http://www.reddit.com/r/...b_interaction_explained/by reddit user: Wark_Kweh Remember to upvote if you are a reddit user and give gold if you feel so inclined.
(DoL Mod: I added some paragraphs to shorten some of the longer ones lol; also I personally do not have issues with tl;dr type content. Very helpful for those unaware or new to the game)
Great Wall of Text below. Abandon hope all ye who blablabla
I am making this post to provide some clarification on a subject that seems to be confusing to a number of people. Specifically, how the class/job system works and why. I don't really want to get into the armory system, but I may touch on it once or twice. Rather than trying to tabulate the confusion and concern and then clarify each of those independently, I will go over how and why the class/job system works the way it does and address those issues as they come up.
For most examples I will use the relationship between Pugilist and Monk as it is a currently available frame of reference. I will also use Arcanist/Summoner/Scholar as examples of how you can expect the system to work in the future. I am not making this post to convince people that they should or should not LIKE the system. I will address concerns only where system itself inherently addresses them. Lets get started.
The class/job system in FFXIV:ARR is in place to provide a fairly simple service to the players. That is, to provide a plethora of options for playing your character. This is implemented by way of the Armory System, in which the tool you have equipped determines your class. This enables you to play every class on a single character. This is fairly well understood and I don’t think it requires any further explanation.
To begin illustrating HOW the class/job system works we will assume that I am playing the game as a Pugilist. I gain levels through quests and combat among other things, and as my level rises I gain access to more Pugilist abilities. Now, as a CLASS I also gain a cross-class slot every 5 levels. This means that by level 20, my Pugilist can equip 4 cross-class abilities.
Cross-class abilities are abilities that can be slotted by classes other than the class that learns them. So by way of the Armory System, let us also assume that I leveled Conjuror and Lancer both to 15. My level 20 Pugilist can slot 4 cross-class abilities from those to classes to compliment the Pugilist’s own abilities. Lets say I slot Protect and Keen Flurry. This means that Pugilist can use the Conjuror ability ‘Protect’ and the Lancer ability ‘Keen Flurry’. I have 2 empty cross-class slots that I can fill with cross-class abilities from any other class I have leveled.
I can even slot more abilities from the same class, like Conjuror’s ‘Cure’. You can extrapolate this system all the way to level 50. At level 50 my Pugilist has 10 cross-class slots that can be filled with any cross-class abilities available from any other classes I have leveled.
Before we move on with the HOW, lets address some WHYs. The reason the system works like this is twofold. Firstly, it encourages a player to play multiple classes to gain access to as many cross-class abilities as possible, which increases play time. The other reason is that this system boosts the versatility of classes, making solo play less punishing.
Through cross-class abilities all classes have access to healing, damage-dealing, sustaining, and defensive abilities. If a player wanted to run some minor content solo (dungeons and such REQUIRE a party) then this system facilitates that by giving the player access to the full gamut of necessary skills.
Lets move on with the HOW. Eventually, I would gain enough levels as Pugilist to be granted access to the job quests for Monk. This happens at level 30. HOWEVER, before these quests can be undertaken a sub-class must be leveled to 15.
To clarify; in order to qualify for a series of job quests you must have the PRIMARY CLASS to LEVEL 30, and a specific SUB-CLASS to LEVEL 15.
In the case of Monk, this means my Pugilist must be at least level 30 and my Lancer must be at least level 15. Assuming I meat those criteria, I can take and complete the quest to unlock the Monk job. Upon completion, one of my rewards is an item. I’ll call the job souls because I can’t recall the technical name (somebody please help me with that).
This particular job-soul, the Soul of the Monk, is only equipable by my Pugilist. Once equipped, the item confers various stat boosts and a separate pool of attribute points to allocate. Another effect of equipping a job-soul is a change in the number and type of cross-class slots. While a job is equipped you are only granted one cross-class slot every TEN levels, effectively reducing the number of available slots by half.
Furthermore, you can only slot abilities from two specific sub-classes. In the case of Monk in ARR these subclasses are Lancer and Gladiator. This means that I can continue to slot ‘Keen Flurry’, but my access to ‘Cure’ and ‘Protect’ is denied. To compensate for the reduced number of abilities, job quests award five job specific abilities unique to that job. On top of all this, you would notice that all descriptions of my class have shifted from “Level 30 Pugilist” to “Level 30 Monk”. This is an illusion we will talk about later.
This was a bunch of information, so let us take another break from the HOW and consider the WHY. There are a few reasons for the implementation of jobs in ARR. One of the reasons has nothing to do with game mechanics, and that is simply that iconic Final Fantasy jobs are familiar to and desired by fans. Another reason is that jobs provide better party play.
Without jobs, party play would feel like a potluck mishmash of same-y characters. Everybody would have access to cure and raise and second wind and invigorate, and party roles would blur into nothingness. With jobs, every person in the party has a role to play, and their class is designed and buffed to excel at that role, at the sacrifice of versatility. One of the concerns I see pretty frequently is that there is not enough diversity between people of the same class, or even between the class and that class’s job.
I think these concerns come out of a misunderstanding of the class/job system. Players of the same job all feel the same and all jobs feel extremely similar to the base class for a reason; because the list of available jobs is not yet complete. Lets go back to the HOW to illustrate what I mean.
Our current list of classes has been carried over from 1.0. Jobs were implemented in the restructuring of 1.0 to showcase where the new development team was headed and to facilitate more party-centric gameplay. Now that we are on the verge of ARR, that system feels incomplete. Because it is. As will be demonstrated at launch, a new class that is the base for TWO jobs will be released.
The class is Arcanist, and the two jobs are Summoner and Scholar. Because I believe these elements have been fairly adequately explained by the developers, I can tell you how I think the class/job system will work in the future. Arcanist will gain access to it’s jobs in the same fashion we talked about earlier, though there will likely be a separate quest line for each job and different sub-class requirements.
To give a bit of reference, Arcanist has been announced as a pet based class, the focus of which is damage over time and debuffs. This puts the Arcanist in line to fill the role of Offensive Support. The class will likely lay down DoTs and Debuffs to bolster the overall damage to the target as well as reduce the effectiveness of the target through debuffs.
Should the Arcanist equip the Summoner job, it is likely that the number and effectiveness of its DoTs will increase, making its role more DPS than Support. The developers have said the Scholar job will grant Heal over Time abilities to the Arcanist, likely pushing the role of the class to Heal/Support rather than offensive/support.
If you take this same job system and apply it to the rest of the list of classes, then you can assume that in the future each class will get a second job (indeed this has been confirmed by the devs). This means that each class will have a slightly different role available to it, derived from its base mechanics. As the number of jobs increases, so does the amount of diversity in the player community.
Pugilist will get a second job that operates slightly differently than Monk, likely even changing the function of some base abilities (like the Elemental Fist stances). Additional classes will be added to the Armory System to accommodate other unaccounted for weapon styles and jobs.
Now another concern that often pops up, comes from people who are already familiar with all the above, but misunderstand that nature and purpose of the class/job system. More to the point, a number of people claim to be upset at the prospect of being unable to experience the leveling up process of a job when the sister job has already reached max level.
For example, if you were to level Arcanist to 30 and get the appropriate sub-job to unlock Scholar, then continue to level Scholar to 50, your Summoner would also be level 50 despite having never equipped the job-soul. While I can understand the reason most people find this upsetting, I think that they miss the point of the system.
JOBS DO NOT GAIN LEVELS!This is imperative in understanding the function of the system. If we go back to our HOW then WHY format, then this is the HOW; Classes are the only player entities that gain levels. When you equip a job-soul the only thing you are doing is equipping a piece of gear that imparts three things; Bonus Stats, Unique Job Abilities, and Cross-Class Restrictions.
To signify to yourself and other players that you have this gear equipped, your designation changes from class name to job name. You shift from a level 50 Pugilist to a level 50 Monk. The level does not change because jobs are independent to level and the level is irrelevant to the job. Even the Unique Job Abilities are independent of level. The reason they have a level attached to them is because you must be a specific level to accept the quest that awards them. I will repeat; JOBS DO NOT GAIN LEVELS.
And now I will explain WHY. Jobs are designed to be specializations. It is confusing because currently, each class only has one specialization. It is like having a tech-tree that goes straight up. When Arcanist and its corresponding jobs are released we will be able to see how the system is meant to work.
Whether it works well or not is yet to be determined. But that is the design. You always play as a class and gain levels as a class. Most of the time however, you will do so while having a particular specialization equipped, and it is simpler to call yourself a Monk than a Pugilist/Monk. This is where more diversity comes from. Two players can play as Arcanist but be diverse because one specializes in DoTs with Summoner, and the other specializes in HoTs with Scholar. This will eventually happen with all classes.
Jobs serve as Final Fantasy flavored tech-trees (that you can freely switch between). Later, when the level cap is bumped up, the differences between sister-jobs will increase as they gain more job abilities and cross-class slots.
This is HOW the class/job system works, and WHY it works that way. Try not to get hung up on the feeling that the system is incomplete. Because it is. The point is that the missing parts are on their way. When they arrive, you can determine for yourself whether the implementation was successful.
THIS ENDS MY EXPLANATIONIn my opinion, the class/job system has the potential to be very successful. There are a few things that need to happen for that to be the case, but those things seem like no brainers so I have high hopes. As an example, I think certain class abilities that bleed into a job, like the Elemental Fists the pugilist has, need to undergo a function shift when a different Pugilist job is released.
It would seem silly to have fists of earth and wind without fists of fire (a Monk exclusive). So if those abilities change to different abilities on a different job I think that would go a long way to making this system successful. As an example if Pugilist gained the Dancer job, then those elemental fist abilities could change to dances while you have the dancer job equipped. The same would work for Arcanist, and this would be when we could determine if they are going this route.
While you are Arcanist, you have a Summon Ruby Carbuncle and a Summon Diamond Carbuncle ability. Since you can’t summon Carby while playing as either Summoner or Scholar, those skills would be rendered useless. Unless having a job equipped alters the function of those skills. As an example Summon Ruby Carby might change to Summon Fairy when you equip the Scholar job. I look forward to playing Arcanist and Scholar to see how they handle this little issue.
Anyway, thank you for taking the time to read this. I hope you found it informative.
tl;dr: Yes you did. Don’t lie.
Edit: funny comma
Edited by user Friday, July 12, 2013 6:19:57 PM(UTC)
| Reason: Not specified