Quote Originally Posted by Kyra View Post
So for a quick example one blackmage wont have exactly the same skillsets as another blackmage, could specialise in fire damage and resistance with more hp and magic accuracy and new fire based skills, or you can choose the thunder path for more thunder dmg, mp, magic crit and thunder skills. etc etc. Dragoon can choose the wyvern pet path or the jumping path etc etc.
This is only possible if you design things so that a) all elements do the same amount of damage or b) each elemental specialization has its own mechanics and damage rotation.

The reason XI's merit system sucked was because it relied on the illusion of choice, specially for mages. Why would they put merits into fire potency when Thunder was their best bet for damage or Ice was their best bet for damage + utility. All black mages I knew either went 5/5 Thunder potency and then went 5/5 Burst II, or 5/5 Ice potency and then 5/5 Freeze II. Red Mages were "expected" to go 5/5 Ice Accuracy to get the most out of Blizzard and Bind (now if you were a loser like me, you probably spit on their expectations and went 5/5 convert, 2/5 ice and 3/5 fire because I like fire).

Melee weren't that better off because you always had one no-brainer merit in each category.

Personally, I'd go with something similar to talent trees but limited within the role of the job in question. Classes shouldn't really have alternate advancement, and instead it should fall into the jobs, IMO.