So, thread is about Alternate customization (not just class/job choices). Yet roughly half the posts now are...

_________________________________________________________________

Quick note on Skill-Paths. Just about any MMO that has done the system justice has done so by basically finding different means to roughly the same ends. Separating by Fire/Thunder/Ice is going to severely lock out character usability.

(Whenever specialization is implemented it means higher maximums. Higher maximums mean a new standard for what's acceptable in a raid, or else overly easy content unless the skill trees are very well balanced and the fights are complex but free enough to use other ("non-maximal") specs effectively -- i.e. maximal has it's own variants between glass cannon, utility, etc.)

Separate by elemental themes, destruction, dispersion, debilitation, whatever, (BLM examples) such that all class elements are included under a different sort of focus, and you have more customized, still multi-usable characters instead.