[suggestion] Add a role

[Lunzeni]

Feel i had to atleast post a suggestion as im strongly wanting a part of it.

Suggest adding a role (what its called or what it does is not really that important. Could be for example support where for example a synergist or saboteur class could be added) as it could add something new to the game aswell as adding alot of complexity.

Reason im suggesting it is because as it is now i feel the game will go in the same direction as all other mmos where u add a new dps class after the other and its a new way to deal damage yes, but its still more of the same as its still a DPS. Tho if a new role is added like for example synergist. You could add a range of new and interesting mechanics.

Examples there could be for example:
Ifrit does alot of fire damage so as a synergist you could buff ur parties fire resistance.

With some of my thoughts on it explained above i know that adding a new role might prove a big challenge as you have to find out what the role should and shouldnt be able to do, but i feel like doing so will let for example DPS with support skills be damage dealers instead of damage dealers with a nisje.

[Stepjam]

I don't feel that they could add another role without rebuilding a lot from the ground up.

[VenKitsune]

"Ifirit does a lot of fire damage"

No he doesn't.

There are 4 types of damage in this Game.
Physical - Split in to resistances, Blunt, Slashing, Piercing...Though this isnt used any more really, and with good reason.
Magical.
"Darkness" - Basically Magical that goes through shields, usually for balance reasons and to prevent some mechanics from being cheesed.
"Ethereal" - Damage that does through resurrect immunity, tank immunity etc. Think Trial bosses big attack like Innocences attack after the add phase finishes. Designed this way to prevent exploits such as having someone die...then ressing them during the animation of a big attack and having them save the group from what would otherwise be a wipe.

There is no "Fire damage" or whatever, there hasnt been for almost a decade.

Speaking of which...This game has been out for a whole decade (6 years since ARR, but the base game code was made for 1.0). Adding a role now would require millions of dollars and thousands of hours to rebuild the game and its content to account for a new role. Why do you think no other MMO adds new roles? Even the most financially successful one, WoW? Read above.
No offense...But i'd suggest looking up the basics of game design before making any kind of suggestion on this scale.

[Kisshu]

While new roles would be interesting, this won't work in this game.

FFXIV is locked into the holy trinity of classes: tank, healer or dps. Those are the core functions of classes, but they can branch out a bit to include support skills such as buff(brd, dnc) or debuff/CC(stun, interrupt, slow).

Going with anything besides the holy trinity would require a re-write of the whole game:

What slot would it take? If we're going with the standard 4-man party need would need to be a dps as the healer and tank slots are required. Then for the new role it would need to boost the power of the party by a factor of 1 dps to not be a downgrade for the party.

Give it a new slot so parties are now 5-man, then all dungeons and 4-trials need to be readjusted for 5 people instead of 4, and will that make a full party 10 people?(2xlight parties)
Is the new slot locked for this new role like healer and tank? Then we would see even longer wait times for dungeons.

Just a few of the problems a new role would introduce in this game.

The only real option we have is our current system(role + some support abilities).

[Saefinn]

Whilst I'd like new roles as they add a different dynamic to the game, I don't think it's really feasible.

But they can take an existing role and add abilities to do that allow it to fulfill other roles that may be useful in certain content or mechanics, though people seem to prefer a more streamlined approach, but there is a thread suggesting adding back things like crowd control. This in a way is a separate role, but any job could fulfill it. You may have mechanics where crowd control would be effective, but I'd argue this is something that if implemented should only be a part of newer game mechanics rather than retroactively added to existing content.

Failing that, more Eureka-type endgame content might be where that kind of thing would be more welcome, maybe even job specific abilities that are only accessible with the Magia board in Eureka-like content. So RDM as an example might get more of their CC abilities from say, XI. BRD & DNC might then have a lot more useful things in the way of support abilities and so on. But I expect for the sake of balance, they'd do anything job specific, but I think if introduced it's where I expect it'd be welcome as we already have Logos actions.

[Reynhart]

You can easily make a buff/debuff oriented job and assign it to any existing role, as long as it can do the bare minimum of its role. After all, AST is already pretty buff oriented compared to WHM and SCH.

[FirstnameLastname]

Oh yes, a buff oriented class please. People already get so salty over who gets a DNC buff sometimes.

[Reynhart]

Oh yes, a buff oriented class please. People already get so salty over who gets a DNC buff sometimes.

Only because DNC can buff a single party member. Are people salty about who gets the BRD song ? Or the trick Attack bonus ? Or Battle Litany ? Or Embolden ?