The studio firmly believes that the best route moving forward is to implement third-jobs and follow an update plan similar to the Renewal servers.
The timeline for this would be late October and into November.
I'm quitting, effective immediately. Put 3rd classes, don't put 3rd classes, I don't care either way.
The mere fact that "the studio" can look at this server and withdraw as conclusion that 3rd jobs is a correct movement, has put me on an eternal insecurity state from now on.
Even if the community wins this fight (which it won't, because it never does), I don't know how long until the next destructive surprise shows up, and slowly contaminates the scenery.
If you want a more reasoned and argued response, in spite of just saying:
Then i'll just leave at:
1. The leveling is bad without turn-in.
2. The leveling is bad without old-fashioned Magic Strings.
3. The leveling is bad for solo-players because we don't have "classical cash items" such as Rideword Hat.
4. PvP is bad because of huge fix cast times. If you try to solve this uncautiously, you give the players too much damage.
5. Some classes won't barely change unless their gear coherence changes drastically. If you try to solve this uncautiously, you give the players too much damage. i.e.
There is effectively zero difference between a Minstrel, a Maestro, and a Bard. This is completely false, however, for a Mechanic.
6. Self-Destruction is BROKEN.
We can argue on SD, because there are many factors: Respawn management, hiding, safety wall, stopping the mechanic in an easier way because of SD's AoE. And even if I point that out as devil's advocate, it's still a really, really unpopular opinion.
7. Stasis is broken. Period. PERIOD.
Even if you are on the top 1% of the game's playerskill and you KNOW how to deal with Stasis, it simply does not make the game better. It's like a serial killer lurking in your front-yard. If you are extremely successful in avoiding it, it still means that you go through an entire safety-net process that is dull, boring, makes you more vulnerable to other ailments, when it should simply not exist at all.
8. There are gaps of balance that would require entire episodes to fix them. Notoriously, the fact that Vellum Bible is extremely important to an Arch Bishop answer the threats of a Shadow Chaser before his/her guild, yet Shadow Chaser on day 1 is one of the strongest classes.
9. None of the 1.0 Castle sizes support the dimensions that a 3rd class skirmish gets. Only some floors. Try striking a defense as 3rd classes on Brit4 and see what happens.
10. Hallucination Drug is cancer.
... to name a few.