Removal of the cross class system announced.

[Khalithar]

I've noticed during the discussion about the fanfest that no one has even mentioned anything about this statement during the keynote. He referred to it as a "relic of 1.0" and they'll be scrapping the system and changing it to a selection of abilities based on your role. It's going to be interesting to see definitely but I also wonder if this means a removal of certain abilities for other classes.

I.E. Will Raging Strikes become available for all DPS and be removed as a baseline of Archer? Will Blood for Blood be removed entirely in favor of everyone having Raging Strikes? Will certain defensive cooldowns be condensed to? Foresight for example is a must have for all tanks. Could they make that a baseline cross class ability and remove things like Shadow Skin and Rampart?

Or at least that was my interpretation of it. I cannot find a good transcript to post anywhere. I may have to re-watch the keynote and post it verbatim here.

[Gumbercules]

you more or less seem to have an idea of what i think ill end up being. Its basically streamlining some abilities outta job into role.

and there prolly will be some consolidated ones like you think with like raging and bfb etc. Or could see raging become caster/ranged and BfB become the melee equivalent. And of course alot of stuff will just get removed that shouldn't have been xclass imo to begin with like getting the combo ones.

[Chevronone]

What?! I can no longer have Skull Sunder on my Monk?! Uninstalling...

[Nezerius]

No one has really mentioned it this time, due to the fact that it was previously announced at the Las Vegas fan fest. Don't think they've gone into specifics yet, though I did miss parts of the stream due to work.

[Zojha]

Seems pretty clear to me at this point:

Instead of picking 5 cross-class skills, we'll now pick 5 cross-role skills in more or less the same interface. Skills will likely end up being the same or similar to what we have right now, biggest change being that you'll no longer have to level the respective jobs. Chances are, slots will be unlocked at a similar rate as now, too.

Or in other words: Big whoop over a relatively small change.

[Callinon]

Or in other words: Big whoop over a relatively small change.

A relatively small change that un-hamstrings the class system. Currently every physical dps job that's introduced MUST cross-class lancer because invigorate is so important. Every tank job MUST cross-class gladiator because provoke is so important. Every healer job MUST cross-class conjurer because of protect AND thaumaturge because of swiftcast. Under this system, new jobs have all their decisions made for them before they're even designed. So the design is flawed and has to be changed. That's what this does.

[Leigaon]

This is the thing I'm wanting to learn more about, more so than RDM. Disconnecting themselves from the cross class system and into a role based system could have a lot of potential. We can get rid of some of the bloat, like for PLD. There's no need for Rampart and Foresight. Make them into one and give the enhancements via traits and throw in Shadowskin in with it. Instead you have one move that will get traits to increase the duration / potency and cool down. Maybe a higher duration to make up for what they'll loose. So a DRK that uses Shadowskin for 20s just to tack on Foresight for another 20s..make the single move have traits that gradually increase it to 40s.

[MPNZ]

I was actually hoping that all of the CC skills would be place in a single menu that you could choose from, and certain actions like BfB would become traits that could be cross classed. But, from what's been said in hearsay: it looks like we will never have to play a class or job that we hate to have access to certain skills, which should be popular. Fast cast and surecast as traits would be great!

[Shurrikhan]

A relatively small change that un-hamstrings the class system. Currently every physical dps job that's introduced MUST cross-class lancer because invigorate is so important. Every tank job MUST cross-class gladiator because provoke is so important. Every healer job MUST cross-class conjurer because of protect AND thaumaturge because of swiftcast. Under this system, new jobs have all their decisions made for them before they're even designed. So the design is flawed and has to be changed. That's what this does.

Those four examples are really the only pertinent ones though. Agreed, that functionality should be baseline, and if SE doesn't want to spend the time to include those functions uniquely within each job that they've made dependent on them in the context of any 8-man fight lasting for more than a couple minutes, then cross-class auto-acquisition is the way to go. But I don't see why anything more than ease of acquisition should be necessary. Why purposely reduce situational options?

At present there aren't even enough dps cross-class skills to fill the five additional slots with on each dps job. Do we just make jobs, via newly broadened skills, even more homogenized? And what was so wrong about having the *option* to grab something out of role. I for one actually kind of appreciated having access to Skull Sunder as a Monk from time to time. It was still up to 450 potency of enmity usable in each situation Fracture would have been; given how many tanks bail upon entering Expert roulette, never to be replaced, it's been quite handy.

This is the thing I'm wanting to learn more about, more so than RDM. Disconnecting themselves from the cross class system and into a role based system could have a lot of potential. We can get rid of some of the bloat, like for PLD. There's no need for Rampart and Foresight. Make them into one and give the enhancements via traits and throw in Shadowskin in with it. Instead you have one move that will get traits to increase the duration / potency and cool down. Maybe a higher duration to make up for what they'll loose. So a DRK that uses Shadowskin for 20s just to tack on Foresight for another 20s..make the single move have traits that gradually increase it to 40s.

There's a difference between removing bloat and removing control. Yes, Foresight feels underpowered, and may therefore feel like underutilization of its slot, but having additional triggers to your defensive toolkit is not a bad thing. Else, why not take out Sentinel, Awareness, and Bulwark while we're at it, and just have a single CD called "Guard" or "hurts less for a while"?

Nor does condensing CDs have anything to do with moving from a "cross-class" system to a "role-based" system. The ONLY differences are that (a) leveling of other classes will no longer be required for core additional skills, and (b) that you may lose access to skills no longer deemed to be of your "role", reducing your overall arsenal (SE hasn't been entirely clear on whether or not this is a system of role-exclusivity or simply role-based skill acquisition, though I certainly hope the latter).

[Xenosan]

Some significance I see is that the skills being moved from Class kits to Role kits would be replaced, since all classes learn an equal amount of abilities at certain levels (mostly, excluding some Job additions like Chakra where there's multiple in 1).

So would GLD will get something in exchange for surrendering their Provoke, CNJ their Protect, THM their Swiftcast... Unless Swiftcast stays on THM - giving BLM two instant cast abilities (safe to assume a Swiftcast copy will exist as a role skill) - if that will be the case.

Featherfoot is a cross class ability, in an interview it was used as an example of one of the class skills that will be 'updated' to be more relevant a CD to MNK, so I think the role skills update plays significantly into a somewhat larger overall battle adjustment we've been hearing about.

(SE hasn't been entirely clear on whether or not this is a system of role-exclusivity or simply role-based skill acquisition, though I certainly hope the latter).

TBH I think the only freedom we're going to be left with is the choice of which Role Skill(s) has the highest priority to be equipped when we don't have all 5 slots unlocked yet (Pre lvl50). Hope the new skills (if there will be any) are worth the cost. At low levels I'll miss Fracture for multiple jobs.