Of all the battle content that has been added since I started playing again, I find Odyssey the most artificially frustrating and difficult to deal with. I've observed that without certain well geared jobs and an established static, it is near impossible to progress at a reasonable rate.
The current requirements force the player community into a few habits, which are a detriment IMO:
1. Only a few specific jobs are used - In a game with a really interesting and diverse job system, it is a shame that we only see a handful of these jobs accepted into segfarm parties. The entry requirements are so restrictive that people don't want to take chances since they have a 20hr window to get back in again. So for those of us with well geared jobs that aren't a part of that list, we hit a brick wall with progression without gearing something else.
2. People get into statics and stick with those groups - This has been a theme in 11 since I started playing many years ago, so it isn't uncommon to see statics, the problem is that even when there were exp statics, farming statics, etc in years past, there were plenty of other ways to reach your goals in the past without a static. It was just easier and more effective with one. In Odyssey, it is near impossible to get anywhere with a PUG and those are uncommon since the majority of the well geared players are already in one.
3. High requirements for groups - The 20hr wait to get back in for farming segments means people want to be as efficient as possible, which is reasonable, but this leaves little opportunity for people that aren't near BiS for the few jobs that people want for these segment farms. Most PUG shouts I see are for R15 heavy DD jobs, which is excessively restrictive IMO, but is reasonable given that they want to get the best out of the group
What this ultimately means is that without one of a few jobs geared near BiS, getting segments is painfully slow and inefficient. What I find the most irritating is the job limitations people are forced into. I see a lot of folks online discussing playing a job they don't like solely to gear and play the ones that they do. IMO with a game with such a diverse job system, it shouldn't be that way, but especially it shouldn't be so restrictive that it is limited to fewer than half the jobs the game offers.
I know restrictive entry timers are nothing new in this game and go back to the beginning, but the difference is that at least then, you didn't have to be as heavily geared since the content allowed more players, which allowed for more variation.
So while I'm not advocating that Odyssey be entirely made 18 man (we all know that'll end up with 12 man merc teams for Bumba) or made easier, I think something should be done to allow the player base to change up the strategy or allow for more variations in jobs. I expect this was the idea behind the 3 MPII entry requirements and job locks in Gaol, but it doesn't really help with A/B/C. I get that it is end game content and it should remain difficult to do and not hand it to you, but I think it should allow for players to take more advantage of what the game provides in terms of classes and allow more variation.
I had a few thoughts about how this might happen:
1. Relax the entry requirements to A/B/C (e.g. an Omen type system that allows multiple entries across a period of time)
2. Provide a job change system similar to Sheol Gaol that provides substantial time extensions for changing and locking jobs in a seg farm
3. Ease the segment requirements for entering Sheol Gaol
4. Allow alliances in A/B/C only (not Gaol), but scale difficulty based on the # of players or parties
Not sure what to conclude with, but I feel like this system should change to allow more diversity in classes and not force players to level one of 8 classes just to gear jobs they like to play better.