Job Encounters

[PoeRangutan]

I thought about this the other day on the way home from work, and have been getting more and more excited about it as I thought about it more and more, so I thought I'd throw it out there and see what people think of it.
The basic idea is an encounter that requires multiple of the same job to take on. I was thinking 3, but by no means is this required. The thing that gets me most excited about it, is the sensibility of the concept into future content and how it could evolve significantly without significant effort. By profession I am a software developer, project manager and efficiency expert, so these are the things that interest me.

So phase 1 this could be implemented with a single encounter for each job. Assuming this would come in 3.0 (which I know isn't happening) there would be 13 encounters. The encounter would be the same each time, and would work similar to the class/job quest fights that you have to solo. There would be tanks / healers / DPS to supplement you, so you don't have to tank as a healer, etc. For example: The monk encounter could be a battle against a horde of Amalj'aa that are encroaching on Little Ala Mhigo. Your group of 3 are brought in to help defend the settlement from the invasion. Throughout the fight there are specific instances where things like mantra are a must have. Your team will have to work together and use all of your abilities. Key instances will require you to use One Ilm Punch to remove buffs from the mob. Maybe require you to switch stances here or there, as well as using cross class skills like bloodbath to ensure survivability. There will be a built in tank and healer for the encounter, but they are AI controlled on standard gambits (like the ones in the class/job quest battles) and you will have to learn when they use certain abilities to optimize the battle. If you DPS too heavy at certain parts, you'll rip hate from the tank and the healer won't be able to keep up, etc. Finish the encounter and get your loot (discussed at the end).

For WAR, I'm thinking of a pseudo battle protecting the maurader's guild in Limsa. Some covert group of Mamool Ja sneak into the guild and are hiding in the basement. When they attack, you are called to defend the guild. During the fight, all 3 of you are required to tank your own bosses, possibly switching bosses to trade different debuff stacks (one does VIT down, one puts a healing received debuff, one adds a stacking poison debuff that stacks exponentially, etc). During the encounter, there are Yellowjacket NPCs that DPS and heal for you. You will have to maneuver the mobs around to keep them out of AOE damage as much as possible. At some points you will need to drop defiance and DPS a bit, stack your IB and Berserk to build back some HP, etc. Survive the encounter and get your loot (again, discussed at the end).
I have one for SCH as well, but I think you get the idea.
The thing that I love about this is the potential extensibility of the system through multiple releases without significant development effort (as I see it, though I'm not a FFXIV game developer, so I could admittedly, be way off). Here is a possible progression of the system:

• Phase 1: 13 new encounters added (1 for each job). 3 participants of the same class per encounter (no mixing and matching). Reward, standard loot (again, later). Achievement for completing each. Title / Minion for completing all jobs.
• Phase 2: optional iLVL or lvl sync for extra challenge / loot, (effectively adding additional challenges, without having to redesign a new encounter for each job)
• Phase 3: Handicap roulette. In the examples above, complete the quest as MNK without the ability to use Perfect Balance, or with max 1 greased lightning stack, or complete the encounter without a certain piece of equipment (this is similar to the ilvl sync, so not sure how viable, but may be fun), complete with a native heavy/slow on your the entire fight, or without the ability to use cross class abilities, etc. I think this mechanic (handicap roulette) would be super fun in the general duty roulette as well, so it has multiple uses.
• Phase 4: leaderboards for time to clear base challenged (w/o sync), and w/ sync. Weekly challenge winners. (this could build onto the PVP leaderboard system that has been talked about. Tokens (like commendations) for being at the top at the end of each week. Enough tokens, you get a unique mount (probably just 1 mount for getting a certain number of these, rather than 1 for each job's encounter, I like mounts, but that would just be too much. Possibly a unique mount for getting a certain number, and another one for getting the achievement on each job) The drawback to this system is largely the community. It could be seen that people recruiting for members of their static will require someone to have a time of X to clear their job encounter, or be at the top of the leaderboard, or have a certain number of achievement points for doing so, etc, which isn't really the intention of the system, and may have a more negative effect.
• Phase 5: Cross job (role specific) allowance. Put together your best 3 DPS, your best 3 Tanks, or best 3 healers and challenge each. Challenge the MNK job encounter as MNK / BRD / BLM. Or the WAR job encounter as WAR / DRK / DRK, etc. These could be slotted as additional encounters. (Pure Job Challenge, Sync Challenge, Blended Job Challenge) each would have their own leaderboard. Achievements for being the top of the leaderboard @ the end of the week, etc).
• Phase 6: Free Company Challenges: Your FC could be given a leaderboard furnishing (like the marketboard or hunt board) that shows the top performers in each encounter from your FC from all time / for the month / for the week for each encounter. You could challenge your FC mates, try to top them on the FC leaderboard, and showcase your skills as the best MNK in the FC, etc.
• Phase 7: At this point iLVL will likely be WAY beyond the starting level, and you could introduce things like complete it w/ 2 people, rather than 3, or complete it solo, or with your chocobo companion. (Yoshi P has talked about adding this type of system to some of the older dungeons as well, so if they do that with the old dungeons, it could have additional use here)
• Phase 8: Variation on the above, do it solo with handicaps, etc.

With this, there are effectively 5 different encounters in the system:

• Job Encounter
• iLVL / LVL synced Encounter
• Handicap Roulette Job Encounter
• Role Encounter
• Companion Encounter

and all without the battle team having to build a new battle (or 13+ new battles) for each iteration, just slight variations, which mostly copy functionality from other content in the game, or have additional uses in other content in the game. With each patch, if needed the dev's could adjust the content to make it harder or easier depending on how it is received by the community. Adding 1 new fight for each job during a patch would effectively add 65 different duties to the DF.

There could be unique coaching opportunities here as well, where FC mates could bring in newer people and show them the ropes of how to play as BRD, how to tank as a WAR, etc. Or just get together and see if you can beat your FC's best time.

As for loot: At the start, to get people to do this, the loot would need to be useful. If it were released right now, it would be nice to have soldiery be the main loot, so people could farm it for the needed solidery/poetics for gear progression or relic upgrades. Job specific armor (AF2, AF3, or items that augment your AF gear) seem like natural rewards for these, but if that gear isn't viable as end game gear, or is only used for glamour, I don't see people running it much beyond the initial novelty (think Crystal Tower or Syrcus Tower now). This could also be added as something in the Manderville Golden Saucer. You could wager gil that you could beat a certain time, or perhaps the loot is just a giant purse at the end of the week. Each participant group pays gil to participate and winner each week takes all, or top 3 split the loot 60/30/10 etc.

Kinda similar to the Battle Arena from VII's Golden Saucer, but that is mostly solo, and I'm thinking more of a group vibe.
Anyways, sorry for the ultra long post, but I've been thinking about it a lot and wanted to see what people think. Thoughts?