SoA content for ALL 20 jobs...

[Afania]

Pretty much this. I'd be all for coming to endgame events as something other then BLM or SAM or BLU, but no one wants my RDM, or NIN, or BST a good portion of the time. You could include DNC as well, but I basically gave up on the job for the same reason its not getting to invites to endgame events either.

The job balance is in the toilet right now and all the endgame events are basically rigged in favor of the jobs that are on the winning side of the balance issue. It's all great and good to tell someone to level multiple jobs, but variety is the spice of life and not everyone is going to want to come XXX every time something needs to be killed. And for people to recommend past content as a solution aren't seeing the whole picture. At this point in time even IF a RDM could do lets say Limbus, or Dynamis, or Zeni Notorious Monster, or KS99 BC's solo, so too could most jobs in the game, and do it faster/Safer in a lot of other instances (such as BLU and SCH etc).

People who think balance is impossible have either no imagination at all for game development, or have never played any other MMO other than FFXI. Balance is very possible without having every class feel exactly the same/do the same damage.

If you play other MMO, most MMO out there there are players cried about X class sucked all the time, I mean, all the time.

And they often have less classes than FFXI.

[Alhanelem]

If you play other MMO, most MMO out there there are players cried about X class sucked all the time, I mean, all the time.

And they often have less classes than FFXI.

Well, the standard for balance is higher when you through serious PvP into the mix (probably why they never really took ballista seriously, they knew they'd never achieve solid balance), so this is where it becomes crying that your class parses the lowest, even when its <1% off what the number one class can do and it's a class that heals or supports in PvE...

[detlef]

Pretty much this. I'd be all for coming to endgame events as something other then BLM or SAM or BLU, but no one wants my RDM, or NIN, or BST a good portion of the time. You could include DNC as well, but I basically gave up on the job for the same reason its not getting to invites to endgame events either.

The thing is, your NIN is incredible in Abyssea. Your BST is great in Dynamis. As for your RDM, I can't really help you too much there, although it is and always has been a very good Salvage healing job.

[Ramaza]

The thing is, your NIN is incredible in Abyssea. Your BST is great in Dynamis. As for your RDM, I can't really help you too much there, although it is and always has been a very good Salvage healing job.

But thats the thing though, I don't wanna play my NIN in just abyssea, I wanna take it to Voidwatcher. I don't wanna play my BST in just Dynamis, I wanna take it to Legion, and the same goes for my RDM. Old content is not the solution to make jobs that are being sidelined viable again.

[Caketime]

Who has just one job anymore?

[Alhanelem]

Who has just one job anymore?

Mostly just newer players, I have 5 jobs and none of them are particularly popular for anything except SCH, and that popularity is about to go up in smoke in the next update.

[Rustic]

Who has just one job anymore?

More like "Who can afford to have just one job anymore?"

And that's a problem. All jobs, when you hit endgame, should have value, and brute force generation shouldn't be the winner.

Encounters should frequently have "Man, if we had <job> on this run, it'd have been a lot smoother. There should be "speed bumps" that while they don't stop people, they do slow them down. Spam physical DPS on a mob? "Reflects/redirects attack" effect that needs dispelling, like waaay back when we were slapping crawlers and crabs around and every time the thing Cocooned up, you needed removal to keep the exp chain going. Mobs that have huge -PDT/-MDT that's weakened by debuffing them. Mobs that have nasty special or even normal attacks/defenses that cripples a player (TP/MP drains or "Weakness Spikes", for example) but has no effect on pets/autos/drakes, leaving them fighting each other on more even terms. Something that forces a mix of effort besides "Hit it with a bigger axe."

[Demon6324236]

I do not have just one job, however I main RDM, and like DRG, my GF's 2nd fav job is PUP. These 3 jobs are mostly ignored, and left out of events, while I do have DRK, she has BLM, its not always something we want to play, especially in my case where my main job is left out.

[saevel]

People who think balance is impossible have either no imagination at all for game development, or have never played any other MMO other than FFXI. Balance is very possible without having every class feel exactly the same/do the same damage.

It's precisely because I've played many MMO's that I know balancing 20+ class's is impossible. I've already stated it at length but games can at most support ~6 class's prior to balance becoming an issue.

Pure Physical DPS
Pure Magic DPS
Pure Healer
Pure Tank

Then one to two hybrids or pet class's.

After you got that you end up with class's competing with each other for "the best damage" or "the best healing". Ultimately the developers end up playing a game of whack-a-mole where each cycle has them buff / nerf a different set of class's. One cycle the Warrior is the best DPS, then it's the Rogue, then it's the Hunter, then it's the Ret Pally, then it's the Warlock and so on / so forth. Players will constantly look to exploit various statistics to create builds that over-achieve. Once it's discovered there is a natural inclination to use those over-achieving builds in content, people who are not capable of those builds resent it and cry for a nerf / buff. Dev's come in and do such but in doing so effect some other aspect that is rapidly discovered and again another over-achieving build is created. Rinse-wash repeat.

[Kincard]

Ultimately the developers end up playing a game of whack-a-mole where each cycle has them buff / nerf a different set of class's...Players will constantly look to exploit various statistics to create builds that over-achieve.

Yes, that is true...it's also true that in many well balanced MMOs the gap between various builds isn't 30% or more, which is the case with FFXI's situation, which you seem to be ignoring. People will clear pretty much every bit of content without specifically building a party of Ret Pallies/Hunters/Rogue/Popular Build etc, because the gap is almost never large enough for most people to bother looking for those builds specifically, and when it is, it is rightfully nerfed. I want to see you do the same thing with FFXI's Legion making an alliance of NINs as your tanks/holders and THFs, MNKs, and BLUs as your DPSs. I am not asking for perfect, 100% everyone does the same numerical damage balance. Nobody is stupid enough to ask for that.

And you're acting like making the developers play a game of cat-and-mouse with finding game mechanic exploits is somehow a bad thing. The first thing is that the alternative is for them to sit on their thumbs about it, which is hardly a better alternative, and the second is that the players often take a while to find out what superior builds actually are.

Also, it's often the case that in FFXI's particular situation, the search for superior builds has almost always been within the same circle of two-hander jobs, because a lot of the problems stem from how two-hander damage in general is calculated, and then you have the issue of lack of powerful JAs like Berserk or Last Resort combined with Hasso on other than 2 or 3 jobs further widening the gap.