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

[Pantz]

Besides, almost every single post here disagrees with you. They bring up the same points I do and disagree with your opinion that the classes are too similar.

I think you're somewhat ignoring the differences that do exist between the jobs and only pointing out the similarities.

That said, the issue with making a job too distinct is there will inevitably be classes that are much better suited to certain fights than others which could lead to jobs being ostracized (very common in FFXI). The way the jobs are tuned now, for better or worse, is much more balanced in that you can essentially do any fight with any combination of jobs. Their are some that are stronger in certain fights than others but never enough, in most cases, to lead to some being excluded.

Just as I said about making classes too distinct.

There is an innate uniqueness to the classes, some of which you have stated. The trouble with "depth" is that it comes at a cost. Paladins have less HP than Warriors but their mitigation is far superior to make up for this. Warriors have nearly double the HP (depending on gear and buffs) but mitigation is lackluster and they hit harder.

I use those as examples and I could delve into Dps, but there is no need. Monks are different than Dragoons, Black Mages than Summoners. You as a player make them unique too. And while options to do so are limited you can play outside the box

What I said about classes already having a lot of difference.

Summoner and Bard abilities do not chain into each other.
Monk does not work the way you describe either, each skill you use after does not always do more damage than the previous, and works with stance changes, not combos. BLM does not either.
Only Dragoon works that way.
I do agree that jobs can be repetitive, since you usually use the same abilities when playing a certain job, and that does not change per fight, but each job does play differently from one another.
Scholar and WHM do play differently as well.

Same thing.

I'll start with Tanks. While they may seem similar they are much much different in practice. Warrior while having a few skills to lower incoming damage, is a reactive tank. Its all about taking the hit then healing it up after with a much larger pool of hp. Paladin on the other hand is a proactive tank, that has much higher damage reducing cool downs that are easily stacked to reduce incoming damage. This allows the tank to ease the brunt of the damage the healer has to heal. They also generate hate and go about dealing damage in different ways. Paladin has the Halone Combo, Flash, and its AOE DoT skill. Warrior has its Butcher's Block combo, Flash, Overpower, and Steel Cyclone; while not being a hate skill itself Steel Cyclone ignores the stance dmg reduction penalty and its shock damage is nice for grabbing threat. I find Paladin to be the safer option when tanking (especially on single targets,) but that with its alternate combos Warrior to be more damaging and able to hold AOE threat better (but also much harder on the healer than Paladin.)


For Healers its pretty much the same thing. They work great in tandem but are specified to a certain niche. White Mage is about reactive healing dropping large amount of hp on others after they've taken damage, while Scholars are proactive healers who try to lessen the damage with shields. While it amounts to the same HPS overall, the play style is quite different. Scholar also has the added benefit of being able to split their attention between more than one player due to the fairy.

Same thing.

Having not played all Jobs to their fullest (You only have four (SCH/PLD/SMN/MNK) of the nine jobs capped,) I really don't think you are one to say how they are different or not. A level 30 job/class plays quite a bit different than a level 50 one. Gear changes play style as well as overall abilities gained. You should perhaps cap the other jobs, and explore more how they are different in mechanics and play style before making anymore decisions there-in.

Same thing.


Sorry, but while giving classes new abilities would be fun, I don't agree on the premise of giving them too much uniqueness (with the reasons I stated before). I also don't agree that the classes are very similar right now, as does almost everyone else in this thread.