[dev1032] [dev1033] The Class System and growth

[Chibino]

One of my main beefs with the FFXIV armory system in the first place is that a particular class is forced to use this weapon or that. There should be some more spread here, people. I don't want to be forced to tank because I like using swords.

Already Mages can use shields. There's no reason to force people to use certain weapons two handed (Axes, Lances). Lances being two handed in FFT was to balance their extended range. Crossbows and guns also make a nice one handed weapon.

Class Distinction is nice and all, but forcing every tank to be a sword user or every DPS to be a axe wielder will just make it bland and boring. We need variety within the classes, but not to the point of them being indistinguishable as they are now.

We need to define classes by their abilities, not their weapons. Of course some weapons would just plain make less sense to equip on one class or another than others, and so should either require either special skills (As Equip Swords/Axes/Brawl/Lances/Bows/Guns/etc. via FFT), or incur major penalties for using them.

A white mage using a great sword or gun instead of a staff, for instance, is silly. -50% Accuracy?

i agree that that there needs to be some flexibility in weapons. 2handed swords should be able to be used by both dark knight, warriors & paladins. maybe adding favor classes there would be a bonus to the class type like:

Favors = +10% dmg & acc
non-Favors = -20% dmg & acc

this would gives a 30% difference, if the base dmg is 50 then a positive bonus would be 55 dmg while a negative bonus would be 40 dmg as it scales up 500 base damage would be 550 vs 400 damage this should be enough difference but still but still prove to be useful. artifact weapons should favor fewer classes then non-artifact weapons.

what should set apart the uniqueness in classes is class only passives and active abilities. in FF 11 each class had few passive traits that grew with level, but not all passives transfered over when the it was sub-job. since FF 14 doesnt have class only traits that grow with rank and some class only lack luster active abilities like FF 11's 2hour abilities. people start to see all classes as the same. by giving classes some class only passives and maybe one 1hr and one 30min abilities people might see how classes can be more unique with out swapping out skills.