It’s also all but a given that the expansion will include at least two new jobs.

[Ceasaria]

Back with HW, they did hint that they might not be able to do 3 new jobs in one go again...

So... if 4.0 only has 2 new jobs, which role do you think is getting left out in the cold?

People forget always there was a ninja just before...so yeah, they were working on 4 jobs at the same time, more or less.
Now for me, there are two options : 1 DPS, 1 Tank and 1 Healer for 4.0, or 2 jobs for 4.0 + 1 job for 4.2

If they release only two jobs, I can expect one or several rework for our actual jobs.

[Duelle]

If they dare try to add yet another healer, it has to give SCH a run for it's money in some way (if they don't straight-up nerf SCH) or we're just back to SCH + one of the 3 remaining healers for "optimal" raiding stigma jazz.

My question to this is, would people actually accept some sort of SCH nerf to make them not required and add flexibility to healer combos (not to mention the devs giving themselves some breathing room design-wise)? I mean, the current design paradigm is barrier healer + direct heals healer. This is why AST was created to ape SCH and WHM instead of doing its own thing. You and I know this, but would people in general be able to work and accept it?

[CookieMonsta]

The game is ripe for another barrier healer to directly compete with SCH. This allows AST to find its niche as a HPS healer that has barriers + Mitigation.

[DreamWeaver]

My question to this is, would people actually accept some sort of SCH nerf to make them not required and add flexibility to healer combos (not to mention the devs giving themselves some breathing room design-wise)? I mean, the current design paradigm is barrier healer + direct heals healer. This is why AST was created to ape SCH and WHM instead of doing its own thing. You and I know this, but would people in general be able to work and accept it?

LV 62 skill : Wanderer's Bookworm - Cannot be used in conjunction with Fairies.
LV 64~70 skills : Can only be used while in Wanderer's Bookworm stance.

I will laugh my ass off if this happens.

[Risvertasashi]

a tp healer wouldnt be godawful, be it damage/melee based, or something along the lines of a chemist really imo. It wouldnt be a caster though, and thats treading in new territory already. Again though, they "could". Im still looking at AST when i say "could"...

Yeah, a chemist/item user was another thing that came out in interviews as something they considered for HW. So I think it's a decent probability. (OTOH, last anniversary events teased red and blue mage... wonder if one could end up a healer?)

But, as with what you and others say... the real challenge, whatever the lore flavorings might be, would be to make sure it's not essentially a WHM reskin again in its heal mechanics.

LV 62 skill : Wanderer's Bookworm - Cannot be used in conjunction with Fairies.
LV 64~70 skills : Can only be used while in Wanderer's Bookworm stance.

I will laugh my ass off if this happens.

The fairy is really only part of the reason, and pretty well got nerfed into the ground with Heavensward. That and the lustrate changes do mean SCHs can't spend nearly as much time in clerics, at least not so easily.

For another healer to be interchangeable... it would need to have strong barrier options as well as a myriad of mitigation options. Technically WHM and AST both have barriers and mitigation, just nothing on the level/variety of what SCH can do. (And even with the fairy nerfs, being able to essentially have a second GCD will always be powerful.)

[Erudito]

If its only 2 then either the DPS of the Tank will be Samurai. I am all for seeing what they can do, lest just hope they payed attention to what they did with the Heavensward jobs because, frankly, they are a mess.

Its like they ignored the origins of the jobs and the what the job did in combat for something new that ended up being unattractive for many of us.

[ty_taurus]

I think some of AST's initial difficulties came from it trying to fulfill the same two niches as WHM and SCH. There are far more creative opportunities than just HoTs and Shields, and I want to see FF XIV experiment with more diversity for healers.

I really want to see Dancer get introduced as a healing job. The way I see it, they could rely on an aggressive buff/debuff play style. Their core buffs heal apply bonus heals whenever the Dancer heals the target or uses other buffs on them, and a debuff that rewards the target's attackers with healing. The Dancer's aggressive side could be all about keeping debuffs on the target to provide more constant raw damage reduction at the cost of healing power. They could still have their emergency healing abilities, but they try and keep the numbers down across the board rather than blasting allies with healing, or shielding them to avoid that additional damage.

[Risvertasashi]

A little more information to throw into the discussion. It seems SE doesn't like that SCH is essentially mandatory (and WAR for that matter), so they'll be looking to address that in 4.0. ...but they'll be rebalancing jobs holistically so we may see changes across the board.

It will be interesting to see the full translation.

But anyways, I do think we can discuss new ideas without too much fear about "how will it fit in the current meta?", because it sounds like the current meta will not survive the next expac.

[Rufalus]

The source in the first post is basically like somebody's blog. We can make safe bets on the number of jobs or location of the expansion areas, but real info is under wraps until FanFest with regards to things that would be major announcements.

A little more information to throw into the discussion.

I think there's a major imbalance in tanks, with Warrior's high dps not balanced out by negatives because it also has good mitigation, self-healing, support. I would like to see Dark Knight catch up a little in single target dps and self sustaining ability, and it seems like Paladin could be given more AOE dps without causing any mixed identity issues between the jobs.
Nocturnal sect for Astrologian could be made stronger and the cards made stronger in some ways to compensate for RNG on drawing them.

[Risvertasashi]

The source in the first post is basically like somebody's blog. We can make safe bets on the number of jobs or location of the expansion areas, but real info is under wraps until FanFest with regards to things that would be major announcements.

Yeah, it's mostly just to have something to discuss. I mean... we have enough healer DPS threads, I think.