A choice with a wrong answer is not a choice at all.

[dragonseth07]

There are a lot of things in this game where there is a right and wrong way to do them: stats, cross class abilities, etc. But, those are issues of balance, not design. So, they aren't what I want to talk about.

The false choice I want to bring up is job crystals. Why are these, being designed to be essential to high level play, optional? Why have this choice, when one answer is abjectly wrong? All it does is lead to frustration for people when they get matched with a level 55 Lancer.

[Greedalox]

There are a lot of things in this game where there is a right and wrong way to do them: stats, cross class abilities, etc. But, those are issues of balance, not design. So, they aren't what I want to talk about.

The false choice I want to bring up is job crystals. Why are these, being designed to be essential to high level play, optional? Why have this choice, when one answer is abjectly wrong? All it does is lead to frustration for people when they get matched with a level 55 Lancer.

Funny you should bring this up, because every game ever has not been perfectly balanced, and therefore there was a right and a wrong answer by your standard. I want exciting stats, but I also have to realize that there will be a BiS for every class the day after they are introduced.

Having said that and your remark on job crystals, it's the illusion of choice that makes players happy- no matter how obvious the right way is. We all liked doing our job quests and getting the crystal to equip. Whether or not it does anything is a whole different beast.

[Laerune]

There are a lot of things in this game where there is a right and wrong way to do them: stats, cross class abilities, etc. But, those are issues of balance, not design. So, they aren't what I want to talk about.

The false choice I want to bring up is job crystals. Why are these, being designed to be essential to high level play, optional? Why have this choice, when one answer is abjectly wrong? All it does is lead to frustration for people when they get matched with a level 55 Lancer.

Yep, I rememebr back during the BETA where the plan was to have Job and Class be used in different content/situations, but something changed and Jobs, became a major improvement over classes. Yoshi-P, himself wants get rid of classes, but they have no clue on how to do it. This is one of the reasons why new Jobs do not have classes and why future Jobs will not have classes aswell.

[Daemius]

Yep, I rememebr back during the BETA where the plan was to have Job and Class be used in different content/situations, but something changed and Jobs, became a major improvement over classes. Yoshi-P, himself wants get rid of classes, but they have no clue on how to do it. This is one of the reasons why new Jobs do not have classes and why future Jobs will not have classes aswell.

They definitely need to get rid of classes eventually. The game is going to continue to get clunkier as more xpacs while that antiquated system is still around. They're going to have to rework the whole system IMO like they did with EQ2 and getting rid of the two levels of sub classes you had to go through to get to your main class. I imagine at some point all of the 2.x stuff will be revamped like Cataclysm did with WoW.

[Cinno]

I imagine at some point all of the 2.x stuff will be revamped like Cataclysm did with WoW.

At this point, I feel like you're giving this dev team too much credit.

Not that I have anything against this dev team, i love the work they've done, but THIS is just too much work for their small team. It'll gradually become more and more of a cluttered mess of workarounds, which will continue to get more messy, as long as the game lasts.

[Daemius]

At this point, I feel like you're giving this dev team too much credit.

Not that I have anything against this dev team, i love the work they've done, but THIS is just too much work for their small team. It'll gradually become more and more of a cluttered mess of workarounds, which will continue to get more messy, as long as the game lasts.

I should say I HOPE they rework things. I'll keep playing until the game goes dark but I feel for new people in the future if they don't eventually clean stuff up. I can only imagine if things remain the same that by 5.0 new folks will be completely overwhelmed with all the UI bloat and irrelevant game systems (lol elemental resistances).

[Tam_Hawkins]

Originally it was planned for them to be optionall, Jobs for high specialisation and classes for a more diverse build. I think in the beginning on 2.x it was valid for Marauders to not use the jobcrystal as that only gave them tanking skills and it was not usefull when offtanking so having more cross class skills was better.
But right now it really does not seem to have any purpose.

[Mysteltain]

Originally it was planned for them to be optionall, Jobs for high specialisation and classes for a more diverse build. I think in the beginning on 2.x it was valid for Marauders to not use the jobcrystal as that only gave them tanking skills and it was not usefull when offtanking so having more cross class skills was better.
But right now it really does not seem to have any purpose.

Yeah, back in early 2.x MRD was good for OTing certain fights, and they were absurdly good in Frontlines, along with ARC if I remember correctly. I ran GLD in early Frontlines, as well, since I could slap on B4B, Raging Strikes, etc. for pretty good burst DPS.

[Alexandros_IX]

I am glad they did away with them though. Not only because they're so pointless now, but because I did not like being forced to level up to 15 in a class I have no interest in just to further my own class's skillset.

[dragonseth07]

I am glad they did away with them though. Not only because they're so pointless now, but because I did not like being forced to level up to 15 in a class I have no interest in just to further my own class's skillset.

I mean, you still need to level those other classes for cross-class abilities.