If i had the wheel

[Alhanelem]

No i dont make any assumtions in that statement i have some programming experience, neither of the competing answers you suggested are quick or easy to implement objectively.

You absolutely did make assumptions about me, and the rest of this sentence shows you didn't really read past those first few words. I never made any "competing answers," much less suggested anything based on any sort of ease of implementation. I have worked in the game development industry myself, and I know full well that people on the outside often comment on how easy or hard something is to do without having any experience on the matter. But... I never proposed anything so I really don't know what you're on about here.

One of the key problems with moving abiltiies to earlier levels is it creates bigger droughts of new abilities elsewhere. Part of the fun and excitement that comes with leveling up a job is the gradual unlocking of new skills, spells and traits for your job on reaching new levels. Jobs are already designed with this in mind, and tampering with that isn't likely to be beneficial.

[Delgear]

Which is why i recommended only moveing 2 iconic abilities. Im pretty sure most classes have drastically more abilities and spells than 2. I didn't make any assumptions, you literally made a suggestion to not move anything. My whole point on this thread is that the majority of players will latch on to one specific job when they first start the game, they will level it to 99 maybe stopping long enough to support its subjobs levels and then when they get to 99 many of them may find they have a veritably useless job for engame content and even worse often a additionally a useless subjob. In 2025 with the state of most Ambuscades and Omen runs, if you are alone and trying to break into the game (the players we want to attract) because we already have the hardcore audience, and honestly i don't think the hardcore audience is going to suddenly hate the game for supporting more viable job and subjob combinations.

So if you are into game design you might want to brush up on a topic known as the "Illusion of choice" which is where you give a player a multitude of choices but so many of them are so bad that there is really only a few choices that actually "Exist".
If you start this game in 2025 as say a thief and play straight to 99 and maybe stop to level warrior because you happen to like it you don't even get dual wield until post 49 (83) the way most people want to and expect to play thief doesnt even kick in as a thf until you are level 83 !!!! before that you are kinda forced by game mechanics (fast swinging weapons like daggers benefit from dual wield) to play as sub DNC or sub NIN to even PLAY the idea of the thief job (dual wielding and being evasive) since thf has no way to really be extra evasive itself outside passive stats, theres no actual gameplay or skill expression in the class.

The idea here is if a new player levels something to 99 you want them to feel like they have in fact opened up a viable endgame job and many options to play with.
Lets say in this example they overcome that THF is not a demanded or popular job to request for most end game content as far as DPS or does it help the party much outside passive drops which are not presently interactive content they are passive and boring with no skill expression.

They level another job they happen to like to 99, in the current game meta what does thief provide to most jobs as a subjob ? you don't exactly see people legitimately trying to use it in any important content as a subjob, because all of its options that make it relevant to end game content come at level 55 or higher.

[Delgear]

The longer we force new players to play this game completely by themselves and stomp on thier achievements and outgroup them through elitism the less likely we are to retain new players in the game.

Some new players may level to 99 and find they can't even play the game without being carried or they have to go back and complete the entre game again as a different job and likely different subjobs. It does not inspire new players to like a job and then find out it isn't desired.

Sure a top gear THF can put out some sweet damage and make more drops, but everyone seems to forget what that experience feels like to go from baby 99 thf to geared deadly assassin. Especially without other leveled jobs to just lean on to get the gear for you, or friends to carry you since they recruited you.