I Want To See MMOs With A In Battle Class Change Systems

One of the things that I notice about MMOs nowadays is that class change has become largely irrelevant to most people. Whenever you want to play as a new class, you have to roll a new character and start over from scratch. There are a few games that lets you play one character that can switch between multiple classes in game and some games that lets you have subclasses and such so you can compile compatible skills from several classes into one class. However, this is still just one character class and you cannot switch unless you visit a specific NPC outside of battle. I want to see one where you can just change character classes in the middle of battle if necessary. I just think that this system could introduce a lot more strategy to MMOs.

Where are the games where you can have an actual class change system in battle? Many games with class changes just focus on specialization of an existing class. For example, a Warrior might become a Knight class that focuses on one handed sword and shield or perhaps a Berserker class of some sort that wields a two handed sword instead. Few games allow you to have both, but no games allow you to switch between them in battle. One of the things that would allow you to do this is with a method to easily switch between weapons in battle and tying your weapon to your class. Sometimes a boss might change their strategy in the middle of a battle, and players should be able to adapt to this change if necessary. Perhaps a physical heavy boss suddenly starts infusing magic into their attacks and causes both physical and magical damage. Your Knight might need to convert to a Paladin who has slightly lower HP, but more magic defense to adapt.

World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy XI had the idea that they could tie skills to weapon levels and that by using that weapon, you would eventually learn skills. Final Fantasy XIV had the idea that compatible skills between weapons would be carried over to each of your other classes (though limited). Rift has a system that combines several skill sets together to form your class. Valiant, as crappy as a game that is, bothered to attempt the .hack//G.U. Adept Rogue class into practice with a multiple weapon system. By combining these together you have the basis for a potential class change system in battle.

In my opinion, this would make the game much more interesting though it would be complex. A player can choose to learn up to 4 weapon styles, each one with different skills. A character would get a set amount of "points" to spend on weapon styles that they want to learn. Styles that are considered to be very strong would cost more points for balance reasons. However, some would need to be locked to prevent certain combinations of classes for balance reasons. If you learn say the tank class listed above, you might be locked out of the two handed weapon class, but be allowed to learn a one handed weapon style without the shield or wielding a one handed weapon with two hands instead or even just dual wielding weapons.

In the game, there would be a hot key to switch between each of the weapon styles and you can customize a set of hot keys for each weapon style. When you switch weapons, your hot keys change to whatever you set for that specific weapon style. As you become stronger and more skilled with your weapon, some of the lower end skills might carry over between weapons if they are compatible (but you would never wield a two handed weapon in a one handed style).