Please do not lock Jobs to the Weapon Class that unlocks them.

[Sorel]

It's not difficult to restrict a class ability to a certain job or set of jobs. For example, Bloodbath currently requires "Disciples of War and Magic." How would it then be a problem to say it is only available to job Warrior versus also being available to Dark Knight? Restricting classes and restricting jobs do not have to be intertwined.

True, that is possible. If the Development Team do what is described above, it would look like this.

Bloodbath
Optimal Rank: 6
Requires: Disciples of War or Magic
Permits: Warrior or Dark Knight

This not what I would consider the ideal solution, but it would work for this facet of the problem.

And who is to say that the number of jobs available to a class has to be the same for each class? Each discipline does not have the same number of classes, so why would each class need the same number of jobs? Maybe a Gladiator can be Paladin, Warrior, or Dark Knight, but a Lancer can only be Dragoon or Warrior. It is not blasphemy to do this.

Well, we'd have to put aside what Bayohne said the Dev Team stated. But let's do that for the sake of argument.

Using the example above, if Gladiator can be 3 Jobs (Paladin, Warrior, Dark Knight), but Lancer can only be 2 Jobs (Dragoon, Warrior) ... that makes Gladiators more versatile in parties than Lancers. Which makes them more useful. Which makes them more in demand by party leaders. Lancers in turn would become less useful because Gladiators can do one of their Jobs already (Warrior).

To balance that, the Development Team would have to make the Lancer's remaining Job (Dragoon) 2/3rds more powerful than Warrior, Paladin and Dark Knight ... to offset the lack of access to a third Job and the overlap of a second Job with Gladiator. Otherwise Lancer well become a solo Class and Dragoon a solo Job, because party leaders would invite Gladiators over Lancers every time.

This is why arbitrary Class-Job restrictions are literally counterproductive to maintaining balance. They create more balancing work for the Dev Team than they save ... both in the present and down the road when new Jobs or Classes are added.

If the Lancer above at least had access to the Paladin or Dark Knight Job he could compete for party invites on a level playing field with Gladiator. A party leader would know that if he loses the party's only Gladiator, he can fall back on the party's Lancer. He may or may not be equally effective, but at least he can fill the slot ... at least he has a chance. Without access, the Lancer can't possibly fill the slot and has no chance. None. And neither would the party. It would have to disband.

All that aside, personally, I think that Lancers and their abilities of debuffing and draining would make excellent Dark Knights. But with 1-to-1 Job restrictions we will never find out. Just a thought.