Current state of high tier battlefields and job discrimination...

[Byrth]

Someone mentioned doing two on normal with the slug.

Blue would doubtlessly be fine.

[Ulth]

I agree with Byrth compared to ark angel fights the avatars are nothing. Going in knowing nothing about the fight we crushed shiva on normal. Our party setup was whm/sch, brd/whm, cor/dnc, mnk/run and 2 thf/run. With barblizzard and runes, diamond dust did little more than a tickle. I have no idea what all the procs meant but they popped up like crazy during the fight. I suspect it had something to do with all the enfire damage.

I also agree that a Blue would do splendid for an avatar fight. I wouldn't be surprised if a well geared Blue could solo normal.

[Olor]

Well as a not so well geared blu, maybe I'll work on "very easy" and see how that goes.

[Maikeru_Sylph]

It seems like the default party set up for most of these fights has become a party with a PLD, BRD, WHM and RNGs. While this may be effective and "safe" I feel like most jobs are becoming more and more useless and superfluous. I know you can play a job you don't really like to join the battlefield to get gear for your favorite job, BUT I've feel like this has resulted in me just idling my favorite job than doing any content. Even difficulty levels(Normal and below) where other jobs (RDM, GEO, DDs, etc) can take part we still see players demand rangers and plds. There are a few exceptions like delve and incursion, but seeing as SE's "end game" seems to be releasing a new high tier battlefield every month, I really wish they were more friendly towards other jobs.
What could possibly fix this? Maybe if the battlefields had restrictions on only being able to take unique jobs into the battlefields, that is, only 1 of any type of job is allowed. This would force players to use those additional slots to take in jobs that aren't used much. Otherwise you might as well combine RDM BRD COR and GEO into 1 job, all DDs into RNG somehow and PLD and RUNE into a single job as well.

I don't know, it might just be me, but I'm finding this game more and more boring the more jobs are excluded. FFXI endgame (75 cap days and even aby days) were some of the most job friendly days. You could do anything and play any job you really loved. It gave us so many combinations and so many jobs to gear.

Or maybe it's the player base. Maybe SE never intended these end game battlefields to become stagnant and mundane. Personally I have been approaching these as solo challenges. I've had more fun soloing them on pld, rdm, bst and nin than any party, but even that gets old...

tl;dr: Delve is old, incursion needs more goals, and high tier battlefield job discrimination is making this game stagnant and mundane.

I understand where you're coming from. I was in a situation a few months ago where I didn't have any of the jobs leveled that people are asking for, so I had to figure out which of those jobs I disliked the least and leveled/geared it up. Now, it's easier for me to complete higher-level content, but it's frustrating and depressing not being able to play the jobs that I enjoy. Making parties doesn't automatically make things come together either because some jobs really are that much more powerful/useful than others.

[Stompa]

I agree we need more job diversity in events, but it isn't really SE's problem and also adding a job lock system would be terrible.

The problem you face is that people have worked out the easiest / quickest set-ups and they will take this "path of least resistance" whenever possible.

This is the problem you face when building your own "unorthodox" party for events, those people that you want to join your party, they have spent w/e for a trigger and they have the choice of standard set-up with quick/easy win, or your unorthodox set-up with an unknown factor.

I personally love unorthodox builds, it is interesting. But most people don't seem to agree with me. In the end I gave up and just levelled jobs that get shouted for all the time, or avoid those events entirely. So I agree with you it is a shame, but it is because of player choices and so I don't see how it can change unless players change.

[Ulth]

Oh right job lock is a terrible idea. If you wanted to see more jobs coming to AA fights I say just lower the cost. Right now players see anything other than the rng pld set up as too risky. On the other hand orb fights people will use who ever is around. I've been in some very unique orb fights with people who weren't even in ilvl gear. I didn't care though it wasn't my orb being used. If they just changed it so only one person uses their KI for the fight, I feel people would be more open to different styles of beating the fights. You want to use your pup in an AA fight? Fine it's your merits not mine.

[Camiie]

The dark side of the job change system is that SE feels zero pressure to balance jobs in any way shape or form. In other games your class is your character's identity. In FFXI, a job is no more than an elaborate piece of gear. That's all you should see it as. Never fall in love with it. Never devote yourself to it. Never strive for perfection on it. Why would you? The devs and community like the idea of jobs being disposable. Just half-ass all the jobs and make everyone else happy.

[Zarchery]

Not another one of these ...

Ok, let's make up rules for a drinking game just to mix it up. I'll start:

1) Every time someone uses the word "elitist", "elite", or "elitism", take a shot.

[Sapphires]

The use paladin and throw relic rangers at everything is super lame and it probably is one of the more damaging problems the game suffers.
I'd seriously rather not log on if I absolutely had to play mnk, sam, rng, or pld to get anything done in this game.
SE can't really fix the metagame and change how parties get made for content. Yes SAM is still overpowered and broken.

There is a bunch of ninjas running around with the new update but noone wants ninja tanks, and they arent even on the radar as a 'DD' to people.

I gear the hell out of my dancer and it still has resistance to getting invited even when it outlives monks and out tanks most paladins(except stellar fulcrum cause **** that dude).
I'm gearing the heck out of drk right now and making it a liberator and yet again, its going to have to fight hard to get a spot in a group compared to the tsurumaru bandwagon samurais

I do battlefields on 'difficult' on dnc a lot, a dnc that cares to gear itself decently can tank ouryu even with a full dispel roar going off.
I've done a few things on VD too, but 1h damage takes a nosedive and on stuff like the worm's turn on very difficult your best contribution is steps and waltzes if you have a less than perfect backline.

Dnc/run works really good on puppet in peril and its impossible to die on that bc. If you play this game like 98% of the playerbase and are doing 'difficult' mode at the hardest, all jobs work.

tldr: find people that let you play the job you wanna bring and try extra hard to be good at it, or make your own party so you can play whatever you want.

[Ris]

The dark side of the job change system is that SE feels zero pressure to balance jobs in any way shape or form. In other games your class is your character's identity. In FFXI, a job is no more than an elaborate piece of gear. That's all you should see it as. Never fall in love with it. Never devote yourself to it. Never strive for perfection on it. Why would you? The devs and community like the idea of jobs being disposable. Just half-ass all the jobs and make everyone else happy.

I have to disagree...^^; Even in FFXIV, where switching jobs is even easier than FFXI, a lot of people to develop and strong sense of job identity. And some people embrace the whole multiclass do-anything mindset, but in my experience those types are rare than those that have a favorite or two and mostly stick to those favorites. In XI, my LS has plenty of people that play what they want to play even if it means they never get to do endgame... (though I think most endgamers don't really care anyway)