Another "Maiming" class?

[SpeckledBurd]

One possible reason they're keeping DRG and NIN separate on the left side for now is that it makes gear slightly easier to design. It's hard to make generic shared gear that looks appropriate for SAM/MNK and DRG at the same time, since the former are more light armoured strikers while the dragoon aesthetic is more heavy armoured. Same for ninja vs ranged gear.

You say that but the devs really don't care at all about that when assigning models to gear. Generic Gear models are the norm, not something they avoid. Monk gear in the past has shared models with the tanks (Hellfire Sets) and Ninja frequently shares gear appearance with the ranged. Dragoon occasionally gets special snowflake armor models to itself but more often than not it's just a recolor of the striking set.

At this point the only mechanical result of the Maiminf/Striking/Scouting split is that it's mechanically more of a pain to be an Omni-Melee than it is to be an Omni-player for any other role for no reason, not even job aesthetic.

Think about it:
Fending: Works for the 3 tanks.
Casting: Works for the 3 casters
Healing: Works for the 3 healers.
Striking: Works for Monk/Samurai.
Aiming: Works for Bard/Machinist
Scouting: Works for Ninja.
Maiming: Works for Dragoon.

Scouting and Maiming Gear at this point just make it less cost effective to invest in gearing a DRG/NIN than it is to gear a caster, a tank or a healer. They really should fold Maiming and Striking gear into one category (either bringing Monk and Samurai's physical defense up or Dragoon's down because the days of Dragoon trading Magical Defense for more Physical Defense are gone) and fold Scouting into Aiming, it would clear up the loot tables and make Omni-roling less of a hassle for Melee.