Post-99 Job Specialization System

[Flarez]

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been reading a lot of interesting suggestions regarding new jobs, spells, and new gameplay elements. Since I thought a lot of the ideas would be awesome if implemented in FFXI, I began to think of a way SE could actually do so with the limited development resources allotted to the game. And thus, I came up with the Job Specialization System!

It's pretty long! I wrote most of this stuff back when FFXI was down after the tsunami.

I hope you’ll enjoy reading about my idea as much I have everyone else’s

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The (Post-99) Job Specialization System

What is it?
The Job Specialization system will give players a way to continue to utilize their merit points after reaching level 99 by unlocking new specializations for each job and spending merit points to attain new abilities and job traits. These job specializations would increase the job’s aptitude in a certain role (i.e. tank, damage dealer, healer, support, crowd control / AoE, pets, etc.) and even offer new roles for existing jobs, varying the gameplay experience and making it easier to create parties.

Players would only be able to choose 1 specialization per job; to switch, the player would need to forsake all traits and abilities learned thus far and focus completely on the other specialization. Each job would have 2 specializations, though very few would have 3.

Here’s an example of how it would work:

Suppose you reach level 99 Dancer. You may then "lock-in" to one of the following 3 specializations.

1. Wondrous Waltzer – The dancer focuses on healing and curative dances, as well as enfeebling steps. Job traits in this specialization would grant bonuses to curing potency, step accuracy and potency. Some new job abilities might include:

• Ballroom Dance: Temporarily increases the dancer’s maximum TP pool by 200% and separates the recast timers for Waltz abilities, but prohibits the usage of weapon skills. Also grants a moderate regain effect (2TP/tic). (Similar to Fan Dance and Saber Dance, only one can be active at a time)

• Auto Regain (Trait): Grants a small regain effect (1 TP/tic)

• Super Step: The next step will immediately grant the full extent of the debuff (level 5). The dancer will receive a normal number of finishing moves.
Etc.

2. Furious Flourisher – The dancer deals increased damage to foes through improved flourish and samba effects. Traits would augment haste samba, dual wield, and saber dance, as well as grant new damaging flourish abilities. (DD Spec)

3. Animated Acrobat – The dancer uses great evasion and agility to frustrate and elude the enemy. Fan Dance and closed position would be augmented, and new evasion and enmity traits granted. Steps would generate a large amount of enmity. (Tank Spec)

After locking in one specialization, you would use your merit points to obtain new abilities.

The above is just an example of how the system could work. By doing this, SE would be giving the player more choice in defining how they want to play their job (rather than having people tell them not to play a certain way, they’d actually be good at their role).


Further Uses for the Job Specialization System
This system could be useful in other ways as well. Many people have been asking for new jobs and spells. These could be easily introduced. For example:

99 Black Mage >>
Black Sage – The Black Mage focuses on devastating single-target damage abilities and enmity reduction tools meant to decimate and confuse the target. Traits would offer enmity reduction and augment skills like enmity douse and mana wall. (New Spells: Comet, Ultima, Death, Confuse, Scathe [darkness based nuke], Bio III, Frost/Burn II, other DoTs)

OR

Illusionist – The Black Mage focuses on area of effect abilities to immobilize and dispatch multiple enemies at once. (New Spells: Meteor, Bindga, Sleepga III, Stunga, Scathe-ga, -Ja II, new elemental AoE nukes that debuff enemies)

99 Summoner >>
Caller – The Summoner calls on familiar allies to temporarily aid in battle. Call spells can be used in conjuction with currently summoned avatars and elementals. (New Call Spells: Chocobo, Mog Knight, Magian Moogle, Cait Sith, Poroggo Prince, Pixie, etc.)

99 Red Mage >>
Time Mage – The Red Mage learns new abilities that alter time and space itself. Also strengthens enfeebling and enhancing skills. (New Spells: Hastega, Quicken, Quarter, Demi, Stop, Slowga, Graviga, Warp, Retrace, etc.)

Mystic Knight – The Red Mage focuses on prowess in battle, strengthening self-enhancing magic, sword skills and weapon enchantments.

And so on…

Through specializations, many “new jobs” can be created through offering a new gameplay experience by simply altering old jobs slightly. Again, this would not be too difficult for SE to implement; in fact, many of the “new spells” for these jobs are already in game.

SE could add in new quests to unlock these specializations at 99, with interesting storylines and maybe a key NPC that must be defeated. They could even add spec-specific armor to add to the look and feel of each specialization.

Furthermore, this (along with many new challenging encounters and dungeons) is sure to keep FFXI alive for many more years to come. Especially if SE makes encounters that strongly encourage the use of unique abilities from certain specializations.


List of Proposed Specializations by Job and Role

Of course, I'm not an expert of every job in FFXI. But I thought it would be fun to suggest a full list of specializations, just to give an idea of how this sort of system could expand on the role of each job in the game.

The List -

Warrior:
Gladiator (Melee DD, proficient in many weapons)
Defender (Tank, lots of PDT-, retaliation and stuns/knock back abilities)

Monk:
Blackbelt (Melee DD, best physical sustained DoT)
White Monk (Tank, evasion and counter, enhanced chakra)


Black Mage:
Black Sage (Single Target Magic DD, Enmity Reduced)
Illusionist (AoE Magic DD, Crowd Control)


White Mage:
White Sage (Enhanced Healing, Back-Line)
Bishop/Enforcer (Front-Line Healing, Weaponskill Damage converted to Party Healing, Damage reduction spells [Phalanx-ga, Stoneskin-ga, etc.])


Red Mage:
Time Mage (Best Enfeebling and Enhancing Magic Support)
Mystic Knight (Melee DD and Support, access to stronger swords and weaponskills, strengthened en-spells)

Thief:
Brigand (Assassin-type melee spike damage w/ enmity wipes)
Trickster (Unique Support via. enhanced TH, Enmity Control, Gilfinder, Aura Steal, etc.)

Paladin:
Crusader (PDT- Tank, best enmity generation, shield skills enhanced)
Templar (MDT- Tank and DD, strong divine magic abilities, greatsword skills enhanced)


Dark Knight:
Vampire (Drain Tank, enhanced movement speed, dark damage)
Hell Knight (Physical/Magic DD Hybrid)


Ranger:
Sniper (Single Target Ranged DD)
Bombardier (AoE Ranged DD with bombs and traps)


Bard:
Minstrel (Enhancing Support, more songs on target at once etc.)
Dirge (Enfeebling Support / Dagger DD)


Beastmaster:
Master Tamer (Pet DD, tame notorious monsters, enhanced killer traits)
Necromancer (Pet DD, raise + charm undead mobs, enhanced scythe skill, minor dark magic + DoTs) - this sounds silly, but would be cool!


Summoner:
Caller (Pet DD, Call enmity-less temporary pets regardless of if you have an avatar summoned)
Evoker (Pet DD, summon new, stronger avatars [bahamut])


Ninja:
Shadow (Tank, high evasion, more shadows, shadows don't wipe completely with AoE)
Assassin (Melee DD, Debuffer, Throwing Weaponskills)


Samurai:
Bushido (Melee DD, Skillchain master, GIL TOSS!)
Shogun (Tank, high parrying, enhanced seigan, zanshin)


Dragoon:
Lancer (Melee DD, all jumps do damage (inc. super jumps) and wipe enmity, melee weapons become slightly ranged)
Drake Knight (Pet DD, Wyvern gains dramatically enhanced defense, HP, melee ability and unique weaponskills. Enhanced control over wyvern)


Blue Mage:
Soul Mage (Magical Blue Magic DD)
Imperial Mage (Physical Blue Magic DD)


Corsair:
Gunner (Ranged Physical/Magical DD Hybrid)
Gambler (Luck-Based Support with strongest buffs in game on lucky rolls. New abilities like roulette (w/ doom), slots, etc.)

Puppetmaster:
Mechanist (Automaton Focused DD, Master Support)
Jester (Master Focused DD, Automation Support)


Dancer:
Wondrous Waltzer (TP Healer)
Furious Flourisher (Flourish and Samba based DD)
Animated Acrobat (PDT- and Evasion Tank)


Scholar:
Tactician (Support for Front-Line Jobs and Magic DD)
Oracle (Support for Back-Line Jobs and Healing)


Further details for the proposed specializations above were left out of this post for length reasons.

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Do you think SE might ever be able to implement something similar to this? My main concern is that there are so many specializations (41 in total) that job balance would be pretty difficult, but remember these are not full-fledged jobs.

I would love to hear people's feedback on this idea!

Thanks for reading
-Flare, Asura

[Nidhogg]

I can hardly read any of the things you have listed because of the color change..

[tarolin]

I like this idea but i think some people might get the idea that you will only be able to do certain things, well thats not true because you said that you gain added things and not lose in others.

[OMEGA_HACK]

I just don't like that Ultima is given to the Black Mage...

I hope you realize that Ultima is traditionally either A) White Magic (yes look it up multiple games have it listed as White Mage or Holy Magic) or B) Non-Elemental/Time Magic which makes no sense to give it to the masters of Elemental Magic aka Black Mages. >.>

Also, I feel that some of the customizations are a little cheap, like the Dragoon one. No one will choose the Wyvern one, basically because S-E already told us they "dramatically" increased the Wyvern defenses and they still die in 1-2 AoE attacks. There are also some others that I noticed, but don't get me wrong I hope this is sort-of something that happens post-99.

[Vangoh]

I actually like this concept of idea, very creative really. Is like a way to revamp all jobs and almost turn them into new jobs. Of course each job needs to be reviewed and worked out but this is a nice rough draft really. Again some changes would be made the job abilities and new traits that you suggested but I would be very nice to see this.

ONE THING YOU SHOULD ADD THOUGH that you should have the option to switch between the new job-class back and forth. I wouldn't want to be stuck in one and not being able to do the things I used to do.

[CrystalWeapon]

The concept of advanced classes in an interesting one, but they already have plans for further customization at lv 99. It was announced for VanaFest 2010.

An increase in maximum upgrades is being considered for existing merit point skills and attributes. Preparations are also under way for the introduction of a new type of merit point for players who have reached the new level 99 summit.

http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/event/vanafes2010/

I would love to see advanced forms of the current jobs we have now, but I don't like the idea of locking into a certain form permanently.

[Malamasala]

There should be some kind of overflow option. Like at 99 you can flood over to level 1 again, but you get to be able to wear all armor and keep all spells (MP cost negated due to low MP pool) and all WSes etc.

So basically you could play another 99 levels but with all your stuff available. New game+

[Fiarlia]

I just don't like that Ultima is given to the Black Mage...

I hope you realize that Ultima is traditionally either A) White Magic (yes look it up multiple games have it listed as White Mage or Holy Magic) or B) Non-Elemental/Time Magic which makes no sense to give it to the masters of Elemental Magic aka Black Mages. >.>

FF: Did not exist in the game.

FFII: White Magic, though it's calculated using the same formula all Black Magic is.

FFIII: Did not exist in the game.

FFIV (Series): White Magic and Black Magic. (In The After Years, Golbez could also cast it with Cecil.)

FFV: Did not exist in the game.

FFVI: Hard to classify as Terra learns it at 99, and learns both White and Black Magic naturally (without Espers). Ragnorak and the Paladin Shield both teach the spell, and while I can see an argument that a Paladin Shield would teach White Magic rather than Black Magic, it's not quite enough since it can be worn by anyone except Umaro. Ragnarok also only teaches Ultima so it's not really possible to draw much of a correlation from that.

FFVII (series): Unclassified, and all magic is learned through Materia and not really broken down into schools, and each character can learn each type of magic.

FFVIII: Also unclassified, as it's drawn, and everyone can use it.

FFIX: Also unclassified. Only Kuja can use it, and he has both White and Black Magic spells, also it's only a story element, used to end battles and in a cutscene.

FFX (series): Black Magic.

FFXI: Does not exist in this game (yet, at least).

FFXII: Does not exist in this game.

FFXIII: Black magic, only Barthandalus can cast it, and he only casts Black Magic.

FFT: Unclassified, as it's a Squire ability, though the closest argument for a school of magic would be Blue, since that's the way it's learned.

FFTA (Series): Unclassified, it only appears as weapon skills.

FFCC: Unclassified, as one must combine White and Black magics to get it.

Doesn't exist: 5
White Magic: 2
Black Magic: 3 (2 if you want to say that Golbez's ability to Band it doesn't count.)
Blue Magic: 1 (If you want to say FFT's version is a particular school.)
Unclassified: 7

White Magic is at best tied with Black Magic for the school, at worst behind it. Ultima is a powerful spell that SE (just Square in older times) adds in whichever way best suits the game (in their opinion at least) in question.

[Merton9999]

I LOVE this idea. It's a way to bring job names and abilities from other titles many of us have wanted to see for a long time, without going through the process of creating entire new jobs with AF, stories, etc. Although, I really would like to see Time Mage or Mime AF...

I would add Geomancer for SCH, with super potent weather and helix spells. Also, where is Calculator/Math Mage?! It's my favorite FF class of all time. I'd suggest it for SCH, but then I wouldn't be able to choose Geomancer Unless...

I'd suggest actually being able to advance all concentrations, but to require a MH switch to change between them. This would alleviate the "We don't want you because you're a Geomancer, not a Calculator" problem, and not lock people into one concentration.

I also think this could be pretty easily implemented. It's not all that different than the existing merit system - it just adds a level of complexity in switching between concentrations, and a new title to add to lists like search, check and status.

As far as Ultima goes, I want to see it for SCH as a schema. I'd like it to be Divine White Magic so I could throw out a powerful nuke while in Light Arts, and to take advantage of the otherwise useless Divine Skill on LA SCH. How that fits in with past games is irrelevant imo - as Fiarlia points out, they change these affiliations all the time. I'd prefer it be integrated the way it fits best into XI, not be forced into a certain spell type for consistency with past games.

[Flarez]

Thanks for all the feedback so far guys!

As you can see I changed the colors back to all black since they might have been annoying.

@Merton - Geomancer and Math Mage (or any job SE chooses really) could be subbed in for the examples I gave in the list. The list was just to show how it might work for each job in particular.

@Vangoh and Crystalweapon - I actually agree with you, locking into one spec might be a bit restrictive. I still think its important that you can only be one at a time though, to avoid over-powered combinations and keep the ability to balance the jobs in the game.

If SE is thinking about a new merit point system already, I hope it's something similar to this!