Skill tree. Could it branch out?

[Duelle]

The last thing I want to see are shouts for Black Mages with a specific build that isolate half the the servers Black Mages by "elitists".

This is easily fixed by making difference in damage between black mages minimal regardless of spell line chosen.

The reason it didn't work the last time this was tried was because damage potential of spells scaled depending on the level you acquired them. This is why it was better for a BLM to merit Lightning Potency and get Burst II or Ice Potency with Freeze II. Everything else was a waste, and the players knew it.

Of course, if you want to make all builds mechanically different and be on par in performance (especially for non-mage classes and jobs), then you have potential headaches.