Is there an unneeded hostility towards regular classes in this game?

[Huntington]

I think the main issue, OP, is that FFXI was much more ability-based compared to FFXIV. What I mean here is, your subjob was just as important as your main job. The abilities you had access were make or break for most content (shadows on ninja, buffs on rdm, etc etc). However, in FFXIV, this isn't the case so much. Classes sacrifice stats and exclusive abilities for 5 additional abilities. In order for the class to be on par with the Job, the utility and increases from the 5 additional abilities must be equal to or greater than the utility and damage from the Job abilities. With ARN, you get a few more options ability-wise that actually can give you a pretty good boost in damage, but numerically it may not stack up with the exclusive abilities from SMN.


You bring up utility, which again is an FFXI ideal. This game is less option-oriented, unfortunately (DPS does damage only, tank only tanks, heal only heals for most content). Now, if there would be a possibility for ARC to gain a silence/stun ability from another class, there would be more of an argument for utility as you could replace a BRD or something for silencing T1-2. I know you said you go as SMN for BC so I won't bother with that. Honestly, I don't know much about SMN/ARN, but I completely understand where you are coming from from a DPS and FFXI background. In order for Classes to be a more viable option, they need access to better Utility/Support abilities such as silence or stun.

The utility issue is going to be a problem later on when they want to introduce more Jobs, if we have everything already set into three areas, Tank, Healer, or DPS, some classes will have to be thrown into another area to accommodate them into the game. Red Mage is a good example, or even Geomancer if something like that even carries over. We'll need areas for Hybrid classes, which has been talked about by Yoshi-p, so come time later on after a year or two, which is when an expansion or two should be out, we'll have to see how they put them in the game and what Role they take on.

Thanks for your post though, it's appreciated. Though now, my drive to actually use an ACN in anything has been dimmed down because everyone here made sure that I felt like the scum of the earth for using it when it can be acceptable. No one read where I said I would and would not use it, so it's better for them to assume I run into Twintania and use it.