The future of Thief and Ninja (minor 2.2 spoilers)

[Nahara]

I don't think they'll introduce another class with two job tiers.... Mostly because there'll be too many DPS classes if they do that, and that might unbalance the game, especially since they're also introducing the Musketeer class or job?

I disagree, because adding classes that can branch off into two different roles is something that SE wants to do (and may potentially do with the current classes at some later point, such as DRK coming out of GLD). To me, it seems stranger that SE would forego introducing more classes like this (which adds more possible variety).

As for what to name the base class, Yoshi-P mentioned "Scout" a long time ago in an interview when talking about new classes, but I think "Rogue" may be a better pick. We'll just have to wait and see.

Time to put on the ol' speculation hat.

Purely from a mechanics standpoint, I'm honestly imagining Ninja to be a tank. SE is already desperately trying to push people into playing tanks by offering mounts and bonus gil, and there's still somewhat of a lack. If they were playing their cards right, they'd make Ninja a tank as a means to coerce more people into playing the role.

That being said, I could see them playing it off by giving them a sort of passive HP buff they can flip on, like Warrior. Maybe call it Shadow Clone, and have it increase their HP and evasion by a certain percentage, as well as enmity generation. Various "ninjitsu" abilities to increase defense and evasion, etc. Ultimately, it would give FFXIV the three staple tank archetypes. Sword and board, two-hander, and evasion. I feel like them adding two more DPS classes into an already DPS heavy game would be a mistake they're smart enough not to make. But, who knows? Only SE at this point~

While I think it would be cool to add more tanks, evasion tanking is (for lack of a better phrase, please don't hit me) hit-or-miss. You don't control when you dodge and attack, and the RNG could make you miss attacks that would hardly scratch you, but make you suffer attacks that would be very deadly. SE would need to balance dodging very carefully so that it wouldn't be useless, but also wouldn't be more powerful than the current tanks.

I could imagine Ninjas as having been sort of the "protectors" of the Domans, which Yugiri is a shining example of. Using their superior agility and ninjitsu to distract and disable enemies and the like. In line with that, thief would be much more of your stereotypical damage-dealing dagger wielder. Sneak attacks, backstabs, dirty fighting, all that good stuff that you might imagine a shadowy Lominsan organization might employ.

I think it should be mentioned that Thancred and Yugiri may have similar fighting styles, but they can tell the distinctions between them (Thancred being taught by unsavory folk and Yugiri no-doubt having some more formal training). I honestly wouldn't be surprised if this was fairly accurate to what may come.