A Problem of Archetypes (Class Discussion)

[Judah]

Maybe I did miss some information in regards to what differentiates Class and Job this time around.

If what Betelgeuzah says is correct: Classes are tuned more for solo play, while Jobs are for party play. Correct?

With this in mind, what actually occurs is not just the presence of the fourth archetype, but a dual archetype system.

Something along the lines of:

Solo Archetypes
Tank/Damage
Tank/Damage/Healer
Damage/Healer
Healer/Damage

Group Archetypes
Tank
Damage
Support

But doesn't that create its own set of problems all together?
In order for one to be viable for serious group content, new players & old players would need to unlock and relevel a new class. At that point, isn't it just a roundabout way of doing a character wipe?

[Betelgeuzah]

If what Betelgeuzah says is correct: Classes are tuned more for solo play, while Jobs are for party play. Correct?

Yes.

In order for one to be viable for serious group content, new players & old players would need to unlock and relevel a new class. At that point, isn't it just a roundabout way of doing a character wipe?

The levels are shared. Each class has a corresponding job. All you need to do is unlock the job for the class, and do the quests for job specific gear and abilities. If you want to solo/lowman, you play as a class. If you want to engage in group content, you switch to job.

The archetypes don't change, but they can overlap.

[Ruisu]

It feels silly needing to alienate the community in that fashion, the population is small enough as is. I tend to do solo, small group, and full party play. Jobs just seem like they'll tell me that I could only do one thing or another, and are just going make the game convoluted. Allowing classes to evolve into jobs? Fine. However, the archetypes of Final Fantasy jobs will just make things that already work in FFXIV seem really off. The whole point of FFXIV was to allow customization in your character and play style. Why bog that down with a traditional job system.

in before people say that FFXI had subjobs and FFT allowed you to use abilities from other jobs. It's nowhere near as flexible as FFXIV has been.

Again, I am indifferent about Jobs at the moment, as I do not know enough about them. Maybe Yoshida can sway my opinion, maybe not. This is pure speculation on my end. I'm just stating problems that may arise.