The Chimera, the Monk and the Guard

[Onizuka]

I do hope they add more melee friendly battles, but I do advice you to level your other classes to 50 when you can, that way you can play other important roles. FF isn't a game where you pick 1 class and stick to it to the end, at least you wont have major issues and people "insulting" you for enjoying playing a monk, believe me, I have seen the worst, to people saying mean things like "useless class" ... whatever.

I understand your advice, kitty, however the “Level up other Classes” has never been something I considered, for the simple reason I don't like them. And it's part of my philosophy to never do something I don't like doing in Eorzea.
If one day I'll level them up it'll be only to watch the beautiful storyline quests.

Yes, I got a lot of refusals in random parties as a Monk and I will keep on getting them, but I shall always have a smile at it. (Also the best part when I get the refusal is when I track down the leader and stalk him/her with my Subligar)
But as we can see Monks are capable to clear every content without any difficulties, including Speed Runs in 20 minutes, as long as the party knows what to do. It's simply an unfortunate common place that many adventurers still believe they can't.

I, for one, had yet to see a video of a Full Speed Run with a Monk in Cutter's Cry from the beginning to the end, but of course I knew it was possible (hardcores most likely did this many moons ago).
Besides, I'm no hardcore at all, so I wanted to document my experience: if a casual adventurer can do it, everybody can, as long as the party is open-minded enough.

[Rau]

in other news, 4 minute chimera fight with monks.

what?

[Chardrizard]

People have been doing 17m CC with meleeburn for sometime.

[fusional]

in other news, 4 minute chimera fight with monks.

what?

less than that >;o

[axemtitanium]

Glad to see you're finally out of full AF. Might have been part of the problem *cough*. Also, those Cobalt Claws better be double-melded, because otherwise the GC Lieutenant's weapons are superior 100% of the time. I've been MNK burning Chimera for a while now with the LS but it's always BLM > MNK for Princess. Same story with AV, MNKs are great for Miser. Long story short, I agree with previous posters in this thread that FFXIV's Armoury System is designed to favor those who level multiple jobs. Endgame content requires endgame players with endgame equipment and endgame skillsets. Choosing to play a single class is a choice to be sub-optimal for certain content.

[Onizuka]

I don't believe the Armoury System was designed to have all the battle Classes at level 50, but rather level them up until obtaining the desired abilities to use on your main Class and then up to the adventurer to decide if he/she wants to bring another one to level 50.
Personally, that's what I did; then I didn't see myself fit for the other Classes and so I stopped leveling them, but I got all the abilities I wanted and with just 1 Job, the one I like, I can clear all the contents. About the refusals from random groups, like I said it's only because of the common place, but it's not written anywhere that to make the Speed Run one must do Black Mage => Monk until Boss, as the 20mins Speed Run is possible anyway.

Having all the battle Classes at level 50 is just the trend that has developed also due to the extreme ease in leveling up. I've seen in my parties situations like:

Adventurer 1: “You, can you play X Job?”

Adventurer 2: “Uhm, I've it but I'd rather play Y Job...” or “I've it but I can't use it very well...”

Generally I never like to ask “Can you play X Job?”, as I think it's better if one plays the favored one.
This is why I sooo much like the Party Recruit function: I just put there the Jobs I want and the adventurers join automatically with their preferred one.

[ShadowCadja]

in other news, 4 minute chimera fight with monks.

what?

bet can even do in like 2m30 or so but much more risky lol

[Valmonte]

i welcome the day Magic Resists are put back into the game and done right, this whole crappy hit and miss system is old. i want my dodges back, i want my resisted back.

[Churchill]

You can 6man a 17m run in AV and 7man (or less, maybe) a 17m run in CC...so yeah. You could go in and change to botanist if you'd like.

[Genz]

The goal of the original armory system was for players to build they own class with given abilities (because, fundamentally, a class in a RPG is just a set of abilities). Of course it meant we had to change "class" (but "class" in this context was a mistake)

Then they changed the combat system and we went from "build your own class" to "play the classes we give you". It's a total change of paradigm. The possibility to level up multiples classes and switch class during an instance is more like a leftover.
They're actually planning to forbid class switching during instances (old dev.tracker comment) and it's already the case in Hamlet defense and Skirmish as far as I know.