How can they add more classes and make them unique and have their own flavor?

[Joe_Schmoe]

Can't really think of any that hasn't been done before, unless you want to make a bartender class, or a barber class, or a librarian class etc. but I doubt anyone would want to play those, at least not seriously. You can mix n' match class mechanics, but I'm pretty sure in this day and age we'd all go "Hey, this is a mix n' match class!" so that wouldn't help much. I'm out of ideas otherwise.

[Scorcher24]

Can't really think of any that hasn't been done before, unless you want to make a bartender class, or a barber class, or a librarian class etc. but I doubt anyone would want to play those, at least not seriously. You can mix n' match class mechanics, but I'm pretty sure in this day and age we'd all go "Hey, this is a mix n' match class!" so that wouldn't help much. I'm out of ideas otherwise.

I played a dancer in SWG. Was tons of fun. This game has barely any buffs anyway, so give me that . I'd stand in an inn to buff people all day.

[Sandpark]

They have done it in FFXI with 22 jobs and have many more jobs to choose from in the FF universe. The question isn't can they make them diverse.
It is do they want to or is there a reason to?

Questions to ask yourself:

Why are multiple roles tied to one job needed?
A)Less unique defined job choices created.
B)Loose group based rules in open world content.
C)Loose group based rules in instanced content.
D)The possibility of one job being different from another player playing the same job.


Elaborations:
A)Do you think unique story will be created for seperate builds like heal, dps, or tank? Will it be as unique as starting a brand new job with an original background?
B)Most things are instanced and have strict group requirements for duty finder. WHat if dps entered duty finder with healing skills rather than dps boost.Is a DPS paladin hybrid really going to be better than a full DPS monk?
C)Is there a ton of open world party/solo based(not public)content in FFXIV where individual/multiple roles are needed on one character? There is little open world content besides fates,hunts, and diadem, monsters hp reset hp if you make them stray from preferred zones,monsters resist many things, jobs have long cooldowns when switching jobs to prevent OP, jobs are penalized for too much movement with skills.
D)What is more unique, one job being different from another player playing the same job or one job being different from players on other jobs.

My thoughts on making combat and future jobs/classes better:
1.Remove the GCD and have mp/tp/individual cooldowns be the resource.That makes the game more dynamic and flexible versus worrying about watching spinning circles rather than action on screen.
2.Introduce more classes and remove class cooldown on open world content so people might actually use them more outside duty finder or perhaps use in future solo/duo dungeons.
3.Remove class restrictions when playing a class. In other words, let classes mix and match from different classes as we see fit. Just make their base skills/traits the most potent.
4.Allow jobs to use class skills from any class they want but keep them limited to how many available at one time and this only applies to open world content not duty finder instances. This allows more flexibility and builds for jobs as it did in ffxi.
5.A deeper gambit system for pets and companions similar to FFXII so we can custom tuned how we want our companions/pets to react.
6.Bring back the path companion system so we can have companions more inline with what an offline FF entails. Characters with stories like Auron, we can bond with them.
7.Eliminate the invisible walls. If I can't jump in it, over it, or go under it don't even render it unless it is a background in the far distance.
8.Rework the materia system to enhance certain skills and not just attributes. And don't lock the materia to gear once melded, perhaps a book similar to a glamour book that let's us swap and use sets outside battle.
9.Rework guildleves to be a springboard to unique instanced contents like hamlet, besieged, BCNM,the possibilities are endless. When you activate a card you are instantly teleported to a content with other players inhabiting it, from there a player could choose to group or solo. Of course the type of content will have some limit to how many players can enter at once.
10.Please introduce some intelligent open world systems in the future.

Thank you.

[Shurrikhan]

B)Most things are instanced and have strict group requirements for duty finder. WHat if dps entered duty finder with healing skills rather than dps boost.Is a DPS paladin hybrid really going to be better than a full DPS monk?

My thoughts on making combat and future jobs/classes better:
1.Remove the GCD and have mp/tp/individual cooldowns be the resource.That makes the game more dynamic and flexible versus worrying about watching spinning circles rather than action on screen.
2.Introduce more classes and remove class cooldown on open world content so people might actually use them more outside duty finder or perhaps use in future solo/duo dungeons.
3.Remove class restrictions when playing a class. In other words, let classes mix and match from different classes as we see fit. Just make their base skills/traits the most potent.
4.Allow jobs to use class skills from any class they want but keep them limited to how many available at one time and this only applies to open world content not duty finder instances. This allows more flexibility and builds for jobs as it did in ffxi.
5.A deeper gambit system for pets and companions similar to FFXII so we can custom tuned how we want our companions/pets to react.
6.Bring back the path companion system so we can have companions more inline with what an offline FF entails. Characters with stories like Auron, we can bond with them.
7.Eliminate the invisible walls. If I can't jump in it, over it, or go under it don't even render it unless it is a background in the far distance.
8.Rework the materia system to enhance certain skills and not just attributes. And don't lock the materia to gear once melded, perhaps a book similar to a glamour book that let's us swap and use sets outside battle.
9.Rework guildleves to be a springboard to unique instanced contents like hamlet, besieged, BCNM,the possibilities are endless. When you activate a card you are instantly teleported to a content with other players inhabiting it, from there a player could choose to group or solo. Of course the type of content will have some limit to how many players can enter at once.
10.Please introduce some intelligent open world systems in the future.

A) WoW has no problems with this. Nor Rift. Nor just about any game that allows multiple roles on one class/job. All it would take is that you have a certain amount of role-specific abilities/talents and gear, and/or have proven yourself via a SSS/Proving Grounds within that gear. (Assuming we ever do get training trials that test more than just dps.) It can also attempt to create a particularly 'bases covered party'; let's say your character has 3/5 DPS, 2/5 tanking, 4/5 healing, while another has 3/5 dps, 0/5 tanking, 5/5 healing--similarly to how a PVP forms teams based on average PvP level/rating, it could solve to cover particular needs, ensuring each role is covered according to whatever calculations work. Better than that, though, would just be to have certain multi-server PFs, or the ability to queue as multiple jobs/sets. "Looking for hybrid speedrun party. Know how to do... literally everything. Know how to mesh."

1. Just gotta say, the GCD doesn't have to be removed in order to have a less bar-fixated, more broad-(battleground)viewing or almost cinematographic perspective. It's also what holds onto any sense of intensity for fairly veteran players (see dps on dps checks, or undergeared healers in those few fights that really have or had no dps time.) Also, what would you replace this with, if anything? ATB? Stamina? How would that affect rotations? Or are rotations to be scrapped to?
2. I don't think the lack of cooldowns would be enough reason to use a class at this point. I'd love to see them empowered, but at best I feel like this would just be used to cycle through those CDs not oddly shared (like that former 7-minute cooldown on Lustrate after using Hallowed Ground, or on Perfect Balance after Elusive Jump) for gimmick gains. The community as a whole is also somehow convinced that the very idea of classes is diabolical, rather than just being a victim of half-hearted and uninventive implementation.
3. If native going to always be the most potent, and especially if the GCD is no longer a factor as to create those few opportunities for filler dps between native (de)buffs, the cross-class abilities aren't even going to be used as much as they are now. Not without massive revision, at least.
4. Do we really want a Dragoon using Demolish, Rockbreaker, etc.? Don't get me wrong, I liked the opportunities I had before 1.18 to craft my own arsenal, especially if that had been directly improved on, but...
5. Would definitely go for some better and adjustable pet AI, yes.
6. Fair enough, though I'd like to also see them mesh well enough with playing with other actual players.
7. I'm tempted to agree with you here, but that means even fewer details in already kind of dull maps. I'd be right behind this if it actually meant that they'd go for verticality and whatnot instead of leaving unaccessible holes, but I expect it'd be more a case of just making things relatively plateaued from then on. Ehh, if assuming the best, I'd want the same.
9. So, something almost as cool as the cutscene in which we originally see guildleves?...
10. Like what? Something that requires intelligence, rather than being a zerg, or something that can more intelligently handle varying player loads/contributions?

[Synrin]

WoW has no problems with this.

Not sure what you two are talking about, but atm WoW has loads of issues with class identity. They might fit everything in this amazing story and give you amazing abilities, but for example healers, especially now in Legion will be all the same. Same mechanics, same abilities.....

[Khalithar]

Now granted I know people take issue with borrowing from other games, but I'm going to cite a few examples of things they could still do off the top of my head.


Tank types: Reflect/Counter tanking or tanking built around damage absorption (think a class that creates a lot of mini-stoneskins with certain moves.

Healer types: Healer that focuses mostly on HoT's or a healer that focuses on damage absorption (similar to my example above) with a few heals for large chunks of burst.

DPS types: A melee class that focuses on DoTs could be magic based or physical based, either variation is something we don't have as a melee. A ranged dps that focuses on building up stacks of a debuff and then using various finishers that consume the stacks. A melee or ranged class that builds up stacks of a buff on itself then uses a portion of those stacks to use certain moves.

That's just a few ideas off the top of my head that haven't really been done in this game, I'm sure I could come up with more if I needed to but you get the idea.

[RocheKat]

WoW has lots of classes with 3/4 specializations each that all play very different. Part of what makes each job different is their story, the weapons they use... there are lots of options still. For example right now the three melee don't really deal with procs so a melee could be added that works more like MCH or BRD. We also don't have a melee magic user or a support melee... I am honestly expecting RDM to be a melee magic user with support.

Making dps different isn't very hard really, Healing is a little harder and tanking is probably the worst. The reason for tanking being tricky is because you cant have a lot of RNG in tanks. You can't have a tank threat/mitigation level changes randomly because they would either not be able to do their job or be too powerful.

[Zied]

Here is an interesting idea for geomancer that was said on my gamefaqs thread:

"basically the idea was that a geomancer drops elemental fields around the battlefield; when standing in those fields, the properties of their attacks change. so in a way it's like positionals, but rather than their positionals being dependent on where they're standing in relation to the mob they're hitting, they're dependent on which of their elemental fields they're standing in"

[Morningstar1337]

Melee Healer: Sorta tricky to implement, but possible
Magic Tank: Not DRK, but a Tank that exclusively has spells
Counter Tank: already mentioned before. But the foundation is already there with WAR's Vengance and the mob exclusive Reflect and Directional Parry

Now for the Nitty-Gritty of DPS. This is simple to add, they find a concept and base the Job around it. Like a Debuffing class with plenty of CC abilities (And high DPS to compensate for the fact that CC ability are useless), Or like the aforementioned Geomancer idea (Again, groundwork for that has been done since Wanderer's Palace HM and Ley Lines/Sacred Soil/Asylum/Collective Unconscious/Sacred Prism).

[Laerune]

They have to not play safe, right now I am seeing alot of new features, which to me shows off that Yoshi and the developers want to experiment. But lets be honest, AST is WHM+SCH, DRK is WAR but magic based and BRD is MCH minus the songs and RNG dmg playstyle.

What SE needs to do is make those classes unique, but not so unique that makes players dump their own class and only play the new ones.

EDIT: I remember Warhammer Online having a melee healer, basicly the more dps the healer does, the more heals the group gets.