PAX 2017 : Request the next new Job

[Cidel]

While this may be the case, the job is better remembered for what it could do in FFV and FF Tactics, where it had elemental attacks determined by what terrain you were fighting on.

This is true, because when brought up, a lot of people want to associate Geomancers with "spell is based on terrain/weather" which is where the idea that they couldn't work well in an MMO setting might stem from. However, if XIV's Summoner, Scholar, Bard, Astrologian and I suspect possibly Red mage are anything to go by, what you best remember the job for can be changed/omitted to suit the game balance's immediate needs, with only aesthetic details barely upholding its "identity." Who's to say a XIV Geomancer wouldn't get weather and/or terrain flair in their abilities; only for it to mean nothing as far as element/resistances go?

XI's GEO was basically a walking buff/debuff totem with a horribly contrived "face a different direction for varying effects" gimmick. XI's combat was slow enough that you could sort of get away with how GEO was implemented (nevermind that it became mandatory because of the nature of its buffs, which is something we want to avoid here), but that wouldn't fly in this game.

Oh, of course it wouldn't. A lot of XI's job gimmicks would never work in this game. Inspiration loosely meaning for light example, a totem/turret/whatever is dropped via Sacred Soil, Flaming Arrow, Asylum, etc. that has a different effect pending the direction the player was facing upon activation. Or even inspiration in the fact that it as a job went against the "terrain = attack affinity" grain and did other things with it.

The only thing that I can see working from Explorers would be something based on Traps, but that would lose a lot of use in raid fights. It's also not enough to build a job around.

Well Geomancer wasn't only about traps in Explorers. It could create either a buffing or debuffing AoE zone where certain abilities gained different boosts if used within the corresponding zone. IMO its a start to build a job around if there needs to to be decisions about which floor field to set down, not unlike BRDs choosing which song to have up, which fairy a SCH uses, etc. I'm not saying it has to be totem/turret/field job, but the connection/framework is there from past iterations. No actual terrain necessary.

[Duelle]

Who's to say a XIV Geomancer wouldn't get weather and/or terrain flair in their abilities; only for it to mean nothing as far as element/resistances go?

This is not much of a question, because at least to me, the obvious route would be to make the elements react to each other. One way would be to focus the design around ability cycles based on the two elemental wheels seen in 1.0. In short, your skills only deal the intended damage when used within those cycles, with a sort of overlap between the two cycles.

Another way of doing it would be abilities manipulating the mob's elemental affinity, but only for your own abilities. So if you were to cast Quake on a mob, that mob would take more damage from water elemental spells cast by you for a set time.

This would be in addition to using your storm cloud to do things on top of knowing when to use your auras (that, as mentioned, lock access to certain skills when active, which is a hefty penalty). Closest analog I could point to is WoW's elemental shaman, just with more synergy between spells.

[Cidel]

This is not much of a question, because at least to me, the obvious route would be to make the elements react to each other...

+snip

A lot of that sounds more like something an Elementalist job would do.

[Duelle]

A lot of that sounds more like something an Elementalist job would do.

Hmm...that comes from the game series I don't acknowledge to exist due to my hatred for it (FF Tactics Advance). Looks like they took one of the aspects of FF Tactics' Geomancer (elemental damage + status effetcs, just removing the terrain requirement) and sort of built on it.

[Cidel]

Hmm...that comes from the game series I don't acknowledge to exist due to my hatred for it (FF Tactics Advance). Looks like they took one of the aspects of FF Tactics' Geomancer (elemental damage + status effetcs, just removing the terrain requirement) and sort of built on it.

You're in luck then, as Elementalist has also made an appearance outside of that series in The 4 Heroes of Light. Still plays with elemental resistances and spells.