Morpher job idea ala Vincent Valentine LB

Was just talking with a friend about how cool it would be if we could morph into beasts during battle. There's an example of this in the FF series if you look at Vincent's LBs in FF VII. Your character model gets replaced by that of a creature for a duration and your attacks change. There's a few different creatures to rotate through.

There are a lot of jobs in FF XIV now which will make it increasingly harder for new jobs to really stand out unless you bring a radical concept like morphing ability. I can't think of anything else that would be more interesting than full body transformations so I just wanted to throw that request out there.

Well PotD already did something like this with its manticore, succubus and angel, but those things only had 1 attack each. I'm thinking more a job based on that idea with a mini rotation for each transformation.

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/wbALONXJnGM/hqdefault.jpg

I know Ran'jiit does a thing with his pet dragon where they kind of fuse together, and it's not like any other job we've seen in this game, so if not a full transformation job, maybe something like that? I personally would love to see it in some form though!

An Amaro says something interesting in one of the quests in Il Mheg, about being attacked by soldiers taking wolf-like forms. So maybe we will get a shapeshifting class in the future.
https://imgur.com/6RixZsN.jpg

So another melee dps with some ranged elements and party utility.

Let's also make it where you have 0 control of your character during your morph.
So whatever you morph too, you're stuck until you die, just like Vincent...
(Side Note: I hope this is changed in FF7R. Never used the guy sadly because perma-zerk is dumb lol.)

I found ESO to have implemented Werewolf and Vampire transformations moderately well. For those who don't know, once turned your char will gain a new skill tree based on your transformation.

I don't see why that couldn't work similarly in FF14. I think transforming and gaining a new rotation may end being somewhat convoluted. But if they were to add a new skill tree based on the transformation, one skill being an actual transformation that changes your character model and adds a couple of skills (like when you're riding a beast tribe mount or magitek) for a short time (i.e. 90 seconds??) then it could work without being too complicated.

I think Vincent is mediocre source to draw inspiration from though. His limit break was pretty sub-par in functionality in FF7. But then again, he is damn near the only PC who has had this ability in FF series, besides Terra in FF6 transforming into Esper form. If anything, an Esper-like transformation could probably be worked into FF14 lore relatively well, maybe as some kind of play on the Ascian thing??? IDK

Sounds like a fun idea anyway.

I would really like a transforming based job, and I would love it if it was dark theme'd like Vincent or Yuri From Shadow Hearts, Dante from Devil May Cry, Illidan from Warcraft 3 and WoW, and even maybe some Esper Transformations via Tera Bradford from FFVI~!

Although I'd probably be fine with any type of transformation, nature, light, w.e. Just a bit of a bias towards dark metamorphosis concepts (like Yuri, Dante, Vincent, Illidan, etc), part of the reason I really loved Blue Mage lore in FFXI. To be clear through gameplay Blue Mages in FFXI didn't transform (in Lore they would, in the end of all things), but the whole heavy burden magic concept that is paired with metamorphosis sometimes - that I like quite a bit.

Job Request - Dark Transformation Theme'd Job [Vincent, Dante, Yuri, Bayonetta, etc] :D

(That thread was last on the front page 1 month ago, so it's like 35 pages in the past now lol)

I agree with you completely that transformation would be a stand out gimmick, especially if they leaned into it, and not only in terms of mechanics but obviously transformations would be a stand out gimmick visually as well.

So it's not hard to imagine it standing on it's own in that sense. Also I think it could be a fun opportunity for the FFXIV team to play a bit more since there is more freedom there, no one or at least incredibly few would be upset if it wasn't called morpher and didn't do exactly what morpher used to do- SE could name it whatever and give it as many or as little past FF references as they'd like.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TJpviN-JWI

That was a thing when I came back to FFXI.......& that is how The Monsuta Man was born, but I digress..

I think they should combine that system, with a job to create a morpher. Probably the easiest job they could come up with. Players transforms into a creature model already in the game, use some animations already in the game, boom....

As a career BST, I would take this over BST because I feel like it has more potential to work. You do not have to account for the master or distance. You are the monster.

I feel like they may run into some issues if you're permanently transformed. One thing that's a bit lame about a lot of druid specs in WoW is not getting to see your weapons and armor in combat. These transformations would probably just be fixed models that don't display armor, with maybe one new option per expansion at most. I don't think the art team could keep up with providing varied enough forms to make up for not being able to display armor on it. And considering viera'hrotghard head gear isssues I very much doubt they could budget in the time to fit armor into these models. So you'd have everyone looking the same while in combat.

The idea for the job is a good one; something similar to druids from wow, ESO's werewolves, etc... The only issue i really see for it is well... Everything in regards to implementation.

What i mean is, SQE does not like a class having different play styles within a single class. They would not like one form being being a fast attacker, one being a brutish tank like thing, etc. This is kind of evidenced in how they've taken almost all nuance out of the pet classes, to where the pets don't really matter at all; and while they never really made summoner play different, it's clear that the pets themselves matter even less now.
And if we're only going to get one way to play, why would they make a Shapeshifter job? Now, i will say that if they made the transformation an activated ability by spending a resource, then that's a possibility for a one-form transformation class; but i don't know if people would want the class niche put behind a resource and cooldown.

Second issue is the engines ability (or SQE's skill at using that engine) to swap out models in the game. No cutscene really has a scene where changes to a character model are made smoothly, and any changes that happen in game there's a definite locking down of the character for a few moments while a poof animation is played and your model is replaced with a new one.
If they are to ever put in a thing like this, they have to make the changes able to happen fluidly so it doesn't interrupt the flow of the gameplay; and i don't know where the issue in their system lies unfortunately.