I would like to see Classes treated as proper, separate "Jobs"

[RiceisNice]

Had a thought the other day for Dragoon to change out its MP bar with a Blood of the Dragon bar. Same essential mechanic as BotD, only your bar (much more visible than a small buff icon) represents how much BotD time is left.

That'd be a quaility of life change which honestly puts some use to the UI. As of now, mana is entirely useless on MNK, NIN and DRG but is still there because reasons. If each job had it's own interface to show their respective resources (such as ACN having a better indicator of their aetherflows, or the aforementioned BotD timer). It lends a bit more flavor to the job. But I'd imagine they've shot themselves in the foot with the design of the UI, since classes like LNC, PGL and ROG can use mana, but job crystals take away that ability ,but is still technically the same class.

Let's all assume for a moment that classes ought to be simply removed. Would anything replace those aspects? You've gone from near-zero healing on caster classes to truly zero, removed the majority of (extra-rotational) burst options from all but Bard and Dragoon, wasteful but high-enmity add-grabs from melee, taunts from non-tanks, and enmity management from casters. Does any of this help gameplay?

To chime in, this also goes in line with the cross skill mechanic. Honestly it really adds no depth to the individual jobs other than button bloating. It's literally the same skills sans traits and takes away from the individuality of the job. Especially for "essential" abilities like invigorate, swiftcast, and provoke. Instead of giving each job their own way of managing TP, it's all done in the same manner. Tanks lost a flavor in the taunt department, and swiftcast feels obligatory for healers in almost any content. Not to say remove it completely, but those utilties and dps would be baked into their inherent moveset, if not added as a new skill entirely since you're freeing up 5 skills from cross classing.

But let me present an alternative. You revamp the classes, filling out more of each class's gameplay and identities through mechanical traits, which can then be cross-classed. Each class gets, say, 5 traits. Each job brings in 2 more. Each class at level 60 can take on 8, while having access to the majority of other class's traits cross-class. Each job can take on 7, with fewer cross-class trait options. Now, by combination of gameplay-affecting mechanical passives, you might just have a Gladiator who is both highly customizable and therefore distinct from a PLD.

In general, cross-skilling always comes back to the same problem; there will always be optimal choices and ultimately the ability to select those traits takes away from job identity and homogenizes them. Not to mention something like mechanical traits are designed with the job in mind, whatever works on archer may not nessescarily work on gladiator. For a big change to work, you don't want to take away the idenity of a an existing class, you want to expand on it.

In my honest opinion, it's not the classes that are holding us back, or even any adherence to a class system. It's the adherance to a specific number of stat-increasing traits, the exact same number of traits and abilities given to each class, the exclusion of job traits, similar arbitrary but stubborn rigidities, and the complacency to scarcly differentiate classes integrally—in their gameplay, in their undermechanics, etc.—that cut short any future development.

It's both imo. The way the class/jobs are now, you can't reasonably make branching jobs due to how they share abilities and traits from 1-50. The way cross skills work now, they are essentially required (and this really isn't up for debate when a fight demands tank swaps) and you end up having skills that are exactly the same on multiple jobs, taking away from individuality, fantasy and flavor. Jobs not having traits is also locking it to those soul crystals, and leads to button bloating (which cross skilling also does) while being unable to add depth or identity.