If every class was completely niche instead of having the base role and building upon it with visuals and a couple of unique gimmicks, it would be so impossible to balance it would be FFXI all over again.
Let's not forget the great tanks wars. Is it warrior? no it's paladin! wait it's ninja, paladin, ninja, fuck it let that Red mage do it, oh, nerf that, ninja again, paladin. Y'know, that white mage seems pretty tanky with the right subjob there.
it was a mess, a fun mess, but a MESS. and it really screwed with people's ability to progress at times, especially when paladins were considered Gimptanks for a while until they started making the classes share certain essential role abilities. like thf and dancer getting dual wield natively, and paladin being given provoke so that it could use other sub jobs than warrior.
it took them years to come to the conclusion that balancing is a bitch, and they never truly got that balance down.
