The only 2 things that really made me cringe was SNM skill, guard skill and parry skill. other then those it was all casual fighting over and over. Slow but there was progress. The above 3 where NUTS at at one point I think SNM is still nuts but guard and parry got fixed a while back.

I suggested something a long time ago that would've soothed the skill up problem. My suggestion was that if a players skill is less then 80% capped on level up the game would give automatic bonuses to put that job at a a minimal skill level.

Example.

If a player is level level 9, the skill cap for level 10 is 10 skill. When the player reaches level 10 if they don't have the minimal skill of at least 70% (or 7 skill) or D class skill. the game brings it up to 7/D class skill. This allows them to keep up as they increase in levels even though they don't skill up directly. Even A player who leeched would never be totally useless because they'd have at least D class skill rating. They would ever be fully capped from this but it'd keep them close enough.

If this is giving away to much, then the minimums could be like minimal adjustments that aren't permanent but always active for the job at hand. This way if someone rushed leeched war to level 99 they'd have all minimal combat skills at minimal levels posted as RED. This is much like merited skills don't represent the real skills. When they switched to a another job of another level the minimums would revert to that job unless they actually skilled them up on the 99 job making them cap out.

On SCH there are abilities called dark arts and light arts. These when activated bring up the magic skill to near B class on any job even one that doesn't have the skill at all link MNK. Whrn the player activates these skills they aren't really gaining permanent skill they're skills are just being augmented toward a temporary level. The same could be utilized on all jobs to make it easier to skill up. The player wouldn't need to use an ability they'd just have a minimal set of skill related to their job. This could even be done with the skill up foods.