Know what is useless? Your Class.

[LineageRazor]

Yeah, classes are pretty much pointless. Every now and again, you hear a story about the BLM who went THM to a low-level dungeon and saved everyone with Raise and Stoneskin or whatever, but for the most part the stat boosts, exclusive gear, and Job-specific abilities are just too good to trade off.

It seems pretty likely that at at least some point in the design process, SE intended class vs job to be a serious choice of versatility vs dedication to a role - but somewhere along the way they adopted something more similar to FFI's class change - so much advantage that while you COULD pass on it, doing so would be highly detrimental.

I WOULD like to see classes become a viable option, but it would take quite a lot of work to pull that off!

[Zourin]

It seems pretty likely that at at least some point in the design process, SE intended class vs job to be a serious choice of versatility vs dedication to a role - but somewhere along the way they adopted something more similar to FFI's class change - so much advantage that while you COULD pass on it, doing so would be highly detrimental.

It looks as though they considered it at some point, then ran like hell in the other direction ever since like rouletting PHaros Sirius: "Too hard, i'm leaving". What's sad is that the crude, half-arsed cross-classing stuff that remains only reminds us that 'class versatility' was supposed to be something that existed at some point, but it's never going to emerge as anything useful.

That's something to put on the shelf alongside "DOH/DOL endgame content" and "Alternate Jobs for non-arcanists"

[Wolf_Gang]

It looks as though they considered it at some point, then ran like hell in the other direction ever since like rouletting PHaros Sirius: "Too hard, i'm leaving". What's sad is that the crude, half-arsed cross-classing stuff that remains only reminds us that 'class versatility' was supposed to be something that existed at some point, but it's never going to emerge as anything useful.

I think it's more along the lines of:
They had an idea to go in one direction but didn't want to abandon all the existing assets from the 1.0 engine. So we're instead left with this mess of a compromise.
And when they finally do add more jobs, they're probably going to make sweeping changes. It's the same thing for Materia system, now they're developing a new one.

[Mychael]

They had an idea to go in one direction but didn't want to abandon all the existing assets from the 1.0 engine. So we're instead left with this mess of a compromise.
And when they finally do add more jobs, they're probably going to make sweeping changes. It's the same thing for Materia system, now they're developing a new one.

This is definitely not an issue of existing assets from 1.0. At launch, my CNJ had all elemental abilities and my THM all dark/light abilities. My individual skills (i.e. Water, Fire, Aero) would raise, and I could "spec" them. I also had a customization system through Guild Marks, through which I could buy unique skills... and even then, most abilities could be used regardless of your weapon (i.e. cross-classed to wherever you want.)

Hardly an issue of 1.0 assets being wasted. Yoshida completely scrapped every skill-related system from 1.0 before jobs were introduced.

When jobs were announced, idea was that classes were for solo content or small-group content because of versatility. An ARC could also be a backup healer and a CNJ could equip defensive abilities to save their lives. I know I went THM to Ifrit often so that I could have defensive moves to mitigate Hellfire, and cure for those OSHIT moments. The reality of present-day FFXIV is that the game is so easy that there's never a need for those "backup" plans, so higher DPS is always preferable.

[ulti_19]

This is the strangest thread by far...
You choose a class which leads you to your job at a higher level which, without a doubt will be the advanced version of your base class...
wtf would you use a wooden sword when you unlock the master sword in Zelda?