A new skill! 20 sec job change! Idea.

[Themis]

There's a reason why we can't just change jobs mid battle (which would be the simplest option to implement this): it would be impossible to balance a fight around this. You can already see how much going against the 2/2/4 recommendation can change the way a battle goes. Being able to switch, even momentarily to 8 DPS for a last burst down or 1 Tank/7 Healers to counter high damage phases, would just break certain encounters.

Even with a cool down on it (and 2 minutes would be way too short for this kind of brokenness), you'd still use it almost like a second limit break that you have total control over using, to make specific points of a fight incredibly trivial.

Another big downside is that this would require a player to have that other job at lv50 and they may not have any desire to do that beyond leveling them to get the key abilities needed. Whilst the game encourages you to level up multiple classes, it does not force you to level them all to max level. I can think of a lot of players who would hate the game for this kind of system. And then you'd have to consider the requirements that players would set for groups. "Oh, you only have WHM and not SCH? Then you can't be in this party."

No.

[Martin_Arcainess]

There's a reason why we can't just change jobs mid battle (which would be the simplest option to implement this): it would be impossible to balance a fight around this. You can already see how much going against the 2/2/4 recommendation can change the way a battle goes. Being able to switch, even momentarily to 8 DPS for a last burst down or 1 Tank/7 Healers to counter high damage phases, would just break certain encounters.

Even with a cool down on it (and 2 minutes would be way too short for this kind of brokenness), you'd still use it almost like a second limit break that you have total control over using, to make specific points of a fight incredibly trivial.

Another big downside is that this would require a player to have that other job at lv50 and they may not have any desire to do that beyond leveling them to get the key abilities needed. Whilst the game encourages you to level up multiple classes, it does not force you to level them all to max level. I can think of a lot of players who would hate the game for this kind of system. And then you'd have to consider the requirements that players would set for groups. "Oh, you only have WHM and not SCH? Then you can't be in this party."

No.

Then it can be simply edited changed to be balanced out. Not sure why your saying the whole party can change to DPS when I put

PLD <-> War. Sticking it to Roles only would sort out the issue of everyone being a DPS class.

Having the 2nd Job to 50 could be sorted out if you just need to get 1 Role to 50 and you choose any or set Roles to change into.
Granted if that person hasn't gotten the other Job to LV50 yet they might not know how to handle it correctly but I think if we give them the option of being that class at LV50 only outside battle etc they can use it on training dummies. Or something we can sort out.

Cool Down wise just increase it to a more suitable time, 11mins aprox boss fights? 5mins then, can use it twice.

Just another heads up as people seemed to missed this, Setting it so you can switch Role to the same Role only would solve the 8 DPS/Healer problem. I.E Tank jobs can only switch to another Tank job.

For the loot issue can only be rolled on your base Job as you entered it in.

[kyuven]

Then it can be simply edited changed to be balanced out. Not sure why your saying the whole party can change to DPS when I put

There's nothing simple about balancing anything.
The mere idea of what you're asking would basically break the game.
You'd have twitch gamers exploiting the hell out of this, as even with a 5 minute cooldown you'd basically have ALL OF THE CLASSES DPSing down the same boss. You're basically giving every class a second set of their unique cooldowns and taking away a LOT of the challenge from the game. Every single raid team would be: BRD/NIN, MNK/DRG, WAR/PLD, WAR/PLD, SMN/BLM, WHM/SCH, WHM/SCH.
And in order to add challenge they'd need to completely redo the way the game's encounters work. Oh, and if you want to add new classes, you need to add new pairs for them! Once heavensward hits, there will be an odd number of all the roles. How do you handle that?
And even if they DID add it, the testing team would have their heads on a platter because they'd have to double the amount of testing on every fight. Maybe even triple or quadruple.
They purposefully removed the ability to switch jobs in dungeons. They ain't putting it back.

I already came up with a suggestion on this, once you get a Role say, PLD to LV50 you could switch to the WAR Role even if you don't have it unlocked.

Could implant something that allows you to be that role for a few mins to set up your hotbar and get used to the skills.

What's the point of leveling more than one of each role, then?

[Martin_Arcainess]

What's the point of leveling more than one of each role, then?

your not given the class to use freely. Only outside of combat can you be another class for 2 mins or so *what ever time here since people think it's written in stone*

If New class's are added they can be mixed with other class's. SO when Ast comes out it can change to SCH or WHM so that's problem done.

Testing it if we hold back on some things the 2nd job can do it wont be that OP if that's what your worried about.

Challenge wise could implant it around it being needed or nerf the skill so it wont make much difference but still a noticeable one.

[kyuven]

your not given the class to use freely. Only outside of combat can you be another class for 2 mins or so *what ever time here since people think it's written in stone*

This would still trivialize roles. The only classes it actually works for are tanks, healers, and DPS casters, as they share gear. And in those cases, you have this insanity:
For tanks: You get access to holmgang AND Tempered will AND hallowed ground.
For healers: Benediction, Lustrate, Succor, the pet, regen...all in one package.
For casters: Do you have any idea how broken it would be to start as BLM, burn all your MP, switch to SMN, aetherflow back a significant amount of MP, Life drain 3x, throw out all the DoTs, summon Garuda to contagion, and switch back to blasting? You're effectively giving a spike DPS class DoT DPS. Oh, and why level summoner if you can do this?

This is an absolute nightmare to implement and balance. Anyone who suggested this to the actual dev team would not be invited out to drinks that night (the Japan equivalent of being laughed out of the room)