Currently, this seems to be the development philosophy around FFXIV ARR's armoury system:

Have fun with multiple jobs on the side, but you should choose one specific job for advancement after you hit level 50. Lengthly relic grinds, weekly currency lockouts, and fixed 1:1:2 ratio content suggest that the armoury system is there for player's to dabble around on the side, and not to be a focus of character development.

Why does this bother me? Final Fantasy has had one of the most unique RPG experiences I can remember with job systems. Encounters were made to award players who could provide versatility. In Final Fantasy tactics, V, XI (and to a lesser extent, other Final Fantasies where you could change party members in and out) difficulty of particular Final Fantasy encounters could be mitigated by bringing an "optimal" party set up which could change heavily from encounter to encounter.


Why was this a problem in Final Fantasy XI? In Final Fantasy XI, it was too taxing on players to ask them to level up multiple jobs to 75. Some players did it, and truly they were rewarded with the most diverse end game experiences. Other players who were discouraged by the long grind and party-oriented levelling system were left with a bitter taste in their mouth.

FFXIV: ARR's levelling system is enjoyable, less grindy and significantly less of a time sink in comparison to FFXI. Ironically, the developers have decided to steer aware from the idea of having players change jobs to challenge encounters. With the exception of very specific encounters, a job is as useful as any other job provided that you have the 1:1:2 golden ratio set out by the development team. And even so, the encounters where the armoury system is utilized (HM Titan or Coil 2, for examples) seem to actually be developer oversights instead of intended mechanics.

I really do think that FFXIV would really benefit from dungeons and raids where players were encouraged to use different classes. For example, it would be fun to have fights where are there no tanks, or no healers.

This isn't to say that you would be now required to level every single job up to max level to enjoy end game content, but two different jobs of different roles would suffice.

What do you all think? Would FFXIV: ARR benefit from encouraging players to change jobs during raids or dungeons to challenge encounters more effectively?