Job Personalization: Can I Have It?

[Gilthas]

I don't see how it's fair that an Arcanist can "spec" a Scholar or Summoner while every other class is stuck in a single role when they unlock Jobs... That's an imbalance.

And the developers are moving away from that system. Notice how all 52-60 abilities are tied to Jobs and not Classes and how the new jobs don't even have a base Class.

[Dhex]

And the developers are moving away from that system. Notice how all 52-60 abilities are tied to Jobs and not Classes and how the new jobs don't even have a base Class.

So why do Arcanists get to have the freedom to swap between roles? I thought this was all about balance and fairness and whatever else - why does one class get two Jobs, two roles, and half the leveling investment?

Why does a specific class getting multiple Job specs seem acceptable - but not acceptable for every other class? Or what?

So we've seen how 35 bonus stats & 9 skills can do a lot to shift a play style/role with SCH/SMN. Are you just scared Square can't figure out how to balance this stuff?

[elemental10]

snip

Imbalance in a game means that one class triumphs another in a specific role. In this case, ACN is completely balance in both of the roles; SMN for dps and SCH for healer. SMN's are preferred and are not locked out of party composition over other DPS nor the same with SCH over any other healer.

Your interpretation of balance of branching class into two jobs is a misunderstanding. When we talk of balance, we talk in specific roles. If one class in DPS can do this thing with this success rate, then the other classes in DPS must also be able to this thing with the same success rate, +/- one or two points. This is why in MOBA games, balance is such an important thing. We don't want a hero to triumph over all other hero as this one role, otherwise everyone would play it and others who would choose other hero in that role will always get discriminated. In MMOS, its a lot less eye-catching because of the elements of PvE, where solo-content is viable. Only in PvP and group content, can you really see how balance plays a big role, especially the raids.

It's not that SE can't figure out how to balance this stuff, it's just that right now we already have imbalance issues; AST, PLD and the rangers. They can figure this balance issues out but it needs time and a lot of dedication, time and dedication that can be used to figure out other problems or create a lot of content.

Just to note that I do support for some customization, not the opposite. I am merely pointing out that I do not think it would be done as soon as all of us would like.

[Bishop81]

This is funny...specially considering that WoW has talent/skill trees and set bonuses on gear and greater customization.....didnt know that even not having something from WoW made an MMORPG a WoW clone


you say FFXIV is a WoW clone and yet all you ask for are stuff from WoW

Hell no.

WoW is as restrictive as FFXIV when it come to class abilities.

WoW's specs aren't really customization. They are just "sub-classes" - i.e. classes in their own right; each spec, each talent combo are tested and simulated for raiding separately.

[Adventica6]

You people gotta stop comparing ff to wow, they aren't the same, at all.

[zcrash970]

You people gotta stop comparing ff to wow, they aren't the same, at all.

SHHHHHHHHH!
You will ruin their little conversation. It is very entertaining.

[Enkidoh]

So why do Arcanists get to have the freedom to swap between roles? I thought this was all about balance and fairness and whatever else - why does one class get two Jobs, two roles, and half the leveling investment?

Why does a specific class getting multiple Job specs seem acceptable - but not acceptable for every other class? Or what?

It was an experiment - the single Job upgrades for Disciplines of War and Magic originated during the later part of version 1.0's service, where as ACN was actually dummied out of the game (thus was never playable in 1.0) and was only finally made available in ARR, hence SE decided to experiment with it having two Jobs come off it instead of one (mostly, because the game needed a second healer Job).

Naturally, due to oversights in how stats are implemented (their decision to have a single base stat control the potency/effectiveness of that class's abilities), this didn't work as well as SE had hoped, thus the experiment was deemed a failure - SE decided not to implement second Jobs for any of the other classes leaving ACN having two Jobs an orphan pretty much.

Personally I'd like to see SCH removed completely from ACN and given a new base class (or even made into a classless Job like the 'extra Jobs' added in Heavensward), but I guess that probably won't happen.

[Bishop81]

Thank you. Now those are legitimate ideas. I don't agree with them, but at least it's more than other people here just saying "we don't have personalization, give us more!" No you may not be paid to design for SE, but having had to make amateur stuff before I can say it doesn't help at all for people to tell you "you need x" without giving you an example of why or how x could be done or used. Devs aren't magicians that can read our minds.

So I'll say it again: thank you. I mean that sincerely.

That was a pain to write though. /sigh

In what way do you disagree? It doesn't affect raiding and is really just an addition to existing activities.

You people gotta stop comparing ff to wow, they aren't the same, at all.

YoshiP was the one that brought WoW into the conversation ...

[Hyrist]

I don't need personalized mechanics to personalize my character or class. That's what Glamours are for. Combat wise, there's no need for it. I don't subscribe to the idea that each class has to be heavily customizable in order to maintain fun. People seem to be able to do so with gear and Cross-class skills to a degree as it is.

As far as changing your intended role within a Job. That would not be feasible as you would have to completely dedicate to a 'tree' to justify changing the color of your box for the duty finder. It just comes off as wasted effort to me. I can respect different feelings but I do not believe Square Enix or YoshiP will oblige.

[DreadRabbit]

That was a pain to write though. /sigh

In what way do you disagree? It doesn't affect raiding and is really just an addition to existing activities.

Definitely appreciate you taking the time do so, though *thumbs up* Truthfully in theory your ideas sound good. But as it was already pointed out, anyone who wants to main the 3 new jobs are completely left out because they have no base class. And they could just swap to one of the different classes to do the content, but then that clashes with your idea of people being able to play how they want to play. I feel if we're going to add new customization for the game it needs to include all of the classes/jobs somehow. The new jobs are already getting a lot of flak. I wouldn't want to gimp them even further.

wasn't in WoW. Paladin could spec as healer. Druid could spec has tank, healer, melee, or caster. And just about every healer had a dps spec. It goes on.

Fair enough, but again how is that any different from what we have now is the only thing I continue to wonder (other than you remained "druid" as an example). That works for games like WoW because it's one class to one character and offers variety for those who don't want to level a brand new character. We don't have that issue in this game so it would be redundant. That's why this thread is so confusing for me: "we have no personalization" yet people are asking for literally the exact same system (as least as far as specs are concerned). The only difference being you don't want to step out of your one class' name. And specs don't let you change roles in the very middle of battle like we can now by using cross class abilities (or even more than just 4 abilities in our native tool kit).

Now I know we're moving away from cross class abilities, and how far we get in that direction depends entirely on how they handle fixing the problems with the three new jobs.