Are cracks in the Armoury System beginning to surface?

[Krausus]

Now that we have a bit of somewhat challenging content are we beginning to see some flaws in the Armoury System?

What I am talking about is the huge advantage that someone who has levelled every class has over someone who has not. Take GLA for example, somebody who only wanted to play as a GLA and not level any other class is at a big disadvantage over someone who has the time to level up multiple jobs and can cherry pick skill's and abilities from a range of classes.

In the R45 Dungeon I have noticed GLA's that have only levelled that class really struggle, they struggle to keep hate and they take way to much DMG on bosses. On the other side of the fence I did a run with a GLA who pretty much was invincible. They were able to run the whole length to Ogre without stopping to fight anything while getting every chest on the way, they needed hardly any healing on the Ogre and kept it solo without any cures needed until first Ghost shift. When rounding up skeletons before Batraal they walked around and gathered up every single skeleton in the room and then brought them back to us for AOE nuking only needing minimal cures on return. On Batraal again they could hold him solo no problem with only one mage needed for cures.

Now I won't take anything away from this player as they were very skilled and what they did was by no means easy but they also have every single Class at R50 and that did give them a massive advantage, no player with only GLA levelled would be able to do what he did with only the skills that a GLA can earn.

So where are we heading? Does this mean that people are going to be forced to level everything just to be able to build that godly tank class. This is something I have been worried about since the beginning and it is why I put all my time into trying to get every single Class levelled so that I too would have this advantage. However not everyone can do that so should they be penalised because of that, just because they don't have everything levelled they can never be that good?

As more and more challenging content comes certain builds for classes will begin to surface and as opposed to something like FFXI where you only had to level you main Job and a few Sub Jobs needed for that, in FFXIV you may have to level even more and level them to cap to get what is needed. What about when the level cap increases will you be expected to level some class you don't care about to cap just to get that one skill that is great for tanking?

I suppose we have the Job System coming and this may put this cross classing godly builds to rest but will Job's really be that great, will a PLD with restricted skills be as good as a GLA that has every class levelled and can cherry pick what they need to make the perfect build? Or what if even while PLD you can still cross class certain things from other classes and make it even better than your already over powered tank.

I don't know what SE will do but they really need to look at some way to balance this kind of stuff because someone should not really have that huge of an advantage over someone else just because they don't have ever class at R50 to cross class the best skills.

If someone ranked every class to 50 then they should have a massive advantage over someone that didn't, that's the beauty of MMOs if you put in the effort you reap the rewards, and everyone can do it if they try.

[Krausus]

Such a system of power inflation works well in a single player game, where you want to reach a point where your player feels really powerfull. In an MMO such a system leads to pretty massive balance problems.

there isn't a balance issue when everyone has access to the same tools.

[Gidonoidon_Sur]

Think the problems with the armoury system were always present to me...1 weapon = 1 class is a problem.

[AlexiaKidd]

If someone ranked every class to 50 then they should have a massive advantage over someone that didn't, that's the beauty of MMOs if you put in the effort you reap the rewards, and everyone can do it if they try.

No that is where I believe the Armoury System is wrong. If someone takes the time to get their chosen Class to R50 they should then not feel they have to level every other Job just to be a great Tank if thats what they want to do.

Someone who takes the time to level everything to R50 has a reward in that they can play any Class in any situation, that is their reward, it should not allow them to create some hybrid super Class that is completely over powered.

[Malakhim]

"Oh no guys, I have to spend more time playing another fun class so I can have fun with my other fun class. I don't like having fun!"

[Arcell]

The original intention of the Armoury system was to stress leveling multiple classes. From being able to level every class on one character to cross classing skills to fatigue urging you to change, it was all made to force you to level multiple classes. That is the point. If you don't then you don't have the same advantage however the person who leveled multiple classes deserves the advantage for the extra time spent. However not enough restrictions were put in place initially and things ended up feeling homogeneous.

You can't say that the Armoury system is wrong in doing so, that is the intent of its implementation.

Edit: However I do feel that the system as a whole was another half finished, almost great Tanaka idea. Had it been properly implemented from the start there likely wouldn't be a need to change any of it. However like most everything else from launch it was entirely incomplete and unfinished.

[AdvancedWind]

No that is where I believe the Armoury System is wrong. If someone takes the time to get their chosen Class to R50 they should then not feel they have to level every other Job just to be a great Tank if thats what they want to do.

Someone who takes the time to level everything to R50 has a reward in that they can play any Class in any situation, that is their reward, it should not allow them to create some hybrid super Class that is completely over powered.

You also don't *have* to improve your gear but a tank with significantly stronger gear will have a easier time tanking than the one with weaker gear.

So, we should also 'balance' gear in a way that even that one incredibly rare shield only has a very small stat difference or stats shifted for a different purpose?

[Krausus]

No that is where I believe the Armoury System is wrong. If someone takes the time to get their chosen Class to R50 they should then not feel they have to level every other Job just to be a great Tank if thats what they want to do.

Someone who takes the time to level everything to R50 has a reward in that they can play any Class in any situation, that is their reward, it should not allow them to create some hybrid super Class that is completely over powered.

Just because that is not how you want to play doesn't make it "Wrong". the system was designed that way, whether you like it or not is a moot point.

PS: this debate happens in ever MMO, those that dont put forth the effort feel the game should somehow compensate for their lack of trying.

PPS: I only have one 50 but I'm not so selfish that I think I should be equal to those that have worked hard enough to have multiple 50s.

PPPS: If you want to be the best tank you can be then work for it, no one is going to hand it to you.

[AlexiaKidd]

You also don't *have* to improve your gear but a tank with significantly stronger gear will have a easier time tanking than the one with weaker gear.

So, we should also 'balance' gear in a way that even that one incredibly rare shield only has a very small stat difference or stats shifted for a different purpose?

No gear is gear, but when 2 GLA's in exactly the same gear can be completely different and one have a huge advantage and I am not talking just a little bit of an advantage I am talking huge just because they have the time to level every Class to R50 that does not seem fair.

[RabidSquirrel]

Think the problems with the armoury system were always present to me...1 weapon = 1 class is a problem.

This is basically my only problem at the moment as well.

If there are issues of players not accepted into SP parties because of a skill that they're missing, then we have a problem (which was a problem in FFXI, and I'm pretty sure isn't the case right now). But if a certain class needs an ability from another class to complete super hard endgame content, then I feel that prejudice is acceptable.