New Class Idea

[Niwashi]

But... Botanists already use scythes.

They also use axes. Should Warriors be worried?
(Yeah, I know. A botanist's hatchet is quite a ways removed from a battle axe. I just thought it seemed funny.)

"Ma" in this context most certainly implies darkness in the sense of dark equating to evil/negative. The character for "ma" conveys a dark/evil spirit or force, often associated with curses in the way that a person or object can be beset or imbued with a dark spirit or force. It is not conceptually synonymous with magic as you state.

"Mahou" can be flavored good or evil because just like its closest English translation, magic or mystical/supernatural abilities, it is general and does not have an implied good/bad/light/dark affinity like "ma" does. Saying that it can easily be taken as "evil force" or "demon magic" is a big stretch.

"Ma" can in some cases involve an evil or negative connotation and in other cases not. This is because, although its closest English equivalent is usually considered to be "devil" or "demon", the spirits of Japanese folklore and legends don't match those of the west. While Japanese demons are frequently harmful, they aren't inherently evil in the way that the demons of western religions and folklore are. But as supernatural beings, they are inherently magical, which is why "mahou" a compound formed of "demon-act" simply means magic, with neither a good nor bad connotation to it. (If you want to indicate in Japanese a demon that's actively evil, you can specify that separately, like with "akuma" a compound of "evil-demon".)

It seems a bit inconsistent that you'd claim "ma" gives an evil/negative connotation when it's used as part of a word, and then point out yourself that "mahou", which itself starts with that same "ma", doesn't have any such connotation. It seems like a better fit to regard the "ma" in "makenshi" as having about the same connotation that it has in "mahou" in referring just to magical power.

[Fukuro]

I'd rather have some kind of a job using dark magic, not like black mage but something like majin/occultist in the directions of a necromancer - i feel something in that direction is missing in this game...

But i also see why people could see a too big resemblance to the black mage

[Kazrah]

I'd rather have some kind of a job using dark magic, not like black mage but something like majin/occultist in the directions of a necromancer - i feel something in that direction is missing in this game...

But i also see why people could see a too big resemblance to the black mage

That's because Black Mage is the dark magic user. Black Mage is the occultist. It just requires reading the text in those cutscenes to know.

The only reason why we haven't gone further toward the macabre as far as jobs go is really because of how much it would likely clash with the overall lore Black Mage already has.

[RosaLunaCelestia]

Me, i would like a job like assassin but too close of ninja i guess. it make me think half nin and half monk.

[Mhaeric]

Re: First dark knight in series.

I'm 99% sure that Final Fantasy 2 had Leon who was called a dark knight. I don't know what the original Japanese version called him, though. He starts with a one handed sword, but his ultimate weapon is a spear. The game didn't have defined roles, but his stats were very high in hp, mp, strength and intelligence, making him a good damage dealer both physically and magically.

[Mycow8me]

Well we got 2 dps classes in 4.0 so a reaper kind of class would not be till 6.0 if its a DPS. Thats a long ways away.

[Mhaeric]

Well we got 2 dps classes in 4.0 so a reaper kind of class would not be till 6.0 if its a DPS. Thats a long ways away.

Claiming that 5.0 won't have a new dps class because 4.0 had 2 is a pretty big leap of logic to make.

[Xlantaa]

Dark Knights use Scythes, and if I recall it was asked if we could get one already. I believe Yoshi-P or one of the lead designers said if people want it he'll do it.

......no one followed up on it...

Dark Knights uses scythes only in FFXI, and no other FF.

[Kaitoo]

Well now we got 2 dps with sword so..

There is no real pet class and reworking the summoner into one, which is not a pet class through ff lore, is stupid. So puppetmaster or beast master would be nice for the game i thik

[Mycow8me]

Claiming that 5.0 won't have a new dps class because 4.0 had 2 is a pretty big leap of logic to make.

Its not necessarily logic but for 3.0 we did see a tank and a healer released. Following a pattern has some logic in it? Think about this for a second, if a new tank and a dps were introduced, healers will have gotten shafted again. If a new dps and a new healer is introduced, tanks will have gotten shafted again. There is the small chance they could do a 3rd class somewhere in there but really I coulda sworn there was a dev response that it was too stressful on the team.