[dev1016] Not stopping to draw a weapon and go into "active mode"

[WintersMoondancer]

In relation, I want to be able to cast spells and use abilities without having to take out my weapon (FF11). Actually, I'm not even sure why they need to have an active/passive mode stances. In FF11 it was seamless.

This, exactly. I saw a lowbie fighting something too strong and went about curing him while playing as pug (cure 2 is equipped). After the fight he thanked me and then said he got kind of freaked at first because my weapons were drawn and he thought i was going to MPK him... lol

You should be able to cast magic (Cure, raise, etc), use Quickstride without taking weapon out. As a Miner, I can use any of the Prospect abilities (Miner's Flee) without ever having to draw my pick axe. So it's clearly not impossible to do this with other abilities.

In FF11 as a mage it was nice to cast spells without going in to battle mode. I miss that.