Lack of character "skills" customization...?

[RileySantara]

I agree. One of the greatest parts about successful games like Ragnarok Online is that your stat/skill build was unique, and every job had about 2-3 different ways to be built. For example Assassin could be critical-type, or double dagger... and each of these different builds for this one job focused on different skill paths.

I love you for mentioning my favorite mmo

[Fire-Dragon-DoL]

Because in a FF game a Summoner is a Summoner through and through - Throughout the series they either had access to White Magic or Black Magic but the main thing they always had in common is that they summon pets. As much as certain people hate to hear this, like Kiria, but having iconic jobs like this completely customizable throws out the whole purpose of them making this a FF game, they should drop the Final Fantasy title.

For example a summoner that focuses on their pet while another that focuses on debuffing more doesn't fully make sense - It should be more Summoner A focuses on using x summon(s) while Summoner B focuses more on y summon(s). The problem is unlike XI they went with a limit choice in skills since even though you "outgrew" skills in XI you had many more options. You simply will want to wait for more jobs to release that specializes in X.

I would LOVE to see a summoner specialized in usage of different summons but actually there isn't anything like this, that would be ok (and doesn't differ at all from speccing, I don't specify you MUST do in a specific way, I'm ok with this idea).
While I like your statement really much (I love the fact that classes have a huge background because it's an FF game), I feel being trolled: I've chosen summoner because I imagined it integrates a lot with background thanks to how summons behave, the truth is that my pet is just another debuff so my "summoner", become easily a terrible WARLOCK from another well known game (and I really hate warlock).

Not to mention the fact that you have more or less 0 interaction with your summon... The scholar has much more interaction with his own pet (yea, the fairie!) than the summoner.
Why there isn't something like 10 spells on my summon (obviously reduce summoner spells amount) and something like GAMBITS to manage your summon?

In final fantasy, summons were huge (now they are really small) beasts which when summoned, had a long animation, and usually destroy everything.
In final fantasy x, yuna was useful with her healing spells, but when she summon something, you see that she's one of the greatest character in the game.

Here, I'm a beastmaster, not a summoner. Well, beastmaster loves more their pet, my pet is just a debuff.

[eikomakimachi]

A bit off-topic, but by checking your character's current status I would recommend you to invest some more time on Thaumaturge to get Swiftcast on lv. 26, it's one of those cross-class skills that you can use as Arcanist/Scholar/Summoner/Conjurer/White Mage and it really helps a lot when you want to summon or cast raise quicker (I use a macro that combine those two). I play as Scholar and Swiftcast and Protect were two cross-class skills that I've found very useful, aside from Cure, which you don't need if you are an Arcanist/Scholar/Summoner because you have Physics.

[Fire-Dragon-DoL]

I have played a lot of MMO's that gave you a "choice" in how you spec'ed your character. Truth of the matter is, they are never balanced. One may be close to another, but through number crunching there is always a superior build. Casual players will build however they like, but people at end game will find that perfect build and everyone in their group will have the exact same build. Choice becomes an illusion because the more options you give, the more impossible balance becomes and the less likely all that choice is going to matter.

I'm not saying that those differences aren't fun. Nor am I saying that when they are there you HAVE to play like everyone else. I'm just stating that those choices simply get ignored by a very large percent of the population and that makes the time spent on them by developers far less rewarding than the time spent on content or the world.

I've played a lot of MMOs and if you want to just be the first one on the damage meter, you'll go for the best spec available, you can also be very useful and maybe the second on the damage meter with a less powerful build (but maybe helps more your party mates), so I don't agree with you.
Anyway, we spend much more time in "mid-game" than in end-game (after garuda HM), so using various spec can solve the boredom caused by running repeatedly AK.

I don't know what you think about but I've played all final fantasy games where "level up" means actually watching a spherograph, re-ordering materias, re-ordering magic. Well, you know that: STRATEGY was an important skill for your character because I was playing an RPG.

That was fun and nice. Still, I miss it a lot.

[Algin]

Yes, I approve of OP post. there is no difference between "Holy" or "Discipline" for priest healer... there is no difference between DPS, Tanks, whatever. Crossskills choice is useless, because everyone's using the same. Hell, even people wear the same gear. It's like FF: Attack of the clones. It will be even worse in PvP, because you will know, that this warrior has exact gear with exact skill set, and it's like paper-rock-scissor games. Where is the choice of SW ToR, or of Rift... why I can't play DPS paladin, why I have to wear the same gear.

And yes, there is no difference if you take that +1 from MND and put it in VIT or INT. Any theorycrafting or trying to make yourself better is worthless.

Those are the reasons, that I share with OP, and why I just cancelled subscription.

[Juz]

I have played a lot of MMO's that gave you a "choice" in how you spec'ed your character They are never balanced

In Guild Wars 2 you could play a long ranged condition controlling necromancer (IE removing buffs/spreading dots on enemy team) or another option is a mid range burst necro. Depending on the patch changed which one was better but the fact is both were playable because they were different. Some other examples - Dark Age of Camelot - Do you wanna be the CC guy? The debuffer or the DD? Do you want extra survival or extra burst etc?

Contrary to popular belief World of Warcraft didn't set the standard to all things. In most other high quality MMOs, character builds have a lot of options that are all viable in their own way and it comes down to whether you are playing an RPG or just an action game with an RPG UI. I like the game, but lets be real here.... it would be amazing if they added more class customization in a later patch or expansion.

[Juz]

Yes, I approve of OP post. there is no difference between "Holy" or "Discipline" for priest healer... there is no difference between DPS, Tanks, whatever. Crossskills choice is useless, because everyone's using the same. Hell, even people wear the same gear. It's like FF: Attack of the clones. It will be even worse in PvP, because you will know, that this warrior has exact gear with exact skill set, and it's like paper-rock-scissor games. Where is the choice of SW ToR, or of Rift... why I can't play DPS paladin, why I have to wear the same gear.

And yes, there is no difference if you take that +1 from MND and put it in VIT or INT. Any theorycrafting or trying to make yourself better is worthless.

Those are the reasons, that I share with OP, and why I just cancelled subscription.

Try play something that isn't WoW or one of it's clones. Not all MMOs are like that.

[Vmage]

Dark Age of Camelot - Do you wanna be the CC guy? The debuffer or the DD? Do you want extra survival or extra burst etc?

Contrary to popular belief World of Warcraft didn't set the standard to all things. In most other high quality MMOs, character builds have a lot of options that are all viable in their own way

contrary to popular belief - the illusion of choice and the fact that there were superior builds didn't originate in WoW, it originated with number crunching geeks decades ago with pen and paper RPGs

your example of DAoC - there was one correct way to spec each class, sure you had options, and that's not to say you couldn't function at level cap with one of the builds deemed sub-optimal

but the healer that went full pacification wasn't as useful as the one that speced up to the first spread heal, and then dumped the rest into pac

[SockPoo]

This game's just different. Not every game needs a lot of customization; though I do think that the cross class skills need to be panned out more. However I'm fine with it right now since if I wanted a game with character customization, most other MMOs already provide that for me. If they do decide to add something like character customization I hope to god that it isn't expensive to reset. Always hated the games where it would be either ridiculously expensive or downright impossible to respec. This made it hard to test out builds, so you would spend hours not playing the game to research an optimal build to play the game with; add several more hours if the skills trees are complicated.

[Daragust]

Contrary to popular belief World of Warcraft didn't set the standard to all things. In most other high quality MMOs, character builds have a lot of options that are all viable in their own way...

The biggest issue I see with opening up the cross class skills is just that, they are cross class. The jobs have very specific dedicated purposes, and giving away more pieces of them homogenizes the whole. IE: Why should I play a BLM when a BRD does better damage and now I can cross class and get sleep or an aoe or... As much as specs should be about making you more unique, quite often they just make you more similar.

To hit on something from other threads, I'd rather see them put multiple armor sets and weapons in game that drive play style. Give me two armor sets for my SCH. One that increases the strength of my shields while the other increases my base healing rate.

Gear can be just as useful as specs and can often be easier to keep balanced.