Bare with me.

There are 13 (combat) classes in this game. Of these, all three tanks share armor. All three healers share gear. Both ranged share gear, and both casters share gear. All three melee have their own sets each.

So, let's say I want to level and gear all the classes, because I enjoy being able to change around and might get bored if I stay with one class too long. I level all the tanks first, get one set of gear, and I'm good. With one set of gear, I've geared one quarter of the classes. I level all the healers, get one more set of gear for a total of two, and I've geared half the classes. But I'm not halfway done.

I level black mage, gear it and summoner. Eight classes geared with three armor sets.
I level the two ranged dps, and gear them. Ten classes leveled out of thirteen, and I am now halfway done gearing my classes

Basically, what I'm getting at is that the gearing situation for melee is rediculous. For the most part, dragoon armor is just tank armor. And ninja is just bard armor. And monk armor is just ninja armor. Why not just combine them and get it over with?


Allow dragoons to wear tank armor. Lower the strength of tank armor down to the strength of dragoon armor. Give tanks a trait that increases defense gained from armor to bring them back up. Give dragoons a trait that increases damage based on parry.
Or just remove parry from tank armor. Nobody likes it.

Allow ninjas to wear ranged armor, since they're basically the same anyway. Allow monks to wear ranged armor. Give them a trait which gives them a point of strength for every point of dexterity on their armor.

With that, there are four sets of armor. Heavy, light, magic, and healing. Four is a good number of armors for players to try to get, nobody is jipped for playing a certain class, everyone is happy.