Possible removal of Classes

[Thunda_Cat_SMASH]

If I had a say, the jobs would be the ones to be removed, but even for that it's too late.

Classes were the mistake though. Taking out jobs would be akin to telling people to pay cash to watch an Avengers movie and then giving them MLP episodes 1-3. Classes have less than nothing to do with the FF series, which has always had jobs as the main focus. Take out jobs, and it's a completely different game and aesthetic, one I would abandon in a heartbeat. I'm here to play an FF game, not a generic MMO with generic classes with no identity.

[Ririta]

Classes were the mistake though. Taking out jobs would be akin to telling people to pay cash to watch an Avengers movie and then giving them MLP episodes 1-3. Classes have less than nothing to do with the FF series, which has always had jobs as the main focus. Take out jobs, and it's a completely different game and aesthetic, one I would abandon in a heartbeat. I'm here to play an FF game, not a generic MMO with generic classes with no identity.

It's literally just a name. A name that isn't being honored, even; I sure wish that summoner actually got to summon stuff, that scholars had black magic beyond Blizzard II and that bards were singers first instead of arrow flingers.

[Thunda_Cat_SMASH]

It's literally just a name. A name that isn't being honored, even; I sure wish that summoner actually got to summon stuff, that scholars had black magic beyond Blizzard II and that bards were singers first instead of arrow flingers.

Summoners summon, Bio has always been a black magic spell, Ruin has always been a black magic spell, and Shadow Flare is typically a monster only version of Flare that dealt dark aspected damage, and the only difference between our bards and older bards is that older bards attacked and did damage with their harps, as well as sing. Ah, FFT Bard is still my favorite iteration...

About all I want for BRD are the Brave/Faith up spells they had in that game and I would be beyond happy.

[FaileExperiment]

They really should just cap classes at level 30. Once you level past 30 and get your job crystal, you wouldn't be able to go back to that class. SE's problem with SMN/SCH is less a class/job problem and more that too many skills are allocated to the class, so they share too much. If you cap classes at 30, they'd share much less and allow greater differentiation.

EDIT: Duell and I have the same idea it seems. To me it really seems the most simple change to implement. That keeps the initial flavor of a class/job system. If it were like this, it would be much easier to actually use the class system to have more classes share bases.

In fact, those "shared" role skills they are implementing in 4.0 should have actually been more like class skills for jobs. Tanks for example, didn't need three different classes. They could have been one class, that branched into all three of the current jobs, with the shared role skills being your starting 1-30 abilities. Or heck maybe just have classes for the first 15 levels instead and branch them from there.

[Alerion]

At this point, the job and class system is so butchered and disconnected that I couldn't care less. Makes me wonder why Yoshida even wanted to add jobs besides fanservice, they add nothing to the gameplay and completely destroys Tanaka's original vision. If I had a say, the jobs would be the ones to be removed, but even for that it's too late.

Not that I disagree the job/class system is seriously disconnected, but Tanaka's original vision was shit. Fatigue system capping your exp, anima recharge for teleports, no content, copy/paste zones, market wards with no auction house, high level mobs right outside of town a few feet from starting level mobs. Painfully slow combat, hiding everything behind two or three layers of menus. It goes on.

That's not to say there aren't a few things I didn't enjoy, like seamless zones and far better movement animations, but overall his vision was poop.

[Ririta]

Not that I disagree the job/class system is seriously disconnected, but Tanaka's original vision was shit. Fatigue system capping your exp, anima recharge for teleports, no content, copy/paste zones, market wards with no auction house, high level mobs right outside of town a few feet from starting level mobs. Painfully slow combat, hiding everything behind two or three layers of menus. It goes on.

That's not to say there aren't a few things I didn't enjoy, like seamless zones and far better movement animations, but overall his vision was poop.

I mean his idea of the cross class system allowing you to customize your spells and being able to emulate classic jobs if you wanted to. Sadly I don't know how well this worked as I've only started playing in 2.0, but it sounds pretty "Final Fantasy-ish" to me.

It's been stated before that every FF game as their own take/ iteration of these occupations. A summoner in FFXIV is just as much as Yuna is a summoner in FFX.

Summoners summon, Bio has always been a black magic spell, Ruin has always been a black magic spell, and Shadow Flare is typically a monster only version of Flare that dealt dark aspected damage, and the only difference between our bards and older bards is that older bards attacked and did damage with their harps, as well as sing. Ah, FFT Bard is still my favorite iteration...

About all I want for BRD are the Brave/Faith up spells they had in that game and I would be beyond happy.

The point is that if you're gonna excuse FFXIV's jobs, then the dislike for classes for being "not Final Fantasy-ish" seems undeserved.

[Aylis]

If I had a say, the jobs would be the ones to be removed, but even for that it's too late.

The 1.0 lover in me totally agrees. A lot of the magic and fun for me and what originally drew me to 1.0 was how open booked roles in the game originally were. A lot of the fun came from working a role from the mix of possibilities that worked and fit the player.

Signed, a former Lancer Thaumaturge Dark Dragoon hybrid.

[Zhamkyong]

The 1.0 lover in me totally agrees. A lot of the magic and fun for me and what originally drew me to 1.0 was how open booked roles in the game originally were. A lot of the fun came from working a role from the mix of possibilities that worked and fit the player.

Signed, a former Lancer Thaumaturge Dark Dragoon hybrid.

Never got a chance to try that system sadly, how was it exactly?

[bass9020]

Never got a chance to try that system sadly, how was it exactly?

The classes in 1.0 were an open book more than set classes. Like 2.0 the weapon determined the class you were playing but in 1.0 everything was more related to that than the character. Levels even used to be called ranks because you were ranking up the weapon type of that class. Also all abilities and spells were free to be used on any class, so you could be a gladiator who used magic. The downside was all crossed abilities had lower potency and I think longer cool downs?(don't quote me on that one though)

The guilds played a much more important role as well because you were able to spend guild tokens to buy other abilities or traits that you could use to help with the cross class abilities. This was the general twist of it (I'm not very good at explaining things sorry)

[Aylis]

Never got a chance to try that system sadly, how was it exactly?

It might be more easier to show you then explain ^.^ here's a very old video I made from those days that shows roughly how it worked. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUR-lPpEbsU Basically nearly every skill for every class was up for grabs as a cross class action. Want to be a mage with tank skills? It could be done, want to be an archer healer? It could be done. Players had 10 cross class abilities they could take at max level and each skill had a set number of allocation points. The more higher level the skill, the more points it costed to put it in your cross class ability bar. When you leveled up, you got a number of points you could use to spend on whatever cross class skill you wanted from all the classes you unlocked.

The downside was all crossed abilities had lower potency and I think longer cool downs?(don't quote me on that one though)

Lower potency definitely, the cool down timer was the same. Plus the other risks (taking magic on a melee class which didn't have the MP pools of magic classes, etc)