Aetherial Shift vs Smudge - Please Explain

[ryouma17]

Same reason Dark Knight and Gunbreaker has a non-damage gapcloser, while the Paladin and Warrior have their with damage attached to them.

No idea at all.

they do make weird decisions with abilities, like warrior dark and gun all getting their gapcloser in the 50s but paladin not getting it until 72 or blackmage and bard getting aoe at 15 but dragoon/ninja not getting aoe til lvl 40

[Arrius]

they do make weird decisions with abilities, like warrior dark and gun all getting their gapcloser in the 50s but paladin not getting it until 72 or blackmage and bard getting aoe at 15 but dragoon/ninja not getting aoe til lvl 40

Honestly, it would have been better to streamline the acquisition of the AoE rotation and gapcloser to be of the same level on all tank jobs.
Sure, this makes it appear to be just another step to homogenize all of the tanks - Though at least you can go ham with their abilities outside of it to provide a unique experience with each of them.