Thoughts on the removal of skills

[Grann-Goro]

I'm very concerned about this too !

I don't wont to see old content (lv 50 content, lv 60 content, etc...) be too much distorted because of a so called "expansion". (Heavensward was perfect in that sense !)
An "expansion" to a game is not supposed to make previous content less interesting, either because too many old skills were removed, or because of some global gameplay changes (like the addition of new stats in Stormblood).

I can understand however most of the changes that were made up until now.
Despite the fact we already lost a good number of lv 50 abilities, lv 50 content is still quite good today when played in minimum item level mode (not AS good it was though...)
But at one point, the removal of skills at each expansion will have to stop (like the addition of new jobs by the way) !


For that, I can think of two possible solutions :

1) If SE thinks that a particular skill is no longer useful for the new level cap of the new expansion, make sure that this skill is replaced by a new one once a certain level is reached, just like Stone 2 replaces Stone 1 for instance.
Even if the new skill is completely different from the one which will be replaced, you can use this "trick" to preserve the old skills without increasing the total number of usable skills.

2) Use the same method as the blue mage : don't limit the number of skills we can learn, just limit the number of skills we can "equip".
Of course, there will always be only one optimal set of skills at max level that everyone will use, but that's not a problem at all.
Again, even if a skill becomes useless at max level, it doesn't mean this skill is useless in older content, where the more usefull skills aren't available.

[tdb]

just like Fire 2 replaces Fire 1 for instance.

Bad example since Fire 2 does not replace Fire 1. In fact BLM retains all four numbered fire spells and they all serve different purposes.

For a better example look at WHM which has probably the longest skill upgrade chain in the game: Stone -> Stone II -> III -> IV -> Glare.