Job Personalization: Can I Have It?

[WellFooled]

I find FFXIV's greatest weakness is the lack of anything in gameplay to differentiate us from one another. This could be solved with more interesting and varied stats ("Oh, you're a splash damage paladin? Neat, that must help with big groups. My shield gets me a little bit of that, but mostly I've been trying to collect counter attack gear.") but if stats must stay as they are, something along the lines of the OP's suggestions could go a long way toward making FFXIV more engaging.

[F_Maximillian]

As been said the problem with customization is the metagame tears anyone who tries something original a new one. It will either lead to one optimal build, or multiple builds equal in effectiveness/playstyle thus negating the purpose of customization. It's a great idea but it won't really amount to much.

[AlphaFox]

As much as I do love the idea and want it, I'd love to be able to pick a Whitemage who specializes over strong potent regens or one who has strong solid heals, or even one who may be a strong attacker with decent both. However in the end, as one person has stated, the optimal build will be found and any who shy away from that would be looked at with raised eyebrows and a strong sense of "Dude....what the hell"

[justinjarjar]

Only if the building did not work like any other game, since as people said the best build is found with maybe one ability you change between one raid boss and the next to deal with one mechanic easier. (which will be given in guides and most people will play that build). Not sure how to make build matter without basically having one job with one set of skills like we have now. (which yes the different jobs are different builds ie healer heals, but sch does fairy/ shields, whm... etc.). So you would have to make builds vastly different but viable, and we are already seeing some not taking X in PFs (which should not exist.. but it does).

[Bishop81]

2. “It would be hard for the devs to do.” More variables would lead to further imbalance, ultimately breaking the game.

False.The challenge would be greater, though I still wouldn't argue this when we have the some of the most talented devs in the world working on this game. There are other games out there with a balanced custom class system in place. There’s no reason SE couldn't do it and do it better!

Really? Given the amount of QQ from raiders about one thing or another about their Jobs? It's pretty clear the game isn't balanced enough.

So long as FFXIV is following in WoW's footsteps of catering to raiders, where raiding is the foremost centerpiece of the game, where everything is designed around raiding ... you can expect the same banal Jobs/gear/items ... etc. because "balance > fun and interesting".

PS: Funny. Raiders don't want to have anything to do with the rest of the game - "mandatory chores" according to them. But raiding inverse affects every other part of the game, gear is boring, Jobs are boring, items are boring ... etc. because "balance".

[Calypsx]

I would rather them just work on adding more jobs instead of this. Any new trait idea here could be used on a totally new unique job in the future.

[ErzaScarlet77]

wouldnt work.
everyone will be expected to spec the way top raiders/general pop specs

also just like someone mentioned, if every specs is equally as good, then whats the point of it?

[Sandpark]

I don't care much if job personalization gets added.You pick your poison. You either advance exactly like someone else that is your class or you become more closely homogenized to other classes. And I prefer being different from other classes more than being different from my class.

The thing I want more than job personalization is combat personalization. It doesn't matter what strengths the enemy has other than physical or magical weakness. What skills I use is not decided by me but a rotation or two that is best in all circumstances determined by Square. What this amounts to is each job rotating the same skills, over and over and over, BORING!

Why not bring elemental wheel back? Skill bloat? Not a problem because it can just be tuned how mudras work and change what hotbars do depending on what is strategized. Blunt, pierce, slash makes no difference because no monsters are weak to one or the other as far as I know. One weaponskill or two is considered the highest damage spike in most circumstances. Why can't weaponskills be more powerful than others in certain cases?

No matter what horizontal stuff gets added, it is pointless because it will still be spamming the same rotation, over and over, dodging AoE. Spamming same rotation. I want more visceral visual cues and less bar watching and circle watching, and some damn carefully chosen timed skills versus repeating a rotation repeatedly.

This feels more like God Of War or Diablo combat to me than a Final Fantasy. Minus that I actually have to dodge sometimes versus steamrolling monsters.

[Sanadaiyeve]

I really love that FFIX inspired gaining of skills and traits by spirit bonding gear. That sounds absolutely beautiful. Thank you :}

[Colt47]

I agree with the OP that the system available in FFXIV needs to offer at least some choice in specialization for each job. Right now World of Warcraft actually beats this game hands down in their class system because even though you can't play every job on a single character, each "job" offers three different play styles within that job and players can freely switch between two of those styles. This allows for hybrid classes to actually fill two different roles, damage dealers can experiment with different kinds of play, etc. Heck, even though we can play every class on the same character in FFXIV, it's really no different from starting a new character in WoW and leveling that character up, only they have a seperate inventory so they don't run into the issues we have with the FFXIV inventory.

I mean, we could have Dark knights that could be a DPS or a Tank if we used that idea of offering multiple paths. Or a Bard that could specialize in healing or be a sniping savant.