The Illusion of Choice

[Defias]

I think part of the issue is that in truth...Jobs in the FF franchise have always kind of been pardon the french..."1 Trick Ponies".

Each job does 1 thing the others don't and that makes them unique. Talents that morph/alter the jobs would essentially turn them into another Job period.

I always perceived the "Job Stone/Crystal" as the "Path/Tree" in this game.
It is boring to some extent as basically the devs/game basically dictates our growth.
But honestly...what imbalance there is amongst Jobs in this game is very low by MMO standards. It's honestly impressive.

We don't get flavor of the month Jobs/Classes like most other MMORPGs as a result. With how patch cycles tend to go...it'd be "Flavor of the Season/Quarter" here.

I understand you OP. As I said earlier I would not mind if they ripped ESO's skillpoint system and pasted it into this game.
That system when done right can turn your character into an Army of One.
To be able to solo any and all content like my Templar does in ESO would vastly improve my enjoyment of this game.

Honestly...I feel what little choice we get now is best.
Without specs we have very Job serving their purpose, no Hybrids, no Tanks that are actually DPS, no Healers who are only good at DPS, no dps who are now Tanks.

I know folks disagree but all specs would do is give people an excuse not to fulfil heir Job's role.
Let's be honest...
How many Dark Knights and Warriors would actually specialize to be Tanks?
(Take into account how many players want DRK to be DPS, and the obession WARs have with Fel Cleave.)
How many Bards do you think would specialize in Support/Songs versus pure ranged DPS?
How many White Mages do you see specializing to Heal? (Take into account the current meta/trend of Healer DPS and how focal/required it has become & the obsession with DPS many now have.)
How many Summoners do you think would specialize in Egi Summoning versus say...Trance?
(Thus being a BLM with shorter cast times...)

Even if it's just in gear and the secondary stats they provide. The game is decently balanced. We should all be grateful for that.
Most complaints are over QoL if anything. That's honestly a good place.

[WellFooled]

Each job does 1 thing the others don't and that makes them unique. Talents that morph/alter the jobs would essentially turn them into another Job period.

if they never made SMN and instead the Aetherflow mechanic with *Bane and Fester" was part of the Black Mage Thunder build, that would be a disservice to the community.

if there's a way to make a job play differently via a new build, they should go all the way and create a new job out of it with it's own set of gear, lore, storyline and NPCs.

You guys make good points against specific ways of customization (I too think it would probably be overboard to allow dark Knights to spec as a dps for example), but not customization in general. There are many ways to give us choices in gameplay without making the jobs carbon copies of one another or by fundamentally changing what each job is about.

[Reynhart]

How many Dark Knights and Warriors would actually specialize to be Tanks?

Judging by the heat debate over Vit vs Str, and "We want turtle tanking" vs "I want moaaar DPS" a skill tree would actually be the solution to please all tanks.

And again, yes, maybe "I want moaaar DPS" is the optimal path for clearing savage quickly, but "I want turtle" will catch up eventually. To each player its purpose, to each player its choice.
And to all of those "Don't waste my time in raid by being sub-optimal" people, don't worry, I won't even try join your static or your party finder. Like I didn't join the WAR bandwagon just for the sake of the raid-race.