jobs... are they compulsory, otherwise will you be weaker?Follow

Then you need to take off your Troll Glasses, put on some reading glasses, and look again.

Pre-40 Paladin doesn't really have anything to offer over Gladiator. And in fact it's *easier* as a tank to go as Gladiator for anything below 40 simply due to the sheer number of cooldowns you can cycle between in the lower dungeons to smooth out your damage intake.

You get a small boost in health at those levels, minor threat increase through STR, but nothing of value. It's not until you get Shield Oath that really makes it worth equipping. You're structurally weaker for 30-39 as a Paladin simply due to losing out on PUG and LNC cooldowns to help survivability (and if you're going to be a tank you're going all the way or go home).

This is why sometimes its better to use class instead of Job. You lose a lot of abilities when you switch to a job. And to be honest, only having one person able to raise in these dungeons is horrid. Even more so horrid is not having swiftcast so you can insta raise anyone who goes down. I do this all the time on my SMN only to see people not take it or release. The times when people do take it, instead of having to wipe we recover and win.

From what I saw, leveling would be easier with CNJ and the defensive cross-class abilities that are useful solo, but the WHM abilities are going to be better for lvl 50 parties. Divine Seal (30% healing boost), Benediction (100% HP heal), seem like must haves for End-Game.

One thing I found was that putting your cross-class abilites in order of level (right to left) is helpful for when you are level synched.

Your available cross-class slots are decreased when you level synch. If you have high level abilities in the first couple slots, when you synch down to 10 or 20 you will not have access to any of them!

Raise is good for the 3rd slot, so you will have it when synched to lvl 15 or higher. (*I think that's right.)

I can tell you where having raise is better for the tank. You go down, the healer is next on the list. If the healer manages to get you up(Swiftcast+raise), then goes down, you can now get the healer back up while the DD kite.

Pretty sure a Bard cannot equip raise.

There should be more differences between jobs and classes, enough to the point where there are MAJOR arguments on the forums and such regarding whether it's better to role MRD or WAR in certain situations. It would make for a more interesting party selection being able to have a mix of jobs and classes. I'm afraid Killua is right, classes will become obsolete at high levels.

I'll surely shed a tear when I have to quit being a MAURADER, and take what I view as a step down to a generic old as the hills ff-wise plain ol warrior.
I actually LIKED the fact that 14 deviated from it's "classic" roles (jobs) at first. The idea of being an axe wielding pirate was kind of refreshing. It's hard to explain.

I just hope rolling as a Class instead of job at 50 isn't just going to be straight gimping yourself. If it is, why even have the option to remove the job crystal? Just get rid of classes, or give them something special that jobs can't do. Maybe class exclusive equipment? Don't just make classes feel like baggage from 1.0

Edited, Sep 3rd 2013 9:56pm by klooste8

That 20% damage nerf and loss of abilities like bloodbath really makes BRD so much better for solo play than archer, doesn't it? /endsarcasm

I have been on these forums on and off for over 10 years - since launch of FFXI (under a couple of different login ID's) and this is the most ludicrous comment I have ever read on the ZAM forums. I pray (and I'm an atheist) we never group together on duty finder, as this is absolute nonsense.

Firstly, Classes outskill jobs for solo'ing at every level up to 50. I know this to be true as a legacy player with every job at 50 and there is not a single one for which the job is better than the class when solo'ing.

When grouping, I agree that post level 35, you will never play your class (without your job) but even then it is marginal. Until level 50, the lack of additional skills may make it unclear which is advantageous. At 50, admittedly, the full extent of job skills will make it far more beneficial to play job than class.

Usually Killua is just a troll. On this, he is grossly incompetent and spreading absolute lies for anyone soloing or grouping pre level 40.

Edit: I might revise my comment re. up to level 50 for "all jobs". Paladin is a pretty handy solo job given self healing capabilities. The essence of my post is the same however.

Edited, Sep 4th 2013 8:44am by HallieXIV

I would solo WHM over CNJ for Holy.

The cross classes you lose are not incredibly useful at any rate, Featherfoot, Foresight, Keen Flurry, Aweareness, Thunder I.

Holy + Divine Seal + Benediction kick those cross-class abilities in the nuts.

Edited, Sep 4th 2013 9:24am by Gnu