Add abilities through quests instead of increasing levels

[Grey_Cain]

After increased level cap there would be new job quests for new job skills

Yes, that's true, but then there wouldn't be any new job quests for new job skills until they increase the level cap again. And then we're stuck waiting again kind of like we are now.

Yeah, but they could add in quests and abilities without a level cap increase, if they wanted to. I'm hoping they will implement Blue Magic as cross-class abilities rewarded through a side-story questline. Maybe increase the cap on cross-class abilities at the same time. That way you could enjoy supplement blue magic abilities that wouldn't need to be shoe-horned into one specific role. The quests could relate to studying monster behavior, and we learn an ability from each monster in the questline.

In the future, when they have quests that lead to new job abilities, I hope that the quests are related to the reward abilities more clearly. Like with summoners, you gain new summons related to the quest you completed (along with an additional ability), but for most jobs the ability has nothing to do with the quest itself.

Absolutely, Blue Magic needs a system that isn't tied to regular levels or limited to the same numbers of abilities as other classes/jobs. I mean, I'd want the actual abilities learned by BLU to come from fighting enemies rather than being granted by a quest, but I really wouldn't want their abilities to come from raising levels and having to wait for a level cap increase to get new blue magic spells. And maybe Leviathan has more to teach than just letting SMN call his Egi forth. Maybe a MNK could get a Tidal Fists attack and DRG could get a Wave Jump and WHM could get a real Water spell, and it could all just be themed abilities that all come from quests that only unlock once you've defeated Leviathan with a specific class or job.

It would make sense to separate things like summons from the idea of every job getting abilities at the same time as other jobs.

I don't know how many abilities they can realistically add, though. I feel like the amount of abilities is at about as many as I can handle on a gamepad. Like it already kinda hinders my reaction time a bit to have to fumble over to a different cross hotbar set.

Well, they're going to continue adding abilities every time they increase the level cap if they continue with that plan. I just want to get the abilities sooner, and maybe have a bigger purpose to obtaining each one than just "The Power of the Dragon inside you increases", and then you get the ability to jump backwards suddenly. Hopefully when they do add new abilities they'll be in the flavor of "use this or this, but you don't have to use both" so that the hotbars don't fill up too much, but eventually it's something they're going to have address once more. However, that's a plan for another thread.