A plea for 3.0 and beyond: Job Customization

As it stands the only difference between two people playing the same job is gear, along with the 30 stat points to put in one of two stats actually needed by your job. We can customize greatly how we look, but why not how we play our jobs?

One of my favorite aspects of the Final Fantasy series has been character playstyle customization, most notably : FF5, FF7, FFT, and yes, FF11. (Thank you, Lexia.)

Why should we have job customization?
Players could enjoy imagining fun, creative builds, even knowing that they may not be the perfect choices. Besides, those “perfect” builds may not work best for some players. The fun is finding what works best for you.

It would open up certain jobs to those who would never play because it is stuck with a single role. I know of plenty of people who would love to be a Paladin if only it weren't a tank role only. This would also solve many player’s gripes over the Dark Knight being categorized as a tank.

An added feature to the game that would draw in players on the fence or simply turned off by how simple or bland the jobs are.

Arguments against this funtastic idea:
1. “Choice is an Illusion.” If I understand correctly, this is one of three player types.
a) Those who are punished by difficult content to the point of needing perfect builds just to get by.
b) Players who want the very best set up so they can perform their best.
c) Those who haven’t the time, interest, or are scared to make their own decisions.

False. All of those players would chose to look up a premade optimal build to enhance their experience, effectively giving them but one choice. Nothing would change for them except the fact that they have made a decision.

2. “It would be hard for the devs to do.” More variables would lead to further imbalance, ultimately breaking the game.

False. The challenge would be greater, though I still wouldn't argue this when we have the some of the most talented devs in the world working on this game. There are other games out there with a balanced custom class system in place. There’s no reason SE couldn't do it and do it better!

3. “The mess that’s already the Duty Finder would only get worse. People who have made poor choices may potentially join the DF keeping me from completing content."

False. This is a self-inflicted wound whereas the more difficult content in any MMO should not be attempted with random players. If they are struggling in a low dungeon, a little kind advice goes a long way and completion would be possible. As I see it, if you're so against it then DF should be a last resort, not your primary go-to for content completion. Try the Party Finder. Join an active FC. Go make some friends who share your playstyle and have fun again. IMO that is the true spirit of the MMO.

Ulimately it is up to SE on if and how to implement such a feature, though I’d like to throw out some suggestions:
A combination of FFXI and ARR:
Pick a subjob or a combination of two where the player may take most of the lvl 1-30 abilities. (with a 5-10 cross-skill maximum)

More fun with Traits:
Sure we could cross-class them, but what about adding trait materia? Most equipment would have 1 or 2 trait slots which anyone could socket no matter the profession.

Talent Trees: (Yes I know they’re cliché, though anything would be an improvement.)
(WHM)
+1-5 points to raise all magic healing potency 1-5%
+1-5 points to reduce casting time by 5-25%
+1-3 points to increase Cure 2 potency by 5-15%
+1-2 points to increase max MP by 5-10%... and on and on.

Extreme/1.0:
Allow jobs access to something around 75% of all abilities in the game, barring certain abilities which define the job. Or in other words; keep locked all skills associated with jobs as they are now, then open up all current class skills to every job. An example would be: Benediction would only be usable by a White Mage, while stoneskin, cure 2, medica, and protect usable by all jobs as long as they have leveled the required job to the appropriate level. WHM still has the improved stoneskin and protect traits as well as the piety and mind to keep its place as the main healer, while other jobs gain a little more versatility or flavor as I prefer to call it. (side note: I love both the FF series since its origins and MMO’s in general. I have played FF14 1.0, briefly. The reason why my friends and I stopped playing wasn’t the class system at that point, it was the frustration of a clunky UI and battle system so bad that I had lost faith in the franchise. ARR fixed most of that, hear’s hoping the game gets even better!)

Something I've forgotten? Agree, disagree, or agree to disagree? Then I want to hear more from the community. An official statement on the subject would also be much appreciated.



Tl;dr? If you support more freedom of choice as to your job's playstyle in any way, please give a thumbs up or bump to get some attention to this issue. Thank you for your comments and support!

The sub job system in XI was nice giving person ability to mix and match the different jobs.

I've wanted a system like that for a while, but realistically it wouldn't be implemented until 3.0. There is no reason to drastically change 2.0 when it's half a year until the expansion. I don't think they'd even have to change the difficulty of 2.0 content to fit. A character can only execute one action at a time. If a dragoon is healing it isn't doing damage so it wouldn't be a huge boost in performance.

One problem that would need solving is magic and physical damage having separate weapon damage stats. The reason paladin sucks at healing is because healing is based off the magic damage of the weapon. Give certain weapons magic damage and it could be a solid system.

You've already mentioned why I think we'll most likely not see this.

And increasing the difficulty pretty much makes the best setups a requirement. People who are already having trouble with content are only going to end up having more.

Okay, if I get this right, you want to remove the cross-class limitations of the Jobs and make more of the classes abilities cross-class-able? I have to assume this is what you mean as not once did you say "class", treating the Jobs as the things you level... which they aren't. While I'm all for the idea, it can make for some broken things balance-wise. Take Warrior. Being a TP tank they rely on their TP for maintaining hate, especially with their smaller mp pool compared to Paladin. If they were to have access to lancer's Invigorate then they'd be able to really rip into a mob, probably even outclassing Dragoon in burst damage. What's so bad about that? PvP. Warrior wades into an enemy party, carnage ensues. In the meta, all DDs would be assumed as having leveled archer for Quelling and Repelling Shot and conjurer for Shroud of Saints. I don't see this idea ending well, even if it would be neat.

I rather liked the FFXII grid system, where you unlocked abilities. You started at the character's strong point, and the abilities that were closest, and thus, fastest to unlock, were similar. Then further out were other kinds of abilities, and you could build in any direction you wanted. It kinda seems like that would work in an MMO setting, and work toward getting rid of the "Holy Trinity" which many people seem to dislike.

I would prefer a kind of Alternate Advancement system much like Everquest has. That way, once you hit the level cap, you can still level up and get stronger with more than just a gear grind. EQ is just the best example of this I can think of though, I'm sure they could make something that is more unique to Final Fantasy 14. Something like the sphere grid from Final Fantasy 10 could be an interesting form of alternate advancement.

I get what your saying but I can imagine Yoshi-P saying:
"No."
Because what they want above all is "balance and blah blah blah, ease of accessibility for new players blah blah.
Buuuuuuuuuuuut, Yoshi himself already doesn't like the class system, with DRK coming out as job only you may get your wish.. although it might only apply to the new jobs coming out from Ishgard while all Eorzan jobs keep their base class.

Also versatility is nice and I'm all up for it but I'm also the type of person that looks at it practically;
A lot of people can barely micro manage their own job and abilities, adding more in isn't going to make them play their job better.

To use your example:
Why is that WHM even low on MP at the end of the dungeon fight?
Are the DPS puling hate off the tank and taking too much damage? if so that's the DPS/Tank fault. DPS for aggro and early pulls without the tank, tank for not doing their job
OR just face tanking mob skills and taking unnecessary damage.
If you go into a dungeon, you know the optimal set up, why deviate it's optimal for a reason carry a BRD to refresh WHM MP or solo SCH, the game allows you to have multiple jobs on 1 toon.
It should never get to the point to where that DRG or any other class for the matter should have to throw up Cures for the party if the Healer is doing their job in the first place.

Now for just trash dungeons for whatever reason your running them, if your not using duty finder, and everyone wants to go 4 NIN cross class Cure II that's cool, for end game raid's or trials though you want the most efficient and optimal setting as you can.

Even with 10 cross class skills as a job, someone will test them all out to a science and say "SET X is the most EFFICIENT and OPTIMAL set for THIS JOB" and the majority will go with it because the numbers are true. I know that even if that set is the best, everyone has their own play style and while it may work for one person it won't work for everyone and that person may find that SET Y is more comfortable with their play style than SET X it still remains that SET X in the long run still does the job better then SET Y even by a margin as long as you do it correctly.

BUT I know that I wouldn't care as long as we get the win in, so PERSON Y can use SET Y to their hearts contend, it's just that SET X will always be better even by that super tiny margin, it's like running Blood for Blood VS Raging Strikes if you can only choose 1 between the 2.

TL;DR = you wouldn't get it unless you read the whole thing.

I have a hard time seeing this working. Will traits/passives also be shared? This is super critical to the support of this system. What's the point of rolling WAR, DRG, or Ninja and being allowed to throw in MNK skills without getting greased lightning? Monks are only strong because they can throw out lots of moves very quickly thanks to greased lightning. If you allow another job to obtain grease lightning through the use of monk skills, then it's already broken because grease lightning allows very few skills outside of it's rotation in order to maintain your greased lightning, and it will all be filled up with DoT abilities. On the other hand, if you don't allow other jobs to attain greased lightning, then there is absolutely no merit to using MNK skills since they are far weaker and your character will not be able to throw out as many to produce the same damage as a MNK with greased lightning. The same goes for Astral Fire and Umbral Ice, should a WHM be able to get all their mana back just because they have the accuracy to hit a boss with Blizzard III? Is there any merit for a SMN to use a 300+ mana cost (with no stacks of Astral Fire) fire spell without attaining any stacks of Astral Fire? In short the passives and traits system unique to each job is critical to their gameplay, and let's be real, allowing a tank or dps to heal is not ideal at all, the only way it will actually help is if they spec into piety and mnd at least just a little, which will hurt their dps and they will likely not get into parties. Not to mention with customization comes discrimination, you will have a harder time finding a party if you're not the most optimal set up (my guess would be MNKs with their fists of fire and greased lightning using whatever other abilities from another job that can possibly compliment their rotation, most likely heavy thrust from DRG). In short, with the current systems we have in place for our classes right now, a customization of your suggestion would never work out.

TL;DR: Jobs rely heavily on their passives/traits, ones that stand out would be Greased Lightning and Astral Fire. Allowing them to be shared between classes would be broken, not allowing them to be shared would eliminate any merit to using those abilities.

Nope. Saw enough of that in XI. WHM's granite skin and enhanced protect won't be enough to warrant bringing a WHM instead of having the tank and half or all of the dps subbing WHM and having all or a few of the dps stop to spam cure on whoever might need it. Even doing that, somehow the dps numbers were still higher.