Quote Originally Posted by Yves View Post
The point is that the OP is looking for ways to avoid this and also trying to be helpful in a creative process. He isn't necessarily looking for concepts that lock people into different play-styles - he just wants to see some flexibility and variation and I can't see anything wrong with that.
That was the point of the Armoury system and Job system, we're not going to get a game where you'll have a conjurer or white mage out tanking everyone due to progression path for example.

Quote Originally Posted by Phobos View Post
Things like this are great. It seems people are thinking XI didn't have this.

Did people forget about Merits? There was actually a great deal of customization between characters with merits, and while some jobs had a set couple of skills that were basically required, that just means a system of the like here would just need to be better balanced.

Heck, we even have a system in place that can be used for merit points... Acheivement Points.
When it comes to XI people forget a lot of things because it's an older MMO. Merit points ended up the same way as talent tree type systems ends up...there's always the "Expected" path that you'll have to take. No matter how much customization or choice you're given in an MMO, there's always an optimal or preferred build that people will expect you to do. This is true in every MMO I've played including the much touted WoW.