No More Classes?

[TheodoreMcIntyre]

I hope they turn the classes into there own jobs. >3>
My question is, if they get rid of classes, how are they going to handle Scholar and Summoner?

They're probably not going to get rid of them.
If anything, they're just not going to use it anymore for future classes.

[Eloah]

I like your class/job ideas. I think SE could still use the class system it just needs to be retooled for further usefulness. Like maybe the classes skills end at 30 and the job skills start at 30, but instead of only being issued every 5 levels make them a bit more frequent, and have class and job specific traits too.

[LeoEmpire]

I wasn't expecting to come back to this with all this discussion.

How is a Job without a class is supposed to work? Classes are the source of cross abilities. They could change it, but I like the idea that leveling one thing could potentially help something else.

Perhaps it is difficult to balance Summoner/Scholar, that might become easier as items in the game become more complex. At the very least, they would have more tools to tweak their effectiveness. It would be an error to abandon the idea of multiple jobs stemming from a class after 1 attempt.

I know this goes against a lot of what was done from the transition from 1.0 to 2.0, but I personally would like to see a little more variation. Just so it doesn't seem like all Bards are the same or all White Mages are the same, etc. I'm afraid if that if we move away from what classes are as a concept, we'll just see even more corralled gameplay in the future.

[Bishop81]

I like the idea that leveling one thing could potentially help something else.

This isn't very scalable though. As more and more cross-skills are add, the possible "configurations" of each PC increases and balancing becomes harder.

If you want balance then customizability of PCs, variety of weapon/spell effects and other novel ideas are often casualties - sacrificed at the altar of balance.

Not really should it's worth the sacrifice IMHO.

[Wintersandman]

This isn't very scalable though. As more and more cross-skills are add, the possible "configurations" of each PC increases and balancing becomes harder.

Honestly the only thing that has more configurations are classes. Jobs are still limited to cross class skills from 2 other classes. Possible configurations will not be as great as it seems. It potentially allows for other classes to diversify instead of the same pool of base classes.

SCH can use CNJ and THM. WHM can use ACN and THM.

Unless that was their intent. Astrologian will have access to stoneskin and swiftcast as cross class abilities. So then the only difference will be is the job/class specific abilities in the current pool and the new abilities from the new jobs. All other cross class selections will be boiler plate. Seems pretty boring IMHO.

[Bishop81]

None of these new Jobs have Classes attached to them. Do we hate Classes now? Arcanist is my favorite thing in the game right now because it's playing with a base skill set in very different ways. I love the dynamism and was hoping we'd see more like that with the other existing classes. Instead it looks like we're setting up to do away with them completely! I really hope that's not the case.

I believe they are getting rid of classes and cross-class skills in general - not killed outright but left to die a "natural death" via neglect; they will get more and more useless as they add more and more abilities to Jobs.

"Configurability" makes it harder to balance for raiding.

Personally I find such design boring, but ... /shrug

[VanilleFang]

I believe they are getting rid of classes and cross-class skills in general - not killed outright but left to die a "natural death" via neglect; they will get more and more useless as they add more and more abilities to Jobs.

Swiftcast will never be useless. If you think it will then you obviously don't heal.

[Mirron]

Cross-class skills still exist, so it's not like they're "dying". Likely that Rogue didn't get factored in because they need to rebalance everything to make sure it works out, which will come with the expansion.

[mdha02]

I don't think they will do away with current classes. Will there be more classes? Probably not. I think it will be easier for them to to come up with the 7 job skills then it is to come up with the however many class skills you get plus those 7 from the job. I think it makes it easier to add new jobs to the game rather than having to wait for expansions. Just my thought. I could be totally wrong.

[Roxas_Andrade]

I just thought of this and I'd like to discuss.
Maybe all this "No base class involved" work in a different way (I'd like to):
You will do your DKN, AST and MCH (my guess on shorts) quest with any class you want, right? What if you earn their crystals and you're free to use them with whatever class you want, no mandatory base class? We already have a role change depending on the crystal you use (ACN -> SMN-DPS/SCH-Healer).

People could have a CNJ base class and use AST crystal, they would remain as a Healer.
People could have a CNJ base class and use DKN crystal, they would be a tank capable of using Medica II!! But with low HP and only cross class CDs.
People could have a DPS base class and use DKN crystal to be excellent offtanks.

Of course some combinations will be better than others, but we will have a lot more diversity and could do new and wonderful things with these "hybrid" classes/jobs. A lot of dumbness could occur too, for sure, but people will learn the best ways.