okie ima reply to everything everyone just said.

as for merits that is a great idea, y because all it does is make you stronger and better at your job, and it will distingush the true players from the wonna be's. now as for raising the lv cap. that not a wise idea, why? you say. well for 1 reason certain special abilities chouldnt be gottne by certain job. it would make them to strong, even if you put restrictions on the abilities, i would elevate certain jobs. *cough* rdm. and anyways who wouldnt want there job to be stronger. SE is giving you something, why get pissed. i bet you would still be playing even if SE did give you a damn thing and left it the way is was.
as for the ne abilities thats a great idea, you know i'm sick of noobs who dont truly understand there or a job fully and try's to comment on it. utsi: san. i hope nin's get it with 5 shadows. why you say, well lets see, who here *****'s when there chaining 5 constantly when they got a nin tanking? GOD DAMNIT the nins making this easy for us. ***** it Se should gimp then ><. -_- come on lets be real, sure the nin's could solo nm's easier but what real nin cant?
if you got enough merits with your nin to get Utsi: San. then you should for damn sho be good enough to solo a simple nm. hnm's and god's are still up for grabs. now i can understand if a pld's ******** about this, if there noobs. for 1 san will be merits so stopping you from getting to lv 75 shouldn't be an issue and lets think about this. could a nin really tank a god or hnm. hello no you job is still and forever will be secure when it come's to that, for you are gods of hate so stop ******** like noobs and learn your job better.
now for you true FF gamers how would like to see ultima and meteor as spells added to the blm's list opf death traps. lemme speak alittle reasonable here. 1.) ultima is an AOE of massive proportions. it would be without a dought be the strongest spell in the game and so is meteor. now this spell would be aquired through merits. which mean's that you are already at that point where tanks cry and you die if you wonna see a big number on your screen. if a taru cast thundaga3 at 75 they do some nice damage huh? yeah its the strongest spell. they get a nice bit of hate as well huh. yup once again its there strongest spell. well what would happen if you casted ulitma at that lv as a taru? death thats right a consistant death everytime you cast that spell. its ok tho depending on what your fighting the pt might survive -_-. i know SE could gimp the spell. really, who want's a gimped ulimta. that on it own would **** me off. and every true FF player out there as well. now as for new jobs like geomancer i believe they dont belong in this game. but thats only because there are alot more jobs they could put in this game that would be alot better and funner. the day SE puts a geomancer in the game is when you know there running outta idea's. but i dought that would happen because there are limitless ways to expand this game just off the others SE's.
oh and the idea about meca in the game, thats not a bad idea to make the bst soloable job have a partner. but use the meca we already have in the game. like dolls and such. well that my thoughts on everything

Shiva
75blm/37whm
49war/24nin

I know kinda pointless, but here are the list of new spells I would like to see:
Wall (Magic spells are reflected back at caster)
Pearl: Mild Light magic damage
Demi: Mob takes a % of damage (e.g. 10/25/50) based on their current HP
Doom: Upon success mob will die in 10 seconds
Break: Petrify mob (instant death?).. (Ok would never happen)
Meteor: Massive Dark damage
Time Shift: Cause mob that you are engaged with to stop for X period of time.
Missing Ni spells
Utsu and Tonko San spells

new abilities I would like to see:
Repeat: Repeat last action (even if you do not qualify, e.g. no MP spell casts and no TP needed TP attacks)
Mimic: Duplicate the last action performed by a party member (including self)
Final Attack: Perform a pre-assigned action the moment your HP = 0.
Rune: Absorb magic spell cast at you and gain MP based off either MP to cast, or dmg it would inflict.
Subdue: Decrease the amount of hate the mob currently has against you.
Passify: Cause currently aggroed Mob to lose interest in it's currently aggroed target.
Heroic Surge: Every action you preform generates 2x the amount of aggression as normal.

.

i was always under the impression Utsusemi: San would be 1 shadow only, instant cast time, but long recast time. this actually makes sense. would be an upgrade to ninja, but not un balance things.

Here is a way to check the spells that SE has been testing. I know there are some players that know about this but thought I might just throw it out there for the hell of it. I haven't checked too many of them but noticed they are trying out Ancient Magic 2 spells as well as meteor. Ultima wasn't in the listing. The command is what I use a lot for my THF abilities. /recast "spell/ja name"
Anything that really pops up --:-- is what they are testing to see what they can put in the game. It's not for a fact they will put every one of those into it. For the Geomancer job, I would personally like to see it in the game. There is no telling how they would have to change it to make it work with FFXI. It would be a great new enfeebler to have.

Maybe i'll start seeing Jubaku: Ni and Domokori: Ni, all I want is Jubaku: Ni, that isn't hard to ask is it? ; ;

Merton, Ultima, Meteor, and a spell thats pure dark magic (opposite of holy), would be cool new spells for blm

My idea for engineer seems far flung, but i liked some of a technoloy mix in FF games. FF6 did great with Magitek and monsters based on technology, without giving it too much a sci-fi feel to the game. FF7 rocked with the Weapon monsters Vs' Junon Cannon (errr hope i got the name right), technology advanced cities, and minus the lousy character Cait Sith, was pretty sweet. FFT used limited technology, but just enough to add a cool twist to the storyline.

Edited, Tue Dec 6 15:03:19 2005

Whm should get a nuking spell that does some kick a$$ damage. They have decent spells, but nothing that does rockin' damage. Holy II would be sweet.

For thief (hehe my favorite) TH3!!!

Idea for later expansion:
Add the Engineer job from FFT with a twist. Give them special job abilities for guns that add status effects. Create some new projectile weapons with AoE effects for this job. Since there is a lack of technology as seen in previous FF games (magitek armor, moving cities, vehicles, mobs, etc) give engineers the ability to make their own robots. You would have to do some quests to get blueprints for robots, and be able to ready them for battle using a "tool" ability and stackable robot kits (crafted or dropped off certain mobs). As you level more options for each robot become available. You introduce another solo job, add some extra areas in with machines, robot mobs, and a cool new storyline bit (With Cid involved, of course.)

I am gonna be severely pissed if they add Geomancer before Alchemist / Chemist. I have this whole awesome look at making a 2nd healing job and you want to throw in some *** who moves rock and can run across fire...?

Sorry i have never been a Geomancer fan its just not the job for me out of all the FF games i have never used one nore understood there purpose being completely able to get by wihtout them.

Alchemists where my primary Healer in FFT FFX and FFX2. probably would have been in FF5 if i had cared enought to play it to get Chemist. The only hole i can see it create is people would confuse it with Alchemy the craft and think that being a Chemist would cost a ton.

Just make like an Alchemist tool tahts they use whne mixing ingredients to cast healing and protective spells and i guess possibly damaging ones. What do you guys think?

Alchemist or Geomancer?

And if Geomancer please explain how you would want it to look and play like not just OMFG GEOMANCER PLZ wihtout a little thought into how to build the job or how it would functions.

Wahoo a 2k damage spell. Oh wait woohooo, 1.5 minute cast time and 600 mp cost a spell. And who wants to bet it's like the other merit categories, 15 options, and you can pick a max of say, 5. AM2, or tier 5 single target spells? and who wants to bet the options for half the jobs are worthless?

Looks good, at least you can level up past 75 some more. just wish they weren't so prohibitively expensive. Be fun to see that characters can get stronger. means stronger stuff can be added.

I seriously do not think a party leader is going to call someone "gimp" because they do not have a merit spell... do people call MNKs gimp when they do not have max STR merits? I think this is a great idea, it will help expand endgame leveling options a little further.

well I just hit 70 and am hoping to get up to 72 or 73 by this week, so hopefully I'll actually understand what he heck all this is about soon! woot! and im psyched about getting CoP for christmas to be able to access fun stuff like this.

The one thing I want to see, that isn't mentioned in here, is the ability to re-spec your character, much like in WoW. It's all fine and dandy that you get extra merits, but for guys that merit enmity one way or another and then go from playing a mage to a tank or the other way around, you can really hurt yourself later with merits that help you end game. SE, think about it. RESPEC. I mean, don't make it free, make it ridiculously expensive, actually. Make it like 250k to change your merits around. But give us that option.

I was thinking of spells that would make a really nice additon to BLM's... i though about it... Why not add Ultima? I hope they do :P