Cross-Class - System = Is it Cancer?

[Felis]

Why do we -need- Protect, anyway? It doesn't really add any value to the game. It's a buff you apply at the start of the dungeon, and you ignore it unless someone dies. They could rework it so that it's a spell that offers more engaging play for WHMs.

They can always change it back to 15 minute duration.
Also giving the other healers only protect and give proshell only to WHM

[Bourne_Endeavor]

Whm is still useful and has skills the others don't have and others that I've talked to still prefer to have a whm in combination to an ast or a sch for end game content.

A lot of people still prefer Monk. That does not change the fact it is the worst DPS job due to its woefully lack of utility and party synergy. The absurd buffs to Astro made taking White Mage more of a hindrance to endgame content. Can you still clear? Absolutely. I'll take a competent White Mage over a Scholar who has no idea what they are doing. That being said, Astro/Scholar is undeniably a far superior healer comp in the same way Dragoon/Ninja or Dark Knight/Warrior trump their respective counterparts. Three jobs suffer immensely while doing progression. I dare say White Mage has actually replaced Paladin as the least beneficial job, though you could still make a case for Monk.

[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

[SendohJin]

They can always change it back to 15 minute duration.
Also giving the other healers only protect and give proshell only to WHM

15 min is still too long. most enrage times are less than that.

i never thought about this topic but it totally makes sense to rework Protect so that it's more than what it currently is (a minor annoyance for healers when someone dies).

maybe they should make Protect and Shell operate more like single target Sacred Soil (i don't think it should be similar to Stoneskin or Galvanize at all).

[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)

[ErryK]

snip

Well, I wasn't really denouncing the uselessness of the skill, more like appreciating the fact that it does something that isn't flipping damage-oriented which everyone is so obsessed about i.e. Balance, Damage stances, 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.