If there is a job that can do anything

[tymora]

I certainly don't mind the "Mimic" class from FF6 back in the game although I don't see how they can make it happen.
Pick a subset of any skills acquired by any other job.

In this case, you can make it any role you want.

[Aylis]

would you approve of having such a role?

Absolutely! I prefer role'less game play, its more fun and interesting since it means I get to see what I can do and be put in situations where if I fail, I have only myself to blame for my own failures. Challenging and fair solo content since all classes have the means to beat it, more speedy party and raid finding without sitting around for hours hoping to find that one specific role, Imagine DPS players not having to sit around in a que for 30-60 minutes praying that tank or healer ques, more fun and engaging PVP, and so on. Role'less game play opens up new dev possibilities for content creation my experiences shown me. I gravitate more twords Blade and Soul and Tera Online because of this.

[Aryalandi]

They could probably do that with blue mage, say... have it so that you had three sets of spells to switch between, one tank focus, one dps, one healer.. then you would just choose which to be before entering duty finder etc...

have the class quests happen in a way that gives you spells for each in the classic final fantasy way *by fighting monsters to absorb the monsters ability*

Or somesuch...

[Derio]

I prefer roleless jobs in solo games and RPG like Mass Effect or borderlands.

I dont like the Guildwars 2 type of gameplay where there are no roles. It doesnt bring any unique aspect to the game and generates a boring feel.

If FFXIV was to ever get rid of the trinity, then there would need to be a unique aspect to all jobs and the game would need a large overhaul. Take FFXV mulitplayer and slow it down for example.

[Gemina]

I'm ok with 'Jack of all trades' type classes that can essentially do it all, so long as they are not over powered and don't specialize in anything. There are games out there that fit this kind of class perfectly. In FFXIV, I would say the tank jobs are capable of doing a little bit of everything. They have high HP, defense, ability to mitigate damage, self heal, and deal damage in an offensive stance. What I enjoy is that even though they do have all that, they won't get very far on their own in punishing content without a healer and DPS players sustain their health and damage to the opposition.

In short, I like the concept of roles, and it's a big reason why I play this game. If I wanted to play the 'I can do it all' type of class, I would rather just play a single player console game.

[Kazrah]

In short, I like the concept of roles, and it's a big reason why I play this game. If I wanted to play the 'I can do it all' type of class, I would rather just play a single player console game.

Pretty much my thoughts on the matter. As fun as it is to solo a lot of stuff on my tank jobs, each one of them has their own limits on that, and that just means I'm required to make friends, which is a good thing.

[Shurrikhan]

Pretty much my thoughts on the matter. As fun as it is to solo a lot of stuff on my tank jobs, each one of them has their own limits on that, and that just means I'm required to make friends, which is a good thing.

But let's say you were only capable, by your largely your own choice from among those that make sense for your class, out of categories A-Z, of only A D E J R, while your party members may cover the gist of the remainder as necessary for a style of encounter and to synergize with their surrounding party members. Would that more myriad specialization be inherently be worse than the A-C of the trinity, around which any truly unique class factors are presented as second thoughts or, at best, least common multiples or modular efficiencies?

I like having noticeable specialization towards self-mitigating, cross-mitigating, undoing, or dealing damage, but just not to the point that they blanket the more unique identities of any given class or encourage players to tunnel-vision within their own "role" rather than work as a team, still aware and calculating for all necessary tasks or goals at once even if choosing one to focus upon.

[Kazrah]

Would that more myriad specialization be inherently be worse than the A-C of the trinity, around which any truly unique class factors are presented as second thoughts or, at best, least common multiples or modular efficiencies?

I think it would be worse, and it's definitely important to find that balance between every job in a role looking alike and the class-based cluster#@$& that was FFXI.

Take the shapeshifter job in my forum sig (I know, shameless plug, but needed a crafted example). I knew every tank job in this game followed a template of what skills and abilities they learned at certain levels, and I mapped out that template to make that shapeshifter while trying to provide some sort of deviation through the wild card spots in the tank template to make the job unique. Whether such a concept could work or not is another story, but the skills and abilities listed in it follow the same leveling path as every other tank.

Trying to keep jobs simple yet diversified is tough task, and something I think devs have to grapple with everyday for both current and future jobs.

[basketofseals]

I would like to just chime in that I hate roleless multiplayer games. You feel less like you're working together and more so just working on the same thing and happen to be in the same room.

[Shurrikhan]

I think it would be worse, and it's definitely important to find that balance between every job in a role looking alike and the class-based cluster#@$& that was FFXI.

Take the shapeshifter job in my forum sig (I know, shameless plug, but needed a crafted example). I knew every tank job in this game followed a template of what skills and abilities they learned at certain levels, and I mapped out that template to make that shapeshifter while trying to provide some sort of deviation through the wild card spots in the tank template to make the job unique. Whether such a concept could work or not is another story, but the skills and abilities listed in it follow the same leveling path as every other tank.

Trying to keep jobs simple yet diversified is tough task, and something I think devs have to grapple with everyday for both current and future jobs.

Very true. I'd just wager that the present trajectory will likely fetter the game's potential designs in the long run, sacrificing job identity and the available variety of encounters if it continues as is. "Role" has had a bit too strong a grip on design, to the point that future jobs feel like they're likely just to feel like faint redistributions or outright carbon copies.

It feels like there are just too many unnecessary design constraints assumed necessary. A lot of them have since shed their weight in precedent, such as by classes/jobs no longer necessarily having an equal amount of skill keys or skills, but the way we acquire skills are unchanged, or the fact that skills are always given in an assigned order or solely through quests or levels. Take your Blue Mage ideas, for instance. You've clearly put effort into matching its previously unique form of skill acquisition into XIV's system by giving them a assigned order and timings, but why should that be necessary? It will almost certainly be a "hero class", one impossible to level without having first reached the level at which one starts its expansion on another class. It can afford inefficiencies or overefficiencies over particular levels. (And it's not as if the current classes aren't already imbalanced over various level spreads before reaching level cap.) Why should it be limited to only x abilities ever learnable, rather than x usable at a time from a more traditionally (i.e. larger) sized bank of abilities? Such would necessarily disallow a would-be hybrid from ever having a satisfyingly full and cohesive toolkit for any role or mix thereof, whatever it may be.