Do we really NEED new jobs?

[Jandor]

I'd be pretty surprised if we don't get three new jobs in the next expansion

[Derio]

If we dont get new jobs I am expecting alot of QoL changes and alot of current job improvements.

[Niwashi]

They have balance as an obsession at this point and what does it get us? Less variety out of fear of breaking balance and making some jobs less desirable

The weird thing is, even if certain jobs are less desirable to the top tier raiders and those who aspire to be, so long as they're all viable for the other 99% of the game, casual players won't care and will play whichever they enjoy most. SE's obsession with balance doesn't seem to match their focus on casual content.

Of course, I'm not suggesting they could ignore balance altogether. It's still important to be at least reasonably close to balanced. But they really don't need to obsess over it to the point of making jobs feel like carbon copies of each other.

[Freyyy]

We still don't have a hammer job so yes we do need new jobs

[CrystalRainbow]

I would like to have new jobs but if it's between new job and better content I will take better content. Because content in 4.X seem so lacking It's honestly lossing interest.
I would really like to seem them return to 2 EXP dungeon a patch, Along with the rest of the content they have.

[LineageRazor]

I'd be pretty surprised if we don't get three new jobs in the next expansion

Given Yoshi P pretty much said "never again" after Heavensward (and two of the three jobs released there were clearly rushed), I'd be shocked if we did. Apparently, each new job is a tremendous strain on resources, and it's one of the reasons the developers were given an extra long break after 3.0 hit.

Two jobs seems the most likely, but I wouldn't be flabbergasted if we only got one.

[Rowde]

I want 0 new jobs and 0 new races.

I'd prefer them to do things like...

For character models...
- update existing character models
- add more customization features to existing races

For jobs...
- balance existing jobs
- revisit/adjust abilities when abilities are earned (Tanks for example... WAR doesn't get DPS Stance til 50+, but they have a gauge starting at 30... but to maximize DPS you play w/o tank stance and have no gauge. PLD and DRK get both stances much earlier, by level 35, but then they don't get their special gauges and actions until 50+ and 60+...)
- one button "adjusting" action for PvE similar to PvP for 1-2-3 combos... one button for each combo/branch
- get rid of role actions and give each job a corresponding ability with a unique animation for each class...

[Alacran]

To answer the OP's question. If it was any other game then sure, the idea of an expansion doesn't need to immediately mean we need new jobs. However because this is a FF game a great deal of expectation is placed for new jobs. Every class/job in FFXIV has an expansive and in depth story, rich and engaging lore is wrapped up in each of their origins. People are already clamoring for what kind of lore can be introduced for Blue Mage, Dancer, Templar, Rune Fencer, Mystic Knight, Geomancer, ect..., and that's without any real announcements.

The other day my brother got a message saying how strange it was to see a Highlander Red Mage, funny how lore wise RDM has roots in Gyr Abania something i also attribute to Dark Knight due to it's use of viodal magicks, magicks attributed to the Mhachi ancestors of the Alla Mhigan people.

Point being lore is important, job lore helps flesh out the world of Hydalen, more jobs is an incredibly important part of the game and the series as a whole.

That being said i want both jobs and Viera.

[wereotter]

Need? No.

Want? Absolutely.

How exactly that want should be met is up in the air, but here are a couple things I think should be considered:

1) A tanking job that doesn't deal slashing damage. The damage put out by Paladin and Dark Knight is immediately enhanced by having a Warrior, Ninja, or Samurai in your party, which has basically meant that one of your jobs in a raid must be one of those three jobs, usually ninja. Additionally we have five jobs that deal slashing damage with three jobs that can apply the debuff against slashing. If damage types remain, a tank job wielding a war hammer that deals blunt damage to provide party synergy with monks would be a good shake up to that long established meta.

2) Do something new with the jobs. Right now all our jobs can be neatly classified as tank, healer, melee, ranged physical, and ranged magical. But it would be interesting to have roles that do something different. For example, a Chemist style job as a physical healer that uses TP rather than MP to execute skills, and perhaps deals ranged physical damage as opposed to magical. Additionally getting melee or tanking jobs that deal magical damage instead of physical could be interesting as well. (I feel they really missed that opportunity to make a melee magical job with red mage, and it's still a disappointment for me)

3) I know people want more tanking and healing jobs, however Heavensward showed that introducing more of these jobs didn't get more people into playing those roles. I don't think that people who play these roles should be left behind, so I also support adding more of them, but something really needs to change either with the roles themselves, or with the community, to make the jobs more fun to play for people who currently primarily play DPS jobs.

[Kirsten_Rev]

3) I know people want more tanking and healing jobs, however Heavensward showed that introducing more of these jobs didn't get more people into playing those roles. I don't think that people who play these roles should be left behind, so I also support adding more of them, but something really needs to change either with the roles themselves, or with the community, to make the jobs more fun to play for people who currently primarily play DPS jobs.

I wholeheartedly agree with this.

Alas, I think the issue is less one of 'fun', and more one of responsibility. Tanks and healers are linchpin roles: if you screw up or want to watch Netflix on a second monitor, someone's going to die. If the damage-dealers in your group are bad at avoiding AoE, you're going to have a stressful run. These are things that are easily ignored for damage-dealing roles: if a party wipes and you play a Bard, you can shrug and say 'well, I avoided AoEs, I made sure to use Refresh when the Healers first ran low on MP - nothing more I could have done'. There's tremendous appeal in that.

As a result, I think the only realistic option is to make damage-dealing jobs more responsible, or less fun, if you prefer. Put some stress and party responsibility on them. It can be done mechanically (split players apart and force damage-dealers to hit DPS checks or play group jump rope in a setting where healers / tanks can't bail them out), and ways to do it socially (introduce parser-like systems into the game), but I seriously doubt SE is planning to move in either of these directions. Without this move, I think the group of 'independent' players - those with no inherent preference for tanking / healing / damage-dealing - will remain largely skewed toward damage-dealing jobs, simply because there's no performance anxiety. The only disincentive at the moment is queue times.

I suppose SE could try to ease up the tank or healer roles to reduce the associated stress, but I don't think that's a very good idea, and I'm not even sure there's a good way to accomplish it without making everyone somewhat self-sustaining.