Why did SE decide to make the three new classes not require base classes?

[Hurlstone]

I guess I just love the lore, and would hate to see that stripped from the game.

I do not think they would ever strip the previous class stories from the game. They are far to important, and will likely be here to stay no matter what future jobs are added or if they redesigning the whole 'class' system.


As for the new jobs, if they follow the same '5 levels then a class quest' idea that they have had with the others, then we will still be getting the exact same number of class quests. Having a single job to concentrate on could be an interesting opportunity to expand its story and lore, rather then having 30 levels of class story, and 30 (Count the level rise in the expansion) of job stories.

Is because they can't be bothered to make the base classes worth anything. In 11 people still had reasons to stay a WHM or aTHF even after openning up later jobs. Square didn't bother to make these classes worth anything post 30.

You make a good point that classes basically become worthless after level 30. Although to be fair, in FF11 people still had a reason to play those jobs because they were still unique in their own right. In FF14 though, Jobs basically become an enhanced version of the class.

[Genz]

Is the game being "dumbed-down" a bit?

To be more accurate, the armoury system was dumbed down back in version 1.20-1.21. It just took the devs 2 years to fully understand their own doing and remove what had become useless.

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Now they better remove classes for every job, to keep things simple. Imagine describing the game system to a new player :
"There are 9 classes, and you get a job when they reach lvl 30, which is essentially the same as the class for most of them, and there is one class which gives two jobs, and you also have 3 jobs that start right at level 1 without class."
... when we could just have :
"There are 13 jobs."

[Prototype909]

To be more accurate, the armoury system was dumbed down back in version 1.20-1.21. It just took the devs 2 years to fully understand their own doing and remove what had become useless.

-
Now they better remove classes for every job, to keep things simple. Imagine describing the game system to a new player :
"There are 9 classes, and you get a job when they reach lvl 30, which is essentially the same as the class for most of them, and there is one class which gives two jobs, and you also have 3 jobs that start right at level 1 without class."
... when we could just have :
"There are 13 jobs."

The problem is with the way the plot/soul crystal stuff is explained I don't really see this happening - it'd be more work to rewrite those parts of the story to make sense than it would be to just leave it. They've already dug themselves into a hole and now they'll have to lay in it.

[Teslo]

This is a very interesting question. I wonder if anyone here knows?

Nobody here could possibly know this. lol Only the devs know the answers to these questions for sure, and they're not telling.

I suspect that we're seeing the start of the process to move away from classes entirely. If they don't spring a class/job change on us by the time the expansion comes out, we'll see it sometime around 3.4. I suspect we'll see it sooner rather than later, simply because the three new Jobs won't work well with the others under the current system. Much like Ninja is awkward with the fact that it can take cross-class skills, but doesn't share any of its own with other classes/jobs. If they keep going with that, every new Job will rely on the old cross-class skills from the old Classes, which will get boring really fast.

[Felis]

I don't necessarily mind the fact that they're getting rid of classes as the story for those jobs will now just be continuous rather than split into 1/2 Class 1/2 Job as it is now. However I am worried about what this means for the existing classes who are still bound by the system compared to their new counterparts.

SE don't get rid of the classes. They just don't add new classes to the game. The old classes (also the DoL and DoH classes) will remain in the game.

[Prototype909]

If they keep going with that, every new Job will rely on the old cross-class skills from the old Classes, which will get boring really fast.

Problematically (Perhaps) this is already sort've guaranteed to be the case. For example every tank -needs- provoke, without it you can't even do tank swap mechanics in an efficient manner. So no matter what every tank has to either be able to cross class Gladiator or have an ability that does the exact same thing as provoke but with a different name.

There will always be a dependence on old abilities like this because SE wants every job to be plug in and play rather than offering a unique experience or advantage (At least, on paper), there's nothing fundamentally wrong with this as long as it's accepted that every job is going to be a Circle Shape going into a Circle Hole.

[Teslo]

Problematically (Perhaps) this is already sort've guaranteed to be the case. For example every tank -needs- provoke, without it you can't even do tank swap mechanics in an efficient manner. So no matter what every tank has to either be able to cross class Gladiator or have an ability that does the exact same thing as provoke but with a different name.

Yeah well, the ability to provoke is kind of a definition of the role of Tank isn't it? lol If you're going to have a trinity system game, you're going to need a provoke mechanic. Currently that's achieved by cross-classing provoke off Gladiator, but what they should really be doing is giving each tank it's own Provoke and allowing the cross-class abilities to be something more... Unique? I guess? I don't know, I absolutely hate the current cross-class system, so anything else that they do would be an improvement in my opinion. lol

[Felis]

Much like Ninja is awkward with the fact that it can take cross-class skills, but doesn't share any of its own with other classes/jobs. If they keep going with that, every new Job will rely on the old cross-class skills from the old Classes, which will get boring really fast.

The jobs with no classes can maybe not equip any cross-class skill, because no class will used as sub class. Also every skill of the new jobs would be 100% jobskills and therefore not equipable with other class/job.

Also new cross-class skills come with level cap raise (I hope). The old classes would still learn new skills and I really hope that they would be not all exclusive skills..

[Noshpan]

There's also the factor that leveling yet another can, at times, be boring as hell.

[Brianmj]

Is because they can't be bothered to make the base classes worth anything. In 11 people still had reasons to stay a WHM or aTHF even after openning up later jobs. Square didn't bother to make these classes worth anything post 30.

WHM and THF were jobs. We just didn't have to unlock them like advanced jobs. Classes in ff14 are equivalent to subjobs in ff11, in that they're a time sink.