice in defining how they want to play their job (rather than having people tell them not to play a certain way, they’d actually be good at their role).


Further Uses for the Job Specialization System
This system could be useful in other ways as well. Many people have been asking for new jobs and spells. These could be easily introduced. For example:

99 Black Mage >>
Black Sage – The Black Mage focuses on devastating single-target damage abilities and enmity reduction tools meant to decimate and confuse the target. Traits would offer enmity reduction and augment skills like enmity douse and mana wall. (New Spells: Comet, Ultima, Death, Confuse, Scathe [darkness based nuke], Bio III, Frost/Burn II, other DoTs)

OR

Illusionist – The Black Mage focuses on area of effect abilities to immobilize and dispatch multiple enemies at once. (New Spells: Meteor, Bindga, Sleepga III, Stunga, Scathe-ga, -Ja II, new elemental AoE nukes that debuff enemies)

99 Summoner >>
Caller – The Summoner calls on familiar allies to temporarily aid in battle. Call spells can be used in conjuction with currently summoned avatars and elementals. (New Call Spells: Chocobo, Mog Knight, Magian Moogle, Cait Sith, Poroggo Prince, Pixie, etc.)

99 Red Mage >>
Time Mage – The Red Mage learns new abilities that alter time and space itself. Also strengthens enfeebling and enhancing skills. (New Spells: Hastega, Quicken, Quarter, Demi, Stop, Slowga, Graviga, Warp, Retrace, etc.)

Mystic Knight – The Red Mage focuses on prowess in battle, strengthening self-enhancing magic, sword skills and weapon enchantments.

And so on…

Through specializations, many “new jobs” can be created through offering a new gameplay experience by simply altering old jobs slightly. Again, this would not be too difficult for SE to implement; in fact, many of the “new spells” for these jobs are already in game.

SE could add in new quests to unlock these specializations at 99, with interesting storylines and maybe a key NPC that must be defeated. They could even add spec-specific armor to add to the look and feel of each specialization.

Furthermore, this (along with many new challenging encounters and dungeons) is sure to keep FFXI alive for many more years to come. Especially if SE makes encounters that strongly encourage the use of unique abilities from certain specializations.


List of Proposed Specializations by Job and Role

Of course, I'm not an expert of every job in FFXI. But I thought it would be fun to suggest a full list of specializations, just to give an idea of how this sort of system could expand on the role of each job in the game.

The List -

Warrior:
Gladiator (Melee DD, proficient in many weapons)
Defender (Tank, lots of PDT-, retaliation and stuns/knock back abilities)

Monk:
Blackbelt (Melee DD, best physical sustained DoT)
White Monk (Tank, evasion and counter, enhanced chakra)


Black Mage:
Black Sage (Single Target Magic DD, Enmity Reduced)
Illusionist (AoE Magic DD, Crowd Control)


White Mage:
White Sage (Enhanced Healing, Back-Line)
Bishop/Enforcer (Front-Line Healing, Weaponskill Damage converted to Party Healing, Damage reduction spells [Phalanx-ga, Stoneskin-ga, etc.])


Red Mage:
Time Mage (Best Enfeebling and Enhancing Magic Support)
Mystic Knight (Melee DD and Support, access to stronger swords and weaponskills, strengthened en-spells)

Thief:
Brigand (Assassin-type melee spike damage w/ enmity wipes)
Trickster (Unique Support via. enhanced TH, Enmity Control, Gilfinder, Aura Steal, etc.)

Paladin:
Crusader (PDT- Tank, best enmity generation, shield skills enhanced)
Templar (MDT- Tank and DD, strong divine magic abilities, greatsword skills enhanced)


Dark Knight:
Vampire (Drain Tank, enhanced movement speed, dark damage)
Hell Knight (Physical/Magic DD Hybrid)


Ranger:
Sniper (Single Target Ranged DD)
Bombardier (AoE Ranged DD with bombs and traps)


Bard:
Minstrel (Enhancing Support, more songs on target at once etc.)
Dirge (Enfeebling Support / Dagger DD)


Beastmaster:
Master Tamer (Pet DD, tame notorious monsters, enhanced killer traits)
Necromancer (Pet DD, raise + charm undead mobs, enhanced scythe skill, minor dark magic + DoTs) - this sounds silly, but would be cool!


Summoner:
Caller (Pet DD, Call enmity-less temporary pets regardless of if you have an avatar summoned)
Evoker (Pet DD, summon new, stronger avatars [bahamut])


Ninja:
Shadow (Tank, high evasion, more shadows, shadows don't wipe completely with AoE)
Assassin (Melee DD, Debuffer, Throwing Weaponskills)


Samurai:
Bushido (Melee DD, Skillchain master, GIL TOSS!)
Shogun (Tank, high parrying, enhanced seigan, zanshin)


Dragoon:
Lancer (Melee DD, all jumps do damage (inc. super jumps) and wipe enmity, melee weapons become slightly ranged)
Drake Knight (Pet DD, Wyvern gains dramatically enhanced defense, HP, melee ability and unique weaponskills. Enhanced control over wyvern)


Blue Mage:
Soul Mage (Magical Blue Magic DD)
Imperial Mage (Physical Blue Magic DD)


Corsair:
Gunner (Ranged Physical/Magical DD Hybrid)
Gambler (Luck-Based Support with strongest buffs in game on lucky rolls. New abilities like roulette (w/ doom), slots, etc.)

Puppetmaster:
Mechanist (Automaton Focused DD, Master Support)
Jester (Master Focused DD, Automation Support)


Dancer:
Wondrous Waltzer (TP Healer)
Furious Flourisher (Flourish and Samba based DD)
Animated Acrobat (PDT- and Evasion Tank)


Scholar:
Tactician (Support for Front-Line Jobs and Magic DD)
Oracle (Support for Back-Line Jobs and Healing)


Further details for the proposed specializations above were left out of this post for length reasons.

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Do you think SE might ever be able to implement something similar to this? My main concern is that there are so many specializations (41 in total) that job balance would be pretty difficult, but remember these are not full-fledged jobs.

I would love to hear people's feedback on this idea! :D

Thanks for reading
-Flare, Asura

I can hardly read any of the things you have listed because of the color change..

I like this idea but i think some people might get the idea that you will only be able to do certain things, well thats not true because you said that you gain added things and not lose in others.

I just don't like that Ultima is given to the Black Mage...

I hope you realize that Ultima is traditionally either A) White Magic (yes look it up multiple games have it listed as White Mage or Holy Magic) or B) Non-Elemental/Time Magic which makes no sense to give it to the masters of Elemental Magic aka Black Mages. >.>

Also, I feel that some of the customizations are a little cheap, like the Dragoon one. No one will choose the Wyvern one, basically because S-E already told us they "dramatically" increased the Wyvern defenses and they still die in 1-2 AoE attacks. There are also some others that I noticed, but don't get me wrong I hope this is sort-of something that happens post-99.

I actually like this concept of idea, very creative really. Is like a way to revamp all jobs and almost turn them into new jobs. Of course each job needs to be reviewed and worked out but this is a nice rough draft really. Again some changes would be made the job abilities and new traits that you suggested but I would be very nice to see this.

ONE THING YOU SHOULD ADD THOUGH that you should have the option to switch between the new job-class back and forth. I wouldn't want to be stuck in one and not being able to do the things I used to do.

The concept of advanced classes in an interesting one, but they already have plans for further customization at lv 99. It was announced for VanaFest 2010.

Quote:

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An increase in maximum upgrades is being considered for existing merit point skills and attributes. Preparations are also under way for the introduction of a new type of merit point for players who have reached the new level 99 summit.

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http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/event/vanafes2010/

I would love to see advanced forms of the current jobs we have now, but I don't like the idea of locking into a certain form permanently.

There should be some kind of overflow option. Like at 99 you can flood over to level 1 again, but you get to be able to wear all armor and keep all spells (MP cost negated due to low MP pool) and all WSes etc.

So basically you could play another 99 levels but with all your stuff available. New game+

Quote:

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Originally Posted by OMEGA_HACK

I just don't like that Ultima is given to the Black Mage...

I hope you realize that Ultima is traditionally either A) White Magic (yes look it up multiple games have it listed as White Mage or Holy Magic) or B) Non-Elemental/Time Magic which makes no sense to give it to the masters of Elemental Magic aka Black Mages. >.>

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FF: Did not exist in the game.

FFII: White Magic, though it's calculated using the same formula all Black Magic is.

FFIII: Did not exist in the game.

FFIV (Series): White Magic and Black Magic. (In The After Years, Golbez could also cast it with Cecil.)

FFV: Did not exist in the game.

FFVI: Hard to classify as Terra learns it at 99, and learns both White and Black Magic naturally (without Espers). Ragnorak and the Paladin Shield both teach the spell, and while I can see an argument that a Paladin Shield would teach White Magic rather than Black Magic, it's not quite enough since it can be worn by anyone except Umaro. Ragnarok also only teaches Ultima so it's not really possible to draw much of a correlation from that.

FFVII (series): Unclassified, and all magic is learned through Materia and not really broken down into schools, and each character can learn each type of magic.

FFVIII: Also unclassified, as it's drawn, and everyone can use it.

FFIX: Also unclassified. Only Kuja can use it, and he has both White and Black Magic spells, also it's only a story element, used to end battles and in a cutscene.

FFX (series): Black Magic.

FFXI: Does not exist in this game (yet, at least).

FFXII: Does not exist in this game.

FFXIII: Black magic, only Barthandalus can cast it, and he only casts Black Magic.

FFT: Unclassified, as it's a Squire ability, though the closest argument for a school of magic would be Blue, since that's the way it's learned.

FFTA (Series): Unclassified, it only appears as weapon skills.

FFCC: Unclassified, as one must combine White and Black magics to get it.

Doesn't exist: 5
White Magic: 2
Black Magic: 3 (2 if you want to say that Golbez's ability to Band it doesn't count.)
Blue Magic: 1 (If you want to say FFT's version is a particular school.)
Unclassified: 7

White Magic is at best tied with Black Magic for the school, at worst behind it. Ultima is a powerful spell that SE (just Square in older times) adds in whichever way best suits the game (in their opinion at least) in question.

I LOVE this idea. It's a way to bring job names and abilities from other titles many of us have wanted to see for a long time, without going through the process of creating entire new jobs with AF, stories, etc. Although, I really would like to see Time Mage or Mime AF...

I would add Geomancer for SCH, with super potent weather and helix spells. Also, where is Calculator/Math Mage?! It's my favorite FF class of all time. I'd suggest it for SCH, but then I wouldn't be able to choose Geomancer :( Unless...

I'd suggest actually being able to advance all concentrations, but to require a MH switch to change between them. This would alleviate the "We don't want you because you're a Geomancer, not a Calculator" problem, and not lock people into one concentration.

I also think this could be pretty easily implemented. It's not all that different than the existing merit system - it just adds a level of complexity in switching between concentrations, and a new title to add to lists like search, check and status.

As far as Ultima goes, I want to see it for SCH as a schema. I'd like it to be Divine White Magic so I could throw out a powerful nuke while in Light Arts, and to take advantage of the otherwise useless Divine Skill on LA SCH. How that fits in with past games is irrelevant imo - as Fiarlia points out, they change these affiliations all the time. I'd prefer it be integrated the way it fits best into XI, not be forced into a certain spell type for consistency with past games.

Thanks for all the feedback so far guys!

As you can see I changed the colors back to all black since they might have been annoying.

@Merton - Geomancer and Math Mage (or any job SE chooses really) could be subbed in for the examples I gave in the list. The list was just to show how it might work for each job in particular.

@Vangoh and Crystalweapon - I actually agree with you, locking into one spec might be a bit restrictive. I still think its important that you can only be one at a time though, to avoid over-powered combinations and keep the ability to balance the jobs in the game.

If SE is thinking about a new merit point system already, I hope it's something similar to this! :)

I like the ideas, all the added bonusses you can get on your jobs. I am afraid that the focus will move away from bonus and more towards restriction. People will always look at the stuff they can't do because they had to choose for one.

I would much more prefer a hybrid system like I posted here some time ago.

FXII (Ultima was a summon that casted Ultima and was considered White/Holy Magic) and I would consider Ultima from Terra to be a White/Holy magic class as well primarily due to the fact that in Dissidia you can get her to use it with when you chain from Holy Combo.

So I would say 4 for white magic and 3 for black magic.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Flarez

Thief:
Brigand (Assassin-type melee spike damage w/ enmity wipes)
Trickster (Unique Support via. enhanced TH, Enmity Control, Gilfinder, Aura Steal, etc.)

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Can't see anyone ever doing anything but the first one.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Atomic_Skull

Can't see anyone ever doing anything but the first one.

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and everybody else asking for the latter (th whore)

I like this idea.

As cool as some of these specializations' names sound, though, particularly in terms of defining your job (Mystic Knight? Heck yes, that sounds like the kind of job I signed up to play!), I can't see the names themselves able to see very much prominence within the game's programming. I see a level 99 Red Mage, and without keen observation of said Red Mage in action (or being explicitly told), it would be difficult to figure out whether said Red Mage has taken a "Time Mage" path, a "Mystic Knight" path, or whether said Red Mage had only just reached level 99!

Still. Very cool idea, nonetheless! There are potential problems where one build on the surface seems like the more obvious choice than the others, but if S-E has learned anything about game balance (as if, right? >_> ), I'm sure there will be enough incentive for even the off-beat builds for at least a few adventurous players to play around with them.

Lv 99 -> Lv1 new job specialization

Good writes but meh... you are just dividing one job into two with kind of like a ying-yang set up...

If SE is to do that, soon people will ask to combine them.

Thx but no thank you...

My bigger concern would be one aspect being so dominatingly more beneficial than another that there is no actual "choice" in the decision. We see it now with merits (which is why I feel we should just be able to max everything and be done with it) and it would pretty much happen with this, too.

what's everyone thinking about the old board in ffx?
if i remember right u could just choose different path for character customization (please forgive me if i spelled that wrong or if that word doesn't excist).

there could be different paths leading to other things.

example: red mage

earth path:

different tiers, u can only select 1 spell/ability per tier but u can swap between the sub paths (marked as sub tiers)

earth magic path:
offensive Elemental path
sub tier1: stone V
sub tier2: earth offensive magic acc+
sub tier3: earth magic attack bonus+
sub tier4: earth magic crit rate+
sub tier5: Stone VI

enfeebling path:
sub tier1: slow III
sub tier2: earth enfeebling magic macc+
sub tier3: earth enfeebling magic potency+
sub tier4: an ability that break can`t be broken by damage, increases duration
sub tier5: stop

enhancing path:
sub tier1: enearthga
sub tier2: earth enhancing magic potency+
sub tier3: earth-based magic cast time-
sub tier4: enhances duration of earth based enhancing magic
sub tier5: enearthga II

melee path:
sub tier1: new earth based ws
sub tier2: increases earth based ws dmg
sub tier3: increases earth based ws acc
sub tier4: adds critical hits to earth based ws
sub tier5: new earth based (AoE ws?)

now u can build as example a complete offensive earth magic based path or u build:
sub tier1: enearthga
sub tier2: earth elemental magic acc+
sub tier3: earth enfeebling magic potency+
sub tier4: earth magic crit rate+
sub tier5: stone VI

there would be 2 ways this could be done, either u can decide to do 1 path or u could build all elemental paths up to sub tier5.

for paladin i.e. could it be seperated in:
healing magic spells/abilitys
def skills
offensive skills
enhancing skills.
hate holding skills.

guess this would be a good way to customize the character.would be nice to get some feedback :)

Edit:
SE would need to adjust the resistances and actually make them work for a big difference in spells

There's 2 serious flaws with your ideas.
1 being that you want BSTs to be able to charm NMs. Sure, it would be hilarious holding NMs as a BST and loling about it, but come on.... SE would never go for that, and it would get really annoying after 2 days.
Second problem is throwing sucks badly, because of game mechanics and the way it works, and cannot be fixed to make it useful, and SE already stated they cannot add throwing WS's. So your ninja idea is no good.

I'll sign up on the mystic knight path. Am worried about BST, though. Also, only way I can see a throwing WS would be a Katana WS that is animated to look liked a throwing WS, which wouldn't make much sense.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sama

Good writes but meh... you are just dividing one job into two with kind of like a ying-yang set up...

If SE is to do that, soon people will ask to combine them.

Thx but no thank you...

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That's why it's been suggested that you be able to merit every ability in every specialization. But then you would have to choose one specialization to apply @moogle. This way you can't do everything at once, but you also don't have to remove all the merits you earned from one ability to put them in another. Basically it would be just like selecting a subjob.

I'd also worry about the potential of one specialization to trump others. No matter how balanced they were, though, it's better than the current system because if you do find yourself in a situation where the other specialization is useful you have the option to apply it. I'd like maxed Bio III for kiting, but for what I do most on RDM I couldn't justify it. It would be great to give up Para II and Slow II for a solo kiting venture without wasting the merit points.

Again just like a subjob, there is usually an obvious choice. But I like those moments where I can freely choose a situationally beneficial alternative. It would be nice to do that with merits too.

I stumbled across this thread and...

I love it!!! It sounds a bit WoW-ish with the spec idea, but STILL, it would be darn FUN.

Awesome ideas, it would establish more character to the jobs, and allow people to play how they want with certain jobs, without being ridiculed about what job they play.

EDIT: Actually I vote for this idea all the way. IMO it's one of the best idea's I've seen so far relating to 99 endgame content.

Suggestions: I would leave the number of specs to 2 per job. It would mean less work for the dev team, and would prevent certain jobs from following the same pattern of specs. ie, WHM being Enhance/Heal/DD~ish while RDM is Enchance/Heal/DD~ish, SCH following along the same lines.

PS. wish12oz statement that throwing wouldn't work for NIN is false, because with the NIN spec, you could just give NIN a crap ton of ranged attack, and also something like "Swiftshot Tonic" enabling them to throw 2~3 shuriken in 1 toss. I'm pretty sure by then SE would have fixed ranged attacks and added and implemented more/better shuriken.


All in all, this idea is 'boss'.

I love this idea. But like many people have suggested i think you should be able to change ur specification @MH so that ur not stuck as 1 or the other.

I think that a few jobs need a bit of reworking with the choices but this is a great rough draft.

I think you should have the option of specializing in either one of the two paths or none at all. So like once you hit NIN99 you can choose to spend your merit points in the the Shadow, Assassin, or just an improved normal Ninja group. That way you don't get stuck having to choose between black or white, you can take the "standard" path between the two, gaining little boosts from each group, instead.

First thing I thought when I saw this was that it's similar to the wizard jobs (advanced mage I guess) from FFI. It's not quite as simple as that but still a cracking idea and the melee/pet job ideas look good too.

all in all a great idea. i have one suggestion:make every job have 3 specializations, and name them after their AF AF2 and emp sets, and make them much broader spectrums.

EX:
Paladin:
Gallant: Enhances tanking capabilities

1. Latent effect: Enhances Enmity cap, and lowers damage taken.
2. Augments Cover: takes damage for anyone behind the paladin, not limited to one target.
3. Augments flash: flash now deals light damage. (low light damage)
   
4. Gallants Pride: AOE JA Buff - Lowers damage taken for all party members affected.

Valor: Enahances DD capabilities

1. latent effect: increases melee damage
2. Augments Enlight: Lowers enemies Mevasion Eva, DEF and MDEF by a miniscule ammount per swing, stacking up to 5%
3. Augments Sentinel: Sentinel Provides an attack bonus while active.
   
4. Valorous Wrath: deals light based magic damage Proportionate to current HP ( does more damage with less HP)

Creed: enhances healing capabilities

1. Latent Effect: Increases Cure potency, Auto refresh +1
2. Augments Rampart: Rampart now restores 25% of the paladins max MP.
3. Augments Shield Bash: heals all party members in range equal to the damage dealt
   
4. Divine Creed: Heals target party member by an ammount proportionate to your current TP. (low recast timer, max of 300 HP restored)

Redmage
Warlock: Enhances nuking and healing

1. Latent effect: MAB+10, CPT+10,
2. augments elemental magic: Increases Susceptibility to enfeebling magic matching the element of the nuke.
3. Augments healing magic: increases resistance to last damage type sustained.
   
4. Warlocks Barrage: Deals random Elemental Damage to all targets in range.

Duelist: enhances Melee offense and defensive abilities

1. latent effect: Accuracy +10% Attack +10%, Evasion skill +20, Shield skill +30, Parrying +10
2. Augments En spells: Double attack +5%
3. Augments Parrying: Retaliation chance on Parry
   
4. Duelists Engarde: deals damage porportionate to remainingMP, matching element of current En spell. Draws moderate enmity (provoke). provides heightened chance to parryevade or block incoming attacks for a short time.

Estoqueur: Enahances debuffing and supporting

1. latent effect: Enhances Buffing and debuffing Potency. Increases Enfeebling magic accuracy.
2. Augments Buffs:buffs return a 10% of their MP when they wear off or are removed.
3. Augments Enfeebling magic:enfeebling magic now does low elemental damage matching the enfeeebles element.
   
4. Estoqueur's Hindrance: Deals damage proportionate with the ammount of debuffs currently on the target. does not break sleep effects.

Thief:
Rouge: focuses on subversion (stealth, stealing, mugging, enfeebling)

1. latent effect: Steal +5, Despoil +5 Mug +5, Hide duration+60
2. Augments Melee attacks: low chance of randomly inflicting poison blind slow and paralyze
3. Augments Hide: Critical damage +25% when attacking from Hide
4. Enhances Hide: Hide now applies sneak and deodorize before applying Hide.
   
5. Rouges Wit: Increases TH & gill finder level by 1 for every steal mug and despoil attempt against current target.

Assasin: focuses on SA TA abilities

1. latent Effect: SA damage +10% TA damage +10%
2. Augments Sneak attack: No longer dependent on dirrection
3. Augments Trick attack: No longer requires angle dependant partner, applies threat to the closest player to the thief
   
4. Assisinate: deals damage equivalent up to 25% of the targets maximum HP, Affected by the number of trick attacks and sneak attacks preformed on the target.

Raider: focuses on meleeing abilities
Latent effect: Dual wield +20, trippleattack +5
augments Critical Hits: Critical hits have a chance to grant double TP.
Augments evasion: can counter attack on an evade.

Raiders strike: deals damage proportionate to the number of critical hits dealt to the target: Grants TP equivalent to +1 for every critical hit against current target.


stuff like that would be perfect, have the spec augment a few aspects of the job, and grant a JA that would remain exclusive to that spec and help it flourish and thrive, so that one spec wouldnt be better then another, and would only be a matter of preference.

I like the concept but not necessarily the current suggestions. I think the choice between 2 prestige paths, each with its own exclusive abilities, fits nicely into any endgame. But it would require a lot of work to properly define each path and balance them correctly. If improperly balanced, it could lead to one path being exclusively chosen or worse it could lead to several jobs being exiled like lepers. Not to mention duty over imagination. For instance what if mystic knight has tons of really fun stuff for a player but they are treated like lepers for choosing the path because Time mage gives rdm irreplacable value to a linkshell. But anyway i agree with the concept, it just needs to be devotedly executed.

Also, Bst shouldnt ever be able to charm NMs. Things can't respawn while we have them charmed. And we don't need anymore reasons for people to hate us.

Try this instead

Beastsoul: Master Merges into charm/called pet leaving pet toon. Become 1 character take the most beneficial of all character parmeters between the pet and master. Gain all pets abilites as well as retain your own. Merge ends upon death or duration of charm/call beast.

Beast Lord: Bonuses from masters gear transfers to pet. Pet may gain the benefit and be targeted by masters Spells and abilities, but not anyone else as per normal.





Also side note, A Warrior bard is called a "Skald" not a dirge. A Dirge is a song played at a funeral and is used mostly to refer to a bard with some power over the Necromantic arts.

I hope tier III merits are like tier II merits in that it gives you JA's, although some Tier II's just effect durations and probabilities, etc, but I like the spending merits for JA's. Although the nice part about Tier IIs is that you can customize it, so you can have a bit of everything or 2 things maxed out.