Quote Originally Posted by RicaRuin View Post
What even is the point of splitting the job in something that feels and plays similar? Too much resources used for too little of a result. People would complain the jobs feel to similar, like they are doing with healers, no job identity and all that.
That depends on whether they take the obvious opportunities such splits would present.

For instance, at present a Bard cannot house much fully supportive options because it needs to feel sufficiently strong in light party and solo content. It thus has to be watered down, made more Archer than Bard. It's like you've been given a spectrum by which to near either a pure Archer or pure Bard on a spectrum, but, lacking any choice in the matter, you're stuck 30% from Archer, functionally, with the presence of "Bard" mostly limited to some skill reskins and flavor text.

Allowing choice, and enlarging the playstyle pool each job can source, would allow for jobs to be more diverse, not less, on the whole. Lacking choice, we're already pulled towards the least common denominator, so to speak. From here, the largest available space is towards diversity, even if there may also be a few more options by which a Bard can play like a Gunner, or a Machinist like an Archer, or so forth.