Quote Originally Posted by Velhart View Post
As salty as I am with SE right now, he makes a point. I much rather have new jobs to play then making roles within a job. The point of the Job system in the first place is to make you excel in a certain aspect. If we were to go to a skill tree like system, it would basically be using the Class system again which we already have in the game. It did not work out as planned as you can see.


People do go to what is the best, and in doing so they do have to balance the content around what is technically the best. I can imagine that being incredibly hard to balance, especially if you have 20+ jobs in the future that this game will inevitably have. SE already does a nice job in offering different type of jobs in the same role. Try a different feeling job while in the same role. Are they well balanced? That is another topic.

Again, you put too much faith in the community. People who are relevant to end game are going to pick what is best, always. I wouldn't attempt to sugar coat it, that is the reality of people. They will find what is the best and go with it.

Not to mention, this is a game where you can switch jobs on the spot. In other MMO's, you are usually stuck on one class, but in turn gives you options to make them unique, which is still flawed since if you are taking end game seriously, people will expect you to go on the tree that has you performing at your best. I have done end game in FFXI, WoW, and this game. People expect you to go a certain route if you are taking end game seriously. That is just the reality of it.

tl;dr - Too much work on the developers end for little payback and more troubles.
To counter your points.
  1. Not everyone takes part in end-game. Didn't they say like 1/3 players have beat Alex normal last they released numbers, that's nevermind Savage content. So that everyone will want the best is a bit of a stretch.
  2. Some people, such as myself, find it fun to experiment with builds and come up with something that works best for us. I did this with Guild Wars 1 and 2, and never had any issues keeping up with content. I also do this with my rotations, I refuse to go on and read guides on how to play my job. I spent the first week or so of 3.0 playing with SMN and making my own rotation, and I do fairly well with it.
  3. I think that job specs don't have to have a best/worst, and can be balanced the way the jobs are currently balanced. One aspect may provide more raw DPS, while another provides more Raid DPS etc. Perhaps not 1 job spec will always be better, but it will vary depending on your group composition.
  4. I take part int he end-game community, and almost everyone says to play what you want. On the very cusp of progression, things are bit crazier, but that changes after a couple of weeks.
  5. The switching jobs on the spot has actually turned out to be the most limiting aspect of this game. Not only can I not swap specs to adjust my gameplay as I please, but I can't gear more than one job. If I am a SMN in raiding content, that is all I will be. I could level an alt, but the story gating is huge. It's a lot easier to have alt classes in other games that can all take part in the various content and be appropriately geared up.
Here is a potential method for Specs on my main job Summoner:

Disease Master -> This summoner is most like the current one. Egi is not very powerful, most of the damage comes from DoTs and Fester/Bane.

Pet Master -> DoTs are either not part of this, or are significantly weakened. Job skills such as fester are not present. The Pet Master's job skills are all focused on Pet Management and skills. The Pet Master theoretically can out DPS the Disease master in a dummy parse, but is significantly weakened if their pet dies or the pet needs to move (like Ifrit's slow walking across the arena). In a sense, the Pet Master is like a BLM where movement can significantly drop their DPS, but the uninterrupted single target potential is high.

Flare Master -> This summoner focuses on AoE with skills such as Painflare, Deathflare and Shadowflare. Egi is not very powerful and DoTs are either not present or reduced in capacity.

Naturally, each of the jobs would need a few new skills in their belt, the above ideas are only supposed to provide an image of the focus of the job. Then, depending on what you like about SMN, you could focus on any one of them.

In this case, Pet Master would be the best on A1S, Flare Master on A2S etc. No one spec is always the best, but they are better in different situations. Disease Master would likely be the best in a dungeon run.