isnt it time to unify classes/jobs? whats the point of having both of them..

[Shougun]

I don't understand, what would be the benefit to uniting them?
It would take work, but where's the payoff?
Changing them seems to add basically nothing.

I think in a finger snapping vacuum, if we were Thanos lol, you could benefit from having a higher sense of theme sooner (it's not like the class theme is important, because the class identity dies, unlike say FFXI where if you had THF to unlock NIN but you didn't lose THF- I actually can't remember how to unlock NIN though so don't quote that THF / NIN haha). Like to be honest I don't give a kweh, , about any of the "classes" in terms of gameplay fantasy or their representations for my character (my character is a Paladin, not a Gladiator, any remnant of gladiator just distracts from being 'Paladin'), they don't represent a fantasy I'm greatly interested in- yet the jobs I quite like. Now the jobs tend to morph the classes a lot already so for the most part it's not really important to snap the fingers, there are not really too many remnants in most jobs as jobs do change skills up over time, and when you exit the vacuum where suddenly you do have a lot of work if you had wanted to do it differently than the morphing that FFXIV already does (particularly all the lore that is going to get wacked).. I can see it not worth it.

Though I do like to see the job passives that 'reclaim' class territory and change it into job territory.

Part reason why I would like to see the cross class skills go. We used to have leeches for Scholar and Esuna for White Mage with magic effects and names that theme'd to the job. Yes they did the same thing mechanically but the job felt more of a unit because of it, now it's just fragments of a system of choice that we've no choice in anymore. Also I'm sure there are a few moments where those similar skills might get a tiny bit of mechanical difference too (some core skills that HAVE to be the same due to balance get to at least have a theme'd visual, name, icon, but there may be a few skills occasionally that actually get to go one step farther with minor differences too).

That isn't to say the whole idea of cross class skills and sub job things can't be fun, but in this current game I don't think it adds much. Sure maybe someone who is really really new to games might be like Oh I know provoke icon, but.. like... if you just read the description you'd also know it's provoke.. It'd be like saying all the healers need the same named healing spells because otherwise the player wont understand heal potency 100 is a healing spell because it's name is Benefic instead of Cure I.