I hope SE is planning to get rid of cross class

I like to play tanks and healers. In the process of playing tanks and healers, I've had to level up many jobs that I don't like to play. This is because of the cross class system.

To play the job that I'd like to play, it's required, in every instance, to level up something else. It's not as terrible as having to level them to 60, but nonetheless, it's something I would not otherwise choose to do.

Please get rid of cross class skills. Take all those mandatory cross class skills and stick them in some other pot. It's already a testament to the poor implementation of the cross class system that it's only relevance is in 1 or 2 skills per job. What's more is that these skills do not vary much within each role (swiftcast, provoke, blood for blood, raging strikes, internal release). You have every class of a specific role leveling other classes for the sake of grabbing from this tiny pool of skills. Just stop it.

Many FF games with the Job System allow the player to mix and match abilities from different Jobs to enhance them (even the previous FF MMO, FFXI has this where you could equip a 'sub Job' that was half the level of your main Job and allowed you to use the abilities of it as well). Yes there are some abilities that are better than others, but you also forget, to even be able to learn a Job you need to already level another class at least to 15, so you may as well make more use of it. And really, when you think about it, it's not that hard to level a second class surely (even if you're only using that second class for abilities, you don't even need to level it all the way to 60).

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Originally Posted by Enkidoh

Many FF games with the Job System allow the player to mix and match abilities from different Jobs to enhance them (even the previous FF MMO, FFXI has this where you could equip a 'sub Job' that was half the level of your main Job and allowed you to use the abilities of it as well). Yes there are some abilities that are better than others, but you also forget, to even be able to learn a Job you need to already level another class at least to 15, so you may as well make more use of it. And really, when you think about it, it's not that hard to level a second class surely (even if you're only using that second class for abilities, you don't even need to level it all the way to 60).

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There's a stark difference between past FF titles with job customization and the cross class skills system. Leveling other jobs for that one mandatory cross class skill is a far cry from say FFTactics, where you assembled an array of skills for a unit. Why was the AST cross class between CNJ and THM and not CNJ and ARC? It's because healers need Swiftcast.

Well good news for you is that they probably aren't going to add any more cross classing and we'll just be stuck with what we have now.
I think it's a fine system. It gets people to try out different roles; none of the CC abilities require you to fully level anything.

+1 to the OP's suggestion. It's a hold over from the early parts of the game and a poor excuse to not give the classes the basic tools they should have (i.e. EVERY tank should have a provoke/taunt move, EVERY healer should have a version of protect, etc.) Not to mention most of them are useless. You're not the first to suggest it OP and it's still a good idea and still something that should happen.

The loss of the offensive cooldowns (Raging Strikes, BFB, Internal Release) may seem like a nerf of course but they could always buff the damage numbers accordingly.

I hope they don't i like be able use my black mage quick cast for many good use for summoner and scholar. i bet most you hope they don't ether every time your battle rezed

I miss the cross-class stuff. It does seem like they've given up on it completely.

And if you lose the Soul Crystal, you can do some rather interesting things with base classes. It would be awesome if Rogue skills were available for something, Goad would be lovely to get out there.

On the flipside, I loathe that I'm going to have to get Lancer to 34 in order for my Machinist to become viable. So I guess it evens out.

Its a relic from 1.0 OP. Its something that, as it stands is detrimental in the long haul to new jobs being released. It strangles new jobs to be a part of the crossclasses it needs to function, and hurts the fact that jobs could have more interesting set-ups. Much like your astro example, all TP based DPS classes will be relegated to having Lancer sub simply for Invigorate. Without out that skill, they would be lacking in the longevity of their DPS.

Right now, the problem with changing it is, how do you fix it properly? Its tough to awnser, and I think SE is having the same problem...

I hope they revamp it, not remove it.

There are plenty of cross-class abilities that aren't remotely options, at which point I wonder why they require players to level those other classes just to complete their main job when endgame will force, through raid saves and weekly currency expenditure, each player to essentially pick one job to focus (thereby being less alt-friendly in many cases than games that carry only one class per character, but virtually unlimited characters total or, especially, per server).

There are few things that annoy me more than a lore-geared Scholar in an Expert roulette run who, for whatever reason, hasn't even taken CNJ to level 6. Admittedly, this points more at laziness than anything, but at the same time, who would really expect that some 80% of their damage potential would be arbitrarily gated behind an early ability on another class? The same thing goes for Warriors lacking Provoke. Why should an ability that necessary to every tank be placed within just the one? It would make sense if the other tanks could manage without it, or each had their own way to fit the function, but otherwise it should probably be something more alike to simply 'Tank lv22' rather than 'GLD lv22'.

In other regards the leveling can be okayish. Do I really want Quelling so badly on my BLM that I'll level ARC over half way for it? Maybe not, though you'll in some situations (especially before) be screwed without it. But taking on an extra 2.5% dps via cross-class BFB? It's necessary, and a solid point off the checklist when completed, but it also feels far from situational, optional, or even satisfying.

I agree with Shurrikhan - I'd rather they work on improving and modernising it rather than removing it. Crossclassing gives you a lot of benefits if you take the time to do it, and it gives you an incentive to try out other classes (which is never a bad thing. Some of them, like Blood for Blood, Quelling Strikes and, to a lesser degree, Swiftcast, do take quite a while to unlock, but I still think it's a nice feature that just hasn't received a lot of love recently.

I actually like having some stuff to adjust. On bard I can go from having keen flurry to having feint(for movement under WM) but I can also just go back to keen flurry if I know I'll be taking some hits(like doing maps or something like that). Had a goon once cross class the first enmity skill from marauder cause we were fun running and they got to tank stuff hehe. And so on. It's there it works for what it is.

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Originally Posted by ruskie

I actually like having some stuff to adjust. On bard I can go from having keen flurry to having feint(for movement under WM) but I can also just go back to keen flurry if I know I'll be taking some hits(like doing maps or something like that). Had a goon once cross class the first enmity skill from marauder cause we were fun running and they got to tank stuff hehe. And so on. It's there it works for what it is.

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It's more of a hindrance than it is helpful in the long run. The mandatory cross class skills for each role is going to create an untenable system for adding more classes.

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Originally Posted by Destous

It's more of a hindrance than it is helpful in the long run. The mandatory cross class skills for each role is going to create an untenable system for adding more classes.

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Yeah, but I think that's the only problem with it. I wonder if there's a way they can make it so that you can use the mandatory stuff without unlocking it, but at some sort of penalty, so while it's still preferable that you level that class, it isn't absolutely needed.

Don't ask me how, I can't think of anything other than an increased cooldown.

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Originally Posted by Ekimmak

Yeah, but I think that's the only problem with it.

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Well, the entire system is a bit of a problem.

Consider, why are these skills mandatory in the first place? Because they provide a tangible advantage. 2,5% DPS increase from B4B isn't exactly the world, but you're still expected to get it. Careful threat management and coordination can substitute provoke and ress can in fact be casted without swiftcast. It's just a whole lot less optimal.

So no matter what you do with the system, as long as you can gain a tangible advantage via cross class, leveling the class will be mandatory. And it'll likely always be the same skills that are mandatory as well because your job benefits from them the most.

So personally, I'd scrap that entirely and simply make it a fluff system to customize the appearance of your abilities. It's a nice little gimmick for leveling other classes and it allows for actual customization, since there'd be nothing to min/max, meaning no mandatory/unviable choices.

Oh, I just wrote an essay about this topic in another subforum, didn't see this.

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Originally Posted by Xenosan

Continuing to build 'on top' of this antiquated cross-class system just isn't wise, imo. No amount of DPS spells for WHM/AST will change their practical DPS when they're gated behind Cleric, which will remain best only for SCH (unless they give WHM/AST their own faeries). That's just one example; personally, I'm ready for a change.

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I agree it's time to move away from the cross class system.

I do not believe, however, they should (or need to) reverse-engineer the game to expel cross-classes. Instead, just at some point in the future, we 'upgrade' our soulstones to new versions. But get to keep the old version of the soulstone for open-world, unsync'd queues, and older content.

This way for new players/toons, the cross-classes aren't wiped from existence, and are still necessary up to point, and still available as a secondary option afterwards.

It's good to get players to experience what other classes are like. Knowing what they can and can't do at a more intimate level than just watching party members do stuff.

It is one of the few things that make FFXIV unique and I ike it and hope they do not do away with it.

Make classes the martial discipline of the corresponding weapon (which they basically already are) and each job has access to one or more weapon class to build from, your weapon becoming something akin to a sub job. Bring some rigidity to the cross class system. Then maybe SE can work on the abundance of shallow decisions players are given to make in this game; like the attribute system with only 1 right answer, gear where the only stat that matters is item level, Jobs where everyone wears the same gear, uses the sames skills etc. Maybe if they fixed all those issues content wouldn't become irrelevant so quickly.

just to add they are not gimping future jobs to be locked to current cross class.

the next tank doesnt need to have pld as it cuold have its own provoke which then could be used later down the line as a bridge for yet another tank class, or even a reworking of the current tanks allowing drk or war to cross from it.

same goes for any other skill out there, b4b, raging, quelling, invigorate, swift, e4e, protect, stoneskin... you name it a new class / job could have a new equivalent to any of these skills which would allow SE to add new jobs to branch of those skills instead of current skills and at the same time allow them to add new cross class skills that the new classes would have access to aswell to mix up the skills / buffs.


it will need a reworking in the future for sure to allow a bit more flexibilty for new jobs but it is not a dead left over yet...