How difficult is it to run dungeons as classes, not jobs?

[BlossomRose]

The class skills are too important, in some cases, to give up, yeah.

Gladiators have it a bit easier than most; their class skills as Paladins are NOT immediatly relevant or useful until Shield Oath, so you could just go to dungeons as a Gladiator using more cooldowns from other classes. In THIS SPECIFIC CASE ONLY, you can make up for not being a job by being a class and using several cooldowns from classes you normally could not. Pugilist and Lancer, especially.

Still, it's not recommended unless you know your stuff, and in some cases it's downright a bad idea. Marauders immediately get their tanking stance from going Warrior, for instance.

Also at 50 your relic is job-specific and can't be used by your class.

[Mysteltain]

It was because your stats were lower. Jobs get a massive stat boost from the Soul Crystal. You were effectively under-leveled by going as a GLA instead of PLD.

The cross class skills are not worth the cost of losing the stat boosts for dungeon runs. Plus jobs get access to skills classes can't use.

I'm aware of both the stat boosts from Soul Crystals, as well as the extra job skills, which is why I started thinking about this. But the second line what I was most curious to hear people's opinions about, though: whether cross-class skills outweigh the gains from being a job. What makes me a bit more curious now is whether or not clever use of materia can close the gap, if only slightly.

The class skills are too important, in some cases, to give up, yeah.

Gladiators have it a bit easier than most; their class skills as Paladins are NOT immediatly relevant or useful until Shield Oath, so you could just go to dungeons as a Gladiator using more cooldowns from other classes. In THIS SPECIFIC CASE ONLY, you can make up for not being a job by being a class and using several cooldowns from classes you normally could not. Pugilist and Lancer, especially.

Still, it's not recommended unless you know your stuff, and in some cases it's downright a bad idea. Marauders immediately get their tanking stance from going Warrior, for instance.

Also at 50 your relic is job-specific and can't be used by your class.

That's what I found myself doing, using Bloodbath+Convalescence, Featherfoot, Second Wind, etc. more to increase my survivability. It worked perfectly fine until Aiatar when the healer just couldn't keep up with the damage near the end. I think it could have worked if I had timed my abilities and their cooldowns a bit better, but it also didn't help that she wasn't using Esuna to cure me of those 4 stacks of poison the big dragon gave me. It wasn't until he got to 50% HP that I noticed the healer struggling to keep me topped off.

[Naberrie]

What makes me a bit more curious now is whether or not clever use of materia can close the gap, if only slightly.

There is a cap on materia. Pieces can only be maxed out via materia to an extent. You'll get a message when you try to afix materia that would go over the cap warning you.

I'm not saying it's impossible. But just that materia can only do so much. And considering that at that level there aren't many materia slots on each piece to work with, you certainly wouldn't be able to compensate for all the stats you'd be losing without the Crystal.

[Mysteltain]

There is a cap on materia. Pieces can only be maxed out via materia to an extent. You'll get a message when you try to afix materia that would go over the cap warning you.

I'm not saying it's impossible. But just that materia can only do so much. And considering that at that level there aren't many materia slots on each piece to work with, you certainly wouldn't be able to compensate for all the stats you'd be losing without the Crystal.

Well, that's why I said clever; I know about the materia stat limits. What I'm given to understand is that you're only capped on the stats presented by the weapon. So if an axe had, say, +4 VIT, +3 DET, +3 Parry, what's stopping you from adding STR materia to it? And then if you have earrings that don't have a VIT stat, what's stopping you from stacking VIT materia? Mind you, I haven't tested this, nor have I messed around with materia all that much, but it's an interesting idea.

Also, I think you're forgetting about overmelding. Up to 5 materia can be attached, although you'd have to be lucky as hell to do so on more than one piece.