Elemental Wheel, What's the point?

[Alhanelem]

FXI taught me that designing content to be exclusive to anyone outside of tier 1 was a bad idea.

The problem is that you see "tiers." All jobs can and should be on the same "tier." The thing is, it's almost impossible to achieve that level of balance without making everything too similar. The fact is, none of that content you describe was literally excluding any job at all, it was the playerbase that made up "tiers" and made up who could go where. The fact is, you could actually clear most of that content with whatever jobs you wanted, if you found a group of like-and-open-minded people to do it with.

I pretty much slap anyone in FFXI that places each job in a "tier" and don't play with them. I play with linkshell mates and friends who know that the game doesn't actually have to be like that.

I feel bad for all the people who liked PUP, BST and the other jobs that were never seen as fit for events and endgame.

Despite the mainstream elitists that made up tiers and declared this and that job "unfit" for endgame, many players like myself went on to prove that endgame was perfectly doable with those jobs.

That's a philosophy that should not carry over to this game.

Abiout the only extent to which I see this in the game right now is with BLM vs THM and people preferring THM over BLM because THM can set cure and raise and thus play something other than the role it was *built* for which BLM specifically exists to emphasize. This is mostly a defect carrying over from FFXI where people feel like just because you're a mage you have to be able to cure and raise, even if that has nothing to do with your job's role and the fact that EVERYONE has MP and anyone else could set those abiltiies instead.

[Duelle]

The problem is that you see "tiers." All jobs can and should be on the same "tier." The thing is, it's almost impossible to achieve that level of balance without making everything too similar. The fact is, none of that content you describe was literally excluding any job at all, it was the playerbase that made up "tiers" and made up who could go where.

Indeed, and one is fed by the other. Game design and mechanics fed the playerbase's mentality. So game design is responsible for how things turned out. They're not these two entities that are separate from each other.

The fact is, you could actually clear most of that content with whatever jobs you wanted, if you found a group of like-and-open-minded people to do it with.

I'm aware of this too, but what I look for is mass acceptance to the point that no one bats an eye at the notion of bringing X class. Going back to WoW, I haven't seen people throw fits over having a Ret paladin or enhance shaman in a group since the burning crusade, where both were intentionally weaker than the "real" damage dealers because the devs believed the asinine notion of such design making them "unique" and how the buffs and utility made up for lacking damage. If you fast forward to now, you'd be very hard pressed to see anyone say anything about a Ret or Enhance being in a group; by the same token, they now perform fairly close if not on the same level as the "real" damage dealers...who still get invited to groups, to boot. I see nothing but winners under that scenario.