Class Specializations

[Sazuzaki]

I bring this up because of the recent change to SAM regarding Kaiten, and also the upcoming job changes to DRG and AST because they're apparently "too busy." SE is trying to make the jobs as casual as possible, and this hurts veteran players. FFXIV is unique because it does a good job at catering to both types of players, but that's starting to change sadly.

Would allowing us to specialize in our main jobs help address this? Kind-of like how crafters can specialize, but instead with useful abilities and tweaks that can add a layer of complexity to a job.

These are just examples:

* Specializing in SAM grants you Kaiten.
* Specializing in DRK grants you Scourge, and gives Blood Weapon a haste effect.
* Specializing in WAR increases your gauge cap, grants something like Deliverance.
etc...

Just some things that could add more complexity to people who main that job, while still being available to casual players. Yes, it would result in a small (like 2%) DPS boost.

This doesn't come without its problems:

* Being able to specialize in only one job will make flexing around classes a bad idea, which defeats the point of having multiple jobs leveled.

* Specializations will make the meta-chasers exclude people who just want to try out a new job.

* Players might feel pressured to play a specialized job anyway due to you being able to swap whenever.

* If the DPS increase is too high, savage raids might be designed around a group having only specialized jobs.

There might be more minor problems, but these are the main 4 I can think of.

Possible solutions to said problems:

* You should be able to specialize in a maximum of 5 total jobs. There are 5 total roles in FFXIV, so you would be able to specialize in 1 of every role if you're truly an all-rounder. Granted, there still might be times where a player might not be able to switch to a specialized job, but I don't believe it would be too often. If it does, the DPS loss isn't game-changing. (Unless the Devs pull another P8S.)

* Meta-chasers are usually only seen in Savage, which you would only bring your best/main in anyway. That being said, you can still specialize in your 5 main jobs, so I don't think this would be a huge problem.

* Changing what job you specialize in wouldn't come without its drawbacks. Though this one is a bit more tricky, I was thinking maybe something like a prestige leveling system? Specializing in a job would unlock said prestige levels that you can progress in just by doing content on said job. Perhaps endgame Normal Trials could award the most prestige EXP, as they currently serve no purpose other than for MSQ and maybe the TT Card. Changing your specialization would reset said EXP for the job you left.

* This would be completely up to the Devs, but as I said before, savage raids are designed around players who have already become proficient at their jobs, and the DPS loss shouldn't be game changing.

This is nothing but a cool idea I thought of and wanted to talk about with people, but the point still stands. FFXIV is doing a bad job at balancing the jobs between casuals and veterans, and something needs to be done about it. Don't get me wrong, they would have to design something like this very carefully. Let me know what you think or what you would do differently. Don't be rude please!

[AmiableApkallu]

Much like how crafters can specialize.

I'm not sure this is the model you're looking for.

Crafter specialization is the equivalent of a few free materia and two abilities that are completely unneeded (to the point of being a waste of space on your hotbars) outside of the absolute highest-end crafts.

[Sazuzaki]

I'm not sure this is the model you're looking for.

Crafter specialization is the equivalent of a few free materia and two abilities that are completely unneeded (to the point of being a waste of space on your hotbars) outside of the absolute highest-end crafts.

My bad, I don't craft that much, so I just assumed. But it gets the concept across: specialize in a select few jobs and get extra abilities.

I'm honestly just tossing around ideas since I like having these discussions, but thanks for pointing that out!