Future of the armory system

[Giantbane]

But it brings in the aspect of knowing how to play your class well. It implies that tank jobs will only ever stem from tank classes. Sure, a DPS is easy to fudge with until you get in right, but take this for example. I play CNJ/WHM in combat, never tanked before and don't know much about it besides don't use your LB. Hypothetically, if a tank job were to stem from CNJ (hypothetically), I'm already level 50 and can ....... attempt to play it.

Have you played much low level duty roulette? I don't think playing your class "well" usually happens till after 50 anyhow. Besides, DPS>Heals is as big a transition as any and I don't see any more SCH that can't play their job properly than any other job.

Even if they went CNJ>Tank (although I think CNJ>DPS would be more appropriate), your tanking abilities are going to be primarily based on DPS skills you're used to using anyway. The only change is 5 extra abilities you have to figure out how to use. I'd imagine it's much easier to learn to switch roles when most of your abilities are the same, than when you're learning a whole new suite of abilities and cooldowns.

A separate, but related issue is the playerbase desire for Job's. While having a plethora of Jobs sound interesting, many of the single-player game Job's are based more around gamebreaker ultimate skills that often are better off used by another Job due to the native Job being innately weaker.
i.e. Red Mage, often cited due to Dual Cast's power the Job itself falls short due to being a weaker Melee or Caster then alternatives. In FFXI they made a solid generalist that worked especially well for soloing but in group play, where specialists are preferred, it was forced into a buff-bot role supporting dedicated Jobs.

BRD has already proven there is a place for support DPS. RDM could easily be a melee version that must mix melee & spell casts for max potential. Weaker DPS overall, but with the ability to restore mana and/or TP via skills like refresh. Either as its own class or a GLD subjob.

[Amused]

Also, if they remove classes and make it jobs only, who gets the Arcanist skills? Summoner or Scholar?

[Dude]

The guilds and the classes in the game really necessitate that they keep them up until Level 30. After that, you should simply level up with your job stones. All classes would cap at 30. Each class could then spawn different jobs, maybe two a piece?

I agree the classes feel well thought out until the job hits, then it is an afterthought at best.

All classes currently do is hold back flexibility of the job system. Summoner/Scholar for instance feel way to similar. They share all but 10 moves and 4 of those are summons. But if the Classes stopped at 30, you could really differentiate between the two.

[Exstal]

DPS Scholar and Summoner should feel the same. Arcanist is a DPS class first so all DPSing done should be the same as if you were still playing Arcanist. But that's why Scholar and Summoner are different. They don't share the same role, your focus is entirely different. Imagine if Scholar was infact Necromancer. Then you can see why any other jobs branching from classes into the two of the same role wouldn't feel any different.

[ChriZirhC]

just add more skills to the classes, then give us skill points, or maybe/maybe not add a skill tree. it answers the complications for actions of the base classes.

or maybe let us customize the the class actions with skill pts. a simple example would be the gladiator's fast blade - adding 1 pt would be adding enmity effect.

all these ideas can also add a significant amount of depth to each class and job as well.

[TeganLaron]

2nd jobs aren't complete separate classes, they're just specializations as you'd see in other MMOs. For instance, WoW you have a paladin and could spec into protection (tank), holy (heal) or retribution (dps). In FF you have Arcanist which can specialize as a Scholar (heals), or a Summoner (DPS). If they were to add Geomancer as a 2nd Job to CNJ, then they're just adding a DPS specialization to that base class. It's not a full blown class, but it also (should) take a lot fewer development resources to add to the game.

Yeah I know that, I'm a Summoner myself so I know the difference. But to use myself as an example, when I first levelled ACN I wanted SMN as I didn't have a DPS class. Well when I finally hit 50, I got my SMN, hooray. However I also had SCH, level 50, despite almost literally never once playing SCH. Not only that, but it was nearly i90 thanks to my WHM gear. So as the poster below mentions, if they were going to make Geomancer from Conjurer or whatever, people would instantly be level 50 (and even may have gear for it) despite not having a clue how to play the class. That makes zero sense.

[Giantbane]

Yeah I know that, I'm a Summoner myself so I know the difference. But to use myself as an example, when I first levelled ACN I wanted SMN as I didn't have a DPS class. Well when I finally hit 50, I got my SMN, hooray. However I also had SCH, level 50, despite almost literally never once playing SCH. Not only that, but it was nearly i90 thanks to my WHM gear. So as the poster below mentions, if they were going to make Geomancer from Conjurer or whatever, people would instantly be level 50 (and even may have gear for it) despite not having a clue how to play the class. That makes zero sense.

I'm assuming ACN/SMN has taught you some level of pet control. That should help with fairy usage. You know about managing your Aetherflow charges. That's helpful. E4E and virus usage? In combat resurrect? Which spells to use when you want to DPS? All that's left is to point at the guy who is missing health and heal. That puts you at least at the same level of expertise as most players who ding 50. The fact that you already play WHM means you've probably got a head start over them as far as generally healing knowledge.

What's the problem? In terms of this game, you can also collect a full set of 90+ tanking gear while playing your WHM, level a new tank class to 50 via fates if you want, and then jump straight into any end game content you've cleared with your WHM. Being able ding 50 and jump straight into Levi X (or even coil 2 if you can find a group) without having tanked anything else endgame is probably a bigger "problem", but it's just how the duty system works.

Anyhow, like I said earlier, I haven't seen any more SCHs that can't figure out how to play their Job more than any other Job. So I don't think this is causing a problem in this game, regardless of whether or not it's "right".

[Shiroimin]

I think that they have truly limited them self with assigning class/job based upon a weapon. What I mean is that right now, a paladin has a 1H sword... ok so what about red mage? What they should do is just base it all upon the soul crystals (job gems... whatever you want to call them). 1-30 Have one kind of a stone (ie CNJ), but be able to wield any weapon (pertaining to that class of course, but meant like staff, wand, or something similar), and at 30 be able to equip WHM or GEO stone to take on skills for that job and the ability to equip multiple weapons for that class. I know that a lot of people want 2H swords or scythes or something like that, but with their current system, a DRK could only really have one of those weapons. I just don't 100% agree with the weapon system. Good concept, just doesn't work as well for future proofing.

[Tiggy]

Armory system simply needs more space. With so many jobs and so many pieces the allotted space is quickly becoming insufficient.

[Ransu]

just add more skills to the classes, then give us skill points, or maybe/maybe not add a skill tree. it answers the complications for actions of the base classes.

or maybe let us customize the the class actions with skill pts. a simple example would be the gladiator's fast blade - adding 1 pt would be adding enmity effect.

all these ideas can also add a significant amount of depth to each class and job as well.

No thanks. One of the reasons I like this game is because there are no skill trees.