Ability Points, Skill Trees & Talents being considered to replace leveling. Thoughts?

[Tunda]

We can't have a unique stat/attribute system.. you can't sell me the idea that we can have a skill tree system that is actually balanced.

[ReynTime]

Sounds better than what they have currently.

The focus on balance and homogenization is anti fun.

Depending on what they opt to, they're going to have to change the endgame gearing cycle, because as is you don't have much flexibility in job swapping in time to keep up.
"Some jobs not being very good for certain fights" has always been completely normal in any video game with multiple characters, builds, weapon styles and classes. It's only a problem in XIV now (leveling doesn't take anywhere near as long as it did back in pre StB days) because with a lot of effort you can get 2 archetypes geared up in 2nd to best in slot in a matter of months. Which discourages the idea of flexing whichever job is best for a given fight in the same expansion cycle.