How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Armoury System

[Laevetine]

I really enjoy the armoury system, it has some the greatest potential I've seen. It shined brightest in the earlier 1.0 days before they revamped the skills. PGL with CON THM GLA skill was pretty much unstoppable solo. Most people where not even thinking of using these skills in this way.

When they revamped the skills is when we started seeing a cookie cutter layout and the people saying you can not participate unless you have X skill. Even then there were alternatives, but most were not willing to try.

To agree and paraphrase Anonymoose there are often more than one way to do something. like FFXI in it's heyday i would take the Pepsi challenge with any tank Vs my RDM tank.

I really believe (hope) 2.0 will bring a lot of new skills that will make the difference between the classes and jobs more fun and apparent.

[Orophin]

I'm not going to get into a big discussion over this since I've voiced my opinion in other threads.

I don't mind the Armory system at its core, but I personally don't feel the need to play a class once I've maxed one out because I feel a job can do just as well or better, even when restricted in how many cross class abilities it can take.

I don't know what ARR's take on classes vs jobs will be, but I'll continue to use jobs in solo content if I feel they play better.

When they revamped the skills is when we started seeing a cookie cutter layout and the people saying you can not participate unless you have X skill. Even then there were alternatives, but most were not willing to try.

It was the same before the big class overhauls. As a tank you were expected to have Emulate, a level 50 THM ability. Why the hell would I need to level an offensive caster all the way to 50 to be an effective tank?

[Kinseykinz]

I'm not going to get into a big discussion over this since I've voiced my opinion in other threads.

I don't mind the Armory system at its core, but I personally don't feel the need to play a class once I've maxed one out because I feel a job can do just as well or better, even when restricted in how many cross class abilities it can take.

And I almost always preferred soloing on my classes...different stokes for different folks. There is nothing wrong with this system. You prefer your jobs, and are successful that way, great. But classes have, and always had their purpose too.

[Aldora]

I'm just going to bookmark this and link it every time I see someone say:

• Shouldn't we just get rid of classes and only have jobs?
• The class system in this game is too complicated.
• I'd like to join ARR, but this system turns me off.
• What's the freaking difference, anyway?
• I'm shortsighted and in need of guidance, Master Moose.

Okay, so maybe that last one is pretty rare, but I'm sick of seeing the rest.

In short, no we shouldn't, it's complicated but not overly so, the difference is enough that you should care, and I'd be delighted, so gather round the campfire, and listen to the tale of how I learned to stop worrying and love the Armoury System.

Take a deep breath, pretend you've never heard of how your roles are organized in FFXIV, and move ahead with an open, but analytical mind. As a fellow MMO player, I realize that this may be a challenge for you. Perhaps start with a cup of Celestial Seasonings and a beta blocker. Of course I'll update this if you come up with something better.

What's the difference, and why should I care?
Generally:

• Classes: Ability-based; loose, custom-built roles for general, low-intensity activities
  • What you use to get EXP, farm items, etc.
    
• Jobs: Activity-based; restrictive, cookie-cutter roles for specific, demanding activities
  • What you activate as needed (NO SEPARATE EXP GRIND)
    

What does this mean for you? On classes, you will have access to most of the abilities you've unlocked on every class. This means your EXP party doesn't have to conform to too-specific of a set-up just to blow through trash mobs, leves, and sidequests. It means that, while you're solo, you won't have to be subject to all of your job's biggest weaknesses for the benefit of having access to party-saving heavy-hitters you won't be using anyway. And unless you're soloing around an area that's your own level or higher, it won't make much difference anyway. Have fun.

If you've ever played FFXI, you know the pain of having to wait around for hours to get the "acceptable" cookie-cutter set-up to come together just to grind out some mass calibri genocide. You know the annoyance of trying to farm on white mage just because you don't want to go back to your mog house and rearrange all your inventory to make use of something you don't play very often. You know the liability of bringing your job's biggest weaknesses down to Kuftal Tunnel to grind out yet another thousand crabs in a row. Kiss those days goodbye.

But what about when you don't need a healer class to be able to deal a little damage or take a punch like a man for once in their father-disappointing lives!? What about when the tank is getting hit hard enough to bleed all that hate right to the floor? It's time to break those cookie cutters back out and dominate using your specialized jobs, which is what you'll be doing in most group-events anyway.

Potentially, this means double the storyline, double the content, more immersion, and a metric behemoth-load of customization (more in the later levels). Every mage is a red mage when you're using classes. Learn to enjoy your options. It's not like it's hard to manage once you know what you're doing - so what "simplicity" do you have to gain by limiting your behavior so harshly in exchange?

How do I plan my development if it's so complicated?

I can see you've yet to play the game, and I'm glad you're going to give it a shot. You will be, too. You don't need to plan much of anything. The game's not going to make you branch out into a tree and choose one ability over another - your only limits are your time and motivation. Max out that class/job you really love, and then head back to tackle just enough levels on other classes to achieve what singular abilities you want to add to your repertoire. Hell, get them all. EXP is meant to come faster in this game - sinking time into just the grind it takes to be able to play while SE prints and distributes new content disks to your local Electronics Boutique is so old school that it owes Rhalgr a dollar. There's going to be plenty to do once you're maxed out.

The only think i can say to that is "Thank you! /bow m-(_ _ )-m *click* +1 Like "

[Molic]

Right now i think the armory system is kinda bland, but i can see great potential young ones. Imagine all the ability options we will get when we have like 15-20 DoW/DoM jobs, right now we got like 7-8 not much there, but as more comes out the better it will get.

And secondly, i kinda imagine classes as tier 1 jobs, Jobs as tier 2 jobs >..>, and we might get like a 3rd and 4th tier where you have to complete XX MNK and XX WAR quests then you can unlock like berserker or something that could specialize in alliance/large scale content.

Idk they could actually do a lot with the armory system in the future, just depends on how think and where they wanna take it i guess.

[Laevetine]

It was the same before the big class overhauls. As a tank you were expected to have Emulate, a level 50 THM ability. Why the hell would I need to level an offensive caster all the way to 50 to be an effective tank?

My apologies i did not mean to state it was not that way before hand just that it was more prevalent after. Like i said there were alternatives just few willing to try. I still remember constantly getting rejected on my PGL to do one of the dungeons necessary to continue the story. So i formed my own group and after a couple of tries we were successful. There is a large tendency to latch onto one method and not let go.

Like before the tools they give us in ARR will only go as far as we the community are willing to take them.

[Biggs]

I like the thread as well but mainly the plus one I gave you was for ripping your title off of one of the best Local H songs ever. Just saw them here in Denver 2 weeks ago. You rock. Sorry to derail your thread.

[Yrusama]

You are a magnificent writer, Mr. Moose. I enjoyed every word, and not just because I agree. From an MMO aspect you've outlined everything that makes the system cool. I'd like to add my toughts on the FF aspect.

Class Upgrades = FF
Mid-game class upgrades have been a main staple since the original Final Fantasy - from Bahamut endowing those first players with stronger classes, to the Crystals granting us the ability to change classes, to earning new classes through story-driven quests. Upgrades are such a common feature of the job system it's practically mandatory.

But if you don't take that, here's a breakdown:
FF1: Mid-game class upgrades.
FF3: Class changing
FF5: Interchangeable abilities
FFTactics: All of the above + multi-class level requirements to unlock advanced classes
FF11: Most of the above + story-driven unlock quests for classes
FF14: All of the above.

[Myranda]

I like the thread as well but mainly the plus one I gave you was for ripping your title off of one of the best Local H songs ever. Just saw them here in Denver 2 weeks ago. You rock. Sorry to derail your thread.

If I had to guess, he's not referencing Local H.... he's probably referencing the 1964 movie Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (and hence the image and finishing line in my previous post in the thread, also referencing the movie). Local H's song would just be ripping off of that title themselves, given that they come 30 years later in time.

[Anonymoose]

the plus one I gave you was for ripping your title off of one of the best Local H songs ever.

If I had to guess, he's not referencing Local H.... he's probably referencing the 1964 movie Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

I share an equal appreciation for Seattle-influenced '90s grunge, satire movies, and titles that refer to something commonly seen as the end of the world that, in actuality, has so large an impact on it that it won't be allowed to be, presuming the people in control have any say in the matter.

So, I guess, can it be all of the above?