Quote Originally Posted by Gramul View Post
I dunno.
Are Tanks weaker for having to rely on Healers?
Are DD's weaker for not being able to take as many hits as a Tank?
Are Healers any weaker for not being able to attack as hard as DD's?

Mechanically they could just make it where you, as a solo character, where fully capable of fighting anything. The 3 role system is as arbitrary as any other RPG structure. The battles in this game are just designed around it.
I wouldn't call it arbitrary, more emergent. I could go through a whole history, but I would say it's really the simplest design around which to design and balance a game. Once you NEED a support class to fight (FFXI, EQ, DAoC), you run into the problem that they generally are the lowest played classes around,since they're usually not very interesting. (Seriously, we have a tank shortage as is right now). I think FFXIV's design of spreading out support and CC to the various jobs is an excellent compromise, but that the designers need to build encounters that encourage people to use their CC and enhance skills more.