I really miss Job Quests...

I am currently Leveling the Jobs I neglected so far, and it really reminded me how much I miss job quests...

Dont get me wrong, Class Quests are fine, they are fun and add to the current expansions lore, which is a nice touch... and I understand that with 21 jobs by now, making unique quests for each of them is a big thing, so sadly I dont really expect them to come back, but I just wanted to get a bit nostalgic.

I think that the Dawntrail Story could be told without the WoL and very little would change really made me appreciate how important we were to the Story if the Job Quests. The end of the 60 Monk Quest just made me feel so great, and even 1-30 as a Lancer already got me invested...
And I wont even talk about the Dark-Knight Quests, they have been praised enough...

I dont know, like I said, class Quests are fine, but a part of me will always miss how much flaire the jobs got from their unique stories.

One of the problems they actually highlighted with job quests at one point was that they had a shelf life; there's only so much you can do with those stories before they're just done, every job quest is about a specific part of the world and their specific problems, and they're better off solving those problems than just keeping them going. And hell, I actually think several jobs had hit that point even before they stopped doing them; Astrologian clearly had to find something new in Stormblood, Black Mage was kinda spinning its wheels, Paladin I'd argue would've been better off if it stopped before Heavensward.

I get why people miss job quests, but honestly I think role quests handle things better. Lets them tell a more focused story, lets them up (or maybe just stabilize) the production values when they're only making five questlines instead of like twenty, and lets the stories about those jobs actually conclude. We fixed the tonberries, and I don't think they'd have let us do that if we were still getting Scholar stories!

Right there with you. Characters aside, I always saw job quests as an opportunity to learn more about each individual job, and that was a part of world-building I really appreciated. Ever since Shadowbringers, picking up one of the new jobs has felt kind of strange, just knowing the job quest was going to be a sort of one-and-done. That said, ultimately I do understand why they had to stop doing them.

There is one thing Job quests were good at that, that Role quests can never do: Justify and explain new abilities.

Take Summoner, for example. In the Heavensward questline, as we try to get a Ramuh-egi, it's explained that we're limited to three egis (I forget the exact phrasing, but it has to do with our aether capacity). Instead, we learn Trance (and later Demi-Summons) as a way to bypass those lore limitations, because that's what SE wanted the class design to be. But because we don't get Job quests anymore, that's where the lore is stuck: we only summon Ifrit, Titan and Garuda (plus Demi-Phoenix and the Demi-Bahamuts). Whenever someone suggests it would be neat to start summoning the other primals, people chime in with "Well, actually the job quest in Heavensward says we can't summon any more egis, so that's off the table".

I understand coming up with a full arc for each one of an increasing number of jobs is an untenable ask, but I think there is a compromise that could be had. I just wish each job got a single quest at the start of each expansion to lead into their new abilities. Let Y'mhitra take a good luck at us and remark that with what we learned since HW, and with what we encountered since then, our souls seem much more dense and summoning different primals might be back on the table. Or let us go chat with Hilda and discuss new techniques our machinist WoLs are thinking up and want to experiment. Heck, it wouldn't strictly need to involve old job NPCs (though getting to check in with them like in the level 80 quests was a fun plus)

The more new jobs we get the less fleshed out every single one of them will be on an individual level.
The pizza slice you get just becomes smaller and smaller the more people you're sharing it with.

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Originally Posted by 3Doubloons

There is one thing Job quests were good at that, that Role quests can never do: Justify and explain new abilities

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Viper even got a job quest and its central ability is never mentioned once while we're left scratching our head wondering what Reawaken actually is supposed to be, something about legacy and serpent's offerings? Aren't we the serpent (viper) or is there some serpentine god of Vipers we invoke to spit out blue? Is the resemblance to the 99 trial intentional?

On the other hand the Paladin quests could've stopped at 30.

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Originally Posted by 3Doubloons

There is one thing Job quests were good at that, that Role quests can never do: Justify and explain new abilities.

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... which is cool and all until those abilities get removed or changed to the point they no longer resemble their original incarnations (e.g. Dreadwyrm Trance, the focal point of the Heavensward SMN quest, which has been changed relatively frequently since its introduction and wasn't even in Shadowbringers until 5.1. You could still do the quests during this window!).

I agree that the Job quests feel more personal, but I understand they can't keep them running especially as more and more Jobs get added to the game. I'm not all that happy about it, but I understand why only new Jobs get a questline (to help establish their identity and place in the world) and the Role Quests have taken their place. I do wish they'd explain new abilities but I'm chalking that up to the PC improvising beyond the Soul Crystal's abilities to impart. I... don't much care for the Role Quests, to be honest, but if other people enjoy them I'd rather those be written than the slop that was the Stormblood WAR quest. Brrr.

Idc if their teams get too smal, grab more ppl... its the same as we desperately need 2 dungeons per patch, one needs to be free for goofy stuff, side quests... relics or just "what happened after you left"...

Those quests got you closer to the world, the lore, the whatever happens when youre not around... you also dont have to keep using the same ppl... im even fine with not gettin explanations for new skills (still a waste imo) as i can go by "youve mastered the job enough to create your own stuff!" but i miss the old fun, id love to get the old guys updated...

So like why does dancer shoot birds tho???

Role quest just feel empty to me and sometime I feel like they are roughtly designed for a single job rather than a whole role. SHB caster role quest make it look like SMN is a master in the arcane art while all we did was going around killing evil summoner and bathing in primals aether.

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Originally Posted by Cilia

... which is cool and all until those abilities get removed or changed to the point they no longer resemble their original incarnations (e.g. Dreadwyrm Trance, the focal point of the Heavensward SMN quest, which has been changed relatively frequently since its introduction and wasn't even in Shadowbringers until 5.1. You could still do the quests during this window!).

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If you really want to keep on top of AST lore, you need to rerun that 30-50 storyline every expansion because of exactly this. Possibly several times because of mid-expansion revamps.

You're right that we're explicitly in the range where the WoL is making things up rather than learning from others (some jobs have been in that longer than others; I think DRG started improvising in the 50s), which does do a good job of explaining most of the weirder abilities. There's still a few weird ones--Solar Bahamut's probably the biggest--but just accepting that the WoL is good enough to start innovating new abilities themselves gets you plenty far.

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Originally Posted by Cleretic

If you really want to keep on top of AST lore, you need to rerun that 30-50 storyline every expansion because of exactly this. Possibly several times because of mid-expansion revamps.

You're right that we're explicitly in the range where the WoL is making things up rather than learning from others (some jobs have been in that longer than others; I think DRG started improvising in the 50s), which does do a good job of explaining most of the weirder abilities. There's still a few weird ones--Solar Bahamut's probably the biggest--but just accepting that the WoL is good enough to start innovating new abilities themselves gets you plenty far.

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Given the name of Solar Bahamut's attacks, I think it's pretty clear what it is. I agree with the rest of this though. And doesn't the game even stop doing the "Your soul resonates with the memories of X past" thing anyway?

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Originally Posted by Cleretic

If you really want to keep on top of AST lore, you need to rerun that 30-50 storyline every expansion because of exactly this. Possibly several times because of mid-expansion revamps.

You're right that we're explicitly in the range where the WoL is making things up rather than learning from others (some jobs have been in that longer than others; I think DRG started improvising in the 50s), which does do a good job of explaining most of the weirder abilities. There's still a few weird ones--Solar Bahamut's probably the biggest--but just accepting that the WoL is good enough to start innovating new abilities themselves gets you plenty far.

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Solar Bahamut is really simple. It's a mixture of Bahamut and the primal known as Hydaelyn. As all you need to make an egi or a demi is strong belief, imagination, aether, and a connection to the aetherial signature of that primal. Which the WoL/Meteor has had a long connection to Hydaelyn and Bahamut.

For further evidence, the circle that Solar Bahamut creates upon being ordered with enkindle to Exodus, is the same as the blessing of light the player has seen before.

https://i.imgur.com/vOFcER8.png

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Originally Posted by Chasingstars

Solar Bahamut is really simple. It's a mixture of Bahamut and the primal known as Hydaelyn. As all you need to make an egi or a demi is strong belief, imagination, aether, and a connection to the aetherial signature of that primal. Which the WoL/Meteor has had a long connection to Hydaelyn and Bahamut.

For further evidence, the circle that Solar Bahamut creates upon being ordered with enkindle to Exodus, is the same as the blessing of light the player has seen before.

https://i.imgur.com/vOFcER8.png

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Yes, I know. Summoner is my DPS main, I've used it.

Just because you can intuit an explanation, doesn't mean they gave one. We've never fused Bahamut with other primals before, after all.