Ideas for non-traditional jobs

So far, jobs have all stuck to being pretty traditional - tanks are armored physical fighters, healers are all magic-based, etc. But I'm hyped on the idea of a possible Dancer job that heals through dances, and I'm really hoping we start getting more jobs that break from the established traditions of the current jobs.

Mystic Knight - We don't have a magic casting tank yet, and a lot of people wanted RDM to incorporate some of FFXI's weapon enchantments. Mystic Knight could be both.

Their main weapon could be a mace (Red Battlemage style) with a magic shield offhand - preferably as a single item. Their combo skills could be elementally-aspected mace spell-strikes with short cast times. You would cast the spell, then the animation would be a mace strike with magical particle effects.

Their tank and DPS stances could alter the alignment of their attacks. In tank stance they're white-aligned, and their attacks use earth, air, and holy elements for their effects. Increased enmity on everything and debuffs on combo finishers. In DPS stance, they switch to being black-aligned. Their attacks all switch to being fire, lightning, and ice elements with bonus damage, and self-buffs on combo finishers. The attack animations would be the same, but the spell effects would change. Essentially they're positioned as a buff/debuff tank, with the job gimmick of swapping weapon enchantments.

Chemist - A non-magical medicinal healer. Their main hand could be potions or a potion-launching small cannon thing. Their main healing skills could be Mend and Medicate, with damage skills like Acid and Volatile.

Their job gauge could be a potion beaker, and as you do different basic actions you add "ingredients" to the beaker. When it fills, you get a party buff skill depending on the ingredients you put in. The gauge would change color as it fills to show what buff you're leaning towards. If you fill it through mostly healing, it turns green and gives Regen. If you fill it through mostly damage, it turns orange and gives a damage buff. If filled with mostly buffs it'll turn blue and give Refresh. For added flair make all their skill icons match these same colors - green for healing skills, orange or damage, etc.

Synergist - The idea here is to make a Magitek-based caster instead of an aether-based caster. Their main head weapon would be some kind of Magitek focus. To fit with their name their job mechanic revolves around the way their spells interact with each other. I'd give them spell combos, since no caster so far has combos. When a combo is completed, they get a charge that will then alter the way another combo works. For example if you use Combo A first, then Combo B will become an AoE. Or if you use Combo B first, then Combo A would apply dots, etc. Instead of having an "optimal" combo rotation like most jobs, you would change the order you use them in for different effects.

I very much am onboard with both Mystic Knight and Chemist. Mystic Knight alone would want me to tank more and Chemist is a personal want!

I feel like PLD is the closest we'll ever get to a magic casting tank, although would need to see what is in store for it in the next expac. The idea of Mystic Knight definitely suits a DPS role though, but would be in melee range more often than RDM, with the shields bringing different types of utility to the party (a BRD rival perhaps....).

Chemist might be most likely, considering they had actually considered it as a prototype for Machinist. I think the mixing operating sort of like a more in depth version of Ninjutsu would be really fun as a healer. Mystic Knight is a job I've wanted for a while now, especially considering they tend to be a little glossed over in many of the games, yet do have a pretty prominent history. That's personally what I would have wanted out of this "magitek" tank class instead of some kind of Squall substitute (even though I love Squall, don't get me wrong.)

Synergist might be an interesting way to incorporate some Geomancy themes without being a pure Geomancer now that they've kinda moved on from that idea. Instead of a Taoist-esque feng shui mage, what about someone extracting from aetheric leylines through the power of science!?

Mystic Knight sounds cool, I mean, Tank-Mage is always an archetype I'm a fan of. I was kind of disappointed that DRK wasn't that (Given that early iterations of "Dark Knight" in MMO's tended to be somewhat "Tank-Mage" like, notable in Everquest and their Shadow Knight class for example)

Though, my only qualm would be with tying the different elements to the stances. Mostly because the current implementation of Tank/DPS stances is pretty horrible (Essentially boiling down to Tank stance only being relevant when you're gearing up and then it's just DPS stance all day every day...)

I'd prefer a more dynamic shifting of elements. For example, you use a skill that attunes you to say, Fire. Then all your attacks will deal some Fire related damage and effects, until you use a skill that attunes you to another element. So you'd be constantly shifting between elements to get different effects on different skills. So maybe your 123 combo instead becomes 4 (Shifting into say, Earth for additional Enmity as an example) 1, 5 (Shifting into say Lightning for chain damage) 2, 6 (Shifting into Fire for more damage or Holy for some healing) 3. Or maybe you'd want to do your 123 combo entirely within a particular element (Such as Lightning for AoE damage). Or something along these lines.

Chemist and Synergist sound interesting too. Chemist could also be combined with some Cannoneer skills too if they get a potion launcher type weapon.

In addition, there could also be a Magical MDPS too, since we currently lack one of them. Something like Elementalist, Rune Knight or Sword Saint could work. With them using a single one handed sword, having a sort of duelist kind of fighting style, with their empty off hand being used to cast spells (The type and effects of which would be determined by which of the 3 aforementioned classes to base around)

Would also be cool to have something like Trickster or Gambler for a Physical Ranged class. Throwing cards at enemies that provide a variety of random effects as well as incorporating some high roll/low roll variance on some strong abilities.

Finally, I would like to see Beastmaster make it into the game in some form too. Using a Whip and animal companion(s) and having a lot of synergy between the skills you and your companion use. Of course, they'd need to make pet AI not complete trash first...

I don't know if they would call it Chemist since Alchemist is already a class, but I can imagine them calling it a Chiurgeon since they exist in this world as actual doctors.

I DO want the Mystic Knight and would love to see a mage style tank. I was hoping for the Blue Mage to fill the tank role so you can have a party that has a blue mage, red mage, black mage, and white mage, however that is just for the humor of having a fully functional all mage party. However Mystic Knight is the next best option for tank since you can embue gear with benefits, I can imagine them adding elements to their blade for their DPS abilities but also fortify their armor or add 'bar' effects to their armor to increase defense and also add additional effects. I also imagine that they would be excellent thorn style tanks like Diablo 2's Paladin. They tank and dps a bit by making sure that enemies can take damage for hitting them.

Synergist sounds interesting and it would be nice change of flavor, but I imagine a problem on some flavor since Magitek was meant to be used by those that have no magical ability. I can imagine them still channeling aether to enhance the magitek further though. Either way, it would be interesting to play a caster combo expert.

I definitely want Geomancer and I think they are going to launch that as one of the upcoming classes especially after the AST Stormblood job arc. I guess they will probably be the next healer for Shadowbringers.

We wanted Dancer in Stormblood and honestly I don't think we are getting it on this expansion, I honestly think they will do that for another expansion. Though a non-magic style healer would be fun.

I imagine Beastmaster being a DPS class even though I would prefer it being a pet based tank class. They are probably going to be a limited job like Blue Mage though due to having to collect beasts.

Trickster or Gambler is something I'm not too fond of. I hate RNG classes which is why I hate AST, but that's just me. They would be interesting aethetically, but AST already is your Gambler considering they are like the FFXI Corsair mixed with Time Mage.

A magical melee dps, would be fun. I imagine an elementalist or rune knight would be interesting. I normally hate melee DPS but those would be ones that I play.

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Originally Posted by Songwillow

I don't know if they would call it Chemist since Alchemist is already a class, but I can imagine them calling it a Chiurgeon since they exist in this world as actual doctors.

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It was called Salvemaker in Bravely Default, so there's some precedent for it not necessarily having to be named (al)chemist.

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Originally Posted by Songwillow

I imagine Beastmaster being a DPS class even though I would prefer it being a pet based tank class. They are probably going to be a limited job like Blue Mage though due to having to collect beasts.

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I would love it to be a pet based class too, and really wouldn't like it to be another limited job. Makes me wish they worked some more on that glamour system for pets, because Beastmaster could have a pet that you would be able to glamour as a monster you like. And you could collect these glamours from the monsters you fight in the wild (so you wouldn't need the limited job thing to have the collectability aspect).

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Originally Posted by TheHeavenAbyss

I would love it to be a pet based class too, and really wouldn't like it to be another limited job. Makes me wish they worked some more on that glamour system for pets, because Beastmaster could have a pet that you would be able to glamour as a monster you like. And you could collect these glamours from the monsters you fight in the wild (so you wouldn't need the limited job thing to have the collectability aspect).

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That and you know, going around collecting beasts wouldn't necessarily require the job to be limited...

It honestly boggles my mind that people claim that they're bored of all classes being standardized and are so quick to jump onto the "Lets make this cool new job as worthless as Chocobo Racing!!" as opposed to just being on board to have new jobs come out with interesting quirks that deviate from the "Standard" grinding of Duty Finder and rushing through job quests as progression...

Honestly, the only reason they'd need to limit Beastmaster in any way, is if they gave it the ability to take control of enemies like in previous iterations in the FF series. To which, they'd just need to limit the ability to use those skills in duties...

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Originally Posted by Valdegarde

It was called Salvemaker in Bravely Default, so there's some precedent for it not necessarily having to be named (al)chemist.

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That and they could come up with a brand new name (Sort of like how AST wasn't necessarily a job name from a previous title), such as Mixologist (MIX), Cannoneer (CAN), Physician (PHY), Brewer (BRW), Herbalist (HRB), Professor (PRF), Nurse (NSE), Surgeon (SGN) etc...

Like, honestly, the name of the job is probably the least concerning aspect of creation and implementation xD

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Originally Posted by Kalise

That and you know, going around collecting beasts wouldn't necessarily require the job to be limited...

It honestly boggles my mind that people claim that they're bored of all classes being standardized and are so quick to jump onto the "Lets make this cool new job as worthless as Chocobo Racing!!" as opposed to just being on board to have new jobs come out with interesting quirks that deviate from the "Standard" grinding of Duty Finder and rushing through job quests as progression...

Honestly, the only reason they'd need to limit Beastmaster in any way, is if they gave it the ability to take control of enemies like in previous iterations in the FF series. To which, they'd just need to limit the ability to use those skills in duties...

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If you collect monsters it's the same argument they're using about collecting blue spells, with the possibility of creating barriers to players who don't have/use the best skills/monsters. Now, I don't agree that that requires the job to be limited, but I think it is what SE would almost certainly argue.

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Originally Posted by TheHeavenAbyss

If you collect monsters it's the same argument they're using about collecting blue spells, with the possibility of creating barriers to players who don't have/use the best skills/monsters. Now, I don't agree that that requires the job to be limited, but I think it is what SE would almost certainly argue.

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Though, that's really, really, really easy to remedy.

Just make the "Core" spells/beasts part of their Job Quests. Thus, everyone is guaranteed to have access to said "Best" or "Required" skills.

Or just make it a requirement in order to queue up to Duty Finder, so that no-one will be ostracised in there for not having said skills.

Of course, this isn't to account for the fact that DF content is currently so faceroll that you get people not using 90% of their class skills. Like I've seen TONS of SAM who don't EVER get their Shifu/Jinpu buffs up, let alone do the combos to get Sen to perform Iaijutsu. Or NIN that never use a single Mudra and thus Ninjutsu, BRD that never use songs, DRG that never use Blood of the Dragon or any jump skills, BLM that just spam Fire 1 until they OOM and then wait for AF to drop before using Blizzard 1 and regaining mana...

So, what's the big issue about maybe some BLU/BST might not have the "Best" spells/monsters and so require them to never be allowed into the general populous because the second they enter DF the entire game is going to implode?

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Originally Posted by Kalise

Though, that's really, really, really easy to remedy.

Just make the "Core" spells/beasts part of their Job Quests. Thus, everyone is guaranteed to have access to said "Best" or "Required" skills.

Or just make it a requirement in order to queue up to Duty Finder, so that no-one will be ostracised in there for not having said skills.

Of course, this isn't to account for the fact that DF content is currently so faceroll that you get people not using 90% of their class skills. Like I've seen TONS of SAM who don't EVER get their Shifu/Jinpu buffs up, let alone do the combos to get Sen to perform Iaijutsu. Or NIN that never use a single Mudra and thus Ninjutsu, BRD that never use songs, DRG that never use Blood of the Dragon or any jump skills, BLM that just spam Fire 1 until they OOM and then wait for AF to drop before using Blizzard 1 and regaining mana...

So, what's the big issue about maybe some BLU/BST might not have the "Best" spells/monsters and so require them to never be allowed into the general populous because the second they enter DF the entire game is going to implode?

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I don't actually disagree with you, but that apparently wasn't enough to make Blue Mage a regular job (at least for now). I've been saying the same kind of stuff in the Blue Mage threads. I just don't like the idea of Beastmaster being a limited job too, so I merely presented how it could work with what they already have.

Another thing that worries me is that eventually people would just have the best monster to use and everyone would be running around with a behemoth or something, instead of each having their favorite monsters. That's why some people have been saying that primal egis like Ravana and Ramuh, if added eventually to SMN, could work as glamours to the attacker, caster and tank pets. I honestly don't care that much about having a dozen different pets if I only end up using one in end-game content, so glamour would be a way to actually have more variety at least aesthetically. Unless the job had some pet switching mechanic to different scenarios or other mechanic that makes use of the different pets, I guess.

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Originally Posted by TheHeavenAbyss

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I suppose they could always group the beasts into categories. So instead of it being something like "Behemoth = best" it would be something like "Behemoth, and all these other monsters = Best for X scenario" with them having similar stats/kits. So you have options within each "Type" of monster.

Similar to if they decide to add more Egi's they could fill different roles by providing different utility (Kind of like how although Ifrit is higher DPS, Garuda has a nice debuff).

Heck, it's not beyond the realms of possibility for allowing a class (Be it SMN or BST) to have multiple pets active at once. Especially if you have different categories, so then you can customise your menagerie a little bit more.

But yeah, it all depends on whether SE comes up with some dumb excuses to limit them...

Which I imagine they would rather do than make pet AI not hot garbage so as to allow for a second pet focused class to exist without being yelled at constantly for the derp AI...

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Originally Posted by Kalise

That and they could come up with a brand new name (Sort of like how AST wasn't necessarily a job name from a previous title)

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Astrologian was Warren Omon's title in Tactics Ogre, which is where Astrologian seems to have gotten its card element from, it's also Orran's job in FFT (Astral Stasis, etc.)
That being said, I do agree with you 100%.

Mystic Knight/Rune Fencer could be a "magical" tank role. Instead of using hard elements, since they basically do nothing in this game just use spirit magic or aeither. Cold wield a crest and offhand an orb, which based on the "stance" would imbue them with magical power, the crest could "pulse" damaging abilities or short range normal pulses for Auto attacks, and the Orb would put up a barrier for defensive abilities and block procs similar to a shield.
Would have magical abilities to draw hate and combo abilities.

Chemist could be used as a healer or a DPS. Healer with the "potions" as their spells, (not actual potions) but in name. They could also have an ability called Drink like in other games, similar to what someone else suggested, but have it draw from a set list, like AST cards for various effects, or like Ninjitsu, enter a combo of 3 "ingredients" for a final result, ranging from healing to damage. Obvious Poison Dots, or "frost/Burn" dots via Fire/Ice potion. "Damaging Gas" attacks as DPS.

Puppetmaster is also an option. Would be another pet Job, but not with all of the attachments like in 11. Would have 3 frames, Melee, Ranged/Support, Tank. Only ideas i have for this would be similar to how it played in 11, a H2H type job, but would use different weapon types than a monk. Maybe the varied rotations trigger the Automaton to do different "finishing moves" 1, 2, 3, would trigger a high damage attack, 1, 4, 5 a medium damage dot, 1, 6, 7 a conal AoE, and have the effect vary based on the Automaton frame.

Gambler similar to what others have said. Throwing cards as weapon, and dice as an alternate similar to the AST cards for various effects, could be buffs or attacks/debuffs, having other "rolls" like Cor in 11, for Movement speed or EXP plus etc (obtained through Job level quests for fairness)

Mime i think could be fun, but incredibly difficult to pull off. Tailored based on your current party, with a few unique standard abilities. "mimic" could be an ability that when activated you have to enter an on screen combination within a few seconds, 3 characters again, similar to Ninja, but not set, if successful you mimic the last action taken, if failed, goes on cool down. Would need to somehow identify which party member to mimic, could be yourself too. As far as a role, i think it would have to be a tank, as other jobs mimicking a provoke could be disastrous.

I know many people are happy for the Dancer, but I really wish they would add the Chemist instead, I just don't like the Dancer x_x

I wouldn't be surprised to see the Mystic Knight at some point though. Visually and thematically speaking it gives enough freedom to do plenty of things.

I would absolutely LOVE to see Beastmaster added, I don't think it would work well with the game's party dynamic though, at least not in a way that would satisfy the people who want that unique type of playstyle that Beastmaster is capable of delivering, things like knowing the ins and out of the land, and familiarizing yourself with the strengths and weakness, and even the weird little quarks off all the creatures spread throughout it. I also would hate to see it get the same "limited job" treatment that was given to BLU. When I level any class I want to feel like I'm building toward overall progress on my character, not playing some side content that once I'm finished with I might never touch again.

So I've had this idea for BST floating through my head the couple days, it might seem a little out there, so bare with me. Now, I don't keep well up to date on all the news and interviews that come out, but I have heard that Yoshi P has at least toyed with the idea of creating a new gathering class, one for gather skins and furs and I assume all other types of MOB drops. Well what if BST was introduced as not a full on battle class but rather a gathering class with battle capabilities used to take down MOBs for their drops? It would play like any other battle class with various attack abilities, combos, the whole nine yards, and of course pets. The caveat? It would be significantly weaker than it's actual battle class counter-parts, significant enough that even overworld trash MOBs can present a bit of a challenge, also, each of it's attacks would have additional effects attached to them related to gathering, similar to the abilities MIN and BTN get, enhancing drop rate, yield, and HQ chance. For example:

Hunters Slice: Single attack with a potency of XX
Additional effect, increases drop rate by 10%

Carve: Multi-Hit attack with a potency of XX.
Additional effect, increases yield by 25%

Precision Strike: Single Focused attack with a potency of XX
Additional effect, damage over time with a potency of XX
Additional effect, increases HQ chance by 5%
(because with DoT, in theory you're striking less, therefore less likely to damage the pelt)

The additional effects of these would be stackable, and they could even combo to enhance each other's effects further. Maybe even critical hits, rather than dealing extra damage, could enhance these bonuses. So in theory you could stretch a fight out trying to achieve max yield HQ. This would also affect your choice of pet you call on, do you want a pet with healing and support capabilities so you can drawl out and maximize each fight, or powerful enough to finish fights quickly so you can move on to the next? Of course, being a weaker battle class, the wild would pose threats, and there would be times you might need to end a fight quickly. For those times you would have some more powerful attacks, closer to but not equal to that of the normal battle classes. But these would have drawbacks to using.

Rush: Powerful single attack
Additional effect, decreases drop rate by 5%

Hasty Flurry: Multi-hit attack with a potency of XX
Addition effect, decreases HQ chance by 10%

This way it would be sort of a balancing act between raising your gathering chances while trying to kill quickly enough to be efficient. Similar to a crafter having to balance quality with progress. The job would be useless though without the ability to control which item the MOB drops from it's pool. For that I propose the use of positional finishing moves. Something like...

Skinning: Powerful Blow dealing damage equal to 20% of enemy's total HPs. Can only be performed when enemy is at 20% HP or below.
Additional effect, focuses gathering efforts on enemy's outer skin.
Conditional, Additional effect only applies when performed from the enemy's rear.

Fillet: Powerful Blow dealing damage equal to 20% of enemy's total HPs. Can only be performed when enemy is at 20% HP or below.
Additional effect, focuses gathering effort on enemy's meat
Conditional, additional effect only applies when performed from the enemies flank

Also one from the front for fangs and claws and eyeballs and whatever else. Your pet would also come in very handy for the positionals, you can have some sort of "focus attack" ability forcing whatever you're fighting to attack your pet allowing you to set up your finisher.

As far as how the charming of your pets would go, I personally like having to charm on the fly in the wild, it's sort of exciting the danger of it, plus doing it that way forces you to be aware of your surroundings and to know the prime locations where a suitable pet is in proximity to a worthwhile prey. But I understand a lot of people probably would rather have summonable pets. So a system where you have a charm ability, that once used on a MOB that MOB type becomes one of you summonable 'familiars'. You could have a 'familiar guide' keeping track of all your pets, as well as a 'creature log' keeping track of what drops you've gotten off of what creatures. There could even be a progression system for your pets, like a 'familiar rating' for each one, that once it maxes out gets upgraded, so a Mandragora would eventually become a King Mandragora, which could be a slightly larger more powerful version, or something. And to simplify pet commands to allow having the vast majority of Eorzea's wildlife population charmable without the dev team having to code hundreds of abilities into pet commands, you could just give pets more general orders, like stances or something.