Idea: Armoury and Job System changes
As the "Why would you ever play ARC? I Hate the Class System." topic displays, many people are still divided over the usefulness of the armoury system with the job system now implemented. One concern is that certain jobs perform exactly the same as their class counterparts, rendering the appropriate class usefulness void. Therein lies the problem; classes were meant to be versatile, and yet, as jobs, they are equally as versatile? Hence my proposal for a later revision would be for a job to LOSE an ability from their corresponding class, to further specialise in one region of combat. I shall provide examples:
Note: I unfortunately am not confident with Gladiator/Paladin, Marauder/Warrior, and Pugilist/Monk, so I would skip these three disciplines and instead focus on the ones I do know and play.
LANCER AND DRAGOON
Dragoons alone with Monks are the DPS of the Discipline of War jobs. Dragoons deal greater critical damage, as well as having access to a couple more AoE weaponskills rather than Monk. Essentially, with PGL and ARC as Dragoon's sub-disciplines, they are already differentiated from Lancer by one major aspect - survivability. They lose the ability to heal, to buff, to withstand sudden attacks.
Thus, with that in mind, I propose removing "Life Surge" from the Dragoon's arsenal. Before you tear into me, about lowering the Dragoon's already lack of survivability, a Dragoon typically would not have Life Surge up when focusing on damage dealing – Power Surge should be their main focus.
Not to mention that there will typically be a White Mage to cover the healing aspects. As an addition, if you really wanted survivability, changing to Lancer and gaining access to Sentinel, Cure, Protect, Stoneskin, Bloodbath and other support skills will vastly improve survivability. Dragoon’s aren’t meant to be easily allowed to survive massive onslaughts; Life Surge basically is useless for Dragoons when put In regard with their job specialisations.
CONJURER AND WHITE MAGE
Take White Mage and Conjurer, for example. White Mage's main job is to heal, buff and support the party. Conjurer has that role, as well as being able to deal sufficient damage to off-set the lack of support spells that White Mages have.
However, I see many White Mages still capable for dishing out massive amounts of damage - even more so with Holy. This practically renders Conjurer void aside from the fact that Conjurer can equip Thunder, Fire, Fira and Sanguine Rite for more varieties of spell damage and MP regeneration - but those facts alone do not overpower the fact that WHM still has that role as a damage dealer.
To offset that, I propose removing "Cleric Stance" from the WHM's arsenal of abilities. This way, their damage-dealing prowess is removed - their main focus will be more suited towards healing rather than changing between healing, support, and then damage. You can still aid those doing damage by inflicting Magic Evasion down, or Aero bleed effect, but damage will no longer be a main specialisation for WHMs as many are doing for the current systems.
THAUMATURGE AND BLACK MAGE
Black Mages are like Dragoon and Monk rolled up in one bundle and tossed into the magical side of combat – specialised AoE damage, specialised critical damage, specialised debuffing damage, specialised nuking damage. Their role is probably the easiest to understand – damage damage damage is the key to their placement in a party. Again, it comes down to a matter of survivability for the differentiation between Thaumaturge and Black Mage.
Necrogenesis is the skill I propose be taken out of a Black Mage’s arsenal. Again with the same argument as Dragoon – survivability is NOT a role for a BLM. Second Wind from the Pugilist’s action slots already aids in that – having another ability would negate the loss of survivability skills to the point that it may as well be void.
As the same as Dragoon, Thaumaturges have been known to be interchange between Black Mages, solely for their ability to withstand attacks with a Sanguine Rite + Sacred Prism, as well as Sentinel and other defensive abilities from the Conjurer branch. As a side, having access to Stone and Aero can also be boon for other magic damage dealers in your party to exploit.
ARCHER AND BARD
Bard loses its ability to deal out damage as an Archer in order to gain support skills by singing. The job quest already reflects this – by choosing to put their comrades ahead of self-glory. Thus, Bard’s are specialised in the wild-card support range; having access to damage dealing abilities, and yet mainly focusing on songs that aid the party.
People argue that Bard is still capable of doing plenty of damage, however, which will again lock our ARC which ultimately is meant to be a heavier damage dealer. Bard still has access to Raging Strike and Barrage, which are two very heavy DD-specific skills for the Archer discipline.
I propose removing Raging Strike from the Bard’s discipline. Barrage is given its cooldown time, so it is not as effective, yet removing Raging Strike lowers a Bard’s damage output consistently from light shot, further specialising Bard as a more support discipline.
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These are all suggestions, and thus open to further discussions on the matter, but in a tl;dr, I propose having jobs lose an ability from their corresponding class that further specialises the job into their role.
Discuss the idea, yay or nay.