Cross-Class - System = Is it Cancer?

[JMadFour]

Yes.

It forces me to waste time leveling classes that I am not at all interested in (looking at you, Lancer..Thaumaturge), just so that I can get an "optional" cross-class skill that is in reality, completely NECESSARY for the classes I AM actually interested in playing to function at its best.



thankfully they are doing away with it in 4.0. can't come soon enough.

[LineageRazor]

It's worth noting that Protect CAN be an active and engaging buff... in a fight where people are dying. Getting folks up AND getting them re-buffed is important (particularly since the loss of stats due to weakness means that Protect is needed more than ever), and in such situations finding the time to reapply the buff while trying to keep the rest of the party alive can be quite an ordeal, to the point where having the ability cross-classed on your party's PLD can be a great blessing.

Of course, at present NO content in the game has unavoidable deaths. If anyone dies, it means that something has gone wrong, and normal play means you cast Protect once and never again. Perhaps someday, SE will add content that includes inevitable deaths that the party needs to recover from (for example, one player needs to sacrifice themselves, or the whole party dies, or as another example, at 50% health the boss casts Death on two random DPS), but for now Protect is only an engaging buff when things have gone wrong.

[Malzian]

Cross-class skills for battle classes are going away in 4.0... This conversation is moot and pointless... You'll get to choose your role skills and those will be what SE discovers as being "necessary skills" for that role.

[Valenth]

For some reason I remember in some FF games that protect worked a bit like both % mitigation and something similar to what we have in Galvanize (scholar shield) atm. I think that the people who classify Protect as boring atm mean they'd like it to have some more active use besides being cast at beginning of a dungeon or upon partymember(s) deaths and forget about it.

Perhaps if the protect shield has a number of dmg upon which it broke that it might be less boring? Would make it harder too though, but for some people difficult = more fun. I could imagine in this way there being something like Protect and Protect2 (AoE combat version), both reducing dmg received by say that 5% but the single target one having a lot more health before it breaks. Seems to follow the FF mainstream a bit more too.

I dunno, just brainstorming here really. xP

[randysquirrel]

I think the point that was being made though a lot of people seemed to have misunderstood, is that protect is always on. No-ones saying it's useless, but the fact that it is always on everyone, is there really any point to it, rather than just having everyone get a permanent 5% def up built in (or w/e % protect is, idk if it's 5%)?

That is how I read that post anyway.

maybe protect could be a 30 secs insta shield to everyone with a 2min CD, to be used when big raidwide dmg is coming, not just the cast and forget ability it is now?

[Altanas]

On the issue of Protect:

1.0 players will remember that protect used to be similar to what a lot of people here are suggesting. It was a buff that lasted only a few minutes at most, just long enough for one fight or so at the time. When Yoshi-P took over he expressed dislike and it was one of the first spells he changed. He wanted to remove it completely but was concerned of the iconic status it holds.

On the issue of cross class skills:

What the OP proposes is more like a cross class synergy system rather than a cross class skill system. The OPs idea basically encourages players to level all jobs not just the ones you can cross class skills for. Another example would be "level all disciple of magic and you get a bonus 30 INT or MND across the board". Therefore it is already a better system than the one in place. It also reminds me somewhat of 1.0's cross class "guild token" system.

Sadly I see an overhaul bringing things back to basics and being really unsatisfying. I would have loved SE to go 10 steps further and actually made a full on Junctioning system for passives and cross classes where abilities/traits can be modified completely like from single target to aoe, to en-element damage, etc. Sadly I never see that. We have to have a limited system otherwise SE will not be able to churn out content fast enough (easier to balance etc)

[Jonnycbad]

I miss the choice that FFXI gave you, which led to extremely interesting, fun and unique styles of game play (not the meta or endgame, of course). Countless times I remember not being able to find a healer for a capacity point party and we would be 5/6 slots. I told my party I could DPS and Heal as DRG, and man did I have fun being top or second best DPS of the party AND also the main healer. DRG/RDM was so much fun. Instant cast, free Cure VI's for 5 MP with Healing Breath. Good times.

[Jonnycbad]

I wonder if they'll tweak/rename the abilities that mimic the old cross class skills?

Mercy Stroke = Lancet
Blood Bath = Blood Lance
Internal Release = Fervor


etc

[Claymore65]

The reason this game lacks permanent passive bonuses for leveling classes is simple: Accessibility. Most players don't have the time to level more than a few classes to Max. Most players aren't even interested in doing so, hence why each player has a "main". If the bonuses are significant, then it will likely be seen as a "requirement" to level all the other classes, which is a huge turn off to a lot of players. Try telling someone who wants to play a Black Mage to max out 13 (until Stormblood, in which case it will be at least 14) other unrelated classes to stay relevant. Many players would just quit at that point. Alternatively, the bonuses could be entirely minor, but then people would complain about their bonuses not mattering enough. I think the current system is fine for now. It allows people to focus on the Job they most enjoy, while forcing them to dip their feet into other classes a little bit. For example, I had to get Conjurer to level 15 for Paladin, but I actually found I enjoyed playing it. However, if I didn't enjoy it, I wouldn't have to max it out to get all the benefits out of it. Under the OPs suggestion, that might not be a viable option anymore. Plus, it would take insane amounts of work to rebalance the game around full cross-classing of abilities or traits. It would almost have to be built from the ground up (which isn't impossible, but is expansion territory).

That said, the current Cross Class system is going away with 4.0. It's going to be replaced with "role based skills" that you get automatically. I hope Frankfurt's Fan Fest will give us a more detailed overview of it, since it could be a massive, or a relatively, minor change.

[JunseiKei]

Then it wouldn't have been protect. Literally, in other iterations of Final Fantasy, protect increases your resistance to physical attacks. What you guys are speaking about is a nullification of physical attacks. They are not one in the same.

S'like saying death and knocked out are the same. They're not.

Also, I'd really hate to see passives like have X amount of jobs leveled, gain X amount of increased damage dealt. Or any other kind of buff. I like how this game offers 1 character can play everything, but by no means should it be forced. Let's face it, if you plan to raid, you would be forced to do it.