I would like to see Classes treated as proper, separate "Jobs"

[Enkidoh]

The thing is though, what the OP is advocating is basically FFXI's Job System.... which FFXIV's battle/ability system has never been. FFXIV's system is the Armoury System, where 'class' is a misnomer and is actually about equipping a weapon and the class is merely a label used to describe the abilities related to the use of said weapon. Equipping a Job onto that class is merely refining the class's role in a party instead of being more versatile.

Fundamentally there is absolutely nothing wrong with this system at it's core, it's just the plethora of FFXI players used to the Job System are too stuck-in-the-mud to realize that each FF game has a different battle system and ability system and thus FFXIV's system is not a bad thing, it's just a different thing, and rather than simply adapt to it and learn to make use of it, it's easier to just whine and complain and say it's 'broken' and needs to be scrapped.

And before you pass judgement, players were asked way back in 1.0 when Yoshi first took over whether players would prefer to either have the Armoury System completely scrapped and replaced with an FFXI-style Job System... or retain the Armoury System and refine it with Jobs upgrading from the base class. Players decided on the later.

Really I wish SE would stop listening to that particular group of players and trying to appeal to them by tinkering around the edges with experiments that don't work (separate Jobs coming off a single class, classless Jobs that start at level 30) and instead refine the Armoury System (give classes to the Heavensward Jobs and separate SCH from ACN and give it a new base class), as it's becoming so convoluted now, it's losing consistency and becoming almost unworkable.

I admit I really like the Armoury System, I just think it needs a little TLC to actually show it's potential.