Armory/Job system I would have preferred (Probably too late, but whatever)

[MeowyWowie]

The more I think about the coming job system, the more I'm underwhelmed by it. There are various parts about it that I find either too restricting or just not well thought out. I know we really don't know much about it yet and none of us have tested it for ourselves but, judging by the information we do know, I think they could have done much better.

The main problem I see with the job system is that they're locked to their weapon class (I'm fairly sure this was confirmed). Another thing that kind of bothers me, which others may actually welcome, is that some jobs in the future will be unlocked by leveling a combination of classes. This may seem like a good thing to some (more jobs to choose from overall) but I view it as a bad thing (less weapon variety). There's also the fact that jobs themselves don't have levels, but the system I'd prefer doesn't have them either so I won't go there.

I'd rather see a system where 1 weapon class unlocks 1 job. Jobs could still be "equipped" with job stones, but the jobs themselves can be equipped while wielding a variety of weapons. So you'd be able to have a Thief with either a sword, dagger, sai, etc., not just a dagger. Having more weapon classes also gives us more to actually do in the game. Even though it's just grinding, it's still something that would keep us busy. The more the better.

Here's an example of the weapons I'd like to see as well as the jobs they'd unlock.

Knuckles -------------- Black Belt
Pole ------------------ Monk
Dagger ---------------- Thief
Sai ------------------- Dancer
Sword ----------------- Paladin
Great Sword ----------- Lanista
Axe ------------------- Viking
Great Axe ------------- Warrior
Scythe ---------------- Dark Knight
Spear ----------------- Dragoon
Katana ---------------- Ninja
Great Katana ---------- Samurai
Bow ------------------- Ranger
Crossbow -------------- Sniper
Gun ------------------- Corsair
Whip ------------------ Beastmaster
Megaphone ------------- Puppetmaster

Hammer ---------------- White Mage
Wand ------------------ Black Mage
Rapier ---------------- Red Mage
Saber ----------------- Blue Mage
Mace ------------------ Green Mage
Rod ------------------- Time Mage
Sceptre --------------- Arcanist
Staff ----------------- Evoker
Instruments ----------- Bard
Bell ------------------ Geomancer
Book ------------------ Scholar

All of the above ------ Onion Knight

28 weapon classes and 29 jobs (30 if you count Freelancer), 17 DoW and 11 DoM. Jobs would still not have their own levels. The level of your equipped weapon (main hand) would be the level of your job. Not all weapons would be available for use on each job, but each job would have multiple weapons to choose from. All jobs would be ambidextrous. Different combos of weapons could be dual-wielded (Sword + Dagger, Axe + Saber, Rapier + Rod, etc.).

By playing as a weapon class only, AKA: Freelancer (no job stones equipped), you would be able to swap abilities from all other classes, baring some class-specific abilities. The abilities from the weapon you have equipped would be at 100% affinity, while those from other classes would be weaker. Weaponskills, however, would not be interchangeable as they are tied to their weapons (some job weaponskills do not follow this rule).

With a jobstone equipped, only the abilities from the job itself and the weapon you have equipped would be available for you to use. Affinity for abilities would be slightly higher than what they would be if you were a Freelancer to compensate for the restriction of available abilities to choose from.

Jobs themselves would have unique weaponskills as well. Some may be used with a number of weapons, while some may only be available to one weapon class. For instance, a Paladin could use Flat blade with either a Dagger, Sword or Saber equipped while Knights of the Round would be exclusive to swords.

Naturally, as I'm sure you can see, Jobs would be more catered to party environments whereas a Freelancer is more for solo.

This system also opens the doors to the Onion Knight job. This is very similar to Freelancer except for a few key differences. First, the Onion Knight would be able to equip all abilities from all classes (baring weaponskills) regardless of the weapon equipped. Second, all abilities would be at 100% affinity. And third, it can not equip any Ultimate weapons, though it would have a set of Onion Gear to call its own XD. Specialized jobs would still be better in party situations due to the boost in affinity, so this job would be best suited for solo. Consider it your Freelancer +1 reward for capping all classes.

The whole system is very similar to what we know about the job system so far except the major difference that weapons are interchangeable between jobs. I know the chance of getting them to reconsider their system is very unlikely, but let's be honest, we barely got any information on the job system when it was likely still open for feedback and suggestions and since then we still haven't received any new info. I don't know, maybe there's a chance that the job system is still not 100% concrete and they might reconsider certain aspects of it.

[Catapult]

That, my dear, would be very complicated and take a lot of work.

That sort of scale, to me at least, is going over the top.

[Chardrizard]

I am sure patch will comes every 6 months now if they had to balance 29 jobs/classes.

[yukikaze_yanagi]

I am sure patch will comes every 6 months now if they had to balance 29 jobs/classes.

Every patch

[MeowyWowie]

Well, of course I'm thinking long term here lol. I can't imagine any developer releasing so many jobs at one time.

By comparison, FFXI has 20 jobs and 16 weapon classes. There's no reason FFXIV shouldn't be able to trump that. Just think of all that variety! XD

[Shneibel]

Well, of course I'm thinking long term here lol. I can't imagine any developer releasing so many jobs at one time.

By comparison, FFXI has 20 jobs and 16 weapon classes. There's no reason FFXIV shouldn't be able to trump that. Just think of all that variety! XD

varie is good but that is way to much and class end up classing each other

[Stanislaw]

Well, of course I'm thinking long term here lol. I can't imagine any developer releasing so many jobs at one time.

By comparison, FFXI has 20 jobs and 16 weapon classes. There's no reason FFXIV shouldn't be able to trump that. Just think of all that variety! XD

I suppose it's easy to miss because FFXI has been out for 10 years now and everyone's pretty much unlocked everything, but FFXI actually only starts you out with 6 jobs. So going by that logic, FFXIV already tops FFXI with 7 - and that's only counting the DoW/DoM classes.

That isn't to say they're not going to release no more new classes/jobs in FFXIV. In fact, they've pretty much confirmed that they are going to in the future.

[Chardrizard]

Well, of course I'm thinking long term here lol. I can't imagine any developer releasing so many jobs at one time.

By comparison, FFXI has 20 jobs and 16 weapon classes. There's no reason FFXIV shouldn't be able to trump that. Just think of all that variety! XD

Yes and look how many useless classes are there in FFXI. Varieties is good if u can keep them relevant.

[MeowyWowie]

Hmm, although I do like variety, maybe I did list too many weapons/jobs. Just look at them as examples of possible jobs. It seems everyone is focusing on that instead of how the system would work.

Regardless of how many classes/jobs we do get, I'd still prefer a 1:1 ratio for weapons and jobs simply because it gives us more things to keep us busy. By giving us jobs that come from combined classes (ie: CNJ + THM = RDM) they're taking away one class we could have had to level up.

The other part is being able to equip different weapons on one job. A Paladin with a Rapier would give you a magic based tank. A Warrior can dual-wield 2 axes or an axe and shield and become an efficient tank (Viking would be a tank job while Warrior would be a DD in this case). A Ninja with ranged weapons. A Red Mage with Time Mage spells that would otherwise be class-specific. I could go on and on.

Sure, you can swap abilities between classes in our current system, but cross-class skills are always weaker. In this system they are as well, but again, only when cross-classed. The difference is that when a job equips a weapon not usually meant for its class, it would get 100% affinity with the weapon's native abilities. It's far more effective than FFXI's subjob system (sub class abilities would actually be worth using) and it opens up a lot more customization to the players.

More difficult to balance? Sure. But in the grand scheme of things, I'd say it's a sacrifice worth making.

[Fiosha_Maureiba]

With the newer FF jobs, Red Mage doesn't lend itself well to cross job concepts.

A tangent here.

Red Mage in olden days used many Fighter weapons, medium tier armor just not the plate, a shield, with access to most white and black magic. In Ivalice, there's the introduction or popularization of Green and Arcane magic. And then there's Time magic.

If jobs don't exist for Green, Time, and Arcane, then those spells can be rolled into White, Black, and Red Mages.

And if Red Mage becomes a specialist, then he isn't following the hybrid design. Which leads to spells no other job has or that the Red Mage is a superior caster on this.

Just pondering aloud.

/tangent