Job Crystals for Squadron Members?

[BillyKaplan]

That's because in the grand context of the game, the retainers don't exist.

The Scions basically told you to join them because they'll let you use retainers if you do. That is the single way in which they even remotely lived up to their promise to help you with your ventures instead of the other way around. So I'd say your retainers are top notch canon.

Nobody else can see your retainer unless you own a house and park them outside it.

Or they have something up on the MB in which case everyone on my server can see their name on the MB listing, clear as day.

You can't take them into dungeons.

My FSH retainer is farming Ravana ex, donno about yours.

SE just painted themselves into a corner with now classes/jobs work. They either need to retrofit a reason to give them a job stone, or they need to create a precursor class for Astrologian, Machinist, Red Mage, Dark Knight, and Samurai

With the exception of DRK, none of those jobs should have any trouble giving you extra Soul Crystals depending on where you are in the story. MCH is a brand new job and we can safely assume anyone with the title has a Soul Crystal just like how you do (MCH is basically a class but has a Soul Crystal because that's how this game works). SAM I dare say falls under a similar issue, but once you're buddies with the Samurai in Kugane it's not unthinkabe you can get extra Soul Crystas for your retainers should you vouche for them. BLMs we know of several active Soul Crystals, likely there are more. SCHs, just talk to your buddies in the Wanderer's Palace, etc, etc. Even for WHMs it's not that only Padjals can be WHMs, it's they're the only ones allowed to be. But we don't know if they have in their possession all the Soul Crystals. Hell it didn't look like the Seedseers even knew the Soul Crystal you have was in the tree where you found it. You could've easily found a long lost one during a venture into the Amdapori dungeons. Any other job you can basically get more Soul Crystals by talking to your mentor who gave you one in the first place.

The only job where this logic falls the shortest isn't WHM, it's actually DRK, but seeing how you basically found yours lying on the floor in the street, maybe you found another one for your retainer lmao. Or, given that your squad-mates supposedly had adventures before joining, they could've had their own job quest already.

tl;dr there's nothing stopping squadmates from having job and many of the quests actually support this sort of thing, relying on your character vouching for your squad mates. Soul Crystals must be handed back upon discharge from the squad.

[Raldo]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned DRG as another job that would have trouble, from a lore perspective, allowing squad members to be the job. The lore seems adamant that there is only ever one "Azure Dragoon" (are there other dragoon colors?) except in a small handful of cases where there are two. Even if there were other dragoon job stones, you know Ishgard has that stuff on lockdown.

Personally, I'm fine with hand-waving away the ability for squad members to be jobs, similar to the retainer argument.

The most basic, and probably cynical, reason is probably because this won't improve performance at all.

Counterpoint: There are a variety of important actions that are job-specific (and EVERYTHING above 50 is job-specific) and as such, not available to classes. If they plan on continuing to raise the cap for the squad, they should really allow them to be jobs instead of classes, as they will continue to be less and less useful as the levels increase. Tank stances, Blizzard 3, anything involving Aetherflow stacks... all job actions. Perhaps they wouldn't need the AI to be able to spam the same actions over and over and over again if they actually gave them access to the same kit that players have.

[basketofseals]

To all the BLMs out there: Could you imagine not having Bliz3? I feel bad for our THM squad members.

They can feel sorry for themselves on the bench they've been put on since the beginning.

Have you payed close attention to what they do? More abilities isn't going to make them more effective. They aren't even effective with the abilities they have. There's a reason ARC is the god-king of squadron members even after the engage nerf. The other classes spend too much time doing nothing. They only have a few dead abilities: invigorate, diversion, tactician, and refresh. I don't think I've ever seen them use second wind, and they thankfully use tactician and refresh infrequently. On the other hand I've seen my ROG go true north, bloodbath, shadewalker, diversion, blood bath, second wind, and by the time he finished the mob was already dead.

[Remedi]

Well TBH, the flames do have Summoners in their ranks so I believe it might be possible, maybe they will restrict some jobs to certain GC who knows

[Ariane]

It would be a nerf to mission affinities. You can usually match all the mission affinities for classes because there's enough squadron members to be every class expect one.

[basketofseals]

Well TBH, the flames do have Summoners in their ranks so I believe it might be possible, maybe they will restrict some jobs to certain GC who knows

I think it would be a little silly to only allow some jobs and not others. I think we can all agree that if they wish to push this forward, it'll be a segregation of gameplay and story.

If we're concerned about lore most jobs wouldn't be an issue, but I can't imagine a very plausible excuse for WHM and BLM. BLM is....dangerous to say the least. It would take a lot of dedication and careful research for being able to use those arts, and I think it would be quite alarming if BLMs were just suddenly out and about advertising their skills as adventurers considering the stigma attached to them and the Sixth Umbral Era. WHM's are even more farfetched considering it's power bestowed by the elementals ,and it's something the Padjal are groomed for from birth.

[Pyroxene]

Im all for it, if we can teach our retainers, I say we can teach a squadron of whom we are commanding and training specifically for battle.

It makes more sense to me that squadrons are taught than retainers

[Remedi]

I think it would be a little silly to only allow some jobs and not others. I think we can all agree that if they wish to push this forward, it'll be a segregation of gameplay and story.

If we're concerned about lore most jobs wouldn't be an issue, but I can't imagine a very plausible excuse for WHM and BLM. BLM is....dangerous to say the least. It would take a lot of dedication and careful research for being able to use those arts, and I think it would be quite alarming if BLMs were just suddenly out and about advertising their skills as adventurers considering the stigma attached to them and the Sixth Umbral Era. WHM's are even more farfetched considering it's power bestowed by the elementals ,and it's something the Padjal are groomed for from birth.

Tbh if you complete the WHM storyline from SB there's a hint of change coming to the WHM community also in a way BLM story is trying to fix their reputation too.
Personally I think that making some jobs exclusive to some GCs might give them a bit of flavor especially if the increase in stats is substantial compared to normal ones, ofc they would have need to rebalance the entire thing to make it work, like how affinities works only with class and not jobs.
And who knows maybe you can later add missions that allows you to teach your squadron the ways of a job not from the GC you are affiliated with to unlock it.
Frankly the sky is the limit

[Aquaslash]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned DRG as another job that would have trouble, from a lore perspective, allowing squad members to be the job. The lore seems adamant that there is only ever one "Azure Dragoon" (are there other dragoon colors?) except in a small handful of cases where there are two. Even if there were other dragoon job stones, you know Ishgard has that stuff on lockdown.

Personally, I'm fine with hand-waving away the ability for squad members to be jobs, similar to the retainer argument.

I'm pretty sure Dragoons are the elite Ishgardian military, and the Azure Dragoon is just the one allowed to use the Nidhogg eye.

[KisaiTenshi]

Tbh if you complete the WHM storyline from SB there's a hint of change coming to the WHM community also in a way BLM story is trying to fix their reputation too.

Honestly, I think freezing how the jobs are earned in time is a bad idea. We learned them, we can teach them to others. The scholar storyline has already implied this.

However what needs to happen is to take a page from how the companions are implemented in FFXV, and rather make the player able to tell them to call strategy, or have the AI player call strategy before each fight. That would at least make it less stupid. Like the way it's implemented now, is simply too dumb for complex mechanics.