Job Personalization: Can I Have It?

[Rafaelhades]

For the sake of discussion, let's explore possibilities then. Let's pick Ninja, since it has a lot of potential for dual paths: melee focus and spell focus. Let's imagine NIN getting the option to spec into either a physical DPS or a Ninjutsu-based magical DPS. How would you balance this, knowing it now competes with DRG and MNK for physical DPS and BLM and SMN for magical AND all 4 for a DPS slot? Do you balance it to be even with all 4? Or do you overpower it compared to 1 side of the DPS coin or the other? XI had this option. You could spend millions to try to make NIN nukers. Hell, I did. Innin was a stance that increased Ninjutsu dmg and you can sub /BLM for the Magic attack boost or RDM for fastcast for rapid fire spell casting. Was it fun? Yes. Was it feasable for any content outside of solo? Hell no. With the way haste worked, just autoattacking dealt far more dmg than spell casting. And building for solo has no impact on anything whatsoever.

If it deals similar dmg to a BLM, the BLM complains that the NIN deals similar dmg yet has no cast times. Same with SMN. On the melee front, should a NIN deal dmg on par with a DRG? What if the community discovers that Mage Ninja deals more dmg in the long run compare to Melee Ninja due to relative safety and not having to worry about positionals/range? Do all NINs get forced into one spec or the other or should all DPS deal equal dmg all the time? Isn't that the problem we're facing now? Expand that to all of the jobs and you have a developer headache on your hands. We have every job complaining that they can't perform on equal grounds with other jobs already (DPS forums are really bad with this), and you want to create diversity where one spec will undoubtedly claw it's way to the top? And if one doesn't and everything is "balanced," isn't that just homogenization? Unless they create content where the battle always changes. But at that point, players will just figure out the pattern and exit the battle until their desired conditions are met (think Grift fishing in D3).

Hardcore or not, EVERYONE will want the best, regardless of content difficulty. In fact, I suspect the whole job personalization idea stems from the desire to have one's ideal spec be "raid" viable, if not, the best spec for the class. Because, in an ironic twist, people want others to join them in playing their favorite play style.

If it's for non-raid content, do whatever you want, as long as you're capable of doing said content. I can ask some friends to run dungeons with me on Archer, use my Hive Bow + Law/Alex gear and do just as well as on my BRD with the same gear. I can do Primals on MRD with Law Axe as either DPS or tank or both. The game isn't hard and you don't need optimal setups to do any outside of Savage. It requires a player to know how to play. Asking for specializations just screams "make X build raid viable please SE" to me.