Wish FF14 would transition to FFE job/skill system

[Zumi]

If there was like pick any cross class skills and no balance there would be one super build that had all the most OP skills. Not using this build would lead the person to be mocked by other players. And you get more people complaining how random DF player didn't have X, Y, Z skills set so they were doing low dps.

[Kuwagami]

iirc, Ragnarok online and the incoming Tree of Savior are using the trinity system, and have (somewhat) balanced PvP because the OP aspects of some jobs get flooded in the mass of players. Can't have this here because the PvP isn't exactly "massive" (even though the 72 man seal rock can be a joyous clusterfuck of light and sparkles), but the trinity CAN do things even when individual balance is out of whack.

[SaitoHikari]

+1 for Dragon Nest being a bad example of a trinity-less game, and I say this as a forum moderator for that game (along with Ashkendor above). That game just doesn't enforce the trinity setup in parties, but classes are still designed around it.

There was a period of time over the past 2-3 years where new classes took on hybrid roles, but it's for that same reason most people that play DN consider the class balancing to have flown out the window during that time period. Hell, in the developers' attempt to make PvE actually playable for the 60% of classes that would NEVER be taken to raids as a result of the broken hybrid classes (and the poorly thought out class balancing that happened shortly after as a response to those classes simply existing), the game actually went back into a strict trinity system when they overhauled every class in the game half a year ago.

It ticked off a lot of people, particularly those that bandwagoned the really broken hybrid classes, especially...
- Crusaders (now DPS) - formerly an even more broken version of FFXIV Warrior with the highest burst damage in the game, that completely invalidated the designated 'pure' tank classes Guardian and Destroyer
- Inquisitor (now DPS)/Light Bringer (now Healer) - both classes which were basically FFXIV Scholar without a Cleric Stance mechanic and also had some of the highest burst damage in the game, which basically invalidated the designated 'pure' healer classes Saint and Physician

...But it's been several months since the overhaul happened and the DN community generally agrees that reverting back to a strict trinity system for classes was a necessary thing. I ironically saw more variety in class population in that game in the past half year after classes were reorganized into a trinity setup, than I had in the two years before that.

[Reynhart]

The problem with balance is that people put far too much emphasis on this...more than the game itself, in fact.
Yes, some DPS might be lower than others, or tanks can survive less or do less damage, but since almost every "usual" setup can clear anything in the hands of good player, it really doesn't matter that much. Moreover, since 95% of the content is done via Duty Finder, where you can't chose the jobs in your party, or static, where you probably play with people you know, and who probably have no issue letting you play the job you want, it's easy to progress with any job.

And yet, you can have some sort of customization while bypassing the "that build is the absolute best". I've suggested this in another topic, with tanks as a primary example. Create a MT build and an OT built. Since there is nothing to say that "MTing is better than OTing", and these two need lots of differents things, you coul at least have two buils depending of what the player likes to play the most.

[Jeykama]

The more I play FF Explorers anyway, the more I see trinity system being way more efficient than everyone being hybrid. A real tank on some of those bosses is so very helpful (shoutouts to my lv50 Black Knight monster buddy) and some eidolons have really nasty moves that are almost impossible to dodge if they're focusing you and extremely damaging to cloth-users ('ucking Fenrir clone multicharges). Not to mention if a monster keeps bouncing around it's impossible to hit specific body parts for breaks. Sure everyone can equip Cure/Esuna and hybridize to a degree but that's a significant chunk of your ability allotment which could be used towards higher echelon abilities within your specialty.

It's very much like FFXI except for the having easy-mode for solo, hard-mode for multiplayer part and less gear-dependent. Not sure the option to hybridize a bit would do anything for FFXIV except open up cross-class skills to being more nerfed than they are now.

[CGMidlander]

FFE actually feels more like a final fantasy game. I'm not going to defend its grind or lack of story, but its skill and job customization is really nice and would be great to see if FF14 could implement a bit more of that.

Maybe the next FF MMORPG can borrow from that. FFXIV would require too many changes for that to be feasible though.

[Reynhart]

FFE actually feels more like a final fantasy game. I'm not going to defend its grind or lack of story, but its skill and job customization is really nice and would be great to see if FF14 could implement a bit more of that.

For me, Final Fantasy is, for the most part, really bad when it comes to customization. You have either "Your character build is set in stone" (FFIV, IV, IX...) or "Every character is approximately the same" (FFII, III, V, VI, VII, VIII, X, XI, XII, XIV...)