Job Personalization: Can I Have It?

[Sandpark]

Giving people the choice to be mediocre is no choice at all. We'd go back to the scenario of Souleater Recast merits vs Arcane Circle Recast merits. One is actually useful, the other one is a waste of code. All you'd be doing is inviting the type of problems that are known to work with "specs" (people getting ridiculed for not going the optimal route).

In tight group based content, it would be a waste of code because SE cannot make a dungeon make every jobs skill matter.

Except the one that deals most damage will rule over the other.

In groups as they get larger. Of course if a party takes a DPS, they will want the higher DPS. In low man or solo open world content. That DPS wouldn't be as much required, especially if you couldn't heal yourself much at all or have a survivable build for things that don't die fast.

I'd go for somehow swapping particle effects and spell names around over changing BLM at the baseline. Granted, the job is built around it using all its elements.

XI tried what you're asking with elemental affinity merits, but that quickly became "spec into lightning or ice or GTFO".

In FFXI and FFXIV. You were stuck into one type of gameplay, repeating the same spells. In FFXI it was because even though you could spec into a fire build, most things were weak to lightning and ice.

In FFXIV you are still casting the same spell over and over. But here it isn't because monster identity is trended one way. It's because there is no monster identity in terms of weaknesses. At least in the former, there was some variation.

I still don't think job personalization would work with jobs and how they are designed for focused group content. But they could create open world low man content or public events filling a need for customization that could be done in classes.