Changes to additional skills.

[Cabalabob]

Am I sad for this to be the most exciting/interesting part of fan fest to me so far?

No, while I'm wary of the changes I'm also excited for it. I was saying to my friend the other day that the one thing I wish they didn't do away with from 1.0 was the way additional skills were handled because it allowed a lot more freedom and variety while the 2.0 system was restrictive to the point of being almost pointless.

[Shurrikhan]

If they go ahead and nuke the classes, they're probably gonna have to redo both SMN and SCH extensively because as far as I know they don't like SMN having stuff like Resurrection, Physick and Eye for an Eye... Or SCH having all the SMN DoTs and such... So there'd be abilities gone from both that they'd have to replace... And then there's dealing with the fact that they're linked to the same classes level so if they get split into separate Jobs with no base class, how to do they deal with the jobs levels?

I always thought that was part of the attraction that they wanted for the SMN. Prior to the Int/Mind split, they're typically your most efficient healer, seeing as they're only sacrificing 80 potency per GCD to put out those 400-potency Physics. In raids, they're sought after for the safety provided by that extra rez. That was how they stayed viable against BLM in single-target originally, iirc.

The SMN/SCH issue is one that makes me hope that job crystals were able to manipulate source class abilities, for instance removing Physic from the main skill pool and allowing an extra shared slot in its place, or passively causing it to scale based on Intelligence instead and hit 50% harder when used on one's pet. (That still wouldn't be as useful as SMN healing when we still had as much Mind as Intelligence, as it's now limited to the pet, but at least it'd be worth a place on your bars sometimes, for when Sustain's HoT isn't enough.)

I feel like people would almost prefer SCH get the ACN stuff while SMN gets the overhaul, and I would imagine anyone who has leveled them would get grandfathered in for levels.

Personally, I just want to see what new undermechanics we might be getting with 4.0, and then redo Arcanist from there, giving it a higher skill floor and ceiling and making it more than just a DoT-class, preferably one who can manipulate spell effects cast by enemies and allies. The Summoner and Scholar would then build from there, revamping as necessary to make the most out of that original skill-set, at cost of some of its initial functionality, in naturally divergent ways. For example, the Arcanist remains viable situationally even at level cap, as a tactical caster capable of taking the damage from a flare cast on the boss as it was going invulnerable, delaying it, and dropping it at full damage on a fresh add instead, extending other debuffs, etc., while the Summoner instead uses that transferal skill set to summon empowered manifestations of aether - egis - who he can further empower, channel the powers of, or release or channel powerful strikes from through his rotational and aether-spending choices, and the Scholar instead uses those tools to invest aetherial shielding onto his allies (Bane can now detonate a Galvanize effect to damage enemies in Cleric Stance, free of cost and only when there are enemies surrounding the allied target, while it instead changes to Boon when Cleric Stance is off, acting as a Deployment Tactics without the E4E component and with an AF cost).

No, while I'm wary of the changes I'm also excited for it. I was saying to my friend the other day that the one thing I wish they didn't do away with from 1.0 was the way additional skills were handled because it allowed a lot more freedom and variety while the 2.0 system was restrictive to the point of being almost pointless.

Same here. If they had just invested types and undermechanics into the original 1.0 cross-class skill system, it could have had a tremendous amount of possibilities. Heck, I still think Physical Level was a good idea, had they just improved the contribution in some way or another early on for class non-primary stats (Int on a PGL being viable for Elemental Fists burst, Piety for Monk support, etc.) Sadly, oversights in the Fatigue system and generally low exp scaling killed most of those earlier systems as a package deal, even though the issues were actually quite separate.

[ErikMynhier]

All that cool stuff.

I hope its sort of various sets of skills. Like say job/class skills, followed by role skills, and then sub-role. So like PLD/GLD skills, then shared tank skills like Provoke or Retaliation, then sub-role skills like a PLD getting access to select role skills in this case healer role skills that come from WHM/CNJ like Protect.

It would be interesting however they approach it. I love this game more then any game i really do, but change is the spice of life and the game is starting to taste a little bland to me.

[Shurrikhan]

I'd imagine it's a way of (1) adding more shared skills and (2) providing role labels for them. Hopefully in the process we'll see broader and more meaningful cross-class choices, such as more powerful defensive options for non-tanks (better than the RNG-dependent and mostly negligible Keen Flurry and Featherfoot).

But, given that very limited description, it could also refer instead to role-based shared skill categories. For instance, let's say there are now 3 or more forms of "Provoke" ("Challenge" (MRD) and "Command" (DRK) join the mix). At level 20, each tank gains a "tank role" ability slot, into which they can insert any of those, without affecting the larger cross-class pool. While this might seem a loss for a DRK or WAR when that tool isn't necessary, or an unnecessary buff to tank toolkits overall, at least that would balance out GLD having to lose an ability just to support the Taunt skill requirements for all three. Each tank learns and makes shareable their particular form of the Taunt skill at the same level, 20.

You might also then see Raging Strikes and Blood for Blood made available to all classes and revised to provide less generic gameplay effects (exchanging a basic "+x% damage over y duration" for something a bit more varied and manipulable in new ways). The same might even be doable with Hawk Eye (making it no longer dependent on Dexterity stat) and Keen Flurry (returning it to an offensive CD-reducer).