Anyone else miss the game before jobs?

[ValentineSnow]

I remember in 1.0 before the job system was even a twinkle in the dev teams eye, the cross class system was a lot more prominent
and fun to use. As a gladiator if you wanted to be a "paladin" you crossed cure, stoneskin, defender, foresight, featherfoot and
disorient and you were a makeshift paladin! Or you could cross bloodrite, drain and ferocity and make yourself into a dark knight.

Then in open Beta, before colourful stickers and the duty finder told us what our jobs were, I often tanked tam tara as a lancer
by cross classing flash and savage blade and it worked pretty well! After the game released I still took flash and provoke when I ran
lancer in case the tank ever died I could take over and did so on a few occassions. I'd also take raging strikes, invigorate and blood
for blood on marauder to dish out some more damage with overpower.

But I feel as the game has progressed, we have been getting more and more limited, first cross classes were limited going from 1.0 to 2.0,
no magic cross classes save cure and stoneskin, very few abilities can be crossed for interesting combos. Your job is decided for you, if
you're a gladiator you are a tank and you will be nothing else! This then gets further restricted by jobs, you are compunded into your
role, tanks will cross defensive skills, no more raging strikes or death blossom for you!

Then where there was some choice in dex or str for increased rate or strength on your blocks or parries, they removed it, you will use
your main stat only! Tanks choosing between str and vit for damage or survivability? You will wear vit gear and you will like it!

I just kind of miss those 1.0 days where I decided what my class would do, not the game.

[CookieMonsta]

I remember in 1.0 before the job system was even a twinkle in the dev teams eye, the cross class system was a lot more prominent

The problem has and will always be balance. YoshiP has a real hard-on for absolute balance where you could play whatever you want and still achieve stuff. This is filtered down to his encounter design where the content is tuned with all the jobs in mind (which requires the fine-grained knowledge of each job's potential). I.e. Content is made for the job. aka Themepark

Contrast this with an alternative content design (arguably more prevalent in FFXI) where the content is designed as-is with an intent to clear but the method and classes required to accomplish the clear was left to the player. The CC system is a relic of the 2nd school of encounter design which has since been thrown away.

Though to be honest, I don' think the modern gaming audience has much patience for the 2nd school of design anymore. They just want some kind of progression and illusion of power, they don't generally want to adapt to the content in order to clear it.

[Saccharin]

The problem has and will always be balance. YoshiP has a real hard-on for absolute balance where you could play whatever you want and still achieve stuff.

Because players have a "hard-on" for balance. 'Gamers' these days will pick the best dps job as others are 'unviable'. You either cater to that mentality or you sink (like 1.0).

[Xyno]

I didn't play 1.0, but I really don't understand why the job system even exists. What for it was created? We could as usual raise our classes and gain skills- like in any other mmorpg. What for this separation on skills like pugilist skills and monk skills, when it could be just the common skills of one class

[Felis]

FF XIV 1.0 class system was more like FF XII (an character can equip any skill that he had learned), while FF ARR job system is more like FF XII International Zodiac Job System (where every job have a own specific license board instead of 1 board with everything on it)

I just wish the old THM will make a return as a job. I really liked to be a cone AoE DPS healer (I think cone AoEs are much better than circle AoEs)

[Naraku_Diabolos]

I didn't play 1.0, but I really don't understand why the job system even exists. What for it was created? We could as usual raise our classes and gain skills- like in any other mmorpg. What for this separation on skills like pugilist skills and monk skills, when it could be just the common skills of one class

Jobs have been a staple of Final Fantasy since the first game, and everything else after it. During 1.0, Tanaka wanted to do something different by having unconventional names for "classes" with no jobs in sight. That changed when Yoshida took over.

Think of the starting classes and then jobs in this way. In real life, you go to school and take classes so you want to specialize in something. By gathering a lot of knowledge from your classes, you can specialize in a field career such as a job. Your job is your role in life and what you work for. That's basically what the class and job system are like in FFXIV. You learn your class as a Pugilist by acquiring skills where you can then specialize in the Monk job.

[xJimmehx]

I always wanted to be a dps kind of like tidus with his 1 handed swords and small buckler, and any abilities i wanted(or all of them) But an affinity for certain ones(tidus wasnt good at most magics other than things like haste and raise which dont deal damage/heal based on stats) Im very happy about red mage coming in 4.0 because of this desire. I only wish my queue times would stay on par with my warrior's as a redmage.

Also i am pretty sure in 1.0 there was a toggle for blm spells. You could do fire single target or toggle it and make it an aoe spell and thunder was not a dot, but it could have been in beta..or i could have had my memory skewed over time... lol.. but either way I feel like most people who rolled a black mage wanted the gameplay to be similar to blms of older titles. (fire, blizzard, thunder, aoe or single target, flare, poison, drain and you choose which spell you want to use or use the one most effective on the current enem(y/ies)) I think thats why ice mages are a thing, that and infinite mp. I feel like having options would make for better rotation crafting and more fun, for me personally.

[bass9020]

People dont want to level other classes for abilities thats what it really boils down to. Also Yoshis PERFECT BALANCE (lol) between every class/job ingame which I understand but I also enjoy when you really need to pick a class because of strengths and weaknesses. Thats just me though so I dont know!

[Cabalabob]

I kind of hoped that with 3.0 they would have made more radical changes to the class system.

My idea was to remove all classes and just have 1 class known as freelancer, it would have no DF role, or rather, it's DF role would be dynamic based on the skills you set. It could use all armour and weapons and would learn abilities, skills and magic based on the weapon equipped, but could use any skills it had learned (after setting them, similar to 1.0 or the cross class system) this would be exactly as you describe OP, you would be a "makeshift" job based on the skills you set.

Then keep the job system as is. You equip your job stone which you can only equip while using an appropriate weapon, you lose access to skills except the ones learned from your weapon and some supporting skills, instead gaining job skills learned from the job quests.

This change wouldn't actually change much about the game as it is today, and yet this minor change in design would open up a world of possibilities and would have avoided the redundancy of the class system. And have kept that option open for people like the OP who want to build their own job.

[xJimmehx]

yeah a freelancer would be pretty cool to have. Maybe have some skills work differently though for balacing. Like how blizzard doesnt grant umbral ice on an arcanist.