My alternative suggestion was doing what Skyrim and Mass Effect did (that is, breaking down the classes into playstyle categories and then stuffing a metric shitload (or in ME's case, one) of specific classes in those categories).

Besides, I imagine that within that first format, it'd be pissoff easy to evolve your class (at least into the first tier)

But yeah, my Combat, Guile, Magic, Hybrid category format seems to be more along the lines of what you seem to want.