Separate Character Level & Class Level

[Nurvus]

I believe this should be done.

Suggestion:
1 - Character Level and Class Level become separated.
2 - Character Level determines the universal base Stat growth (the highest amount of any Stat that is common to all Classes/Jobs) and aggro radius.
Currently, Class represents 100% of your naked Stats.
With my suggestion, Character represents the portion of your naked Stats that is compatible with all Classes.
The Class adds the "specialized" Stats (because each class has a different Stat growth besides the Traits).
Example:
At level 50, if the lowest base Vitality among all classes is 191, that is what Character Level provides you, while any amount above that is provided by the respective Class Level.
3 - Class Level determines Abilities, Traits, bonus Attributes, Equippable Items and any Stat growth above the universal (provided by Character Level).
4 - Some quests would require Class Level, others might only require Character Level.
5 - You only gain Character Experience when gaining Experience with your highest Class.

Reasons:
Immersion - A high level Hero that wants to train a new class shouldn't suddenly feel like a weakling. All the physical and mental conditioning as well as battle experience you already accumulated should mean something - more than just Cross Class skills.
Watching your HP go down by 95% when you swap classes is just sad.
Harmless - It does not affect any of the synched content as both Character and Class Level are synched.
It merely affects leveling experience, allowing you to keep a feeling of progression throughout your whole playtime.
Example:
Synched Content
No noticeable difference, because Character level is also synched.
In Sastasha where requirement is Lv15 and synch 18:
Scenario 1: A Level 18 character with level 18 class (18/18) is as strong as a 60/60, because both character and class cannot exceed 18.
Scenario 2: A 60/15 is as strong as a 18/15, because both character and class cannot exceed 18.
Scenario 3: A 18/15 is stronger than 15/15, but weaker than a level 18/18, and maybe also weaker than 17/17 and 16/16 in some situations depending on differences in traits, skills and gear.
Non-synched Content
The only content where it makes a difference.
1 - Outdoor enemies will "recognize" your higher character level by allowing you to come closer without attacking you.
2 - Base stats provided by a high level Character make you stronger than a lower level character with the same Class level.
This doesn't mean you will have the stats of a level 60 character as a level 1 Class, since
a) the gear you equip depends on your Class Level
b) part of the base Stats come from the Class.
c) Traits depend on Class level
d) Bonus Attributes depend on Class level
You will feel more powerful than a newbie, but it makes sense, since at that point you're not exactly a new guy anymore.

In pure gameplay terms, it will merely make it easier and faster to level up, but that "difference" starts fading as your class level gets closer to your character level.
It doesn't make or break anything that really matters.

[Pence]

Not going to happen. We had physical level / class level in 1.0 prior to the major changes, and it didn't work.

[Bacent]

Like Pence said, that was how it was in the days of 1.X, basically something similar from FFXI how each class had its own weapon/evasion/blocking/ect stats based on how much it was used in combat.

Plus if you look at the skills from 1.X, a LOT of them are literally the same animation with a different glow effect and/or name.

[Enkidoh]

As the above two posters have stated, this was actually how version 1.0's ability system was handled, you had a base 'physical level' that was raised by exp the normal way, and a separate 'class rank' level, that was raised separately by 'skill points' (or SP), which was somewhat intermittently gained by using an action connected with that class, rather like FFXI. Ironically such a system is something I thought would be a good system to have but how it was handled in FFXIV 1.0.... left a lot to be desired, and it was one of the first things Yoshi changed upon taking the helm (physical level was scrapped and class rank became class level, and raised by exp).

So the old system is quite literally gone and never coming back, for good reason.

[Caitlinzulu]

This sounds suspiciously close to what skyrim did with its jobs. Would love a system like that when implemented well.
I dont see it happening here though because of all the people already at max level, seems sadistic to make them do it all over again.
It would force people to actually use their skills though.

[Nurvus]

A lot of things didn't work out in 1.x, but not only is my idea different, I think it's unfair to assume all the bad things of 1.x would come along with it...

I am not asking for complicated systems or crazy class-specific stuff.

This is merely about giving your character more credibility in the form of a decent stat growth of his own, such that when you change to a lower level job, you don't feel like a wimp again.
Naturally, synched content is unaffected.

Currently, Class represents 100% of your naked Stats.
With my suggestion, Character represents the portion of your Stats that is common to all Classes and Jobs (let's say it's hypotetically 60%).
The Class then adds the remaining ~40% (because each class has a different Stat growth besides the Traits).

[Pence]

Going too far?....

It's almost exactly what 1.0 did.

[Nurvus]

Going too far?....

It's almost exactly what 1.0 did.

Except 1.0 did that alongside a bunch of other stuff that didn't work out.
This is a change among stuff that IS working out.
It doesn't break anything and doesn't make the game more complicated.

I would say that among the various things SE changed, this was one that didn't need to. At least this portion of it.

[Bacent]

It would still require a big rehaul to how things currently are, and with them being 2+ years into the game, I honestly don't think they'd do something like this

[Nurvus]

It would still require a big rehaul to how things currently are, and with them being 2+ years into the game, I honestly don't think they'd do something like this

I don't think so.
For all purposes, all your stats would remain the same.
You still level the same and all synched content functions the same.
Minor adjustments to UI.