Advanced Traditional Classes with a new twist ^^

[AlexiaKidd]

My Vision For Eorzea

So there are a lot of idea's floating around about how to implement traditional classes, some of which are great and some not so great, so here is my newest vision of how I hope SE shape the game. I did post this in my "scrapping current classes" thread but as we are not scrapping with this idea I thought maybe it deserved a thread of it's own, if you don't agree you can let it sink into obscurity. Anyway it may seem similar to a few at first but it does have a twist or two that I have not seen anyone else mention so please read it all before you comment ^^

First though I want to direct your attention to this question that was in the first player poll:

11. Would you welcome changes to FINAL FANTASY XIV that would drastically alter the rules already set in Eorzea?

Now we know 85.2% voted yes, but that is irrelevant here. How the question was worded was the key and I will get to that later as it is the main reason for my idea.

The Basic Idea

What I hope they do to introduce the traditional jobs is to add them as advanced jobs as many have said. However there is a twist with my plan and I am sure many will hate it ^^

As many are aware the final Rank cap for FFXIV is not going to be Rank 50 most likely it will be 99 eventually. Basically my idea will be when you hit Rank 50 on a class you open up 2 new jobs which you can level, you can do both if you please once you have unlocked them through a nice quest to introduce each one and the lore behind them. The jobs would be as follows:

GLA - Paladin and Dark Knight
MRD - Warrior and Beastmaster
PUG - Monk and Thief
ARC - Ranger and Corsair
LNC - Dragoon and Samurai
CON - White Mage and Black Mage
THM - Red Mage and Summoner

Now I have called these jobs and not classes as this is what they will be, ACTUAL JOBS. With these job you will not start back at Rank 1 it will be an advancement of your current class. So while you would be a Rank 1 DRK that would be on to of your Rank 50 GLA, so you would not be a weakling and have to return to the starter area's (that would defeat the point of having a powerful advanced class =P). Now the twist is that on all of these JOBS every skill and ability that they learn will be unique to it and none transferable to other jobs. You can still add every single skill and ability you have learnt from levelling all the base "classes" but nothing can be added from any actual job. So think of CON, THM, GLA, LNC, MRD, PUG and ARC as a huge sub job pool from which you can select skills and abilities from for your job. For example I could add Cure III from CON to a WAR but I could not add Souleater from DRK to WAR. Also you would of course be able to use abilities purchased from the Guilds from the base class tied to the advanced class. For example Archer's multi-shot could be used by Ranger and Corsair, Conjurer's Fast-cast could be used by Black Mage and White Mage and so on. They would have to add a few more interesting abilities to the Guilds for the base classes to make the other classes more interesting.

This would help add balance to the game at higher ranks and still allow a fair bit of freedom, creativity and help more with the lower to mid ranks.

Also with this I hope they would remove my pet peeve of being tied to a certain weapon, this would allow unique weapon skills for every weapon. The weaponskill's would be tied to the weapon allowing for you to have more choice in the weapon used for different situations, like DRK with Great Sword vs. Scythe (light vs. dark).

Back to the Question

Now one thing that give me hope for something like this was a question in the first player poll. Yoshi P. specifically stated that he had worded the question very carefully.

11. Would you welcome changes to FINAL FANTASY XIV that would drastically alter the rules already set in Eorzea?

Now we know 85.2% voted yes but Yoshi P. stated that he chose the word Eorzea and not FFXIV very specifically as Eorzea is only a small region of Hydaelyn.

I am really struggling to explain my thoughts here as I can't seem to find the right words to describe what I envision ; ;

It is kind of like in a movie when the main character is kind of like a street punk that is skilled at fighting and then he meets up with a master who gives him focus and direction and he becomes the best by using a combination of new skill's and old ones. I am sorry if that sounds so strange but I really can't think of a way to describe it ; ;

The way I see Eorzea is that it is only the start of our adventure, we ARE the street punk's and as we move to new places within Hydaelyn we learn of new ways to advance ourselves to make us stronger, which is where the advanced jobs come in. We see the power these jobs can give us. Imagine for DRK the quest starts with you going out into a dangerous area a cutscene starts and a huge beast attacks, you try your best but are starting to fail and then a DRK in full AF gear come's and fell's the beast with ease and thus your path to becoming a DRK has begun. They give us direction and focus on our journey up until then we were just kind of a jack of all trades. The idea is that the classes we have now are just beginner classes, maybe that is why they are a bit all over the place, they need guidance to become true warriors worthy of saving Eorzea maybe even Hydaelyn. Maybe that is why some some animations on spells and things are a little meh because they are nothing compared to the true power we will wield with our advanced classes which will really wow us, well I can dream can't I ^^

Anyway that is my hope for FFXIV.

*casts Barfira* ^^

[Darksoul]

Wow this I like. It's a new way to look at things and sounds great.

[CptnGamble]

The Armoury system was created for fanboi's (imo). We fanbois know what skills a WHM has, A BLM has, a RDM has, a MNK has, a PLD has, ect, and what roles they play. What squeeeeeenix did was give us the tools, albeit not all the tools...yet, to make these archetype "jobs" by ourselves.

So SE should reiterate the fact that we don't have set "jobs" and post some builds to fit certain roles for those who need their hands held.

[AlexiaKidd]

The Armoury system was created for fanboi's (imo). We fanbois know what skills a WHM has, A BLM has, a RDM has, a MNK has, a PLD has, ect, and what roles they play. What squeeeeeenix did was give us the tools, albeit not all the tools...yet, to make these archetype "jobs" by ourselves.

So SE should reiterate the fact that we don't have set "jobs" and post some builds to fit certain roles for those who need their hands held.

I would personally prefer it if they scrapped the entire Armoury System but I have argued my point on that enough and you can never get someone who loves it to see the other side of the fence, all you get is "GO BACK TO FFXI" ><

[Jagermeister]

even if a majority of people disagree with your concept, i believe you may be on the right track (with some major tweaks).
im really glad to see people throwing out ideas like this, i hope something good comes out of these forums, keep up the good work ^^

[BadJoeRed]

I like the idea for the most part, But if they actually made you go all the way up to rank 50 to change to the higher end class, get ready for QQfest 2011. These whiners would have it lowered to rank 20 in no time, still complaining about how long it takes to get to rankk 20.

[Ashne]

THM - Red Mage and Blue Mage??? (not sure for second one on THM^^)

I think the second job should be summoner

[Rentahamster]

What will happen to the basic jobs? Can you still rank those up to 99?

[Turtle]

I really like the way you put this, painted a picture in my mind. But I have a question, about the class advancement system in general. Assuming SE were to introduce more jobs later on, would they just link it to the general jobs we have now? If so, would they have to introduce them in sets of 6, to keep each job on level playing fields? I'm glad this topic is so hot, its one of my biggest concerns.

[Rentahamster]

http://www.eorzeapedia.com/2011/03/0...naoki-yoshida/

Q. You have also mentioned the possible introduction of traditional names. How do you see these new names fitting into the existing class system? Do you plan on using the new names as a guide to develop class uniqueness?
A. Yoshida-san is between two possible plans at this time. The first idea is that the traditional names would be introduced as “higher” or “advanced” classes. The traditional classes would thus be something of a goal for players. The second idea is that the traditional names would be more of a subset or specialization within the existing classes.
Whatever change is put into effect needs to be right. He recognizes that he will not be able to change the system again after this, so whatever is put into place needs to work, and be able to be balanced, for years to come. Because of this his team is giving this issue a lot of thought prior to implementation.