Remove the Class System in 3.0

[TheRogueX]

My real disagreement with the system they have in place now is that the class and job share levels. I'd love to see you unlock a new job but it starts at level 1 (or hey, it starts at 30, why not...) but has its own advancement in levels from there. Your example brings up the big problem with it. Summoner and Scholar. I focused on Scholar before anything in 2.0, was my first 50. And you know what? I magically had a level 50 Summoner too that I just had to do a handful of quests to unlock.

It'll be the same if they add new jobs to existing classes if the system stays as is. Something has to change. If, for example, in 3.0 they add Dark Knight as a job for... i dunno. Lets say Gladiator because swords (Really, Just using it as an example, not saying it will or should be this class or anything of the sort). That means a level 50 Paladin just has to do about five quests or so, then they have a level 50 Dark Knight.

THIS. tbh, this is the only major problem with the class system. Everything else is relatively minor and could be fixed via tweaks. Job levels should not be equal to class levels. They should have their own level that is independent of your class. Classes should be more generalized and designed to branch into multiple jobs. For example, the basic Gladiator should be a tanky DPS hybrid. It should have multiple style stubs, such as sword&board (tank style), one-handed w/o shield or two-handed sword w/ heavy armor (DPS style), etc. They would have skills that apply across the class (but perhaps have special procs that occur when using specific weapons). Then, the Jobs are specialized versions of specific styles. Paladin uses tank-style Gladiator skills. Dark Knight uses DPS-style skills.

Also, classes should have extremely open cross-class ability access, while jobs should be extremely narrow (perhaps only allow skills from the primary class and the secondary class). Add in generalized high-level class gear that can be crafted, and you've got a workable system.