Increase the number of meritable WS

[Alhanelem]

All I play is three jobs (on the one character) and 3 WSs still means I'm screwed

for DRK BST and SAM I need Shoha, Ruinator, Entropy, and Resolution

No, you don't need all four of them. The complaint in this thread is that you can't get enough weapon skills to have -one- for each job.

Has anyone ever bothered to look up Alhanelem's character Tahngarthor? With only 5/20 jobs at 99 and the rest under 55 with one still level 1 he clearly is the type of player that only wants to put effort into specific jobs that he plays.

There is absolutely -nothing- wrong with this. It's a personal choice. That doesn't invalidate my opinions. I've been playing this game since soon after it came out. Don't you DARE try to paint me as a noob. I'm not as stupid as you apparently think I look- My opinion isn't purely based on my personal experiences.

Why WOULD I put effort into a job I don't want to play? I don't want to play it, therefore I'm not going to. Part of the fun is finding new and unusual ways of doing things. I've been to virtually every HNM in existence on one or more of those 5 jobs. It takes enough time to fully gear 5 jobs, much less 20, so believe me, it's more than enough to keep me busy. You're nothing but an elitist or a jerk if you look down on people for not having all 20 jobs leveled.

Putting limitations on things doesn't force players to "specialize" it forces players to STOP.

Bullshiat. You're still going to STOP eventually. It might take a little longer. There's still a finish line even without the limits. The difference is when everyone has hit that finish line, with the limits each character is a little different. Without those limits, every character is exactly the same.

[Anapingofness]

Why WOULD I put effort into a job I don't want to play? I don't want to play it, therefore I'm not going to.

Your statement validates my point as well as the points of many other people on this thread.
Why would you play a job you don't want to? On that note, why would you merit a WS you don't want to? The answer is, you wouldn't and you won't. That's my point.

Uncapping all of the merit weapon skills will not change anything. People will choose which jobs they want to level and people will choose which weapon skills they want to merit.

[Meyi]

There is absolutely -nothing- wrong with this. It's a personal choice. That doesn't invalidate my opinions. I've been playing this game since soon after it came out. Don't you DARE try to paint me as a noob. I'm not as stupid as you apparently think I look- My opinion isn't purely based on my personal experiences.

I know plenty of noobs who started playing with NA's release. Time does not equate skill; purposeful practice builds skill. Regardless, the problem with you is not your opinion but your refusal to be open to others' opinions. For example, I am a specialist as well; I specialize in BLM and SMN. For me, none of these merits matter because I won't be using more than one weapon skill type. However, that said, I can be open to other peoples' concerns. They want their jobs to be maxed out, and as someone who does like the idea of maxing a character's potential out, I agree and approve of their suggestion.

I would be angry if Square Enix said I had to pick two magian staves to maximize. Because I wouldn't want to be treated that way in something that is important to my job, I wouldn't want anyone else to be hindered.

Why WOULD I put effort into a job I don't want to play? I don't want to play it, therefore I'm not going to. Part of the fun is finding new and unusual ways of doing things. I've been to virtually every HNM in existence on one or more of those 5 jobs. It takes enough time to fully gear 5 jobs, much less 20, so believe me, it's more than enough to keep me busy. You're nothing but an elitist or a jerk if you look down on people for not having all 20 jobs leveled.

Sometimes we have to do things in the game we don't want to in order to make what we want to do more enjoyable and more accessible. I never wanted to do Dynamis, but I wanted the gear that dropped from it, so I therefore put up with 8 hours a week doing Dynamis. same with a lot of subjobs, because I knew I would use them in the future.

Bullshiat. You're still going to STOP eventually. It might take a little longer. There's still a finish line even without the limits. The difference is when everyone has hit that finish line, with the limits each character is a little different. Without those limits, every character is exactly the same.

No. With the limits, people have to choose "the best/most common/most expected" weapon skills to have. Without limits, people can get as many of the weapon skills as they want, in the order they want, and feel happy having them. Instead of the answer being, "I don't have X weaponskill because I needed Y for Z job", it can be, "I didn't want to bother getting X weaponskill, so I didn't."

I'm going to help you out buddy, because it seems you're not getting the message here; your constant 'no' response is really pissing people off. They're fed up with it, and you're coming off as an unwanted fool. If I were you I would consider agreeing to disagree and backing out of the conversation.

[Finuve]

No, you don't need all four of them. The complaint in this thread is that you can't get enough weapon skills to have -one- for each job.

There is absolutely -nothing- wrong with this. It's a personal choice. That doesn't invalidate my opinions. I've been playing this game since soon after it came out. Don't you DARE try to paint me as a noob. I'm not as stupid as you apparently think I look- My opinion isn't purely based on my personal experiences.

Why WOULD I put effort into a job I don't want to play? I don't want to play it, therefore I'm not going to. Part of the fun is finding new and unusual ways of doing things. I've been to virtually every HNM in existence on one or more of those 5 jobs. It takes enough time to fully gear 5 jobs, much less 20, so believe me, it's more than enough to keep me busy. You're nothing but an elitist or a jerk if you look down on people for not having all 20 jobs leveled.

Bullshiat. You're still going to STOP eventually. It might take a little longer. There's still a finish line even without the limits. The difference is when everyone has hit that finish line, with the limits each character is a little different. Without those limits, every character is exactly the same.

yes i DO need all 4 of them, who are you to say I don't, and Hiko is right, I need stardiver too

[Llana_Virren]

yes i DO need all 4 of them, who are you to say I don't, and Hiko is right, I need stardiver too

Can't you just drop your merits out of one and start putting new merits somewhere else?

Or are you just saying that you want to be able to unlock everything without any "chocie" or "sacrifice" included?

[Arcon]

Or are you just saying that you want to be able to unlock everything without any "chocie" or "sacrifice" included?

This. Trade-offs are for the real world. In a fantasy world I wanna be able to do everything. Choices and customization are good if you wanna tailor something to your own preference. However, it's very bad if your preference is to play all your jobs at their best.

Also, you cannot just unmerit a WS and remerit a new one. It requires 100 merits to fully cap a WS, which means three EXP parties in between (assuming you already had 30 merits stored up). That is quite an investment.

I hate not being able to do something someone else can, for the pointless sake of "customization". It's just a word, a lame one at that. There is no need for SE to cater to it.

[Llana_Virren]

Trade-offs are for the real world. In a fantasy world I wanna be able to do everything.

Maybe it's just me, but if everyone could do everything there'd be no point in playing a fantasy world at all. All words have rules, be the world real (here) or imagined (in-game).

After all, let's take this a step further, shall we? I learned Dia as a lv.1 RDM. Just because I changed jobs to Thief doesn't mean I somehow got amnesia and forgot my magic. And with MP+ gear and merits, it's not like I don't have the MP to cast, either.

But if a Lv.99 SAM could cast all spells and use all JAs and JTs and WSs... yeah.

Merits were not designed to be the next phase of character "evolution." Rather, it is character customization. Granted, a lot of merit categories are so underwhelming that no one uses them (and thus limits the amount of customization available), but the WS category fits the bill perfectly.

But in case you still think you should be able to do everything, refer back to my Lv.99 SAM casting Meteor example.

[Camiie]

Maybe it's just me, but if everyone could do everything there'd be no point in playing a fantasy world at all.

It's not just you, but it's not many more than you. Your SAM casting Meteor or THF casting Dia as a main job examples are a refuge in absurdity. I'm not asking for spells and abilities to be available for jobs that cannot use them. I'm merely asking to be able to fully unlock whatever merit-based weapon skills I have met the requirements for. Proper job, 357+ skill and 100 merits.

I'm still going to be specialized by changing jobs, so I don't see the issue.

[Meyi]

But in case you still think you should be able to do everything, refer back to my Lv.99 SAM casting Meteor example.

Except, nobody was asking to have any ability available for a job that wouldn't have access to it in the first place. What this topic is arguing for is the ability to unlock every weapon skill for the jobs that can use them. This topic is not asking to have Tachi: Shoha become available for RDM.

[Arcon]

Maybe it's just me, but if everyone could do everything there'd be no point in playing a fantasy world at all.

While I feel you're being too literal with my statement (I just used it as an ice-breaker for my argument), I'll try to answer that. What exactly is the job system? Simply put, it's an excuse for people not having to level other characters to experience other classes. And if you ask me, it's quite an elegant solution, because it's an acceptable loss of ingame realism (amnesia on job change) for player convenience. I firmly believe SE should consider this approach more often and just ignore realism loss for the sake of convenience. Sadly, they're obsessively compulsive about this and always try to justify their gameplay choices by some twisted lore arguments. See Traverser Stones, they gave them a completely unnecessary lore background (that no one even buys) just to satisfy their need for lore consistency, which is ironic considering its inconsistent explanation. The point being, looking for ingame explanations for game mechanics is unneeded at best, at times even annoying (sitting through minutes worth of cutscenes just to hear how exactly the Moogle is enchanting your trial piece is just one example).

So changing jobs is all good and well. We don't need to concern ourselves with explanations of how and why when it's very simple: so people can play multiple jobs. Merits on the other hand push this further. They push this lore inconsistency onto a single job, and that's what bothers people. Because when people decide to play a job, they don't do it for specific merit paths. They do it because they like it and wanna learn it and be good at it. They have accepted the inconsistency of the job system itself gladly, because it enhances their game experience. This time, it's different. This time they find themselves at a point where they can't do something an equally skilled and geared player of the same job can't. This time, for no lore reason at all, something impairs their game experience. And as you can no doubt understand, people have an easier time accepting the first case over the latter.

There is also a fundamental difference with merits, namely that you cannot switch at will, something the job system was specifically designed to do. To compare it accurately, you can imagine a job system where switching jobs will delevel your previous job to 49. I don't think it's hard to see why people wouldn't go for it. If the merit system allowed to switch unconditionally whenever you're in the Mog House it would already be a great help, though still not perfect. At least you wouldn't have to sacrifice utility in one event for utility in another, which is what you currently do.

And for the record, everyone knows what merits were intended for and what they do. But that is precisely what people have a problem with.