1.2 Needs to fix Sentinel, Tanking, and XI Class-ism.

[rzr22]

The armory system is one of XIV's best and most unique qualities. I means I can take the spells I enjoy the most from the classes that I want to play, and have a personalized character.

I'm sorry, I don't comprehend your argument. You like this system but you hate the inevitable flaw it has?

Don't get me wrong, I hate this system even more so than FFXI's, but I also realize that it's a flaw in the system. I hate open ended skill systems period. Why? I'll tell you why.

People praise open ended skill systems because "ohmegosh, it allows so much customization!" Bullcrap. People seem to have this delusion that open ended skill systems lead to diversity when in fact it's the opposite. It leads to more cookie cutter builds. Why take X when every class can have Y, which is ten times better? To balance all this is a nightmare. I can't even fathom why a developer would even want to do this.

In FFXI, it sorta worked because subjobs were capped. There was slight control on it. In this game, it's not. Even then, in FFXI, certain subjobs were simply better than others in a given situation. It's not elitism, it's simple common sense. Again, why take X when Y is better?

Back to the balancing nightmare. Here comes the issue. How do you balance PvE content when you have an open ended system? Champion's Online is a perfect example. Not many people played a dedicated healer in that game (at least at launch). In turn, PvE content was so easy that just about any build could complete the content. In other words, the content had to be easy because when you start expecting certain builds in people, the supposed "freedom" goes away.

On the flip side, if they decide to make PvE content challenging (which I hope we all agree on), a certain level of expectancy is made. So while you can run into battle using your stupid made up build, the boss fight in some dungeon is actually difficult and your stupid made up build is so bad that you can't actually complete the boss fight. In turn, you must readjust your skill choices so that you are actually able to complete the boss.

You can't have it both ways. Either the content is so easy that any skill combination can work or the content is challenging and requires a certain efficiency from your skill combination.

And this is exactly why I hate open ended skill systems. They either force the game to be too easy (and thus boring), or they aren't open ended at all and I would much prefer the typical MMO class system.

[Raijin]

And this is exactly why I hate open ended skill systems. They either force the game to be too easy (and thus boring), or they aren't open ended at all and I would much prefer the typical MMO class system.

but this is the thing, you are in NO WAY required to have the skill to win, it just makes the fight more difficult