Honest question: If every player/class/job is equal,who is unique? (Gameplay topic)

[WellGramarye]

Saying you are a "old FFXI" player" does nothing for your argument. Would you look at that, so am I. You can not compare the games because while they are both MMO's they are totally different games. FFXIV's progression is strictly vertical where as FFXI's progression (at least when I last played, which was the launch of the first Abyssea expansion) was mostly horizontal. While classes were "unique" it also meant that only certain classes were brought to the table. Going meriting? SAM SAM SAM BRD WHM. Wanna play a BST, BLM, or SMN? Better love to solo from 1-75. Classism is BAD for a game. The more you ostracise your player base, the less likely they will keep playing. Even during the FFXI era players always took the path to least resistance. Every zerg encounter was: BRD rotations for super buffs, throw as many SAM as you can, unless you had a reliced DRK, perhaps a MNK or two for hundred fists, couple of healers outside the party and a THF to tag the mob with a Thief Knife just in case Treasure Hunter actually worked. Every other job could just sit and watch until that one or two instances they might be useful. Everything you suggest would make the game worse than it currently is.

[axemtitanium]

Classism is BAD for a game.

Oh my god this x 1000.

[Edli]

Classism[/B] is BAD for a game.

Exactly. I've played on MMOs with imbalanced classes and it was ugly for everyone. For the one that had to sit in the corner and for the other that couldn't bring his friend just because he happen to choose some whatever class in the beginning. What that meant was that no matter how good of a player you are, dedicated or friendly you were. You just picked the wrong class sorry. Now go sit there and suck at your finger while we're playing.

This is the one thing I love about this game. There is no useless class. What that means is the player that counts, a good player will make every class work for everything. You may try to spin this aspect of the game negatively but you're not going to get a lot of support.

[WellGramarye]

Well there were. Back before all the nerfs and balance changes. It used to be PLD PLD BRD BRD BRD BRD BRD BRD BRD BRD BRDBRDBRDBRBDRBDBRDBRDBRDBRBDBRDBRDBBDBRDRBD WHM WHM.

I'm not sure OP remembers beta or launch.

[Scootaloo]

FFXIV's progression is strictly vertical where as FFXI's progression (at least when I last played, which was the launch of the first Abyssea expansion) was mostly horizontal.

Your creditability just flew out the window pal, no offense. Abby was when the game went to hell and back and was forever changed. You have no ability to judge how the game was because you never saw how challenging it was before abby was introduced.

[WellGramarye]

Your creditability just flew out the window pal, no offense. Abby was when the game went to hell and back and was forever changed. You have no ability to judge how the game was because you never saw how challenging it was before abby was introduced.

Are you retarded? Do you have any reading comprehension? I said this is when I last played. As Abyssea is when I quit. I played since launch before that. The only one who has no credibility here is you, as many many people are pointing out.

[Madoka]

OP, if you want to generalize and be wrong about so many classes why not just whine that there's a get hit, a heal shit and a hit shit class type?

[XNihili]

SCH and WHM are so the same that the first time I switched from SCH to WHM I almost wiped on a Wanderer Palace speedrun
And I'm pretty sure that playing WAR while doing only BB combo, popping the few cooldowns while sitting on rage stacks indeed feels like playing PLD. Not for the healer though

[Lemuria]

To be fair, the OP has a point. Classes have no DEFINING characteristic which makes one more useful than the other for a particular type of content. The mechanics might change, but it's just window dressing, and has no real impact on gameplay. In my opinion, the only exception to this rule is tanks, where Paladin still reigns supreme in high end content simply because of the crazy damage that a warrior would take in the same situation, putting too much stress on the healers.

Still, one exception does not a rule make and it would be nice if classes had unique abilities which make them truly stand out from the crowd. Some would argue it would promote excluding certain classes from content, I would argue it would promote a wider range of classes being invited.

[Duelle]

Some would argue it would promote excluding certain classes from content, I would argue it would promote a wider range of classes being invited.

Except that's not how it works. The moment one class becomes superior to others for specific content, people will stack that class and give everyone else the middle finger. FFXI saw this. WoW saw this. I'm pretty sure Lineage II saw this, too.

Variety is already pseudo-encouraged in group comps because of the small penalty to building the LB gauge when having multiples of the same class, not to mention keeping the loot pools from boss mobs in mind. At the same time, having more than one of every job is not detrimental to the run, so we're actually in a very good place design-wise. We can have a "one of each" comp and a "some repeats but roles are covered" comp and still be able to clear content. Why you would destroy that so that a few can feel unique and special is beyond me.

It only means they are unable to see what others can see.　That's not a problem of the classes, it's a problem with the observer (OP).

For relevance;

I love you for this.

PS: Mechanics are the best place for variety between jobs and classes. The fact that MNK has greased lightning while DRG has relatively unforgiving positional requirements does make those two play and feel differently despite being competitive against each other AND fulfilling the role of melee DPS. PLD and WAR actually are very different because of the approach to tanking each take. BLM and SMN also are distinct from one another without making groups take one over the other, and that is a good thing in the long run.