Ideas for non-traditional jobs

[Azle]

So far, jobs have all stuck to being pretty traditional - tanks are armored physical fighters, healers are all magic-based, etc. But I'm hyped on the idea of a possible Dancer job that heals through dances, and I'm really hoping we start getting more jobs that break from the established traditions of the current jobs.

Mystic Knight - We don't have a magic casting tank yet, and a lot of people wanted RDM to incorporate some of FFXI's weapon enchantments. Mystic Knight could be both.

Their main weapon could be a mace (Red Battlemage style) with a magic shield offhand - preferably as a single item. Their combo skills could be elementally-aspected mace spell-strikes with short cast times. You would cast the spell, then the animation would be a mace strike with magical particle effects.

Their tank and DPS stances could alter the alignment of their attacks. In tank stance they're white-aligned, and their attacks use earth, air, and holy elements for their effects. Increased enmity on everything and debuffs on combo finishers. In DPS stance, they switch to being black-aligned. Their attacks all switch to being fire, lightning, and ice elements with bonus damage, and self-buffs on combo finishers. The attack animations would be the same, but the spell effects would change. Essentially they're positioned as a buff/debuff tank, with the job gimmick of swapping weapon enchantments.

Chemist - A non-magical medicinal healer. Their main hand could be potions or a potion-launching small cannon thing. Their main healing skills could be Mend and Medicate, with damage skills like Acid and Volatile.

Their job gauge could be a potion beaker, and as you do different basic actions you add "ingredients" to the beaker. When it fills, you get a party buff skill depending on the ingredients you put in. The gauge would change color as it fills to show what buff you're leaning towards. If you fill it through mostly healing, it turns green and gives Regen. If you fill it through mostly damage, it turns orange and gives a damage buff. If filled with mostly buffs it'll turn blue and give Refresh. For added flair make all their skill icons match these same colors - green for healing skills, orange or damage, etc.

Synergist - The idea here is to make a Magitek-based caster instead of an aether-based caster. Their main head weapon would be some kind of Magitek focus. To fit with their name their job mechanic revolves around the way their spells interact with each other. I'd give them spell combos, since no caster so far has combos. When a combo is completed, they get a charge that will then alter the way another combo works. For example if you use Combo A first, then Combo B will become an AoE. Or if you use Combo B first, then Combo A would apply dots, etc. Instead of having an "optimal" combo rotation like most jobs, you would change the order you use them in for different effects.

[Zolvolt]

I very much am onboard with both Mystic Knight and Chemist. Mystic Knight alone would want me to tank more and Chemist is a personal want!

[Kurando]

I feel like PLD is the closest we'll ever get to a magic casting tank, although would need to see what is in store for it in the next expac. The idea of Mystic Knight definitely suits a DPS role though, but would be in melee range more often than RDM, with the shields bringing different types of utility to the party (a BRD rival perhaps....).

[Valdegarde]

Chemist might be most likely, considering they had actually considered it as a prototype for Machinist. I think the mixing operating sort of like a more in depth version of Ninjutsu would be really fun as a healer. Mystic Knight is a job I've wanted for a while now, especially considering they tend to be a little glossed over in many of the games, yet do have a pretty prominent history. That's personally what I would have wanted out of this "magitek" tank class instead of some kind of Squall substitute (even though I love Squall, don't get me wrong.)

Synergist might be an interesting way to incorporate some Geomancy themes without being a pure Geomancer now that they've kinda moved on from that idea. Instead of a Taoist-esque feng shui mage, what about someone extracting from aetheric leylines through the power of science!?

[Kalise]

Mystic Knight sounds cool, I mean, Tank-Mage is always an archetype I'm a fan of. I was kind of disappointed that DRK wasn't that (Given that early iterations of "Dark Knight" in MMO's tended to be somewhat "Tank-Mage" like, notable in Everquest and their Shadow Knight class for example)

Though, my only qualm would be with tying the different elements to the stances. Mostly because the current implementation of Tank/DPS stances is pretty horrible (Essentially boiling down to Tank stance only being relevant when you're gearing up and then it's just DPS stance all day every day...)

I'd prefer a more dynamic shifting of elements. For example, you use a skill that attunes you to say, Fire. Then all your attacks will deal some Fire related damage and effects, until you use a skill that attunes you to another element. So you'd be constantly shifting between elements to get different effects on different skills. So maybe your 123 combo instead becomes 4 (Shifting into say, Earth for additional Enmity as an example) 1, 5 (Shifting into say Lightning for chain damage) 2, 6 (Shifting into Fire for more damage or Holy for some healing) 3. Or maybe you'd want to do your 123 combo entirely within a particular element (Such as Lightning for AoE damage). Or something along these lines.

Chemist and Synergist sound interesting too. Chemist could also be combined with some Cannoneer skills too if they get a potion launcher type weapon.

In addition, there could also be a Magical MDPS too, since we currently lack one of them. Something like Elementalist, Rune Knight or Sword Saint could work. With them using a single one handed sword, having a sort of duelist kind of fighting style, with their empty off hand being used to cast spells (The type and effects of which would be determined by which of the 3 aforementioned classes to base around)

Would also be cool to have something like Trickster or Gambler for a Physical Ranged class. Throwing cards at enemies that provide a variety of random effects as well as incorporating some high roll/low roll variance on some strong abilities.

Finally, I would like to see Beastmaster make it into the game in some form too. Using a Whip and animal companion(s) and having a lot of synergy between the skills you and your companion use. Of course, they'd need to make pet AI not complete trash first...

[Songwillow]

I don't know if they would call it Chemist since Alchemist is already a class, but I can imagine them calling it a Chiurgeon since they exist in this world as actual doctors.

I DO want the Mystic Knight and would love to see a mage style tank. I was hoping for the Blue Mage to fill the tank role so you can have a party that has a blue mage, red mage, black mage, and white mage, however that is just for the humor of having a fully functional all mage party. However Mystic Knight is the next best option for tank since you can embue gear with benefits, I can imagine them adding elements to their blade for their DPS abilities but also fortify their armor or add 'bar' effects to their armor to increase defense and also add additional effects. I also imagine that they would be excellent thorn style tanks like Diablo 2's Paladin. They tank and dps a bit by making sure that enemies can take damage for hitting them.

Synergist sounds interesting and it would be nice change of flavor, but I imagine a problem on some flavor since Magitek was meant to be used by those that have no magical ability. I can imagine them still channeling aether to enhance the magitek further though. Either way, it would be interesting to play a caster combo expert.

I definitely want Geomancer and I think they are going to launch that as one of the upcoming classes especially after the AST Stormblood job arc. I guess they will probably be the next healer for Shadowbringers.

We wanted Dancer in Stormblood and honestly I don't think we are getting it on this expansion, I honestly think they will do that for another expansion. Though a non-magic style healer would be fun.

I imagine Beastmaster being a DPS class even though I would prefer it being a pet based tank class. They are probably going to be a limited job like Blue Mage though due to having to collect beasts.

Trickster or Gambler is something I'm not too fond of. I hate RNG classes which is why I hate AST, but that's just me. They would be interesting aethetically, but AST already is your Gambler considering they are like the FFXI Corsair mixed with Time Mage.

A magical melee dps, would be fun. I imagine an elementalist or rune knight would be interesting. I normally hate melee DPS but those would be ones that I play.

[Valdegarde]

I don't know if they would call it Chemist since Alchemist is already a class, but I can imagine them calling it a Chiurgeon since they exist in this world as actual doctors.

It was called Salvemaker in Bravely Default, so there's some precedent for it not necessarily having to be named (al)chemist.

[TheHeavenAbyss]

I imagine Beastmaster being a DPS class even though I would prefer it being a pet based tank class. They are probably going to be a limited job like Blue Mage though due to having to collect beasts.

I would love it to be a pet based class too, and really wouldn't like it to be another limited job. Makes me wish they worked some more on that glamour system for pets, because Beastmaster could have a pet that you would be able to glamour as a monster you like. And you could collect these glamours from the monsters you fight in the wild (so you wouldn't need the limited job thing to have the collectability aspect).

[Kalise]

I would love it to be a pet based class too, and really wouldn't like it to be another limited job. Makes me wish they worked some more on that glamour system for pets, because Beastmaster could have a pet that you would be able to glamour as a monster you like. And you could collect these glamours from the monsters you fight in the wild (so you wouldn't need the limited job thing to have the collectability aspect).

That and you know, going around collecting beasts wouldn't necessarily require the job to be limited...

It honestly boggles my mind that people claim that they're bored of all classes being standardized and are so quick to jump onto the "Lets make this cool new job as worthless as Chocobo Racing!!" as opposed to just being on board to have new jobs come out with interesting quirks that deviate from the "Standard" grinding of Duty Finder and rushing through job quests as progression...

Honestly, the only reason they'd need to limit Beastmaster in any way, is if they gave it the ability to take control of enemies like in previous iterations in the FF series. To which, they'd just need to limit the ability to use those skills in duties...

It was called Salvemaker in Bravely Default, so there's some precedent for it not necessarily having to be named (al)chemist.

That and they could come up with a brand new name (Sort of like how AST wasn't necessarily a job name from a previous title), such as Mixologist (MIX), Cannoneer (CAN), Physician (PHY), Brewer (BRW), Herbalist (HRB), Professor (PRF), Nurse (NSE), Surgeon (SGN) etc...

Like, honestly, the name of the job is probably the least concerning aspect of creation and implementation xD

[TheHeavenAbyss]

That and you know, going around collecting beasts wouldn't necessarily require the job to be limited...

It honestly boggles my mind that people claim that they're bored of all classes being standardized and are so quick to jump onto the "Lets make this cool new job as worthless as Chocobo Racing!!" as opposed to just being on board to have new jobs come out with interesting quirks that deviate from the "Standard" grinding of Duty Finder and rushing through job quests as progression...

Honestly, the only reason they'd need to limit Beastmaster in any way, is if they gave it the ability to take control of enemies like in previous iterations in the FF series. To which, they'd just need to limit the ability to use those skills in duties...

If you collect monsters it's the same argument they're using about collecting blue spells, with the possibility of creating barriers to players who don't have/use the best skills/monsters. Now, I don't agree that that requires the job to be limited, but I think it is what SE would almost certainly argue.