What if the core "Classes" were treated as "alternate-roles" of their respective Job?

[Terin]

Take the Gladiator for example. What if at level 30, in addition to unlocking the quest to become a Paladin, you *also* unlocked the ability to unlock a "Gladiator job-crystal"?

So instead of becoming a Paladin which is obviously a Tank, "Gladiators" would evolve into a pure damage-dealing counterpart. Same of Marauders (maybe leaning more "Pirate" after lvl 30, such as a flintlock pistol ranged-attack), maybe even Conjurers becoming a nature-based DPS.

On the other side of the spectrum, maybe Lancers and Pugilists become "tanks" (with all front-facing abilities). The Thaumaturge might even become a "healer" of some sort.

The Bard would be a big change, as I would probably split them, with Archer being the damage-dealer, and Bards moving to a Support role. I'm honestly not sure what I would do with the Rogue, other than maybe make them a different KIND of damage-dealer, maybe more stealth-oriented?

I suppose Arcanist/Summoner/Scholar would remain relatively untouched. Indeed, they're kind of a weird place to begin with (I've yet to play any of them). I suppose you could opt to make them the the ULTIMATE hybrid, and maybe one either the Arcanist or Summoner becomes a "tank", whilst the other remains DPS? My take would maybe be to have the Arcanist as a DPS using the current miniature "Egi" summons (or Carbuncles, if you prefer), and reworked the "Summoner" to summon a singular BIG dude, in which your abilities are focused around commanding and healing your summon.

Again, just a thought! Would be curious what you guys think!

[Puremallace]

So obviously they have chosen a direction here and have no clue what to do with these base jobs. That is why you can just start Dark Knight at lvl 30, Samurai...red mage for example. Also Reaper will start at 70 with no base job requirement. My honest guess is they think it is working fine as it and do not want to create what is effectively 4 more jobs that they have to balance around.

I mean they have already thrown job quest in the trash can after 70 going forward as a poorly informed design decision opting to go with generic boring role Archetype quest for the future.

[Shurrikhan]

I'd rather the classes remain classes, rather than mirrored jobs, honestly. Ideally, I'd want the classes both to (1) hark back at their previous increased inherent versatility and (2) be aimed at content that could better make use of said versatility -- with, naturally, an increase in more open- or experimental-solution midcore combat content.

I'd be okay with the majority of Savage raid comps not bothering with those classes, just as I'd expect the majority of light party premades in the content classes are more aimed at to be at least half classes, rather than jobs. Raids draw only from a relatively small pool of available mechanics and complexity to retain their specific gameplay concept, and that's fine, so long as there's other combat content that can actually make use of the other possibilities, whether they involve fighting a densely-scripted pack of enemies, can reward kiting, may require use of friendly fire, bring considerable depth to the order by which you fight buff-dropping mini-bosses across an open-style dungeon delve, etc. I just want to see the pool of content opened up, rather than following this long-since stagnated rut alone for yet another few expansions.

Perhaps more importantly, though, I'd want any renegotiation of these classes/jobs to be about restoring identity and depth of play -- such that far less of each kit is owed, effectively, to templates shared across each entire role. I feel like classes as classes could better push towards that than just new jobs-that-share-exp-pools-at-least-until-the-point-at-which-they-split.

[Vidu]

So... you'd basically want them to add 7(!) new jobs? I'm not counting arcanist, because that one already got the treatment you're proposing.

So the answer to "what if" would be either "balancing nightmare" or " even more homogenisation between jobs". Neither of which I think are a good thing - I'd rather see less jobs with more identity than an aweful lot that are in essence all the same, just with slightly different animations.

I also think that it would be more interesting to see actual new jobs that use new styles of weapon and fighting over a variation on existing jobs.

[MikkoAkure]

I mean they have already thrown job quest in the trash can after 70 going forward as a poorly informed design decision opting to go with generic boring role Archetype quest for the future.

I’m pretty sure they did that because having to come up with all new quest lines for an increasing amount of jobs will take resources from elsewhere in the game. As much as I like the job quests, there’s only so many stories they can tell for the same job over and over and not all of them were hits either.