New Job Concept: Riskbreaker

[Jandor]

With all hint and leaks pointing towards the new jobs being Tank and Healer, and considering role distribution, I figure the job roles we still need to fill are: Maiming, Scouting and Aiming.

Those are types of gear, not roles. To be honest I find the value of maiming and scouting gear even existing rather questionable, nothing would really be lost by merging them with striking and aiming.

The job itself seems pretty interesting though, assuming you'd like it adding to the game (however unlikely that might be) it might be worthwhile finding an existing FF job you can merge the mechanics with .

[Shurrikhan]

Those are types of gear, not roles. To be honest I find the value of maiming and scouting gear even existing rather questionable, nothing would really be lost by merging them with striking and aiming.

The job itself seems pretty interesting though, assuming you'd like it adding to the game (however unlikely that might be) it might be worthwhile finding an existing FF job you can merge the mechanics with .

While I too question the current value of Scouting and Maiming as distinct sets, I'd argue that the armor classes, rather than pure roles, should be the more aesthetic- and gameplay-defining element, and are ultimately of higher value as categories than direct roles. Simply put, Maiming, Striking, and Scouting, if done well, provide a much more real analog to styles of combat. To give an extreme example, I'd rather have a Maiming, Striking, or Scouting tank, or have a Fending DPS, than trim Maiming or Scouting. I hate that at present Fending plays less into any actual style of combat and instead just feels like "outlier: all tanks get shoved here", just as Healing and Casting, which are essentially identical in aesthetic and functionality in most cases, are always split. I'd rather just see Fending (not tanks only), Maiming, Striking, Scouting, Casting (all your traditional caster robes), Binding (your less mobility-hampering 'spellfencer' kinds of caster outfits), with no Role attachments. That's not a change I'd want to see until every armor class would thereby have access to two roles, but that's a more appropriate division of armor classes (by class, and the style of combat each allows, rather than by arbitrary role classification) imo. (Hell, I'd love to return to all primary stats being used to some point by each job, with combinations of primary stats granting our secondaries in player-chosen allotments, and, say, Monk being free to pick from Maiming, Scouting, or Striking where the stats on a given outfit are close enough together.)

Honestly, though, the whole issue of loot tables as they'd apply to these seems a... nonissue to me, easily correctable by dynamic loot tables as seen in other MMOs (e.g. loot of greater value to the present team has a higher chance to drop; loot of zero value to the present team has no chance to drop until the table has already been consumed from) and/or loot specialization (e.g. you go as one job of higher ilvl and set your loot to another of your job's to be weighed against its gearset).

Finally, either role-unique stats like Piety, Tenacity, and Direct Hit would have to go -- no loss, imo -- and/or materia "plates" or the like.