Concern about "Branching Classes"

[UmJammerSully]

As long as they handle the branching job paths smarter than the fans would have it, then it's fine with me.

Lancer into Samurai?

Pugilist into Thief?

Gladiator into Red Mage?

You guys are really bad at this. :I

[BiggieSmallz]

As long as they handle the branching job paths smarter than the fans would have it, then it's fine with me.

Lancer into Samurai?

Pugilist into Thief?

Gladiator into Red Mage?

You guys are really bad at this. :I

well I don't know about the Pug to Thf or Gld to Rdm. But Lancer to Samurai kind of make some since. Because some Samurai did fight with a Lance. That's why I would say samurai off of lancer. ( examples: Naginata and Yari)

[Zenaku]

well I don't know about the Pug to Thf or Gld to Rdm. But Lancer to Samurai kind of make some since. Because some Samurai did fight with a Lance. That's why I would say samurai off of lancer. ( examples: Naginata and Yari)

They already said that samurai would be link to w/e class use a katana. Not sure why people keep wanting lancer to become a samurai. If one wep = the class/job then you need a wep that make the most sense and most people know that samurai used a katana. Sure they use bows/polearms but at the end people know them by the wep katana.

[Orophin]

If one wep = the class/job then you need a wep that make the most sense and most people know that samurai used a katana. Sure they use bows/polearms but at the end people know them by the wep katana.

I think this limitation can be bypassed in the future. It's my understanding when you equip a relic weapon that it auto equips your job stone. They should be able to implement new weapon types just for jobs.

[Zenaku]

I think this limitation can be bypassed in the future. It's my understanding when you equip a relic weapon that it auto equips your job stone. They should be able to implement new weapon types just for jobs.

The problem here is that the job is noting more then specialized roles. It seem people keep forgetting that at the end you still playing the Class.

Yoshi-p said they could add a job to GLA can unlock great sword but then that would mess up good idea for new class and jobs that link to a great sword. So the idea here is to add a class to each wep and add more then 1 specialized role job onto to said wep/class

Vs having 1 DPS class unlocking Great Sword,Sword,Dagger and so on. Or lancer using Polearm DRG /katana samurai. Even tho that does sound like a good idea at the end the samurai would be using lancer WS/JA and it would not make sense for a samurai.

So the issue here is not that they can't do what you asking is that if they do then you mess out on a lot of cool class/job combos.

[Orophin]

I'm not too concerned about not having to level up a job separate from the class. For one, players coming in new are going to have a tougher time of leveling things anyway since once they level their first class, things will slow down a lot for them for the rest. Having to go through that 9 more times (even if only starting at level 30) is just unnecessary.

Between the actual job quests themselves and the other content in game (guildhests, dungeons, FATEs) I think there will be ample opportunities to learn how to play new jobs as they're added.

[Solace]

I think at heart it is still the same as it was.
We still go out and level up jobs.
It's just the abilities from those jobs apply to branched jobs.
Would seem a bit odd to relearn abilities you had already learned, just for the sake of leveling a job.
At the same time I do like taking a job from 0..

Best I can say is that I hope the system feels good in the end, regardless of how it is implemented.

[MartaDemireux]

Pretty much what Volsung said. It's a specialization.

If you get Lancer to 50 and unlock DRG, great you're a DRG with LNC abilities and no special DRG jumps and stuff. You get to use LNC, MRD and ARC abilities this time around.

If you get Lancer to 50 and unlock SAM, great you're a SAM with LNC abilities and no special SAM abilities. You get to use LNC abilities and whatever 2 classes SE chooses for the job.

You won't get DRG or SAM abilities until you do the quests and you won't get to use other class abilities outside of the 2 SE chooses because DRG/SAM restricts what you can actually use.

Just because you have a 50LNC doesn't mean you know how to play a DRG or SAM, it means you know how to play a LNC. Should you do the quest line for DRG and learn the abilities and get the gear, then you'll know how to play a DRG. Same thing for SAM.

Same goes for your concern with ACN>SCH/SMN. Having a 50ACN means you know how to play an ACN not a SMN or SCH. SMN will focus on the pet aspects while SCH will focus on the DoT/HoT aspects. Just because you have 50ACN doesn't mean you're a SCH or a SMN until you unlock that job and do the entire quest line to learn all the abilities and get all the AF.

This is SE's way of making it so grinding EXP isn't the real content but instead the real content is questing for meaningful rewards (abilities) and story (FF staple). Leveling the class is training you in the class abilities, since the jobs are just specializations of the class it doesn't require a full 1-50 training but just some questing wherein you learn new abilities and then put them to use.

Edit: Not saying SAM will come from LNC. Don't believe it will personally but I needed a job example :P

Edit 2: A good way to think of this is the system in a game that just went f2p (cant name it for fear of breaking rules but its title involves tearing or ripping a hole in the space-time continuum). It has 4 base classes. Each class has access to the abilities of 8 unique jobs. However you can only use 3 jobs at a time, but can re-spec with any of the 8 jobs at any time and save specs as roles to swap to between fights as needed. But you only level your base class. This system makes it so you can be a DD, tank and healer on the same class, just depends which jobs you choose for your spec. You can level your Rogue as a DD, then switch to a support/healing class for raids if theres enough DD. You still have to practice that role and learn the abilities though.

So if you've played that game, you'll have no problem understanding it in this game in practice. It also just went f2p so if you didn't get into beta I suggest trying it out to understand this system. The game is nowhere near as good as FFXIV (in fact it actually made me want to play FFXIV more!) but it's a good way to get an understanding. (to mods: if this part of the post breaks the forum rules about talking about other games I do apologize, just trying to help fellow gamers understand this system better, please just delete this part as the above is helpful to others if you need to ><)

And sorry for the wall of text

tl;dr: jobs are roles/specializations, classes are the building blocks. just because you have the class doesn't mean you have the role or are learned in it. if you have 2 roles for your class, you can switch between them based on what the party needs.

[Akujin]

Well this does bring about a thought I had, purely for the sake of speculation and idea tossing around.

What Classes could branch into what Jobs.

[Miliant]

Well this does bring about a thought I had, purely for the sake of speculation and idea tossing around.

What Classes could branch into what Jobs.

Red Mage could probably come from Gladiator, if it could get abilities from both WHM and BLM.
Berserker could stem from both Marauder or Pugilist, as they are known to use both axes and fists. I would probably put berserker on Pug so that we can get some kind of Dark Knight or Greatsword job from Marauder.
Ranger could come from Archer.

In the future, a Scout job could branch into Assassin and Thief, and something like a Parivir class could branch into Samurai and Ninja.