[dev1210] Why Not Merit Weaponskills ??

[Alhanelem]

limit your character to 1 job,

Other games don't lock extra characters behind a paywall though, therefore you can play every class in those games too, just not on the same identity. FFXI is unusual in restricting you from more than one character unless you pay more. Customization systems are no more the antithesis for XI than they are for any other game.

The problem as I see it is two schools of thought, basically (but not exactly) a cup half full and cup half empty issue. There are those who view talent trees and merits and other similar systems as little more than non-level progression ( cup half empty approach) where the lack of them is a penalty. Then there are those who view these systems as bonuses or customization options when possessed rather than a punishment for not having (Cup half full). Neither is inherently wrong, and I'd like to stress that I'm really not trying to call anyone wrong in sharing my view on the matter. Personally, to me the best way to address the complaints and retain the customization of the system would be to drastically reduce the difficulty of changing your merits. If you could just respec them for a fee (instead of having to get whole new merits) in your mog house or something, you'd have the customization without the limitations being as much of a hinderance. In most other games with similar systems, it is not very difficult to undo/redo your decisions.

(Perhaps if the tradeoff was built into each effect/ability- that is, every merit has a benefit and a downside, that people would look at them more as customization and not as character progression)

So to be perfectly clear, even though I view the merit system as a customization system more than a progression device, there are a lot of ways the system could execute that goal a lot better than it does now. In posting that I don't want them to uncap merits, that doesn't mean that I feel that the merit system is perfect and without flaw (It very much isn't).