Difference between classes

[Nakiamiie]

Sorry, just to expand a little bit more on your main question.

I believe everything is getting reworked a little for 2.0, but as the moment, I think Gladiator=tank, Mrd=Damage/tank(aoe), pugilist= dot/dd, lancer= critical hit DD, archer=ranged DD/debuff. Their jobs just further enhance their specialties.

If you dig deeper, you could say pug/mnk is like a physical elemental Damage dealer/dot. lol

That's the kind of answer I am looking for.

I can't tell if the OP is asking for the difference between class vs other class, or the difference between class vs job.

Class vs class
Jobs vs jobs

As it's been said before there's nothing you can actually solo on a Class that you can't solo on a Job. It's not like Classes give anyone the magic ability to solo Dodore like Thaum use to be able to do. 2.0 might change abilities around but with quests being a major source of xp I really doubt anyone is going to go around soloing on Classes (except with leves until they actually do unlock the jobs). I don't mean to nickpick your post but when people defend the Armory System the "solo" aspect is always brought up. Sure you can equip Cure, Stoneskin, and Protect but you can switch to WHM/CNJ before you even do a leve or fight something and pop up a Protect/Stoneskin/Regen.

That's kind of what I was expecting when they first talking about the armoury revamp.
Having the classes truly well defined and isolated in their specialization. Then, being able to pick up some abilities from other specialized classes to become a jack-of-all-trades.

As for jobs, they would simply prevent you from picking abilities from other classes and forces to push the specialization even further (making you extra weak for other tasks).

But it feels like classes are a pot of jack-of-all-trades with slight variations, while the jobs gives you 5 abilities to "define" your role a bit more.

I'm not unhappy about it, I'm just confused as to how adding more classes are going to be implemented without having the armoury system become a cluster-f*ck of abilities wrapped in a different packaging.
That would put the focus on character individuality (I want my character to do this and that, so I select the variation that is closer and complete with cross-class skills -- which was the first armoury before the revamp).
If they truly make classes specialized, then it puts the focus on roles (I want my character to be a lancer because a lancer is XYZ, then select a few complementary abilities for individuality -- wasn't it what it was supposed to be with the revamp?).

Obviously, I started tackling other classes recently and I kept telling myself "You are still low level, keep leveling, it will become clearer at later levels". My lowest class in Discipline of War is level 35 now... and I'm still like: "Well... I don't see much difference between a pugilist, a lancer, a marauder and an archer. It's get in there, spam whatever attack combo you have while not pulling hate and pop in occasional class defining abilities (oh, and the archer, just stand farther)." Each have debuff in their combo, each have healing/support, each have buff, ...

So, I just want to know what the devs are thinking when they assign abilities to classes now. Do they have any particular set of rules or they just go with "oh! that would be nice on this class, let's just do that"?

So, what is the first thing that pops up in their mind when we says "gladiator", "pugilist", "lancer", etc.?
(... and don't tell me it's their weapon!)