Letter to the Producer, Stay Class-less not Classy

[Zfz]

Lack of communications isn't due to the class system, IMO, it's due to how the content is designed (i.e. piece-meal, easy, short and fast content that need no communication).

Back in WoW I hated that to experience a different class, I'd have to grind through all the levels, collect all the gear and do everything again. It's much better this way in FFXIV IMO. Although I do agree that the class design is the elephant in the room right now.

[Nekodar]

[*] Introduce 5 new Class-Exclusive abilities for each class along with Class Guild quests from lvls30-50. A decent amount of these new abilities should be usable cross-class.

In other words you want to transform the base class into it's own job, just with the ability to crossclass more...

[Loki]

I like the fact to be able to play all jobs in one character. You are bored to play dps? So let's change into healer. Your friends are blocked in a dungeon their tank left? Let's change to tank!
Don't erase the possibility to play multi class on a character, imagine we have already a lack of tanks if we can't change ourself depending the situation we will wait forever!!!

And seriously usually i like to create alts but i don't like the "main story" which is full of stupid random quests "touch that" "pick that" "travel 10 km then come back" and all these FATES...eww no way to lv several characters like that. I hope they will really improve the aspect of the main stories in the futur!!!
I can remember all of them from ff11 it was entertaining, well done with some real quests and fights with nice CSs. A real adventure each time, i don't have this feeling on xiv.
In ff14 there is a good potential but the main part is flooded by all these stupid quests we ALREADY do by lving "please save the world but help me to pick my salad in my garden before please it's too hard for me" wtf

Anyway i agree that the class/job system is "strange" the idea was good in theory but in the game once you have unlocked your job you won't play the class anymore, so what the point of the classes if it's not more interesting than that.

We need more skills too i know we are only lv50 and we will have some more later but compared to ff11 or aion at lv50 we had 2x more skills that we have here and each was useful.

[NJA]

I'll add my 2 cents. I agree with much of what has been said, but I think the main problem is that every class except arcanist only leads to 1 job at present. Once there are more jobs and there is more branching, the 'core' of each class will feel like it has more purpose as a central base for different types of character and play. Rather than turning classes into jobs by giving them unique abilities, add more jobs with abilities that affect how the class works.

[Grizzlebeard]

but I think the main problem is that every class except arcanist only leads to 1 job at present. Once there are more jobs and there is more branching, the 'core' of each class will feel like it has more purpose as a central base for different types of character and play.

The problem with the branching is you end up having to specialise on one job or gimp both when it comes to the allocation of bonus attributes. This surely must undermine the whole concept of being able to play all jobs on one character because it essentially encourages you to marginalise one job in favour of another, albeit not permanently because of the GC item but seriously who wants to farm 10k seals everytime you want to play a job considering FATEs are rarely touched anymore.

The current class/job system just feels clunky and in need of serious work really. I'd sooner we retained the fantastic system we had in FFXI rather than this half-arsed one that really doesn't encourage any experimentation at all with jobs. The whole cross class ability system is lacklustre at best and is borderline useless for some jobs. Granted, the classes in this game have a fraction of the depth of their FFXI counterparts, this accounts for my lack of any real excitement at the prospect of my much-loved ninja class ever being added to the game. Tank or not it'll be a sad shadow of its previous incarnation.

[Nekodar]

The problem with the branching is you end up having to specialise on one job or gimp both when it comes to the allocation of bonus attributes. This surely must undermine the whole concept of being able to play all jobs on one character because it essentially encourages you to marginalise one job in favour of another, albeit not permanently because of the GC item but seriously who wants to farm 10k seals everytime you want to play a job considering FATEs are rarely touched anymore.

Attributes don't have to be optimally allocated for the job you feel like playing. The effect of the 30 points is quite marginal, so you can either go for a mix that fits both SMN and SCH for example, or optimize for one and still be able to do good on the other.
In short, you don't HAVE to min-max.

[Grizzlebeard]

Attributes don't have to be optimally allocated for the job you feel like playing. The effect of the 30 points is quite marginal,

Then the argument should be for them to scrap bonus attribute allocation surely. It's a pointless mechanic anyway because DPS will always go STR/DEX/INT accordingly, VIT for tanks, MND for healers. There's this illusion of choice that doesn't exist except on the one tree where they merged a MND job with an INT job and left one or both gimped.

[Nekodar]

Then the argument should be for them to scrap bonus attribute allocation surely. It's a pointless mechanic anyway because DPS will always go STR/DEX/INT accordingly, VIT for tanks, MND for healers. There's this illusion of choice that doesn't exist except on the one tree where they merged a MND job with an INT job and left one or both gimped.

So you want to remove choice because min-maxers have decided you're gimped if you don't allocate the way they want you to?
With more jobs being added to classes you'll have to choose again what to prioritize. min-max one job or go for a mix that is suitable for both.

[Grizzlebeard]

So you want to remove choice because min-maxers have decided you're gimped if you don't allocate the way they want you to?
With more jobs being added to classes you'll have to choose again what to prioritize. min-max one job or go for a mix that is suitable for both.

Min-maxers are playing this game just as you are, your opinion is no more or less valid than theirs. Also, I'm very much pro-choice when it comes to character design hence my sadness at the loss of the wonderful system we had back in FFXI. What I take umbrage with is a mechanic that forces you to marginalise one job in favour of another when the main strength of the FF MMO job system has always been about having all jobs on one character.

I don't care if 30 points make little difference (they clearly do otherwise gear stat increments would be huge rather than the small differences we have between iLevel 80 and 90 gear) the fact is I will be less inclined to play either both "averaged" jobs or the completely gimped one. Many people play the game to squeeze the optimal ability out of their characters whether that be another 1 DPS or 10HPs cured and having such a poorly thought out system in place dissuades people from choice at best, at worst it actively encourages people to shelve jobs.

[Fendred]

Another path would be to let people alter their current roles during combat so they can have more dynamic strategies involved in encounter design. Enemy takes on ultimate defensive form -> players swap to damage dealing rolls. Boss resets to his standard form -> players go back to tank, dps, dps, healer. Boss takes on full offensive form -> players change to defensive roles.

It sort of flies in the face of the current cross-class skill system, but it would open up a lot more abilities during combat and make use of the multiple classes/jobs the players have leveled.

But I see what everyone is saying. There is a lot of untapped potential in the class/job system and the materia system.